recovery and ventilation system to meet the energy savings needed. Two months before the build, Merula made a second trip to Germany to go through the ‘sampling’ process, which took nearly three days. “Your project manager holds your hand through the whole process, room by room until you’ve done it all,” says Merula. “Every detail, from the door handles to whether the woodgrain on the front door should be vertical or horizontal.” Then work to demolish the tennis court and start building a slab began.
A vital element of the Baufritz service that was instantly attractive to Merula was the fact that, through the company’s partner network, they were able to provide most of the trade contacts that were needed to complete the project. “So the business of me worrying about who was going to fit the windows, or the doors, or install the showers – all those questions were answered,” she says.
One such key contact was garden designer Hannah Genders, who had worked with Baufritz on a number of projects and specialises in creating eco landscapes and therapy gardens. Recognising early on in the process that a plot positioned by a slope added a layer of complexity to the build, and that gardening and eco concerns were important to Merula, Baufritz architect Robert Lumme recommended working with Hannah. “She was brilliant and absolutely took on board sensitivity to the environment around the build, and marrying the practical with the aesthetic,” says Merula.
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www.sbhonline.co.uk
“The fundamental thing for me was their ethos, their absolute
HIGH POINT
commitment to using materials that have no toxins”
An industrial estate had to be found to house the sections arriving from Germany before they were transferred onto smaller lorries to navigate the narrow Hampshire village lanes with ease. Then work began, and things moved quickly. Conveniently, Merula was still living in her old property so she was able to pop in and check on progress every day. “We had a dry shell in four days, and then teams of people came to do the fit out. The house arrived at the beginning of April, and the keys were handed over to me in the last week of August,” she says. “By mid November that year I had moved in.” The finished four-bedroom property has a downstairs, first floor and loft, and sits comfortably within its 1-acre garden, which Hannah Genders designed to include a vegetable patch, soft perennial planting and a
Watching all the skilled workmen – master carpenters, plumbers, metal workers and electricians – and the quality of their work. Seeing them take the build sections from the truck was like watching a dance – each section is numbered so they know exactly which one to take and when. They worked solidly – it was very inspiring to see and wonderful to feel part of the process.
Baufritz’s attitude. I had never done anything like this before, but I never felt patronised – I felt embraced. I didn’t feel pushed in any way or that they were hard selling – from the word go I felt I could trust these people to work with me through the whole project.
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