Uralla house features everything from coldroom walls to recycled timber yards

As if the views across the New England weren't breathtaking enough, it's only when you walk inside that you realise the peculiar details that differentiate this home from anything else in the district.

Coolroom walls, a kitchen made out of old yards and recycled doors are just the start.

"It was just a rocky hill, we could hardly get a four wheeler quad bike up it but two of our children sat up here watching a storm from the west and said what a nice house site it would be," Pam Dutton said.

"That's where the idea was born to do something here we had to get a dozer in to flatten an area just to even start."

They began the build in 2009 with their designs featuring an interesting material for the interior walls.

"We were trying to decide what to build the house from," Ms Dutton said.

"Friends at Kentucky said why don't you look at the cool room panels so we had a look and liked what we saw so we decided to go with that thinking we would have the house up in three months...four years later we finally finished it.

"We had some interesting times with the timber floor in here, the cement was cut down into the floor, and because we didn't have a roof on this house for a long time we would come up after rain and it would be like an ice skating ring."

To the naked eye the professionalism of the final product makes it seem like an easy build but the Duttons confess it wasn't easy getting the correct angles and erecting beams with a small ceiling.

Look more intensely at the house and it's clear to see many more features have a story to tell.

All of the stringybark timber around the windows was milled on the property and let dry for a couple of years while the timber throughout the kitchen was recycled from the old cattle yards.

"We were interested how it (coolroom panels) would work," Ms Dutton said.

"They were trial panels from Brisbane and they were probably a lot cheaper than what we could build with other things. We liked the insulation qualities and the strength of the walls using those coolroom panels.

"The double-glazed windows were sourced from a reject lot of windows from a Canberra office bloke and we bought those pretty cheaply...it all grew like topsy turvy and things fell into our lap.

"Some how it all fell into place."

At the same time the house was being built they were also installing water infrastructure and dividing paddocks on the new property, all while living in a small cottage.

"It was a big learning curve when we were building because we had never built a house before and to start on something completely different," Mr Dutton said.

"It was a big learning curve and we really had to think outside the box.

"We brought electricians, painters and plumbers in but we did everything else ourselves."

But it was worth it for the finished product, Ms Dutton said.

"I just love the timber work, I like the (circular) stair case because we know how hard it was to do and it just makes it interesting," she said.

"All the French doors came from an old hotel at Richmond and they were covered in multi layers of green paint and orange paint that took months in the wool shed down at the cottage just scrapping off layers day after day to get back to the timber."

For Mr Dutton it's hard to go past the beauty of their view.

"Just sitting at the dining room table looking out at the east and seeing the view, looking 60 kilometres to the east and west," he said.

"You are right on top of the world."

A few years later they decided to use the rocks that were excavated from the original hill site as a wall for their beautiful garden that also features a large greenhouse where the Duttons grow their own vegetables.

"That involved the loader precariously perched on top of the hill, on top of the drive way just building up the rocks," she said.