An architect and builder couple put no limitations on their ambitions when self-building together for the first time
WORDS JESSICA MAIRS PHOTOGRAPHY LEONID FURMANSKY
When Davey McEathron and Rebecca Holliday’s neighbour put her house up for sale, the couple bought it with a view to upscaling their building project. Starting out with a plan to design and construct a home for themselves on the site of a rundown house and workspace, architect Davey, 51, and builder Rebecca, 41, went several steps further, ending up building three houses at the same time as their own across the two plots.
The scheme got underway following their move to the East 12th Street District of Austin, Texas, USA. ‘After living in the same home for 15 years and relocating from the University Hills area of Austin, this was a big change for us both,’ says Rebecca.
Together the two plots form a 1,152sqm L shape, a space that enables each of the four homes to have its own driveway, which emphasises their separation. ‘It doesn’t feel like someone’s living in our backyard,’ says Davey.
And from the outside the houses share similar characteristics, having steeply pitched roofs and areas of green corrugated steel cladding. The exterior of Rebecca and Davey’s home includes matt black steel panelling on the gable end, the porch and car port. Next to the front door, a curving wall is clad in pale, green-painted ribbed wood that serves to guide visitors towards the entrance.
Davey and Rebecca submitted separate planning applications for the two plots, each covering a three-storey house and a smaller single-storey home, known in the USA as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). The approvals came through in just two months.
The couple have taken on home renovations as a team in the past, but this would be their first self-build. Seizing the opportunity, they found building four houses at the same time came with time- and cost-saving benefits. ‘There were days where we had six trades working on site, which got a little crazy,’ says Rebecca. ‘But it meant that we could do everything at once, such as having the electrician work on all the homes during one visit.’
Nevertheless, Davey and Rebecca did have budgeting issues due to the Covid-19 p
