This year we are celebrating 30 Years of House of the Year! Over the next few months we are going to be shining a light on some of the people who have played a massive part in the competition. Keep an eye out on our channels as our members share some of their best memories as a builder.

A J SAVILLE BUILDER

"Going to university wasn't really high on my agenda so before I finished 5th form, I had an apprenticeship lined up. It was high on my Dad’s agenda for all us kids to have a trade. At the time we had some builders building a hay shed on the farm, so I chose carpentry. I thought they had it made. Driving a Ute with a Labrador on the back and sitting down for a beer after work.

When I think about milestones in my career, certainly picking up my first National House of the Year Award was up there. This led onto a Sapphire and Platinum Award which a few years later was also a moment in time. But the most rewarding experience was right after the 2009 tsunami in Samoa when a supplier sent an email asking for assistance from Habitat for Humanity. Within a week of the tsunami, I along with 9 others from around the country were in Samoa sleeping on a church floor, putting together a make shift camp to house volunteers from New Zealand and build a makeshift truss and prenail plant on an old hospital floor that had been swept away to build 400 Fales.

I returned 6 months later with 2 apprentices, 2 plumbers, a landscaper, and the Southland District Mayor to carry on what we started. The joy we saw in people's faces when their Fales were finished was more rewarding than handing over a million-dollar home at Millbrook Country Club. These people had lost everything. Some including their children. We all felt privileged to be able to help them start over again with what we saw as simple, but what they called home."

"I had been building as a sub-contractor for David Reid Homes in 1998. The home we were building had won its category at House of the Year. As we left, David Reid said to me, you should enter this competition as it's the best marketing you can buy. So the following year, in 1999, I entered a home we had built and took home a regional award and third place for its category at Nationals. David said a couple of years later it was the worst advice he has ever given as he lost a gang of subbies – but it was the best advice ever given to me. House of the Year is well recognised and one of the most effective forms of marketing. The regional awards give you presence in your local area and if you go on to win nationally, you are recognised across the country. I go back to what David Reid told me, "it’s the best marketing you can buy, lets you know where you sit among your peers and highlights areas where you can improve – to reach the ultimate goal of a National Award.”  - Allister Saville, A J Saville Builder Ltd