The hunt begins ...
Keith and Helen had firm plans for an air bnb in a special location – at the heart of their own Martinborough vineyard. When they each searched for prefab homes and transportable homes online, they found lots of options available. Two points of difference had them getting in contact with Able Spaces: 1. They could go and visit and see the homes; and 2. The big variety of choice, with a few larger options. Many of the homes they found online in other places were just one bedroom and they were adamant they wanted two bedrooms for their airbnb.
Initial Impressions
Helen and Keith made contact with Able Spaces which in 2022, was located in Stokes Valley. There were a number of homes onsite in various stages of completion they were able to look at and Helen and Keith were impressed with the quality and what went into the homes. When they met Norma, they felt this friendly face was someone they could absolutely work with.
Important Considerations
“In the airbnb market, the mainstream market is 1-2 bedroom, as opposed to 3-bed. We wanted something mainstream. The design was important to us too,” Helen continued, “We had never done anything like this before and Norma was really helpful in proposing particular options and features. We felt a lot of transportable homes are typically rectangular and we didn’t want a ‘container looking’ home. Norma suggested an offset design and included a porch area. She understood what we were looking for and was open to our amendments to the design, for example we moved the kitchen as I wanted a kitchen area rather than a galley kitchen and that was really easy to do.”
“There was also a lot of flexibility in custom fittings, down to quite a lot of choice in floor coverings. We even went to Mitre 10 and chose the kitchen surfaces ourselves as we had an idea of what we wanted. There was a lot of flexibility, not just one size fits all. We even chose plugs which have the USB adapter built into them, which wasn’t a standard thing at that time. It was really great to have all that flexibility.”
“Able Spaces took care of the consents process for us. We were grateful as we weren’t familiar with the process,” added Keith.
Navigating Challenges
As there was no real time constraints, Helen and Keith took care of the project management. They got different quotes for plumbing and electricity and being a rural property, they found there was work involved in getting the transportable home hooked up to services. In their particular case, they were required to install a 300m long electricity cable, which did cause a small issue, outside of Able Spaces control. Keith and Helen asked Norma to delay the build as a result as they weren’t quite ready to put the home onsite, which wasn’t a problem. Norma was moving premises at the time, part way through the build, moving Able Spaces from Stokes Valley to Trentham. Keith said, “She just takes it all in her stride. Nothing seems to bother her.”
Another challenge was a national shortage of plasterboard at the time, due to the complications from covid. The build was originally designed to be steel with plasterboard but due to problems sourcing materials, the building materials changed to reinforced timber and no steel, which didn’t bother Keith and Helen. They commented, “Norma handled that quite well. Nothing was a problem. There were a couple of minor issues as well – with the wardrobe doors and the splashback. Norma stepped in and sorted those out. She was very responsive.”
How Was Your Experience Overall?
“We’d definitely use them again and we’ve recommended them to other people.”
Helen added, “We were happy with the cost. What we got for what we paid was really good value for money and we’re happy with the quality. It’s definitely not ‘cheap and cheerful’. Although the home is prefabricated and pre-designed, we were still able to change it to make it quite individual. Some of Norma’s ideas – for the porch for example – I never would have thought of. Her experience is great and she’s quite pragmatic. She doesn’t go for design over function either. It’s a real meeting of the two. Her expertise added a lot of value. She did question us on moving the kitchen and our ideas on the design, asking if we thought it was going to be big enough. She provided a lot of good advice and didn’t just follow our instructions. She would push back to make sure things were well thought-out and going to work for us. Norma is very good and easy to deal with.”
The plot of land Keith and Helen own is quite large and they are currently talking about putting another home on it, perhaps a three-bedroom one. Even though their original plan was to get an bespoke architecturally designed home on the main property, they are reconsidering, due to the variety with Able Spaces prefab homes. Instead of paying for the bespoke design they consider it better value for money to instead choose a higher spec on the fittings on the interior of another transportable home. Helen remarked, “If you actually look at the airbnb onsite, there are other buildings people have done within sight of ours and theirs are architecturally designed and ours blends in very well. It doesn’t look like a transportable home. We’d certainly go with Able Spaces again and we’ll see what they can do for us.”
Want To Try Out An Able Spaces Home?
The Savvy Retreat is located in Martinborough, in the Wairarapa’s ‘dark sky reserve’, providing fabulous views of the night sky, in a peaceful vineyard setting.
Why not take your next getaway in an Able Spaces home and try our transportable homes out for yourself? Be quick though. The Savvy Retreat has forward bookings until February 2025, with some availability in between. You can book your stay through Airbnb, bookabach, booking.com, or send an enquiry through The Savvy Retreat website.
