CASE STUDY ACCESS ALL AREAS
A kit home has plenty of benefits – including its price tag – but buying a ‘house in a box’ doesn’t mean sticking to the plan, as this wheelchair-friendly redesign near Cornwall’s Atlantic coast illustrates
TEXT CAROL BURNS IMAGES EWEN MACDONALD
S
arah and Trevor Wright knew exactly where they wanted to build their new house – as close to their old cottage near Perranporth
on Cornwall’s Atlantic coast as possible – and had resorted to asking neighbours if they had a piece of land available to buy. Eventually one agreed to sell them their old tennis court and garden – sitting just half a mile from their cottage and a field’s length from their grandchildren. “We liked it because it was flat, had a nice view and was next door to our daughter,” says Sarah of the plot. She is disabled, and living in an old cob cottage was not suitable.
Having found and bought their plot in August 2018, it was time to decide what the house would look like. The couple decided on a kit house that recreated a Scandinavian log cabin which came with a £75,000 price tag (for the standard design).
Although called a ‘kit house,’ the finished building – from Finnish company Arctichouse
16
www.sbhonline.co.uk
– bears little resemblance to the houses that arrive partially built in a convoy of lorries from Germany, plus the tradesmen that put it up in two weeks. Pre-cut logs for the frame and the triple glazed windows are supplied, but the wood which made up the walls, ceilings and floors is supplied uncut. Even carpenter Trevor admitted he was a little overwhelmed, especially when it came to making and raising a 350 kg, 12 metre-long roof beam to the five-metre-high ceiling. Fortunately, sons-in-law Ric Wright and Chris Waters were able to lend a hand. The couple had undertaken renovation
projects before, including two cottages, but this was their biggest – and probably last – adventure. The timescale for the project was significantly higher than the two-week kit house template: the build took 18 months. For the first few months, the couple lived in a caravan in the garden that they had bought for £200, sleeping in a nearby shed if the weather got
may/june 2022
HIGH POINT
“Enjoying the view from the full-length windows looking onto the garden from the living space”
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