Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The English Barn, Oxfordshire - full transcript
Kevin travels to Oxfordshire to meet the Randolphs, who built their first house 10 years ago and now, in their 70s, have decided to do it all again.
Buildings like this at Cockswell in
Oxfordshire are the cathedrals of
medieval agriculture.
This is a vast building.
What it represents on the grandest
scale is that wonderful sense of space
and height that you get
in ancient English barns.
When they were built, barns like
this were used for threshing and storing
grain, things like that.
Nowadays, their open, flexible spaces
combined with the appeal of all that
wood make them places
where people want to live.
Which is why in this week's programme
we'll be following a couple who are
trying to bring the idea of living in a
wooden barn into the 21st century.
Dennis and Marjorie Randolph have
already built one very comfortable house
for themselves after Dennis retired
as chairman of Wilkinson's Sword.
But even though
they're both in their 70s,
they've decided to
do it all over again.
Moving is something of a hobby for them.
They started off in a 1930s
semi-detached in a village called Datchet.
They then moved onwards and
upwards into a three-storey Victorian house
which they modernised and refurbished.
This was followed by an even larger
home, a Queen Anne Manor house where
they stayed for 20 years.
They redecorated and built
an indoor swimming pool.
As their children left home, the house
became too big for them, so they had
their current home, Clapcot House,
specially built to meet their changing
requirements.
After ten years at Clapcot, the
Randolfs are moving again and this time
they've been seduced by the idea
of living in an oak-framed building.
What made you choose a barn as
opposed to any other type of building?
Well, we saw a programme on television,
at least Dennis saw it, and we were
so intrigued with the idea that we
got in touch with the makers and took it
from there.
I was so impressed that I talked to
Marjorie and between us we decided to
contact the people and got the brochures
and saw what I'd seen, if you like,
on television,
which was these lovely
old structures, all wood,
pegged, no screws, no
nails, nothing like that.
The main reason that people are
attracted to barns as possible homes is the
sense of scale, the space, which
of course have evolved as part of the
agricultural use of the building.
So why build a barn-style
home from scratch?
Why not just convert
an existing barn?
One of the reasons
lies in their popularity.
Demand for old barns is now
outstripping supply because they are
increasingly hard to find and also
because planning permission is very
difficult to get.
Even if you can get planning permission,
converting a barn is a tremendous
challenge. You don't want
to lose its agricultural identity.
But many of the barn conversions I
visited show the conflict between those
great soaring spaces and
the desire for a modern home.
The most successful barn conversions
respect and use the fabric of the
original building, and that
usually means open plan.
Now the trouble with open plan is
that it's often not practical or desirable.
Barns are vast spaces and we all
need some privacy, a bathroom, bedroom.
Now here the builder has put in three
floors. Effectively what he's done is
just put a conventional house
within the framework of a barn.
Although you can still see pieces
of the original building, it's lost that.
great sense of space, that great
sense of soaring height that it has.
Instead it's like a cottage, it's very
cosy, but the very thing which gave
the barn its integrity and
its beauty has been lost.
Of course these buildings were never
designed to be lived in, certainly not
as we do today, and there are bound
to be some nasty confrontations between
the past and the present.
Some of the rustic charm might just
wear off after you've banged your head
on the bathroom beam
for the umpteenth time.
The alternative, as in the case of
Dennis and Marjorie, is to build your own
home, one that has all the craftsmanship
and the qualities of a barn, but
one which is designed the way you want it.
This seems rather a sensible idea
and quite feasible, but of course you need
a site. Dennis and
Marjorie found one just
outside the village
of Goring in Berkshire.
The land covers four acres and
has fabulous views to the south.
They saw an advert for a bungalow
in a local paper. They didn't want the.
building, but they did want the land,
so they decided that to secure the
plot they would buy the site
and demolish the bungalow.
This gave them land which already
had planning permission. This is an
expensive route because you're
paying for a building you don't want.
But it means that the Randolphs were
able to put their dream home exactly
where they wanted it.
And this is the vision they hope to
realise. A modern house of oak and glass
that snakes across the side of the hill.
A vast glass atrium lies at the heart
of the home. On one side of this is
the master bedroom, on the other
the study and garage, so the line of the
house flows naturally
from one end to the other.
Crossing the atrium
above you is an oak
bridge joining the two
wings of the house.
This leads you to a small
attic bedroom at the far end.
The house will be a combination of
contemporary and traditional design.
I really like the shape. I think it's
a really clever zigzag. The idea is.
you drive into the carport, you come
in, check the faxes in the study, what
happens is the bar is here, the
hatches there, pour yourself a drink, go
into the living room, look at the view.
And after a few
more drinks you just
make your way to the
bedroom and lie down.
It's May and foundations are now in place.
But the house won't be finished
for another six months and
they want to be in by October.
The site cost them £250,000 and
the build is costed at another £170,000
which should be covered by
the sale of their existing home.
That's my office there.
And delightful it is too.
Well the thing is I think buildings
do until they go up. The ground plan
without the structure
on it always seems
on the site to look
as though it's shrunk.
We found that with the place we are now.
Yeah, always I think.
And that's the bar.
The whole room?
No, no, no, no.
It's a cloakroom at the far end.
We always design the bar first.
The bar and your study?
The hatches they've taken particularly.
And that has the best view of the place.
It is a fantastic view of course but
there is in the foreground, we can't
ignore it, the pig farm.
Yes, yes, they arrived about two
weeks after we bought the fizzled lamb.
Oh no.
Well if you're in the country you
know you've got pigs on there.
And they don't stay.
They are free range and as you
said they'll move on to mud new.
Absolutely.
I came to visit the architect of their
dream, Roderick James, who lives and.
works in Devon in one of his own houses.
He started out converting and
repairing old barns but 20 years ago he
started to design new oak framed buildings.
What are the
defining qualities of an
oak framed building
that make it special?
I think it's partly to
do with the symmetry.
The fact that as your eye follows
round the roof it goes right the way round
and down again.
And it's actually got space to travel
and to keep travelling and similarly
going the length of the building.
There's lots for it to sort of leading
it easily round whereas if you have a
sort of wedge shaped
ceiling or roof like that,
your eyes tend to sort of follow
up and get stuck in it. It's just sort of
unsatisfactory.
And I think it is just one of the
qualities of the pitched roof being open
to the main room that is very successful.
I mean oak obviously has that whole
English tradition, the hearts of oak and
English oak and ships
were made of oak and so on.
So I think it has a historical basis
and there's something about, I don't
know, just the sort of British
consciousness about oak which is important.
I think it has a warmth, it has a
wonderful texture, it has a spectacular
grain and oak is a very durable wood.
It doesn't need toxic preservative
treatment. It can just be used as it is.
As well as the architectural practice,
Rod James also has a construction
company, Carpenter Oak,
who will build the oak frame.
Once clients like the Randalls
have been bitten by the timber
bug and they've looked at some
of Carpenter Oak's buildings,
they probably come here and meet
with Rod and start to discuss and rough out
some of the ideas that they have in mind.
Of course the building is going to
dictate its own aesthetic but the layout
and the planning
is really down to the
relationship between
architect and client.
It's in this room that the building
starts to take shape and that the dream
becomes reality.
And oak framed buildings
are the stuff of dreams.
All our nostalgic hankerings that Rod
spoke of are bound up in the colour,
texture and strength of oak.
Qualities that are
brought together by nature.
The trees that are used to build the
Randalls house come from managed
English woodland planted
for industry in the late 1880s.
These oaks are about 100 years
old and the intention for all of the oak
planting that happened in the 19th
century was that the material was going
to be used in industries
which are now redundant.
Things like ship building or coffin
making, carriage making, carts, barrels,
all these kind of things, pit props even.
Now these oaks
have another purpose.
They're going to be
used to make houses.
Native timber is about the most
environmentally friendly material you can
build your house from because it's
sustainable and needs a minimum of
transport and processing.
For most of this century we've
done little to continue the historic
tradition of planting and
managing our woodlands.
But carpenter oak and companies
like them are changing that with selective
felling and extensive
replanting creating
new oak woods for
future generations.
At least 40 oaks will be needed for
Dennis and Marjorie's house for which
another 80 will be planted.
From Rod's technical drawings and
sketches the carpenters draw up detailed
elevations on which all the cut
lengths of timber are marked up.
The oak is ordered
and delivered straight
from the tree, hence
the term 'green oak'.
Because it's fresh it's incredibly easy
for the carpenters in Chippenham to
cut it. So easy I had to have a go.
So having ordered
it up, then chisel it
out to a joint. How
do you do the corners?
Well I have a special chisel
that's called a corner chisel.
Cheat. So easy even I could do it.
Am I at risk of spitting this whole beat?
No, not at all.
I just hold it dead.
Using traditional tools isn't
always as easy as it looks.
I still watch the chisel in.
He's well in.
I should have said this way.
Yeah, you should have said that.
Is he humiliating me in
front of all the viewers?
No, no.
This 150 year old tool
has just been broken.
It takes about two months to make a
frame like the Randolphs, but each wall
is made flat on the trestles.
and nothing doesn't get a full 3D
assembly till it gets on site, so no one
knows if it's going to work.
On the day it goes up, all those
joints, wedges and pegs should lock
together like a structural Jigsaw puzzle.
But until then, it's all
just a big pile of wood.
It's a fabulous morning in June and
the frame has finally arrived on site.
The carpenter craftsmen, who were
employed just for this part of the build,
are all set to put it
up and all touching
wood that it'll go
together smoothly.
Each piece of wood
is labelled, ready
for its unique place
in the grand scheme.
The construction method hasn't
changed for hundreds of years.
Mortise and tenon joints are
pinned together by oak pegs.
As the pegs go
in, they tighten the
joint, creating a
taut, strong structure.
A frame this size may take two
months to make in the yard, but it can be
assembled in just a few days on site.
The method of using posts and tie
beams is exactly that used by these boys'
forebears 600 years ago.
Rods carpenters have
learnt an enormous
amount from repairing
historic oak structures
and seeing how their ancestors
got it right, and sometimes wrong.
A frame like this will shrink and
tighten as it dries, giving it the
strength of tensioned steel.
Despite this inherent strength of
oak, people are still reluctant to build
their houses out of timber.
One of the reasons
is fire. As oak burns,
it forms a layer of
char over the surface,
which actually impedes
the progress of the fire.
This means that oak's resistance
to fire easily meets today's strict
building regulations.
The other concern is how
long will an oak building last.
Now, the cracks, the shakes that form
on an oak beam, are only superficial.
They don't penetrate to the hardwood.
And if that isn't enough, well, then
just think of all those magnificent
houses and cottages
that are oak-framed that stand in the
English countryside and in towns that
are there after centuries.
The most elaborate part of the
Randolph's design is the central atrium.
This is also the
trickiest part of the build.
It really is. This is
the important bit.
I hope they know
what they're doing.
This frame of tie beams will
carry a bridge across the atrium.
It's very heavy and unwieldy and
has to be lowered in its entirety to joint
into the posts below.
Even complex braced structures like
these need no steel, no screws or nails,
simply some fresh-cut
oak and the skills
and commitment of
the men that work it.
In the very beginning,
we're heavily
involved in what the
timber is going to do,
what's it going to be
like in its final stage.
And that gives us a kind of spiritual
attachment to it because we're so
involved right to the end.
We've made it in the yard, put a lot
into it, and then we go onto site and
we put it up and it all fits together,
hopefully. Click, click, click.
And that gives you a great sense of
satisfaction because in the yard it's
actually quite abstract.
And of course the oak is a wonderful stuff.
Green oak is a wonderful stuff
to work.
It's like cheese. It's so easy to work.
Although Rod James is the primary
architect, he lives quite some distance
from the site
and has very sensibly contracted a
local architect for day-to-day management
of the build.
Dennis and Marjorie are demanding clients.
They well know from experience that
you have to make decisions while the
building process is going on.
So once those beams
are in, then this is complete.
That's right.
The quicker the better
now, we want to get in.
Contrary to what you might think,
buildings can never be planned in every
minute detail.
Countless day-to-day
decisions need to be made.
That's from the back end of there.
Well, we'll redo it on that large scale.
And now it's all starting to come together.
You can see down into this.
Oh yes, yes.
There obviously is a
balustrade across
there for safety reasons.
But there's no wall there.
No, there's a beam, isn't there?
That's the truss.
That's the stuff we're seeing there.
Well, the wall...
When you're in a lab, you'll be
seeing over the top of that tie beam.
The wall will come up
rectangular, won't it?
Underneath the sphere.
Underneath, big course.
There is a space for the picture.
You've always got to think about
either the pictures or the plants.
That's right, the pictures or the plants.
Well, you've got a house, but
it's these things that make a home.
Straight down there.
I'm feeling very excited, aren't you?
Well, it's really come up to
expectations, or even beyond, I would say.
I think it's absolutely superb.
I'm delighted.
And of course, they're putting
the tool shed up over there.
That, of course, is the most
important part of the entire structure.
I know, darling, your
tool shed is really it.
Well, it has to be, doesn't it?
Well, what would I do without my tool shed?
Well, Ankhay, you
would say it would
be your refuge away
from me, wouldn't it?
Well, you said it just over... Yes.
I mean, I can whistle from there,
and you can bring the coffee over.
It seems all wrong to call it a tool shed.
It's much more than that, isn't it?
Especially as you get the
tractor in and everything.
Well, that's right.
I think you should just call it the barn.
The barn?
Yeah, that's what it is.
All right, yes.
It's a bit big for a shed, isn't it?
And you reckon I can
drill into that all right?
Yeah, no problem at all.
Looks a bit hard to me.
Well, it's soft at the moment.
It'll get harder as it gets drier.
Until in maybe 50 or 100 years,
it'll be too hard to bang a nail
in unless you drill a hole first.
Don't think I should be here then.
No, it won't be a problem for
you, but maybe for your ancestors.
Well, yes, not the next
lot, but a lot after that.
At the end of the construction of
the frame is the topping out ceremony.
A sprig of oak is
fixed to the top of
the frame as an
offering to the oak tree
to thank it for the use of its timber.
Building a new home is
an awesome undertaking,
and Dennis Randolph is just the
sort of person to rise to the challenge.
When he built his last home, he also
planted a vineyard as his retirement
project.
So, will you miss the vines?
Yes. It's been an interesting
ten years we've had with them.
Mind you, it's only
five miles away and
daughter and son-in-law
are taking over.
You can always come
back and stroll along them.
So are you a man that...
Do you enjoy a good project?
Do you feel that this is
accomplished, therefore...
Got to get on and do something else.
Make another thing.
Yes, I'm afraid I do tend to move from
one thing to another, especially now.
A week after the
frame has been erected,
Rod James has
come to visit the site.
He's not too happy about the changes
that Dennis and Marjorie want to make
to the atrium.
Instead of glazing
the whole of its roof,
they want to put
tiles on one side of it.
Put simply, they're worried it'll
feel too much like a greenhouse.
And as you know, the original idea
was that we had the whole thing glazed,
but I think now you've seen
the frame up two options.
The one we can just decide
to roof that side completely,
or we can mock it up with building
paper or something, so you can actually
get a feel for it.
So on the atrium
area, you were thinking
of having glass
just on the one side,
and tile slated now on the other side.
That's right.
I think I would consider roofing
the Ridge and glazing the lower,
because I think one of the things
about no frame is that one of the reasons
that people find it easy to just
relate is because of its symmetry,
because the fact your eye wanders up
and down and goes round and round in
that sort of space.
As soon as you start making it asymmetrical
and having just one flat ceiling
and then one glazed ceiling,
you begin to detract from that flow.
One needs to think about it very
carefully, because it's easy to make the
wrong decision.
You can't just have a little
window in the middle of it?
No.
She's got too many clothes, it seems.
Very flexible, eh?
Big advantage of flexible plans.
She's got all this space.
After much discussion, they're
still undecided what to do.
With the outcraftsmen gone,
the conventional builders move in.
Their job is to turn the
frame into a walled building,
and if you thought
the gaps were to be
filled in with Hazel
wattle and mud daub,
then you'll be as disappointed as
I was at the sight of these dreary
conventional breeze blocks.
Understandably, when
you're building your
own home, the house
becomes all-important,
and the area it stands
in completely forgotten.
But for Marjorie and Dennis, the
land that surrounds their new home is of
great importance to them.
They plan to turn the area
into a wildflower Meadow,
and Dennis has already dug out what
he hopes will become a lake to attract
local wildlife.
But they need some advice, so
they've called in Catherine Hearne,
the wildlife consultant for the National
Trust, to advise them how best to
achieve this.
The lake turns out to be not
as eco-friendly as they'd hoped.
So now we're standing on a not very
fertile edge of a hole, which Dennis
insists on calling his lake.
It's just a hole really, isn't it?
With a bump in the middle.
It's got an island in the middle.
What is the ecological assessment of this?
Well, my first reaction, it was that it
would have been marvellous if you
could put it near the house.
We really want them
fed by rainwater, or
fed by water from the
gutters and downpipes.
So there's nowhere for it to come.
We don't really want to use our very
scarce and precious water from mains to
fill it up.
There may be no
water in Dennis's chalk
pond, or lake, as
he prefers to call it,
but there's plenty in the house, as
contractors use a water and sand mix
to blast the oak clear of all the dirt
and tannin stains it has accumulated.
Oak contains a massive amount of
tannin, which leaches out of the wood as
great brown and black marks
when exposed to the weather.
Blasting removes them and also
brings up the grain of the timber.
Glazing is now getting underway in the
house, and a creative compromise has
been reached by Rod and the Randolfs.
They've agreed to partially board
over the apex of the roof, but to retain
the symmetry of the building
by having glass on both sides.
The glass has arrived a few
days late, but it's worth the wait.
The type of glass
they're using, Pilkington
K, is flexible enough
for an oak frame
and is coated with a reflective
film to keep the heat in.
This is passive solar heating.
A great advantage of building your
own house is that it allows you to weigh
up the pros and the cons of different
technologies, things like heating.
One of the most exciting and the
most efficient ways of heating a house is
with underfloor heating.
Now, Dennis is using the system which
is pipes laid into polystyrene blocks,
but he's using it in a very revolutionary
way because he's trying to attach
it all to a heat exchanger,
which is using the heat from the earth
outside the house and bringing it in.
The only trouble is he's having to
Bury 900 metres of pipe just below the
surface of the earth outside.
But Dennis needs to finalise details
and be reassured that the system he's
chosen will work.
On this heating thing, I'm feeling
rather lonely in the sense that I've
taken the decision so far that
we're going to have underfloor.
Well, the first thing is that the heat
pump is the right piece of equipment
to deliver the sort of temperatures of
the water that the underfloor heating
system is going to need.
The heat pump itself is a little fridge
machine. It cools the ground down
and moves useful heat from
the ground into the house.
The one thing you do have to be
sure is, though, that that ground collector
is not too near the surface.
The interesting thing is that at long
last people are starting to recognise
that this is solar energy.
It is a solar energy technology.
It's not geothermal. Most of the
energy comes from the sun and it's stored
in the earth.
Very little of it comes
up from deep ground.
Dennis and Marjorie have decided to
do some work on site and start mowing to
help establish a wildflower Meadow.
People have said you have to have
lots of projects in hand when you move to
this place and what on
earth are you going to do?
It's a bit of a difficulty in deciding
which we shall do first because there's
so much to do and unless one's
going to be a real grasshopper, I think we
've got to be really
pretty well disciplined.
It's now September and after five
months the schedule's beginning to slip a
bit and they've only just started
digging trenches for the heating pipes.
But there's always time to
stand back and enjoy the scenery.
Look at that view. Beautiful. I shall
almost certainly spend a lot of time
looking out of this window at that
beautiful view and trying to identify.
where the different places are.
Of course we shall eat in here,
we shall have our table in here and
definitely we're looking
out, logging it out.
And inside the bedroom walls are
being constructed. They'll partition off
two en suite bathrooms,
one with Jacuzzi for
Marjorie, the other
with a sauna for Dennis.
With so much going on, I think it's
about time to pay Dennis a visit. How
are you? How is it going?
It's a wonderful building.
It's all rendered
and up and plastered
and it looks fantastic.
It really does.
Slightly late. By how much?
Well, months. And what's that due to?
Well, I think I'm part
of the problem. We
took a long time to
finalise on the heating.
So we've had a bit of a delay in
getting the underfloor tubing in.
You can't get anything else done
until you've done that. One thing is
dependent on another.
Well, certainly. And
what are they doing
here? What's this huge
motorway construction?
I have to confess that that again is
something that went slightly wrong.
Well, we're going to have a terrace
here and the house is a little bit
higher than we thought it was going to be.
And therefore it makes the wall of
the terrace at the end here very, very
high. It's about six foot high.
Now that means that you've got to have
a heavy foundation and we've even got
wire in the brickwork and concrete
work and so on to support it.
But yeah, it's a
pity that because it's
taking longer and
it's going to cost more.
It's a big old area, isn't it?
Well, yes. Now we insisted on that
because our formal part of the garden is
going to be the terrace.
We're going to have lots of plants
and pots and so on. The rest of it down
here is going to be mostly wildflowers.
How's the pond going? Because from
here, I can tell you, it doesn't seem to
have changed much.
No, we haven't done anything. That's
my first job when we get in here. The
only thing is how do we fill it?
I mean, if you leave it for rain, it's
going to take about two years. I've
been told you can get the fire brigade in.
Certainly, you can practice hosing
things and see and so on. I don't know
where they get the water from.
I get a bit bored of hosing this pond
for a while. I'm going to leave you to
mull about this one.
Okay.
It's late October and the build is
now running a whole two months late,
mainly due to the extra work
involved in constructing the terrace.
And this is no ordinary terrace.
It's a bunker which the Randalls have built
without consulting their
architect, Rod James.
It may have a fish pond in it, but if
you ask me, it's put a serious dent in
the charm and modesty that the house had.
But it's not my house,
so what can I do
apart from offer my
services as a painter?
The unique thing about this paint
is its colour, because it's pigmented
using iron oxide pigments,
proper mineral pigments.
They're the kind of things that have
been used in paints for centuries and
they're made from clays,
which are the same things which colour
the earth and the rocks around us and
colour brick as well.
And so by applying this colour to
the outside of this building, what we're
doing is, if you like,
rooting it in the landscape.
We're making it part of the local
colour vocabulary as a way of making a.
modern building fit into the landscape.
It's a much quicker and cheaper
way than it is, say, by using expensive.
traditional local materials, just
by applying coatings, colour.
Well, that technique may work on
the house, but paint won't disguise the
terrace.
Rod James was a little melancholy about it.
So, Rod, how long has it
since you've seen this place?
I was here last week.
Yeah? And was this up?
It was just almost up.
Right.
And, er... The lower you
get... It's quite a big wall, isn't it?
Very, very big.
I think it'll be a lot better once the...
I mean, the planting will be
coming right up.
And I think once the plantings...
And the banking's going to come
up, then they'll be planting on the edge,
which will soften it.
That isn't going to look
too much like a reservoir.
I don't think so.
I think once it's fully done, it'll be OK.
I think it's one of the problems always
on a sloping site, where you've got.
the ground falling away and people
want to be able to stand outside their
house on a level.
Yeah.
I think it'll be fine.
Once the earth's banked up and
we've got some planting round the top, I
think it'll soften very well.
There is that wonderful remark by
someone that the difference between a
doctor and an architect is that a
doctor can always Bury his mistakes.
An architect can merely plant vines.
Which, in the context of Dennis's
wine-graying, is probably quite good.
Anyway, I'll just let you
get on with your painting.
Yeah, yeah.
So, well, what do you really think of it?
This wall?
I think it will soften down fine,
but it is an area which I'm slightly
apprehensive about.
You mean you're not
sure it's going to work?
Maybe we'll put some broad steps down.
The terrace is a fait accompli, but
Dennis and Marjorie have invited me for
lunch to talk about a new idea they've had.
It's inspired by their favourite
restaurant, but I don't see what's Chinese
about their house.
Now, is this your favourite table?
Do you come here a lot?
Yes, we come quite often, Bertry.
Yes, it is the
favourite table because
it gave us a brilliant
idea, which is.
that aquarium.
For the house, you mean?
Yeah, for your house.
Exactly.
We're going to put
one in between the bar
and the atrium in the
middle of the house.
You built it into the wall then?
Yeah.
It'll be part of the wall.
It will be the wall.
It will be.
Well, quite.
Well, I think the use of fish is really
fascinating because when I think
about what they look like, what
they do, out of the corner of your eye
almost, they're rather like
a form of flickering light.
They're rather like a fire or a television.
Shall we go over after we've been here?
We must do, darling, because we've got to.
I want to see this
paint on the outside.
I'll go and inspect
what you've been doing.
Well, it's pink.
Eww.
Actually, it doesn't like pink. It's brown.
I don't understand. She suggested
the colour. She also chose white as the
colour for the interior and it
all looks remarkably beautiful.
Marjorie's library and the attic
bedroom are finished and it's finally
coming together.
Even the Jacuzzi for
her bathroom's arrived.
While the house is being finished,
Marjorie is hard at work creating a
mosaic. This will eventually
take pride of place on the terrace.
The design is based on the Randolph's
coat of arms, which was created for
Denis when he was
chairman of Wilkinson's sword.
The notorious terrace has now been
banked up with earth, which will form a
slope down to the wildflower Meadow.
The inside is filled
with rubble from the site.
One week later and the house still
isn't finished, but Denis and Marjorie
can't wait any longer.
They're moving in today, even if it
means moving in with the diggers.
They might be a bit
more just settled later.
Yeah, we don't want to
take that to the view house.
How are you enjoying it?
Not particularly.
Denis has gone ahead because he
wants to get the house as ready as possible
before Marjorie arrives later in the day.
But work is still going on around him.
It's been a long journey to get this
far and Denis and Marjorie are going to
But their dream home is
emerging from its cocoon.
The land cost around £250,000.
The house was £170,000
and architects fees £12,000.
So that's a grand total of £432,000.
The house has recently been valued
at between £500,000 and £600,000.
So financially it's a success.
Denis and Marjorie have been living
here for two months now and the builders
have only just left.
Now this is the second house that
they've built so I've been wondering has
it been any easier this time?
And more importantly have they
got the house that they wanted?
Oh hello.
Hello Kevin.
Hello how are you Denis?
Nice to see you.
Nice to see you.
Come on in and see the house.
Yeah I can't wait to see it.
It's beautiful.
Oh I love this garage.
It's not a garage, it's a carport.
Why are you taking me in
the tradesman's entrance?
Well this is the best
way in, it's easier
this way and you can
see the lovely beams.
Come into my study.
Oh goodness me.
Look at this.
Oh this is very exciting isn't it?
Hasn't it gone well?
This has worked extremely well.
I mean look at that
beautiful view out there.
You have the best view here
do you think from this room?
Well that was well planned you see.
I'm not stupid.
Oh no I'm a fan.
I remember you deciding to
put this in, this is the cutlet hole.
That's the hatch into the bar.
Yes that's where the booze goes.
Through there?
Yeah.
Come through.
Yes come on I can't wait to
see the atrium, living space.
That's the atrium yes.
Look at that.
Isn't it beautiful?
Oh yes.
Now we've got all the
furniture and everything.
Doesn't it look lovely?
It looks very very different
to when I saw it last.
Now we're absolutely thrilled by it.
Very clean, very very sharp isn't it?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Marjorie.
Hello.
How are you?
I'm well how are you?
Very very well.
Nice to see you.
And this is quite extraordinary
because you walk through and there's a
sudden change of
height isn't there?
It's quite, it's quite marvellous.
You must be very excited.
Oh we do.
We think it's smushy.
Come and see my beautiful terrace.
Let's see that.
Oh goodness you've built a pergola.
That's right.
Right.
How marvellous.
See if you can get it.
Carries the line right out isn't it?
Yes.
Here you are.
And this is it.
What do you think about that?
Well, yeah it's extraordinary isn't it?
It's wonderful.
It's great.
It's really good.
I love it.
When I saw this last I
had severe misgivings
about this because I
felt the house looked
great until you built this.
Why?
Because it looked like cold it.
You had this enormous
bunker running around.
Oh that was before it was all.
That was a gun emplacement.
Exactly.
And Rod wanted you to have steps didn't he?
He did.
He did.
And you did not succumb to that suggestion?
No.
Was that altercation you had with
Rod, was that difference of opinion, was
that as worse as it got?
It wasn't an altercation at all.
It was a difference
of opinion but now
we've had differences
of opinion before.
Oh yes, one always does.
Well yes, especially with architects.
Yes, especially with architects.
But we always win.
So it's alright isn't it?
Well we're happy if we win.
You've got the checkbook haven't you?
Come on, you've got to come and see
the rest of this gorgeous space because
you've only seen a little
bit haven't you so far?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great red, isn't it?
And a great view,
Marjorie, you've really
drawn the short straw
here haven't you?
Ah but I can see everybody
who comes into the house.
I love these cupboards,
these are terrific aren't they?
Yes.
Just like a great wall of
wood, there's no handles.
No, no, just finger
holes and no knob stick.
Marjorie doesn't like knobs.
No.
And that's clever,
that dresser because it
follows the line of
the wall, isn't it, where
the building changes direction?
That's right, it's just where
everything sits but no one else for it.
Excellent.
Well now you've got to
come and see the bedroom.
Well you come and see the bedroom.
Oh great, what a
colour, isn't it wonderful?
Yes, well it's the same
as the kitchen of course.
Yeah, it looks so good
against the edge doesn't it?
Yes it does, it does indeed.
Absolutely marvellous.
What do you think about the curtains?
A strong, interesting pattern.
But the great thing is that, you
know, with doors they take up space.
Oh these are what, cupboards?
Yeah.
Oh right.
And there's curtains over the cupboards.
I've got to go and see, what's it called?
The Lou with a view.
The Lou with a view.
Marjorie, I can see the pigs.
The Lou with a view.
The Lou with a view.
And a one man sauna.
I was left to explore upstairs on my own.
This building works really well.
I love the space and the light
and even the acoustic of it.
And up here on the bridge, which of
itself is a very ingenious way of using
all this height,
with all this glass you really feel as
though you're reaching for the sky.
You can also appreciate from
up here all this magnificent oak.
It's got little pegs and wedges which
show you how it was built and how it's
held together.
And it also has these shakes or cracks
which appear slowly as the wood dries
out and becomes even harder.
These are the timeless
qualities of oak buildings.
And with the passage of
time, they can only get better.
This is what it's all about, a
building with a heart of oak.
As I walked across the bridge, I was
reminded of the classic oak barns that
I'd visited before.
Now this library's a great little room.
It's tucked away in the corner of
the building and it's furnished with all
these fab '60s things.
It's got great style.
How was upstairs?
Oh, love it. The library is fantastic.
It is, especially.
Super.
Come and see my fish tank.
Oh, look. Look at these boys.
Yeah.
Aren't they great?
Yes.
The fish tank divides
the atrium from the
bar. The shadows it
casts are delightful.
So now you're finally in, yeah?
Finally.
Are you happy?
Oh, yes.
Thrilled.
Yeah, very happy indeed.
Yes, it's come up to expectations.
Really?
Truly.
Have you learnt anything from doing
this project that has been a surprise?
I've learnt that we're
never going to do it again.
You're not going to
do it again because
you don't want to or
because you're happy?
No, because we've had enough.
Not because we
haven't enjoyed doing
it, because I think
we have on the whole.
But it is a bit
stressful anyway. We
haven't got that much
time left, I suppose.
So we want to enjoy this.
Is this method of building which
has cracks and gaps and is… Shakes.
They're not cracks, they're shakes.
Shakes and cracks.
They're not.
I mean, is it something that is
more difficult to live with it because of
the fact that you have a plague
of flies, haven't you, for example,
and you get problems with the
water hitting the wood. It makes tannin
stains, for example, that has to be
cleaned off and sandblasted back.
I mean, Kevin, all you had to do is
look up there and you don't think about.
the flies or the stains.
It's so beautiful, don't you think?
Well, yes.
Erin, we sit here in the evening after
dinner and we just sort of… my God,
we're lucky.
This is absolutely gorgeous.
So are you.
Yes, there are the
flies, but all you have to
do is to sweep up the
carcasses in the morning.
I mean, it gets a bit gritty underfoot,
so one has to wear shoes or slippers
or something.
And we think it's…
We suck them up.
I mean, that's the decoration, for example.
You haven't filled it with brand
new furniture, have you?
We have some, yes.
Some. This table, for example.
Yes, this table and the
side… But not these chairs.
Oh, no, not these.
You've got these very nice… I mean,
I like them. They're very groovy '60s
plastic.
They're fibreglass chairs, swivel chairs.
Great. With a new glass-topped steel table.
You didn't feel that perhaps it might
have looked better to have chairs that
work with the table.
No, because the… well, there are
chairs which have been designed to go
with this furniture.
We don't like them.
The most uncomfortable chairs I've
ever sat in. And these are beautiful.
I'm not one to force steel chairs on you.
I mean, we're not in the business of
making it all look beautiful. We're in
the business of comfort.
Oh, hang on.
You can accommodate both, surely.
All right. But anyway, we like these
chairs. We're going to keep them.
Fine. That's good. It's your house.
Thank you.
Thank you.
But one thing I do want to ask you,
though, Marjorie, is that you've got
this collection of
paintings which you
adore, and you
wanted, in making this.
home, to provide a space for them.
Yes, that was difficult.
Yeah. Now, that's what I was going
to ask you, because you've got these
walls. I mean, you haven't got a
blank wall in the house, have you, really?
Because there's bits of wood and
beams and, you know, braces going across
each one, and some of them are hung across.
That one is across the banisters
for the stairwell.
We almost had a divorce over this.
I wanted to move it
away from the banisters.
Matters of taste are very personal.
For what it's worth, I've always felt.
that the terrace outside was just
too big and too high for this house.
Dennis and Marjorie, of course, disagree
with me, but what the heck. Rod has
given them an exciting building
which sits really rather well in the
landscape and which, in many
ways, is environmentally friendly.
And this is the real point. They love it.
So I can only salute them for doing
what they've done at their time of life.
It only goes to
show that it's never
too late to build your
own grand design.
Next week, we're in Brighton with a
co-operative of young families who are
rolling up their sleeves and building
their own and each other's homes.
Oxfordshire are the cathedrals of
medieval agriculture.
This is a vast building.
What it represents on the grandest
scale is that wonderful sense of space
and height that you get
in ancient English barns.
When they were built, barns like
this were used for threshing and storing
grain, things like that.
Nowadays, their open, flexible spaces
combined with the appeal of all that
wood make them places
where people want to live.
Which is why in this week's programme
we'll be following a couple who are
trying to bring the idea of living in a
wooden barn into the 21st century.
Dennis and Marjorie Randolph have
already built one very comfortable house
for themselves after Dennis retired
as chairman of Wilkinson's Sword.
But even though
they're both in their 70s,
they've decided to
do it all over again.
Moving is something of a hobby for them.
They started off in a 1930s
semi-detached in a village called Datchet.
They then moved onwards and
upwards into a three-storey Victorian house
which they modernised and refurbished.
This was followed by an even larger
home, a Queen Anne Manor house where
they stayed for 20 years.
They redecorated and built
an indoor swimming pool.
As their children left home, the house
became too big for them, so they had
their current home, Clapcot House,
specially built to meet their changing
requirements.
After ten years at Clapcot, the
Randolfs are moving again and this time
they've been seduced by the idea
of living in an oak-framed building.
What made you choose a barn as
opposed to any other type of building?
Well, we saw a programme on television,
at least Dennis saw it, and we were
so intrigued with the idea that we
got in touch with the makers and took it
from there.
I was so impressed that I talked to
Marjorie and between us we decided to
contact the people and got the brochures
and saw what I'd seen, if you like,
on television,
which was these lovely
old structures, all wood,
pegged, no screws, no
nails, nothing like that.
The main reason that people are
attracted to barns as possible homes is the
sense of scale, the space, which
of course have evolved as part of the
agricultural use of the building.
So why build a barn-style
home from scratch?
Why not just convert
an existing barn?
One of the reasons
lies in their popularity.
Demand for old barns is now
outstripping supply because they are
increasingly hard to find and also
because planning permission is very
difficult to get.
Even if you can get planning permission,
converting a barn is a tremendous
challenge. You don't want
to lose its agricultural identity.
But many of the barn conversions I
visited show the conflict between those
great soaring spaces and
the desire for a modern home.
The most successful barn conversions
respect and use the fabric of the
original building, and that
usually means open plan.
Now the trouble with open plan is
that it's often not practical or desirable.
Barns are vast spaces and we all
need some privacy, a bathroom, bedroom.
Now here the builder has put in three
floors. Effectively what he's done is
just put a conventional house
within the framework of a barn.
Although you can still see pieces
of the original building, it's lost that.
great sense of space, that great
sense of soaring height that it has.
Instead it's like a cottage, it's very
cosy, but the very thing which gave
the barn its integrity and
its beauty has been lost.
Of course these buildings were never
designed to be lived in, certainly not
as we do today, and there are bound
to be some nasty confrontations between
the past and the present.
Some of the rustic charm might just
wear off after you've banged your head
on the bathroom beam
for the umpteenth time.
The alternative, as in the case of
Dennis and Marjorie, is to build your own
home, one that has all the craftsmanship
and the qualities of a barn, but
one which is designed the way you want it.
This seems rather a sensible idea
and quite feasible, but of course you need
a site. Dennis and
Marjorie found one just
outside the village
of Goring in Berkshire.
The land covers four acres and
has fabulous views to the south.
They saw an advert for a bungalow
in a local paper. They didn't want the.
building, but they did want the land,
so they decided that to secure the
plot they would buy the site
and demolish the bungalow.
This gave them land which already
had planning permission. This is an
expensive route because you're
paying for a building you don't want.
But it means that the Randolphs were
able to put their dream home exactly
where they wanted it.
And this is the vision they hope to
realise. A modern house of oak and glass
that snakes across the side of the hill.
A vast glass atrium lies at the heart
of the home. On one side of this is
the master bedroom, on the other
the study and garage, so the line of the
house flows naturally
from one end to the other.
Crossing the atrium
above you is an oak
bridge joining the two
wings of the house.
This leads you to a small
attic bedroom at the far end.
The house will be a combination of
contemporary and traditional design.
I really like the shape. I think it's
a really clever zigzag. The idea is.
you drive into the carport, you come
in, check the faxes in the study, what
happens is the bar is here, the
hatches there, pour yourself a drink, go
into the living room, look at the view.
And after a few
more drinks you just
make your way to the
bedroom and lie down.
It's May and foundations are now in place.
But the house won't be finished
for another six months and
they want to be in by October.
The site cost them £250,000 and
the build is costed at another £170,000
which should be covered by
the sale of their existing home.
That's my office there.
And delightful it is too.
Well the thing is I think buildings
do until they go up. The ground plan
without the structure
on it always seems
on the site to look
as though it's shrunk.
We found that with the place we are now.
Yeah, always I think.
And that's the bar.
The whole room?
No, no, no, no.
It's a cloakroom at the far end.
We always design the bar first.
The bar and your study?
The hatches they've taken particularly.
And that has the best view of the place.
It is a fantastic view of course but
there is in the foreground, we can't
ignore it, the pig farm.
Yes, yes, they arrived about two
weeks after we bought the fizzled lamb.
Oh no.
Well if you're in the country you
know you've got pigs on there.
And they don't stay.
They are free range and as you
said they'll move on to mud new.
Absolutely.
I came to visit the architect of their
dream, Roderick James, who lives and.
works in Devon in one of his own houses.
He started out converting and
repairing old barns but 20 years ago he
started to design new oak framed buildings.
What are the
defining qualities of an
oak framed building
that make it special?
I think it's partly to
do with the symmetry.
The fact that as your eye follows
round the roof it goes right the way round
and down again.
And it's actually got space to travel
and to keep travelling and similarly
going the length of the building.
There's lots for it to sort of leading
it easily round whereas if you have a
sort of wedge shaped
ceiling or roof like that,
your eyes tend to sort of follow
up and get stuck in it. It's just sort of
unsatisfactory.
And I think it is just one of the
qualities of the pitched roof being open
to the main room that is very successful.
I mean oak obviously has that whole
English tradition, the hearts of oak and
English oak and ships
were made of oak and so on.
So I think it has a historical basis
and there's something about, I don't
know, just the sort of British
consciousness about oak which is important.
I think it has a warmth, it has a
wonderful texture, it has a spectacular
grain and oak is a very durable wood.
It doesn't need toxic preservative
treatment. It can just be used as it is.
As well as the architectural practice,
Rod James also has a construction
company, Carpenter Oak,
who will build the oak frame.
Once clients like the Randalls
have been bitten by the timber
bug and they've looked at some
of Carpenter Oak's buildings,
they probably come here and meet
with Rod and start to discuss and rough out
some of the ideas that they have in mind.
Of course the building is going to
dictate its own aesthetic but the layout
and the planning
is really down to the
relationship between
architect and client.
It's in this room that the building
starts to take shape and that the dream
becomes reality.
And oak framed buildings
are the stuff of dreams.
All our nostalgic hankerings that Rod
spoke of are bound up in the colour,
texture and strength of oak.
Qualities that are
brought together by nature.
The trees that are used to build the
Randalls house come from managed
English woodland planted
for industry in the late 1880s.
These oaks are about 100 years
old and the intention for all of the oak
planting that happened in the 19th
century was that the material was going
to be used in industries
which are now redundant.
Things like ship building or coffin
making, carriage making, carts, barrels,
all these kind of things, pit props even.
Now these oaks
have another purpose.
They're going to be
used to make houses.
Native timber is about the most
environmentally friendly material you can
build your house from because it's
sustainable and needs a minimum of
transport and processing.
For most of this century we've
done little to continue the historic
tradition of planting and
managing our woodlands.
But carpenter oak and companies
like them are changing that with selective
felling and extensive
replanting creating
new oak woods for
future generations.
At least 40 oaks will be needed for
Dennis and Marjorie's house for which
another 80 will be planted.
From Rod's technical drawings and
sketches the carpenters draw up detailed
elevations on which all the cut
lengths of timber are marked up.
The oak is ordered
and delivered straight
from the tree, hence
the term 'green oak'.
Because it's fresh it's incredibly easy
for the carpenters in Chippenham to
cut it. So easy I had to have a go.
So having ordered
it up, then chisel it
out to a joint. How
do you do the corners?
Well I have a special chisel
that's called a corner chisel.
Cheat. So easy even I could do it.
Am I at risk of spitting this whole beat?
No, not at all.
I just hold it dead.
Using traditional tools isn't
always as easy as it looks.
I still watch the chisel in.
He's well in.
I should have said this way.
Yeah, you should have said that.
Is he humiliating me in
front of all the viewers?
No, no.
This 150 year old tool
has just been broken.
It takes about two months to make a
frame like the Randolphs, but each wall
is made flat on the trestles.
and nothing doesn't get a full 3D
assembly till it gets on site, so no one
knows if it's going to work.
On the day it goes up, all those
joints, wedges and pegs should lock
together like a structural Jigsaw puzzle.
But until then, it's all
just a big pile of wood.
It's a fabulous morning in June and
the frame has finally arrived on site.
The carpenter craftsmen, who were
employed just for this part of the build,
are all set to put it
up and all touching
wood that it'll go
together smoothly.
Each piece of wood
is labelled, ready
for its unique place
in the grand scheme.
The construction method hasn't
changed for hundreds of years.
Mortise and tenon joints are
pinned together by oak pegs.
As the pegs go
in, they tighten the
joint, creating a
taut, strong structure.
A frame this size may take two
months to make in the yard, but it can be
assembled in just a few days on site.
The method of using posts and tie
beams is exactly that used by these boys'
forebears 600 years ago.
Rods carpenters have
learnt an enormous
amount from repairing
historic oak structures
and seeing how their ancestors
got it right, and sometimes wrong.
A frame like this will shrink and
tighten as it dries, giving it the
strength of tensioned steel.
Despite this inherent strength of
oak, people are still reluctant to build
their houses out of timber.
One of the reasons
is fire. As oak burns,
it forms a layer of
char over the surface,
which actually impedes
the progress of the fire.
This means that oak's resistance
to fire easily meets today's strict
building regulations.
The other concern is how
long will an oak building last.
Now, the cracks, the shakes that form
on an oak beam, are only superficial.
They don't penetrate to the hardwood.
And if that isn't enough, well, then
just think of all those magnificent
houses and cottages
that are oak-framed that stand in the
English countryside and in towns that
are there after centuries.
The most elaborate part of the
Randolph's design is the central atrium.
This is also the
trickiest part of the build.
It really is. This is
the important bit.
I hope they know
what they're doing.
This frame of tie beams will
carry a bridge across the atrium.
It's very heavy and unwieldy and
has to be lowered in its entirety to joint
into the posts below.
Even complex braced structures like
these need no steel, no screws or nails,
simply some fresh-cut
oak and the skills
and commitment of
the men that work it.
In the very beginning,
we're heavily
involved in what the
timber is going to do,
what's it going to be
like in its final stage.
And that gives us a kind of spiritual
attachment to it because we're so
involved right to the end.
We've made it in the yard, put a lot
into it, and then we go onto site and
we put it up and it all fits together,
hopefully. Click, click, click.
And that gives you a great sense of
satisfaction because in the yard it's
actually quite abstract.
And of course the oak is a wonderful stuff.
Green oak is a wonderful stuff
to work.
It's like cheese. It's so easy to work.
Although Rod James is the primary
architect, he lives quite some distance
from the site
and has very sensibly contracted a
local architect for day-to-day management
of the build.
Dennis and Marjorie are demanding clients.
They well know from experience that
you have to make decisions while the
building process is going on.
So once those beams
are in, then this is complete.
That's right.
The quicker the better
now, we want to get in.
Contrary to what you might think,
buildings can never be planned in every
minute detail.
Countless day-to-day
decisions need to be made.
That's from the back end of there.
Well, we'll redo it on that large scale.
And now it's all starting to come together.
You can see down into this.
Oh yes, yes.
There obviously is a
balustrade across
there for safety reasons.
But there's no wall there.
No, there's a beam, isn't there?
That's the truss.
That's the stuff we're seeing there.
Well, the wall...
When you're in a lab, you'll be
seeing over the top of that tie beam.
The wall will come up
rectangular, won't it?
Underneath the sphere.
Underneath, big course.
There is a space for the picture.
You've always got to think about
either the pictures or the plants.
That's right, the pictures or the plants.
Well, you've got a house, but
it's these things that make a home.
Straight down there.
I'm feeling very excited, aren't you?
Well, it's really come up to
expectations, or even beyond, I would say.
I think it's absolutely superb.
I'm delighted.
And of course, they're putting
the tool shed up over there.
That, of course, is the most
important part of the entire structure.
I know, darling, your
tool shed is really it.
Well, it has to be, doesn't it?
Well, what would I do without my tool shed?
Well, Ankhay, you
would say it would
be your refuge away
from me, wouldn't it?
Well, you said it just over... Yes.
I mean, I can whistle from there,
and you can bring the coffee over.
It seems all wrong to call it a tool shed.
It's much more than that, isn't it?
Especially as you get the
tractor in and everything.
Well, that's right.
I think you should just call it the barn.
The barn?
Yeah, that's what it is.
All right, yes.
It's a bit big for a shed, isn't it?
And you reckon I can
drill into that all right?
Yeah, no problem at all.
Looks a bit hard to me.
Well, it's soft at the moment.
It'll get harder as it gets drier.
Until in maybe 50 or 100 years,
it'll be too hard to bang a nail
in unless you drill a hole first.
Don't think I should be here then.
No, it won't be a problem for
you, but maybe for your ancestors.
Well, yes, not the next
lot, but a lot after that.
At the end of the construction of
the frame is the topping out ceremony.
A sprig of oak is
fixed to the top of
the frame as an
offering to the oak tree
to thank it for the use of its timber.
Building a new home is
an awesome undertaking,
and Dennis Randolph is just the
sort of person to rise to the challenge.
When he built his last home, he also
planted a vineyard as his retirement
project.
So, will you miss the vines?
Yes. It's been an interesting
ten years we've had with them.
Mind you, it's only
five miles away and
daughter and son-in-law
are taking over.
You can always come
back and stroll along them.
So are you a man that...
Do you enjoy a good project?
Do you feel that this is
accomplished, therefore...
Got to get on and do something else.
Make another thing.
Yes, I'm afraid I do tend to move from
one thing to another, especially now.
A week after the
frame has been erected,
Rod James has
come to visit the site.
He's not too happy about the changes
that Dennis and Marjorie want to make
to the atrium.
Instead of glazing
the whole of its roof,
they want to put
tiles on one side of it.
Put simply, they're worried it'll
feel too much like a greenhouse.
And as you know, the original idea
was that we had the whole thing glazed,
but I think now you've seen
the frame up two options.
The one we can just decide
to roof that side completely,
or we can mock it up with building
paper or something, so you can actually
get a feel for it.
So on the atrium
area, you were thinking
of having glass
just on the one side,
and tile slated now on the other side.
That's right.
I think I would consider roofing
the Ridge and glazing the lower,
because I think one of the things
about no frame is that one of the reasons
that people find it easy to just
relate is because of its symmetry,
because the fact your eye wanders up
and down and goes round and round in
that sort of space.
As soon as you start making it asymmetrical
and having just one flat ceiling
and then one glazed ceiling,
you begin to detract from that flow.
One needs to think about it very
carefully, because it's easy to make the
wrong decision.
You can't just have a little
window in the middle of it?
No.
She's got too many clothes, it seems.
Very flexible, eh?
Big advantage of flexible plans.
She's got all this space.
After much discussion, they're
still undecided what to do.
With the outcraftsmen gone,
the conventional builders move in.
Their job is to turn the
frame into a walled building,
and if you thought
the gaps were to be
filled in with Hazel
wattle and mud daub,
then you'll be as disappointed as
I was at the sight of these dreary
conventional breeze blocks.
Understandably, when
you're building your
own home, the house
becomes all-important,
and the area it stands
in completely forgotten.
But for Marjorie and Dennis, the
land that surrounds their new home is of
great importance to them.
They plan to turn the area
into a wildflower Meadow,
and Dennis has already dug out what
he hopes will become a lake to attract
local wildlife.
But they need some advice, so
they've called in Catherine Hearne,
the wildlife consultant for the National
Trust, to advise them how best to
achieve this.
The lake turns out to be not
as eco-friendly as they'd hoped.
So now we're standing on a not very
fertile edge of a hole, which Dennis
insists on calling his lake.
It's just a hole really, isn't it?
With a bump in the middle.
It's got an island in the middle.
What is the ecological assessment of this?
Well, my first reaction, it was that it
would have been marvellous if you
could put it near the house.
We really want them
fed by rainwater, or
fed by water from the
gutters and downpipes.
So there's nowhere for it to come.
We don't really want to use our very
scarce and precious water from mains to
fill it up.
There may be no
water in Dennis's chalk
pond, or lake, as
he prefers to call it,
but there's plenty in the house, as
contractors use a water and sand mix
to blast the oak clear of all the dirt
and tannin stains it has accumulated.
Oak contains a massive amount of
tannin, which leaches out of the wood as
great brown and black marks
when exposed to the weather.
Blasting removes them and also
brings up the grain of the timber.
Glazing is now getting underway in the
house, and a creative compromise has
been reached by Rod and the Randolfs.
They've agreed to partially board
over the apex of the roof, but to retain
the symmetry of the building
by having glass on both sides.
The glass has arrived a few
days late, but it's worth the wait.
The type of glass
they're using, Pilkington
K, is flexible enough
for an oak frame
and is coated with a reflective
film to keep the heat in.
This is passive solar heating.
A great advantage of building your
own house is that it allows you to weigh
up the pros and the cons of different
technologies, things like heating.
One of the most exciting and the
most efficient ways of heating a house is
with underfloor heating.
Now, Dennis is using the system which
is pipes laid into polystyrene blocks,
but he's using it in a very revolutionary
way because he's trying to attach
it all to a heat exchanger,
which is using the heat from the earth
outside the house and bringing it in.
The only trouble is he's having to
Bury 900 metres of pipe just below the
surface of the earth outside.
But Dennis needs to finalise details
and be reassured that the system he's
chosen will work.
On this heating thing, I'm feeling
rather lonely in the sense that I've
taken the decision so far that
we're going to have underfloor.
Well, the first thing is that the heat
pump is the right piece of equipment
to deliver the sort of temperatures of
the water that the underfloor heating
system is going to need.
The heat pump itself is a little fridge
machine. It cools the ground down
and moves useful heat from
the ground into the house.
The one thing you do have to be
sure is, though, that that ground collector
is not too near the surface.
The interesting thing is that at long
last people are starting to recognise
that this is solar energy.
It is a solar energy technology.
It's not geothermal. Most of the
energy comes from the sun and it's stored
in the earth.
Very little of it comes
up from deep ground.
Dennis and Marjorie have decided to
do some work on site and start mowing to
help establish a wildflower Meadow.
People have said you have to have
lots of projects in hand when you move to
this place and what on
earth are you going to do?
It's a bit of a difficulty in deciding
which we shall do first because there's
so much to do and unless one's
going to be a real grasshopper, I think we
've got to be really
pretty well disciplined.
It's now September and after five
months the schedule's beginning to slip a
bit and they've only just started
digging trenches for the heating pipes.
But there's always time to
stand back and enjoy the scenery.
Look at that view. Beautiful. I shall
almost certainly spend a lot of time
looking out of this window at that
beautiful view and trying to identify.
where the different places are.
Of course we shall eat in here,
we shall have our table in here and
definitely we're looking
out, logging it out.
And inside the bedroom walls are
being constructed. They'll partition off
two en suite bathrooms,
one with Jacuzzi for
Marjorie, the other
with a sauna for Dennis.
With so much going on, I think it's
about time to pay Dennis a visit. How
are you? How is it going?
It's a wonderful building.
It's all rendered
and up and plastered
and it looks fantastic.
It really does.
Slightly late. By how much?
Well, months. And what's that due to?
Well, I think I'm part
of the problem. We
took a long time to
finalise on the heating.
So we've had a bit of a delay in
getting the underfloor tubing in.
You can't get anything else done
until you've done that. One thing is
dependent on another.
Well, certainly. And
what are they doing
here? What's this huge
motorway construction?
I have to confess that that again is
something that went slightly wrong.
Well, we're going to have a terrace
here and the house is a little bit
higher than we thought it was going to be.
And therefore it makes the wall of
the terrace at the end here very, very
high. It's about six foot high.
Now that means that you've got to have
a heavy foundation and we've even got
wire in the brickwork and concrete
work and so on to support it.
But yeah, it's a
pity that because it's
taking longer and
it's going to cost more.
It's a big old area, isn't it?
Well, yes. Now we insisted on that
because our formal part of the garden is
going to be the terrace.
We're going to have lots of plants
and pots and so on. The rest of it down
here is going to be mostly wildflowers.
How's the pond going? Because from
here, I can tell you, it doesn't seem to
have changed much.
No, we haven't done anything. That's
my first job when we get in here. The
only thing is how do we fill it?
I mean, if you leave it for rain, it's
going to take about two years. I've
been told you can get the fire brigade in.
Certainly, you can practice hosing
things and see and so on. I don't know
where they get the water from.
I get a bit bored of hosing this pond
for a while. I'm going to leave you to
mull about this one.
Okay.
It's late October and the build is
now running a whole two months late,
mainly due to the extra work
involved in constructing the terrace.
And this is no ordinary terrace.
It's a bunker which the Randalls have built
without consulting their
architect, Rod James.
It may have a fish pond in it, but if
you ask me, it's put a serious dent in
the charm and modesty that the house had.
But it's not my house,
so what can I do
apart from offer my
services as a painter?
The unique thing about this paint
is its colour, because it's pigmented
using iron oxide pigments,
proper mineral pigments.
They're the kind of things that have
been used in paints for centuries and
they're made from clays,
which are the same things which colour
the earth and the rocks around us and
colour brick as well.
And so by applying this colour to
the outside of this building, what we're
doing is, if you like,
rooting it in the landscape.
We're making it part of the local
colour vocabulary as a way of making a.
modern building fit into the landscape.
It's a much quicker and cheaper
way than it is, say, by using expensive.
traditional local materials, just
by applying coatings, colour.
Well, that technique may work on
the house, but paint won't disguise the
terrace.
Rod James was a little melancholy about it.
So, Rod, how long has it
since you've seen this place?
I was here last week.
Yeah? And was this up?
It was just almost up.
Right.
And, er... The lower you
get... It's quite a big wall, isn't it?
Very, very big.
I think it'll be a lot better once the...
I mean, the planting will be
coming right up.
And I think once the plantings...
And the banking's going to come
up, then they'll be planting on the edge,
which will soften it.
That isn't going to look
too much like a reservoir.
I don't think so.
I think once it's fully done, it'll be OK.
I think it's one of the problems always
on a sloping site, where you've got.
the ground falling away and people
want to be able to stand outside their
house on a level.
Yeah.
I think it'll be fine.
Once the earth's banked up and
we've got some planting round the top, I
think it'll soften very well.
There is that wonderful remark by
someone that the difference between a
doctor and an architect is that a
doctor can always Bury his mistakes.
An architect can merely plant vines.
Which, in the context of Dennis's
wine-graying, is probably quite good.
Anyway, I'll just let you
get on with your painting.
Yeah, yeah.
So, well, what do you really think of it?
This wall?
I think it will soften down fine,
but it is an area which I'm slightly
apprehensive about.
You mean you're not
sure it's going to work?
Maybe we'll put some broad steps down.
The terrace is a fait accompli, but
Dennis and Marjorie have invited me for
lunch to talk about a new idea they've had.
It's inspired by their favourite
restaurant, but I don't see what's Chinese
about their house.
Now, is this your favourite table?
Do you come here a lot?
Yes, we come quite often, Bertry.
Yes, it is the
favourite table because
it gave us a brilliant
idea, which is.
that aquarium.
For the house, you mean?
Yeah, for your house.
Exactly.
We're going to put
one in between the bar
and the atrium in the
middle of the house.
You built it into the wall then?
Yeah.
It'll be part of the wall.
It will be the wall.
It will be.
Well, quite.
Well, I think the use of fish is really
fascinating because when I think
about what they look like, what
they do, out of the corner of your eye
almost, they're rather like
a form of flickering light.
They're rather like a fire or a television.
Shall we go over after we've been here?
We must do, darling, because we've got to.
I want to see this
paint on the outside.
I'll go and inspect
what you've been doing.
Well, it's pink.
Eww.
Actually, it doesn't like pink. It's brown.
I don't understand. She suggested
the colour. She also chose white as the
colour for the interior and it
all looks remarkably beautiful.
Marjorie's library and the attic
bedroom are finished and it's finally
coming together.
Even the Jacuzzi for
her bathroom's arrived.
While the house is being finished,
Marjorie is hard at work creating a
mosaic. This will eventually
take pride of place on the terrace.
The design is based on the Randolph's
coat of arms, which was created for
Denis when he was
chairman of Wilkinson's sword.
The notorious terrace has now been
banked up with earth, which will form a
slope down to the wildflower Meadow.
The inside is filled
with rubble from the site.
One week later and the house still
isn't finished, but Denis and Marjorie
can't wait any longer.
They're moving in today, even if it
means moving in with the diggers.
They might be a bit
more just settled later.
Yeah, we don't want to
take that to the view house.
How are you enjoying it?
Not particularly.
Denis has gone ahead because he
wants to get the house as ready as possible
before Marjorie arrives later in the day.
But work is still going on around him.
It's been a long journey to get this
far and Denis and Marjorie are going to
But their dream home is
emerging from its cocoon.
The land cost around £250,000.
The house was £170,000
and architects fees £12,000.
So that's a grand total of £432,000.
The house has recently been valued
at between £500,000 and £600,000.
So financially it's a success.
Denis and Marjorie have been living
here for two months now and the builders
have only just left.
Now this is the second house that
they've built so I've been wondering has
it been any easier this time?
And more importantly have they
got the house that they wanted?
Oh hello.
Hello Kevin.
Hello how are you Denis?
Nice to see you.
Nice to see you.
Come on in and see the house.
Yeah I can't wait to see it.
It's beautiful.
Oh I love this garage.
It's not a garage, it's a carport.
Why are you taking me in
the tradesman's entrance?
Well this is the best
way in, it's easier
this way and you can
see the lovely beams.
Come into my study.
Oh goodness me.
Look at this.
Oh this is very exciting isn't it?
Hasn't it gone well?
This has worked extremely well.
I mean look at that
beautiful view out there.
You have the best view here
do you think from this room?
Well that was well planned you see.
I'm not stupid.
Oh no I'm a fan.
I remember you deciding to
put this in, this is the cutlet hole.
That's the hatch into the bar.
Yes that's where the booze goes.
Through there?
Yeah.
Come through.
Yes come on I can't wait to
see the atrium, living space.
That's the atrium yes.
Look at that.
Isn't it beautiful?
Oh yes.
Now we've got all the
furniture and everything.
Doesn't it look lovely?
It looks very very different
to when I saw it last.
Now we're absolutely thrilled by it.
Very clean, very very sharp isn't it?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Marjorie.
Hello.
How are you?
I'm well how are you?
Very very well.
Nice to see you.
And this is quite extraordinary
because you walk through and there's a
sudden change of
height isn't there?
It's quite, it's quite marvellous.
You must be very excited.
Oh we do.
We think it's smushy.
Come and see my beautiful terrace.
Let's see that.
Oh goodness you've built a pergola.
That's right.
Right.
How marvellous.
See if you can get it.
Carries the line right out isn't it?
Yes.
Here you are.
And this is it.
What do you think about that?
Well, yeah it's extraordinary isn't it?
It's wonderful.
It's great.
It's really good.
I love it.
When I saw this last I
had severe misgivings
about this because I
felt the house looked
great until you built this.
Why?
Because it looked like cold it.
You had this enormous
bunker running around.
Oh that was before it was all.
That was a gun emplacement.
Exactly.
And Rod wanted you to have steps didn't he?
He did.
He did.
And you did not succumb to that suggestion?
No.
Was that altercation you had with
Rod, was that difference of opinion, was
that as worse as it got?
It wasn't an altercation at all.
It was a difference
of opinion but now
we've had differences
of opinion before.
Oh yes, one always does.
Well yes, especially with architects.
Yes, especially with architects.
But we always win.
So it's alright isn't it?
Well we're happy if we win.
You've got the checkbook haven't you?
Come on, you've got to come and see
the rest of this gorgeous space because
you've only seen a little
bit haven't you so far?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great red, isn't it?
And a great view,
Marjorie, you've really
drawn the short straw
here haven't you?
Ah but I can see everybody
who comes into the house.
I love these cupboards,
these are terrific aren't they?
Yes.
Just like a great wall of
wood, there's no handles.
No, no, just finger
holes and no knob stick.
Marjorie doesn't like knobs.
No.
And that's clever,
that dresser because it
follows the line of
the wall, isn't it, where
the building changes direction?
That's right, it's just where
everything sits but no one else for it.
Excellent.
Well now you've got to
come and see the bedroom.
Well you come and see the bedroom.
Oh great, what a
colour, isn't it wonderful?
Yes, well it's the same
as the kitchen of course.
Yeah, it looks so good
against the edge doesn't it?
Yes it does, it does indeed.
Absolutely marvellous.
What do you think about the curtains?
A strong, interesting pattern.
But the great thing is that, you
know, with doors they take up space.
Oh these are what, cupboards?
Yeah.
Oh right.
And there's curtains over the cupboards.
I've got to go and see, what's it called?
The Lou with a view.
The Lou with a view.
Marjorie, I can see the pigs.
The Lou with a view.
The Lou with a view.
And a one man sauna.
I was left to explore upstairs on my own.
This building works really well.
I love the space and the light
and even the acoustic of it.
And up here on the bridge, which of
itself is a very ingenious way of using
all this height,
with all this glass you really feel as
though you're reaching for the sky.
You can also appreciate from
up here all this magnificent oak.
It's got little pegs and wedges which
show you how it was built and how it's
held together.
And it also has these shakes or cracks
which appear slowly as the wood dries
out and becomes even harder.
These are the timeless
qualities of oak buildings.
And with the passage of
time, they can only get better.
This is what it's all about, a
building with a heart of oak.
As I walked across the bridge, I was
reminded of the classic oak barns that
I'd visited before.
Now this library's a great little room.
It's tucked away in the corner of
the building and it's furnished with all
these fab '60s things.
It's got great style.
How was upstairs?
Oh, love it. The library is fantastic.
It is, especially.
Super.
Come and see my fish tank.
Oh, look. Look at these boys.
Yeah.
Aren't they great?
Yes.
The fish tank divides
the atrium from the
bar. The shadows it
casts are delightful.
So now you're finally in, yeah?
Finally.
Are you happy?
Oh, yes.
Thrilled.
Yeah, very happy indeed.
Yes, it's come up to expectations.
Really?
Truly.
Have you learnt anything from doing
this project that has been a surprise?
I've learnt that we're
never going to do it again.
You're not going to
do it again because
you don't want to or
because you're happy?
No, because we've had enough.
Not because we
haven't enjoyed doing
it, because I think
we have on the whole.
But it is a bit
stressful anyway. We
haven't got that much
time left, I suppose.
So we want to enjoy this.
Is this method of building which
has cracks and gaps and is… Shakes.
They're not cracks, they're shakes.
Shakes and cracks.
They're not.
I mean, is it something that is
more difficult to live with it because of
the fact that you have a plague
of flies, haven't you, for example,
and you get problems with the
water hitting the wood. It makes tannin
stains, for example, that has to be
cleaned off and sandblasted back.
I mean, Kevin, all you had to do is
look up there and you don't think about.
the flies or the stains.
It's so beautiful, don't you think?
Well, yes.
Erin, we sit here in the evening after
dinner and we just sort of… my God,
we're lucky.
This is absolutely gorgeous.
So are you.
Yes, there are the
flies, but all you have to
do is to sweep up the
carcasses in the morning.
I mean, it gets a bit gritty underfoot,
so one has to wear shoes or slippers
or something.
And we think it's…
We suck them up.
I mean, that's the decoration, for example.
You haven't filled it with brand
new furniture, have you?
We have some, yes.
Some. This table, for example.
Yes, this table and the
side… But not these chairs.
Oh, no, not these.
You've got these very nice… I mean,
I like them. They're very groovy '60s
plastic.
They're fibreglass chairs, swivel chairs.
Great. With a new glass-topped steel table.
You didn't feel that perhaps it might
have looked better to have chairs that
work with the table.
No, because the… well, there are
chairs which have been designed to go
with this furniture.
We don't like them.
The most uncomfortable chairs I've
ever sat in. And these are beautiful.
I'm not one to force steel chairs on you.
I mean, we're not in the business of
making it all look beautiful. We're in
the business of comfort.
Oh, hang on.
You can accommodate both, surely.
All right. But anyway, we like these
chairs. We're going to keep them.
Fine. That's good. It's your house.
Thank you.
Thank you.
But one thing I do want to ask you,
though, Marjorie, is that you've got
this collection of
paintings which you
adore, and you
wanted, in making this.
home, to provide a space for them.
Yes, that was difficult.
Yeah. Now, that's what I was going
to ask you, because you've got these
walls. I mean, you haven't got a
blank wall in the house, have you, really?
Because there's bits of wood and
beams and, you know, braces going across
each one, and some of them are hung across.
That one is across the banisters
for the stairwell.
We almost had a divorce over this.
I wanted to move it
away from the banisters.
Matters of taste are very personal.
For what it's worth, I've always felt.
that the terrace outside was just
too big and too high for this house.
Dennis and Marjorie, of course, disagree
with me, but what the heck. Rod has
given them an exciting building
which sits really rather well in the
landscape and which, in many
ways, is environmentally friendly.
And this is the real point. They love it.
So I can only salute them for doing
what they've done at their time of life.
It only goes to
show that it's never
too late to build your
own grand design.
Next week, we're in Brighton with a
co-operative of young families who are
rolling up their sleeves and building
their own and each other's homes.