Christopher Middleton launches our search for Britain’s best home makers
You don’t have to live in a caravan to enter this year’s Daily Telegraph Homebuilding and Renovating Awards. Though, that said, two of last year’s winners did exactly that.
“We wanted to be on site, supervising the project,” says Wendy Bullen, who, with her husband, John, won our Best Conversion category for their self-build cliff-top home.
“The mistake we made was moving into the mobile home in winter, rather than spring. The other mistake was having our water supply pipes above ground. They froze, of course.”
No shortage of pain, then, but the couple’s gain has been the transformation of a derelict farmhouse-cum-barn into a five-bedroomed, oak-framed home with views of Morecambe Bay and beyond.
It’s these tales of tenacity, triumph, ingenuity and innovation that make The Daily Telegraph awards what they are today.
“It’s the 19th year these awards have been running and each time, the stories we unearth manage to top the stories from the previous year,” says Jason Orme, editor of Homebuilding & Renovating magazine, and one of the three judges.
This year, there are eight categories to choose from, so if you have a saga of self-build struggle that you would like to tell the world, send it in by July 29. You could become one of the lucky winners.
It doesn’t have to be a construct-from-scratch job, either. It could be a conversion or extension of an existing building, as in the Bullens’ case.
“We first came across the site on the long walks we used to take through the Forest of Bowland,” says John, the recently retired owner of a landscaping and garden-centre business. “It was completely isolated, and set on its own among acres of beautiful countryside. The farmhouse had been empty for 30 years, but we always thought it would make the most amazing home.”
And so it has, the most dramatic features being the imposing stone fireplace (the mantelpiece alone weighs a ton) and the soaring, double-height windows.
“The best thing about these windows is, they’re self-cleaning,” says John. “We’d never be able to reach up to the gable ends, but we don’t need to, because the glass (Pilkington Activ) has a coating that reacts with sunlight to break down organic dirt, which the rain then washes off.
“It cost us £5,000 (out of a total build budget of £600,000), but it’s been worth every penny. As has the dumb waiter which I built for £200, out of an electric garage-door pulley.”
Mind you, when it comes to length of time spent in an on-site mobile home, the Bullens can’t compete with Rob and Alithea Dawson, winners of last year’s Best Value For Money category (and overall competition champions). They served a chilblain-inducing five years in a caravan while building their oak-timbered home, deep in the Powys countryside.
They have, though, got their rewards, not just in the form of their dream house, but in terms of money. Their woodland home cost £98,500 to build, and is now valued at £400,000. Overall, in fact, self-builders can hope to make at least a 10-30 per cent profit on their investment, and many of last year’s award-winners reckon their homes are worth anything from 60 to 400 per cent more than they cost to build.
“That said, very few people go into this for the money,” says Orme. “The mindset of the self-builder is of someone who relishes the challenge of building a one-off property according to their own individual specifications.
Yet the benefits come in many different forms. Gloucestershire-based couple John and Leigh Croft, for example, built a home just outside Cheltenham that’s 21 times
the size of a standard house, but uses the same amount of energy as a small, one-bedroomed flat.
The combination of solar heating, super-efficient insulation, lighting that switches off when you leave a room, plus a worm-powered water-recycling system, secured the Crofts first prize in the Eco-Home category, and a lifetime of tiny utility bills.
To get permission to build the house, though, they not only had to put in months of patient research and campaigning, but also make an in-person presentation to the council planning committee.
“We created a DVD with the visualisation of all the plans, and a brochure, then hand-delivered it to everyone on the committee,” says John. “We also lobbied locally, and received 72 letters of support.”
For every self-builder who wins their local councillors around, though, there are plenty who get their proposals turned down. It happened twice in the space of a year to Andy and Chrissy Sandbrook, winners of the Best Contemporary Home category, when they were trying to get the go-ahead for their house on the Gower Peninsular, in South Wales (build cost £630,000, current value £990,000).
“Like a lot of our clients, the Sandbrooks were feeling a little exhausted by their attempts to get planning permission, at the time they approached us,” says Kay Hyde, of Cardiff-based architects Hyde and Hyde.
“However, we were able to come at the scheme from a different angle, with fresh eyes, and put forward a single-storey building, which they hadn’t previously considered.
“In the event, the planners were very positive in their response. More often than not, planning committees are actually quite happy to see an innovative structure, rather than the usual mundane building, provided it’s within the local context.”
What’s more, it seems self-build may be getting more mainstream in the months to come. “The current housing minister, Grant Shapps, is a very vocal advocate in favour,” says Orme.
“We may soon see the start of what’s already an established pattern in Australia, where some 40-50 per cent of new homes are what we would classify as self-build.
“The way this works is that a big firm of developers does all the basic preliminary work. They buy the land, get planning permission, install foundations and gas mains and that kind of thing. Then the developer sells the plots to self-builders, who take it from there, and customise their house to their own requirements.”
As for the joys of self-build, you only have to talk to people who have been there and done it.
“When we look out from our house, we can see Cumbria, the Isle of Man and the Blackpool Tower,” says John Bullen.” We love this place, and can’t spend enough time here.”
The same goes for Cheshire businessman David Edwards, whose imposing self-build mansion in Hale (where current land values are £2 million an acre) won the Traditional Style category in last year’s awards.
His home is called Bankhall House, and it has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a home cinema, indoor swimming pool and not just one orangery, but two. Construction took 27 months after two years of research, and then constant supervision of the workforce.
Now that the builders have gone, though, he couldn’t be more pleased with the end result.
“When the sunset beams into the orangery, early in the evening, it’s a touch of magic that my wife, Margie, and I always enjoy”, he says.
“As for the grandchildren – Lucy (13), Oliver (two) and Jasmine (nine weeks) – Bankhall is Disneyland without the flights.”
And if you have a similar happy ending to your story, send in your entry and let us know about it. There are legions of unsung, self-build heroes out there. Let us sing your praises.
Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
“It’s the 19th year these awards have been running and each time, the stories we unearth manage to top the stories from the previous year,” says Jason Orme, editor of Homebuilding & Renovating magazine, and one of the three judges.
This year, there are eight categories to choose from, so if you have a saga of self-build struggle that you would like to tell the world, send it in by July 29. You could become one of the lucky winners.
It doesn’t have to be a construct-from-scratch job, either. It could be a conversion or extension of an existing building, as in the Bullens’ case.
“We first came across the site on the long walks we used to take through the Forest of Bowland,” says John, the recently retired owner of a landscaping and garden-centre business. “It was completely isolated, and set on its own among acres of beautiful countryside. The farmhouse had been empty for 30 years, but we always thought it would make the most amazing home.”
And so it has, the most dramatic features being the imposing stone fireplace (the mantelpiece alone weighs a ton) and the soaring, double-height windows.
“The best thing about these windows is, they’re self-cleaning,” says John. “We’d never be able to reach up to the gable ends, but we don’t need to, because the glass (Pilkington Activ) has a coating that reacts with sunlight to break down organic dirt, which the rain then washes off.
“It cost us £5,000 (out of a total build budget of £600,000), but it’s been worth every penny. As has the dumb waiter which I built for £200, out of an electric garage-door pulley.”
Mind you, when it comes to length of time spent in an on-site mobile home, the Bullens can’t compete with Rob and Alithea Dawson, winners of last year’s Best Value For Money category (and overall competition champions). They served a chilblain-inducing five years in a caravan while building their oak-timbered home, deep in the Powys countryside.
They have, though, got their rewards, not just in the form of their dream house, but in terms of money. Their woodland home cost £98,500 to build, and is now valued at £400,000. Overall, in fact, self-builders can hope to make at least a 10-30 per cent profit on their investment, and many of last year’s award-winners reckon their homes are worth anything from 60 to 400 per cent more than they cost to build.
“That said, very few people go into this for the money,” says Orme. “The mindset of the self-builder is of someone who relishes the challenge of building a one-off property according to their own individual specifications.
Yet the benefits come in many different forms. Gloucestershire-based couple John and Leigh Croft, for example, built a home just outside Cheltenham that’s 21 times
the size of a standard house, but uses the same amount of energy as a small, one-bedroomed flat.
The combination of solar heating, super-efficient insulation, lighting that switches off when you leave a room, plus a worm-powered water-recycling system, secured the Crofts first prize in the Eco-Home category, and a lifetime of tiny utility bills.
To get permission to build the house, though, they not only had to put in months of patient research and campaigning, but also make an in-person presentation to the council planning committee.
“We created a DVD with the visualisation of all the plans, and a brochure, then hand-delivered it to everyone on the committee,” says John. “We also lobbied locally, and received 72 letters of support.”
For every self-builder who wins their local councillors around, though, there are plenty who get their proposals turned down. It happened twice in the space of a year to Andy and Chrissy Sandbrook, winners of the Best Contemporary Home category, when they were trying to get the go-ahead for their house on the Gower Peninsular, in South Wales (build cost £630,000, current value £990,000).
“Like a lot of our clients, the Sandbrooks were feeling a little exhausted by their attempts to get planning permission, at the time they approached us,” says Kay Hyde, of Cardiff-based architects Hyde and Hyde.
“However, we were able to come at the scheme from a different angle, with fresh eyes, and put forward a single-storey building, which they hadn’t previously considered.
“In the event, the planners were very positive in their response. More often than not, planning committees are actually quite happy to see an innovative structure, rather than the usual mundane building, provided it’s within the local context.”
What’s more, it seems self-build may be getting more mainstream in the months to come. “The current housing minister, Grant Shapps, is a very vocal advocate in favour,” says Orme.
“We may soon see the start of what’s already an established pattern in Australia, where some 40-50 per cent of new homes are what we would classify as self-build.
“The way this works is that a big firm of developers does all the basic preliminary work. They buy the land, get planning permission, install foundations and gas mains and that kind of thing. Then the developer sells the plots to self-builders, who take it from there, and customise their house to their own requirements.”
As for the joys of self-build, you only have to talk to people who have been there and done it.
“When we look out from our house, we can see Cumbria, the Isle of Man and the Blackpool Tower,” says John Bullen.” We love this place, and can’t spend enough time here.”
The same goes for Cheshire businessman David Edwards, whose imposing self-build mansion in Hale (where current land values are £2 million an acre) won the Traditional Style category in last year’s awards.
His home is called Bankhall House, and it has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a home cinema, indoor swimming pool and not just one orangery, but two. Construction took 27 months after two years of research, and then constant supervision of the workforce.
Now that the builders have gone, though, he couldn’t be more pleased with the end result.
“When the sunset beams into the orangery, early in the evening, it’s a touch of magic that my wife, Margie, and I always enjoy”, he says.
“As for the grandchildren – Lucy (13), Oliver (two) and Jasmine (nine weeks) – Bankhall is Disneyland without the flights.”
And if you have a similar happy ending to your story, send in your entry and let us know about it. There are legions of unsung, self-build heroes out there. Let us sing your praises.
Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
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