A
s a former contestant on TV’s MasterChef, Ashley Byrne reckons his self-build has all the right ingredients to be the stylish
yet comfortable forever home that he and wife Alison have long dreamed of. Located on the edge of the Oxfordshire village of Towersey, the aptly named Chiltern View looks out on pleasant rural vistas from both the front and rear of the property. Its unashamedly contemporary design, with
three different-sized rectangle structures that project and cantilever out from each other, and an external finish of white render and black aluminium cladding, cannot fail to turn heads. The main two-storey spine of the building runs parallel to the road and is where you’ll find most of the living space. At ground floor level, a cubic shape containing the main entrance extends outwards at the front of the building, while a similarly shaped ‘garden room’ projects into the patio and lawn area at the rear. Upstairs, the master bedroom cantilevers from the first floor at both the front and rear. Generous amounts of glazing throughout,
including roof skylights, bring the outside in and make the interior light and airy. The layout downstairs is open plan and everywhere the spaces are uncomplicated and functional, yet very cleverly thought out. Ashley is clearly thrilled with the result and equally positive about the self-build journey he and Alison have been on: “It’s been an amazing experience. It’s been exhilarating, fascinating – exhausting as well – but I would recommend it 100%. We’ve seen our creation come out of the ground and now that we’re actually living in it, it’s ten times better than we’d hoped.” It might appear like Ashley, having faced the MasterChef challenge albeit a few years ago, found the way to achieve a smooth, no- hassle self-build. In fact, there were quite a few challenges along the way.
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“We finally put a spade in the ground in February 2020 with just 24 hours left on our planning permission!”
When Ashley and Alison found the half-acre plot on which their house now sits, their first and second attempts to buy it fell through. After several months looking elsewhere – a search which Ashley says “drove me nuts” – the plot came back on the market. So, it was third time lucky for the couple when they eventually secured the land – and the 1930s chalet bungalow that came with it – for £395,000 in November 2012. “After all that trauma it did feel like it was meant to be,” says Ashley. The couple, who run a successful dental laboratory business, sold their mid-terraced home in Aylesbury and moved into the bungalow. Their initial plan was to remodel the bungalow by taking the roof off, putting a second storey on top, squaring the building off and replastering and modernising. “But before we did anything structural,” says Ashley, “we put new windows and insulation in to stop the drafts. Given what happened next, we were naïve and wasted money, probably about £10,000.”
What happened next was the discovery that the bungalow’s footings weren’t deep enough for a second storey, so the decision was made to switch to demolition and building something new. “Our architects had been advising from day one that demolition and rebuild would be
HIGH POINT
“Getting the steel frame up was exciting because it gave us our first sense of the shape and size of the building, while standing on the roof for the first time and seeing the view was just mind-blowing.” – Ashley Byrne
LOW POINT
“We had one or two low points but our problems with the footings, which cost us an extra £20,000 on concrete, We now know that footings – on almost every project – are hard to predict until you start digging. When we started to dig it was so wet they kept collapsing. A high water table due to the clay in the soil, exacerbated by really wet weather, meant we had to make expensive adjustments we hadn’t bargained for.” – Ashley Byrne
may/june 2022
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