Leah and Richard Allen
Exmouth, Devon 2006 06-183
Against All Odds - by Debbie Jeffrey
Leah and Richard Allen overcame bats, pregnancy and a dwindling budget to build their stylish new family home in Devon.
When Leah Allen managed to persuade her husband, Richard, that they should build a brand new house on the site of her grandparents’ former home she knew she needed to move quickly just in case he changed his mind. “Richard isn’t remotely interested in building or DIY, and was rightly concerned about taking on a first time self-build,” she recalls, “and I was naïve enough to think that I could organise everything by myself. If I’d known then what I know now this house would simply never have been built.”
The Allens had been living in a period town-house which was ideal for a couple, but when their son Joseph (now three) was born, they determined to find a home with a larger garden which would be suitable for bringing up a family. “I grew up in Exmouth, just a short distance from my grandparents’ house,” Leah continues. “Their 1930s bungalow had a large garden and backed onto fields, so I was always visiting, and learnt to ride my bike in the quiet lane. When the family ultimately inherited the property I wondered if it could offer the solution to our problems.”
At just 100m2 the bungalow was too small for the Allens’ needs, but the tranquil setting was exactly what they were looking for, and they took out a second mortgage in order to buy shares in the property from Leah’s mother and brother. The planners were agreeable to a replacement house being built on the site, but then the first major set-back occurred, which would ultimately impact heavily on the entire project.
“The council had a tip-off that bats had previously been spotted on the site, and it took four months of negotiations with English Nature to determine whether we could actually build here,” says Leah.
“The outcome was that we needed to provide bat habitats, just in case they returned. It meant building a detached garage with a special cut roof, insulation and constant heating, as well as bat access in the main house. Overall, with the delay and extra costs, we ended up almost £20,000 out of pocket for a garage that we never actually use.”
Determined to claw back some of the lost time Leah spotted an advert for Potton Homes in a magazine and – spurred on by the promise of a fast build time – decided that their new house would be built using timber frame.
“To be honest, the idea of a chintzy, cottage style home with small windows and heavy timber posts and beams didn’t appeal to us at all, but Potton promised that they could design the house to our own requirements.” says Richard. The couple worked with Potton’s architect to devise a layout with which would give them a spacious, open plan kitchen/dining/family room on the ground floor with a separate ‘adult’ lounge. Upstairs, they requested four good sized bedrooms – two of which are en-suite – and a shared family bathroom.
“I could stand in the middle of the kitchen and touch both walls in our last house,” says Leah. “It meant that only one person could use the room at a time, and they were isolated from whatever else was going on in the house. At Christmas I would be stuck in the kitchen listening to the rest of the family enjoying themselves in another room, so this time we were determined to have a more sociable arrangement.”
The couple hoped to have another baby once they had moved into their new home, and carefully calculated the dates. Delays caused by the non-existent bats meant that Leah was actually pregnant throughout the build, however, and gave birth to baby Jemima just three short weeks after they moved in. “Our budget was sorely stretched from the beginning and we had the added panic of wanting to finish everything before a certain date,” says Leah. “We sold our house and moved in to live with my mum during the build. Not only did she have to put up with us and a toddler, but our two cats – Rosie and Barry – came along as well. She was fantastic about it, and even went on to make all the curtains for our new house.”
With planning permission in place the Allens suddenly realised that they hadn’t actually lined up a builder to take their house out of the ground. Potton recommended a project manager who suggested building contractor, Chris Cox. Following a tender process Chris was employed to demolish the existing bungalow and to prepare the foundations and slab ready for Potton to deliver the frame.
“I couldn’t actually go to the site when the bungalow was demolished, it was just too raw,” says Leah. “My grandparents had worked so hard to maintain the house, and here we were tearing it down. It was structurally unsound, but I still couldn’t help feeling terribly guilty. We do have a perfectly scaled model of the old bungalow, though, which my granddad made for me when he retired – right down to the exact furniture in all the rooms.”
Work progressed on site, and Potton sent a hard working two-man team to erect the Allens’ frame - creating a watertight shell in just two weeks. Chris the builder then returned to slate the roof and complete the house, which stands on a brick plinth and has rendered external walls.
“I loved designing the interiors and shopping for bargains,” says Leah, “and found some really good buys on eBay which helped to stretch our budget. Even though I knew that the money was running out I still kept asking the builder to bring more and more people in to finish the house on time.”
Additional funds of £50,000 were secured after some tearful appeals to High Street lenders, and family and friends rallied round to help complete the interiors. The entire house was spray painted white in a single weekend, and Richard – who owns his own carpet and flooring company – was able to organise floor coverings to be supplied and fitted. A built-in vacuum, underfloor heating and multi-room music system have also been incorporated into the contemporary new home.
“It was a stressful, chaotic and worrying time – Richard was quite right to be concerned about taking on such a huge project,” admits Leah, “but it’s a bit like childbirth. All the horrible experiences are quickly forgotten and we’re now thoroughly enjoying living in the house.”
Predictably, the idea of a ‘children and cat free’ sitting room hasn’t worked out as expected. “We thought that fitting an internal glass window between the sitting room and family room would mean we could keep an eye on Joseph while he played next-door, but of course he wants to be wherever we are,” says Richard.
The luxurious en-suite guest room has already had heavy usage as friends and family line up to visit and enjoy the Allens’ latest acquisition – a hot-tub which stands on the deck outside the glass doors of the sitting room.
“Now when people come to dinner they can perch on stools at the kitchen island unit and enjoy a glass of wine while I’m cooking. In fact, the utility room is larger than our old kitchen, and we now have enough space for Joseph to ride his toy car round and round indoors. It’s exactly how I’d imagined, and the open plan layout really has changed our whole way of life.
