Australia's Best House Season 2 Episode 5 Concrete Marvels and Best Display Homes 2021

Australia is a country of diverse ideas. Welcome to the living room, Joey. Wow, how good is this? It's people, places, lifestyles and our homes reflect this. This really opens up, it's like boom. To find something that's the best is a journey through the eyes and lives of many. I get people driving past honking their horn and singing praise for this house, which just gives me a great vibe all the time. To help me achieve this, I've gathered a team of experts. Joe Snell. It doesn't get much better than this. I mean, what an aspect. Andrew Purdy. Arthur, what an incredible road. Briellan Turton. The only word that I can think to describe this is magical. Join us as we crisscross the country looking for Australia's best house. Hi, I'm Megan Gale. A home can take many shapes and sizes. A dream home will be different for each of us. It's also possible to jump somewhat to the end of this journey and see your vision before you. Today's episode explores a dominant yet hidden abode. This considered courtyard house and a unique contemporary build. As we continue our search for Australia's best house, our categories today are based in materials and vision. Concrete marvels and display homes part one. Over to the judges to see what they found. I think that concrete is so in right now. It's a material we've been using for a long time, but it's coming back into so many houses. It's very fashionable. Well, not only is it coming back into heaps of houses, but I feel like it's becoming synonymous with quiet luxury. And I'm just wondering where, you probably know the answer as an architect, like when, which era did that happen? Well, there's a whole history of brutalism and then it's come through as a much more refined thing now. And as you say, it's luxury, but I think it's also because people are looking for quality, solidity, and through that comes the luxury. This is one of the first homes that I filmed. Incredible home, really, really beautiful home and a home that a builder lived in for himself. I can't wait for you guys to have a look through it too. I got started in building at a fairly early age at around 18. I was basically on site with dad doing developments of our own. And then through continued involvement in the industry, we basically worked our way up and up into larger and larger properties and more bespoke builds. I think this is one of Australia's best homes because it delivers what it intends to do, really a minimalist design in some ways, but again, it still has complexity that is very, very hidden and subtle. Good morning, Arthur. Morning, Andrew. Yeah, thank you for having me here today. Rocked up here, first thoughts, quite bold, but with a real sense of elegance. Talk to me about the home. So the front of the home is all about form and function. Three main materials, render, concrete, and timber, which you'll see covered right through the home. That sounds great and I can't wait to check it out. Absolutely, let's go. Arthur, what an incredible room. If someone told me that you were going to have sort of black steel windows with this industrial concrete look, I'd be really nervous that it would be quite manly and almost an industrial feel to the home, but there's not at all. First of all, the grey tones are very soft and they're contrasted against mostly black elements that frame the exterior of the building. The floor tile, as you can see, is unfilled, which again, creates a really soft element underfoot and adds a bit of warmth and that is really well paired with just the white ceiling. So again, it's just about simplicity and bringing it all together with good design and good form. Hero feature of the home has to be the concrete. Absolutely. And yet, once you've finished, small errors and imperfections are really the beauty within the result, aren't they? Absolutely, I mean, that was part of the brief, to have the concrete have some imperfection to the point where we actually used secondhand formwork, that you can see actual bits and elements of old jobs that actually cast into the concrete. Where are we off to next? Off to the master bedroom. After you, mate. Thank you. What a wonderful surprise. Talk to me about this. Walk-in robe and the master ensuite are hidden entirely behind a wooden wall, so once those doors are closed, that area just totally vanishes away. As you enter that space, it feels like, again, you're entering something that you can't initially see. There's quite a softness to this room. It takes the edge off it as you walk into here and you realise this is a place of relaxation and downtime and softness and real emotion. Quite often with a home of this calibre, it misses that sense of homeliness and we talk about these little quirks within the home. What's your next surprise? Off to the garden room. After you, mate. Finally arrived in the last room of the tour today. Give me a rundown on the room before we finish up. Well, Andrew, it's all in a namesake. The garden room is exactly that, leading out to the north through some large glass doors. It flows through transitionless. There's no steps, beautiful concrete seats outside and what an aspect. Beautiful way to finish up the tour of the home. Can't thank you enough for having me through. Pleasure to meet you, mate. Thank you. What a home. Boldness and grandeur through the strength of design. All balanced out with a real sense of warmth and emotion. I love this house. I mean, when a builder's built it for himself and he's chosen concrete as the star material, that just solidifies what I already thought. That it is one of the most valuable and just beautiful materials you can build a home with. Classy, luxurious. This home was minimalistic yet absolutely had its complexities. Coming up next, Joe explores this mid-century modern marvel. So Liliana, we are here in the back of the showroom in the sample library. Tell me a little bit about how this space gets used and by who. We love this space, of course. We try to bring architects, designers, developers, builders, everybody. Just choose whatever they like in full-size samples or just like a small sample as well. This would be the perfect place to bring a client who was unsure about finishes or wanted to see different things kind of side by side. Yeah, definitely. They love that part of this room especially because they can just like see one product against the other, one color against the other and it's just a beautiful space to work. There's huge tables here. You could literally pull up your laptop and really get everything done right here. Yeah, absolutely. It's really easy to work with anyone in this room and this is my favorite part of it. So this is a really interesting house. It's a mid-century modern style house with these concrete elements throughout it but most interestingly, it rises out of the tropics. How do I get into building houses? Kind of born into it really, just working on the holidays with the old man and helping out and eventually just continued on through that. Well, I think this is Australia's best house. Oh, just the different materials and a different thought process on how to build something and it's just more the layout that we've created here. Having good zones but still being, everything's being visual from the main area. G'day Tim, how are you going? Good mate, yourself? Very well, thanks for having us. It's really lush this vegetation and popping out is this modern house. Yeah, I was kind of thinking of a different style that we want to try to approach. I was trying for a 70s scene using the breeze blocks and the industrial as well, kind of like that. So I was trying to mix the two together. I can see that. Yeah. Can't wait to see what you've done inside. You'll be surprised the little bits and pieces that I've done in there. Yeah, all right, show us around. Far out, this is awesome. This is much bigger than I thought it was going to be. In the centre is the kitchen and that really does feel like the heart of the home. Yeah, it was to be able to see all the spaces. And then aesthetically, you've got this beautiful concrete running through here exposed and then you've got the big steel beams giving that mid-century modern look which has come right from the front. So you're bringing that aesthetic through into the house. Yeah, try to bring it all the way through, keep the same theme. And I've left it to last but we've got to talk about this window seat. As a builder, that would have been hard work. Took a fair bit of thinking and stuff. It does count a leave of the pool. It all got poured in one. Yeah, big job. Yeah. People could be in the kitchen preparing a meal, someone's sitting here but then someone's sitting there having a beer and you're still part of it. All right, well, I can't wait to see what you've done in the main bedroom. You can't help but come in here and straight away in this main ensuite, see this feature wall of breeze block. Yeah, the breeze block. There's a divider screen between the ensuite and the main bedroom. Didn't really want to block the ensuite off but keep it open. Yeah, but still wanted to divide the two rooms. But then there's a little bit of lux. You brought in some marble. Brought in some marble floors. Yeah, I thought that... I wasn't expecting that. So you got the polished concrete and then suddenly we got marble. I was like, bam. Yeah. And then you've got a lovely big walk-in robe there. So it's a very functional space, a real sanctuary from the rest of the house. Yeah, it's kind of like own a little retreat away from the house. Well, there's no doubt that this pool is really the focal point of the house. Let's go check it out. Okay, so here we are in the great outdoors but still part of the main house. Once you open those bifold doors, the lounge room is part of the patio. Not easy to build though. Yeah, it's a little bit tricky in polished concrete, that's for sure. And then at the end, you got the barbie. So you can be at the barbie and have a view right through the house. Yeah, you can see everything while you're cooking snags for the kids. Yeah. Everyone can sit down, lounge around. There's a lot of people that can fit on this area. Tim, I really love this house. It's just feels very, very much part of its rainforest location. Thank you very much. No worries, mate. Tim and his team have done a really good job here. They've created a piece of mid-century architecture in the middle of rainforest cans. It was such a nice surprise. So you see what I mean? A tropical landscape. And it just shows that you could, as long as it's classic, you can do it anywhere. So this tropical landscape and out pops this mid-century beautiful home with all these beautiful concrete floors. And then how good was the concrete window seat where you've got the pool on one side, living on the other. And I think this one, this house in particular, it shows you that concrete can be so refined and be its own feature. That window seat, the framing that went around that, like what a simple detail, but it was the centre point of the whole room. Not easy to build. And you've got simple detail, but not something you see every day either. After the break, join us as we tour Coogee House and The Hidden House. This gorgeous home is actually not too far from where I live, and it was so beautiful to see, not only from the front of the street, which is how I'd normally see it if I was walking past, but to get inside and see the detail and the concrete work in there. Father was part of a building company and they also had a joinery shop. Started from the joinery shop. I was around while Dad was building our house, you know, you get to see it, you get to look at it. And basically got A's in woodwork at school and I thought, oh, hang on, this could be somewhere I should head. It's a cracking house. And not only building it, to live in it. We spend our time here, you know what it's like. Each month comes through, each season comes through. It's got a different aspect. It's got a great outlook. It's a cracker. Pete, how are you? How are you going? Good, thank you. How good is this house from the street? How did you actually achieve this structure on such a steep block? Well, it was a massive sand pit, you'd probably call it. It's had a good design, good engineers come in, supported all the neighbouring blocks and then big machinery build from the bottom and move your way up. It looks really spectacular from the outside is the only way I can describe it. And I'm very excited to get inside and have a look around. Okay, so I'm starting to see that we've kind of replicated the exterior materials inside as well. There's a lot in it, but once again, if you get the right direction and think about it and put a lot of thought into it, everything will line to get that beauty, to keep it minimalistic. Part and parcel of what we've done before and getting better and better at it each time. Wow, it's just beautiful. And again, these really minimalistic materials. And I mean, you've said that the client's the one in charge of this, but you had to have some, you know, idea of what you were doing because you've done that beautiful concrete bench and with that glazing, they actually slide open. So you've kind of made an indoor-outdoor transition in terms of this gorgeous seating, daybed, whatever you wanted it to be that would allow you to live inside and outside at the same time. You get to know the family, like you just don't build the house. We meet them beforehand when we sign up and move forward from there. But we knew they had young kids, that sort of thing there. While we were doing that, I said, they're going to have a ball there. They're just out through that window. That's where they're going. From the front door to the back pool, it all feels really, really succinct. And I would love to go and have a look. Let's go. It's really not until you get out into the backyard that I'm reminded again of how steep this block is. And what you've done is really, really smart. You've kind of levelled up, again, the outdoor living spaces. We've got gorgeous pool. We've got a basketball court up there as well. Was this your idea, client's idea? That basketball ring, we laughed when they said putting it up there. I said, how many balls are you going to buy? Everywhere we've gone in this house, you just come to another spot. Some houses might just have street appeal, but it just seems to keep going through it, this house. I'm really proud to be involved in it. We specialise in forever homes. People don't call us up to build a home and move on. It's your forever home. That's it. There's a difference. So you put a lot of work into it. Clients ring up and go, oh, Pete, and we have a chat. So it's part of building a relationship. It's not just building a house. Well, that feels like the most beautiful way to end. Thank you so much for showing me through this home. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you. From the minute you walk through the front door of this home, you know it's been built with intention. The use of minimal materials, both inside and out, can only be achieved through expert craftsmanship and immaculate attention to detail. Concrete and green vegetation. Man, what a mix. Absolutely. And just a quick one for you, Brie. When using so much of these materials, how do you create that sense of warmth and comfort and romance in the home? I think it's to do with the textural, the way you actually apply it and the textural elements. Like, for example, different concrete on floors, to staircases, to ceilings, to facades. The mix of textural elements is what creates really exciting design and makes it not look like a bare concrete shell. So can't wait for you to see this one. Really, really special house. A one-off. Beautiful use of concrete. How they bring you through the building. The sense of home, it's just second to none. I did my apprenticeship in the sort of lower end and I guess saw all the high-end detail and really, you know, would have loved to have got into that. So when we first started out, we got great opportunities. What I like about the high-end market and this level of detail is you never get bored of it. It's always using your mind to work out how you're going to do things and how things are going to work. I think this could be Australia's best house just because of how unique it is, how simplistic it is, the location, just the whole overall design and detail of everything throughout the house. G'day, Joe. Hey, mate. Thanks so much for having me. I mean, I'm so excited because I can see from the very front entry that this has been designed by an architect. Thank you. That's very kind of you to say. So as we came down, I'm greeted by this beautiful concrete frame in white concrete and then you've got this timber that then wraps into the house. Was that the idea to beckon you in with that warmth? Absolutely. So the whole house is designed as a concrete shell that is really low maintenance and the timber provides the warmth and it's also a bit of a wayfinding device and it leads you from the outside, takes you all the way through to the inside and then back outside to the beach. So Joe, we've come through the entry, we've come off to the left here and we're in the pool room and even behind me, I can see that there's cars and even they have a view of the sea. How good is this space? The whole house is designed to be a sea-shaped house. Right. A courtyard house and the idea behind that is that we get separation between key living spaces, bedrooms, garages and we frame the views through the house. So right now we're looking out to the ocean and we get this beautiful framing device that frames the view. We've made it into the kitchen, living and dining but you could really feel that idea you were talking about before where from the front, it actually goes down levels, it cascades into this bigger space. Absolutely and that was the idea of the home so that when you arrived in the living, dining, kitchen, the heart of the home, you had this incredible volume of space that connected out to the ocean. And I'm looking around and I can't see all the stuff you'd usually have in a space like this. I assume there's some hidden things going on. They wanted this beautiful house as a piece of architecture. They wanted it to be functional. They wanted to live in it but they didn't want to be surrounded by material things and clutter and things all over the place. So it was really important to conceal that behind this timber veil. We're in the main bedroom here. We've got this beautiful ensuite at the back and then the bath has a view, the bed has a view and the timber detailings come right through and I can tell that there's the hidden elements going again. We designed the main bedroom to really have this kind of connectivity between the wardrobe and the ensuite. And we wanted this flow that is throughout the whole home to continue into this main bedroom and to really connect those spaces, so from the bathroom all the way out to the view. So there's really this hidden theme going throughout the house. There's the sequence of events taking you down to the ocean. What would be the best way of describing this house, do you think? In essence, what we were trying to do was create it like a boat on the water and really looking out upon the water as you're floating down the downstream. Well, I think you've achieved that. It's just a wonderful house to be in. I'm sure the homeowners are just chuffed to live here. So congratulations. Well done, Joe. Thank you very much. Pleasure. This is a magnificent house. It's a really simple house. It's so hard to do that well and Joe and his team have done it here. But what I think I like most, it's captured its location. It really is a Gold Coast house. And in terms of Australia's best house, I think it's going to be really hard to beat. What's really interesting is that at the end of the day, it's a courtyard house. Not that you really get that, but when you live there, that's what it's all about. A buffer to the ocean. But then if you want the ocean, you can open it all up and everything's hidden away. The beautiful use of timber and the fact that they use the timber and then the concrete's above, glass in between, the whole roof hovers. I mean, concrete hovering, it just blows your mind. Something I love about this category as well is that a lot of these homes are brand new and it really opens up your scope to do some quite incredible things. And that's the point. I mean, that was the clever thing about this home is that it was a concrete home, but it felt of its place. And that's a good sign of good architecture. I mean, concrete, it's so solid, but done well, it's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. It's one of my favourite build materials. And this category has really just solidified that for me. Look how gorgeous were all those homes. Beautiful homes on a grand scale with concrete. Very in, very today. When we return, display homes that envision what life could be. And later, we reveal the winner from Concrete Marvels. What a fabulous dining table that is. It is spectacular, isn't it? This is part of the Aria collection. So, you know, we've seen the shift. We've been there, done that with the really rustic industrial. Now we're moving into something a little bit more modern and a little bit more sleek. So you can see it's got the silhouette and the legs of a scanty piece of furniture. But obviously the concrete gives it that industrial edge. You can see the beautiful detailing through. You're getting specks of other colours coming through the granite, which makes it really fun to style. I'm seeing like a clay colour here. Well, that means I could probably put some gorgeous greenery in it. All of a sudden, you've styled your space effortlessly. Like I've got a lot of timber in my home. I wouldn't have thought to probably bring something like this in, but it would work. Absolutely. And like I said, this is this new modern industrial that's starting to become so popular because it is a little bit more polished. As you can see, it's been finished so beautifully. It's a really sophisticated take on industrial style. So guys, display home category. Display home category number one. You know, display homes are great because they're approachable, aren't they? I mean, you can literally walk through the front door and picture yourself living in there. It's kind of like an open home, but for a brand new house, which I think is quite cool. And it allows people that can't imagine the build process, can't really imagine things on a floor plan to see, you know, exactly what they're getting and where they're going to be living. I think it's a really important category because at the end of the day, this is what most Australians live in. So my trip off to Varkoen Constructions display home was a real learning curve for me. And I've learnt that display homes don't have to be about being cheap and cheery. I was virtually born in industry. My dad was a builder 50 years ago. I remember growing up in the building sites, playing in the brick sand, in a wheelbarrow from the age of three. And I enjoy it, I love it. I'm passionate about building. So I mean, when you love what you're doing, you just do it by default. I love the open plan living, the functionality of all the rooms. There's no wasted space and the enormous natural light that comes in from every angle of the house. Thanks for having me here today, Michael. Beautiful home, real sense of classic beauty in the facade, but also a strength and a boldness to it. French provincial? It certainly is. It's a French provincial from the outside and we've given it a modern twist internally. Sounds great, mate. I can't wait to be shown through. Absolutely, come through. After you. So Michael, from that classic French facade into quite a modern space now. What a beautiful kitchen. Well, these natural finishes that you've got look incredible and it's quite a nice light-filled kitchen. It certainly is. I mean, traditionally a French provision has always been designed to have small windows and small rooms. But as you can see, we've sort of given it huge open plan living to attract a lot of natural lighting for the house. I'd imagine these spaces are quite functional as well when it comes to living. This house is designed to sort of cater for all types of families and various families living in the house at the same time. Young kids to the adult kids, to grandparents. Now we've got new technology where the kids can go wild and you won't see any fingerprints on it. But I wish I had that in my house. So, and mate, what about upstairs? What have we got in the home upstairs? Yeah, look, we've got a huge entertainment area upstairs and we've got the master bedroom retreat. Can't wait to see up there, show me through, mate. Yeah, absolutely, come through. Thanks, buddy. And these proportions and use of space create a real sense of luxury and probably no more so than in the master bedroom with that incredible ensuite and walk-in robe. What's the story in there? People like to have their own space and just chill out in the bedroom. And I'm talking about mums and dads. So you can sort of chill back away from the kids. They enjoy that cocktail bar in there. They certainly do. We've got a entertainment or theatre room away from the other parts of the bedroom. So, and it's got its own cocktail bar which we, if you want to have a little nightcap before you go to bed, you can do that. So mate, behind this million dollar globe I can see a swimming pool. Are you going to take me down there and show me around? Certainly will, mate. So follow me down. After you, mate, let's go. Mate, what a great transition into this outdoor space this is. No, it certainly is, mate. I mean, if you like outdoor entertaining, well, I think you can't get better than this. So mate, it's another one of these modern influences that you've put onto a classic French home that enables it to almost totally open up and seamlessly transition into this incredible modern family outdoor living area. It's almost tranquil out here. Yeah, no, certainly. If you love entertaining, this is the area you want to be. It's got a pool, it's got a water feature and it sort of makes you relax. So steak on the barbie and Bob's your uncle. Mate, beautiful home. Really grateful for the tour today. Thanks for having me through. You're welcome, mate. Anytime. Thanks, mate. What a shining example of a classic style home with sufficient modern influence to make this home fit for every modern day family. Entertainer's delight, guys, hey? Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? Display homes have come such a long way and I think part of the reason is the competitiveness in the industry now. You know, you do need to be that one step ahead. You do need to have the best design. And what it's done is just mean that the consumer and the client, they're just getting more. Yeah, and that's because the consumer is becoming more educated. You know, once the consumer is more educated, they're not going to just take whatever's available. They're going to choose the best. And I think that's what we're starting to see in the home we saw there. This is a seriously good display home. And the reason why is because they've introduced a courtyard. Check it out. I've always liked building things since I was a kid. I would always love to come up with an idea, draw it on paper, and then get to work and try and build it. So it's always been something I've enjoyed doing. We came to Noosa every year at the summertime camping and my parents would take us through display homes up here and open homes. And we'd see these great, beautiful homes that we'd love to live in. And I think that's where my obsession started. I think this could be Australia's best house because it addresses the problem of smaller sites that we're getting nowadays and still wanting to have a big home and not feel like you're on a small site. As you come through the home, we've got the central courtyard that just draws light and connects all the spaces together, which is a really smart design element. G'day, Eddie. G'day, Joe. How are you, mate? Very well. Thanks for having us. So I was coming up the street and straight away I saw this quite modern urban house. What's going on here? This is our Nelson Bay 334 from our narrow lot design. Really designed to try and add that space and size on a narrow lot. Yeah, it looks really interesting. I can't wait to see what's inside. After you. Okay. That central courtyard. It's so good for me as an architect to see that kind of thing happening in a house like this because I know it's bigger surface area and I know it's a little bit more cost. But for that little bit of extra money to get that sense of light greenery in the centre of your house, so it's not just a fat box, it's priceless. Like, how good is it? It's pivotal to make a house on a small site feel big. It brings the light, the ventilation and just creates a bigger space throughout the home, yeah. Wow, this is actually a big space and you can feel that it's acoustically different to the rest of the house. It feels really plush in here. I think it's got something to do with the carpet. Yeah, the carpet's very nice and soft. Very important in the master room. And we've also got, you know, nice soft furnishings on the windows, plush bed, a nice backdrop with some texture. Yeah, it's a great little retreat. Yeah, I think retreat's a good word. Kind of like a sanctuary. You've got an ensuite over here, you've got a walk-in robe, so you could really come up here and there's even a seating area. Creating that space and size and the full width across the house for the master bedroom, we think it's important. What else is upstairs? We've got a great multi-purpose room down the other end, a great space for the kids' bedrooms to flow onto that. And it just gives them a spot where they can, you know, have a second lounge room, a games room. Let's go and check out the great outdoors. After you. Thank you. The great outdoors, here we are. Yeah. This feels great. It does. It's our outdoor entertaining area with a built-in barbecue and a nice kitchenette and just overlooking our stunning pool. Yeah, so I feel like these spaces, these transition spaces, I call them like thresholds, are really important for the home. Yeah, well, as you can see, we're in the alfresco area, connects well from the pool into the kitchen, but you've also got that light that pours in from the central courtyard. So just, again, it gives that feeling of space that you're not in a small area. Yeah, that works really well. And then these big doors open up and then the doors into the interior courtyard open up. So suddenly you're getting airflow through your house. People don't realise it. They walk into houses and they don't like them and they don't realise it's because the house feels stuffy. But this house, with all those doors open in the interior courtyard right out to here, you're getting cross flow, which is so important for Australian living. It's a seamless transition. You don't notice it sometimes how well it just flows from the pool to the alfresco to the kitchen to the central courtyard. It just all feels connected, yet it's still its own space. It's really clever. Thanks for showing us around. Thanks, Joe. Eddie and his team have created a really generous family home here on quite a narrow block. The lightweight construction is a big part of that. But for me, the most exciting thing is this interior courtyard. Totally changes this house and every modern Australian home on a block like this needs one. So you see what I mean? I mean, it's definitely more expensive for these guys because it's more surface area to put a courtyard in the middle of this house. But for that expense, every space around it's getting more sun, more light, more cross ventilation. As you mentioned before as well, Joe, the buyers are getting smarter. The builders are getting smarter too. They're recognizing if you can show the consumer that they're going to get a quality product delivered, there's the confidence. You don't need to be the cheapest. Sometimes you just need to deliver a really good home on budget in line with the client's expectations. After the break, two more display homes showing what could be possible. This home's a great example of packing multiple living rooms into a single story home. Previously used to work on more boutique homes for 11 years plus. And that really enabled me to focus in on design and be able to see that full design process from concept design to completion of a build. Trying to take what I've learned, adopt those architectural styles or planning configurations onto a more volume type housing product. This house could be Australia's best home. I think it's the planning. It's just a well-planned home. I think the division of the living spaces from the bedrooms, it just makes it such a livable home. Ryan, how are you? Hi there, nice to meet you. Thank you for having me here. This looks awesome. Yeah, it's a great little single story home. The first thing I noticed is a lovely sort of contemporary coastal facade. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so this home's a single story coastal home. So we're close to the central coast of Sydney. So we just try to keep it fresh and light and use of natural materials or natural light materials. Just a very beautiful, kind of welcoming, approachable home. From what I can see out here, it's going to be a really beautiful, calm home. So I'd love to get inside and have a look around. Yeah, let's have a look. Wow, how good is this? The first thing I noticed is these massive ceiling heights. Yeah, yeah, it's a great ceiling. Ceiling height through here, 3.1 meters. So definitely gives you a great sense of volume. A lot of natural light pumping through here. You've made the decision to do a gloss tile on the floor, which of course bounces even more light around. Whilst I'm on features, I absolutely loved the wall panelling as we've walked through. Kind of past that cinema room as well. So already I've taken about eight steps and I've seen two living rooms. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so three living rooms in this house. And what we've tried to do on a single story home is just get as many different living spaces as possible. The shaker panels we've done on the kitchen door here with the chrome finishes. That's a really contemporary take on coastal, which I quite like. I think with coastal, it's just keeping it fresh and contemporary, as you said. Over there, I can see a bit of what looks like even a private hallway into the bedroom. So I'd love to have a look at bedroom one. Yeah, let's go have a look. Wow, and the awesome ceiling height continues. Yeah, it's a great ceiling height through here. So similar to the living areas, we've also tried to complement that with large windows as well to the back garden. So ceiling height and natural light just adds to the feeling in the space, creates a great bedroom one. The idea of putting the shears all the way up to the ceiling and also the use of that wallpaper, it's actually leading the eye up. It's really nice. As soon as you walk in, I just got this feeling of light, space, the colour palette again, very relaxing. Yeah, absolutely relaxing. So tell me a little bit about the rest of the bedrooms in the house. How are they set out? How many have we got? Yeah, so we've got four in total. So, and they're all set out off that secondary concealed hallway. Well, I would love to go and have a look outside. Let's have a look. Wow, all that living that you've packed into there and there is still room for living, dining, alfresco out here. Yeah, that's right. It's a great outdoor space connected with the interior of the home covered underneath the main house roof. So you're protected from the elements. It's just a great way of living. Well, it has been an absolute pleasure touring this home. I can't believe how much living you have packed into this block. It's just an awesome family home. What Ryan and his team have done so well is pack a lot of home on a small block. And the only way to do that successfully is through expert spatial planning. I mean, as you can see, it's kind of, it's just built for family living before you even walk more than 10 steps into the house, you've walked past two full-size living rooms. Yeah, I mean, this is so important in Australian homes. If you just have one open plan living space, which is what everyone thinks you want, well, you end up living on top of each other. There's nowhere to escape to. What you're seeing in this house is that fantastic thing where you can gather in a space, but you can also go away for some me time over here and still have some kind of connection. Nice to see. What a trip out to the Tanzanite it was for me with Grandview Homes. An absolute point of difference. Display homes do not need to be boring. Me personally really love this home because the floor plan is quite unique. We've done a very ultra contemporary facade and putting the entry off to the side gives us a unique street appeal. We wanted the stairs to become a real feature. So by putting it sideways, it's facing onto the main living area. You get that nice backdrop to the entertainer's kitchen with the water feature underneath and it's a very wide staircase. So it just gives you a sense of grandeur when you're walking upstairs. The chef's entertainer style kitchen is a unique element in a home of this size with the exaggerated island. So hopefully the judges will be very impressed by that. And obviously the ensuite in the master bedroom is a real wow factor. Good morning, Brendan. How are you? Hi, Andrew. Nice to meet you. It's a beautiful home. Striking street appeal. Yes, it certainly is. I mean, we're obviously still designing for families. Yeah. Family living. Today's modern family all got different things that they need and they want their own spaces to be able to branch out into. So we try and cater for all that. Sure. So apart from this amazing entry, we've got the living area at the front, room for the kids to study here. I hear that we've got a pretty amazing kitchen to go and see. Sure. Let's have a look. So Brendan, talk about wow factor and what's not to love about a chef's entertainer kitchen. Yeah, this is definitely the highlight of the home. You know, when people come over, your family or your friends, we find we still all congregate around the island. So we've sort of taken that concept and expanded on it. We've relocated the cooktop to the island and put an extra wide gas cooker on there. So it's almost a bit of teppanyaki style so people can sit around. I can imagine sitting there having a glass of wine. Oh yeah. Dual range hoods above it. Something that you don't see every day. Yeah, it's quite unique. Nice big stacking doors. This whole area can open up on a nice day and you can just flow through seamlessly out to the outdoors. Yeah, works well for me. I love it. But this amazing staircase, it really is the central focal point of this home and I'd imagine there's a story behind it. Normally in most two-story homes, the stairs sort of runs long ways with the home. It's just the conventional way. Here we've turned it on its side so that the side of the staircase almost becomes the feature and the backdrop to this room. Sure. I hear there's even more wow factor upstairs. Let's go and have a look. Okay, sounds good to you mate. So dinner in the gourmet kitchen by the chef, glass of wine, beer outside on a hot sunny day or a glass of champagne in this amazing hot tub behind us. As you can see here, we've really opened up the en suite. Putting this feature round tub as central here. Some nice mood lighting over it. Splitting the vanities. Normally you traditionally have the double vanities side by side. Here we thought we'd just go that extra mile and be a bit different. I think you've got everything covered. It's been a real privilege to come through and see the home and I can't thank you enough for giving me a tour. Oh, great. Thank you very much. Thanks mate. Is this Australia's best house? I can't wait to find out. In the meantime, I'm sure it's going to make someone's dream come true. Display home with a difference. Yeah, that's not what I expected. I'll tell you that much. The fountain in the middle, that's fountain and display home are two words I didn't think I'd use in the same sentence. Yeah, I think one of the things that display homes have really cottoned onto is the idea of sanctuary, particularly with the main bedroom. And that's what you're seeing there. There's a place to escape to for the parents to get away from the hordes. That sanctuary, it's so important to have. After the break, we reveal the winners of Concrete Marvels and Display Homes part one. Stick around. Welcome to Winning Appliances Crow's Nest. Chloe, thank you for having me here. Now, Bree, have you heard about sous vide cooking? I've heard of it, but I haven't been game enough to try it at home. So traditionally it means under vacuum and it's a French cooking style, which is traditionally done in a big water bath on top of your bench. And now with the beauty of these appliances, combi steam ovens, you can do it on the oven in the wall. It's really like stepped up the cooking game because before, you know, firstly expensive to have all these different appliances, but bulky and we don't want that ruining the look of a beautiful kitchen. So I love that it's all in there now. Exactly. And we get to show you how to use all of your appliances in here. So we get to take you through what's combi steam cooking. We get to show you what sous vide is. We get to show you the benefits of induction cooking and gas. And it's just a great way for you to get a firsthand view of what cooking might look like in your own home. And it looks perfect. Stunning. Concrete is everywhere. We see it almost every day. A material that starts out as essentially nothing can be shaped into some amazing structures. All it takes is vision. The winner of Concrete Marvels is The Hidden House. I'm so excited because I can see from the very front entry that this has been designed by an architect. In essence, what we were trying to do was create it like a boat on the water and really looking out upon the water as you're floating down the downstream. The winner of Display Homes Part One is Tanzanite. So Brendan, talk about wow factor and what's not to love about a chef's entertainer kitchen. Yeah, this is definitely the highlight of the home. You know, when people come over, your family or your friends, we find we still all congregate around the island. So we've sort of taken that concept and expanded on it. Congratulations to both our visionary winners. We will see you in our future grand final. See you next time as we work closer to our goal of finding Australia's best house.