selfbuilder Diaries


Melanie Pigott and her husband Darren, along with their two teenage daughters, have embarked on self-build to not just accommodate them and a labradoodle named Bailey, but a veritable menagerie of other animals


O


ur story has been quite an emotional journey, and originally, designing our own place was not


on our agenda. We were living in my parent’s house in south east England which we had moved into after their passing. It had been our beautiful family home for 50 years – so leaving was always going to


8 www.sbhonline.co.uk


be a huge wrench for me. But as the property couldn’t entertain having ponies ‘in-livery,’ which our girls desperately wanted, we began searching for a home literally anywhere that could accommodate it.


On one beautiful summer’s day in June 2020, Darren had arranged for us to view a bungalow with eight and a half acres in


Gloucestershire. With plenty of bribery, we all travelled together – without any complaints from the back of the car! Travelling up a quiet lane with sheep grazing, and passing a couple of farms, we finally droe through the entrance gate of the plot. As we parked on the drive, a sense of tranquillity crept over us. The bungalow was a prefabricated


may/jun 2023


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