ISABEL & HENRY’S TOP TIPS


* nvest in the building fabric fi rst. hese are


the elements youll live with forever and are harder to change, while bathrooms and kitchens can be upgraded later as budget allows.


* ae a checlist of all the rooms and features


youd love  pantry, dressing room, store- room, boot room and so on  then see how many you can mae wor. ts your dream home after all, so its worth trying to include everything that will mae it truly yours.


* Take time to consider the sun’s path – make


sure the rooms you want to feel bright and sunny actually get the light. e caught this just in time, but its something  wish we’d thought through more carefully at the design stage.


* isualise how youll live in each room and plan


your socets and ighting accordingly.  always new  wanted a huge hristmas tree beneath the lightwell, so we installed a fl oor socket there – and another at the bottom of the stairs for the garland!


* noy the process. t can be intense at


times, but it goes by uicly  and seeing your ideas tae shape is incredibly rewarding. heres nothing uite lie living in a home designed entirely around your family and lifestyle.


“Once we have solar panels, our bills will be a fraction of those of a house of similar size that’s not Passivhaus”


proect are very much of the st century, the propertys exterior is designed to loo much older. sabel says e not only wanted a Georgian-style loo, but we also wanted to use materials that would help the house age and appear as if it’s been here a long time. Lots of construction materials, rightly, are made so that properties don’t need maintenance  we went the opposite way. or example, we opted for traditional lime render and then painted the walls rather than a modern silicone- based product. or the same reasons the windows are all wooden, which will defi nitely mae for extra wor when they need repainting, but we didnt want windows that were aluminium-clad or P.


he couple wanted Georgian-style windowsills but new stone, the material traditionally used, would be too heavy for the retrofi tted timber frame of their house. e experimented with lots of alternative materials, says sabel, but eventually settled on vermiculite insulation mixed with sharp sand and cement and then painted it. ts lightweight and has a rough texture along the edges that was the sort of thing we were looking for.”  stylish Georgian-inspired fi nishing touch,


which was only added in , is the porch covering the main entrance to the property.  steel structure with a inc roof, it too ust a day to put up.


t has transformed the loo at the front of the house, which was a little star previously with uite a lot of white wall. his has made a big difference and, of course, we will continue to soften the appearance with wisteria and other appropriate planting too.” he retrofi t is now all but complete. sabel says he fi nal room, in , will be the drawing room, which enry has been using as his woodwork room up until now, and the installation of solar panels is also scheduled for .


he is clearly delighted with the familys new house eve very much been building our dream home here and we now have all we need  enough space for three young children and also to have guests. he houses heating performance is already


great, and once we have solar panels, our bills will be a fraction of those of a house of similar sie thats not Passivhaus. s to the loo of the house,  thin its already the case that people who drive past don’t realise it’s a new build – and thats exactly what we wanted.


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