CASE STUDY RECLAIMING CONTROL
Rob Lea had always wanted to design and build his own home, and convert an old barn, so when the opportunity came to do both – using reclaimed materials – he jumped at the chance
TEXT ROSEANNE FIELD IMAGES ROB LEA S
elf-confessed “serial refurbisher” Rob Lea had dreamed of becoming an architect and designing and building his own home since he was a young child. It’s therefore no surprise that he’s undertaken several refurbishment projects over the years, alongside his previous job in an architectural office. Most recently, he converted an old pub to a house, having made a deal with the owners who were struggling to sell it after a few bad years in business. “It was a huge project for me, doing everything on my own, but the finished home was great,” he says. “Plus we had a good few parties before I converted the pub area, and I retained a games room complete with bar, pool table, juke box and fruit machine!”
Despite having undertaken some hefty
projects, Rob, who now designs car dealerships, still had an itch to scratch – he had always wanted to convert an old barn. So when an 1826 farmhouse complete with barns and surrounding land came up for sale, he couldn’t resist. “It had never been on the market before,” he explains. “It had been in the family since it was built, I bought it from the last descendant.” The farm was well-known in the village of Nether Heage, just north of Derby – “it was
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www.sbhonline.co.uk
the dream home for a lot of locals,” Rob admits. He’d bought it with his partner, and their plan was to live in the house while they converted the three barns to holiday lets “before living the good life with alpacas, pigs and sheep!” Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as the relationship came to an end, and Rob therefore decided to sell the house and attached barn, keeping two barns and the field for himself. With the sale having gone through, Rob was
ready to obtain planning permission for his planned works – to convert the larger barn into a three bedroom holiday let and demolish the smaller one so he could build his ideal home. He had previously obtained prior approval for the work he and his partner had intended to do on the three barns (conversion to
Rob reused materials from the original barn wherever possible
february/march 2020 REPLICA
The house was built to effectively be a larger replica of the demolished barn it replaced
LOW POINT
“When I realised how much it had cost me to excavate the field for the ground source heat pump. Then the supplier went bust and I lost more money!” – Rob Lea
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