- 4 hours ago
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:09i don't know why i bother coming into this office really oh thanks megan has its advantages of
00:15course thing is up to half of us these days since covid are working from home wfh at least one
00:26day
00:26a week when i think about it though if i can work from home i can work from anywhere
01:06matt is the chief financial officer of a renewable energy company in central london
01:12so i made the journey to london once a week leaving about 6 a.m on the tuesday and then
01:19normally home for about 11 p.m on the wednesday he is an extreme commuter there are obviously days
01:28when you wonder if it's worth it this is the big trade-off of living down in cornwall is
01:34the commute to london matt can spend over six hours traveling from his office in london
01:41back home to the north cornish coast can you give each one a little stir okay back to his two
01:48children atlas and seren and his wife all the way briony
01:55so i've known the speech since i was a baby we came here maybe five times a year now being
02:02able
02:02to raise my own children here it's just perfect briony and matt have called this coastal paradise
02:09home after moving from manchester in 2019 and they are no strangers to adventure
02:15brian is a qualified teacher she's worked around the world from remote villages in papua new guinea
02:22to borneo while matt has swum the channel and climbed everest
02:27here we go but adventures come in different guises and for brianie motherhood has been her biggest
02:36challenge yet their daughter seren has just turned two we know that she's got developmental delay did
02:48you want something to eat i don't know what her journey looks like all i know is what it looks
02:54like
02:54today have a tea please thank you i love being a mum so much but it's been full-on you
03:02go all in
03:03they've become everything to me but then it's like what is who are you personally at the end of that
03:21so that's going to be seren's bedroom the house is an adventure in a really new way and
03:28what i'm actually really loving is the opportunity to rediscover passions all those those interests
03:37the family have begun laying the groundworks for this new adventure in the garden of a bungalow they
03:43bought five years ago since matt works in renewables he wants his family's new house to meet the highest
03:51environmental standards building an environmental house is a far more interesting process and adventure
03:59because i think it's the right thing to do it's what we want to do
04:05now within earshot of the crashing cornish waves look at that big concrete slab
04:14brianie and matt's next big adventure has well and truly begun
04:20i like your slab it's kind of a clean slate literally isn't it yeah and you're living next
04:25door right is that right yeah we got planning in 2020 so it's taken us a little while to get
04:31going
04:31because we had a couple of kids this is like our next baby and i'm a bit nervous about we
04:37know how
04:37tough that was we had our kids quite close together in age yeah and i feel like we're about to
04:43do it
04:43again with this yeah yeah i mean it doesn't seem like a huge building where's your front door this way
04:49it's not at the front it's at the well yeah okay so it's okay so hang on a minute so
04:54you're going
04:54to approach this building down the kind of side alley yeah yeah and imagine like a big pole here
04:59and then cantilever roof here right and but i'm actually up here and then big yellow front door oh
05:06that's nice thanks step up uh yellow front door and now you're in do you get to see the water
05:12from the
05:13house we're not we're not 100 sure i don't know i think it's going to be within a few millimeters
05:19what's the plan for delivery plan is let's get going let's do this i'm so ready for it i don't
05:25yeah i want to get this house built now tomorrow
05:30briny might be in a hurry but they won't be using the quickest construction method
05:35their slab was poured over three months ago and it's reinforced with recycled plastic rather than
05:42steel early proof of matt's sustainable ambitions they want the rest of the project to take a year
05:50using a stick built timber frame that inevitably will be laborious every trust and post beam
05:58brace and noggin will be sawn nailed and fitted by hand this home will aim at passive house standards
06:06so the cantilevered frame will be internally skinned and taped with a specialist green board for air
06:12tightness a v-shaped powder coated steel brace will hold up the slipped first floor over the front door
06:21and a steel structure will complete a wrap around balcony the timber frame once skinned externally will
06:27be pumped full of recycled newspaper and then layered with more wood fiber insulation brought
06:34all in pursuit of near passive performance there will be the finest triple glazed windows and a
06:40combination of burnt larch red cedar and crisp render to suggest a group of well beachy sheds
06:49the ground floor will house a utility room three bedrooms and a board room to keep wetsuits and
06:55surfboards and a family bathroom upstairs you'll find madam bryany's bedroom and a dramatic large open
07:03kitchen and living room to capture both the number of sea views and a large amount of cornish light
07:10the homely warm interiors will come from bryany's hand the actual warmth will come from people
07:17insulation and some mvhr ventilation they'll have no traditional heating they want a chic californian
07:25cornish home if that's this building's role there's not much room for error
07:34who's going to look after this project are you going to be like staring out the window every day
07:38shouting at people or is your job here to be engaged clients engaged clients shouting out the window
07:48how much is it going to cost by the way 820 000 we have put some contingency on that and
07:57we think
07:57that if we can get it built for a million then that will still be yeah quite a bit better
08:03so how much
08:04have you spent on your ground works and was it to budget oh my god no no so we've spent
08:10about 100 000
08:11to date and the budget was 75 000. and um where does the money come from we sold our house
08:19that we
08:19used to live in in manchester yeah um we had an investment property we sold that and uh five six
08:25years ago i sold the company and that money pays for the rest of it it does strike me that
08:29there is
08:30something of a professional risk that you're taking here as a cfo chief financial officer of a
08:34company hey egg on face right it has occurred to me on the finance side that you're right and i'm
08:41more
08:41worried about my reputation with the numbers than i am on the environmental because i think we've got
08:45the environmental you know from cradle to grave completely covered right when work starts the first
08:55job for the building team is to begin hand crafting the 242 unique wall trusses each one designed and
09:04drawn by their architect mark innis a lot of houses are built with just this but that only gives you
09:12140
09:13millimeters of insulation what we're trying to do though is have loads of insulation so as well as 60
09:19millimeters of insulation there we have another 320 millimeters of insulation it's more
09:25effort it costs a bit more in terms of labor but we think it's worth it in terms of engineering
09:30a
09:30house that's fit for purpose the project team have worked with mark before and they have a clear
09:37understanding of this labor-intensive system insulation insulation insulation and that's you know if you
09:44can insulate it well enough you you know you can heat it with a light bulb it's a system that
09:49demands
09:49precision what's the difference uh 300 mil that's what it's going to be now is that different 300
09:57mate like he's got on the drawing so that won't that won't work well you bring me over some more
10:04timber there's always a chance for an errors because it's so highly insulated and non-standard
10:10construction every wall is made up with these and trusses which we have to build every single
10:16one individually it's going to be quite trippy it's not my job to make their job as easy as possible
10:23it's my job to make the building as good as it can be
10:32progress is slow but four weeks in and the building is ready for the cross-laminated beams
10:39that will support the first floor this fella goes almost two-thirds the length of the building
10:47unfortunately we're gonna have to lift it on by hand you could have a crane in but it gives you
10:51a bit more control matt's at home so he's able to get on site and lend a hand
10:58just take the muscle just be careful not to push the front guys this is the first bit of construction
11:03i've done and i'm down that's it first floor to the first floor big question is will we will we
11:12see
11:12the sea as this building evolves so do the drawings the ones on the green roof yeah they're bigger they
11:24are now this is only printed last week yeah i know but i'm pretty sure i've superseded this one like
11:29literally two days ago two days one day one day in the last couple of days he's redrawn it
11:36you would he redrew it yesterday so it is a frustrating relationship but luckily
11:42we communicate quite well with mark even even though we work differently we can we get along
11:48to quell any rising tension brianie organizes an impromptu site christmas party welcome to the party's
11:55here's a present for you oh no thank you combining construction with the demands of raising two
12:02young children will never be straightforward it's amazing living here i mean yeah it's beautiful
12:12the kids were both born locally yes yes atlas was six weeks early and then sarin when she was actually
12:20only about six months they thought that she might never watch she might not talk and i'm looking at
12:25this just perfect completely perfect gorgeous little baby girl thinking how is that how is that even
12:32true i'm definitely not the first woman in the world to feel a bit lost at when after going through
12:38that process all this while you were actually not only committed to the building but but doing it exactly
12:45definitely a point where i thought i just don't want to do this house and it was such a bizarre
12:49point to
12:50reach because i've thought about building my own house for as long as i can remember and sarin her
12:58health is okay yeah she's doing so well obviously i love her to bits because she's mine but she is
13:03so
13:04the happiest little girl ever she is never in a bad mood she is just really a little bundle of
13:11determined joy i just can't i can't get enough of her
13:16this project represents more than just a hefty financial investment it needs to provide stability
13:23and certainty for a young family to that end for briony and matt it cannot fail
13:45in north cornwall the long distance commuter matt and his wife bryony are stick building a pragmatic
13:52high performance family home for 820 000 pounds this is premier league quirky after almost three months
14:01on site the wide walled trusses have only begun to frame out this building's dimensions
14:07it does feel and look smaller than i was expecting is it going to live up to the expectations of
14:14my
14:14imagination for the last five years i don't know since matt works in finance we have placed the deposit
14:22for the windows and doors it's down to him to keep an eye on the books the windows and doors
14:28were on
14:29budget nothing is going disastrously wrong and with just the ground floor walls up brian has already begun to
14:38plan her interiors how would i describe my taste well i mean based on this hideous with very little
14:45experience yeah i feel all the responsibility for the interiors because no one else is doing it well
14:52hopefully it won't look terrible am i the type of person to cover a whole wall in a giant sea
14:57picture
14:58or big swirls or this and or a stupid gold hand is that is that me or is that not
15:06me i don't know
15:07maybe i could just have some therapy but if not you can build a house for a million pounds
15:14when i return in the new year the sound of happy nail gunners the ground floor trusses are complete
15:23and works begun on the skewed first floor open plan kitchen if this were a building put up in the
15:301950s you'd call it timber brutalism how accurate have the drawings been pretty accurate yeah i mean i
15:40think mark's sort of drawing them as we go along so they're being updated constantly have you been
15:45sat waiting for a drawing to come through i think he's been just just in time j-i-t yeah
15:52it's taken a while to get this far if your datum is a panel build that comes on a lorry
15:57it's slow
15:58the client they have to be very trusting in that we will make this thing work we just don't want
16:05an adversarial relationship with architect or client you know it just makes them miserable
16:10nobody wants to be miserable no this should be a joyful process surely yeah it is yeah
16:16ah and brianie is embracing that joyful process i don't know i'm just gonna make squeaks i'm not
16:23gonna be able to say anything wow so this is gonna be amazing with the view because you get a
16:28sea view
16:28it's better than what you're expecting it's so much yeah it's exciting but the amount of
16:34decisions and work is ramping up yeah are you on sort of program more or less a little behind i
16:41think we're a
16:41little behind but we think end of the year no like november latest because we need to allow christmas
16:48decorating we're not we're not committing to being in by christmas though yeah yes we are yes we are
16:59a christmas deadline seems optimistic try once more do we come back up first i was gonna try
17:07get straight down as the geometry of this building starts to get even more intricate
17:13it is complicated and things like this that on the plan look quite easy and quite straightforward
17:18quite often aren't is that helping at all there we go
17:27shaving each timber to fit there she goes will always take that little bit longer
17:34that'll get us where we need to get to while the work on site may be slow so we're going
17:39to go
17:39through everything that we've got so far brian is exuberance for the interiors is hurtling forwards
17:47should we start with my favorite one family disco bathroom okay perfect she's already choosing tiles
17:54never done a disco bathroom no it's the first um you know but we we like quirky people it's good
18:04i bought some things wow funky mirrors so i've not done interior before or anything like that so this
18:11is like my first try at it we are looking at the real detail on things and so i have
18:17already gone and
18:18chosen a toilet roll holder i have complete free reign from that he's told me i can do whatever i
18:26want interior wise it actually comes in a diamond version too but then we might need to speak to matt
18:31about the budget on that i completely trust her the sense of taste and what she wants to achieve with
18:38the interior design we haven't had the meeting yet about the budget yeah matt's just gonna have to
18:45do with the cost of that it's not in my nature to spend a lot of money on anything so
18:50there is a
18:51friction there there is going to be a friction there brian is disco bathroom dreams are developing
19:04but at the core of this house lies some serious functionality and for matt and bryany that is rooted
19:10in a building they know well this timber wall which is huge hides i think a house which has been
19:21inspirational for matt and bryany for their project so this house was designed and built by mark who is
19:29matt and bryany's architect in fact they met him for the first time here i suppose that tells you just
19:36how
19:36exciting they found this building to be it's got this extraordinary view out over the river down the
19:42hill it's honest and it's full of fun oh and it's a house without any central heating system at all
19:54a staircase crafted from recycled wood a floor salvaged from an old-school gym
20:02the intelligent play of light all speak of ingenuity but cleverest of all is the separate glazed space at
20:11the front this enormous great sunroom now it's separated from the rest of the building by triple
20:18glazing and you can control the openings you can keep the heat in here from the sun or you can
20:23open it up
20:23and let it sink into these concrete walls you can operate this building like a heating system
20:29that costs absolutely nothing a house designed and built to near passive standards and crafted by
20:38the same hands that are now building matt and brian is high performance home where after five months
20:46the nailing of timber trusses is finally over it does mark the end of the timber framing which
20:53has been quite a long process so it's always nice to get to there modular frames can go up in
20:59a few weeks
21:00this stick-built frame has taken its time
21:09the celebrations are short-lived
21:16because by the following month as the insulation is fitted there's some bad news about the sea view
21:25the house opposite has planning permission to do an extension and to build up um that is going to
21:33impact our view a little bit um but they're allowed to do it they're really lovely people i'd be lying
21:39if i said i wasn't upset about it but i also understand and respect that
21:47though there's nothing we can do about it and they are allowed to do that so
21:51this project was born in optimism they now really need to stay positive to sustain it
22:22the city brianie and matt are spending 820 000 pounds on a modern high performance cornish beach house
22:29the slipping schedule is now putting pressure on the budget but brianie is embracing the process
22:37and finding herself balancing on the threshold of an exciting new phase of life
22:45i'm up for the challenge on the on the house build you know i'm on this real cheesy self-discovery
22:51mission since having kids that's about who am i and where am i going next and there's something
22:57about this house build that is also building that back up for me by late spring the frame is finished
23:08hi hi and i'm curious to see how the project's novice interior designer is managing things
23:16oh my lord what's that my brain it could be that the pressure is beginning to tell
23:23i suppose i reached a point of build kids errands and it was too much along the top is house
23:33build
23:33and then if for example i'm going on site i can just pull my clipboard off there's that freedom
23:38to just stick things up and do whatever house build hq yes is that yeah what why it well
23:49uh it's a little bit messy but this is so ordered surely um this is the other half of my
23:57brain i can't
23:57actually get in it um which is me for the dog food don't step in the water this is cool
24:08that's like
24:09a mermaid boot ratch and this is a japanese vintage japanese parasol i like this as well for the colors
24:16i might have lost my mind slightly if that's your mind is this the back half of the mind yeah
24:22this is
24:22i mean this is very not ideal lots of this is ridiculous i don't know where a disco shark goes
24:28my brain reached a point of i yeah so um
24:35you know what doors were invented for don't you yeah that yeah shut it
24:52by summer brianie and matt's little seaside community is overwhelmed by visitors
25:02fun for the beach not so good for deliveries they all come down to corval blocking up our roads
25:10delivery has been pretty tricky in the summer because there's a lot of traffic through here
25:14and it's a really narrow road especially with these big lorries trying to get through
25:18those deliveries include 500 meters of ducting for a ventilation system critical for such an airtight
25:25house it's a big house isn't it we've got to get into every corner of the building
25:32but brianie now wants to introduce even more ducting with a state-of-the-art laundry delivery system
25:39here there'll be a shoot small round circle and you'll be kind of be able to throw your clothes at
25:46the wall
25:46it will go in dirty clothes will end up in the laundry room and then when they're clean
25:51it'll suck them back up and bring them to a returns unit in the walk-in wardrobe and then you've
25:56got your clean clothes back upstairs
25:59when i first heard about the laundry jet yeah i thought it was a joke actually to begin with
26:03i mean it's already a complicated house but hopefully the pants will get to the laundry fast
26:12by early autumn the triple glazed windows have arrived some of them are already in they've been working
26:21rapidly brianie's motto is variety bring it on we'd normally have the same style handle upstairs and
26:28downstairs but here we've got i think nine or ten different styles which is quite confusing perplexity
26:35and complexity seem to reign across the project this is a cut flap i think it was designed by um
26:41tom hanks
26:42himself on the apollo 13 but uh he hasn't passed us any literature this client has chosen to put a
26:47cat flap in their passive house and they have a passive house certified cat flap we've just got
26:52to make sure that we fit it in our door correctly my only worry is it does say please contact
26:56a
26:56professional you trust concerning the matter of cut flap adapt and overcome probably no battery in here
27:03when in doubt turn it off turn it on yet another interactive piece of domestic
27:08tech if vinnie the cat is ever inclined to use it wow
27:16the final piece three two one the airlock door for human residents not bad for plum
27:26doors and windows are one giant leap for this project
27:30it feels like it sort of feels like a house as another harsh cornish winter arrives the team focus
27:40on the interiors but the outside is at a standstill
27:51by the new year they still don't have cladding or a roof hopefully what they do have is a fully
28:00functioning laundry vacuum system right wave over that
28:07it's flashing red no it's not working but we've never tried this before swapping the tech over
28:12man can we try it yeah started to work what do we oh god he's taking the wrapper oh god
28:18that's
28:18dramatic let's try officially open the laundry jet bye bye
28:35that's powerful is it the same hat or is it it's not it is the same hat that is an
28:43amazing magic trick
28:44fun is certainly a force that's strong in this project but other forces are threatening their sea
28:50view like the ever-growing house across the road the ridge height is going up by 1.2 meters good
28:57god
28:57that's just how it goes yeah yeah if you want an unprotected view you've got to be right on the
29:02front
29:02road you're both very liberal and very tolerant if somebody was building that in my view i'd be
29:08furious this house is so much more than just the view love the stairs a few weeks later brianie and
29:17mats locally made timber staircases on site the staircase arrived yesterday a little bit more
29:22bespoke and needs a little bit more thought and attention than a standard flight of stairs
29:29next door brianie pitches her interiors to the finance team
29:35she's gone over budget on a few things like what tiles
29:40i think building a house has been really good for our marriage no what i think it has been really
29:46very stressful uh i think it obviously not is well so it's taken us a while to work out how
29:54to
29:54communicate with each other so well we figured it out all right so it's good for our marriage
30:0218 months since work began a blanket of solar panels and recycled rubber tiles cover the pitched roof
30:10the roof's on it did take a while these are recycled rubber and then over time these will actually
30:16start to bond together so you end up with like a basically a consistent rubber roof over the top of
30:21your house inside bring the beach inside brianie is embracing her new interior diva identity
30:33pink there green there yellow there blue there running a bit lower on energy at the moment i think
30:38i want to do like an octopus wallpaper on the ceiling i was going to put a chandelier in here
30:43that
30:43that did not make the cut so why would you have a chandelier in like an electrical cupboard why wouldn't
30:48you matt's voice is in this house there is an element of reason that does come from him but he
30:55also
30:55wasn't down with this and look how great this is although he's mainly concerned with the bank balance
31:02which has borne the brunt of slow progress you know i write the invoices and i you know they make
31:09me wince
31:11the monthly invoices are ramping up as we buy more you know internal supplies
31:20you obviously you're closer to the end but your pile of money is diminishing as well
31:27this building represents a vast amount of on-site manual labor and there is so much external work
31:34still to do with no clear sign of when this process will actually end matt and brianie i realize that
31:43the challenges they're facing at this point are the challenges everybody faces in self-built it doesn't
31:48matter whether you've climbed everest doesn't matter whether you've raised a family you've still got to
31:52marshal every emotional ounce of energy and deal with all of the thousands of decisions and and drive the
31:59project to completion and it's a sort of race too between the building which always wants to slow
32:06down and kind of take its time towards completion and the resources you have the pockets of energy you
32:14have who's going to get to the finishing line first them or the building and this is matt and brian
32:19we're talking about you know they're not wimps either of them
32:41cornwall for some is a timeless holiday destination but behind the sun it's summer seascapes the carefree
32:49ice cream smiles and dude surfboard culture this hard granite peninsula nearly surrounded by ocean is wild
32:58an ancient frontier
33:05such frontiers have always attracted pioneers perhaps there's no better term for brianie and matt
33:18you can look at the process of this project where neither matt nor brianie have picked up
33:23a drill or a rotary saw they haven't built this but the stresses of building come with the terror
33:32of getting it wrong that you're wasting all the money you have and that it's not going to work
33:42it's not mayhem
33:46i can't yet tell but i'm hoping brianie and matt's tireless pioneering spirit has found a home
34:04great wall of wood
34:11that's lovely
34:20they've wrapped the whole thing in a sort of timber protective embrace it's very nicely done
34:27because of course actually what that belies is the complexity of the geometry of all of this
34:31and the way for example that soffit just
34:34it seems to merge with the roof it's clever and it's really really nicely crafted
34:44there are three distinct volumes here
34:48the cranked timber shed sits on a white rendered block
34:53offset by charred black timber cladding
34:57solar panels and a green roof whisper of how well this building should perform
35:02it seems it might be the right kind of extraordinary house for
35:06the life of an adventurous family hello kevin hey welcome oh and you too welcome to your new home
35:13let's come down and see you okay oh what down the new staircase you should do right
35:20it's lovely all this you know it's all done it's finished it's all done hi nice to see you and
35:26you
35:27and you good to see you and congratulations thank you thank you in terms of the structure in terms
35:31of the building works that they were still putting the balcony on recently when when did that go on
35:35that was finalized yesterday yesterday that's fabulous i keep looking up at it thinking wow
35:40it looks great better than i could have imagined well that's nice yeah it's a big jump up from the
35:46bungalow to this and now we've got all of these different areas we can play in yeah including a
35:50kind of playhouse a wendy house for grown-ups yeah yeah i just can't believe the drawings are now
35:56real yeah well in which case welcome to your own home yes yeah do you want to see inside i
36:02do yeah
36:02very much if it's uh if it's as good as the outside if it's as sharp oh look you've got
36:07your outdoor
36:07shower in outdoor shower too often function comes at the expense of joy or delight but not
36:15here there's the yellow door so good because you're funneled towards it now who chose that well that
36:25was atlas that's his choice it's kind of quite heroic all of this cantilever front edge it's kind
36:31there's a lot of suspense literally come on in oh it illuminates the welcome mosaic wow
36:47beautiful brianie doubted her own taste but she needn't have her passion and good judgment
36:54sing through every detail is that spelted ash yes it's a fungus isn't it that creates that pattern
37:03but it's so good the care and attention to detail with everybody we've worked with on this house has
37:08been phenomenal yeah beautiful the ground floor playroom leads to the children's bedrooms oh this
37:15is great you've got your own set of stocks which means we can throw rotten apples at you
37:24each ground floor bedroom has access to the garden the utility room has octopus wallpaper and powerful
37:32laundry delivery the surfer boardroom speaks of a building made for life
37:41even the guest bedroom suite bears testament to brian is considered choices and her sense of fun
37:49disco in the bathroom anyone okay come on up upstairs that sense of play is a little more grown up
37:57and heroic that's really good leading your eye out to the ocean that's the house that i thought was
38:07going to be like 20 feet higher yeah you still get to see the headland and a lovely sunset over
38:13on that
38:13side and you get to see the sea through the trees there and there it's certainly not taken away from
38:19how
38:19much i'm in love with this house brian's passion for a sea view may have been compromised but her
38:25passion for domestic technology has not if you press the front doorbell your face appears on the fridge
38:32oh now we're in the world of kitchen tech when i'm in london i get a notification on my phone
38:38your food is cooked smart tech for me means less time in the kitchen less time doing laundry and more
38:47time as a family having fun going out for a surf do you see the tech as having that important
38:52role
38:53yes yeah i i find it once you're used to it know how it works i find it incredibly convenient
38:59especially the laundry because put it on ai mode and it will wash it to the correct spec for those
39:05colors and that material and then when you throw it in the dryer next door it will dry it to
39:09the correct
39:10spec for those clothes as well
39:13call me old-fashioned but i'd rather my appliances didn't air my dirty linen online here we are
39:23sea breeze that's really nice but if it gives brianie and matt more time to enjoy this house
39:31and this place perhaps i could be persuaded the sun rises in the east the sun rises over there comes
39:41around comes around and sets and sets over the sea over the sea over there yeah that's lovely
39:49on this first floor nearly every room captures a view
39:53the main bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe hides a secret yoga room brian is retreat
40:01matt will still work from home two days a week but now from his own office with the chaos of
40:09family
40:09life just far enough away
40:13it took six months longer than expected to finish this powerful high functioning house
40:18that could have easily damaged trust but here the bond between clients and the team
40:25seems to grow stronger are you still speaking yeah yeah i think we're still speaking we're still
40:31playing poker together yeah we have to have air tightness test how was that so we just straight
40:36through on on passive house down okay but that's totally good though yeah on a design like this that's well
40:43yes which is complex yeah tell me stick built aaron as a man who has his hands on the tools
40:48right i
40:49think it works and and i think for this kind of complexity of building it gives a certain amount
40:55of freedom to evolve the design i love it i love that kind of evolutionary approach to design yeah i
41:01mean
41:01there is a full set of architects drawings before anybody look at them but but i mean obviously i know
41:07i'm creating these problems as it were yeah but the problems are worth doing yeah but because mark was
41:14engaged with all the way we had briny next door with the energy every day if you all pull together
41:21it is amazing what you can get to and honestly i got very emotional because because the job they've
41:28done is to take this idea of kind of a joyful place and to make it a joyful place
41:35it's not easy to be a good client you need a strong vision and the skills to communicate
41:42it effectively and imaginatively you need to trust the people realizing that vision and of course the
41:49patience to allow them to complete it brianie and matt performed their role as clients to near perfection
41:59if i look back at the beginning of this project you were coming into this
42:04the pair of you with no small amount of stress and you were finding experience of parenthood at
42:09that point even quite overwhelming how come you were all in at such a already stressful point of
42:15your lives there was a moment when briny i had a discussion about whether this was the right time
42:21to start building a house but there would always be a reason the kids would be at a different age
42:26there
42:26would be different stresses there would always be a reason not to do it i think the house is
42:33beautiful beautifully decorated and i was expecting for something a little wilder more wacky and in
42:39fact the the building's very elegant thank you the outcome is as you planned it's better than i planned
42:44it feels lovely in here it feels fresh and calm and light um i think it's got personality and downstairs
42:52is
42:53more fun and it's more focused on the children yes it's what i hoped for i think i'm turned to
42:58the cfo
42:59here and ask about budget so you said originally 820 000 that was your budget with a maximum cap of
43:05one million subject to the vagaries of your designer um how much in the end you mean so i think
43:11we'll end
43:11up at about 970 or 980. there were just some things that we under budgeted for because we hadn't done
43:18the
43:18process i mean it's a lot of money yeah nearly a million quid but for a house of this quality
43:26in this location it's a very good investment so what happens now what's your you've just
43:35furnished this house what's the next thing i'm really looking forward to just spending more time
43:41enjoying the house playing with the children going to the beach using it in the way that we've designed
43:46and intended it to be i don't have any plans of leaving so do you no and i think even
43:52if we did
43:53leave which i don't think we ever will we'll always have a connection to this place now that is unbreakable
44:07all good buildings should reflect where they are their time and the people that built them
44:13in these high performance low carbon walls in the quirks of design and in the furnishings you can hear
44:21the voices of this young family and the longer they live here the louder those voices will become
44:33there is a sort of universally acknowledged truth that any building is going to sort of reverberate to
44:41the energies that went into its making so for example if a project is difficult to build if it's
44:48angst-ridden if it's litigious then there's always going to be some kind of negative energy some stain
44:54about it that's never going to go away and by the same token if a building is enjoyable to put
45:02up if
45:02there's learning to come from it if there are relationships that grow out of it if the celebrations
45:08that happen on the way through points and exciting moments to remember then that also is going to
45:15have an effect a positive one on the energy of that building and you know there is a word which
45:21i've
45:21heard subtly subtly said today in quiet moments and in louder moments uttered by the builders and by
45:32matt and briny that's evident in the behavior of their children running around this place it's a word
45:38it's a quality it's an emotion which is rare to find in architecture and it is joy
46:00we've called it the cloud house lots of arches pink pink and we're building another house there
46:06two self-builders working collaboratively is the world ready for this
46:12it's like getting the christmas present this is the first time we've ever done this so we don't
46:17really know what we're doing the gaps start appearing bigger and bigger what the hell's going on
46:21everyone is stressed we have to fix the arches
46:42so
46:47so
46:52you
Comments