When Jo and Louise Roberts decided to build a barn style oak-framed home for their retirement, the plot was quite literally on their doorstep.
TEXT DEBBIE JEFFERY IMAGES STEVEN HAYWOOD/CARPENTER OAK LTD
Back in 1996, Jo and Louise Roberts bought a village house just outside Totnes in South Devon, which had previously been used as ensuite guest rooms for a neighbouring health spa. The property became their family home, and over the years, they undertook renovation and building work while raising their two children. This experience was to prove invaluable when they later embarked on a far more ambitious project: building a new home in their garden.
Tucked away in an elevated position, and with views stretching west towards Dartmoor, it was the garden’s outlook, in particular, that sparked Jo and Louise’s desire to build a home for their retirement, which would make the most of its setting.
“The old house is sunk down a little on the plot and surrounded by trees, which means it doesn’t enjoy such a great view,” explains Jo, a retired GP. “We’d been advised that we would never be granted planning consent to build in the garden though, even by the planning consultant we employed.”
Instead, the couple erected a log cabin style garden building as overflow space for the family, which was later used as a holiday let. “10 years on, when planning laws had been relaxed slightly, we decided to try again to gain planning permission to build a house there,” says Louise, a retired anaesthetist. “Having the log cabin definitely helped our case, although it hadn’t been built with this in mind.”
The couple approached renowned architectural practice, Roderick James Architects, and invited them to design a detached three bedroom house for their plot. “We live about three miles away from the well known timber frame company, Carpenter Oak, and had paid a visit to their framing yard,” says Jo. “They gave us a tour and put us in touch with our architect, Luke Sutton at Roderick James, who really listened to our ideas.”
The couple hoped to replicate the open-plan nature of their small log cabin on the site, while increasing the footprint by around 50%. Maximising the view was a priority, and a large beech tree was to be retained in the garden.
Luke produced a design concept sketch, floor plans and a 3D model of the house so that Jo and Louise could fully envisage how it would both look and feel. On the ground floor, a spacious living/dining/kitchen, a utility room, WC and boot room are stepped down from the entrance hall, with two bedrooms sharing a bathroom at the other end of the plan.
“A one-and-a-half storey arrangement is a fantastic way of extracting the most space from the smallest possible volume, and results in some of my favourite oak frame features,” says architect Luke Sutton. Upstairs, the main bedroom enjoys its own balcony, ensuite, a mezzanine library area and study, with voids left above the hallway, bedrooms and bathroom below creating a sense of spaciousness.
“The 200 sqm design needed to nestle in the beautiful garden Jo and Louise had created, with careful thought given to the topography and orientation, along with the relationship to the beech tree standing at the heart of the site,” explains Luke. “The solution was an L-shaped plan on a stepped ground floor level, ensuring each internal space would have a direct relationship with the garden and far reaching views.”
With grown-up children and elderly relatives to consider, it was essential that the house could offer flexibility: enabling Jo and Louise to enjoy the space as a couple while also hosting multi-generational gatherings, with guest accommodation located in the single storey wing. Service spaces have been grouped together to maximise the efficiency of plumbing and drainage.
“We’re just outside the village development plan, but our garden isn’t overlooked at all,” says Jo. “There was an existing covenant on the property, though, which prevented another house from being built on the land, and it took several years of negotiating with the neighbour before an agreement was reached to lift the covenant.”
Once legal issues had been agreed and planning permission granted, Carpenter Oak could begin building the oak frame and the couple tendered to three building companies, choosing BroadOak Construction as their main contractor for the project. The site was cleared and the garden divided in two, with Jo and Louise keeping the two thirds of the land.
“Early on, the decision was taken to invite Luke Sutton to oversee the whole project, as we were both working at the time,” says Louise. “He proved to be the most amazing diplomat, with incredible attention to detail.”
The new house has been formed on a reinforced concrete raft foundation, with a step in level to accommodate the split-level ground floor arrangement. The construction ethos was to create a natural, healthy, low carbon home for Jo and Louise, minimising the use of petrochemical materials.
When the oak frame was ready, architect Luke took a day off to help with the raising, and over two days the frame was craned into position and constructed. “Watching the oak frame going up was incredible,” says Louise. “We’d been to Carpenter Oak’s yard to see it being made by the same team who came onsite to erect it. The carpenters’ marks are left visible on the frame, and we absolutely love those details.”
A timelapse video captured the process and, in keeping with tradition, the youngest member of the framing team climbed up to fix an oak branch to the ridge beam, followed by a celebratory glass of champagne. “It’s a lovely moment, the topping-out ceremony,” Jo adds. “You realise all the work and craftsmanship that’s gone into the frame.”
Once the house was weathertight, the oak frame could be sandblasted clean to reveal its grain. “For months afterwards, the house made these cracking sounds, like gunshots,” laughs Jo. “It was just the oak settling and the sand working its way out. The smell of the fresh timber was incredible.”
A simple softwood studwork and rafter structure, with an inner and outer timber-based sheathing board, was used to wrap around the exposed green oak frame. Warmcel cellulose fibre insulation, made from recycled newspaper, was then injected into the voids between studs and rafters under pressure, via small holes drilled into the inner sheathing board, before airtight patches were applied over holes to close the panels.
“There are several benefits to this kind of timber-based insulation system, including the significantly reduced carbon footprint and avoidance of off gassing from synthetic alternatives,” says Luke Sutton.
“The high density of the insulation results in excellent acoustic properties in addition to high thermal performance. There’s minimal waste, as you install exactly the amount of insulation needed, rather than cutting sheets of material to fit, and injecting the insulation means that every void is fully filled.”
The orientation of the glass was carefully considered to optimise passive solar gain in the winter months, using the deep overhang of the balcony and porch roof structures to provide solar shading in the height of summer.
“In every room, you can see the structure of the building and experience the texture of the oak,” says Luke. “We used roof windows to bring natural light into the depths of the building, drawing the eye upwards to the vaulted roof space and accentuating the sense of height and space.”
Large glazed doors open the house to the garden, and the five panel system tilts and stacks like a pack of cards to one side. “The doors were expensive, but totally worth it,” says Jo. “They connect the house to the garden and view, which was exactly what we’d hoped for.”
Internal walls and ceilings are lined in Fermacell board, an alternative to conventional plasterboard with a recycled paper content, but with greater density, sound resistance and screw holding ability than plasterboard. In addition, it does not require a plaster skim coat –saving on both trades and the associated drying time of wet plaster.
The exterior of the new house is largely clad in cedar to the front, with composite cedar cladding to the rear, and local stone sourced from a quarry near Tavistock. A stone plinth wall wraps around the building and extends up to eaves height at the south-west corner of the building, forming an impressive chimney stack which anchors the house to its site while protecting it from prevailing south-westerly winds.
“We were determined to use local materials wherever possible, although the roof slate is Spanish,” says Louise. “We’d have loved local slate, but the cost was eye watering.”
Naturally derived material choices were complemented by a series of renewable and low carbon technologies, including a ground source heat pump and a ground mounted photovoltaic panel array. A new borehole supplies water to the house, avoiding complications with the old private water supply which passed through neighbouring land, and three additional boreholes supply the ground source heating system.
“We already had solar panels and electric cars, so this made sense,” explains Jo. “We also installed a sewage treatment plant, but being green isn’t cheap. All these systems need maintenance and have ongoing costs.”
Inside, the feature staircase leads to a mezzanine library and the main bedroom. “I wanted a spiral staircase originally, but it just wouldn’t have worked,” Jo admits. “The new design fits perfectly, and I still get to keep my old boudoir grand piano downstairs. That was non-negotiable.”
Throughout the house, a soft pigeon blue runs across the kitchen, windows, joinery and metalwork – a colour drawn straight from Luke’s original concept sketches. “We spent hours with RAL charts getting the shade right,” says Louise. “We didn’t want everything to be oak. We’d have been oaked out. The blue cools everything down a little.”
The kitchen itself was designed and fitted by the same family firm that had supplied their previous kitchen. “We literally drew out the layout on the floor using masking tape to check the sizes,” laughs Louise. “They listened to what we wanted and got it spot on.”
A small utility room keeps cooking smells away from the main open plan space, while the bathrooms were carefully sourced from a single supplier in Dorset to simplify the overwhelming range of options. Louise adds: “It’s easy to get carried away, but you have to keep one eye on the budget. We also tried to buy British wherever possible.”
Thoughtful lighting, devised by a lighting designer, highlights the oak frame, but the couple decided against a costly automated system, opting instead for simple, practical switches. They also installed a mesh network to tackle patchy Wi-Fi inside the well-insulated structure.
The house features several bespoke touches from local artisans, including a fused glass fish mural by Cornish artist Jo Downs, and a silver birch glass kitchen window by Steve Robinson, designed to obscure an unsightly boundary and with a matching splashback.
The build took around 15 months to complete, with a few unexpected costs along the way, from a four-figure bill to relocate an unrecorded telecoms cable to the underfloor heating company going bust mid-project. “There are always curveballs,” says Jo. “You need a healthy contingency and a good architect who’ll fight your corner. Now, we wake up every day and look out at the view. We honestly can’t believe our luck living here.”