Helen and Mark had always dreamed of owning a Georgian house but knew they couldn't afford the genuine article. So they decided to build their own. They bought a large plot of land in Surrey, surrounded by trees, and commissioned an architect who specialised in conservation architecture to design it.
Modelled on the Regency villas of the 1820s, their design had five reception rooms on the ground floor, a sweeping central staircase, four large bedrooms upstairs and a guest wing designed to look like a coach-house. Grand Regency features included a great bow window in the dining room, an oval orangery, a square portico (columned porch) and a terrace with a classical balustrade.
Budget And Build
Cost of land: £250,000
Planned budget for build: £275,000
Final cost of build: £750,000
Tussles with the planning authorities forced some compromises. The height of the house had to be reduced, and as a result, the roof looked squat to Kevin McCloud's eyes. Ceilings were lower than planned, too, but Helen, who was in charge of design decisions, worked hard to keep the internal spaces feeling airy, and insisted on the importance of windows - the house had about 40 of them.
Modern quick-build methods were used for the frame: steel struts, breeze blocks and brick facing. The portico was made of poured concrete. But despite the new technology, problems and delays sent costs spiralling. Helen took over as project manager.
It was a huge task to find authentic materials - or convincing substitutes. The roof was tiled with Chinese slate, which resembled Welsh slate but cost much less. The exterior walls were finished with a modern variation on traditional lime render. There was no short cut for the bow windows, however - they had to have 16mm glazing bars (the wooden bars to which the glass is attached), proper sash weights and curved glass panes with tiny imperfections in them to catch the light.
At the time of writing, the house's structure is intact, and from the outside, it looks something like a Regency rectory.
However, Kevin McCloud has some serious doubts. On balance, he feels he would have preferred to have seen an exciting piece of contemporary architecture being commissioned.
But he acknowledges that the planners might not have accepted an avant-garde house on this site; indeed, he feels the alterations they have forced on this design have taken an unacceptable toll. 'Good, faithful period reproduction means copying not just detail and finish, but overall proportion as well. Meddling with the crucial elements of a building is dangerous. With historical designs, it can be fatal.'
Helen continues to work to rise above the compromises and bring her new Georgian house into being. There is much to do: the garden has yet to be landscaped and many rooms are still undecorated. But then it takes time to get the detail perfect, and Helen has it all planned...
This house is sympathetic to its setting, sitting pleasantly among trees. However, the materials used in its construction - steel and concrete - are not environmentally friendly, as their manufacture produces vast quantities of carbon dioxide pollutants.
The house will also be expensive to heat and will waste energy because it is not double-glazed. Kevin McCloud understood the decision not to compromise on the look of the windows, but would have liked to have seen another kind of energy-saving measure in compensation - perhaps underfloor heating.
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Want to be a self-build guru? Then read on....
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