Hayley's Story
Something That Will Last
“When they put the pilings in and it had the framing of the floor and the walls… each little step was like, oh my god, it’s going to be a house.”
Hayley remembers those early stages clearly. Not the paperwork or the planning; the physical reality of it. Watching a piece of land she’d owned for years start to look like something. The pilings going in. The floor framing. Then walls.
The build started in October. By June, her two homes were complete.
For most of her adult life, Hayley has worked in film and television as a makeup artist. Twenty-five years of long weeks and intense projects that take over your life for a while and then end. Then the next contract. Then the next location.
“You go from job to job. It can be a bit of a hamster wheel.”
She loves the work. But there’s not much stable ground in it. So she started thinking about what permanent might look like. She bought a section in Ōtaki — a bit scrubby, a slight hillock running through it, nothing pristine. But quiet, close to the beach, and she could see the potential.
She was 40. Her first piece of land. Her first slice of something that wasn’t going anywhere.
When the time came to actually do something with it, she felt nervous. Building is complicated in a way that isn’t obvious until you’re in it. Foundations. Engineering. Council requirements. Materials. Timelines. It’s not just picking a design, it’s a process with layers most people have never had to think about.
“There was so much stuff I just had no clue about.”
What helped, she says, was the people. Meeting the team at EasyBuild and noticing that they weren’t nervous. That steadiness transferred. Her confidence went up. The project started to feel manageable.
Over the following months, decisions were made about colours, finishes, layout. She built two homes on the section; one larger, one smaller. The designs appealed to her because they were “simple and modern; beautiful and graciously proportioned”.
The bigger home Hayley rents out for now, with plans to retire there one day. Her parents moved into the smaller one. They’ve downsized. The house is warm, well insulated and low maintenance. When the weather’s good they open the ranch slider and sit watching the sun go down. They play Scrabble on Sundays.
For Hayley, the pace of the build was surprising but what has stayed with her more is the feeling when it was done.
“It’s a really good feeling to know that when I’m walking into this house, I’ve completed the goal and the dream. Now that they’re done, I’ve got a real sort of sense of achievement.”
Twenty-five years of impermanence. A section that sat quietly for years. And now, something still.
“It’s a really unusual feeling to have something that will last.”
If you’re thinking about building, you might want to:
If you’re thinking about building, you might want to: