- Aucklanders snap up stunning log cabin in the city’s rural fringe.
- More than 4000 hours of labour went into the cabin’s recent restoration.
- The home was built by the Kiwi who created the ranger’s hut for the Yogi Bear movie.
City slickers have bought a multi-million-dollar log cabin that has links to Hollywood and Grand Designs NZ.
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Ray White listing agent Drew Sackfield told OneRoof that the buyers had wanted an escape from the hustle and bustle of Auckland and the stunning cabin on Jones Road, in Hūnua, was just right.
Sackfield was unable to say what the property had sold for but said the vendor was delighted with the price. “He’s stoked. He can now move onto his next project,” she said.
The builder who originally created the cabin was hired to carry out the renovation. Photo / Supplied
It took more than 4000 hours to sand back the wood and bring it up to scratch. Photo / Supplied
The three-bedroom cabin was built in the 1990s by Rotorua craftsman Derek Mullooly, whose creations have wowed audiences and homeowners alike.
His firm, NZ Log Homes, built the ranger’s cabin in the live-action Yogi Bear movie, which was shot in New Zealand, and created one of the standout homes featured in Grand Designs New Zealand.
The vendor, who had picked up the 372sqm cabin late last year when it was in a rundown state, had asked Mullooly to help him bring it back to life. The restoration project was challenging but worth it for both men.
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“Every external post has been replaced. Over 4000 hours have gone into sanding back every log to bare and recoating them,” the vendor told OneRoof in September. “The amount of work that’s gone into it is just unbelievable.”
The bathrooms and kitchens are modern and external wooden tongue and groove boards have been painted in contemporary colours.
The grounds have been cleared and landscaped. Photo / Supplied
The log cabin was in a tired state before the upgrade. Photo / Supplied
The grounds were also been given a makeover, with the property now boasting views of the Sky Tower and Rangitoto. “You couldn’t even tell there was a view. Now you’ve got this incredible view,” the vendor said.
Mullooly told OneRoof that the upgraded home would cost around $3m to build from scratch in today’s market.
Despite the no-expense-spared upgrade, the cabin wasn’t an easy home to sell, said Sackfield, who picked up the listing with colleague Jay Singh in August.
Mullooly’s work can be seen in the 2010 live-action Yogi Bear movie. Photo / Stephen McNicholl
The film was filmed in New Zealand, with the voices of Yogi and Boo Boo provided by Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake. Photo / Supplied
Some families thought the home was too small, others wanted more flat land “for the kids to run around”. One buyer even complained the cabin was “too loggy”, Sackfield said.
Mullooly told OneRoof in September he had built more than 80 log homes in New Zealand since starting his business in 1982. He became interested in log homes during his OE in Canada where he informally apprenticed himself to a local builder.
On returning to New Zealand at the beginning of the 1980s, Mullooly started building log homes.
Another of Mullooly’s restorations is for sale at 847 West Coast Road, in Oratia, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Around half of Mullooly’s customers in New Zealand have been immigrants from countries where log homes are common, such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany.
He buys logs for the homes directly from a forestry company near to his Rotorua base. “We give the company the specs. The size of the logs we want, the length of the logs. They harvest it for us and then send it to our yard. From there, we debark the logs ourselves by hand, and then it’s all hand built.”
The Hūnua home is one of the largest Mullooly has built over the years, although his favourite is the cabin he built for himself in Hurunui.
New Zealand Log Homes has recently renovated another home that’s still on the market for sale – 847 West Coast Road, in Oratia, Auckland. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home is looking for offers over $2.3m.
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