HIGH POINT Matthew: “The


excitement of moving in for Christmas! Just actually getting it finished and the feeling of moving into something we’ve created – we’ve lived on a building site for so many years.”


adjacent farmhouse, to develop and sell on, both of which Matthew would also build. “It is a sort of complex of different properties that all work together,” he says.


The fact the owner had been marketing the land for a total of seven years meant the couple were able to get a good deal, which also included an old pig shed, which Matthew transformed into a three-bedroom cottage. They bought the site in October 2013 and moved into the converted pig shed in May 2014 once their previous house had sold. This would serve as an excellent base for Matthew, Emma and their three children while the main house was constructed. “We lived onsite in a caravan, but within two months we pretty much had the conversion finished because I didn’t want to go through winter in a caravan,” Matthew says. Although planning had already been consented, Matthew and Emma wanted to design something that closely suited them. “It had planning permission for detached, dormer- style houses,” explains Matthew. “There was no way I was ever going to build that on such a unique plot in this area.”


They worked closely with their architect, Roger Bell, who Matthew already had a good working relationship with, and came up with a design inspired by houses they’d seen on holiday in Australia. In fact, it’s their love for the country and dream to move there one day that has seen them put their dream home on the market. In February last year, midway through the build, they discovered they had been granted visas to make a permanent move down under.


PLANNING


Matthew and Emma decided to go the route of providing a building notice, which meant they


10 www.sbhonline.co.uk


didn’t have to have full, detailed plans drawn up for their application. “We saved quite a lot of money not having to have detailed drawings,” says Matthew.


Although they were submitting a design that was very different to the original approved plans – including the work to the pig shed (which had originally been approved for conversion into a garage) – the couple didn’t face serious objection from their local planning office. “The only thing they were concerned about was the height of the tallest side of the property, where it’s three storeys,” explains Matthew. “They were concerned with how that would look from the other side of the bank and lower down in the village.”


Despite the planning officer’s worries, Matthew and Emma were able to prove that due to the height and slope of the site, nobody would be able to see the basement level from below. “It just looks like a two-storey house,” he says. There were also other minor queries regarding things like the shape of windows, but he found the best approach was to visit the planning office and discuss it face-to-face. “Because this was going through planning for the third time they’d spent too much time on it – in the end they’d had enough of seeing us!” Matthew says. “Going down there was a good thing to do.”


In the end, the only condition they had to follow was keeping the ridge height the same as the other two new properties next door, which sit lower on the hill and have pitched roofs. “That’s the reason we came up with the arched sedum roof,” says Matthew. “The site warrants keeping the building as high as you can, so I wanted to go higher and reduce the roof down.” Once they were ready to begin work onsite,


MATTHEW’S ADVICE


“Don’t be afraid to make changes, but know what those changes are going to cost you. You know the space you need, so don’t be afraid to move a wall here or there if you need to. And do your research! Make sure you use the right builders and local tradesmen, go and look at their work to make sure you’re happy.”


january/february 2019


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