Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 2, Episode 8 - The Derelict Barns, Devon - full transcript
And the countryside, and where it was.
So the design and the build
are all completely open-ended?
You only came for two
weeks, didn't you, Chris?
And he's been here for six months.
Just goes on and on.
You can't abandon it now.
This week's couple are lucky enough
to be building their house
in the wild and beautiful setting
of South Devon.
And they're following
a pretty wild idea too -
they want their home
to feel pan of the earth.
They're using old English
building techniques,
and they're making their design up
as they go along.
They're not starting from scratch,
but rebuilding these ancient ruined barns
into their ideal family home.
We wanted the house to be - that we built-
to be rooted in the landscape
and the countryside, and where it was.
And what can you have better than
two old barns dating right back to 1600,
which look as if they've
kind of thrust themselves
out of the earth, and
they're built of the earth?
You're not simply going to whack in
there with conventional building materials,
because it's quite... it's a barn
of mixed materials itself, isn't it?
There's stone, there's also cob?
Yes, there's two barns.
There's a 1600s barn,
which is built of half stone, half cob.
Then there's the 1850s barn, mainly stone.
So what's your
approach going to be?
The objective is to
create the house we want.
Since environmental issues
are one of our concerns,
we would incorporate those into the build.
We just don't like waste, really. If I
can eliminate waste, that will be great.
I really want to son out the sewage system,
don't want it taken away or dumped
or put in the sea.
It'd be brilliant never to have
someone take our bins away,
if we could make everything work that way.
- Recycle everything?
- Yeah.
Right. This is the kitchen door. Come in.
Oh, not the front door?
No, the front door's
this great big arch here.
It's been filled in, you
see, so it'll be a kind
of double-height hallway
coming in through there.
So this obviously will be the kitchen?
Yes, the kitchen. Imagine
the wall doesn't exist...
Right.
And what in fact there is
is a glass atrium that goes out beyond,
where we hope to plant
full-height citrus trees,
- as it's right down to basement level.
- Fantastic. Sort of split level?
- Mind the mud.
- Oh. See the mud. Mind the mud.
- There is the most enormous...
- There's a big hole full of mud.
So what's this down here?
It's a dung heap now, but what will it be?
- That's the garage. Lower ground level.
- And the utility room.
- Double garage? That's not very eco.
- Yes. These two pillars...
Uh, well, no, it's not very eco,
fair point, but it's very necessary.
- And pragmatic, living in the country?
- Absolutely.
So, so... above it, what will happen?
Well, the floor level, the finished floor
level, will be where those two ledges are.
And above is another storey?
Another storey above, which will have the
bedrooms and bathrooms, that sort of thing.
Working with an
existing building normally
gives you some idea of
what you'll end up with.
But in this case,
I'm finding it really
difficult to visualise
an end result. I'm
not the only one.
The philosophy of the project
is to leave decisions about interiors and
decisions about how the building evolves
until they naturally occur, so to speak.
Does this mean you don't have any completed
architectural drawings for this project?
Well, we certainly don't
at the moment, no.
So the design, planning to some extent, and
the build are all completely open-ended?
Certainly not
open-ended. By the end of
August we should have
a watertight building.
We've then got two to three months,
perhaps more, to finish out the inside -
obviously a lot of the inside can go on,
but to finish inside in that time.
And when will you then move in?
- Before Christmas!
- Definitely before Christmas.
- Definitely before Christmas?
- Yes.
The 1600s barn will
have a new thatched roof,
and will be rebuilt
using the original stone and mud.
The 1850s barn will have a slate roof
and huge new windows, plus a double garage.
Sue and Martin want to rebuild these barns
in the same meticulous way
they were built originally,
but at the same time incorporating
energy-efficient 21st-century technology.
Decisions about the interiors
will be made as they go along.
So far they know they want
a south-facing sitting room and kitchen
overlooking the indoor garden,
with four bedrooms upstairs and a study.
The old barn will be left roughly finished
at this stage.
The land and buildings cost £125,000.
Their budget for the
building work is £150,000.
That makes a total cost of £275,000,
which is coming from savings
and a small mortgage.
It's April, and from now
on Sue, Martin and their
two boys will live on
site in a mobile home.
Martin's a freelance writer,
but for the next eight
months his main job
is going to be
project-managing their build.
We like camping.
Obviously it's different over
eight months to being
in it for two weeks,
but also Martin works at home,
the children are mainly home educated.
I'm at home, so we're
very used to an intimate
family situation, all
on top of each other.
After a slight accident coming up the road,
there's now the question of getting
the caravan onto the premises.
We've got to see if it will come -
well, it'll come off the lorry, I suppose -
whether it will work its way round
into the... into the yard.
If not, I haven't a clue.
Everybody we've met today has said,
"If you want a push, we'll be there,"
so it could be people power.
Hold it, hold it...
We knew there'd be a problem getting it in
so that was to be expected, but...
it's a bit unfortunate
it's got a hole in it.
Sue and Martin have just spent their
first night in their happy holiday home.
They're going to have to last at least
seven months in this, or so they hope.
And you are, aren't you, just next door?
- It's pretty close, isn't it?
- A few feet away.
We're going to see it all happening.
If that wall came down,
it'd take the caravan.
Luckily, it's not the
one coming down.
- But all the roofs are coming down.
- Right.
So there is quite a
health and safety issue,
particularly with
children of three and five.
Lock the doors, shut the windows...
- You'll have to wear hard hats indoors?
- I hope not.
I can't wait to see this archway open up.
And Martin will have a good view
from the project management office too.
This is the executive suite?
It is, the nerve centre,
where we're going to run the project from.
- The site office, in other words?
- It's the site office.
Yeah, this is it.
- It's tiny, isn't it?
- Oh, no, no, it's big.
It's adequate. It'll be fine.
Out come the beds,
out goes the cupboard, big chair,
nice swivel chair probably,
good feng shui, powerful position.
You see people coming in the door,
look at the works going on,
sitting at your computer, tapping away.
I can't believe there's any
good feng shui in there.
Living on a building site
doesn't faze Sue and Martin.
They've been down this road before.
When Martin and I first met, we discovered
that we both wanted to live in a castle.
And we did live in one.
When we first saw the
chateau on top of the hill,
it was exactly as you would imagine
Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Welcome to the ancient
hallway of the chateau.
They bought this chateau in France
for only £60,000.
You can see
the potential grandeur of the staircase.
After working on it for five years,
they realised that restoring 17 rooms
might take longer than they'd thought.
So reluctantly they sold it,
making a profit of 60 grand.
When we came back from France,
and we knew we had to rival it in some way,
we knew instinctively
exactly what we wanted to do.
We wanted to... build our own house.
It took four years to find a plot,
but after making a further £145,000
doing up another house,
they're now ready to put all they've got
into building their family home.
It's day one on site.
The very first job is finding out
how much of the original stone
is strong enough to stay.
The man in charge of the building work
is John Watkins.
John's used to doing barn conversions
in the area,
but he's not used to working
without anything on paper.
My initial feelings were
of absolute, total horror...
because when I first saw the job
it looked like a builder's worst nightmare.
With this sort of project
it's always a problem,
because you never quite know
what you're going to find.
My main worry is the relationship
with us and Martin and Sue,
because of their having to make decisions.
And living so close, they're never able
to get away from the building site,
cos they're staring at it every day.
So I think my biggest fear
is that the relationship will break down,
so communication will break down and
then it actually gets quite complicated.
Sue and Martin's other key relationship
is with their architect Adrian Slocum.
I don't think this approach to
building work is for everybody.
Sue and Martin...
want to create a space for themselves
and their children that is of the earth...
creating something that breathes
and that is healthy and feeds the soul.
Adrian's wife Sam
calls herself a spiritual home-maker
and she'll be developing ideas
for the interior layout with Sue.
Like Adrian, she doesn't work from plans.
It's not going to be cast in concrete.
It's going to be about
dialogue, discussion.
Creative conflicts
going to be part of that.
And it may get sticky at times,
but if we can keep communicating,
and we can keep listening to each other,
we can... we can make it through.
And as we breathe,
we imagine that we're
passing through a door
and we're moving back, back into the past,
back into a time when you were truly happy.
- Hello, Kevin. This is Sam.
- Hello!
- Oh, hello, Sam.
- Hello, Kevin.
- What were you up to round the corner?
- We were meditating.
- On what?
- The interior of the house.
Uh-huh?
So far we've looked
at it from the outside in,
and now we want to look at
creating it from the inside out.
Right. And Sam,
this is your job, to help Sue do this?
Yes. Well, I'm trying, cos I know more
about meditation than I do about buildings.
- Right.
Is this the first time you've
done it in a... in a cowshed?
No,
but it's... I'm still quite...
I'm just finding my way with this, really.
Yeah, cos your
husband is the architect...
That's right.
- Of what will be this home?
- Yes. I'm very familiar with buildings.
Yeah. Yeah. And so you were meditating
- on the inside of the building.
- Yes.
- But with your eyes shut.
- Yes.
Well, we were doing a meditation
where we look back into the past,
and Sue tunes into times where she's
felt really happy and free and contented,
and then we draw that into the present
so that she makes the connection
with her own experience.
That's interesting, because most people,
when they have a great vision,
when they build their dream,
often build something
they think is going to make them happy,
something they've never had.
But you're saying you
focus on things that
made you happy in your
past, and put them in.
The evolutionary approach to
building a house is a lovely idea.
As the build grows,
you base your ideas on
what you find out,
what the build tells you.
But there are some
things which you really
ought to do in a more
conventional, logical way-
things like getting a site survey done,
drawing up some plans,
drawing up a basic spec -
things which Sue and Martin...
haven't really done.
A few weeks into the
build, they've discovered
that the old planning drawings
which they've been using
miscalculated the height of the floors
by three feet.
To make Sue and Martin's garage,
they'll now have to dig down.
That means the old walls
need to be underpinned,
the first test for their eco principles.
It was a big shock a few weeks ago when
I realised everyone around me was thinking
they'd just pour tons of concrete
under the building. I was very shocked.
For two weeks, I've been busy trying
to find out what the alternatives are.
So, to be fair, has everybody else.
We discovered there are things
you can do as alternatives
to footings or underpinning in concrete,
and they involve lime and rubble
and that sort of thing.
(But the cost is A) financial,
cos they cost about five times
as much as concrete,
and secondly, time.
So we've come to a compromise
after a long, long discussion
that in the same way as PVC,
where we said, "We don't want PVC anywhere,
but if we have to have it,
it can only go underground,"
we've now said the same about concrete.
Sue's been reluctant
to agree to concrete,
because although it's
the quick and easy option,
it's also about the most polluting
building material you can use.
The manufacture
of its main constituent, cement
produces 10% of the world's
man-made carbon dioxide.
It is inevitable
that if you try and use a green approach
to repairing an old building like this,
you will have to compromise somewhere.
Now, Martin and Sue
have already reluctantly
agreed to use concrete
in the 1850s barn there
to shore up the foundations.
But they have used, here, mortar made with
pure lime on this much more ancient wall.
Lime is an environmentally-friendly
alternative to cement.
It allows the walls to breathe and move,
and it was used here originally.
Because it never sets rock-hard,
Chris the stone mason can clean
off the old stones and reuse them.
Lime putty usually comes ready-made
from specialist builders' merchants.
I asked John to show me how to make it.
It's quite an explosive process.
- How much are you going to tip in?
- All of it.
This lime stalled out as limestone,
which is quarried locally.
It's then burnt, forcing the moisture out,
leaving it with an avid thirst for water.
So when you add water,
it reacts pretty violently.
God, that's incredible.
It's too hot to touch!
What's the difference
between what I'm
stirring and what Chris
is using over there?
Same stuff, isn't it? You're just
waiting three months for it to slake?
Yeah, it's been sitting
there for three months.
- Is he mixing it with an aggregate?
- He's mixing it with quite a coarse sand.
As for the concrete being used in
the garage to shore up the old watts,
it isn't being put underneath them
as foundations -
it's being set against
them as a retaining wall.
You're examining your dam.
Your new car park.
- And it's down there.
- My garage is there.
And you'll excavate all that?
- And beyond.
- And beyond, down to the drive.
I remember you saying you didn't mind
having concrete there,
as long you didn't have to look at it.
It's the smallest amount of concrete
you can possibly get away with.
So, um, all of these discoveries,
- do they mean that the budget's gone up?
- The budget's going up,
because we've made, in some areas,
more rather than less expensive choices.
We'll have far more oak
in the building than we intended.
- So it is going up?
- I think it, um,
it will end up higher
than we initially planned.
And does your, um, relaxed developmental
approach to this build still hold?
If you want to react to a building as
you work with it, it's the only way to go.
If you just say, "Right,
the architect's plan
is X, there it is, the
plan, we'll follow it,"
and you set it all in concrete at the
bottom, you can't alter it as you go up.
Whereas if you can,
to an extent, create the
house and set
everything firm at the end,
you've had a real chance
to let the building have its say.
And concrete may be an unwelcome addition,
but Sue's determined
to give it some spiritual meaning.
This is a piece of the Berlin Wall
on the day it came down.
This is one that his dad
picked up at San Paulo.
And this is a crystal
from the Sahara Desert.
We're going to bury them,
so whenever we walk down,
we'll know there's hidden
treasure under here.
We won't just think
about the rather horrid concrete.
We'll think about those beautiful treasures
from the earth,
that are glittering under there.
They're two months in, and contrary
to my expectations, I have to say,
Sue and Martin's organic vision
is going to plan.
But Sue has had to compromise
her eco principles
by accepting much more concrete
than she wanted,
both hidden and where she can see it.
And there's a long way to go.
So, the big question is,
how many more compromises are there ahead?
The success of the modern brick
is all thanks to the Industrial Revolution.
All that mass production, all those canals,
helped spread its popularity,
200 years ago and more.
But before that - well, people built with
whatever they could get their hands on,
with stone or timber, for example.
Down here in Devon,
they had precious little of either,
so instead they built their houses
out of mud, or cob, as they call it here.
Sue and Martin are using cob
to restore their walls in the 1600s barn.
Bob's a mixture of earth, straw and water.
Come on, Hugo! Jump up!
Go on, then!
The method for making it hasn't changed
since people first built mud houses.
Just tread it until you
get a thick, sticky mass.
You can pick it up
quickly from an old manual.
That's what John the builder did.
You're repairing an existing wall?
Underneath here is stone?
Stone, yeah. Most cob walls
will have stone up to the first floor.
- Yes?
- And then cob above.
That's the base. And what about the roof?
I mean, obviously it needs protection,
as this top Wall's very exposed.
Yes. In this case, it'd be thatched.
Most cob houses were thatched, and it would
extend out by about 18" over the edge.
- So the rain dripping off is well clear.
- Deep eaves?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- It's... a low-skilled job.
- It is.
I mean, I've learnt to do this
in, it would appear, one minute.
I'm sure I could get a little faster
and better over time, but...
Come on, then.
All right, all right, all right!
Less talk, more action?
That's right.
Using mud from your back yard
is about the most sustainable
way of building I can think of.
Here in Devon, there are more mud houses
than any other part of Britain.
And what! find interesting
is how one material
can give a whole community
a visual identity.
A third of the world's population
live in mud houses.
From Mali to Mexico, mud has ruled
the architectural roost for centuries.
It's cheap, available nearly everywhere,
and it's thermally efficient, keeping
houses cool in summer and warm in winter.
Back in Devon, it's August,
and another traditional
construction material arrives,
the oak frame.
Oak is expensive, and this frame is taking
a big chunk out of Sue and Martin's budget.
But it is a home-grown wood.
It smells very nice, the green oak.
I think they should bottle it and put it
in an aerosol, probably, it's that good.
In ten years' time,
it'll be as hard as rock.
You won't be able to bang a nail into it
without drilling a hole.
The frame's going up
four months into the build.
It's the structural heart of the house,
supporting the root
and providing a cavity for
insulation between
the frame and the watts.
It's a whole collection
of very elderly buildings,
which have been built ad hoc,
and the levels are all over the place
and the walls are all over the place.
What we're supplying is the structure
that holds up the walls and the floors,
so that we're not
relying on the old walls,
which are rather tender,
to do very much work.
Sue and Martin are still convinced
they'll be in before Christmas.
But it's the end of August, Martin's
deadline for a watertight building,
and they're a long way off.
Still, at least it's beginning
to look like a house.
So what's it like, putting
your back to something
that could have been
growing for 100 years?
I know. I think it's...
well, it's quite awesome, isn't it, really?
- Awesome?
- Yeah.
- Awesome - I don't know
about "awesome". It's interesting.
- Interesting.
- This one's particularly special,
because it's the tree of life, it's our...
a great huge trunk going right
into the floor, three storeys down.
- It's an enormously tall piece.
- It goes right into the garage.
And then it comes up here,
and it's got eight faces,
with these five great arms
coming off it immediately,
and then there's three more up the top.
How's the schedule generally?
You've said all along, very organic,
we kind of develop this design as we go.
- You've still got a deadline of Christmas?
- Oh, yes.
- We think we're on target.
- It'll be autumn soon.
Yes. We want to get
the lid on pretty quick.
Yes.
We've got the other oak frame
arriving next week,
and the thatcher will
follow up very quickly.
So by the end of September,
given a reasonable patch of weather,
we should have a cover over the whole lot.
- Yeah, if the weather's good.
- If it's not appalling.
And if that happens, then I think
we'll be all right for Christmas.
If we get seriously
delayed on the roof,
that may push it
back. I don't think it will.
You can come down on Christmas Eve,
or the 23rd, and see for yourself.
- Come and have a drink.
- I will!
- We'll have our house warming party.
- I'd love to. Yes!
It's the middle of October.
It's been raining every day for a month.
And Chris the stonemason
is struggling with the walls.
Lime mortar takes days to set,
and if the rain hits it,
it just washes away.
This was built yesterday, and,
you know, it's just like when I laid it.
I'll cover it up, because
if water gets in behind,
because it's not going off, then
you're putting more weight on top of it.
If you're using cement, you know, you
can build 2-3ft, then 2-3ft the next day,
but with this, you build... well, since
it's been wet, only a couple of foot.
It's all right using these old methods,
but you've got to have time.
You just can't build one place.
Until the walls are up,
the building won't be watertight.
But Martin's determined
to carry on regardless,
and he's driving the small team on.
He's still optimistic
about the moving-in date.
MARTINI I still think we'll be in.
It won't be finished. I
never said it would be.
But I think we could be inside
by the end of December.
I'd like the walls to be built,
the slates to be on, partitions to be made,
wiring to be done, plumbing to be done,
carpets to be laid -
but I guess it won't be tomorrow.
You know, he's saying
finished by Christmas,
and we've all...
worked on this type of job before,
and we all look at it and think,
"Well... you've got to be really lucky."
It's what we call a temporary hiccup.
The south-facing roof
structure is supported
by acro props until the walls are
built up and can take the weight.
Only then can they put
the extra weight of the roof tiles on.
The pace of building with time
is causing real frustration.
Everybody's getting in each other's way,
really, now.
You know, you're trying to finish it off,
and you do get to a
point when you think,
"God," you know, "is
it ever going to finish?"
A very pleasant building site to be
on, it is. Chris has never known better.
You only came here for two weeks,
didn't you, Chris?
And, um, he's been here for six months.
It just goes on and on. He can't abandon it
now - unless his finances dictate he does.
But, you know...
You know, the house in France
wasn't finished for years.
I think they're quite good
at adapting to living in a space that's...
not finished, and being able to...
be surrounded by work and chaos,
and, you know,
I just can't cope with it,
but I'm sure that they can.
And if you can, then that's fine. They
can finish it off over the next few years.
Now Martin's kind of fully involved
every day on the build,
it's a slightly different
life for me and the boys.
Everything that's
happened has been brilliant.
We are completely happy
with how it's all going.
But I think we have used up
our time contingency,
and probably our budget contingency too.
We're now in a bit of a race against time,
to get in at Christmas.
I think it's frustrating for Martin,
cos he's involved in it.
He goes out in the morning
with a vision of what can be achieved.
He comes back, and I say,
"Ah, it's looking great," and he says,
"No, we haven't done half
of what I wanted to do."
Sue and Martin's philosophy for this build
includes the idea that as much as possible
of the building materials
should be traditional and locally sourced.
So the walls are of stone and of cob,
the timber frame inside is English oak
and the roof -
well, the roof is covered in dried reed.
In thatch.
It's the end of November,
and on the old barn,
the thatcher's struggling
to keep his reed dry.
A job like this would
normally take six weeks, but
because of the weather,
it could take up to nine.
I mean, you're not putting
roofing felt on, are you?
Oh, no.
This is going straight
onto the... onto the rafters.
So... is it really that waterproof?
It works exactly the same way as...
if you imagine putting a drinking straw
at an angle under a dripping tap.
The drip goes down to the end of the straw
before it falls off.
And in the... it was
absolutely heaving it down.
The surface of the thatch was just a
series of drips, of water dripping down.
A quarter-of-an-inch
in, it was completely dry.
Fantastic.
Where does this stuff come from?
Is it grown locally?
No, no. This is water reed.
It's from Turkey, believe it or not.
- Not from Norfolk, then?
- Not from Norfolk, no.
Why not? That's where they grow it.
They can't produce enough
for the thatching industry.
So it comes from Turkey?
Turkey, Poland, Romania.
In terms of environmental impact,
you have to transport the stuff, don't you?
- You have to get it over here.
- Yes.
- It's not an ecological success story.
- No!
It's a shame we don't
produce enough reed
in Britain. it's such
a traditional product.
The thousands of miles it has to travel
across Europe to be imported
seriously compromise its eco credentials.
But then, finding truly
environmentally-friendly
materials lo build your home
is a real struggle,
as Martin knows from experience.
Insulation is an absolutely key part
of our project,
because the only real
way to minimise energy
consumption is to have
very good insulation.
After weeks of research,
Martin's found a form of insulation
that's very natural, and very to cat.
Sheep's wool is not rocket science.
It's not the most innovative thing ever.
But it's not widely used at the moment,
mostly because it's not widely available,
and commercial products
are relatively expensive.
It's a real problem with
environmental building,
that these products are all so expensive
at the beginning.
It's like everything else.
To do it sensibly, you've got to find a way
of doing it cheaply, or there's no point.
You know, you're not in
the real world otherwise.
So I found a local spinning mill
which has sheep's wool more or less as
a waste product of their spinning process.
Wool and thatch are natural materials.
But Sue and Martin's philosophy
also embraces modem eco products.
They're installing a heat exchange system,
which swaps stale air inside the house
for pure air from outside the house.
On its way in, the
cool, fresh air is heated,
which means that Sue and Martin will
have a constant supply of warm, clean air,
without ever having to open any windows.
They're also taking advantage
of the latest in glass technology.
The huge south-facing windows
are being installed,
even though the watts stilt haven't been
completely built around the openings.
But as this is the elevation
most exposed to the prevailing winds,
it's vital to get this last
major element of weatherproofing in place.
The glass units are double glazed
and filled with argon,
making them twice as thermally efficient
as standard double glazing.
So how is your budget
bearing up to these investments?
Groaning, I think.
We haven't overspent it,
but we are reaching its limit.
- But you haven't finished the house.
- No.
Seven months ago, you said...
well, eight months ago, in April,
you planned to be in here in seven months.
- So you've passed that.
- Oh, we're stretching it.
It's a month before Christmas.
Do you think you'll get in by then?
No, I don't think so any more.
I think, as I say, we could have done,
if everything had
gone fine for the last
six weeks. But the
weather was unbelievable.
But so what? if we get in in the middle
of January, it's not the end of the world.
Certainly we'll be moving
from the caravan to
the house in January.
I'm quite sure of that.
You've a lot of fixing to do.
I haven't seen much pipework.
I haven't seen any
wiring. There's no first-fix.
No, but...
- Wiring doesn't take long.
- Oh?
- No, it doesn't. Come on.
- And boards and walls and everything else?
That takes more time.
But we haven't got to do it all at once.
Quite a lot of the
stuff will be done.
It'd be nice to get it
done before you moved in.
I don't think we've got to have every
single room boarded before we move in.
- I mean...
- How many rooms?
If we do one room,
it'll be bigger than the caravan!
You know, it... it's not essential
the place is complete.
There will be some discussion
about when we move in.
I bet there bleeding well will be!
He'll be living here, you'll
be still in the caravan!
- It's possible.
- Possibly.
This reed bed system, which will be
filtering all of the sewage from the house,
is going to be ready and up and running
in two weeks' time.
Now that I can believe.
What I can't believe is that Sue and Martin
are going to move in in January.
That's only five weeks away.
It's the middle of January, and Sue
and Martin are along way from moving in.
The outside walls are still being built,
and the roof isn't slated yet.
But worse than that, Sue and
Martin are fast running out of money.
Money becomes more meaningful
towards the end of a build.
At the beginning,
you write cheques for huge amounts.
You spend on stonework, a lot of labour,
demolitions, timber, roof slates -
you know, huge amounts of money.
And towards the end, when you're down
to your last £20,000 or whatever,
and you're talking
about floorboards and
baths and kitchen
units and stuff like that...
the money
suddenly seems much more valuable.
Like, you know, a week's wages to somebody,
£400-500,
is, um, I don't know, the price of a sofa,
or, you know, a jolly nice roll top bath,
or one of those things.
You start thinking,
"Where do I want to spend money?"
Martin's decided
that he can? afford full-time builders,
so after nine months,
John and his team are leaving the project.
It looks like it's almost there,
but I know it's a long way from finishing.
The actual slow bit, all the fitting,
is yet to be done.
That's actually quite costly,
and quite time-consuming.
It requires, um, a sort of higher
skill level, so that costs more as well.
Um...
but I think those are things
that Martin's planning to do himself,
so the more he does,
the more money he saves.
It'll take a little while to finish.
We've got Sue's dad Norman
here, helping me, and we've got...
Chris is here, doing
all the stonework still.
We're getting the studwork sorted out.
The staircase is largely completed.
I've still got plumbing
and wiring to do, but
I've done some wiring,
and it's not a big job.
Only once in the last 15 years
have I actually employed a plumber,
paid someone to do plumbing for us.
Although it was done perfectly competently,
and quickly, to be fair-
they did it in a week
when we were away, and
it would have taken me
probably two months -
um, but still,
it wasn't done quite the way I wanted.
We got back and the pipes
weren't where I wanted,
you know, pipes to the radiators
not vertical, a bit wonky,
and you can see the bends at the bottom.
That, you know, bugs me.
I'd rather do it myself and get it right.
It does take longer,
and it is frustrating,
particularly for Sue, cos
she has to wait longer.
But even if we had people here,
I'd be concerned about keeping them,
as it were, fully loaded with work,
as I've spent so long working out
what I think we should be doing next.
One outside cost he has to incur
is the reed bed specialist.
This is a crucial part of Sue's vision
of a house with minimal waste.
Eco-wise, I'm most excited about this,
because it's pan of the garden,
and it links the house with the garden,
which is what I wanted.
And it is something...
as I say, we're doing it for ourselves.
Right from what we're producing
to where it's going,
it's all on our plot, and we're
not having to get anybody else out
or use services that are going
out there and polluting, really.
So I'm really, really happy about that.
Let's try that - the first reed is in!
The reeds will purify all the water used in
the house, and send it back into the earth.
- Now, when will it be 8ft tall?
- Ah... in three years' time.
Amazingly, the progress of the build
is still being held up by the stonework.
Is that roof watertight?
It is now. But the Wall's not watertight.
- That wall is not.
- That's the trouble.
- It's got a blinking great hole.
- Yeah.
And until it's watertight,
you can't lay floors, is that right?
We can't do a thing because of the
humidity. The moisture content is too high.
Normally with floorboards,
you lay them through,
and they can dry out into the
ambient moisture level in the building.
But if we brought in
floorboards from a timber yard,
they'd get wetter here than where they are.
You're very chipper
about all this, aren't you?
Oh, I'm very positive,
mostly because we've produced
such a tremendous house,
which we're incredibly pleased with.
But if you're going to take it all on
yourself, it's going to take... years.
No, it's not going to
take years. It's not all
me. We've got the
specialist trades coming in.
It's only the... Well, I say all -
not including plumbing and wiring, but
to me, those are not specialist trades -
but I don't think that's right.
I think that we'll, um...
I won't put a date on it-
I've done that too often -
but I think in the next month, or
two, or three, we could move in.
Chris thought you might be in by
Christmas, but not the Christmas just gone.
Oh, everybody says, "Which Christmas?"
- What are you doing now?
- As always, three or four things at once.
We're doing the joinery, the staircase
is going in, we're doing these boards...
But this is not the floor
of the room above?
No, this is the ceiling.
Just the ceiling. They'll
be painted, these boards.
And there's a floor
going on top of those?
Yeah.
What else are you doing?
Well, wiring, plumbing,
all services going in.
- All the first-fix?
- Yeah, basically the first-fix stage.
Meanwhile, Chris is rebuilding!
Meanwhile Chris is
still building the wall!
In the rain!
Yes, that's what so silly.
You've got a bit more stonework to do.
How much more?
- A couple of weeks? Three?
- How long, Chris?
Three or four weeks
to finish the stonework?
End of February.
- As long as the weather's OK.
- That's not too bad. If it doesn't rain.
I see you've found a
little studio for yourself.
Oh, I have, yes!
This isn't a floor, is
it? This is the ceiling.
There's going to be
a proper floor on top.
There is. We won't
be walking on this, no.
- What are you doing?
- I'm mixing paint. Making paint, actually.
- Has this become your hobby, as it were?
- Ah...!
You don't have a television, do you?
Oh, believe me,
I don't necessarily do it for relaxation.
And how is life in the caravan?
- It's turned out OK, actually.
- Yeah?
Yeah. Yeah, no, we're... we're fine.
It'll be quite a shock to leave the caravan
and have all this space. Finally.
And Martin? Do you get together much?
No. One of us is always looking after
the children, so we don't go out much.
What does Martin use,
then, to let off steam?
Or does he just bash at wood?
- Does that do it for him?
- I don't think Mart builds up steam.
I think that's the point.
You know, some people don't, do they?
I whizz around, getting
very agitated, but
Mart just does things
calmly at his own pace,
and will not be hurried or rushed.
So there is no steam build-up.
- He can do that?
- Yeah. Then he does admin.
- In the evenings?
- Yes.
- For a hobby?
- Yes!
And now that you see the floors in,
and an idea of where the walls are,
- you get a real sense of how it will feel.
- Mm-hm.
But did the meditation
help you envision that?
- Did it take you as far as that?
- Definitely.
The meditation was vital
as far as I'm concerned,
because it gave me the confidence to
believe that my vision could be realised.
- Sam's done one picture...
- One picture?
Of the main bedroom.
- Yours?
- Yes, a completed picture.
And it is the intention to do one of
those pictures for each room in the house.
Sam and Sue have been meditating
on the interiors throughout the project,
and now Sam's starting to produce drawings
of the rooms, inspired by their sessions.
So here's Sue, describing what she sees.
"The main bedroom is a beautiful room,
with light from all directions.
I feel soft wool underfoot,
blue like the sea."
Here, you can see, this is a big blue rug.
"The blue-and-white bed
floats out on the sea,
beyond it, the sunburst screen,
a wall of glass.
Through this I can see the outside, and
make connections into worlds upon worlds."
With the bedroom not even a shell yet,
most people wouldn't dream of decorating.
But dreaming of decorating is just what
Sue and Sam have been doing for a year.
And now they can? wait
to take it forward into reality.
Martin's laying a floor this weekend,
which means we can actually
put this room together.
Very temporarily, obviously.
We're not going to move into it,
because it won't be plumbed
or wired for electric.
But at the same time, if we can
realise this picture, then we'll know
we can go forward on the same path for
all the rest of the rooms. That's the plan.
Pretty!
Sue and Martin wanted to move in
after eight months,
and they've been building
for, well, nearly a year.
But at last, it's starting
to look like a house.
So this view, is this how you'd
always imagined it to look?
When I first came down
to push the children on the swing,
and saw for the first time what we'd
created - because this is, after all,
the front that we've created,
cos it didn't exist before -
it was very exciting. It's what
you see from the road, these big windows.
- Yeah, as you drive round.
- You don't miss it.
People stop and say, "It's great!"
People we've never met.
It suddenly looks like a house.
And this idea, that you wanted the building
to be of the earth,
to appear to sit comfortably,
does that still work?
Well, look at the colours!
I mean, they just are of the earth.
I mean, the earth is very obvious!
But round the corner,
the cob wall gives
you the impression of a
building that's been here
for thousands of years.
Here, in the domestic elevation,
you know, with glass...
In three years,
with the windows toned down
and the stone weathered, it'll be
firmly rooted in the earth, in the ground.
What do you do with all this earth?
From a very early meditation Sam and I did
at the top of the orchard,
where we sort of saw...
the house kind of surrounded
by this huge green dragon, protecting it,
this little bit of bank down here
will be turned into the dragon's tail,
with a pointy bit on it, and this will
become a great slumbering beast,
- and his nose will be down there.
- Uh, sounds great.
- That's the landscaping.
- Cradling the house.
- You've got more dragons?
- We have got more dragons.
Dragons everywhere.
Well. Good lord!
Here we are.
You've finished this room! Completely!
We're getting an idea
of what it'll be like.
- You carved that oak pillar.
- It's started.
You know, we called it Green Dragon Barn?
The whole barn is called Green Dragon Barn?
That's our house name, yes.
We decided that dragons, you know,
united four elements,
earth, air, fire, water,
which is what I wanted from the name.
I like these old... cow
drinking things.
That's right. They
were actually in the barns.
I thought, "Hang on
- we can use those."
You've turned them
into uplighters. Great!
I particularly like the way this wooden
frame frames that extraordinary pair
- of stone monoliths.
- It's great, isn't it? The original one.
- And so tall!
- Absolutely.
Through here is
the sitting room?
That's right. We're
there already, pretty much.
Extraordinary.
I mean, now that this place is so empty,
now you've put boards down,
- suddenly you appreciate the space.
- Absolutely.
- For the first time, really.
- It is big, isn't it?
- It is big.
- And the sunlight pours in.
And that amazing view out of the window!
- Yes.
- Oh, it's heart-warming.
On a day like today,
the light just floods into this space.
It does.
Through this glass at
this end of the building.
Particularly in the winter,
with low sunlight.
How will you furnish
it? Have you thought?
Yeah. This is
where I'd like to eat.
I think we'll have a
long dining table here,
so you get the most
of it three times a day.
And have the long row of chairs, and none
round that side, so everyone's looking out.
- That's the plan.
- Looking at it now,
and thinking how it's going to be,
there's an awfully long way to go.
You've still got floors
to lay, you've still got...
walls to finish, and
insulation to put in there.
Insulation to put in and the wall to do,
but there is only this wall.
The rest of it is pretty much as is.
- The rest will be stonework?
- That's right, yeah.
- And this is the kitchen?
- This is the kitchen!
And there's a substantial hole left.
- Oh, a modest hole.
- It's a big hole, by any standards.
It's the last hole!
That's the important thing!
The last hole. You're
two days early, Kevin.
Uh-huh? And then your stonework
will be complete?
The stonework will be largely complete.
And your house will
be we a the night! At last!
Yay!
This well here is going
to be an indoor garden?
This is the internal garden, yeah.
So you can walk out over it.
- When we met...
- That's right.
You said this wall
would go, there would be
a full-height garden,
with giant citrus trees.
That's right.
- And here it is.
- There's the space.
- It'll be planted one day.
- There's the shovel.
Let's go upstairs, up this new staircase.
All your own work, isn't it?
I didn't make it, but I put it together,
which is hard enough.
What are you doing - you haven't moved in?
- Not quite. We're just trying it out.
- No, not as such.
- This is interior design...
- We're trying out colours and ideas.
Well, this is the one that Sam and I really
got a long way with, with her picture.
- I remember. Yeah.
- So now we're trying to recreate it.
I can't wait to wake up and see that view.
It'll be a good day.
We're trying to see
if we can get those
colours, you know,
trying to... create that,
in order to carry on the inspiration
through, and get other drawings.
So where's this woody big screen thing?
Yes, this is the window
that's coming here.
Between you and
the well down there?
The atrium, yes, with plants.
You'll be able to see the tops of the
citrus trees, and out into the garden.
- Right...
- That's the idea.
So where is your bathroom? Your en suite?
- A door through here.
- Just here?
So you're... It's not
particularly huge, is it?
No.
But then most of the rooms
are not vast in this house.
- None of them are vast.
- Quite modest, really.
And Robbie and Hugo's rooms
are now up here?
This is your doorway through,
and you've got one room there
and one room there.
And this is your theatre space?
- This is the theatre space. Ah!
- The much-discussed theatre space.
So how far is this
dream realised, then?
How far have you got
down the journey to go?
I think all the inspiration is here now.
You know, you just
feel like... it's there. And...
I can't take it in. Sometimes I come out
of the caravan, and I walk into this place.
It's pouring with rain or something,
and it fills me with joy, it really does.
And I'm not someone
to whom that happens often.
But I do feel that it has got,
in every inch of its kind of structure,
things that are deeply part of me.
I just wonder, where you are now,
Martin, you know,
to an extent, you're going to want
to carry on working on the place.
It becomes a very open-ended project.
Oh, it does. But
fortunately we've got room,
such as this, for
example, in which to...
To carry on working for ever!
- You could go on as long as you want.
- Phases ll and Ill are lined up.
- You've no builders now.
- Essentially it's down to me.
That's fine, because we
can take it more slowly.
Single-handed now,
you've got this boarding to do,
flooring and so on.
I'll go on full-time for a month or so,
and more part-time, gradually.
- Once it's habitable I'll do...
- It'll just slow down?
So is there a danger at any point
that you could just... run out?
Find yourselves minus essential walls
or insulation?
I think not. We did project the whole thing
on the basis of being without a mortgage,
which would be miraculous.
As it is, we'll end up with a mortgage.
And if we have to, we'll have a slightly
bigger mortgage. But we'd rather not.
No, but you have put into practice, for the
first time, properly and fully, a belief...
- Yes.
- We have.
About your space and life,
and translated it into a building.
- That seems to be important.
- It is.
At the same time, we have kept
life in balance. Balance is important.
We are OK in the caravan.
This has not tipped the scales
to become an obsession,
and if we don't do it by a certain date,
it's absolutely appalling.
You know what I mean? It is actually... OK.
You've got to live the process.
We've lived the process,
and we're happy in it.
Sue and Martin have spent around £200,000
on the building work so far.
They've got some fabulous interior spaces,
and I'm sure this will be
a very welcoming and healthy family home.
But with Martin doing all the work
in his spare time,
there's an awful long way to go.
Any self-build
is something of a step into the unknown,
but Sue and Martin's approach
is braver and wilder than most,
with no drawings,
no schedule of works, no clear design.
I have to say I would not take such a risk.
It's a bit like going on an adventure
without a map or a compass.
I mean, the whole thing
becomes totally unpredictable.
To be fair to them, of course,
they have embraced the risk and the romance
of that unpredictability.
But as a result, I think it'll be a
long time before they're safely home.
- To the dragon!
- To the dragon!
So the design and the build
are all completely open-ended?
You only came for two
weeks, didn't you, Chris?
And he's been here for six months.
Just goes on and on.
You can't abandon it now.
This week's couple are lucky enough
to be building their house
in the wild and beautiful setting
of South Devon.
And they're following
a pretty wild idea too -
they want their home
to feel pan of the earth.
They're using old English
building techniques,
and they're making their design up
as they go along.
They're not starting from scratch,
but rebuilding these ancient ruined barns
into their ideal family home.
We wanted the house to be - that we built-
to be rooted in the landscape
and the countryside, and where it was.
And what can you have better than
two old barns dating right back to 1600,
which look as if they've
kind of thrust themselves
out of the earth, and
they're built of the earth?
You're not simply going to whack in
there with conventional building materials,
because it's quite... it's a barn
of mixed materials itself, isn't it?
There's stone, there's also cob?
Yes, there's two barns.
There's a 1600s barn,
which is built of half stone, half cob.
Then there's the 1850s barn, mainly stone.
So what's your
approach going to be?
The objective is to
create the house we want.
Since environmental issues
are one of our concerns,
we would incorporate those into the build.
We just don't like waste, really. If I
can eliminate waste, that will be great.
I really want to son out the sewage system,
don't want it taken away or dumped
or put in the sea.
It'd be brilliant never to have
someone take our bins away,
if we could make everything work that way.
- Recycle everything?
- Yeah.
Right. This is the kitchen door. Come in.
Oh, not the front door?
No, the front door's
this great big arch here.
It's been filled in, you
see, so it'll be a kind
of double-height hallway
coming in through there.
So this obviously will be the kitchen?
Yes, the kitchen. Imagine
the wall doesn't exist...
Right.
And what in fact there is
is a glass atrium that goes out beyond,
where we hope to plant
full-height citrus trees,
- as it's right down to basement level.
- Fantastic. Sort of split level?
- Mind the mud.
- Oh. See the mud. Mind the mud.
- There is the most enormous...
- There's a big hole full of mud.
So what's this down here?
It's a dung heap now, but what will it be?
- That's the garage. Lower ground level.
- And the utility room.
- Double garage? That's not very eco.
- Yes. These two pillars...
Uh, well, no, it's not very eco,
fair point, but it's very necessary.
- And pragmatic, living in the country?
- Absolutely.
So, so... above it, what will happen?
Well, the floor level, the finished floor
level, will be where those two ledges are.
And above is another storey?
Another storey above, which will have the
bedrooms and bathrooms, that sort of thing.
Working with an
existing building normally
gives you some idea of
what you'll end up with.
But in this case,
I'm finding it really
difficult to visualise
an end result. I'm
not the only one.
The philosophy of the project
is to leave decisions about interiors and
decisions about how the building evolves
until they naturally occur, so to speak.
Does this mean you don't have any completed
architectural drawings for this project?
Well, we certainly don't
at the moment, no.
So the design, planning to some extent, and
the build are all completely open-ended?
Certainly not
open-ended. By the end of
August we should have
a watertight building.
We've then got two to three months,
perhaps more, to finish out the inside -
obviously a lot of the inside can go on,
but to finish inside in that time.
And when will you then move in?
- Before Christmas!
- Definitely before Christmas.
- Definitely before Christmas?
- Yes.
The 1600s barn will
have a new thatched roof,
and will be rebuilt
using the original stone and mud.
The 1850s barn will have a slate roof
and huge new windows, plus a double garage.
Sue and Martin want to rebuild these barns
in the same meticulous way
they were built originally,
but at the same time incorporating
energy-efficient 21st-century technology.
Decisions about the interiors
will be made as they go along.
So far they know they want
a south-facing sitting room and kitchen
overlooking the indoor garden,
with four bedrooms upstairs and a study.
The old barn will be left roughly finished
at this stage.
The land and buildings cost £125,000.
Their budget for the
building work is £150,000.
That makes a total cost of £275,000,
which is coming from savings
and a small mortgage.
It's April, and from now
on Sue, Martin and their
two boys will live on
site in a mobile home.
Martin's a freelance writer,
but for the next eight
months his main job
is going to be
project-managing their build.
We like camping.
Obviously it's different over
eight months to being
in it for two weeks,
but also Martin works at home,
the children are mainly home educated.
I'm at home, so we're
very used to an intimate
family situation, all
on top of each other.
After a slight accident coming up the road,
there's now the question of getting
the caravan onto the premises.
We've got to see if it will come -
well, it'll come off the lorry, I suppose -
whether it will work its way round
into the... into the yard.
If not, I haven't a clue.
Everybody we've met today has said,
"If you want a push, we'll be there,"
so it could be people power.
Hold it, hold it...
We knew there'd be a problem getting it in
so that was to be expected, but...
it's a bit unfortunate
it's got a hole in it.
Sue and Martin have just spent their
first night in their happy holiday home.
They're going to have to last at least
seven months in this, or so they hope.
And you are, aren't you, just next door?
- It's pretty close, isn't it?
- A few feet away.
We're going to see it all happening.
If that wall came down,
it'd take the caravan.
Luckily, it's not the
one coming down.
- But all the roofs are coming down.
- Right.
So there is quite a
health and safety issue,
particularly with
children of three and five.
Lock the doors, shut the windows...
- You'll have to wear hard hats indoors?
- I hope not.
I can't wait to see this archway open up.
And Martin will have a good view
from the project management office too.
This is the executive suite?
It is, the nerve centre,
where we're going to run the project from.
- The site office, in other words?
- It's the site office.
Yeah, this is it.
- It's tiny, isn't it?
- Oh, no, no, it's big.
It's adequate. It'll be fine.
Out come the beds,
out goes the cupboard, big chair,
nice swivel chair probably,
good feng shui, powerful position.
You see people coming in the door,
look at the works going on,
sitting at your computer, tapping away.
I can't believe there's any
good feng shui in there.
Living on a building site
doesn't faze Sue and Martin.
They've been down this road before.
When Martin and I first met, we discovered
that we both wanted to live in a castle.
And we did live in one.
When we first saw the
chateau on top of the hill,
it was exactly as you would imagine
Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Welcome to the ancient
hallway of the chateau.
They bought this chateau in France
for only £60,000.
You can see
the potential grandeur of the staircase.
After working on it for five years,
they realised that restoring 17 rooms
might take longer than they'd thought.
So reluctantly they sold it,
making a profit of 60 grand.
When we came back from France,
and we knew we had to rival it in some way,
we knew instinctively
exactly what we wanted to do.
We wanted to... build our own house.
It took four years to find a plot,
but after making a further £145,000
doing up another house,
they're now ready to put all they've got
into building their family home.
It's day one on site.
The very first job is finding out
how much of the original stone
is strong enough to stay.
The man in charge of the building work
is John Watkins.
John's used to doing barn conversions
in the area,
but he's not used to working
without anything on paper.
My initial feelings were
of absolute, total horror...
because when I first saw the job
it looked like a builder's worst nightmare.
With this sort of project
it's always a problem,
because you never quite know
what you're going to find.
My main worry is the relationship
with us and Martin and Sue,
because of their having to make decisions.
And living so close, they're never able
to get away from the building site,
cos they're staring at it every day.
So I think my biggest fear
is that the relationship will break down,
so communication will break down and
then it actually gets quite complicated.
Sue and Martin's other key relationship
is with their architect Adrian Slocum.
I don't think this approach to
building work is for everybody.
Sue and Martin...
want to create a space for themselves
and their children that is of the earth...
creating something that breathes
and that is healthy and feeds the soul.
Adrian's wife Sam
calls herself a spiritual home-maker
and she'll be developing ideas
for the interior layout with Sue.
Like Adrian, she doesn't work from plans.
It's not going to be cast in concrete.
It's going to be about
dialogue, discussion.
Creative conflicts
going to be part of that.
And it may get sticky at times,
but if we can keep communicating,
and we can keep listening to each other,
we can... we can make it through.
And as we breathe,
we imagine that we're
passing through a door
and we're moving back, back into the past,
back into a time when you were truly happy.
- Hello, Kevin. This is Sam.
- Hello!
- Oh, hello, Sam.
- Hello, Kevin.
- What were you up to round the corner?
- We were meditating.
- On what?
- The interior of the house.
Uh-huh?
So far we've looked
at it from the outside in,
and now we want to look at
creating it from the inside out.
Right. And Sam,
this is your job, to help Sue do this?
Yes. Well, I'm trying, cos I know more
about meditation than I do about buildings.
- Right.
Is this the first time you've
done it in a... in a cowshed?
No,
but it's... I'm still quite...
I'm just finding my way with this, really.
Yeah, cos your
husband is the architect...
That's right.
- Of what will be this home?
- Yes. I'm very familiar with buildings.
Yeah. Yeah. And so you were meditating
- on the inside of the building.
- Yes.
- But with your eyes shut.
- Yes.
Well, we were doing a meditation
where we look back into the past,
and Sue tunes into times where she's
felt really happy and free and contented,
and then we draw that into the present
so that she makes the connection
with her own experience.
That's interesting, because most people,
when they have a great vision,
when they build their dream,
often build something
they think is going to make them happy,
something they've never had.
But you're saying you
focus on things that
made you happy in your
past, and put them in.
The evolutionary approach to
building a house is a lovely idea.
As the build grows,
you base your ideas on
what you find out,
what the build tells you.
But there are some
things which you really
ought to do in a more
conventional, logical way-
things like getting a site survey done,
drawing up some plans,
drawing up a basic spec -
things which Sue and Martin...
haven't really done.
A few weeks into the
build, they've discovered
that the old planning drawings
which they've been using
miscalculated the height of the floors
by three feet.
To make Sue and Martin's garage,
they'll now have to dig down.
That means the old walls
need to be underpinned,
the first test for their eco principles.
It was a big shock a few weeks ago when
I realised everyone around me was thinking
they'd just pour tons of concrete
under the building. I was very shocked.
For two weeks, I've been busy trying
to find out what the alternatives are.
So, to be fair, has everybody else.
We discovered there are things
you can do as alternatives
to footings or underpinning in concrete,
and they involve lime and rubble
and that sort of thing.
(But the cost is A) financial,
cos they cost about five times
as much as concrete,
and secondly, time.
So we've come to a compromise
after a long, long discussion
that in the same way as PVC,
where we said, "We don't want PVC anywhere,
but if we have to have it,
it can only go underground,"
we've now said the same about concrete.
Sue's been reluctant
to agree to concrete,
because although it's
the quick and easy option,
it's also about the most polluting
building material you can use.
The manufacture
of its main constituent, cement
produces 10% of the world's
man-made carbon dioxide.
It is inevitable
that if you try and use a green approach
to repairing an old building like this,
you will have to compromise somewhere.
Now, Martin and Sue
have already reluctantly
agreed to use concrete
in the 1850s barn there
to shore up the foundations.
But they have used, here, mortar made with
pure lime on this much more ancient wall.
Lime is an environmentally-friendly
alternative to cement.
It allows the walls to breathe and move,
and it was used here originally.
Because it never sets rock-hard,
Chris the stone mason can clean
off the old stones and reuse them.
Lime putty usually comes ready-made
from specialist builders' merchants.
I asked John to show me how to make it.
It's quite an explosive process.
- How much are you going to tip in?
- All of it.
This lime stalled out as limestone,
which is quarried locally.
It's then burnt, forcing the moisture out,
leaving it with an avid thirst for water.
So when you add water,
it reacts pretty violently.
God, that's incredible.
It's too hot to touch!
What's the difference
between what I'm
stirring and what Chris
is using over there?
Same stuff, isn't it? You're just
waiting three months for it to slake?
Yeah, it's been sitting
there for three months.
- Is he mixing it with an aggregate?
- He's mixing it with quite a coarse sand.
As for the concrete being used in
the garage to shore up the old watts,
it isn't being put underneath them
as foundations -
it's being set against
them as a retaining wall.
You're examining your dam.
Your new car park.
- And it's down there.
- My garage is there.
And you'll excavate all that?
- And beyond.
- And beyond, down to the drive.
I remember you saying you didn't mind
having concrete there,
as long you didn't have to look at it.
It's the smallest amount of concrete
you can possibly get away with.
So, um, all of these discoveries,
- do they mean that the budget's gone up?
- The budget's going up,
because we've made, in some areas,
more rather than less expensive choices.
We'll have far more oak
in the building than we intended.
- So it is going up?
- I think it, um,
it will end up higher
than we initially planned.
And does your, um, relaxed developmental
approach to this build still hold?
If you want to react to a building as
you work with it, it's the only way to go.
If you just say, "Right,
the architect's plan
is X, there it is, the
plan, we'll follow it,"
and you set it all in concrete at the
bottom, you can't alter it as you go up.
Whereas if you can,
to an extent, create the
house and set
everything firm at the end,
you've had a real chance
to let the building have its say.
And concrete may be an unwelcome addition,
but Sue's determined
to give it some spiritual meaning.
This is a piece of the Berlin Wall
on the day it came down.
This is one that his dad
picked up at San Paulo.
And this is a crystal
from the Sahara Desert.
We're going to bury them,
so whenever we walk down,
we'll know there's hidden
treasure under here.
We won't just think
about the rather horrid concrete.
We'll think about those beautiful treasures
from the earth,
that are glittering under there.
They're two months in, and contrary
to my expectations, I have to say,
Sue and Martin's organic vision
is going to plan.
But Sue has had to compromise
her eco principles
by accepting much more concrete
than she wanted,
both hidden and where she can see it.
And there's a long way to go.
So, the big question is,
how many more compromises are there ahead?
The success of the modern brick
is all thanks to the Industrial Revolution.
All that mass production, all those canals,
helped spread its popularity,
200 years ago and more.
But before that - well, people built with
whatever they could get their hands on,
with stone or timber, for example.
Down here in Devon,
they had precious little of either,
so instead they built their houses
out of mud, or cob, as they call it here.
Sue and Martin are using cob
to restore their walls in the 1600s barn.
Bob's a mixture of earth, straw and water.
Come on, Hugo! Jump up!
Go on, then!
The method for making it hasn't changed
since people first built mud houses.
Just tread it until you
get a thick, sticky mass.
You can pick it up
quickly from an old manual.
That's what John the builder did.
You're repairing an existing wall?
Underneath here is stone?
Stone, yeah. Most cob walls
will have stone up to the first floor.
- Yes?
- And then cob above.
That's the base. And what about the roof?
I mean, obviously it needs protection,
as this top Wall's very exposed.
Yes. In this case, it'd be thatched.
Most cob houses were thatched, and it would
extend out by about 18" over the edge.
- So the rain dripping off is well clear.
- Deep eaves?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- It's... a low-skilled job.
- It is.
I mean, I've learnt to do this
in, it would appear, one minute.
I'm sure I could get a little faster
and better over time, but...
Come on, then.
All right, all right, all right!
Less talk, more action?
That's right.
Using mud from your back yard
is about the most sustainable
way of building I can think of.
Here in Devon, there are more mud houses
than any other part of Britain.
And what! find interesting
is how one material
can give a whole community
a visual identity.
A third of the world's population
live in mud houses.
From Mali to Mexico, mud has ruled
the architectural roost for centuries.
It's cheap, available nearly everywhere,
and it's thermally efficient, keeping
houses cool in summer and warm in winter.
Back in Devon, it's August,
and another traditional
construction material arrives,
the oak frame.
Oak is expensive, and this frame is taking
a big chunk out of Sue and Martin's budget.
But it is a home-grown wood.
It smells very nice, the green oak.
I think they should bottle it and put it
in an aerosol, probably, it's that good.
In ten years' time,
it'll be as hard as rock.
You won't be able to bang a nail into it
without drilling a hole.
The frame's going up
four months into the build.
It's the structural heart of the house,
supporting the root
and providing a cavity for
insulation between
the frame and the watts.
It's a whole collection
of very elderly buildings,
which have been built ad hoc,
and the levels are all over the place
and the walls are all over the place.
What we're supplying is the structure
that holds up the walls and the floors,
so that we're not
relying on the old walls,
which are rather tender,
to do very much work.
Sue and Martin are still convinced
they'll be in before Christmas.
But it's the end of August, Martin's
deadline for a watertight building,
and they're a long way off.
Still, at least it's beginning
to look like a house.
So what's it like, putting
your back to something
that could have been
growing for 100 years?
I know. I think it's...
well, it's quite awesome, isn't it, really?
- Awesome?
- Yeah.
- Awesome - I don't know
about "awesome". It's interesting.
- Interesting.
- This one's particularly special,
because it's the tree of life, it's our...
a great huge trunk going right
into the floor, three storeys down.
- It's an enormously tall piece.
- It goes right into the garage.
And then it comes up here,
and it's got eight faces,
with these five great arms
coming off it immediately,
and then there's three more up the top.
How's the schedule generally?
You've said all along, very organic,
we kind of develop this design as we go.
- You've still got a deadline of Christmas?
- Oh, yes.
- We think we're on target.
- It'll be autumn soon.
Yes. We want to get
the lid on pretty quick.
Yes.
We've got the other oak frame
arriving next week,
and the thatcher will
follow up very quickly.
So by the end of September,
given a reasonable patch of weather,
we should have a cover over the whole lot.
- Yeah, if the weather's good.
- If it's not appalling.
And if that happens, then I think
we'll be all right for Christmas.
If we get seriously
delayed on the roof,
that may push it
back. I don't think it will.
You can come down on Christmas Eve,
or the 23rd, and see for yourself.
- Come and have a drink.
- I will!
- We'll have our house warming party.
- I'd love to. Yes!
It's the middle of October.
It's been raining every day for a month.
And Chris the stonemason
is struggling with the walls.
Lime mortar takes days to set,
and if the rain hits it,
it just washes away.
This was built yesterday, and,
you know, it's just like when I laid it.
I'll cover it up, because
if water gets in behind,
because it's not going off, then
you're putting more weight on top of it.
If you're using cement, you know, you
can build 2-3ft, then 2-3ft the next day,
but with this, you build... well, since
it's been wet, only a couple of foot.
It's all right using these old methods,
but you've got to have time.
You just can't build one place.
Until the walls are up,
the building won't be watertight.
But Martin's determined
to carry on regardless,
and he's driving the small team on.
He's still optimistic
about the moving-in date.
MARTINI I still think we'll be in.
It won't be finished. I
never said it would be.
But I think we could be inside
by the end of December.
I'd like the walls to be built,
the slates to be on, partitions to be made,
wiring to be done, plumbing to be done,
carpets to be laid -
but I guess it won't be tomorrow.
You know, he's saying
finished by Christmas,
and we've all...
worked on this type of job before,
and we all look at it and think,
"Well... you've got to be really lucky."
It's what we call a temporary hiccup.
The south-facing roof
structure is supported
by acro props until the walls are
built up and can take the weight.
Only then can they put
the extra weight of the roof tiles on.
The pace of building with time
is causing real frustration.
Everybody's getting in each other's way,
really, now.
You know, you're trying to finish it off,
and you do get to a
point when you think,
"God," you know, "is
it ever going to finish?"
A very pleasant building site to be
on, it is. Chris has never known better.
You only came here for two weeks,
didn't you, Chris?
And, um, he's been here for six months.
It just goes on and on. He can't abandon it
now - unless his finances dictate he does.
But, you know...
You know, the house in France
wasn't finished for years.
I think they're quite good
at adapting to living in a space that's...
not finished, and being able to...
be surrounded by work and chaos,
and, you know,
I just can't cope with it,
but I'm sure that they can.
And if you can, then that's fine. They
can finish it off over the next few years.
Now Martin's kind of fully involved
every day on the build,
it's a slightly different
life for me and the boys.
Everything that's
happened has been brilliant.
We are completely happy
with how it's all going.
But I think we have used up
our time contingency,
and probably our budget contingency too.
We're now in a bit of a race against time,
to get in at Christmas.
I think it's frustrating for Martin,
cos he's involved in it.
He goes out in the morning
with a vision of what can be achieved.
He comes back, and I say,
"Ah, it's looking great," and he says,
"No, we haven't done half
of what I wanted to do."
Sue and Martin's philosophy for this build
includes the idea that as much as possible
of the building materials
should be traditional and locally sourced.
So the walls are of stone and of cob,
the timber frame inside is English oak
and the roof -
well, the roof is covered in dried reed.
In thatch.
It's the end of November,
and on the old barn,
the thatcher's struggling
to keep his reed dry.
A job like this would
normally take six weeks, but
because of the weather,
it could take up to nine.
I mean, you're not putting
roofing felt on, are you?
Oh, no.
This is going straight
onto the... onto the rafters.
So... is it really that waterproof?
It works exactly the same way as...
if you imagine putting a drinking straw
at an angle under a dripping tap.
The drip goes down to the end of the straw
before it falls off.
And in the... it was
absolutely heaving it down.
The surface of the thatch was just a
series of drips, of water dripping down.
A quarter-of-an-inch
in, it was completely dry.
Fantastic.
Where does this stuff come from?
Is it grown locally?
No, no. This is water reed.
It's from Turkey, believe it or not.
- Not from Norfolk, then?
- Not from Norfolk, no.
Why not? That's where they grow it.
They can't produce enough
for the thatching industry.
So it comes from Turkey?
Turkey, Poland, Romania.
In terms of environmental impact,
you have to transport the stuff, don't you?
- You have to get it over here.
- Yes.
- It's not an ecological success story.
- No!
It's a shame we don't
produce enough reed
in Britain. it's such
a traditional product.
The thousands of miles it has to travel
across Europe to be imported
seriously compromise its eco credentials.
But then, finding truly
environmentally-friendly
materials lo build your home
is a real struggle,
as Martin knows from experience.
Insulation is an absolutely key part
of our project,
because the only real
way to minimise energy
consumption is to have
very good insulation.
After weeks of research,
Martin's found a form of insulation
that's very natural, and very to cat.
Sheep's wool is not rocket science.
It's not the most innovative thing ever.
But it's not widely used at the moment,
mostly because it's not widely available,
and commercial products
are relatively expensive.
It's a real problem with
environmental building,
that these products are all so expensive
at the beginning.
It's like everything else.
To do it sensibly, you've got to find a way
of doing it cheaply, or there's no point.
You know, you're not in
the real world otherwise.
So I found a local spinning mill
which has sheep's wool more or less as
a waste product of their spinning process.
Wool and thatch are natural materials.
But Sue and Martin's philosophy
also embraces modem eco products.
They're installing a heat exchange system,
which swaps stale air inside the house
for pure air from outside the house.
On its way in, the
cool, fresh air is heated,
which means that Sue and Martin will
have a constant supply of warm, clean air,
without ever having to open any windows.
They're also taking advantage
of the latest in glass technology.
The huge south-facing windows
are being installed,
even though the watts stilt haven't been
completely built around the openings.
But as this is the elevation
most exposed to the prevailing winds,
it's vital to get this last
major element of weatherproofing in place.
The glass units are double glazed
and filled with argon,
making them twice as thermally efficient
as standard double glazing.
So how is your budget
bearing up to these investments?
Groaning, I think.
We haven't overspent it,
but we are reaching its limit.
- But you haven't finished the house.
- No.
Seven months ago, you said...
well, eight months ago, in April,
you planned to be in here in seven months.
- So you've passed that.
- Oh, we're stretching it.
It's a month before Christmas.
Do you think you'll get in by then?
No, I don't think so any more.
I think, as I say, we could have done,
if everything had
gone fine for the last
six weeks. But the
weather was unbelievable.
But so what? if we get in in the middle
of January, it's not the end of the world.
Certainly we'll be moving
from the caravan to
the house in January.
I'm quite sure of that.
You've a lot of fixing to do.
I haven't seen much pipework.
I haven't seen any
wiring. There's no first-fix.
No, but...
- Wiring doesn't take long.
- Oh?
- No, it doesn't. Come on.
- And boards and walls and everything else?
That takes more time.
But we haven't got to do it all at once.
Quite a lot of the
stuff will be done.
It'd be nice to get it
done before you moved in.
I don't think we've got to have every
single room boarded before we move in.
- I mean...
- How many rooms?
If we do one room,
it'll be bigger than the caravan!
You know, it... it's not essential
the place is complete.
There will be some discussion
about when we move in.
I bet there bleeding well will be!
He'll be living here, you'll
be still in the caravan!
- It's possible.
- Possibly.
This reed bed system, which will be
filtering all of the sewage from the house,
is going to be ready and up and running
in two weeks' time.
Now that I can believe.
What I can't believe is that Sue and Martin
are going to move in in January.
That's only five weeks away.
It's the middle of January, and Sue
and Martin are along way from moving in.
The outside walls are still being built,
and the roof isn't slated yet.
But worse than that, Sue and
Martin are fast running out of money.
Money becomes more meaningful
towards the end of a build.
At the beginning,
you write cheques for huge amounts.
You spend on stonework, a lot of labour,
demolitions, timber, roof slates -
you know, huge amounts of money.
And towards the end, when you're down
to your last £20,000 or whatever,
and you're talking
about floorboards and
baths and kitchen
units and stuff like that...
the money
suddenly seems much more valuable.
Like, you know, a week's wages to somebody,
£400-500,
is, um, I don't know, the price of a sofa,
or, you know, a jolly nice roll top bath,
or one of those things.
You start thinking,
"Where do I want to spend money?"
Martin's decided
that he can? afford full-time builders,
so after nine months,
John and his team are leaving the project.
It looks like it's almost there,
but I know it's a long way from finishing.
The actual slow bit, all the fitting,
is yet to be done.
That's actually quite costly,
and quite time-consuming.
It requires, um, a sort of higher
skill level, so that costs more as well.
Um...
but I think those are things
that Martin's planning to do himself,
so the more he does,
the more money he saves.
It'll take a little while to finish.
We've got Sue's dad Norman
here, helping me, and we've got...
Chris is here, doing
all the stonework still.
We're getting the studwork sorted out.
The staircase is largely completed.
I've still got plumbing
and wiring to do, but
I've done some wiring,
and it's not a big job.
Only once in the last 15 years
have I actually employed a plumber,
paid someone to do plumbing for us.
Although it was done perfectly competently,
and quickly, to be fair-
they did it in a week
when we were away, and
it would have taken me
probably two months -
um, but still,
it wasn't done quite the way I wanted.
We got back and the pipes
weren't where I wanted,
you know, pipes to the radiators
not vertical, a bit wonky,
and you can see the bends at the bottom.
That, you know, bugs me.
I'd rather do it myself and get it right.
It does take longer,
and it is frustrating,
particularly for Sue, cos
she has to wait longer.
But even if we had people here,
I'd be concerned about keeping them,
as it were, fully loaded with work,
as I've spent so long working out
what I think we should be doing next.
One outside cost he has to incur
is the reed bed specialist.
This is a crucial part of Sue's vision
of a house with minimal waste.
Eco-wise, I'm most excited about this,
because it's pan of the garden,
and it links the house with the garden,
which is what I wanted.
And it is something...
as I say, we're doing it for ourselves.
Right from what we're producing
to where it's going,
it's all on our plot, and we're
not having to get anybody else out
or use services that are going
out there and polluting, really.
So I'm really, really happy about that.
Let's try that - the first reed is in!
The reeds will purify all the water used in
the house, and send it back into the earth.
- Now, when will it be 8ft tall?
- Ah... in three years' time.
Amazingly, the progress of the build
is still being held up by the stonework.
Is that roof watertight?
It is now. But the Wall's not watertight.
- That wall is not.
- That's the trouble.
- It's got a blinking great hole.
- Yeah.
And until it's watertight,
you can't lay floors, is that right?
We can't do a thing because of the
humidity. The moisture content is too high.
Normally with floorboards,
you lay them through,
and they can dry out into the
ambient moisture level in the building.
But if we brought in
floorboards from a timber yard,
they'd get wetter here than where they are.
You're very chipper
about all this, aren't you?
Oh, I'm very positive,
mostly because we've produced
such a tremendous house,
which we're incredibly pleased with.
But if you're going to take it all on
yourself, it's going to take... years.
No, it's not going to
take years. It's not all
me. We've got the
specialist trades coming in.
It's only the... Well, I say all -
not including plumbing and wiring, but
to me, those are not specialist trades -
but I don't think that's right.
I think that we'll, um...
I won't put a date on it-
I've done that too often -
but I think in the next month, or
two, or three, we could move in.
Chris thought you might be in by
Christmas, but not the Christmas just gone.
Oh, everybody says, "Which Christmas?"
- What are you doing now?
- As always, three or four things at once.
We're doing the joinery, the staircase
is going in, we're doing these boards...
But this is not the floor
of the room above?
No, this is the ceiling.
Just the ceiling. They'll
be painted, these boards.
And there's a floor
going on top of those?
Yeah.
What else are you doing?
Well, wiring, plumbing,
all services going in.
- All the first-fix?
- Yeah, basically the first-fix stage.
Meanwhile, Chris is rebuilding!
Meanwhile Chris is
still building the wall!
In the rain!
Yes, that's what so silly.
You've got a bit more stonework to do.
How much more?
- A couple of weeks? Three?
- How long, Chris?
Three or four weeks
to finish the stonework?
End of February.
- As long as the weather's OK.
- That's not too bad. If it doesn't rain.
I see you've found a
little studio for yourself.
Oh, I have, yes!
This isn't a floor, is
it? This is the ceiling.
There's going to be
a proper floor on top.
There is. We won't
be walking on this, no.
- What are you doing?
- I'm mixing paint. Making paint, actually.
- Has this become your hobby, as it were?
- Ah...!
You don't have a television, do you?
Oh, believe me,
I don't necessarily do it for relaxation.
And how is life in the caravan?
- It's turned out OK, actually.
- Yeah?
Yeah. Yeah, no, we're... we're fine.
It'll be quite a shock to leave the caravan
and have all this space. Finally.
And Martin? Do you get together much?
No. One of us is always looking after
the children, so we don't go out much.
What does Martin use,
then, to let off steam?
Or does he just bash at wood?
- Does that do it for him?
- I don't think Mart builds up steam.
I think that's the point.
You know, some people don't, do they?
I whizz around, getting
very agitated, but
Mart just does things
calmly at his own pace,
and will not be hurried or rushed.
So there is no steam build-up.
- He can do that?
- Yeah. Then he does admin.
- In the evenings?
- Yes.
- For a hobby?
- Yes!
And now that you see the floors in,
and an idea of where the walls are,
- you get a real sense of how it will feel.
- Mm-hm.
But did the meditation
help you envision that?
- Did it take you as far as that?
- Definitely.
The meditation was vital
as far as I'm concerned,
because it gave me the confidence to
believe that my vision could be realised.
- Sam's done one picture...
- One picture?
Of the main bedroom.
- Yours?
- Yes, a completed picture.
And it is the intention to do one of
those pictures for each room in the house.
Sam and Sue have been meditating
on the interiors throughout the project,
and now Sam's starting to produce drawings
of the rooms, inspired by their sessions.
So here's Sue, describing what she sees.
"The main bedroom is a beautiful room,
with light from all directions.
I feel soft wool underfoot,
blue like the sea."
Here, you can see, this is a big blue rug.
"The blue-and-white bed
floats out on the sea,
beyond it, the sunburst screen,
a wall of glass.
Through this I can see the outside, and
make connections into worlds upon worlds."
With the bedroom not even a shell yet,
most people wouldn't dream of decorating.
But dreaming of decorating is just what
Sue and Sam have been doing for a year.
And now they can? wait
to take it forward into reality.
Martin's laying a floor this weekend,
which means we can actually
put this room together.
Very temporarily, obviously.
We're not going to move into it,
because it won't be plumbed
or wired for electric.
But at the same time, if we can
realise this picture, then we'll know
we can go forward on the same path for
all the rest of the rooms. That's the plan.
Pretty!
Sue and Martin wanted to move in
after eight months,
and they've been building
for, well, nearly a year.
But at last, it's starting
to look like a house.
So this view, is this how you'd
always imagined it to look?
When I first came down
to push the children on the swing,
and saw for the first time what we'd
created - because this is, after all,
the front that we've created,
cos it didn't exist before -
it was very exciting. It's what
you see from the road, these big windows.
- Yeah, as you drive round.
- You don't miss it.
People stop and say, "It's great!"
People we've never met.
It suddenly looks like a house.
And this idea, that you wanted the building
to be of the earth,
to appear to sit comfortably,
does that still work?
Well, look at the colours!
I mean, they just are of the earth.
I mean, the earth is very obvious!
But round the corner,
the cob wall gives
you the impression of a
building that's been here
for thousands of years.
Here, in the domestic elevation,
you know, with glass...
In three years,
with the windows toned down
and the stone weathered, it'll be
firmly rooted in the earth, in the ground.
What do you do with all this earth?
From a very early meditation Sam and I did
at the top of the orchard,
where we sort of saw...
the house kind of surrounded
by this huge green dragon, protecting it,
this little bit of bank down here
will be turned into the dragon's tail,
with a pointy bit on it, and this will
become a great slumbering beast,
- and his nose will be down there.
- Uh, sounds great.
- That's the landscaping.
- Cradling the house.
- You've got more dragons?
- We have got more dragons.
Dragons everywhere.
Well. Good lord!
Here we are.
You've finished this room! Completely!
We're getting an idea
of what it'll be like.
- You carved that oak pillar.
- It's started.
You know, we called it Green Dragon Barn?
The whole barn is called Green Dragon Barn?
That's our house name, yes.
We decided that dragons, you know,
united four elements,
earth, air, fire, water,
which is what I wanted from the name.
I like these old... cow
drinking things.
That's right. They
were actually in the barns.
I thought, "Hang on
- we can use those."
You've turned them
into uplighters. Great!
I particularly like the way this wooden
frame frames that extraordinary pair
- of stone monoliths.
- It's great, isn't it? The original one.
- And so tall!
- Absolutely.
Through here is
the sitting room?
That's right. We're
there already, pretty much.
Extraordinary.
I mean, now that this place is so empty,
now you've put boards down,
- suddenly you appreciate the space.
- Absolutely.
- For the first time, really.
- It is big, isn't it?
- It is big.
- And the sunlight pours in.
And that amazing view out of the window!
- Yes.
- Oh, it's heart-warming.
On a day like today,
the light just floods into this space.
It does.
Through this glass at
this end of the building.
Particularly in the winter,
with low sunlight.
How will you furnish
it? Have you thought?
Yeah. This is
where I'd like to eat.
I think we'll have a
long dining table here,
so you get the most
of it three times a day.
And have the long row of chairs, and none
round that side, so everyone's looking out.
- That's the plan.
- Looking at it now,
and thinking how it's going to be,
there's an awfully long way to go.
You've still got floors
to lay, you've still got...
walls to finish, and
insulation to put in there.
Insulation to put in and the wall to do,
but there is only this wall.
The rest of it is pretty much as is.
- The rest will be stonework?
- That's right, yeah.
- And this is the kitchen?
- This is the kitchen!
And there's a substantial hole left.
- Oh, a modest hole.
- It's a big hole, by any standards.
It's the last hole!
That's the important thing!
The last hole. You're
two days early, Kevin.
Uh-huh? And then your stonework
will be complete?
The stonework will be largely complete.
And your house will
be we a the night! At last!
Yay!
This well here is going
to be an indoor garden?
This is the internal garden, yeah.
So you can walk out over it.
- When we met...
- That's right.
You said this wall
would go, there would be
a full-height garden,
with giant citrus trees.
That's right.
- And here it is.
- There's the space.
- It'll be planted one day.
- There's the shovel.
Let's go upstairs, up this new staircase.
All your own work, isn't it?
I didn't make it, but I put it together,
which is hard enough.
What are you doing - you haven't moved in?
- Not quite. We're just trying it out.
- No, not as such.
- This is interior design...
- We're trying out colours and ideas.
Well, this is the one that Sam and I really
got a long way with, with her picture.
- I remember. Yeah.
- So now we're trying to recreate it.
I can't wait to wake up and see that view.
It'll be a good day.
We're trying to see
if we can get those
colours, you know,
trying to... create that,
in order to carry on the inspiration
through, and get other drawings.
So where's this woody big screen thing?
Yes, this is the window
that's coming here.
Between you and
the well down there?
The atrium, yes, with plants.
You'll be able to see the tops of the
citrus trees, and out into the garden.
- Right...
- That's the idea.
So where is your bathroom? Your en suite?
- A door through here.
- Just here?
So you're... It's not
particularly huge, is it?
No.
But then most of the rooms
are not vast in this house.
- None of them are vast.
- Quite modest, really.
And Robbie and Hugo's rooms
are now up here?
This is your doorway through,
and you've got one room there
and one room there.
And this is your theatre space?
- This is the theatre space. Ah!
- The much-discussed theatre space.
So how far is this
dream realised, then?
How far have you got
down the journey to go?
I think all the inspiration is here now.
You know, you just
feel like... it's there. And...
I can't take it in. Sometimes I come out
of the caravan, and I walk into this place.
It's pouring with rain or something,
and it fills me with joy, it really does.
And I'm not someone
to whom that happens often.
But I do feel that it has got,
in every inch of its kind of structure,
things that are deeply part of me.
I just wonder, where you are now,
Martin, you know,
to an extent, you're going to want
to carry on working on the place.
It becomes a very open-ended project.
Oh, it does. But
fortunately we've got room,
such as this, for
example, in which to...
To carry on working for ever!
- You could go on as long as you want.
- Phases ll and Ill are lined up.
- You've no builders now.
- Essentially it's down to me.
That's fine, because we
can take it more slowly.
Single-handed now,
you've got this boarding to do,
flooring and so on.
I'll go on full-time for a month or so,
and more part-time, gradually.
- Once it's habitable I'll do...
- It'll just slow down?
So is there a danger at any point
that you could just... run out?
Find yourselves minus essential walls
or insulation?
I think not. We did project the whole thing
on the basis of being without a mortgage,
which would be miraculous.
As it is, we'll end up with a mortgage.
And if we have to, we'll have a slightly
bigger mortgage. But we'd rather not.
No, but you have put into practice, for the
first time, properly and fully, a belief...
- Yes.
- We have.
About your space and life,
and translated it into a building.
- That seems to be important.
- It is.
At the same time, we have kept
life in balance. Balance is important.
We are OK in the caravan.
This has not tipped the scales
to become an obsession,
and if we don't do it by a certain date,
it's absolutely appalling.
You know what I mean? It is actually... OK.
You've got to live the process.
We've lived the process,
and we're happy in it.
Sue and Martin have spent around £200,000
on the building work so far.
They've got some fabulous interior spaces,
and I'm sure this will be
a very welcoming and healthy family home.
But with Martin doing all the work
in his spare time,
there's an awful long way to go.
Any self-build
is something of a step into the unknown,
but Sue and Martin's approach
is braver and wilder than most,
with no drawings,
no schedule of works, no clear design.
I have to say I would not take such a risk.
It's a bit like going on an adventure
without a map or a compass.
I mean, the whole thing
becomes totally unpredictable.
To be fair to them, of course,
they have embraced the risk and the romance
of that unpredictability.
But as a result, I think it'll be a
long time before they're safely home.
- To the dragon!
- To the dragon!