Kevin McCloud visita Sussex Downs para seguir la construcción de una casa estilo Nueva Inglaterra comprada y diseñada íntegramente en Internet.
Kevin McCloud visits the Sussex Downs to follow the construction of a New England-style kit house bought and designed entirely on the internet.
#architecture #art #desing
Kevin McCloud visits the Sussex Downs to follow the construction of a New England-style kit house bought and designed entirely on the internet.
#architecture #art #desing
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00:01What on earth kind of possessed you to suddenly decide to build a house?
00:06I think it was a sort of fantastical dream and I thought I'm just gonna see if this is possible.
00:10I came to this country to travel essentially.
00:12I didn't expect to meet someone fall in love, get married and build a house.
00:30Your idea of a prefab building may be something like this.
00:37But the instant home now comes in all shapes and sizes.
00:41Like convenience foods, these are convenience houses.
00:45And some of the more high-tech elements, like these bathrooms, are being used more and more on cutting-edge builds.
00:52This week I'm meeting a couple of newlyweds, Jane and Willem,
00:56who are convinced that a ready-made home is the shortcut to their 21st century dream.
01:02A dream which was bought and designed on the internet.
01:11And where else is this 21st century e-mail designed house being built but in the heart of West Sussex?
01:20So how on earth did you find this site?
01:22I was looking for derelict property.
01:24I decided that was the only way I was going to find a countryside plot.
01:27And it came from a local estate agency.
01:30So what, you pulled the finance together just like that?
01:33Money came from, yeah, big mortgage, frightening mortgage.
01:36And also I write books, so there was a deposit from a book that I'd written which was the...
01:40So you had a bit of cash lump sum that you could just donate.
01:43Yeah, which was, yeah.
01:44So when did you buy this place?
01:45It was just over two and a half years ago.
01:47Right, and you've recently got married.
01:50Yes, in August this year.
01:51So you bought this as a single woman?
01:53I did.
01:54Crazy dream.
01:55Fortunately, I've now found the right person to share it with.
01:57You were in your mid-twenties then, three years ago.
01:59I mean, what on earth kind of possessed you to suddenly decide to build a house at that age?
02:05I think it was a sort of fantastical dream.
02:07I'd done a couple of loft interiors in a loft development in London.
02:12And I loved the drama of expressing yourself in internal space.
02:15And it had sort of grown from that.
02:17And I thought, wouldn't it be fantastic if you could just create your entire nest inside and outside?
02:22Yeah.
02:23And I thought, I'm just going to see if this is possible.
02:25The plan is to demolish this 70s chalet and replace it with a brand new house that Jane is ordering from America.
02:34The house is being prefabricated in Boston by American kit house company Acorn and Deck House.
02:40Jane's been able to keep in touch with the design using the internet.
02:43She was already a year into her project when she met her husband Willem.
02:50Does this feel as though it's going to be your home?
02:52Absolutely.
02:53Do you feel as though you've had an input?
02:54Absolutely.
02:55I mean, it was a little tricky in the first case because she had established relationships with the builders and the architects and so on.
03:04Yeah.
03:05She also has more time to deal with the project.
03:07Yeah.
03:08But emotionally I'm connected to it.
03:10So tell me about the house you're going to build.
03:12It's not this bungalow, is it?
03:13It's not.
03:14No.
03:15It's an American style house.
03:17It's open plan, quite a lot of double height space, a lot of quite dramatic sort of glamorous internal architecture.
03:24And this is all in the middle of West Sussex.
03:26I mean, there's some lovely little cottages around here, but nothing like that.
03:29Nothing like that.
03:30No, it's true.
03:31But I think it's a well sheltered site.
03:33And I think if you can't build a bit of slightly dramatic architecture in a one-off sheltered semi-rural location, then I mean, where can you?
03:40Yeah.
03:41What's it going to look like?
03:42It's all in here.
03:43Yeah.
03:44It's all in here.
03:45And I made a model.
03:46Under this hat.
03:47Under this hat lurks.
03:48The house.
03:49There's the inside.
03:50You're outrageous.
03:51Look at that.
03:52You put the carpet in the potplug as well.
03:54When I was making it, I began to realize just what a volume of space this was.
03:59It's like a sort of big internal climbing frame.
04:01Yeah.
04:02And what's this area here?
04:03Actually, the deck is a new addition.
04:06We received a rather generous sum of money from my father as a wedding gift.
04:09Really?
04:10And immediately I thought, I know exactly where to spend that.
04:12It is very much an American home you're going to have.
04:14Are you hoping that you're going to feel as though you're an American?
04:17Well, it was one of the first places I ever traveled to was New England.
04:20And I fell in love with the architecture about 10 years ago.
04:25Jane's house will have trademark New England features like timber decking, painted cedarwood cladding and oversized windows.
04:33Built into the sloping site, the living area features a vast double height ceiling with views across the North Downs.
04:41As it leads down into the dining room, the space opens out to an American style open plan kitchen.
04:50Rather than cramming in individual rooms, Jane's gone for all out luxury with split levels and generous proportions throughout.
05:04Above the spare bedroom, Jane's planned an indulgent suite complete with walk-in wardrobe, master bedroom and a spa-like bathroom decorated in thousands of Moroccan tiles trawled from a recent trip to Marrakesh.
05:20A spiral staircase leads up to the gallerid study, a crow's nest which overlooks both the entire house and the views beyond.
05:29You must be running pretty tight, aren't you, building a house this generous, this big, is it?
05:33Yeah. Money must be an issue, yeah?
05:35Yeah, it has been. The sort of project amount we've got is about 250.
05:41That's the total build, is it?
05:42That's including land.
05:43Including the land?
05:44Land was 100, so that was a big whack.
05:46With a bungalow on it, okay.
05:47Yeah, completely.
05:48And what's your contingency?
05:49It's about 10%.
05:50And where are you going to be living while you're building this?
05:52We're going to be staying in a flat in London.
05:54So, what's the deadline for this wonderful fantasy?
05:58Well, we're hoping next August to have a party which will celebrate one year of being married.
06:05There may be no paint on the walls, but...
06:07There'll be a roof on.
06:08There will be a roof on.
06:09Oh, God, I hope so.
06:11Jane bought her plot two years ago for £100,000.
06:15The kit costs £60,000, and construction will be another £50,000.
06:20She's also set aside £40,000 for fitting out the interior, making a total of £250,000.
06:28As you would imagine, finding a virgin plot of land in the middle of the English countryside to build on is almost impossible.
06:34Now, what Jane's done is buy a plot on which there was already a building, a bungalow.
06:39Now, the trouble with that is that you pay for it three times.
06:43You pay for the land, you pay for the bungalow that you don't want, and you also pay for the demolition.
06:48And that's what's going to happen today.
06:55Today, the adventure begins, and Jane's on her own.
06:59Willem, unfortunately, is working on a project that has to be delivered at lunchtime.
07:03So, of all the days, this was the day he couldn't take one because there was no option.
07:09It took two and a half years to get to where we are today.
07:12There was delays of planning, just a question of coaxing the planners into what we wanted to do.
07:17But at last, two and a half years later, it's all gone and we have a view.
07:24It's almost slightly surreal, the fact that at last, it's been such a virtual dream for so long.
07:28And now there's, there's real rubble and machinery and noise and chaos.
07:36Today really feels like, like the beginning.
07:38I see the finished house, I take walks around it in my imagination.
07:41But today, other people can see what, you know, what we're preparing for so long.
07:46It's been carried around in people's heads and all of a sudden it's, it's real.
07:53Importing a house from America calls for strict scheduling.
07:56The kit's arriving in exactly five weeks.
07:59The man responsible for ensuring everything's ready in time is local builder, Chris Marchant Lane.
08:04My role on the site is to organize the trades that will come in to construct the house.
08:15In my 25 year career as a builder, I've never actually put up a timber frame house.
08:20It's going to be an interesting experience.
08:22Learn something new.
08:29Kit houses are prefabricated in factories.
08:32The walls are made in sections out of basic softwood frames.
08:37All the dimensions of the panels are all set by computer.
08:40The frames are then cut to size, nailed together,
08:44and then strengthened with a skin of rigid board made from wood pulp.
08:50Even doors and windows can be pre-inserted into the walls.
08:54This way, an entire house can leave in one container.
08:58And Jane's container is now on the high seas.
09:03There's no changing the delivery date now.
09:07Chris has just three weeks to clear the site and lay foundations.
09:13But our English weather isn't helping.
09:15On the Friday we started to dig, it rained at lunchtime.
09:21Torrential rain.
09:22And that put paid to that day's work.
09:24And the trenches we dug caved in, filled up with water.
09:27Saturday we came back to continue the excavation and weren't able to
09:31because the site was still too wet.
09:33Since then, we've been lucky.
09:34It's been dry weather.
09:35And we've been able to get on with it.
09:36The timber kit gets fixed onto a flat concrete raft, which in turn sits on these concrete footings.
09:58Getting them poured is Chris's first milestone.
10:01This is what they call a bottoming out party.
10:03But it's something of a hollow victory.
10:06Chris has got one week to get everything ready before the kit's arrival.
10:10The still drains to install, retaining walls to build and the concrete plinth to pour.
10:16I have a deadline, which I'll try and meet.
10:19And if I can't, you've given it your best shot.
10:22And we're going to work Saturday and Sunday.
10:26The ship docks at Felixstowe.
10:29And a mere 24 hours before the kit arrives on site, the concrete is barely hard.
10:35But Chris can relax.
10:37The Americans are coming.
10:39The American coming over to assist us with the construction is a good thing.
10:43He'll be here to assist us in the main construction of the house.
10:47So that would be the wall panels, flooring and the roof.
10:51Once he's done that, then we're perfectly capable of putting the rest together.
10:56This is the Boston Company's first project in the UK.
11:04They're sending in two of their most experienced men, Jim Cram and Peter King.
11:09Peter's taught local teams of builders the American way of putting up houses in Japan, Argentina and Korea.
11:17Now it's Britain's turn.
11:19Quarter cost.
11:20People will play with the
11:46I feel incredibly moved actually it's like a very significant realization of a rather
12:03fantastical dream it's kind of unremarkable on the outside and sort of what it represents
12:10internally it's like a sort of nest arriving on wheels sort of didn't I sort of never thought
12:17it wouldn't come but I can't really believe it's here imagining it for so long everything they'll
12:28need to build their house is contained in these two 40-foot lorry loads wall panels window sections
12:34doors stairs cladding even a giant tin of paint even with the Americans expert direction and all
12:43hands on site it'll take the best part of the day to unpack the kit every piece of this 3d jigsaw is
12:51numbered and it's vital they're stacked in the order that they'll be assembled but as night falls they're
13:01still unloaded in fact it's well into the night before they can say goodbye to the lorry so three
13:24years after Jane found the site the great day has finally come the house arrived yesterday on the back
13:31of a lorry and the guy spent all night unloading it and today they're going to start building it out
13:36of these 6,000 pieces of wood under the Americans direction Chris's men start putting the kit together
13:46first to go up are the corner sections
13:51I mean having to cut out the model and seen the drawings is it what's it like seeing it in the
13:57flesh it's absolutely incredibly surreal and extraordinary and wonderful amazing day yeah
14:04it's going up we went off to lunch when we came back the whole kitchen was was that have you had
14:11any sleepless nights over is there anything that worries you terribly about it all my my worry has
14:16sort of I mean my worry has gone which was concerns about just getting everything in in time for the
14:21kit turning up yeah so in a sense now that we're in that hurdle I think the sleepless nights were probably
14:26a bit so you must be putting the kitchen well I'm avoiding the heavy lifting today actually we we
14:41moved so much stuff yesterday but you aren't you you're sort of getting involved yeah that's the idea
14:46of these being involved in constructing the house as as much as I can is important to me because I was
14:53left out of the loop of you know Jane went so far with this project before she met me and and we were
14:58engaged and married so actually being hands-on in the construction is it is important but in terms of
15:05the overall building I mean you know I suppose you can say you know the house is James conception yeah
15:10so which bit of it is is yours which bit of it do you feel you're able to appropriate the kitchen is
15:16mine really yeah well you designed it well undercooked I basically I need to design my
15:23space yeah now you've got the flat in London yeah which are going to keep so is this this is going
15:29to be kind of a weekend retreat or do you see it becoming a permanent home for yeah I do yeah we
15:34both do this is a home for life we will be raising children here would be living here yeah absolutely
15:41Jim what's that what's your job here I'm the export manager at deck house right so what does that
15:49mean well we're located outside of Boston and we build houses and ship them all over the United
15:54States and I'm the one responsible for shipping them outside the United States okay how do you get
15:59away with putting up an American building in the middle of Sussex well it wasn't too far into this
16:04project that I learned about planning and I learned the planning is a very real thing in the UK and what
16:08about things like I don't know American weatherboarding and typical details roofs that kind of thing have you
16:13had to change those the weatherboarding we're going to stick with and we have permission for that
16:16but the roof was something definitely had to be changed I'm going to use the local English tile
16:20so what about schedule when's it going to be ready then we think our part will be done it's just two
16:24and a half to three weeks we should have the shell up a week after that we'd like to see the roof on
16:28so it's on and weather tight in just a four-week period of time it'll be by Christmas Christmas would
16:34be good Jim can afford to be confident he's going home in two days but Peter's got to stay and
16:41show the British builders how to put the kit together how does the building like this work then
16:46you've got a big concrete plinth to begin with but how do you put the walls up well it's a panelised
16:51system each of these each of these wall sections come in four foot section mostly four foot sections
16:56some two foot sections with windows already installed dead easy and they're quite short I mean they're
17:01quite small so they're kind you can manhandle them yeah some of them some of them are these are the
17:04shorter shorter ones we have some very tall ones which are going to be a challenge yeah I mean is it
17:08normal for you to do this kind of thing for somebody to come over and spend this amount of time
17:11on a project abroad yeah acorn almost almost always send someone over to a foreign site because people
17:19have different habits and how they approach a building project so what's it like working then
17:23with British builders well it's very nice we can we can speak the same language so we have one thing in
17:27common well I hope it's not the only thing they have in common British chippies don't even seem to
17:34use the same tools now you may be wondering why a timber building like this doesn't just get blown
17:40away in the wind and the answer is this it's the builders equivalent of the AK-47 and it does this
17:50straight into the concrete and this lot are leaving nothing to chance the Americans are even bringing their
17:59own nails however Peter's nail gun is the only one on site the British carpenters lack of experience with
18:09timber construction is showing the crew here isn't a setup for timber framing or stud framing as an
18:16American group this we don't have very many air tools we don't have any pneumatic guns which would
18:21be very common no builder would drive a nail by hand in the States they can avoid it in the next
18:29three weeks Peter's aiming to have the entire shell of the house up as well as training the British
18:35carpenters I think that's a tall order it's moved a little bit slower than I would have liked to have
18:41it move and that's just because there's fewer people and fewer carpenters than I usually work with but
18:47we're making good progress and it's coming along pretty well Peter's obviously a good teacher the ground
18:56floor takes ten days but the second level goes up in only three Tom is the main carpenter on site he'll
19:11take over when Peter leaves in all the timber frame takes just three weeks to erect compared to more
19:19conventional building methods that may seem very quick but it's taken a week longer than the
19:25Americans predicted and there's still the roof doors and external cladding to go on the roof alone is
19:34taking twice as long as expected this is Monday and I'm leaving on Friday it's not done then Tom gets to finish
19:42it it's just like a great big stud work house with ply on the front and it's a lot easier because
19:52everything all the panels are numbered and you just put them all together in the right order and make sure
19:58they're level well Peter didn't meet his deadline and it takes Tom another week to finish the roof trusses
20:06and complete the framework it does look as though they will be here for their first wedding anniversary
20:22next year but with the Americans safely home with the British winter to come and with British contractors
20:30lined up who knows the worst may be yet to come interesting times ahead it's six weeks since construction of
20:45Jane and Willems kit house began the Americans have now left and it's up to the British to carry the
20:51project through to completion goodness well that's that's extraordinary so the Americans delivered
21:13their products and they put you up a house how that when they when did they go when yeah and this
21:21it all clapped into confusion since then are the things that you've changed as it were or we've
21:27put them in a few extra windows that we sort of ruled out to save some money they're on the plan but
21:32we decided to put them back in yeah here here here and here four windows which means when you come in
21:36on the entry level you immediately get these four framed pictures of the view yeah and putting all
21:42these things back the windows and so forth has that changed the budget is it when you're spending
21:47more money I mean yes we are obviously spending a bit more the extra windows have cost about a
21:51thousand pounds and I you know in a project you know that's really stretched us it just didn't seem
21:56something worth economizing but you haven't met a British electrician or plumber yet have you
22:00we've got we've got a big lump set aside for British services building this American house in
22:07Sussex may be a first-time experience for everyone involved but prefab construction has been around for a
22:13while one of its earliest incarnations was as post-war emergency housing we moved in on the 10th of
22:21December 1946 and we were absolutely thrilled with it I will never leave here unless I'm forced to they
22:31would have to carry me out I love it I wouldn't swap it for Buckingham Palace even if they included the
22:37queen prefab is now the fashionable choice and it's come a long way since the humble wartime bungalow
22:45nowadays most new builds incorporate some prefab components timber wall panels for example which
22:52are in virtually every new home and the more exciting ones even have funky clip-on bathrooms if you're
22:58gonna self-build I can't think of a quicker way to do it this high-spec bathroom pod for example is simply
23:05craned into position and plugged into the services on site abroad the prefab industry is booming in
23:14Japan houses are usually built in factories but they're tailored to individual specifications which
23:20you can order in showrooms Scandinavia rolls out ecologically sound houses in industrial scale production
23:28while the Netherlands produced entire streets in dames teams of builders construct prefabricated shells
23:43and the roofs are craned in to unfold into position in the states nearly all new builds use prefabricated
23:53materials from entire wall panels to entire house shelves
23:57the prospect of importing a ready-made home is now a viable reality but buying a house from a company
24:113,000 miles away isn't entirely straightforward local planning restrictions have meant Jane isn't able to use the
24:19flexible wooden American shingles the roof was designed for the British tile she's chosen are rigid and they
24:26have to interlock precisely the tires don't fit like they're supposed to fit and we've had to pack them up
24:34they jiggle about all over the place top and bottom side to side but it's going on they're going on but
24:43very slowly so than expected James agreed a fixed price deal with the roofers so no matter how long
24:50the job takes she won't be losing money let's put it this way we were it should have taken us just under
24:5720 days and we were 43 days and we still haven't quite finished yet there's nothing wrong with the
25:03product it's just the the roof was not the right roof for the tiles
25:07Jane I want to talk long and hard about this roof which I'm sure you love yes I do um I thought I
25:21mean Tyler said that this was horrific to put on because it turns out that he did have some difficulties
25:26yeah so who spec this roof then well in fact we talked it through with them but it was just I think
25:31it's a new product I mean I love it because it's it was affordable and it's a clay tile and I never
25:36thought that I'd ever and I would end up with a clay tile but it's the color of slate it is why
25:41have you gone for gray why not go for the local vernacular dark brown dark reddish color I think the
25:46whole the whole project is not about vernacular it's not Sussex vernacular on the other hand it isn't
25:51American it's not trying to be no and nor is it trying to be completely American yeah it's its own
25:56thing and I think this works for me with the cedar because it's built into a sloping site the whole
26:03house isn't fully visible from the road but what you do see from the road is the roof covered in black
26:10clay tiles that ironically look like they might be concrete it's a surreal thought but four months ago
26:20this house already existed but only in a virtual reality it was designed on the web and maybe it's
26:28because of that maybe it's because of the the quality of the graphics packages on computers or maybe it's
26:34just because it's an American house but to my mind it just looks odd here
26:40with the roof finally tiled and the framework wrapped all that's left to do externally is
27:00had the house in the distinctive New England painted weatherboarding
27:03the interior is just beginning to take shape Chris can't afford to slow down like the roofers
27:14he's on a fixed price deal so any overrun means he'll be out of pocket
27:19the pressures on Jane too with a project that moves as fast as this she's got her work cut out
27:39choosing and ordering all the interior fixtures and fittings
27:42it's March now and it's just four months since Jane and Willem saw their honeymoon project arrive
27:53on the back of that lorry and already their dream kit house is watertight at a time when most self
28:01build projects are still lurching from one disaster to the next now the builders own schedule gives them
28:08just four weeks to get the whole project completed and all that habitable which means that it won't
28:14be very long before the happy couple is stepping over the threshold
28:17this is very very different when I saw it last you've got stairs in we have stairs and we have
28:27edges it's no longer an x-ray house you start seeing you have a roof as well which is big difference and
28:31a plasterboard it's all uh it's all happening looking this way yes all this wood yeah and all
28:39this detailing I mean I remember you saying you what you wanted to have this kind of this big view
28:43I wouldn't have wanted to have a big glass wall because I think once it's finished this is going
28:48to seem like a big expanse of glass as it is it works for me it is your home after all not mine
28:53upstairs this is the bathroom this is lovely high ceiling and uh what's this this is this is an
29:03indulgence it's a big tub big double bathtub big double bathtub not my color dark blue oh I love it
29:12I think a big white bath would have looked like a mortuary with this yes it's not a shower head is it
29:18that looks like a garden sieve on a scale to equal the bath really anyway the bathroom is sort of on the
29:23let's go with the house and the whole house is a kind of a a large statement isn't it it's kind of
29:27quite it's assertive yes yes I think if you're going to do something like build a house you have
29:33to you have to invest in your personality in it and express yourself is the house really truly
29:38reflect your personality it feels fantastic I mean it feels sort of even better than I could have
29:43imagined and it was interesting last weekend we were here and it really began to feel not so much
29:47like an architectural experiment or a house but like my home like our home and it really it works
29:52everything you say about it tells me about your personality but does Willem figure this is us it's
29:59the internal space that you create together that becomes your shared home so has building a house
30:05turned you into a different woman I mean has it empowered you it has empowered me it's made me
30:10um realize that um I can manage a sort of I can manage a project like this in a sense three years
30:16ago I would never have imagined I would be so organized I used to be chaotic and cluttered and
30:21now I'm quite organized and I have flow charts and you know when I first met Will and Jane they
30:32described this as their honeymoon project something that they would want to do together even though it
30:37did originally start out just as Jane's idea and yet I never get to see Willem I mean he must have
30:43been here once in all the time that I've visited the site so whose project is it I mean is it still
30:48Jane's baby and how does Willem feel about it Willems got a full-time job up in London working as a graphic
30:56artist for a website design firm so how does he keep in touch I get updates from how I sort of get
31:03download sessions when I go home what do you discuss what would you talk about I mean every aspect of the
31:09build I mean I come home and we talk house and we get all the issues sorted out and we might cause
31:14if we need to and so on and then it's like that's over and we can just sort of relax and be husband and
31:20wife Jane's like carrying this house like she would carry it like she would carry a child and I have
31:27a traditionally fatherly role in that I am fairly detached I mean is it your dream I mean as much as
31:35it is hers it's clearly something that she's passionately wanted and felt obviously not so
31:40what is that what is I well I came to this country to travel essentially I guess yeah I didn't expect
31:50to meet someone fall in love get married and build a house certainly not but are you happy absolutely
31:56the build is now running four weeks behind schedule the longer Chris remains on site the more money he
32:05loses so is it gone well I mean are you pleased with the build so far well the only thing I'm not happy
32:12with is the information I was given by the Americans in the time it would take to put the kit up it's
32:16probably taken another eight weeks beyond what they indicated even me allowing for you know it taking
32:23longer than right who's paying for the extra time that it took to put up the the kit in the first
32:27place yeah in short I am because I had a contract price with Jane to put the kit up right so any
32:32overrun you put down to me is that hurt a lot it is at the moment yes but it's nothing I can't manage
32:39you know I can get over it and you just swallow this as a part of your professional it's just a
32:45pattern of life yes absolutely well put so what else have you got to do I have to waterproof the front
32:52walls I have to build a chimney I have to finish the plastering the bulk of which should be done
32:57this week yeah tied it backfill site make two drain connections and put the guttering up right and then
33:04I'm finished and I'll be out of here in a month perhaps it's not surprising this project is late
33:11it's a pioneering American build of which Chris naturally had no previous experience but the ends in
33:19sight for him after he leaves it'll be entirely down to Jane and Willem to finish their house
33:25it's now six months since this project started and Chris is still building he's been here eight
33:36weeks longer than he's scheduled and don't forget he's on a fixed price deal and yet I thought the
33:43point about kit houses is that they're supposed to go up quickly so what's gone wrong the frame has
33:51been much more complicated to do and much more time-consuming than we were led to believe originally
33:57the Americans seem to have this great enthusiasm for these buildings and they sort of said they could
34:04wind it up from start to finish in four weeks and I've since discovered that that's just to put the
34:09external frame up that's not to do all the other bits and pieces that go with it James devised a
34:16cunning method of mixing plaster with paint pigment this way the vast walls will be colored as they're
34:22plastered saving Jane and Chris time and money at least in theory the drawback with this method is
34:28that you get beautifully finished surfaces but before the builders leave but leave they do and the
34:35finishing is now purely in Jane and Willems now at last Willems getting really stuck in he's even
35:00building the central feature of the living room a fireplace he's designed himself
35:05and he's using his graphic skills to design a pattern for the bathroom tiles which they bought in
35:14Morocco we were on holiday in Marrakesh about a year ago and what they actually do to make these intricate
35:21mosaic tiles is they just obviously bake full-size ones and they then chisel them up and we thought we saw
35:27these and thought they were absolutely fantastic and that we could use them full-size so we imported
35:33I think about two and a half thousand of them 20p each something similar here would be probably just about
35:39two pounds but perhaps there's a reason why they're only 20p was a big selection process in that quite a
35:46lot of them as a handmade are just too messy to use at the last minute James decided she doesn't like the red tile
35:54particularly and as the shower was going to be basically red yellow and green we've had to make
36:00a lot of amendments obviously I can't live back to Marrakesh and top up the tile stock Jane's also
36:08saving on bathroom fitting because the to get the copper she's bought some cheap brass taps and lights
36:14and is having them copper plated so they'll look expensive by buying these sort of discounted fittings
36:22we've ended up saving up probably in the order of about 500 pounds because taps are incredibly expensive I
36:26had no idea and another inexpensive option is a flat pack kitchen for their flat pack home which of
36:35course takes almost as long to construct as the entire house but outside the house still isn't finished
36:44there's one classic American feature to add the decking which is a present from Willem's father in New
36:51Zealand so where's your decking going to go is it just here it is it's here is this it here
36:55no no too noisy it's huge I think this will be a project in several stages okay stage one is stage
37:05one is the decking right that was our wedding present yes and we've actually got the woods that is going to
37:10happen is that it's really going to happen and then the sort of project works this way down the garden
37:14into this sort of wilderness of beautiful railway sleeper sort of walks around and ponds and and water
37:21so what's the cost of all this the decking and we've basically got five thousand pounds at the
37:26moment to spend on landscaping which is not going to buy us a fraction of this and I think we'll do
37:30lots of that ourselves if we if we yeah I think we'll have to
37:40the decking goes up in a couple of days and it inspires them to raid their cash reserves for the
37:46garden we always have contingency in the budget but it was always in our minds we would use it for
37:53furniture that that was it we're gonna use it for furniture if it was left and then we just got
37:57completely carried away out here and we thought can we get furniture so the digger returns to site to do
38:05some major landscaping and build some terraces so run to the fun stuff now there's a week to go
38:16before their first wedding anniversary and Jane and Willem are putting all their energy into getting
38:22the house finished by then we're both completely exhausted it's just to be expected I don't know how
38:28this beat the party does feel like an additional pressure but it's a galvanizing pressure it kind
38:33of gives that last bit of momentum
38:36it's been a year since the crack American team descended on this sleepy Sussex village with their
38:56email-designed kit house but for the last three months Willem and Jane have been working alone
39:01on the project frankly it's only because of their commitment and their passion about it that they've
39:07got the thing finished in time for their first wedding anniversary so their marriage is held together
39:13let's see if the house does hiya hi Kevin Jane are you very well yeah you sound a bit croaky I'm a bit
39:29croaky oh wow everything all mixed together but you are yeah but you are really finished aren't you
39:41it's all exactly like the model I can't believe it more or less well how are you all right yeah
39:46how are you great well this is your kitchen this is all new I haven't seen any of this before because
39:52it works very well here you know yeah this is this is a great success it's been this big double window
39:57brings so much light and the floor is great is this marble and floor heater can you feel the bomb
40:04I can't believe it and you've got that throughout the house yeah what are you most proud of here
40:09well I just think the layout actually um you know it's got their natural triangle between the sink
40:14and the fridge and that you know the magic cooking oh what the cooker fridge yeah sink sink and you
40:20just revolved at high speed exactly I think it's I think the kitchen's a great success yeah what else
40:25is you oh well what's extremely me is that is that big fireplace over there that yeah I did clock
40:32that when we came in oh yeah do you know I really like this I think it's great it's kind of big groovy
40:43organic in South America it's very mixed reactions to this I bet it has it's not to everybody's taste
40:48especially since it went purple yeah and particularly since it's probably the size of most people's living
40:53rooms yeah it's holding up the wall he's pushing the wall out yeah the other major piece of furniture
40:58is it's a daybed yeah it's not really a daybed is it it's more like a sort of grown-up playground you
41:03know I think I think I think of it as a kind of romper area
41:06so this is the guest bedroom isn't it in here it's yeah the stained glass door we're using it as a
41:31as a meditation room yeah great escape from everything escape everything that's why you come
41:37down here this looks nice this is kind of it's more contemporary yeah it's beautiful is tumbled
41:42very nice little bathroom and I want to come to indulgence so indulgence and everything in this
41:50house is indulgence so blimey what a full-on room yeah it's a strong statement of individualism
42:01yeah you said it in one uh with a fantastic view but but this bath you know now the tile's been I
42:10have to say it's a bit better isn't it yeah but this is a triumph where did you get these bowls from
42:16bowls are from Morocco Chinese sideboard from a junk shop mirror from Venice and you've had this
42:21coppered now the shower which was just a box when I saw it last is I think that is a triumph that is
42:29beautiful yeah look what's that shower look at it oh look at the water it's beautiful it's a great
42:37great thing talk about indulgence huh of every kind and this is Moroccan it's um Chinese it's English
42:48Phoenicians thrown in Egyptian American yeah but that's the whole thing about doing something like
42:54you can just pull together all the things you like through the mogul doors it's into a mogul bedroom
43:04whoa great bed beautiful color isn't it and that lovely wall hanging above it and I thought the
43:13sitting room was red I just love sleeping in this kind of color it was really pale to begin with and I
43:18couldn't sleep properly yes I was a dictator about that wasn't it where'd you get dressed where do
43:23you wear all your we wanted to keep this really empty so that you really can switch off and we've
43:27got a walk-in wardrobe or closet oh through here yeah yeah it's fast going you could live in here
43:33it's a complete room yeah well one of us has gotten rather a lot of clothes one of us has got rather a lot
43:39of shoes yeah yeah well one of us got rather a lot of everything actually fantastic view isn't it I
43:54keep coming back to that it is I can't ever stop looking at it what an extraordinary place to build
43:59a house it's for you to die for absolutely and you've also got a view into the building as well
44:05but the big surprise of the house has been just how high up you are then I just didn't have any
44:11conception of just how big the volume is going to be until it you know the floors began to go in
44:35so
45:13Well, look, congratulations, because, you know, very few people meet their deadlines.
45:26So, now, look, to be perfectly blunt about this, how much does the whole thing cost you?
45:31It's cost about $265,270.
45:35And how much have you spent over your original budget?
45:39We've spent about $20 more.
45:42Where did the money come from?
45:43I did a book this year, and I'm just about to do another one.
45:46So, the sort of money that's come in.
45:48In one pocket.
45:49And out the other.
45:51Exactly.
45:52What next?
45:53I feel like there's been three of us in this marriage.
45:56The house has been the Camilla Parker Bowles of our relationship in the last 12 months.
46:01I feel for so long it's been borrowing more of me than I really want to give it for longer than the project takes.
46:07So, it'll just be great to actually learn to live in the space.
46:11You're very, very feisty to take it on and design it over the net and do all the things you do.
46:15I think it's partly not really appreciating quite the enormity of what you're taking on.
46:22It's why people can dream big, shiny dreams.
46:24You probably wouldn't be so eager to get into it if you're a real pragmatist.
46:28Has it cemented your relationship?
46:31Yeah, it's been like a sort of, for me it's been a question of renegotiating the dream and waiting for that moment when Will would seize it and feel as involved as I.
46:41And I couldn't wait for that moment.
46:43I had to run to catch up, but once I caught up and caught on, I was with the project.
46:49It's, you know, it's got my blood and sweat and tears literally in this building and it's our place.
46:57Completely and utterly.
47:01When I first met Jane, I thought to myself, here is a woman who is pushing herself beyond the limit,
47:21who's buying a kit house in a box that's going to look like something from Legoland in the middle of the Sussex countryside,
47:25and who is building her vision, her way, despite her new and very much loved husband.
47:34But I have been trumped.
47:36Now that the landscaping's finished, this house actually looks better than many I can think of.
47:42And Jane has carried it off with huge flourish and no little talent.
47:49She's even released her grip on her dream in order to include Willem,
47:54so that the place actually now does feel like their home.
47:58For someone who's never built before, that's some class act.
48:02Don't you ever
48:05be an actor.
48:06Even if women are going to use the camera on the
48:28man.