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he heating demand for the house is  kh m2


; the basement doesn’t need heating and neither do the bedrooms, Craig says, because thermal performance is so good. The house’s EPC rating is a high B: “We were marked down because we put in two electric boilers. One is for hot water. The other is a dedicated boiler for the underfloor heating which is barely ever on. e essentially ran out of money and couldn’t justify the huge cost of ground source or air source pump. e only heat the ground floor anyway. In retrospect, he says he would have added photovoltaic panels to generate some of their electricity, and wishes that solar shading had been installed to help control summer temperatures on the southern side of the house, which overlooks the garden.


On top of the budget for the house, Craig and Jane spent a further £110,000 on landscaping works, including creating a terraced garden. “When we started the whole project we wanted to work with garden designer Sue Hayward who had done a lot of garden work on eversal anor raig says. She had plans from an early stage. We said we wanted it terraced because it slopes down. She came up with a scheme, we took it as an overall concept, and she didn’t charge us a huge amount of money. We tweaked some of the


nov/dec 2024


things she suggested.


Jane was very keen on incorporating “grassy banks leading out from the house into the garden design, but this idea was jettisoned when it was realised that these would be huge and end up overgrown and messy. Some form of heavy-duty retaining device would be required instead. Corten steel panels would have been too expensive, but driving down the motorway one day Craig found inspiration; the steel sheet piles used to hold back excavated earth during road construction. n place filled with plants they provide a pleasing solution, alongside steps from the terrace to the garden and the entrance to the undercroft.


Jane spends most of her time in the open-plan kitchendiningliving area where she enoys the view from the huge triple-glazed sliding doors: “You feel like you’re completely connected to the garden, there is all kinds of wildlife, buzzards overhead and deer in the field beyond. Craig likes this family-friendly space too, as well as the mezzanine landing with its comfortable seating area. Would he consider doing another self-build when family circumstances change? “ Yes, but next time it will be smaller. We’ve found a plot recently and I have talked to aul we shall see.


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