Cabin COOL

ENAMOURED BY THE ROMANCE OF LOG CABINS, THIS FAMILY CREATED THEIR OWN AND GAVE IT A MODERN EDGE

KYLIE JACKES

It was love at first sight, when Ema and Corey found a secluded block of land bordering a forest of pine trees with river views, perched on a hill in Currumbin Valley in Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland. “The block had an old post-war fibro shack that we called home for a long time, but it was always our plan to eventually build our dream home here,” recalls Ema. It took a good 15 years for their dream to become a reality. Happy to bide their time, the couple travelled and lived in London for a year with sons Noah, 15, and Henry, 13, who were just babies at the time, before moving back and making a plan. “The first step was saving, which took us five years,” explains Ema. “Because we were outgrowing the shoebox-sized shack, we became incredibly motivated to save for the new build, so we took on extra work, sacrificed holidays and lived with just the bare essentials for a while and were happy to, as we had a goal.”

Their vision was to create a cabin-style home, which sat quietly among the natural setting. While Ema admits her initial plans were more idealistic than realistic, their gracious builder Mark Green suggested a simpler design, requiring less engineering, which was far more feasible. “We were complete construction newbies, with a Pinterest board the size of Queensland and a budget the size of a postage stamp, yet with lots of input from Mark we were able to tweak the design without compromising form and function,” she explains.