When Dale artist Sarah Nelson set out to build her dream home, she faced soaring costs, planning limits, and a crumbling henhouse. Martin Paul shares the story behind the Grand Designs build
When Dale fine artist Sarah Nelson decided to build her own home she had no idea what she was in for.
Anyone who watched the first episode of the latest series of Grand Designs recently will be mightily impressed with the outcome, but the back story of her new house is riddled with stumbling blocks.
Initially she had hoped to convert a field barn into a home but changed her mind because of the costs involved in getting utilities to the site as well as the restrictions of the size and dimensions of barns.
Instead, she bought a hay field in Woodland which contained two piles of stones from a demolished house and a disused and dilapidated henhouse and netty.
The artist said: “My budget was £330,000, but before the day Dave Walton (builder and stonemason) pitched up with a digger I think I had already spent £65,000 and I had nothing. Nothing at all. All I had were lots of pieces of paper.”
A good chunk of that cost came in the form of surveys that planners from Durham County Council demanded.
In one case she was asked to have soil tests done because of historic mining in the area.
This was later followed by a request for drilling to be done because the land may be over a shallow mine, meaning the same specialist contractor had to come out for a second time.
Sarah said: “The extra cost to me (if they did both surveys at the same time) would have been about £350, the actual cost was £1,500 plus VAT to get them back.
“I had three trees. One little apple tree that self-seeded in a drystone wall had to have a whole survey all of its own. You never got a survey for less than £1,000 plus VAT.
“I had to prove, even though all there was, was a stone netty and a henhouse without a roof, that it did not have great crested newts, bats or barn owls.”
The cost was such that she had to sell her cottage in Hamsterley, which was part of her pension and providing some of her income.
Despite the initial obstacles she pushed ahead with the build which includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms, lounge, kitchen, art gallery and a studio.
She was determined to make it sustainable and did comprehensive research into materials she could use.
As part of her exploration, Sarah attended an event at the National Self-Build Centre in Swindon.
Sarah said: “I looked at four demonstrations of different types of insulations.
“Without exception, when they were dismantled at the end of the display, there were all sorts of different bits of polystyrene – basically things that are not good for the environment – left on the carpet.
“If I try to use polystyrene bricks, first they will probably blow away before I get the cement in and then all those tiny polystyrene particles will blow over into neighbouring fields and be digested by cows. I was not keen on that.”
Instead, at the back of the exhibition hall, she happened upon a display of hemp blocks and hemp insulation batts.
She then listened to a podcast by expert Prof Tom Woolley on building with hempcrete – a mix of hemp shiv, a specialist lime binder and water.
She then attended a hempcrete course at the Centre for Alternative Technology and later volunteered at a build site in Liverpool which was using the material to get experience in building with it.
She recruited a crew of nine to help with laying the hempcrete against the inner and outer sides of the wood frame.
Sarah said: “We had two weeks. I needed it done quickly and I booked a lot of help. We cast 90 cubic metres in two weeks – nine of us.
“They said they had never done that before and they will never do it again.”
Among the crew were a pair of Welsh experts she had met at the Liverpool construction site, and her two sons, Hector and Noah.
Sarah was so impressed with the natural texture and smell of the hempcrete that she decided not to panel it over with plyboard as she had initially intended.
The walls of her new studio, lounge and kitchen have been left bare, while the entrance gallery space has been panelled.
An added benefit of the exposed hempcrete insulation is that it absorbs sounds and provides excellent acoustics.
To complete the sustainability of the build, Sarah has installed solar panels and added an air-source pump to provide warmth.
Stone from the original house, netty and henhouse were used to clad the exterior of the home.
The artist now plans to get creative to make up for going over budget on the house.
She said: “I loved the build, but it has come at a price. The thing now is that I need to establish this space as a place that can facilitate public creativity which will start generating income.
“I sold my cottage which was kind of my income.”
As part of this she plans to hold two two-hour art classes a week focusing on drawing and printmaking for a maximum of six students, as well as a monthly day-long workshop.
She will also be hosting small exhibitions and hosting open days and is planning to make use of the excellent acoustics by hosting music events.
Having been through the process, Sarah offers this advice to anyone else considering self-building: “Just understand all the costs that come up front before you even start, and potentially even consider scaling back your build or doing it in phases.
“Get your architect to work out a building that can be built physically and meet all the criteria and then later on when you can afford a bit more, you can put in phase 2.
“I wish I had known how much things were going to cost because that would have given me the opportunity at the second meeting with the architects to say I don’t think I could afford it.”
