Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 13, Episode 11 - The Modest Home: Revisited - full transcript
I first met Lucie Fairweather
and her partner, Nat McBride,
five years ago,
just as they were about
to start building
their affordable family eco-home.
However, their journey
was to be about
more than bricks and mortar.
We want something that looks
beautiful and sharp.
It's got to be a sharp,
contemporary design.
But all their plans changed
when Nat discovered he had cancer.
You've just been diagnosed.
Yeah. Last week. Yeah.
You've got no real idea
of what's yet to come, do you?
No, not at all, actually.
Nat sadly passed away
just a few months later.
And yet, within the year, Lucie
courageously decided to carry on.
I have to ask, Lucie,
why you're doing this.
Because, actually,
I couldn't bear not to.
She was, thank goodness,
not alone in her task.
Helped all along the way by family
friend and architect Jerry Tate.
This is my sitting room!
All of it, look.
But not surprisingly, as a young,
widowed, working mum,
the demands of this project
took their toll on Lucie.
I'm feeling a little bit teary today,
I have to keep stopping myself
from...
It's not that I feel guilty
about building the house,
but I feel guilty about
all the different things
that are going on in my life
that I need to leave them for.
Well, three and a half years
have passed since I was last here.
And I am curious to find out just
how life has moved on for Lucie
and whether she's found happiness.
But, first, here's the story
of one courageous woman.
In early 2008, Lucie, Nat
and their two young children
relocated here,
to Woodbridge in Suffolk.
Their site is small and comes with
daunting planning restrictions.
Houses can only be
one and a half storeys high.
To help with all this,
they've employed an architect
who's not only an old friend, but
also one of the best in the country
at designing ecologically sensitive
buildings.
They want a swanky piece
of architecture.
An exciting, modern landmark
to sit amongst the '60s estate
that surrounds them.
Why the build, then?
Why not just buy a house?
Well, we did buy a house and it was
a big, draughty, Victorian house.
And I'd lived in Sweden
in a beautiful, warm, insulated,
well-insulated house.
So that was one of the reasons.
And...
We wanted it to be...
To have a low ecological footprint.
That's something
that's quite important to me.
You cannot buy an eco-house.
It's shocking
that you can't go and buy one.
The more people we talk to about
building a house and, you know,
"Why don't we just do it?"
Every single time,
people would respond with,
"Oh, you're going
to have a grass roof
"and you're going to build it out
of recycled bottles and mud and..."
Eat lentils.
Eat lentils and be hairy...
I've got a beard, but you don't have
to be a beardy-weirdy with sandals
to live in an eco-house.
So we just thought, we want
something that looks beautiful
and sharp and contemporary.
It's got to be a sharp,
contemporary design.
Light and interesting and...
And nice. And is well insulated and
works and doesn't cost the earth.
What is going to be
the great distinguishing qualities
of living in this, do you think?
It's somewhere we can be as a family
all day every day, hopefully,
where Nat can work,
but without being disturbed.
Where, during the day,
I can be with the children,
not far away from them
when I'm in the kitchen.
And that it just feels sort of...
It feels like a home,
you know, it's not...
I don't want a stark, modernist,
empty, clinical thing.
Nat and Lucie want a house
that'll make the most of their site
and satisfy their green principles.
To avoid using lots of concrete,
there'll be no foundations.
Instead,
the house will sit on concrete piles
and wooden stilts to deal with
flooding from the nearby river.
The heavily insulated
timber-panel structure
will be surrounded
by a raised walkway
that wraps around the house.
A central corridor will run
the length of the ground floor,
feeding an office
for Nat's IT practice,
a guest room with en-suite bathroom,
a television room
and a utility room.
The corridor will open up into
a bright, double-height living space
with kitchen,
dining area and family sitting room,
the heart of this family house.
Upstairs, there'll be a family
bathroom, two bedrooms for the kids
and, at the end of the corridor,
Lucie and Nat's en-suite bedroom.
The bedrooms are a good height
because of the steeply-angled roof,
split in the middle
by a glazed channel
running the length of the building
that'll illuminate
the whole upstairs.
The roof will be covered in zinc.
It's both durable and sustainable,
along with solar panels
to provide the hot water.
There'll also be an air-sourced
heat pump that'll heat the house.
The super-insulated frame
will be clad in larch,
which will silver with age
and help this house become
a discrete addition
to the neighbourhood.
All this for £200,000.
An optimistic budget
for such a well-designed,
ecologically sensitive house.
Where's the money
coming from to pay for it?
We sold our house,
so, um...we've got...
We've bought the land outright
and we've got a bit more,
but we've got to get a mortgage.
Yeah.
Um... So... And you're both earning?
No, neither of us are earning. Oh!
LAUGHTER
That's not so easy, then, is it? No.
Well, Nat was earning
until last week,
but he's just been diagnosed
with stomach cancer,
so we don't really know
what lies ahead
because we don't know what form
the treatment's going to take.
But because he's self-employed and we
haven't got critical-illness cover...
There's no money. Yeah.
But you're a teacher.
And I'm going to have to start
teaching again.
We won't know more
for another couple of weeks
as to quite what impact
it has on it all.
It may be that I'm laid low
for a few weeks and that's it.
In which case, it'll be fine.
It may be longer than that and it
may mean we have to put the build
on hold for a few months
and then pick it up in the autumn
or something. Who knows?
It's going to be an interesting year.
Well, yeah.
Because it's... Everything changes.
And you don't know where it leads.
Where any of this leads.
Your health, your work,
the house, the project.
That's life. Exciting. That's life.
So, er...given that you're so early
in the course of your treatment,
you've just been diagnosed and...
Yeah, last week. Yeah.
You've got no real idea
of what's yet to come, do you?
Er...no, not at all, actually.
So, therefore, no real idea
of how it's going to affect
life on the project and how much
energy you're going to have.
Life on anything at all. Um...
I mean, we sort of thought
long and hard about this and decided
that, really, you've just got to try
and carry on as normal as possible.
Just got to do it anyway.
Do it anyway.
I don't have a home for my family.
There's a roof over their heads,
but it's not really a home,
as you think of a home.
And for the last year or so
we've been thinking about
how this home's going to be
and how perfect
it's going to be for us
and how it fits around
the way we live and everything.
Er...so I think
we have to do that now.
Having a big objective in life,
you know, a big project,
is great because it pulls you away
and gives you something to aim for.
Does that...?
Have you talked about that? Yeah.
That was one of the main reasons
for carrying on.
Well, that and the fact that
it just makes sense, I think. Er...
Even, in fact, just starting today,
with something.
Tomorrow, I'm going in
for some investigative surgery
and I've barely given it a thought
cos I've been thinking about
coming down here and doing this.
After six months of treatment,
Nat's cancer proved to be incurable.
And he died in July, 2008.
Jerry Tate, friend,
as well as architect,
had continued to work on the plans
throughout Nat's illness.
Nat was a really,
really amazing guy.
He was just in pursuit of doing
the right thing throughout his life.
He was never in pursuit of anything
other than that as his goal.
Nat really wanted something
that was visionary.
He really wanted something
that would be stunning.
That in Woodbridge,
people would go...
In fact, in the region, in Britain,
would be a real stunning piece
of architecture.
Jerry had previously been
one of the architects
working on the Eden Project
in Cornwall.
So he's got form with eco-driven,
innovative designs.
Ten months later,
with Jerry still on board,
Lucie has taken
the courageous decision
to go ahead with the building.
'I got very upset about the children
not having a father.'
And doing, you know, all the amazing
things that he could do with them.
So it just feels nice that
I can actually build them their house
and at least they've got a mummy
who can build a house,
even if their daddy can't.
Well, I'm hoping I can build a house!
It's very, very brave, Lucie.
Because the thing is,
it's a journey which...
isn't easy at the best of times.
Are you working at the moment?
Yes, I'm working. Teaching? Teaching.
Full-time? Three days a week. Four
if the money gets really tight. Yeah?
And I've got the children. Yeah.
And winding up Nat's business
and building a house.
That's enough, isn't it? Yeah.
I have to ask, Lucie,
why you're doing this.
Because, actually,
I couldn't bear not to. Really? Yeah.
Was it that...powerful? Yes.
That obvious? Yeah.
Jerry, your architect,
still involved? Still involved.
He's been very good and very patient.
Because he's had to change a lot
to get the house in on budget.
Jerry has reduced
the size of the house
and slimmed down the design
to suit Lucie's pocket.
There'll be no more wraparound deck
and no stilts,
so the house will now rest
very firmly on concrete foundations.
Reducing the floor area means
losing the downstairs study.
And upstairs there'll be three,
not four bedrooms.
The light channel has been replaced
by three light wells.
And gone, too,
is the gleaming zinc roof,
covered now
with more traditional slates.
But Lucie has fought hard to hold on
to as many eco elements as possible.
It is actually about Nat
because it is what he...
He was the one who...researched
all these technologies
and was enthusiastic about them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I want a warm house that isn't going
to cost me a fortune to run.
He wants...
wanted to save the planet.
I'm astounded at Lucie's energy.
You know,
her extraordinary positive attitude.
Here she is, she's trying to tread
a very fine path here.
On the one hand,
honouring Nat's memory
and his environmental campaigning,
his passion for it,
and on the other hand, building
a house on a really tiny budget.
Wanting to include all those
ecological features,
but not being able to afford it.
Having to try and realise
the house they started together,
which now she has got to complete
for an entirely different life
with her children by herself.
Lesser people would've sold this
place. Lesser people would've said,
"I really...
I can't cope with those demands."
But not Lucie.
I think she can do this.
I think she can...
build something
which is not a memorial to Nat,
but which is going to be instead
some kind of legacy.
Lucie Fairweather is starting to
build the sustainable family home
in Suffolk she had planned
with her husband, Nat.
Jerry Tate, their architect,
is an old family friend
and he's planning to be on site
as often as he can.
With no budget
for a project manager,
he'll help guide Lucie throughout.
This is my sitting-room! All of
it, look! I know, it's enormous!
Jump in, come on.
It's so cool.
My goodness, I'm going to be able to
have the biggest sofa. Yeah! From...
From wherever.
From the charity shop!
Somebody's giving them away.
The smaller budget
has forced Lucie to be rigorous,
not only in how she spends the money
but on the bigger design priorities.
I think Lucie is really sensible,
actually,
in her priority of making the fabric
of the house as good as possible
and everything else
will kind of follow.
And I think that is
the right priority.
I'm not a great believer in marble
floors and really expensive...
I just don't think that's what
makes a space really, really nice.
I think spaces are certain sizes
and they have light that comes in
and they work in a three-dimensional
way and in a way with light
and in a way with how you
move around them. They don't...
When they're dripping with expensive
bits... It detracts from space.
It detracts from the space.
It's nice if you can afford it,
but if you can't afford it...
I think 10% of a space comes from
how expensive your taps are,
frankly.
If that, actually.
To keep the costs down,
Jerry's decided to use
precast concrete beams
for the floor slab.
They're fast and cheaper
than pouring wet concrete
as they only need
pilings in the ground
rather than strip foundations.
It was very wet
when they were putting in the pilings
and digging the foundations.
There was a lot of mud
and a lot of water running around.
Now it's all dry and very solid.
And although, actually, we really
fought against having concrete,
it's actually quite nice to have that
really solid base underneath.
It feels very reassuring.
Lucie's house will be in the main
a timber construction,
using wood from sustainably
managed forests.
The frames that form the walls of
the house have been constructed
off-site and they're craned
into place with the precision
and speed of a stage set.
This house was designed
to be full of light,
and even with a reduced budget
the windows are huge,
more like glass panels
inset into the timber frame.
It's great!
It looks so solid as well.
That's my TV room!
SHE LAUGHS
People, when you say
what you're doing, say,
"Oh, I've always wanted to do that."
I actually feel very proud
that we took the decision to do it.
How hard is it,
doing this by yourself?
Given that most people who tackle
this are generally older,
so they're in a more
comfortable place than you are.
And they've got other
people in their lives to... Yeah.
I do find it a bit lonely, and
when I do get worried about things
there isn't really anybody to tell
who REALLY cares.
Um... It's hard. Yeah.
It's decisions,
because you just sort of think,
"I'm going to have to live with
the consequences of my decisions."
Just me,
and I can't blame anyone else
or I can't share the annoyance
because I've taken
the wrong decision.
But how do you find
the job of being the client?
It does bring responsibilities.
And it is a one-off building.
It is a one-off building.
You know, it's...
Going out to site every day,
it must be kind of exciting?
No, it's really exciting. I think
it's the best thing I've ever done.
There's a difference now.
You're getting... Yeah, right.
With Lucie working most days,
Jerry's on site as often
as he can make it.
Shall we walk round?
A key component in the house
is the huge glulam beam that spans
the width of the living area,
making it a dramatic open space.
This is a normal family-sized room,
but I think the double height space
and higher ceilings
and seeing the staircase,
it's a bit like a mountainscape
going up in the background.
There's a picturesque quality,
which means it'll
feel like a bigger space.
I might get proved wrong,
I suppose, once it's all done.
I think it will.
Yeah, I think it will.
With a small budget
and no possibility of extra cash,
Jerry and Tony have found
a way of working that they hope
will keep tight control on spending.
A building contract with Tony
says something like,
"Please build this much stuff
with this much money,"
and then the architect's job
is to ensure that he builds
that much stuff
with that much money.
The trouble is that as you're
building, there's always stuff
that changes as you go and that's
where the cost overruns come in.
But in this situation,
because there is just a fixed
amount of money, we've got a sort
of agreement in place where we are
pushing and pulling all the time.
So if we have a problem in one area,
we'll so a bit of push-me-pull-you
puzzle-solving,
and still try and get effectively
the same building,
but keep the sum absolutely fixed.
So that's actually what we're doing
when we are walking around,
mumbling our conversations, we're
just arranging what swaps with what.
There is no room for fripperies
here, just good design.
Round here, there are lots of houses
which were built in the 1960s,
single-storey,
and they've got rooms in the roof,
big 1960s chalet roofs, and what
Jerry, brilliantly, has done,
is take that idea
and exploit it to give Lucie
maximum value for money here,
and maximum space as well.
So, conventionally,
if you build a house,
a bungalow arrangement,
and you put one of these great
big roofs on it,
you end up only being able to use
about half of the surface area
of the loft
for accommodation, but actually that
central area is what people occupy.
They can't really use these
triangular spaces under the eaves,
because the roof pitch
is too shallow.
And when it comes to building
new houses, it's impossible,
really, to build a house -
you just wouldn't get away with it -
with a roof that
looks like that, yeah?
But that's what Jerry's done.
He's gone way, way higher
to allow Lucie
a huge surface area
of occupiable space upstairs.
And then what he's done,
he's chopped the roofs off.
It's brilliant.
It must be very exciting,
this being your first house,
seeing it physically go up,
walking the scaffolding,
seeing this rather than
fresh air here.
It's the best bit about
architecture,
walking round the spaces that you
drew about a year-and-a-half ago,
I suppose.
Mm-hm!
So... More tall ceilings.
When the joists go in those joist
hangers across this space,
it is surprisingly wide, actually.
Yes. Surprisingly wide.
I have to say, hats off,
because you are surrounded
by suburban housing.
What you've done with that window
is engineer a brilliant view
over towards the other
side of the river.
But, because the window's so tall,
it gives you that view to infinity,
the view of the sky.
It's lovely, that tall window,
and you can only get it, really,
with really tall rooms.
I hope Lucie is all right about
that. I'm slightly nervous that...
She keeps saying, "It's taller than
I thought it was going to be."
I'm like, "Well..."
Well, I'm not surprised.
It looks bigger
now it's got the ceiling.
These are really generous spaces,
aren't they?
And this lovely
big staircase as well.
You see this kind of thing
in art galleries
and is not that expensive to do,
is it?
Much cheaper than a glass handrail
or a clever balustrade.
Because art galleries
don't have any money.
Good point, Jerry.
Art galleries are often short of
cash and it's a really
elegant way of doing staircases
without throwing money at it.
Make it part of the building.
I'm now going to irritate you
by suggesting that perhaps
I should have a bookcase against
the wall to make use of the wall.
We drew it in! Yes.
That will be the second, third time
we've put that bookcase in.
We'll just drag it out of the cellar
again and put it back.
I do change my mind a bit.
No, no, it's...
It's when we can't afford things,
we delete them.
Jerry has a great way of making me
realise what I want!
He'll build it anyway and then you
see whether you like it.
Well, no, when I really, really don't
agree with him then he'll go,
"Lucie, I really,
really must counsel against this.
"I think it's a very, very bad idea."
He uses posh language!
And then eventually I give in.
The layout is something that
we spent a lot of time working on.
There's some ideas on here which
we talked about, things like
the master bedroom overlooks the
front door, so that when you wake up
in the middle of the night
you can see who's coming.
We felt that was very important.
It's an interesting point
you make about security because,
as a single mum,
her sense of security is heightened.
It needs to be heightened,
doesn't it?
The house is in many ways and on
many levels security for Lucie,
in a sort of kind of spiritual
and physical and financial way.
But it's also captured
a little bit of Nat,
which is actually amazing
when you think about it,
that all the conversations we had,
even though Nat's not here,
this is a sort of representation
of those conversations,
and that's really nice, actually.
I find it really
heartening that Jerry and Lucie
have a really good, strong
working relationship
and they need it
because she's placing a great
deal of trust in her architect.
He is having to look after
the whole project for her.
And it's interesting that after 18
months of the thing being on hold,
now that she's decided to get on
with it, the building has gone up.
Come on.
And up.
And it hasn't even got
the wings on yet.
LUCIE LAUGHS
Lucie Fairweather is midway through
building her family home in Suffolk.
With two small children,
she's got a lot on her plate.
I feel terribly guilty
because they're being left again
and it's not one thing in particular,
it's not that I feel guilty
about building the house,
but I feel guilty about
all the different things
that are going on in my life
that I need to leave them for.
I'm feeling a little bit teary
about it today, actually.
I have to keep stopping myself.
And then it just makes me upset
cos I wanted to enjoy
all of this bit with the house.
But I can't have everything -
I can't enjoy choosing my tiles...
..and be at home with my children.
It needs to be a quick decision.
That is lovely.
I'm ashamed to say that my bathroom,
I'd quite like it to be
a bit like a hotel bathroom.
Just... I just want it
really sleek and simple.
Have you got any red?
Just six months after
the foundations were laid,
the roof is taking shape -
a very unusual shape.
The steep roof is a neat
space-creating solution,
but the design calls
for clever reinforcing.
A bit like an aircraft wing.
You can see that, although it's
got struts and it's got braces,
when I do this, it does wobble,
it does rack.
So, what the modeller does -
and here anybody who's familiar
with the hobbies of yesteryear -
the hobbyist covers
his wing with tissue paper.
Here's one I made this weekend.
This is exactly the same structure
but with the tissue paper soaked
in the varnish now, having dried,
and stretched, as it dries,
over the surface.
it's made the structure
absolutely rigid.
It's impossible
to move it, to flex it.
These plywood sheets act
just like the tissue paper.
Once stapled to the frame,
it becomes rigid and strong enough
to withstand even the easterly winds
off the Suffolk coast.
The roof isn't the only bit
of the design to maximise space.
So, on the ground plan,
you can see here - here is
the living/dining/kitchen area -
one big open plan space, yeah?
And here are all the other
functions that you need day-to-day,
all compressed into exactly
one half of the footprint.
So, you've got the
spare room-cum-study area,
there is a utility, toilet,
cloakroom, sitting area
with children's TV,
storage, toys, blah, blah, blah,
which does seem a little
bit compressed, doesn't it?
Even standing here,
you can see and feel how these rooms
are not the most generous
but I think it's worth it,
because each of these functions
just happens
for just a few minutes a day.
You spend only a few minutes
in the utility room loading
and unloading the washing machine,
you pop into the toilet.
The kids don't need a huge amount
of space, for heaven's sakes -
just a sofa and a ring
in the floor to tie them to
and that's all you need.
Whereas, here, this is where you
can get full benefit from all
that squashing of those functions
into the back half of the building.
Here, you can...
You can enjoy, you can bathe in the
voluptuousness of the space here.
It's clever, isn't it?
Saving space and money
lie behind a lot of the choices
made in this house,
right down to the flooring.
Very pale, very Scandinavian.
I know. It is...
Yeah, the house is quite
Scandinavian, I give in!
Do you know what?
Better that than Alpine, I think.
Better that than, you know,
Swiss chalet.
But hard-wearing and cheap.
Stop saying cheap!
Oh, no.
Do you find it painful
to reduce, reduce, reduce?
Actually, I think this design's
completely intact conceptually.
I really do.
I really think it works.
And I sort of now feel like if we
hadn't been forced to go through
a process of really thinking
about what was important,
we'd have built a sort of
slightly fat building.
It sits much better
in the space that we have. Yeah.
I mean, that would have been
a disaster now
if it had been as big as we intended.
And on stilts. And on stilts.
I mean, it just... What were you
thinking? What were we thinking?
We wanted it big. A floating house.
But, actually, I think
it sits much better now.
Some of the cost savings will
be hidden, like the insulation -
no longer recycled newspapers
but the more usual synthetic stuff.
Other savings will be more visible.
The roof will now be traditional
slate rather than zinc.
I've been really
worried about the tiles
cos it seems such a compromise.
Cos I really, really wanted
that lovely zinc roof
and I was really worried
about the tiles looking busy,
and when I saw them today,
they look lovely.
There's something really nice that...
I know it would have looked very new
and exciting having the zinc,
but there's something really nice
about having proper tiles,
that made it look like
a proper little house.
"Ahem! Ahem!" coughed Goldilocks.
"In case you pea-brains had
forgotten, this story is called
"Goldilocks And The Three Bears, not
the little show-off in his pyjamas."
'Now, I very much look at it
as somewhere cosy to come home to.'
And it is smaller now, um...
..but that's not a bad thing,
particularly -
now it's not a bad thing.
And this big space that we were
going to cook dinner and talk
to our friends and get drunk sitting
on those sofas and things,
I still intend to do that, but it
becomes even more important now
because I'm on my own and so I need
to be able to talk to my friends when
I'm cooking my dinner, because there
isn't anyone else to talk to them.
So that's become...
That space has become
even more important.
Lucie is adamant that this project
must fit her budget,
so Jerry has specified windows
that come in affordable
off-the-peg sizes.
It's got this kind of grey,
natural-finish aesthetic
going on, which is, you know,
things like the larch cladding
will go grey over time,
we've got the kind of slate grey
with very natural finishes.
This is a bit jarring,
this kind of hardwood colour,
so we're going to stain these
to kind of pull them back
away from their slightly
reddy hardwood colour.
We probably need to stain them
a bit more, as well, than usual,
just to kind of get them to match.
Quite often in spaces,
you only want to have three,
maximum four,
different materials in them.
We're going to stain
exposed bits of timber.
Some of them
are going to be stained grey,
so that'll be part of the
stained grey camp, if you like.
There's some birch ply,
and then there's some white walls.
Then that's kind of your base three
different elements in the space.
And then there's these
bits of colour,
which a lot of them
are more Lucie's involvement.
I've talked to her about bits of
wallpaper she wants
to put here and there and
the colour scheme for the kitchen,
and it's that sort of individual
area of kind of boho
which will be really fun and
I'm really interested in seeing
because we're kind of less
in control of that.
I think that'll be really nice.
That'll be, really,
Lucie putting a stamp on that bit
and a stamp on that bit.
I think it'll be great.
And that stamp of Lucie's
is one of invention and thrift.
That sofa - I mean, I grew up with
that sofa that's being done today.
I hummed and hawed about
whether I really wanted the sofa
because it's something I've
had from...or my parents had,
I grew up with, and then
my parents gave it to Nat and I
when we moved into our last house.
That's where we, you know,
used to sit and read in the bedroom.
You know, I thought perhaps it might
be nicer just to have a fresh start
and I did toy with the idea
of just buying something new,
but it's nice
to bring it along with me.
But it's really good to have
clean, modern, fresh fabric on it.
Lucie wants to continue the clean,
refined look of the house
right through the interior.
When everything is
so visible and pared-down,
the finishes have to be precise.
It's a joyous moment as she sees
the project that started life
as a shared dream
take shape before her eyes.
It looks really big,
doesn't it? Yeah.
(Wow!)
So, with the house finished,
how has Lucie adopted and adapted
the dream that she and Nat fostered?
And how well are she and
her children flourishing?
The sweeping roof looks like
it's been caught
in the act of opening up.
Albeit smaller and cheaper
than the original design,
the house still has all
the assertion and power
that Nat hoped for.
Hello. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Heavens! It seems
an awful lot bigger.
The windows are just straight
out of a catalogue, aren't they?
Off-the-peg. But they look fabulous,
yeah, with the grey paint.
Absolutely.
So, how are the light wells?
Are they letting any light in?
They're letting loads of light in.
The other thing
I really like is -
and I suppose, again, it's because
the space isn't at all fussy -
is that chimney, which is exposed
all the way through the building.
The whole way up. Does it work
like a radiator? Does it get warm?
It does get warm. Cos they could have
taken it out of the wall down here
and then up the outside of the house,
but it means that
the outside stays pristine.
This is really clever architecture.
Lucie and her architect, Jerry, have
been clear about their priorities
from the outset.
The open staircase was key.
Cheap and practical,
and sculptural, too.
Upstairs, the rooms follow
the line of the cassette roof.
They're tall and dramatic.
And then the window, of course.
The beautiful window.
The most generous window imaginable.
How high is it?
About three and a half metres. Wow.
I know, and the sun
in the morning goes up like that.
It's beautiful.
On a day where there is sun.
You mean the sun sort of specially
starts to pass just for you?
Yeah.
I love this place
because it's a low-cost, model,
suburban, three-bedroom house -
a 21st-century chalet bungalow,
with all the attitude
and resilience of its owner.
I'm delighted with the house.
Of course, it's slightly bittersweet.
You know, and I brought my children
and I brought the furniture
and our books and everything
with us and, you know,
Nat's family have been here
a lot already,
so it's sort of he's moved in
with us, you know.
In spirit, yeah.
His memories are as much here
as they were in the last house.
Well, and also this place...
And he created.. I mean,
he saw the plans for this house.
The week before he died was when we
got the plans for the revised house,
so he's seen them. And there
wasn't that much changed, anyway.
So, I think, no, he's here
as much as he was in the last house,
if not more. Yeah.
Well, he's in the bones and
the structure of the place. Exactly.
Exactly. Yeah.
It's been, you know, three and
a half years since I was last here
in Woodbridge, and I have no idea
what I'll find on coming back.
One thing I will say, though,
is that, after all the turmoil
and upheaval in Lucie's life,
I really hope not much has changed.
Rarely have I met an individual
with the courage
and the fire of
Lucie Fairweather.
It's unusual for women
to self-build,
rarer still when they're single
parents, bereaved and working.
It's now three-and-a-half years on
and I've returned to find out
whether this house has brought Lucie
and her children a new future
or whether it's trapped them
in the past.
Oh, gosh!
It's beautiful.
Hello. Hello. How beautiful!
It cost Lucie only ?200,000
to build this place
but it's one big,
beautiful chalet bungalow.
You see these places next to it?
It's considerably larger
than these, isn't it?
It's very imposing
when you come round the corner.
You see other chalet bungalows
with the rooms in the roof
and everything and come round and...
"Wow!"
It's like the architects
who built those, designed those,
in the back of their heads,
they were hoping it might turn out
to look like this.
It's actually more beautiful
for being slightly silvered.
I'm surprised it hasn't gone
more grey. It's Siberian larch.
Every time I arrive home I think,
"Wow!" Do you? Yeah.
After all these years?
After all these years. Every time?
Isn't that a lovely thing? Yes.
Although this place is smaller
and less ambitious
than Nat and Lucie had planned,
it still has all the excitement
and integrity
of the original vision.
And, as you step inside,
the flexibility of the house
to accept change becomes apparent.
Shoes off. Because it's
a shoes-off house, isn't it? Please.
No, that's all right.
This was the children's playroom?
This was the playroom but I didn't
like coming in to all the mess...
Detritus. ..and Rose's
design projects and things.
So this was a guest room
but is now...
This was the guest room
but is now the TV room.
So you can shut the door,
which is very important.
I can shut the door on the cartoons.
That noise.
That incessant noise. Exactly.
And having walked past
all these service areas, you know,
that kind of gets you into the
"ah" of the building, isn't it?
The good bit. The good bit.
The broad space, the high space.
It's semi open-plan, semi open
section. Very nice. Very lovely.
It looks like you just eat pizza
here from the takeaway. No.
I do lots of cooking. Do you?
I don't see any marks of that.
I love it and so I look after it.
Yeah. Good.
This is my special place.
I had wondered whether this place
might stay stuck
in some kind of memory loop
but with Lucie's children,
Rose and Moses, around,
that was never going to happen.
Look! You look so well-behaved!
How are you both?
BOTH: Good. Yes? All right?
I like your rooms very much.
I always have liked these rooms
cos of the shape of them.
It's like living inside
a giant piece of cheese.
'Clearly, their extended family
love the house, too.'
I don't remember seeing this before.
Rose, who built that?
Grandpa. Did he?
It's got solar panels on it and...
It's got all the right things
in the right place. The kitchen.
What's it got in it?
It's got my bedroom. That's weird.
It's got your wallpaper in it!
But in miniature. In miniature.
It's got Mum's wallpaper
in her room.
Is there a miniature you in here?
No. No?
The stability of life at home
has clearly nurtured Lucie
and given her the strength to go out
into the world on her own
to make new friends and a new life
for her and her children.
Having moved to Suffolk
from Southampton,
it wasn't only a new house they
moved into, but also a new town.
It's lovely.
I'm quite evangelical about
being part of a small community.
I really enjoy it. You bump into
friends and get to know shopkeepers.
And, in such a small community,
you always know someone who knows
someone else, so it's lovely.
Really good.
The beautifully-designed open
entertaining space in the house
has also provided
the social environment
which Lucie had always hoped for.
I think it's fantastic.
We're in the process of doing
something to our own house
at the moment
and we are very jealous.
Very comfortable, nice proportions,
lovely light.
It's very comfortable,
it's very adaptable.
I've been here when there's been
40 or 50 people dancing,
I've been here when there have been
five or six people having dinner,
an intimate dinner.
So it works for everything.
To achieve this outcome is amazing
and I'm full of admiration
for what Lucie has made here.
Beautiful, beautiful home.
The acute-angled roof
and larch cladding
almost suggest a gingerbread house
from Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Or is it a Goldilocks house?
One that's not too big
and not too small.
A house that is just right
for the three of them.
Much of the credit
for the success of this place
and its architectural tricks
has to go to friend
and architect Jerry Tate,
who provided not just the design
and expertise but the emotional
support throughout the project.
When were you last here?
Probably about four months ago.
That's the advantage
of being mates, isn't it?
You get your architect round
for the occasional bottle and say,
"While you're here...
Here's a screwdriver."
"What do you think of this?"
I think of this as a bit of
a model house, you know?
I didn't really talk to Lucie
too much about it being
a prototype house but it was...
It was the first new-build house
we designed.
It may be a simple house but there
are entertaining details here
that I didn't notice
the first time around,
like these delightful chain links
for rainwater from the gutters,
which seem to tether
the house to the ground.
It is glamorous. Yeah.
Which is also what I like.
Exactly. Why not?
But actually, wrapped up
in a much more modest envelope.
There's a bit more, you know,
that fits a tradition of stuff
going on behind these hedges,
you know, down towards the river.
We were wanting it to look
a bit like
something that although
you look at it you went,
"God, that is quite striking",
at the same time, it might have been
here for a few hundred years.
An old boathouse or something.
Good architecture
is also about providing space
for people to grow and adapt in,
to feel protected and looked after.
In that respect,
Nat's original hopes for this place
are fully realised and remembered.
Looking back, you know,
with Nat's death and the project,
do you compartmentalise
those things?
Well, I think I compartmentalise
the period that Nat was ill
and his death but I think
since I started building the house,
it has been pretty seamless.
That's interesting because a lot
of people will compartmentalise
the process of building as
a grim experience but, of course...
No, no. It's incredibly positive.
I loved it because it gave me
something else to think about.
What would Nat think now?
I think he would have loved
the way that it's so open
and seeing the children running
out of any door they want.
All of that... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The way you use the building
day-to-day. Exactly.
I think that would have
filled him with joy.
How well
is the building received now?
It's become a bit of a...landmark.
It might sound superficial but I love
the fact it's a really cool house.
I like the fact that people
turn round the corner
and are slightly taken aback.
But I have got a pretty
impressive house for a fraction
of what it would cost me to buy
another impressive house around here.
I feel excited coming home
to it every night.
I mean, I'm really proud of it.
Architecture
can make us feel better,
help us flourish
and even heal us.
I think this building,
magically, does all three.
Hypothetically, if somebody else
comes into your life,
is the house flexible enough
to accommodate them, do you think?
That is a big question.
I don't know whether it would.
It's important that I'm happy, it's
important that our lives move on.
So I'm never going to be
so attached to this house
that I wouldn't ever
move away from it
but, at the moment, it's wonderful.
Yeah.
They says scars heal with time,
don't they? That people move on?
The bizarre thing is that
this building...hasn't.
It's remained the same.
I did wonder if that was because it
remained a kind of memorial to Nat.
But it's not that at all.
Nat's ideas are here, for sure,
but the reason this building hasn't
changed is because it's so good.
It's so usable.
It's a proper exemplar
for the kind of family home
we could all be living in.
It's a good little green building.
The simple thing, really well done.
and her partner, Nat McBride,
five years ago,
just as they were about
to start building
their affordable family eco-home.
However, their journey
was to be about
more than bricks and mortar.
We want something that looks
beautiful and sharp.
It's got to be a sharp,
contemporary design.
But all their plans changed
when Nat discovered he had cancer.
You've just been diagnosed.
Yeah. Last week. Yeah.
You've got no real idea
of what's yet to come, do you?
No, not at all, actually.
Nat sadly passed away
just a few months later.
And yet, within the year, Lucie
courageously decided to carry on.
I have to ask, Lucie,
why you're doing this.
Because, actually,
I couldn't bear not to.
She was, thank goodness,
not alone in her task.
Helped all along the way by family
friend and architect Jerry Tate.
This is my sitting room!
All of it, look.
But not surprisingly, as a young,
widowed, working mum,
the demands of this project
took their toll on Lucie.
I'm feeling a little bit teary today,
I have to keep stopping myself
from...
It's not that I feel guilty
about building the house,
but I feel guilty about
all the different things
that are going on in my life
that I need to leave them for.
Well, three and a half years
have passed since I was last here.
And I am curious to find out just
how life has moved on for Lucie
and whether she's found happiness.
But, first, here's the story
of one courageous woman.
In early 2008, Lucie, Nat
and their two young children
relocated here,
to Woodbridge in Suffolk.
Their site is small and comes with
daunting planning restrictions.
Houses can only be
one and a half storeys high.
To help with all this,
they've employed an architect
who's not only an old friend, but
also one of the best in the country
at designing ecologically sensitive
buildings.
They want a swanky piece
of architecture.
An exciting, modern landmark
to sit amongst the '60s estate
that surrounds them.
Why the build, then?
Why not just buy a house?
Well, we did buy a house and it was
a big, draughty, Victorian house.
And I'd lived in Sweden
in a beautiful, warm, insulated,
well-insulated house.
So that was one of the reasons.
And...
We wanted it to be...
To have a low ecological footprint.
That's something
that's quite important to me.
You cannot buy an eco-house.
It's shocking
that you can't go and buy one.
The more people we talk to about
building a house and, you know,
"Why don't we just do it?"
Every single time,
people would respond with,
"Oh, you're going
to have a grass roof
"and you're going to build it out
of recycled bottles and mud and..."
Eat lentils.
Eat lentils and be hairy...
I've got a beard, but you don't have
to be a beardy-weirdy with sandals
to live in an eco-house.
So we just thought, we want
something that looks beautiful
and sharp and contemporary.
It's got to be a sharp,
contemporary design.
Light and interesting and...
And nice. And is well insulated and
works and doesn't cost the earth.
What is going to be
the great distinguishing qualities
of living in this, do you think?
It's somewhere we can be as a family
all day every day, hopefully,
where Nat can work,
but without being disturbed.
Where, during the day,
I can be with the children,
not far away from them
when I'm in the kitchen.
And that it just feels sort of...
It feels like a home,
you know, it's not...
I don't want a stark, modernist,
empty, clinical thing.
Nat and Lucie want a house
that'll make the most of their site
and satisfy their green principles.
To avoid using lots of concrete,
there'll be no foundations.
Instead,
the house will sit on concrete piles
and wooden stilts to deal with
flooding from the nearby river.
The heavily insulated
timber-panel structure
will be surrounded
by a raised walkway
that wraps around the house.
A central corridor will run
the length of the ground floor,
feeding an office
for Nat's IT practice,
a guest room with en-suite bathroom,
a television room
and a utility room.
The corridor will open up into
a bright, double-height living space
with kitchen,
dining area and family sitting room,
the heart of this family house.
Upstairs, there'll be a family
bathroom, two bedrooms for the kids
and, at the end of the corridor,
Lucie and Nat's en-suite bedroom.
The bedrooms are a good height
because of the steeply-angled roof,
split in the middle
by a glazed channel
running the length of the building
that'll illuminate
the whole upstairs.
The roof will be covered in zinc.
It's both durable and sustainable,
along with solar panels
to provide the hot water.
There'll also be an air-sourced
heat pump that'll heat the house.
The super-insulated frame
will be clad in larch,
which will silver with age
and help this house become
a discrete addition
to the neighbourhood.
All this for £200,000.
An optimistic budget
for such a well-designed,
ecologically sensitive house.
Where's the money
coming from to pay for it?
We sold our house,
so, um...we've got...
We've bought the land outright
and we've got a bit more,
but we've got to get a mortgage.
Yeah.
Um... So... And you're both earning?
No, neither of us are earning. Oh!
LAUGHTER
That's not so easy, then, is it? No.
Well, Nat was earning
until last week,
but he's just been diagnosed
with stomach cancer,
so we don't really know
what lies ahead
because we don't know what form
the treatment's going to take.
But because he's self-employed and we
haven't got critical-illness cover...
There's no money. Yeah.
But you're a teacher.
And I'm going to have to start
teaching again.
We won't know more
for another couple of weeks
as to quite what impact
it has on it all.
It may be that I'm laid low
for a few weeks and that's it.
In which case, it'll be fine.
It may be longer than that and it
may mean we have to put the build
on hold for a few months
and then pick it up in the autumn
or something. Who knows?
It's going to be an interesting year.
Well, yeah.
Because it's... Everything changes.
And you don't know where it leads.
Where any of this leads.
Your health, your work,
the house, the project.
That's life. Exciting. That's life.
So, er...given that you're so early
in the course of your treatment,
you've just been diagnosed and...
Yeah, last week. Yeah.
You've got no real idea
of what's yet to come, do you?
Er...no, not at all, actually.
So, therefore, no real idea
of how it's going to affect
life on the project and how much
energy you're going to have.
Life on anything at all. Um...
I mean, we sort of thought
long and hard about this and decided
that, really, you've just got to try
and carry on as normal as possible.
Just got to do it anyway.
Do it anyway.
I don't have a home for my family.
There's a roof over their heads,
but it's not really a home,
as you think of a home.
And for the last year or so
we've been thinking about
how this home's going to be
and how perfect
it's going to be for us
and how it fits around
the way we live and everything.
Er...so I think
we have to do that now.
Having a big objective in life,
you know, a big project,
is great because it pulls you away
and gives you something to aim for.
Does that...?
Have you talked about that? Yeah.
That was one of the main reasons
for carrying on.
Well, that and the fact that
it just makes sense, I think. Er...
Even, in fact, just starting today,
with something.
Tomorrow, I'm going in
for some investigative surgery
and I've barely given it a thought
cos I've been thinking about
coming down here and doing this.
After six months of treatment,
Nat's cancer proved to be incurable.
And he died in July, 2008.
Jerry Tate, friend,
as well as architect,
had continued to work on the plans
throughout Nat's illness.
Nat was a really,
really amazing guy.
He was just in pursuit of doing
the right thing throughout his life.
He was never in pursuit of anything
other than that as his goal.
Nat really wanted something
that was visionary.
He really wanted something
that would be stunning.
That in Woodbridge,
people would go...
In fact, in the region, in Britain,
would be a real stunning piece
of architecture.
Jerry had previously been
one of the architects
working on the Eden Project
in Cornwall.
So he's got form with eco-driven,
innovative designs.
Ten months later,
with Jerry still on board,
Lucie has taken
the courageous decision
to go ahead with the building.
'I got very upset about the children
not having a father.'
And doing, you know, all the amazing
things that he could do with them.
So it just feels nice that
I can actually build them their house
and at least they've got a mummy
who can build a house,
even if their daddy can't.
Well, I'm hoping I can build a house!
It's very, very brave, Lucie.
Because the thing is,
it's a journey which...
isn't easy at the best of times.
Are you working at the moment?
Yes, I'm working. Teaching? Teaching.
Full-time? Three days a week. Four
if the money gets really tight. Yeah?
And I've got the children. Yeah.
And winding up Nat's business
and building a house.
That's enough, isn't it? Yeah.
I have to ask, Lucie,
why you're doing this.
Because, actually,
I couldn't bear not to. Really? Yeah.
Was it that...powerful? Yes.
That obvious? Yeah.
Jerry, your architect,
still involved? Still involved.
He's been very good and very patient.
Because he's had to change a lot
to get the house in on budget.
Jerry has reduced
the size of the house
and slimmed down the design
to suit Lucie's pocket.
There'll be no more wraparound deck
and no stilts,
so the house will now rest
very firmly on concrete foundations.
Reducing the floor area means
losing the downstairs study.
And upstairs there'll be three,
not four bedrooms.
The light channel has been replaced
by three light wells.
And gone, too,
is the gleaming zinc roof,
covered now
with more traditional slates.
But Lucie has fought hard to hold on
to as many eco elements as possible.
It is actually about Nat
because it is what he...
He was the one who...researched
all these technologies
and was enthusiastic about them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I want a warm house that isn't going
to cost me a fortune to run.
He wants...
wanted to save the planet.
I'm astounded at Lucie's energy.
You know,
her extraordinary positive attitude.
Here she is, she's trying to tread
a very fine path here.
On the one hand,
honouring Nat's memory
and his environmental campaigning,
his passion for it,
and on the other hand, building
a house on a really tiny budget.
Wanting to include all those
ecological features,
but not being able to afford it.
Having to try and realise
the house they started together,
which now she has got to complete
for an entirely different life
with her children by herself.
Lesser people would've sold this
place. Lesser people would've said,
"I really...
I can't cope with those demands."
But not Lucie.
I think she can do this.
I think she can...
build something
which is not a memorial to Nat,
but which is going to be instead
some kind of legacy.
Lucie Fairweather is starting to
build the sustainable family home
in Suffolk she had planned
with her husband, Nat.
Jerry Tate, their architect,
is an old family friend
and he's planning to be on site
as often as he can.
With no budget
for a project manager,
he'll help guide Lucie throughout.
This is my sitting-room! All of
it, look! I know, it's enormous!
Jump in, come on.
It's so cool.
My goodness, I'm going to be able to
have the biggest sofa. Yeah! From...
From wherever.
From the charity shop!
Somebody's giving them away.
The smaller budget
has forced Lucie to be rigorous,
not only in how she spends the money
but on the bigger design priorities.
I think Lucie is really sensible,
actually,
in her priority of making the fabric
of the house as good as possible
and everything else
will kind of follow.
And I think that is
the right priority.
I'm not a great believer in marble
floors and really expensive...
I just don't think that's what
makes a space really, really nice.
I think spaces are certain sizes
and they have light that comes in
and they work in a three-dimensional
way and in a way with light
and in a way with how you
move around them. They don't...
When they're dripping with expensive
bits... It detracts from space.
It detracts from the space.
It's nice if you can afford it,
but if you can't afford it...
I think 10% of a space comes from
how expensive your taps are,
frankly.
If that, actually.
To keep the costs down,
Jerry's decided to use
precast concrete beams
for the floor slab.
They're fast and cheaper
than pouring wet concrete
as they only need
pilings in the ground
rather than strip foundations.
It was very wet
when they were putting in the pilings
and digging the foundations.
There was a lot of mud
and a lot of water running around.
Now it's all dry and very solid.
And although, actually, we really
fought against having concrete,
it's actually quite nice to have that
really solid base underneath.
It feels very reassuring.
Lucie's house will be in the main
a timber construction,
using wood from sustainably
managed forests.
The frames that form the walls of
the house have been constructed
off-site and they're craned
into place with the precision
and speed of a stage set.
This house was designed
to be full of light,
and even with a reduced budget
the windows are huge,
more like glass panels
inset into the timber frame.
It's great!
It looks so solid as well.
That's my TV room!
SHE LAUGHS
People, when you say
what you're doing, say,
"Oh, I've always wanted to do that."
I actually feel very proud
that we took the decision to do it.
How hard is it,
doing this by yourself?
Given that most people who tackle
this are generally older,
so they're in a more
comfortable place than you are.
And they've got other
people in their lives to... Yeah.
I do find it a bit lonely, and
when I do get worried about things
there isn't really anybody to tell
who REALLY cares.
Um... It's hard. Yeah.
It's decisions,
because you just sort of think,
"I'm going to have to live with
the consequences of my decisions."
Just me,
and I can't blame anyone else
or I can't share the annoyance
because I've taken
the wrong decision.
But how do you find
the job of being the client?
It does bring responsibilities.
And it is a one-off building.
It is a one-off building.
You know, it's...
Going out to site every day,
it must be kind of exciting?
No, it's really exciting. I think
it's the best thing I've ever done.
There's a difference now.
You're getting... Yeah, right.
With Lucie working most days,
Jerry's on site as often
as he can make it.
Shall we walk round?
A key component in the house
is the huge glulam beam that spans
the width of the living area,
making it a dramatic open space.
This is a normal family-sized room,
but I think the double height space
and higher ceilings
and seeing the staircase,
it's a bit like a mountainscape
going up in the background.
There's a picturesque quality,
which means it'll
feel like a bigger space.
I might get proved wrong,
I suppose, once it's all done.
I think it will.
Yeah, I think it will.
With a small budget
and no possibility of extra cash,
Jerry and Tony have found
a way of working that they hope
will keep tight control on spending.
A building contract with Tony
says something like,
"Please build this much stuff
with this much money,"
and then the architect's job
is to ensure that he builds
that much stuff
with that much money.
The trouble is that as you're
building, there's always stuff
that changes as you go and that's
where the cost overruns come in.
But in this situation,
because there is just a fixed
amount of money, we've got a sort
of agreement in place where we are
pushing and pulling all the time.
So if we have a problem in one area,
we'll so a bit of push-me-pull-you
puzzle-solving,
and still try and get effectively
the same building,
but keep the sum absolutely fixed.
So that's actually what we're doing
when we are walking around,
mumbling our conversations, we're
just arranging what swaps with what.
There is no room for fripperies
here, just good design.
Round here, there are lots of houses
which were built in the 1960s,
single-storey,
and they've got rooms in the roof,
big 1960s chalet roofs, and what
Jerry, brilliantly, has done,
is take that idea
and exploit it to give Lucie
maximum value for money here,
and maximum space as well.
So, conventionally,
if you build a house,
a bungalow arrangement,
and you put one of these great
big roofs on it,
you end up only being able to use
about half of the surface area
of the loft
for accommodation, but actually that
central area is what people occupy.
They can't really use these
triangular spaces under the eaves,
because the roof pitch
is too shallow.
And when it comes to building
new houses, it's impossible,
really, to build a house -
you just wouldn't get away with it -
with a roof that
looks like that, yeah?
But that's what Jerry's done.
He's gone way, way higher
to allow Lucie
a huge surface area
of occupiable space upstairs.
And then what he's done,
he's chopped the roofs off.
It's brilliant.
It must be very exciting,
this being your first house,
seeing it physically go up,
walking the scaffolding,
seeing this rather than
fresh air here.
It's the best bit about
architecture,
walking round the spaces that you
drew about a year-and-a-half ago,
I suppose.
Mm-hm!
So... More tall ceilings.
When the joists go in those joist
hangers across this space,
it is surprisingly wide, actually.
Yes. Surprisingly wide.
I have to say, hats off,
because you are surrounded
by suburban housing.
What you've done with that window
is engineer a brilliant view
over towards the other
side of the river.
But, because the window's so tall,
it gives you that view to infinity,
the view of the sky.
It's lovely, that tall window,
and you can only get it, really,
with really tall rooms.
I hope Lucie is all right about
that. I'm slightly nervous that...
She keeps saying, "It's taller than
I thought it was going to be."
I'm like, "Well..."
Well, I'm not surprised.
It looks bigger
now it's got the ceiling.
These are really generous spaces,
aren't they?
And this lovely
big staircase as well.
You see this kind of thing
in art galleries
and is not that expensive to do,
is it?
Much cheaper than a glass handrail
or a clever balustrade.
Because art galleries
don't have any money.
Good point, Jerry.
Art galleries are often short of
cash and it's a really
elegant way of doing staircases
without throwing money at it.
Make it part of the building.
I'm now going to irritate you
by suggesting that perhaps
I should have a bookcase against
the wall to make use of the wall.
We drew it in! Yes.
That will be the second, third time
we've put that bookcase in.
We'll just drag it out of the cellar
again and put it back.
I do change my mind a bit.
No, no, it's...
It's when we can't afford things,
we delete them.
Jerry has a great way of making me
realise what I want!
He'll build it anyway and then you
see whether you like it.
Well, no, when I really, really don't
agree with him then he'll go,
"Lucie, I really,
really must counsel against this.
"I think it's a very, very bad idea."
He uses posh language!
And then eventually I give in.
The layout is something that
we spent a lot of time working on.
There's some ideas on here which
we talked about, things like
the master bedroom overlooks the
front door, so that when you wake up
in the middle of the night
you can see who's coming.
We felt that was very important.
It's an interesting point
you make about security because,
as a single mum,
her sense of security is heightened.
It needs to be heightened,
doesn't it?
The house is in many ways and on
many levels security for Lucie,
in a sort of kind of spiritual
and physical and financial way.
But it's also captured
a little bit of Nat,
which is actually amazing
when you think about it,
that all the conversations we had,
even though Nat's not here,
this is a sort of representation
of those conversations,
and that's really nice, actually.
I find it really
heartening that Jerry and Lucie
have a really good, strong
working relationship
and they need it
because she's placing a great
deal of trust in her architect.
He is having to look after
the whole project for her.
And it's interesting that after 18
months of the thing being on hold,
now that she's decided to get on
with it, the building has gone up.
Come on.
And up.
And it hasn't even got
the wings on yet.
LUCIE LAUGHS
Lucie Fairweather is midway through
building her family home in Suffolk.
With two small children,
she's got a lot on her plate.
I feel terribly guilty
because they're being left again
and it's not one thing in particular,
it's not that I feel guilty
about building the house,
but I feel guilty about
all the different things
that are going on in my life
that I need to leave them for.
I'm feeling a little bit teary
about it today, actually.
I have to keep stopping myself.
And then it just makes me upset
cos I wanted to enjoy
all of this bit with the house.
But I can't have everything -
I can't enjoy choosing my tiles...
..and be at home with my children.
It needs to be a quick decision.
That is lovely.
I'm ashamed to say that my bathroom,
I'd quite like it to be
a bit like a hotel bathroom.
Just... I just want it
really sleek and simple.
Have you got any red?
Just six months after
the foundations were laid,
the roof is taking shape -
a very unusual shape.
The steep roof is a neat
space-creating solution,
but the design calls
for clever reinforcing.
A bit like an aircraft wing.
You can see that, although it's
got struts and it's got braces,
when I do this, it does wobble,
it does rack.
So, what the modeller does -
and here anybody who's familiar
with the hobbies of yesteryear -
the hobbyist covers
his wing with tissue paper.
Here's one I made this weekend.
This is exactly the same structure
but with the tissue paper soaked
in the varnish now, having dried,
and stretched, as it dries,
over the surface.
it's made the structure
absolutely rigid.
It's impossible
to move it, to flex it.
These plywood sheets act
just like the tissue paper.
Once stapled to the frame,
it becomes rigid and strong enough
to withstand even the easterly winds
off the Suffolk coast.
The roof isn't the only bit
of the design to maximise space.
So, on the ground plan,
you can see here - here is
the living/dining/kitchen area -
one big open plan space, yeah?
And here are all the other
functions that you need day-to-day,
all compressed into exactly
one half of the footprint.
So, you've got the
spare room-cum-study area,
there is a utility, toilet,
cloakroom, sitting area
with children's TV,
storage, toys, blah, blah, blah,
which does seem a little
bit compressed, doesn't it?
Even standing here,
you can see and feel how these rooms
are not the most generous
but I think it's worth it,
because each of these functions
just happens
for just a few minutes a day.
You spend only a few minutes
in the utility room loading
and unloading the washing machine,
you pop into the toilet.
The kids don't need a huge amount
of space, for heaven's sakes -
just a sofa and a ring
in the floor to tie them to
and that's all you need.
Whereas, here, this is where you
can get full benefit from all
that squashing of those functions
into the back half of the building.
Here, you can...
You can enjoy, you can bathe in the
voluptuousness of the space here.
It's clever, isn't it?
Saving space and money
lie behind a lot of the choices
made in this house,
right down to the flooring.
Very pale, very Scandinavian.
I know. It is...
Yeah, the house is quite
Scandinavian, I give in!
Do you know what?
Better that than Alpine, I think.
Better that than, you know,
Swiss chalet.
But hard-wearing and cheap.
Stop saying cheap!
Oh, no.
Do you find it painful
to reduce, reduce, reduce?
Actually, I think this design's
completely intact conceptually.
I really do.
I really think it works.
And I sort of now feel like if we
hadn't been forced to go through
a process of really thinking
about what was important,
we'd have built a sort of
slightly fat building.
It sits much better
in the space that we have. Yeah.
I mean, that would have been
a disaster now
if it had been as big as we intended.
And on stilts. And on stilts.
I mean, it just... What were you
thinking? What were we thinking?
We wanted it big. A floating house.
But, actually, I think
it sits much better now.
Some of the cost savings will
be hidden, like the insulation -
no longer recycled newspapers
but the more usual synthetic stuff.
Other savings will be more visible.
The roof will now be traditional
slate rather than zinc.
I've been really
worried about the tiles
cos it seems such a compromise.
Cos I really, really wanted
that lovely zinc roof
and I was really worried
about the tiles looking busy,
and when I saw them today,
they look lovely.
There's something really nice that...
I know it would have looked very new
and exciting having the zinc,
but there's something really nice
about having proper tiles,
that made it look like
a proper little house.
"Ahem! Ahem!" coughed Goldilocks.
"In case you pea-brains had
forgotten, this story is called
"Goldilocks And The Three Bears, not
the little show-off in his pyjamas."
'Now, I very much look at it
as somewhere cosy to come home to.'
And it is smaller now, um...
..but that's not a bad thing,
particularly -
now it's not a bad thing.
And this big space that we were
going to cook dinner and talk
to our friends and get drunk sitting
on those sofas and things,
I still intend to do that, but it
becomes even more important now
because I'm on my own and so I need
to be able to talk to my friends when
I'm cooking my dinner, because there
isn't anyone else to talk to them.
So that's become...
That space has become
even more important.
Lucie is adamant that this project
must fit her budget,
so Jerry has specified windows
that come in affordable
off-the-peg sizes.
It's got this kind of grey,
natural-finish aesthetic
going on, which is, you know,
things like the larch cladding
will go grey over time,
we've got the kind of slate grey
with very natural finishes.
This is a bit jarring,
this kind of hardwood colour,
so we're going to stain these
to kind of pull them back
away from their slightly
reddy hardwood colour.
We probably need to stain them
a bit more, as well, than usual,
just to kind of get them to match.
Quite often in spaces,
you only want to have three,
maximum four,
different materials in them.
We're going to stain
exposed bits of timber.
Some of them
are going to be stained grey,
so that'll be part of the
stained grey camp, if you like.
There's some birch ply,
and then there's some white walls.
Then that's kind of your base three
different elements in the space.
And then there's these
bits of colour,
which a lot of them
are more Lucie's involvement.
I've talked to her about bits of
wallpaper she wants
to put here and there and
the colour scheme for the kitchen,
and it's that sort of individual
area of kind of boho
which will be really fun and
I'm really interested in seeing
because we're kind of less
in control of that.
I think that'll be really nice.
That'll be, really,
Lucie putting a stamp on that bit
and a stamp on that bit.
I think it'll be great.
And that stamp of Lucie's
is one of invention and thrift.
That sofa - I mean, I grew up with
that sofa that's being done today.
I hummed and hawed about
whether I really wanted the sofa
because it's something I've
had from...or my parents had,
I grew up with, and then
my parents gave it to Nat and I
when we moved into our last house.
That's where we, you know,
used to sit and read in the bedroom.
You know, I thought perhaps it might
be nicer just to have a fresh start
and I did toy with the idea
of just buying something new,
but it's nice
to bring it along with me.
But it's really good to have
clean, modern, fresh fabric on it.
Lucie wants to continue the clean,
refined look of the house
right through the interior.
When everything is
so visible and pared-down,
the finishes have to be precise.
It's a joyous moment as she sees
the project that started life
as a shared dream
take shape before her eyes.
It looks really big,
doesn't it? Yeah.
(Wow!)
So, with the house finished,
how has Lucie adopted and adapted
the dream that she and Nat fostered?
And how well are she and
her children flourishing?
The sweeping roof looks like
it's been caught
in the act of opening up.
Albeit smaller and cheaper
than the original design,
the house still has all
the assertion and power
that Nat hoped for.
Hello. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Heavens! It seems
an awful lot bigger.
The windows are just straight
out of a catalogue, aren't they?
Off-the-peg. But they look fabulous,
yeah, with the grey paint.
Absolutely.
So, how are the light wells?
Are they letting any light in?
They're letting loads of light in.
The other thing
I really like is -
and I suppose, again, it's because
the space isn't at all fussy -
is that chimney, which is exposed
all the way through the building.
The whole way up. Does it work
like a radiator? Does it get warm?
It does get warm. Cos they could have
taken it out of the wall down here
and then up the outside of the house,
but it means that
the outside stays pristine.
This is really clever architecture.
Lucie and her architect, Jerry, have
been clear about their priorities
from the outset.
The open staircase was key.
Cheap and practical,
and sculptural, too.
Upstairs, the rooms follow
the line of the cassette roof.
They're tall and dramatic.
And then the window, of course.
The beautiful window.
The most generous window imaginable.
How high is it?
About three and a half metres. Wow.
I know, and the sun
in the morning goes up like that.
It's beautiful.
On a day where there is sun.
You mean the sun sort of specially
starts to pass just for you?
Yeah.
I love this place
because it's a low-cost, model,
suburban, three-bedroom house -
a 21st-century chalet bungalow,
with all the attitude
and resilience of its owner.
I'm delighted with the house.
Of course, it's slightly bittersweet.
You know, and I brought my children
and I brought the furniture
and our books and everything
with us and, you know,
Nat's family have been here
a lot already,
so it's sort of he's moved in
with us, you know.
In spirit, yeah.
His memories are as much here
as they were in the last house.
Well, and also this place...
And he created.. I mean,
he saw the plans for this house.
The week before he died was when we
got the plans for the revised house,
so he's seen them. And there
wasn't that much changed, anyway.
So, I think, no, he's here
as much as he was in the last house,
if not more. Yeah.
Well, he's in the bones and
the structure of the place. Exactly.
Exactly. Yeah.
It's been, you know, three and
a half years since I was last here
in Woodbridge, and I have no idea
what I'll find on coming back.
One thing I will say, though,
is that, after all the turmoil
and upheaval in Lucie's life,
I really hope not much has changed.
Rarely have I met an individual
with the courage
and the fire of
Lucie Fairweather.
It's unusual for women
to self-build,
rarer still when they're single
parents, bereaved and working.
It's now three-and-a-half years on
and I've returned to find out
whether this house has brought Lucie
and her children a new future
or whether it's trapped them
in the past.
Oh, gosh!
It's beautiful.
Hello. Hello. How beautiful!
It cost Lucie only ?200,000
to build this place
but it's one big,
beautiful chalet bungalow.
You see these places next to it?
It's considerably larger
than these, isn't it?
It's very imposing
when you come round the corner.
You see other chalet bungalows
with the rooms in the roof
and everything and come round and...
"Wow!"
It's like the architects
who built those, designed those,
in the back of their heads,
they were hoping it might turn out
to look like this.
It's actually more beautiful
for being slightly silvered.
I'm surprised it hasn't gone
more grey. It's Siberian larch.
Every time I arrive home I think,
"Wow!" Do you? Yeah.
After all these years?
After all these years. Every time?
Isn't that a lovely thing? Yes.
Although this place is smaller
and less ambitious
than Nat and Lucie had planned,
it still has all the excitement
and integrity
of the original vision.
And, as you step inside,
the flexibility of the house
to accept change becomes apparent.
Shoes off. Because it's
a shoes-off house, isn't it? Please.
No, that's all right.
This was the children's playroom?
This was the playroom but I didn't
like coming in to all the mess...
Detritus. ..and Rose's
design projects and things.
So this was a guest room
but is now...
This was the guest room
but is now the TV room.
So you can shut the door,
which is very important.
I can shut the door on the cartoons.
That noise.
That incessant noise. Exactly.
And having walked past
all these service areas, you know,
that kind of gets you into the
"ah" of the building, isn't it?
The good bit. The good bit.
The broad space, the high space.
It's semi open-plan, semi open
section. Very nice. Very lovely.
It looks like you just eat pizza
here from the takeaway. No.
I do lots of cooking. Do you?
I don't see any marks of that.
I love it and so I look after it.
Yeah. Good.
This is my special place.
I had wondered whether this place
might stay stuck
in some kind of memory loop
but with Lucie's children,
Rose and Moses, around,
that was never going to happen.
Look! You look so well-behaved!
How are you both?
BOTH: Good. Yes? All right?
I like your rooms very much.
I always have liked these rooms
cos of the shape of them.
It's like living inside
a giant piece of cheese.
'Clearly, their extended family
love the house, too.'
I don't remember seeing this before.
Rose, who built that?
Grandpa. Did he?
It's got solar panels on it and...
It's got all the right things
in the right place. The kitchen.
What's it got in it?
It's got my bedroom. That's weird.
It's got your wallpaper in it!
But in miniature. In miniature.
It's got Mum's wallpaper
in her room.
Is there a miniature you in here?
No. No?
The stability of life at home
has clearly nurtured Lucie
and given her the strength to go out
into the world on her own
to make new friends and a new life
for her and her children.
Having moved to Suffolk
from Southampton,
it wasn't only a new house they
moved into, but also a new town.
It's lovely.
I'm quite evangelical about
being part of a small community.
I really enjoy it. You bump into
friends and get to know shopkeepers.
And, in such a small community,
you always know someone who knows
someone else, so it's lovely.
Really good.
The beautifully-designed open
entertaining space in the house
has also provided
the social environment
which Lucie had always hoped for.
I think it's fantastic.
We're in the process of doing
something to our own house
at the moment
and we are very jealous.
Very comfortable, nice proportions,
lovely light.
It's very comfortable,
it's very adaptable.
I've been here when there's been
40 or 50 people dancing,
I've been here when there have been
five or six people having dinner,
an intimate dinner.
So it works for everything.
To achieve this outcome is amazing
and I'm full of admiration
for what Lucie has made here.
Beautiful, beautiful home.
The acute-angled roof
and larch cladding
almost suggest a gingerbread house
from Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Or is it a Goldilocks house?
One that's not too big
and not too small.
A house that is just right
for the three of them.
Much of the credit
for the success of this place
and its architectural tricks
has to go to friend
and architect Jerry Tate,
who provided not just the design
and expertise but the emotional
support throughout the project.
When were you last here?
Probably about four months ago.
That's the advantage
of being mates, isn't it?
You get your architect round
for the occasional bottle and say,
"While you're here...
Here's a screwdriver."
"What do you think of this?"
I think of this as a bit of
a model house, you know?
I didn't really talk to Lucie
too much about it being
a prototype house but it was...
It was the first new-build house
we designed.
It may be a simple house but there
are entertaining details here
that I didn't notice
the first time around,
like these delightful chain links
for rainwater from the gutters,
which seem to tether
the house to the ground.
It is glamorous. Yeah.
Which is also what I like.
Exactly. Why not?
But actually, wrapped up
in a much more modest envelope.
There's a bit more, you know,
that fits a tradition of stuff
going on behind these hedges,
you know, down towards the river.
We were wanting it to look
a bit like
something that although
you look at it you went,
"God, that is quite striking",
at the same time, it might have been
here for a few hundred years.
An old boathouse or something.
Good architecture
is also about providing space
for people to grow and adapt in,
to feel protected and looked after.
In that respect,
Nat's original hopes for this place
are fully realised and remembered.
Looking back, you know,
with Nat's death and the project,
do you compartmentalise
those things?
Well, I think I compartmentalise
the period that Nat was ill
and his death but I think
since I started building the house,
it has been pretty seamless.
That's interesting because a lot
of people will compartmentalise
the process of building as
a grim experience but, of course...
No, no. It's incredibly positive.
I loved it because it gave me
something else to think about.
What would Nat think now?
I think he would have loved
the way that it's so open
and seeing the children running
out of any door they want.
All of that... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The way you use the building
day-to-day. Exactly.
I think that would have
filled him with joy.
How well
is the building received now?
It's become a bit of a...landmark.
It might sound superficial but I love
the fact it's a really cool house.
I like the fact that people
turn round the corner
and are slightly taken aback.
But I have got a pretty
impressive house for a fraction
of what it would cost me to buy
another impressive house around here.
I feel excited coming home
to it every night.
I mean, I'm really proud of it.
Architecture
can make us feel better,
help us flourish
and even heal us.
I think this building,
magically, does all three.
Hypothetically, if somebody else
comes into your life,
is the house flexible enough
to accommodate them, do you think?
That is a big question.
I don't know whether it would.
It's important that I'm happy, it's
important that our lives move on.
So I'm never going to be
so attached to this house
that I wouldn't ever
move away from it
but, at the moment, it's wonderful.
Yeah.
They says scars heal with time,
don't they? That people move on?
The bizarre thing is that
this building...hasn't.
It's remained the same.
I did wonder if that was because it
remained a kind of memorial to Nat.
But it's not that at all.
Nat's ideas are here, for sure,
but the reason this building hasn't
changed is because it's so good.
It's so usable.
It's a proper exemplar
for the kind of family home
we could all be living in.
It's a good little green building.
The simple thing, really well done.