Almaz Rabb visits a modern Masterton home that perfectly reflects and accommodates the lives of its owners Photography by Mark Tantrum

Custom made

A view from the back of the house, where the property will one day be landscaped

The daybed is Sophie's favourite spot for whiling away sunny afternoons

Sophie and Simon share a quiet moment in the whisky room

Small details are what make the Griffith's home beautiful

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - December 09: FishHead Magazine My Home Sophie and Simon: Quothquan, 392F Blackrock Rd, Masterton 5886. December 09, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Mark Tantrum/ mark tantrum.com)

The master bedroom is large, stylish and light

The Griffith's kitchen is spacious and perfect for entertaining

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - December 09: FishHead Magazine My Home Sophie and Simon: Quothquan, 392F Blackrock Rd, Masterton 5886. December 09, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Mark Tantrum/ mark tantrum.com)

Sliding doors connect the large dining area with a deck that overlooks the valley

Trinkets in the whisky room reflet the Griffith's rich Scottish heritage

The head of a deer shot by Simon, nicknamed "505", is now a feature of the whisky room

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - December 09: FishHead Magazine My Home Sophie and Simon: Quothquan, 392F Blackrock Rd, Masterton 5886. December 09, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Mark Tantrum/ mark tantrum.com)

The boys have their own special area in which to play and watch television

The natural wooden exterior of the home blends seamlessly into the surrounding landscape

(C)Mark Tantrum, All rights reserved

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - December 09: FishHead Magazine My Home Sophie and Simon: Quothquan, 392F Blackrock Rd, Masterton 5886. December 09, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Mark Tantrum/ mark tantrum.com)

  • A view from the back of the house, where the prop­erty will one day be landscaped

A short drive from Mas­ter­ton, a lone house sits on the edge of a windy hill, over­look­ing the superb green­ery of the Tararua Ranges. Lov­ingly designed and built by Soph­ie and Simon Grif­fith, the mod­ern home is burst­ing with char­ac­ter, per­fectly echo­ing the lives and loves of its innov­at­ive owners.

After liv­ing in Scot­land for a num­ber of years and skil­fully con­vert­ing an old school­house into their fam­ily home, Soph­ie and Simon returned to New Zea­l­and in 2007 to start their busi­ness, Thistle Build­ing Com­pany. With two young boys, two dogs and a rich Scot­tish fam­ily her­it­age, the couple set out to build a home that incor­por­ated their Celt­ic roots, while also being fam­ily-friendly and beau­ti­fully designed.

Nick­named Quothquan, mean­ing ‘windy hill’ in Celt­ic, the home is over­whelm­ingly spa­cious, giv­ing every mem­ber of the Grif­fith fam­ily an area to call their own. While Soph­ie loves to spend her after­noons relax­ing and read­ing on the sunny win­dow daybed, the boys have claimed the second lounge as their own spot for play­ing and watch­ing tele­vi­sion. Simon can often be found in the ‘whisky room’, a quiet corner of the house that pays homage to Scot­land with its Celt­ic trinkets, old fam­ily pho­tos and den-like furnishings.

The kit­chen and din­ing areas are large and open plan, over­look­ing the stun­ning val­ley and provid­ing the per­fect set­ting for the fam­ily to host din­ner guests and birth­day parties for the boys. On the oth­er side of the house are the bed­rooms, all large and spa­cious, with huge win­dows that flood the rooms with light and pan­or­amic views.

In the old days, tax in Scot­land was based on how big your win­dows were,” says Simon. “People gen­er­ally had pretty small win­dows because they wanted to avoid pay­ing lots of tax. So of course we wanted to get the biggest win­dows we could!”

Unlike many new builds that take years to devel­op their own char­ac­ter, Soph­ie and Simon’s two-year-old home seems to have a sense of his­tory already, giv­ing the illu­sion that it has exis­ted for many years. The couple attrib­utes the well-developed char­ac­ter of their home to their decision to live on site dur­ing the build­ing pro­cess, man­aging to squeeze their fam­ily into a small cot­tage at the back of the prop­erty for three years.

The plan­ning was great fun,” says Soph­ie as she tells stor­ies of the boys play­ing army games on the build­ing site, while she and Simon spent hours pacing around the sec­tion and decid­ing where to pos­i­tion the house. “That was the beauty of liv­ing on the site,” says Soph­ie. “We got to know about the sun and the wind and the light. We don’t feel like we’ve just moved into a new house. It has always been part of our lives in New Zealand.”

While Quothquan has soon become a true fam­ily home for the Grif­fiths, Soph­ie and Simon admit that the house is far from being fin­ished. In the future, the couple plans to land­scape the out­door area, hop­ing soon to install a swim­ming pool and a ten­nis court at the back of the large prop­erty. A fire­place will also be built in Simon’s whisky room, while Soph­ie hopes one day to pur­chase a large, state­ment din­ing table for the spa­cious fam­ily din­ing area.

With a Life­mark Award to cer­ti­fy its design cre­den­tials, the home is inten­ded to suit the fam­ily dur­ing every stage of life, from hav­ing young chil­dren, right through to their older, less mobile years.

It was nev­er ever meant to be the sort of house that was com­pletely done,” says Soph­ie. “We always planned it that way, to gath­er stuff as the kids get older. The house will change with us.”