Client Journey: Trish and Tony’s retirement home

Lower Moutere, Tasman — the Whio, 14x4

They came to us because they wanted to walk through a tiny home before they bought one. We could not find them one to walk through. Today theirs is the home we take other people to see.

Who Trish and Tony are

Trish and Tony Cook live at Lower Moutere. They already had the land. What they wanted was straightforward and urgent: a new, warm house, and to be in it before winter.

Their first email, in February 2025, asked a simple question — when could they come and view one?

We could not answer it well. The nearest home we could get them into was at Pohara, too far for a casual look, and the owner was away. They waited politely while we tried. It is the least impressive we have ever looked, and it is worth telling because of how the story ends.

What they decided

On 4 March we sent them the specification for a 14x4m Whio and they were away. This became build W01 — the first of that series we ever put on the ground.

We were also honest with them about the one thing they cared most about. A custom build to their exact specification could not compete on timing with a finished unit sitting on somebody's yard, and winter was coming. So we offered them a fully furnished place of ours in Motueka to live in at a weekly rate while they waited, bedding and cutlery included, so that a new build did not mean a cold few months in between.

They paid their deposit on 20 March.

They did their own site

While we built, Trish and Tony got on with the part a lot of people underestimate. By mid-April they had the house pad finished, the power run to the site and the sewage pipe laid down to the holding tank — all of it completed before the rain arrived.

"We had our house finished, power to site plus sewage pipe laid down to holding tank. All done before rain came thank goodness."

That is why their delivery was straightforward. The site was ready before the house was.

The open home

In June, with their home nearly finished, Kim asked whether we could hold an open yard and show it to other people before it went to them. Ten to fifteen groups. Shoes off. No pressure either way.

They said yes.

Their delivery was then postponed by a weather system rolling in, which turned out to suit everyone — we stored their home in our overflow yard at no charge, held the open home first, and did their handover walkthrough afterwards with more time and less rush. Their stone benchtops went in on the 11th. The house went to Lower Moutere as soon as the weather cleared.

Where it is at

Trish and Tony are in, and here is the part that closes the loop.

In December we had a prospective client who wanted to see a Whio. There was no showroom to send them to, because there is no such thing as a showroom in this business. So Kim asked Trish and Tony whether a stranger could come and look through their living room a fortnight before Christmas.

"Yes that's fine Kim, just text us the day before to remind us."

Ten months earlier they had been the people who could not find a home to view. Now they were the reason somebody else could.

They have since signed up to our Wingmates referral programme, and we have asked whether we can borrow their house for a professional photo shoot, because a single-storey home sitting in position on real land photographs like nothing we can stage in a yard.

What this taught Ruru

We do not have a showroom. We have clients who say yes.

Every person who buys a tiny home wants to stand inside one first, and the only way that is possible is if somebody who already owns one opens their door. Trish and Tony were failed by that system in February and became part of the answer to it by December.

The other lesson is simpler and more practical. They had their site finished before their house was, and their delivery was one of the smoothest we have done. Most delays we see are not build delays. They are site delays.

Want to stand inside one before you decide? Ask us. Somebody near you probably owns one, and they are usually happy to help.