The age-old craft of building log houses is seeing a new export market open up for one South Island builder.
The latest log house being built in Dunedin is to become a new home in New South Wales for one Aussie couple.
Homeowners Selena and Enzo Marretta had been searching far and wide for the right kind of house they could truly feel at home in.
"I was taken aback. In fact, I almost started crying 'cause it was so overwhelming looking at the logs," says Selena Marretta.
The home, made from macrocarpa logs, is also resistant to fire, an ever-present threat to its rural Australian destination.
"If you were to put a log in, say, a fireplace without kindling, it won't take a light, so pretty much the same thing applies to this log home. It's quite solid and it's really difficult to burn," Ms Marretta says.
Dunedin builder and designer Mat Rushner honed the craft after training in Canada 13 years ago.
"So you sit them on top of the other and you do what we call scribing, so you’re tracing the contour of one log to the other, so from there you cut them out with a chainsaw, chisel them up nicely to the line, and with good luck, they'll fit," Mr Rushner says.
Mr Rushner will build the main walls and roof structure before the three bedroom home's final fit-out is completed across the ditch.
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