Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 18, Episode 3 - Haringey London 2017 - full transcript
If you've ever had a shed,
you will know it to be not just
a place of work
but also a place of contemplation.
They're places where you can study
the secrets of horticulture
or unpick the mysteries
of mechanics.
The trouble is, I just don't seem
to be able to spend enough time
in the shed.
Which leads me to think
that what I really should do
is install a bed over there
and a wood burner there
and a rocking chair just there,
you know?
It's the way forward, isn't it?
Houses are overrated.
Sheds are the future.
It's my favourite theme tune.
A few miles outside Belfast,
within the rolling hills of
County Down in Northern Ireland
as a place that celebrates
the humble shed.
So this is Shedland,
this is where I grew up.
We've nicknamed it that just because
there's so many sheds everywhere.
It's the childhood home
of architect Micah Jones.
This is just a wooden shed here
and it's got all of our belongings
in it.
This is my brother's shed.
That's a shed for setting in.
This is a shed that houses
my wee Fiat.
It is small but
perfectly formed.
Shedland's largest shed houses
Micah's newly-formed
architectural practice.
Extensions, and of course
the occasional shed,
form the bulk of his work,
but he's now designed his young
family a new home.
We haven't been too sophisticated
about the design. It is essentially
a big empty shed to live in.
Until recently, Micah lived in
Belfast with his two boys,
Toby and Zach,
and his wife Elaine,
a health charity worker.
When Micah and I lived here,
I suppose we slowly grew out of the
house.
It was quite small.
We had both our children there,
there were only two more bedrooms.
And really, the idea of building
a house wasn't in the mix at all.
It just so happened that as we were
looking for houses,
we realised how unaffordable they
were, especially in this area,
and then we started
to decide, OK,
maybe building a house
was a good idea.
Squeezed by money and space,
they took their search
outside of Belfast
and eventually found some
large agricultural sheds.
It didn't take long for work
to begin.
He's going to knock it
all down flat.
Look at that, Toby, it's all gone!
It's late spring and I'm taking
my first journey up the narrow
lane to Micah and Elaine's plot.
On-site, the foundations for their
new home are well underway.
I can see the shape you're building.
Pretty simple. A Big barn.
Concrete strip foundations,
block work.
They are good thick walls, these.
How many more courses?
Up to the floor level? I've no idea.
An architect, he doesn't know.
Once the concrete slab of the first
floor goes in,
the whole structure of the first
floor will be timber clad
and timber construction as well.
You're going to live in this big
wooden box on concrete blocks.
Yeah. Basically.
Best of both worlds.
Basically, it's coming
from Austria on the back of a lorry
and then it will be craned
into position.
Hopefully in three weeks' time.
Three weeks from now?
That is your first floor? Yes.
So to get there, you've got to put
a slab in here
and then on top of this wall,
an internal double skin, rising.
To provide your ground floor. Yeah.
So you've got to do all of that
in three weeks.
Yes. It's a tight timescale,
but it's very, very simple
construction techniques.
Such a tight timeframe
seems very optimistic
but then there's a clean
simplicity to Micah's design.
A design that follows the long
rectangular footprint
of the sheds
they demolished.
The race has already begun
to finish the lower storey
of concrete blockwork.
Four ground floor bedrooms
and two bathrooms
will be neatly squeezed
onto this narrow site
connected by a long corridor.
The blockwork walls will be clad in
stone
reclaimed from the demolished sheds.
Pre-cast concrete slabs will be
craned into position
to form the base of the more
adventurous first floor.
It'll be constructed from large
timber panels slotted together
in just a few days to enclose
a semi-open plan living space
with a kitchen, dining area, study,
small toilet and sitting room.
The roofing panels will be supported
with external trusses
so that inside the roof lines
are left clean and open.
You will be funnelled along a highly
reflective concrete floor,
poured and polished on-site
and inevitably drawn towards the
sweeping views
via a large end window
and a protected balcony.
The first floor will be clad in
larch and cement-corrugated panels
will skin the roof making this house
undeniably shedlike.
But a sharp modern strong shed,
very different from where
they currently live.
This is your home at the moment,
is it?
It is, yes. Looks rather good.
Cabin, caravan.
Cabin is the sort of anchor of the
caravan, I think, is the main idea,
because we are up on the top of a
hill.
It is literally strapped down.
And a great spot,
you're on top of a hill here?
There's views down to the Mournes.
Is that the Mournes over there.
The Mourne mountains, you can just
make them out today.
Great peaks. I think
that's the best part of it.
I love this site.
How much did you pay for it? 80,000.
What?!
How much did you get for that?
Size of a postage stamp.
So it's 0.6 of an acre.
£80,000. A cheap site,
but how much is it going to cost
to build a house?
We are planning on about 210.
Basically that's coming from the
sale of our little house in Belfast.
And our mortgage as well.
Basically, that's the limit
of the budget.
How long are you expecting to be
on site?
I think we've allowed ourselves
a year.
A year in that caravan might
be a bit hard-core.
If we survive a winter
in there, we'll do well.
£210,000 to build Northern Ireland's
biggest shed is not a great deal.
And with much of the build
still to cost,
there are no guarantees it will
be enough.
Money will be tight on this project,
but then so is time.
If they miss their three-week
deadline for fitting
the first floor, they'll have to
wait another six months
for the specialist installation
team to become available.
That's a lot of pressure
for the block work contractor,
Stephen McCreary.
Do you think you, within three
weeks, will be able to get up
to where you need to be to receive
the timber?
This is particularly tight.
Normally takes us two months to get
to first floor level.
Three weeks.
A month to get to subfloor
and then another month to get
to first floor levels.
It's pretty tight.
No pressure!
Micah is taking a significant risk
with his schedule.
But he is an architect,
he should know what he's doing.
To assess his architectural acumen,
I'm visiting his first-ever
structure.
This is Shedland.
LAUGHTER
I should have guessed that it's a
shed.
Whoa. It's barely standing up.
Yeah, I know. At the time
it was built, it was junk,
and it's amazing that it's still
hanging together.
I know!
Oh, yeah. It's all right. Earth
floor.
Skylight. Cabinet tables.
Packing cases, pallets.
I don't think there was a straight
nail used in it.
If I were you and I had been brought
here,
and shown Micah's first
building,
and I'd seen this,
I would be filled with dread
at the idea of what
he was going to build for me.
I was more worried about the boy
that used to sit in here
wearing tweed and smoking a pipe
dreaming about being a farmer.
That was more what
I worried about, not the shed!
What you're building, of course, is
a formalised version of here.
The shed influence is more in
terms of using materials
that are not tied to maybe
some of the limitations
of traditional building.
So there will be these shed
moments within the building.
I hope so, yes.
Hopefully. As long as they don't
leak, I don't mind!
As the blockies race to complete
the concrete ground floor,
Micah and Elaine's shed-inspired
first floor is being manufactured
1,000 miles away near the Austrian
town of Melk.
Austria is the world's biggest
producer of cross-laminated timber.
In a factory made entirely
from the stuff,
a mixture of spruce, larch and pine
planks are glued together
to form large panels.
These panels are cut to plan
and then transported to site
where they can be slotted together
in a matter of days.
The most striking characteristic of
this cutting-edge building material
is the strength of it.
This shed, noble as it is, is not
the finest construction.
Sheds are meant to be.
It's a simple skin of planks, rather
like this, which of course
if you were to try to separate would
break apart really easily,
like that.
On the other hand,
take another layer and glue them
at right angles to each other,
then what you get
is you get the benefit of the grain,
the strength of the timber,
but they don't want to split open.
They don't want to break.
Add three layers
and you get a miniature cross
laminated timber wall.
Look at that.
I can't even make it crack.
The strength is incredible.
It's really, really rigid,
really resistant and strong.
So strong, in fact, it makes me
think
I should really build a house
with lollipop sticks.
On site,
the block work still isn't finished,
and the pre-cast concrete floor
panels are yet to be fitted.
There's a lot to do before the
timber first floor arrives
in three days.
2? weeks into a year-long schedule,
and Micah and Elaine are racing to
complete the concrete ground floor
of their ambitious
shed-spirited home.
There have been a few sleepless
nights, a lot of phone calls,
but we're here and, er,
we've the slabs fitted today.
Precast concrete slabs
are craned into position...
..and are then grouted in more
concrete.
Having flooded the site
with extra labour,
and with just hours to spare,
the long,
concrete ground floor structure is
ready for its wooden top.
The next morning, having carried
38 tonnes of house, worth ?50,000,
across an entire continent...
That is tight.
..the final mile up a narrow lane
turns out to be the most
treacherous.
The guy is pretty confident, but
it's still a bit touch-and-go.
We'll be glad once it's up there.
Just as the site comes into view,
it's not the width of the lane,
but the muddy surface
that starts to cause problems.
Metres from its destination,
this Austrian lorry is
well and truly stuck.
It's 38 tonne.
You won't be able to lift it.
It takes more than a few gentle
nudges from a large digger to
complete the long journey.
HORN HONKS
You done well to get up here,
anyway. OK. Yes!
Good job. Good job! Thank you.
One of the benefits of these strong
structural panels is how
quickly they can be put together.
OK? Gybe out a little bit more.
Right, it's down to the brackets.
The panels are bolted onto
the concrete floor.
And the pre-cut windows and doors
are all popped out on site.
That's the quickest window
I've ever seen made.
Within hours of the lorry arriving,
Micah's wooden home seems to have
sprung into existence.
It's just amazing,
seeing it come together.
Erm, it's like a house being formed
right around you.
Just 21 days since I first came to
this site, I'm back,
and what I find is close to
miraculous.
Wow.
There's a house. I mean,
will you look at that?
Just look at that!
I have to say, I have to say...
We didn't do anything!
No, but look
what you've procured. Yeah.
What is remarkable about the
building is how accurately
the panels from Austria fit against
the ground floor block work.
Basically, we've blown half
the budget in four weeks.
Well, you've got a structure up.
You know, that's all right.
It's a great testament to
cross-laminated timber,
we know that, because it's
a great material, but it's,
if anything, actually an even
greater tribute to the blockies.
BOTH: Yeah, absolutely.
They were brilliant.
To get their work so quickly,
so accurately, done... Yes.
The backlash of the speed of
this is trying to keep up
with the next stage,
cos there's so much work going into
actually getting just to this point.
Ho-ho! So this is it. Oh, what
a very satisfying view that is.
Usually, internal CLT walls
are plastered or painted,
but Micah and Elaine are, in shed
tradition, leaving them exposed.
In many people's minds,
this looks like, feels like, hmm,
a cross between a sauna
and a chalet.
Well, that was my fear,
but I'm pretty much reassured.
Now that I've seen it,
I really like it.
I suppose I was thinking about
this, too - ski chalets, saunas,
are places you go to relax.
So if we get the feeling of relaxing
in this building, then...that's OK.
Of course, there's even more wood
to come, when the roof is installed.
Usually, roofs are supported on
the inside, with large trusses.
Micah's innovative design will put
the principal rafters of the truss
outside, leaving just the horizontal
tie beam visible inside.
Normally, these would be
on the underside of the roof
and they would be supporting
from the top surface here.
In this particular case, they're
going to be supported from the
bottom surface here, so it's just
an upside-down way of construction.
I mean, that's what architects
are for - we love 'em!
The large roof panels are rested
on temporary props.
Once in position, the over
trusses are craned into place
and then secured.
When the props are removed,
what's left internally
is a clean-lined structural roof
and a much simpler space.
Just over one month
since work began, the interior
in Northern Ireland's sturdiest
shed has been fully laid out.
This is really interesting
coming through here,
cos you get cranked immediately,
because the porch is asymmetric.
And then the front door changes
the angle. And then you look up
and you've got a whole load more
angles. Haven't you just?
Feels like two very different
personalities, doesn't it?
Open timber, closed concrete.
Very much.
The staircase is going in here?
Yes, and this is all going to be
built out of the offcuts of CLT.
All the doors and windows, you know,
all those pieces are all stored.
They sent them? They sent them, yes.
I requested that they send them.
You buy the whole panel,
so you might as well take the stuff
that's cut out of the holes.
Micah's clever recycled
staircase will take you
up into a world of cross-laminated
timber.
So, this is the kitchen space, here.
And then kind of dining area here.
Enclosure, now. Yes. And this is
the main kind of living space.
How much, again?
I have to ask, cos I just enjoy
listening to the answer.
Well, yeah, at the minute, it's less
than ?1,000 a square metre.
Brilliant.
I mean, most self builders on a
one-off are spending 1,500, 2,000.
Yeah, absolutely. Well,
we just don't have that to spend
and so we are just trying
to keep costs down,
but at the same time having a really
simple, beautiful home.
The structure has cost ?90,000 -
exactly to budget.
But the cost for the rest
of the project has come in,
and it's 35 grand more than Micah
and Elaine were expecting.
I'm so aware that we can lose
sight of the budget very easily.
The bottom line is, there is
a finite budget
and we've got to stick to that
as much as we possibly can.
If we run away with the budgets
in one area, all that is going to
end up happening is we'll have
an unfinished house.
By the end of July,
work on the next phase has begun,
but the contract will have to
be stripped back
if this house is to stay
within its ?210,000 budget.
The roof lights are in and the first
floor is clad
in an external skin of insulation.
Like all good sheds, the roof is
covered with corrugated panels.
This material here
is for agricultural use.
When I first came, I thought
it would be easier to snap!
It's not easy.
It's not made to
go around their windows,
but it's what the customer wants,
it's what he's going to get.
More straightforward is the external
skin of large cladding,
which will cover most of
the first-floor walls.
Micah always planned to take on
one of the most gruelling tasks
himself -
sorting and reusing the stone
from the old shed
for his ground-floor cladding.
How you getting on down there,
man, all right? Good!
Do you not have to wet these stones
first, before you mortar them?
Well, I haven't been!
LAUGHTER
Well, look - that's stuck.
Yeah. Yeah, that's stuck.
Not going anywhere. How long does it
take you to do this bit, then?
This first starter portion? Probably
about a day, a day and a bit.
How many square metres is this? Two.
How many square metres is there
to do? Er, 125.
And obviously, it's all got
to be done after work...
You need to speed up!
I know we do!
By late summer,
almost ?10,000 has been stripped
from the project costs.
Micah and Elaine will now have to
take on the decorating,
the timber flooring, and a lot
of the landscaping, themselves,
as well as finding an extra ?25,000.
For now, they struggle on with
the stone wall cladding.
Elaine's been doing a lot of
the donkey work of
carrying all the stone down.
Micah sometimes
complains about my stones,
so some of the ones that I chuck
down in desperation are big lumps.
He doesn't like big lumps.
They're five months in...
..and this project is really
beginning to test Micah and Elaine.
The odd night I walk down to do
some stonework and I just think,
"Oh, man, this is just impossible."
I mean, this is a life's work, as
opposed to, you know, a few months.
OK, last one, because I think
you've eaten an entire carrot.
I'm looking forward to a new
kitchen.
The picture here is
a reminder of the moment
we just fell in love with
this place.
We need a little reminder now
and again of why you're here.
The view out of here I think is
actually much better than even
I expected beforehand.
It's a cracking spot.
I think the thing that keeps me
going with it,
the whole project,
is just that it's for our family.
You know, it's not some sort of
high architecture, um...
..kind of...trophy.
Micah and Elaine may be taking on
more and more of this project
themselves to save money,
but they are at least living on site
in their adapted caravan shed.
Any more mice? Yeah, there's one in
the utility room that needs to go.
The bank has now agreed to lend them
an extra ?25,000 to cover
the unexpected rise in costs,
but even so, saving money on site
needs constant vigilance.
Some of the glazing, we probably
compromised slightly on what
we would have loved to have,
just purely on money.
Halfway through their
one-year programme
and ?17,000 worth of windows
have arrived.
One millimetre.
The millimetre-perfect engineered
timber openings
means everything should all
fit perfectly.
Well, almost perfectly.
Nightmare!
Nice and easy here, like.
That's it. It's in.
The rest of the windows don't need
the help of a persuasive chisel.
By the end of the day,
despite a few bumps...
That's it. Oh! Oh!
..all the windows are in, and this
house is almost weathertight.
With winter beginning to bite,
the pace of work inevitably slows
and life in the caravan
drags equally.
I was round at a friend's house
for dinner the other night
and she was kind of showing me
around and I was thinking,
"Wow, this is what a
real house is like!"
You kind of forget sometimes, living
here, cos this becomes the norm.
When you're not living in your
own home, there is
a sense of your life being
a little bit on hold
and that has been very much the
reality of living in this caravan,
that life goes on regardless
of where you live.
Caravan living is an important
financial sacrifice,
but the shed ethos of this build is
also keeping costs down.
Because all the material for this
staircase, you know,
was essentially waste,
left over from the walls,
it's been very,
very cost-effective to do.
You know, the whole thing, I think,
is coming in at around ?1,500.
For a staircase, that's incredible.
Micah's biggest cost-saving measure
was taking on the stonework himself.
Although the outside walls are only
half-finished,
this is a job that's now
moved inside.
Usually go to work, come back,
have some dinner, come out
and work till maybe half ten or so.
This internal stonework is
a nod to the buildings that were
demolished and connects the masonry
ground-floor right up to the roof.
You're not quite as high on this
side, but you're getting there.
I think it's working out OK. Yeah.
The reason why we're building all
the stonework is to allow
the plumbers to lay their insulation
and the underfloor heating.
The difficulty is, you always have
to have the floors dried out,
you know, before you can start
turning on heating and so on,
otherwise they'll dry out too quick.
Without heating on, you know,
we can't move in.
I can see us moving in in January.
LAUGHTER
That means more than two more months
in their rodent-infested caravan.
A few weeks before Christmas,
a January move-in date is
beginning to seem really possible.
The underfloor heating has been laid
and is now ready
for the pigmented concrete.
This is my first visit
since the CLT was finished
way back in August.
What a view!
You see, last time I was here,
all the leaves were on the trees,
which meant that you couldn't
see the house.
Now, you get to see it,
romantically, heroically set behind
the trunks and branches.
It's very beautiful, that setting.
A big barn.
A big shed, really.
Once poured, the six-inch thick
concrete floor is levelled
and left to dry.
Then the polishing begins.
Oh, look, that's mesmerising. Look.
Oh! Look, he's opening it.
So, basically,
they'll keep at it all night
until probably early
tomorrow morning.
The wee hours of the night.
Yeah, absolutely. Wow.
I hope there's more than one bloke.
The skimming blades refine
the concrete surface until the floor
has the appearance of one continuous
piece of highly polished stone.
Have you pigmented it in the...?
Yeah, there's a black pigment in it.
It'll not be black, it'll be a
kind of very dark grey. Yeah.
And it'll have a
bit of a sheen to it,
but I think it'll work really
well with all the timber.
Excellent. The bunker rises...
Yeah. ..into the chalet. Yeah.
But Micah and Elaine are looking
forward beyond the project
to something else that's
truly precious.
I'm telling you this now in case you
wonder what has happened
the next time, cos I'm having
another baby. Are you?
LAUGHTER
Yeah. Yes, we are.
How fantastic! Congratulations.
Yeah. So when is the baby due?
First of June. Yeah, so we'll be
well in by then.
So we'll be living here.
By the time I come back and
we see the finished house,
then there's going to be five of you
in the place? There is, yeah.
So we're going to have to
change the wardrobe.
We're giving up our wardrobe.
Change the downstairs layout a bit?
Yeah, the wardrobe is going to have
to become a nursery.
Pregnancy may exclude
Elaine from any hard labour,
but Micah's found a more
sedate role for her...
So, basically,
if you start with that...
..recycling the cladding
offcuts into kitchen tiles.
But how many of these are
we going to need?
Well, like, that's probably about...
a 20th, but they still
all need painted.
By hand, each one? Each one by hand.
If it looks class,
then it's worth...
..going for, even if
it does take about six months to do.
Nine months since work began,
and Micah and Elaine
draw their last mortgage payment.
But ?28,000 doesn't go far with
contractors and suppliers to pay.
Toby! Toby! Hang on.
A few miles away,
back in shed land,
Micah's parents are keen to hear
about progress.
So when are you going to
be moving in?
You've been talking
about mid-January.
I mean, as is, mid-January.
Well, more late January, I think.
It just depends on getting
the bathroom sorted out.
But it'll be all right,
it's not going to be much longer.
You'll not be able to do any
building with you being pregnant.
I've now been given the lovely task
of sitting at the kitchen table
painting tiles instead.
Which she keeps falling
asleep in the middle of doing,
so it's not going too well.
LAUGHTER
Before Micah and Elaine can move in,
there are some essential jobs
that need to be completed.
Having been stripped
out of the contract,
decorating the bathrooms is
now down to Micah.
This is the home-made steam box.
They're just wallpaper strippers,
but I'm still kind of hoping
it's going to work.
I mean, I haven't done any steam
bending before,
so it is a bit of trial and error.
DIY steam-bent ash cladding is
cheaper than tiles, it turns out.
Floorboards on.
Quite a bit to go.
Then there are the
kitchen cupboards.
I forgot to put a panel in here,
so I have to take all these,
slide them all 20mm that way.
I'm not infallible, no.
This is baby Jones number three
kind of face down,
so he or she probably needs to
go on the fridge as well
and join the clan,
so I'll just put them there.
That's another reminder, in case
I needed one, that something...
someone else is coming, too!
Three weeks of hard graft
and by early February,
the dreaded caravan is eerily empty.
Micah and Elaine have made
it into the new house,
but there is still a long way to
go before it looks like home.
I was hoping for a moment when you
just moved in and it was done,
but I think that was probably pretty
unrealistic, to be honest,
cos we have so much still to do.
How stressful has it been, though,
moving into the place unfinished?
It was a little bit stressful.
There's a lot of work to do,
but just being out of the caravan
is definitely good.
So what are the things that you've
pulled out of the contract
to save money that have worked?
The painting and we've also taken
the wooden floor line
downstairs out of the contract.
Right.
So, Micah's planning to do
that himself.
Sometimes I think Micah has
maybe taken on too much,
but there's no stopping him now.
There's now little over ?2,000 left
to spend on this project
and Elaine wants Micah to be more
realistic about what he can achieve
before the baby comes.
I mean, we're fairly far on with
a lot of these things now,
like the kitchen
and worktops are pretty much sorted.
The kitchen tiles, that's started,
so we've got a bit more
to do on that.
Timber floors, I think
about a week should get it covered.
Are you still planning to do that?
Mm-hm, absolutely.
I don't think there's any money to
do anything else, so...
there's still, like,
six to ten weeks
of flat-out stonework, I think.
The baby's going to arrive
in 12 weeks.
12 weeks! Flip!
It's been a wee bit of a
wake-up call, to be honest, to see
just how soon things are maybe going
to have to shift, you know,
so there's a kind of
12-week period now
to kind of just get as
much done as possible.
There is nothing left to
spend on labour,
so Micah and Elaine enlist
friends and family to help.
Painting, flooring
and stonework need to be done
before the newest member
of their family arrives...
..which could be any day!
Seven days or something. A week.
Not very long, basically.
But it's not allowed
to come out early!
I've been coming to visit Micah
and Elaine in County Down for
about a year now, during which time
their shed house has risen from
the pastoral landscape.
A year has that has
tested their stamina and resolve.
Oh, the abandoned old
caravan garden.
Look, it's turned into a kind of
builder's graveyard here. Oh.
No-one in the caravan. It looks
abandoned. Which is good, I suppose.
Derelict.
And that is why.
What a beautiful
building in a beautiful setting.
MUSIC PLAYS
Well, this building's ancient
template has never been clearer.
It's a modern long house filled with
agricultural references.
A beautiful, simple home pieced
together really quite quickly.
This is a shed worth living in.
Hiya. What about you, Kevin? Very
well, how are you? Hello.
Hello, sweetheart. Nice to see you.
How are you? Welcome back.
Congratulations. Thank you
very much. I mean it's vast. Vast.
Look at it. It is vast. It's a ship.
Very established. Yeah, absolutely.
I know, it doesn't look
like a brand-new structure as such.
When I was here last, the top half
had been on for a good six
months but it was still kind of
bright and the stonework was dark.
What's happened is the stonework has
dried out and the top,
meanwhile, has kind of silvered.
They've kind of got closer in
texture and colour. Yes, I know.
It's really helped to kind of help
it mould into the landscape
as well, and be more at home in the
hillside.
More Irish. More Irish.
In a way, that's the way it was
designed, to try
and make something that improves
with the age and got better.
It's not just when it comes
out of the box that it looks great.
Micah's quiet architectural pride
shows itself in subtle flourishes.
The cast concrete that mirrors
the timber fence,
angular slips of grass.
They demonstrate a playful flair
that I hope continues inside.
Here we are.
MUSIC PLAYS
So, what do you think? What do
I think? It's all right, isn't it?
It's fantastic.
These skylights make a huge
difference.
They lift the colour of the timber.
And the stone wall really does,
you know,
that sort of thrusts
up from the floor below, all this.
Remind you about what
you're sitting on.
And it's a reminder too, of the...
What was here. What was here, yeah.
Timber store made out of... CLT.
It's the most over-engineered
timber store ever.
It's so strong
but it's really beautiful though.
There's a poetry in keeping
the wood within wood. Yeah.
Kitchen tiles,
also another bonkers idea. Yeah.
They look really well but I can
still feel the pain of those
because they took so long.
Just like Micah's first building
in shed land, this house is
garnished with materials that would
usually have been scrapped,
but the motto here has always been
why buy when you can build?
I love that reflection
of the window.
It makes the window seen double
height, you know.
And then the floor's dark.
Yeah, it is but there's
a lot of reflection off it,
so it kind of gives
a lot of light.
Because it's so highly polished.
More like slate, the colour of it.
Beautiful.
The upstairs living spaces merge
together under that continuous roof.
But there's plenty to divert you,
like a rope platform,
the kind of thing you'd expect to
find in a shed.
So it's structurally, you know,
it'll take load will it, that net?
Yes, absolutely.
There's not even the slightest
bit of flex when you're...
Wow! No, no! Go on.
It's good, actually. Brilliant.
There's no movement whatsoever.
This wall, here
and that wall, there,
they force you out of the line
of the building towards the corner.
Yes. And it gets narrower, of
course, and then at this point,
suddenly...
Opens out into the space.
MUSIC PLAYS
The fireplace is something else.
It's like a little slice of the
National Theatre. Yeah. Wow, wow.
Very brutalist. You can't
beat pouring wet concrete.
Micah is no designer of sheds
in truth.
This is proper architecture that's
warm and enclosing.
Windows have been precisely
positioned to frame what
appear to be separate
views of different places.
But always drawing you forward is
the huge panorama that
dominates the south elevation.
MUSIC PLAYS
Here we go. Go ahead.
There's a real sense of enclosure
here, isn't there?
Especially
when the doors are closed.
You know, it's almost a little
bit of sun trap because, you know,
the wind can't really blow in.
And what it does is direct your view
out to that amazing... The best bit.
It's the best bit which is
the landscape and the agriculture
and the great sky.
You know.
Drumlins of County Down. Yeah.
From the open, bright first floor,
you descend to the bedrooms down
Micah's clever CLT staircase.
A narrow corridor leads you
through to three bedrooms.
Down here may feel more conventional
but Micah's signature is everywhere,
not least in the family bathroom.
There are those home-made steam
benched timber walls
and a sink made from an agricultural
basin found on site.
Next door, Micah and Elaine's master
suite is also home to the
youngest resident of this house.
Baby's bedroom, here. Hiya.
Hello. Hi.
Here she is. This is Zoe. Hello,
Zoe. She's sleeping next door? Yes.
She's in what was
allocated as a dressing room
but actually it works very well
because it's just beside our room
and it's the perfect size and
we never had a dressing room anyway
so we're not going to miss it.
It's good. I bet you didn't have
a view like that before.
No, it's beautiful.
I think this is definitely the best
bedroom I've ever had.
There's no doubt this is a good
environment for a young family.
Cradled in the arms of a strong
landscape.
MUSIC PLAYS
But there is weather here,
so outside there are clever
protective pockets of space.
A courtyard garden
and a protective front yard complete
with an agricultural metal window.
There are some good, sound details
here, as there is around the whole
building, but I particularly like
that Corten,
because that's like rusty old
farm machinery and I particularly
like the exterior staircase
because that isn't very common.
It's common on barns but not
on houses, you know? Absolutely.
And that goes up to the kitchen?
Yeah.
Loads of the stuff that we've done,
I've never done before
and learned through
the process of building it.
Is this your journeyman piece?
Is this the piece that
cements your training?
Yeah, I think it really has been
incredible experience to do it
because you're piecing together
your family home,
you know, which is very special.
This project is testament to the
energy of youth, the discipline
of good design and the optimism that
the spirit of the shed brings.
And now this building gives them
the polished platform to
rediscover family life.
So, this is it,
this is the keeper, yeah?
You are here till whenever.
Whenever.
Yeah, until we pop our clogs.
I mean I can't see us
ever doing it again
because I think this was always
planned as a, "This is it."
This is where we were staying.
But there's plenty of room to
build more sheds.
So how much did you spend?
So, yeah, we spent around 245.
?245,000 all in to build
a house which is pretty cheap.
But it has involved...
Months and months of free labour.
Yeah, I think to kind of demonstrate
architecture in this way,
without going mad on budget, it kind
of opens the door a little bit,
maybe, to make this type of
architecture a little but more
accessible to everyone.
How does your estimation of him
and the experience of the process,
how does it balance up?
You know, I am totally in awe
of what Micah has been able to do
because I wouldn't have had the
stamina that he has had to do this.
There have been moments where it's
been quite hard and now that
we're here, I'm very excited
about life, you know, beyond.
After building. After building.
I mean you can defer for a while
but you can't defer, you know,
being a father and husband forever.
This building is uncomplicated
and that's what we need.
That's what our lives need,
that's what our family needs
because, actually, life is
complicated enough.
You know, so if the place can make
life less complicated, that's good.
You know, I reckon
there are as many sheds and shacks
and outhouses on this
planet as there are houses.
What Micah and Elaine's home does
so brilliant is to fuse
ideas from both those worlds.
This place is as honest as any
agricultural outbuilding.
It's evident, it's really clear what
it's made from.
It is simple in its design
and it is, like any good shed,
it's also expedient.
It uses remnants and leftovers
of itself to make the furniture
and some of the other
components inside the building.
The things like the wood store.
Heavens, you know,
its beauty, its strength,
its integrity all come from that
cross-fertilisation of ideas.
And it does what great architecture
does but on a modest
and straightforward scale.
As Elaine says,
why make things more complicated?
Life is complicated enough as it is.
Subtitles by Ericsson
you will know it to be not just
a place of work
but also a place of contemplation.
They're places where you can study
the secrets of horticulture
or unpick the mysteries
of mechanics.
The trouble is, I just don't seem
to be able to spend enough time
in the shed.
Which leads me to think
that what I really should do
is install a bed over there
and a wood burner there
and a rocking chair just there,
you know?
It's the way forward, isn't it?
Houses are overrated.
Sheds are the future.
It's my favourite theme tune.
A few miles outside Belfast,
within the rolling hills of
County Down in Northern Ireland
as a place that celebrates
the humble shed.
So this is Shedland,
this is where I grew up.
We've nicknamed it that just because
there's so many sheds everywhere.
It's the childhood home
of architect Micah Jones.
This is just a wooden shed here
and it's got all of our belongings
in it.
This is my brother's shed.
That's a shed for setting in.
This is a shed that houses
my wee Fiat.
It is small but
perfectly formed.
Shedland's largest shed houses
Micah's newly-formed
architectural practice.
Extensions, and of course
the occasional shed,
form the bulk of his work,
but he's now designed his young
family a new home.
We haven't been too sophisticated
about the design. It is essentially
a big empty shed to live in.
Until recently, Micah lived in
Belfast with his two boys,
Toby and Zach,
and his wife Elaine,
a health charity worker.
When Micah and I lived here,
I suppose we slowly grew out of the
house.
It was quite small.
We had both our children there,
there were only two more bedrooms.
And really, the idea of building
a house wasn't in the mix at all.
It just so happened that as we were
looking for houses,
we realised how unaffordable they
were, especially in this area,
and then we started
to decide, OK,
maybe building a house
was a good idea.
Squeezed by money and space,
they took their search
outside of Belfast
and eventually found some
large agricultural sheds.
It didn't take long for work
to begin.
He's going to knock it
all down flat.
Look at that, Toby, it's all gone!
It's late spring and I'm taking
my first journey up the narrow
lane to Micah and Elaine's plot.
On-site, the foundations for their
new home are well underway.
I can see the shape you're building.
Pretty simple. A Big barn.
Concrete strip foundations,
block work.
They are good thick walls, these.
How many more courses?
Up to the floor level? I've no idea.
An architect, he doesn't know.
Once the concrete slab of the first
floor goes in,
the whole structure of the first
floor will be timber clad
and timber construction as well.
You're going to live in this big
wooden box on concrete blocks.
Yeah. Basically.
Best of both worlds.
Basically, it's coming
from Austria on the back of a lorry
and then it will be craned
into position.
Hopefully in three weeks' time.
Three weeks from now?
That is your first floor? Yes.
So to get there, you've got to put
a slab in here
and then on top of this wall,
an internal double skin, rising.
To provide your ground floor. Yeah.
So you've got to do all of that
in three weeks.
Yes. It's a tight timescale,
but it's very, very simple
construction techniques.
Such a tight timeframe
seems very optimistic
but then there's a clean
simplicity to Micah's design.
A design that follows the long
rectangular footprint
of the sheds
they demolished.
The race has already begun
to finish the lower storey
of concrete blockwork.
Four ground floor bedrooms
and two bathrooms
will be neatly squeezed
onto this narrow site
connected by a long corridor.
The blockwork walls will be clad in
stone
reclaimed from the demolished sheds.
Pre-cast concrete slabs will be
craned into position
to form the base of the more
adventurous first floor.
It'll be constructed from large
timber panels slotted together
in just a few days to enclose
a semi-open plan living space
with a kitchen, dining area, study,
small toilet and sitting room.
The roofing panels will be supported
with external trusses
so that inside the roof lines
are left clean and open.
You will be funnelled along a highly
reflective concrete floor,
poured and polished on-site
and inevitably drawn towards the
sweeping views
via a large end window
and a protected balcony.
The first floor will be clad in
larch and cement-corrugated panels
will skin the roof making this house
undeniably shedlike.
But a sharp modern strong shed,
very different from where
they currently live.
This is your home at the moment,
is it?
It is, yes. Looks rather good.
Cabin, caravan.
Cabin is the sort of anchor of the
caravan, I think, is the main idea,
because we are up on the top of a
hill.
It is literally strapped down.
And a great spot,
you're on top of a hill here?
There's views down to the Mournes.
Is that the Mournes over there.
The Mourne mountains, you can just
make them out today.
Great peaks. I think
that's the best part of it.
I love this site.
How much did you pay for it? 80,000.
What?!
How much did you get for that?
Size of a postage stamp.
So it's 0.6 of an acre.
£80,000. A cheap site,
but how much is it going to cost
to build a house?
We are planning on about 210.
Basically that's coming from the
sale of our little house in Belfast.
And our mortgage as well.
Basically, that's the limit
of the budget.
How long are you expecting to be
on site?
I think we've allowed ourselves
a year.
A year in that caravan might
be a bit hard-core.
If we survive a winter
in there, we'll do well.
£210,000 to build Northern Ireland's
biggest shed is not a great deal.
And with much of the build
still to cost,
there are no guarantees it will
be enough.
Money will be tight on this project,
but then so is time.
If they miss their three-week
deadline for fitting
the first floor, they'll have to
wait another six months
for the specialist installation
team to become available.
That's a lot of pressure
for the block work contractor,
Stephen McCreary.
Do you think you, within three
weeks, will be able to get up
to where you need to be to receive
the timber?
This is particularly tight.
Normally takes us two months to get
to first floor level.
Three weeks.
A month to get to subfloor
and then another month to get
to first floor levels.
It's pretty tight.
No pressure!
Micah is taking a significant risk
with his schedule.
But he is an architect,
he should know what he's doing.
To assess his architectural acumen,
I'm visiting his first-ever
structure.
This is Shedland.
LAUGHTER
I should have guessed that it's a
shed.
Whoa. It's barely standing up.
Yeah, I know. At the time
it was built, it was junk,
and it's amazing that it's still
hanging together.
I know!
Oh, yeah. It's all right. Earth
floor.
Skylight. Cabinet tables.
Packing cases, pallets.
I don't think there was a straight
nail used in it.
If I were you and I had been brought
here,
and shown Micah's first
building,
and I'd seen this,
I would be filled with dread
at the idea of what
he was going to build for me.
I was more worried about the boy
that used to sit in here
wearing tweed and smoking a pipe
dreaming about being a farmer.
That was more what
I worried about, not the shed!
What you're building, of course, is
a formalised version of here.
The shed influence is more in
terms of using materials
that are not tied to maybe
some of the limitations
of traditional building.
So there will be these shed
moments within the building.
I hope so, yes.
Hopefully. As long as they don't
leak, I don't mind!
As the blockies race to complete
the concrete ground floor,
Micah and Elaine's shed-inspired
first floor is being manufactured
1,000 miles away near the Austrian
town of Melk.
Austria is the world's biggest
producer of cross-laminated timber.
In a factory made entirely
from the stuff,
a mixture of spruce, larch and pine
planks are glued together
to form large panels.
These panels are cut to plan
and then transported to site
where they can be slotted together
in a matter of days.
The most striking characteristic of
this cutting-edge building material
is the strength of it.
This shed, noble as it is, is not
the finest construction.
Sheds are meant to be.
It's a simple skin of planks, rather
like this, which of course
if you were to try to separate would
break apart really easily,
like that.
On the other hand,
take another layer and glue them
at right angles to each other,
then what you get
is you get the benefit of the grain,
the strength of the timber,
but they don't want to split open.
They don't want to break.
Add three layers
and you get a miniature cross
laminated timber wall.
Look at that.
I can't even make it crack.
The strength is incredible.
It's really, really rigid,
really resistant and strong.
So strong, in fact, it makes me
think
I should really build a house
with lollipop sticks.
On site,
the block work still isn't finished,
and the pre-cast concrete floor
panels are yet to be fitted.
There's a lot to do before the
timber first floor arrives
in three days.
2? weeks into a year-long schedule,
and Micah and Elaine are racing to
complete the concrete ground floor
of their ambitious
shed-spirited home.
There have been a few sleepless
nights, a lot of phone calls,
but we're here and, er,
we've the slabs fitted today.
Precast concrete slabs
are craned into position...
..and are then grouted in more
concrete.
Having flooded the site
with extra labour,
and with just hours to spare,
the long,
concrete ground floor structure is
ready for its wooden top.
The next morning, having carried
38 tonnes of house, worth ?50,000,
across an entire continent...
That is tight.
..the final mile up a narrow lane
turns out to be the most
treacherous.
The guy is pretty confident, but
it's still a bit touch-and-go.
We'll be glad once it's up there.
Just as the site comes into view,
it's not the width of the lane,
but the muddy surface
that starts to cause problems.
Metres from its destination,
this Austrian lorry is
well and truly stuck.
It's 38 tonne.
You won't be able to lift it.
It takes more than a few gentle
nudges from a large digger to
complete the long journey.
HORN HONKS
You done well to get up here,
anyway. OK. Yes!
Good job. Good job! Thank you.
One of the benefits of these strong
structural panels is how
quickly they can be put together.
OK? Gybe out a little bit more.
Right, it's down to the brackets.
The panels are bolted onto
the concrete floor.
And the pre-cut windows and doors
are all popped out on site.
That's the quickest window
I've ever seen made.
Within hours of the lorry arriving,
Micah's wooden home seems to have
sprung into existence.
It's just amazing,
seeing it come together.
Erm, it's like a house being formed
right around you.
Just 21 days since I first came to
this site, I'm back,
and what I find is close to
miraculous.
Wow.
There's a house. I mean,
will you look at that?
Just look at that!
I have to say, I have to say...
We didn't do anything!
No, but look
what you've procured. Yeah.
What is remarkable about the
building is how accurately
the panels from Austria fit against
the ground floor block work.
Basically, we've blown half
the budget in four weeks.
Well, you've got a structure up.
You know, that's all right.
It's a great testament to
cross-laminated timber,
we know that, because it's
a great material, but it's,
if anything, actually an even
greater tribute to the blockies.
BOTH: Yeah, absolutely.
They were brilliant.
To get their work so quickly,
so accurately, done... Yes.
The backlash of the speed of
this is trying to keep up
with the next stage,
cos there's so much work going into
actually getting just to this point.
Ho-ho! So this is it. Oh, what
a very satisfying view that is.
Usually, internal CLT walls
are plastered or painted,
but Micah and Elaine are, in shed
tradition, leaving them exposed.
In many people's minds,
this looks like, feels like, hmm,
a cross between a sauna
and a chalet.
Well, that was my fear,
but I'm pretty much reassured.
Now that I've seen it,
I really like it.
I suppose I was thinking about
this, too - ski chalets, saunas,
are places you go to relax.
So if we get the feeling of relaxing
in this building, then...that's OK.
Of course, there's even more wood
to come, when the roof is installed.
Usually, roofs are supported on
the inside, with large trusses.
Micah's innovative design will put
the principal rafters of the truss
outside, leaving just the horizontal
tie beam visible inside.
Normally, these would be
on the underside of the roof
and they would be supporting
from the top surface here.
In this particular case, they're
going to be supported from the
bottom surface here, so it's just
an upside-down way of construction.
I mean, that's what architects
are for - we love 'em!
The large roof panels are rested
on temporary props.
Once in position, the over
trusses are craned into place
and then secured.
When the props are removed,
what's left internally
is a clean-lined structural roof
and a much simpler space.
Just over one month
since work began, the interior
in Northern Ireland's sturdiest
shed has been fully laid out.
This is really interesting
coming through here,
cos you get cranked immediately,
because the porch is asymmetric.
And then the front door changes
the angle. And then you look up
and you've got a whole load more
angles. Haven't you just?
Feels like two very different
personalities, doesn't it?
Open timber, closed concrete.
Very much.
The staircase is going in here?
Yes, and this is all going to be
built out of the offcuts of CLT.
All the doors and windows, you know,
all those pieces are all stored.
They sent them? They sent them, yes.
I requested that they send them.
You buy the whole panel,
so you might as well take the stuff
that's cut out of the holes.
Micah's clever recycled
staircase will take you
up into a world of cross-laminated
timber.
So, this is the kitchen space, here.
And then kind of dining area here.
Enclosure, now. Yes. And this is
the main kind of living space.
How much, again?
I have to ask, cos I just enjoy
listening to the answer.
Well, yeah, at the minute, it's less
than ?1,000 a square metre.
Brilliant.
I mean, most self builders on a
one-off are spending 1,500, 2,000.
Yeah, absolutely. Well,
we just don't have that to spend
and so we are just trying
to keep costs down,
but at the same time having a really
simple, beautiful home.
The structure has cost ?90,000 -
exactly to budget.
But the cost for the rest
of the project has come in,
and it's 35 grand more than Micah
and Elaine were expecting.
I'm so aware that we can lose
sight of the budget very easily.
The bottom line is, there is
a finite budget
and we've got to stick to that
as much as we possibly can.
If we run away with the budgets
in one area, all that is going to
end up happening is we'll have
an unfinished house.
By the end of July,
work on the next phase has begun,
but the contract will have to
be stripped back
if this house is to stay
within its ?210,000 budget.
The roof lights are in and the first
floor is clad
in an external skin of insulation.
Like all good sheds, the roof is
covered with corrugated panels.
This material here
is for agricultural use.
When I first came, I thought
it would be easier to snap!
It's not easy.
It's not made to
go around their windows,
but it's what the customer wants,
it's what he's going to get.
More straightforward is the external
skin of large cladding,
which will cover most of
the first-floor walls.
Micah always planned to take on
one of the most gruelling tasks
himself -
sorting and reusing the stone
from the old shed
for his ground-floor cladding.
How you getting on down there,
man, all right? Good!
Do you not have to wet these stones
first, before you mortar them?
Well, I haven't been!
LAUGHTER
Well, look - that's stuck.
Yeah. Yeah, that's stuck.
Not going anywhere. How long does it
take you to do this bit, then?
This first starter portion? Probably
about a day, a day and a bit.
How many square metres is this? Two.
How many square metres is there
to do? Er, 125.
And obviously, it's all got
to be done after work...
You need to speed up!
I know we do!
By late summer,
almost ?10,000 has been stripped
from the project costs.
Micah and Elaine will now have to
take on the decorating,
the timber flooring, and a lot
of the landscaping, themselves,
as well as finding an extra ?25,000.
For now, they struggle on with
the stone wall cladding.
Elaine's been doing a lot of
the donkey work of
carrying all the stone down.
Micah sometimes
complains about my stones,
so some of the ones that I chuck
down in desperation are big lumps.
He doesn't like big lumps.
They're five months in...
..and this project is really
beginning to test Micah and Elaine.
The odd night I walk down to do
some stonework and I just think,
"Oh, man, this is just impossible."
I mean, this is a life's work, as
opposed to, you know, a few months.
OK, last one, because I think
you've eaten an entire carrot.
I'm looking forward to a new
kitchen.
The picture here is
a reminder of the moment
we just fell in love with
this place.
We need a little reminder now
and again of why you're here.
The view out of here I think is
actually much better than even
I expected beforehand.
It's a cracking spot.
I think the thing that keeps me
going with it,
the whole project,
is just that it's for our family.
You know, it's not some sort of
high architecture, um...
..kind of...trophy.
Micah and Elaine may be taking on
more and more of this project
themselves to save money,
but they are at least living on site
in their adapted caravan shed.
Any more mice? Yeah, there's one in
the utility room that needs to go.
The bank has now agreed to lend them
an extra ?25,000 to cover
the unexpected rise in costs,
but even so, saving money on site
needs constant vigilance.
Some of the glazing, we probably
compromised slightly on what
we would have loved to have,
just purely on money.
Halfway through their
one-year programme
and ?17,000 worth of windows
have arrived.
One millimetre.
The millimetre-perfect engineered
timber openings
means everything should all
fit perfectly.
Well, almost perfectly.
Nightmare!
Nice and easy here, like.
That's it. It's in.
The rest of the windows don't need
the help of a persuasive chisel.
By the end of the day,
despite a few bumps...
That's it. Oh! Oh!
..all the windows are in, and this
house is almost weathertight.
With winter beginning to bite,
the pace of work inevitably slows
and life in the caravan
drags equally.
I was round at a friend's house
for dinner the other night
and she was kind of showing me
around and I was thinking,
"Wow, this is what a
real house is like!"
You kind of forget sometimes, living
here, cos this becomes the norm.
When you're not living in your
own home, there is
a sense of your life being
a little bit on hold
and that has been very much the
reality of living in this caravan,
that life goes on regardless
of where you live.
Caravan living is an important
financial sacrifice,
but the shed ethos of this build is
also keeping costs down.
Because all the material for this
staircase, you know,
was essentially waste,
left over from the walls,
it's been very,
very cost-effective to do.
You know, the whole thing, I think,
is coming in at around ?1,500.
For a staircase, that's incredible.
Micah's biggest cost-saving measure
was taking on the stonework himself.
Although the outside walls are only
half-finished,
this is a job that's now
moved inside.
Usually go to work, come back,
have some dinner, come out
and work till maybe half ten or so.
This internal stonework is
a nod to the buildings that were
demolished and connects the masonry
ground-floor right up to the roof.
You're not quite as high on this
side, but you're getting there.
I think it's working out OK. Yeah.
The reason why we're building all
the stonework is to allow
the plumbers to lay their insulation
and the underfloor heating.
The difficulty is, you always have
to have the floors dried out,
you know, before you can start
turning on heating and so on,
otherwise they'll dry out too quick.
Without heating on, you know,
we can't move in.
I can see us moving in in January.
LAUGHTER
That means more than two more months
in their rodent-infested caravan.
A few weeks before Christmas,
a January move-in date is
beginning to seem really possible.
The underfloor heating has been laid
and is now ready
for the pigmented concrete.
This is my first visit
since the CLT was finished
way back in August.
What a view!
You see, last time I was here,
all the leaves were on the trees,
which meant that you couldn't
see the house.
Now, you get to see it,
romantically, heroically set behind
the trunks and branches.
It's very beautiful, that setting.
A big barn.
A big shed, really.
Once poured, the six-inch thick
concrete floor is levelled
and left to dry.
Then the polishing begins.
Oh, look, that's mesmerising. Look.
Oh! Look, he's opening it.
So, basically,
they'll keep at it all night
until probably early
tomorrow morning.
The wee hours of the night.
Yeah, absolutely. Wow.
I hope there's more than one bloke.
The skimming blades refine
the concrete surface until the floor
has the appearance of one continuous
piece of highly polished stone.
Have you pigmented it in the...?
Yeah, there's a black pigment in it.
It'll not be black, it'll be a
kind of very dark grey. Yeah.
And it'll have a
bit of a sheen to it,
but I think it'll work really
well with all the timber.
Excellent. The bunker rises...
Yeah. ..into the chalet. Yeah.
But Micah and Elaine are looking
forward beyond the project
to something else that's
truly precious.
I'm telling you this now in case you
wonder what has happened
the next time, cos I'm having
another baby. Are you?
LAUGHTER
Yeah. Yes, we are.
How fantastic! Congratulations.
Yeah. So when is the baby due?
First of June. Yeah, so we'll be
well in by then.
So we'll be living here.
By the time I come back and
we see the finished house,
then there's going to be five of you
in the place? There is, yeah.
So we're going to have to
change the wardrobe.
We're giving up our wardrobe.
Change the downstairs layout a bit?
Yeah, the wardrobe is going to have
to become a nursery.
Pregnancy may exclude
Elaine from any hard labour,
but Micah's found a more
sedate role for her...
So, basically,
if you start with that...
..recycling the cladding
offcuts into kitchen tiles.
But how many of these are
we going to need?
Well, like, that's probably about...
a 20th, but they still
all need painted.
By hand, each one? Each one by hand.
If it looks class,
then it's worth...
..going for, even if
it does take about six months to do.
Nine months since work began,
and Micah and Elaine
draw their last mortgage payment.
But ?28,000 doesn't go far with
contractors and suppliers to pay.
Toby! Toby! Hang on.
A few miles away,
back in shed land,
Micah's parents are keen to hear
about progress.
So when are you going to
be moving in?
You've been talking
about mid-January.
I mean, as is, mid-January.
Well, more late January, I think.
It just depends on getting
the bathroom sorted out.
But it'll be all right,
it's not going to be much longer.
You'll not be able to do any
building with you being pregnant.
I've now been given the lovely task
of sitting at the kitchen table
painting tiles instead.
Which she keeps falling
asleep in the middle of doing,
so it's not going too well.
LAUGHTER
Before Micah and Elaine can move in,
there are some essential jobs
that need to be completed.
Having been stripped
out of the contract,
decorating the bathrooms is
now down to Micah.
This is the home-made steam box.
They're just wallpaper strippers,
but I'm still kind of hoping
it's going to work.
I mean, I haven't done any steam
bending before,
so it is a bit of trial and error.
DIY steam-bent ash cladding is
cheaper than tiles, it turns out.
Floorboards on.
Quite a bit to go.
Then there are the
kitchen cupboards.
I forgot to put a panel in here,
so I have to take all these,
slide them all 20mm that way.
I'm not infallible, no.
This is baby Jones number three
kind of face down,
so he or she probably needs to
go on the fridge as well
and join the clan,
so I'll just put them there.
That's another reminder, in case
I needed one, that something...
someone else is coming, too!
Three weeks of hard graft
and by early February,
the dreaded caravan is eerily empty.
Micah and Elaine have made
it into the new house,
but there is still a long way to
go before it looks like home.
I was hoping for a moment when you
just moved in and it was done,
but I think that was probably pretty
unrealistic, to be honest,
cos we have so much still to do.
How stressful has it been, though,
moving into the place unfinished?
It was a little bit stressful.
There's a lot of work to do,
but just being out of the caravan
is definitely good.
So what are the things that you've
pulled out of the contract
to save money that have worked?
The painting and we've also taken
the wooden floor line
downstairs out of the contract.
Right.
So, Micah's planning to do
that himself.
Sometimes I think Micah has
maybe taken on too much,
but there's no stopping him now.
There's now little over ?2,000 left
to spend on this project
and Elaine wants Micah to be more
realistic about what he can achieve
before the baby comes.
I mean, we're fairly far on with
a lot of these things now,
like the kitchen
and worktops are pretty much sorted.
The kitchen tiles, that's started,
so we've got a bit more
to do on that.
Timber floors, I think
about a week should get it covered.
Are you still planning to do that?
Mm-hm, absolutely.
I don't think there's any money to
do anything else, so...
there's still, like,
six to ten weeks
of flat-out stonework, I think.
The baby's going to arrive
in 12 weeks.
12 weeks! Flip!
It's been a wee bit of a
wake-up call, to be honest, to see
just how soon things are maybe going
to have to shift, you know,
so there's a kind of
12-week period now
to kind of just get as
much done as possible.
There is nothing left to
spend on labour,
so Micah and Elaine enlist
friends and family to help.
Painting, flooring
and stonework need to be done
before the newest member
of their family arrives...
..which could be any day!
Seven days or something. A week.
Not very long, basically.
But it's not allowed
to come out early!
I've been coming to visit Micah
and Elaine in County Down for
about a year now, during which time
their shed house has risen from
the pastoral landscape.
A year has that has
tested their stamina and resolve.
Oh, the abandoned old
caravan garden.
Look, it's turned into a kind of
builder's graveyard here. Oh.
No-one in the caravan. It looks
abandoned. Which is good, I suppose.
Derelict.
And that is why.
What a beautiful
building in a beautiful setting.
MUSIC PLAYS
Well, this building's ancient
template has never been clearer.
It's a modern long house filled with
agricultural references.
A beautiful, simple home pieced
together really quite quickly.
This is a shed worth living in.
Hiya. What about you, Kevin? Very
well, how are you? Hello.
Hello, sweetheart. Nice to see you.
How are you? Welcome back.
Congratulations. Thank you
very much. I mean it's vast. Vast.
Look at it. It is vast. It's a ship.
Very established. Yeah, absolutely.
I know, it doesn't look
like a brand-new structure as such.
When I was here last, the top half
had been on for a good six
months but it was still kind of
bright and the stonework was dark.
What's happened is the stonework has
dried out and the top,
meanwhile, has kind of silvered.
They've kind of got closer in
texture and colour. Yes, I know.
It's really helped to kind of help
it mould into the landscape
as well, and be more at home in the
hillside.
More Irish. More Irish.
In a way, that's the way it was
designed, to try
and make something that improves
with the age and got better.
It's not just when it comes
out of the box that it looks great.
Micah's quiet architectural pride
shows itself in subtle flourishes.
The cast concrete that mirrors
the timber fence,
angular slips of grass.
They demonstrate a playful flair
that I hope continues inside.
Here we are.
MUSIC PLAYS
So, what do you think? What do
I think? It's all right, isn't it?
It's fantastic.
These skylights make a huge
difference.
They lift the colour of the timber.
And the stone wall really does,
you know,
that sort of thrusts
up from the floor below, all this.
Remind you about what
you're sitting on.
And it's a reminder too, of the...
What was here. What was here, yeah.
Timber store made out of... CLT.
It's the most over-engineered
timber store ever.
It's so strong
but it's really beautiful though.
There's a poetry in keeping
the wood within wood. Yeah.
Kitchen tiles,
also another bonkers idea. Yeah.
They look really well but I can
still feel the pain of those
because they took so long.
Just like Micah's first building
in shed land, this house is
garnished with materials that would
usually have been scrapped,
but the motto here has always been
why buy when you can build?
I love that reflection
of the window.
It makes the window seen double
height, you know.
And then the floor's dark.
Yeah, it is but there's
a lot of reflection off it,
so it kind of gives
a lot of light.
Because it's so highly polished.
More like slate, the colour of it.
Beautiful.
The upstairs living spaces merge
together under that continuous roof.
But there's plenty to divert you,
like a rope platform,
the kind of thing you'd expect to
find in a shed.
So it's structurally, you know,
it'll take load will it, that net?
Yes, absolutely.
There's not even the slightest
bit of flex when you're...
Wow! No, no! Go on.
It's good, actually. Brilliant.
There's no movement whatsoever.
This wall, here
and that wall, there,
they force you out of the line
of the building towards the corner.
Yes. And it gets narrower, of
course, and then at this point,
suddenly...
Opens out into the space.
MUSIC PLAYS
The fireplace is something else.
It's like a little slice of the
National Theatre. Yeah. Wow, wow.
Very brutalist. You can't
beat pouring wet concrete.
Micah is no designer of sheds
in truth.
This is proper architecture that's
warm and enclosing.
Windows have been precisely
positioned to frame what
appear to be separate
views of different places.
But always drawing you forward is
the huge panorama that
dominates the south elevation.
MUSIC PLAYS
Here we go. Go ahead.
There's a real sense of enclosure
here, isn't there?
Especially
when the doors are closed.
You know, it's almost a little
bit of sun trap because, you know,
the wind can't really blow in.
And what it does is direct your view
out to that amazing... The best bit.
It's the best bit which is
the landscape and the agriculture
and the great sky.
You know.
Drumlins of County Down. Yeah.
From the open, bright first floor,
you descend to the bedrooms down
Micah's clever CLT staircase.
A narrow corridor leads you
through to three bedrooms.
Down here may feel more conventional
but Micah's signature is everywhere,
not least in the family bathroom.
There are those home-made steam
benched timber walls
and a sink made from an agricultural
basin found on site.
Next door, Micah and Elaine's master
suite is also home to the
youngest resident of this house.
Baby's bedroom, here. Hiya.
Hello. Hi.
Here she is. This is Zoe. Hello,
Zoe. She's sleeping next door? Yes.
She's in what was
allocated as a dressing room
but actually it works very well
because it's just beside our room
and it's the perfect size and
we never had a dressing room anyway
so we're not going to miss it.
It's good. I bet you didn't have
a view like that before.
No, it's beautiful.
I think this is definitely the best
bedroom I've ever had.
There's no doubt this is a good
environment for a young family.
Cradled in the arms of a strong
landscape.
MUSIC PLAYS
But there is weather here,
so outside there are clever
protective pockets of space.
A courtyard garden
and a protective front yard complete
with an agricultural metal window.
There are some good, sound details
here, as there is around the whole
building, but I particularly like
that Corten,
because that's like rusty old
farm machinery and I particularly
like the exterior staircase
because that isn't very common.
It's common on barns but not
on houses, you know? Absolutely.
And that goes up to the kitchen?
Yeah.
Loads of the stuff that we've done,
I've never done before
and learned through
the process of building it.
Is this your journeyman piece?
Is this the piece that
cements your training?
Yeah, I think it really has been
incredible experience to do it
because you're piecing together
your family home,
you know, which is very special.
This project is testament to the
energy of youth, the discipline
of good design and the optimism that
the spirit of the shed brings.
And now this building gives them
the polished platform to
rediscover family life.
So, this is it,
this is the keeper, yeah?
You are here till whenever.
Whenever.
Yeah, until we pop our clogs.
I mean I can't see us
ever doing it again
because I think this was always
planned as a, "This is it."
This is where we were staying.
But there's plenty of room to
build more sheds.
So how much did you spend?
So, yeah, we spent around 245.
?245,000 all in to build
a house which is pretty cheap.
But it has involved...
Months and months of free labour.
Yeah, I think to kind of demonstrate
architecture in this way,
without going mad on budget, it kind
of opens the door a little bit,
maybe, to make this type of
architecture a little but more
accessible to everyone.
How does your estimation of him
and the experience of the process,
how does it balance up?
You know, I am totally in awe
of what Micah has been able to do
because I wouldn't have had the
stamina that he has had to do this.
There have been moments where it's
been quite hard and now that
we're here, I'm very excited
about life, you know, beyond.
After building. After building.
I mean you can defer for a while
but you can't defer, you know,
being a father and husband forever.
This building is uncomplicated
and that's what we need.
That's what our lives need,
that's what our family needs
because, actually, life is
complicated enough.
You know, so if the place can make
life less complicated, that's good.
You know, I reckon
there are as many sheds and shacks
and outhouses on this
planet as there are houses.
What Micah and Elaine's home does
so brilliant is to fuse
ideas from both those worlds.
This place is as honest as any
agricultural outbuilding.
It's evident, it's really clear what
it's made from.
It is simple in its design
and it is, like any good shed,
it's also expedient.
It uses remnants and leftovers
of itself to make the furniture
and some of the other
components inside the building.
The things like the wood store.
Heavens, you know,
its beauty, its strength,
its integrity all come from that
cross-fertilisation of ideas.
And it does what great architecture
does but on a modest
and straightforward scale.
As Elaine says,
why make things more complicated?
Life is complicated enough as it is.
Subtitles by Ericsson