“I used to be introduced up on constructing websites, working alongside my dad throughout faculty holidays, so it appeared pure to hitch the household enterprise and turn into a builder myself,” says Roxy Woodfield, the proficient younger builder who constructed her personal two bed room cottage on the land adjoining to her childhood dwelling.
“When my mother and father gained planning permission for a small improvement of oak-framed homes on their land, I used to be over the moon to be gifted one of many plots to construct my very own self-build dwelling.”
As soon as Roxy had secured the plot, she collaborated with a devoted group of contractors to grasp her dream: developing her very personal cottage, full with a compact, future-proof design and geared up with an air supply warmth pump.
Roxy had the chance to construct her dream home subsequent to her childhood dwelling
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Roxy’s mother and father appointed native oak framing specialists, Border Oak, and the corporate designed the homes and utilized for planning consent on the couple’s Herefordshire grazing area, positioned on the sting of a village overlooking open countryside and allotted for improvement within the Neighbourhood Plan.
All 9 homes on the small, award-winning improvement have been designed to enrich each other in addition to the present listed farmhouse next-door. “We have been delighted to be trusted to create one thing completely different, mixing conventional and modern vernacular references, offering a variety of types, sizes and contract choices, with sustainability and biodiversity woven all through,” says Border Oak’s inventive director, Merry Albright, whose father initially began the corporate in 1980. “Our oak frame houses are simply lovely, as a result of they’re made by hand, and I really like strolling across the workshop and seeing them being crafted.”
Roxy’s mother and father additionally gifted a big piece of floor to the village for his or her group inexperienced, enhancing a public footpath by way of the positioning and planting a whole bunch of metres of native hedges, along with bushes and wildflowers. The homes themselves mix a broad palette of pure supplies, together with inexperienced oak, timber cladding, slate, clay tiles, bricks, and render.
Merry is the Inventive Director at Border Oak, main oak body specialists based mostly in Herefordshire UK. Her obligations inside the firm cowl branding, design, advertising and marketing, gross sales, inventive path and PR.
She took a arms on method to the construct
Through the construct, Roxy continued dwelling next-door to the self-build plot along with her mother and father, within the conventional farmhouse the place she had grown up for the reason that age of 11. Along with her constructing work, Roxy trains each night for triathlons and has represented Nice Britain, finishing lengthy distance Ironman challenges and travelling all around the world.
She was eager to be as concerned in her personal constructing mission as potential and to undertake a lot of the bodily work. “Once we work on constructing websites, individuals nonetheless ask for the person,” she laughs. “They assume I’m not robust sufficient to hold heavy constructing supplies and are sometimes stunned to observe me climb up onto the roof to put tiles.”
She tackled each side of development
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Working alongside her father, Roxy tackled just about every part on website, other than the carpentry, plastering and painting. She drove the digger for the foundations, which she accomplished to flooring degree, and helped to construct the brick plinth able to take her oak body.
“Border Oak put up the body, which was later cleaned utilizing oxalic acid, they usually additionally equipped the SIPs encapsulation system as a part of their package deal. I then put in the lots of additional insulation, which was taped for airtightness and never a lot enjoyable to do!”
Glazed models for the oak body have been manufactured by an area firm, who spray painted the frames anthracite gray previous to supply, and Roxy then helped to put in doorways and home windows on website. She additionally took cost of overlaying the roof with membrane and Spanish slates – arguably certainly one of her favorite jobs on the construct.
Tremendous insulated, just about hermetic and heated by an air source heat pump, the home is constructed from pure, minimally processed, and sustainable supplies. Roxy used native suppliers and supplies and ensured the home has a low vitality demand and is of course lit and warmed.
The cottage has a considerate structure
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The entrance façade of the two-storey dwelling was designed to resemble a small barn or agricultural constructing, clad in vertical larch boarding stained by Roxy, with the rear of the property incorporating a glazed oak-framed wing. This attracts mild into the home, serving as a putting vaulted dwelling space which opens into the kitchen and eating area.
“We prevented having a closed off hallway and selected to put in the steps main up from my open plan living space as an alternative,” says Roxy. Upstairs, the roofline is 1.5 metres above flooring degree, with rooflights bringing in further mild.
“It’s such a shiny home, and the oak body makes it very particular inside, with the vaulted areas and uncovered timbers. I’ve been so fortunate to have the possibility to construct my own residence, due to my mother and father, who gifted me the plot and paid for my oak body,” says Roxy. “It’s been a incredible expertise engaged on website with my dad, and I couldn’t be happier with the the top end result.”
The tiles have been Roxy’s finest resolution
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As a tiler by career, Roxy was eager that each side of the tiling ought to be of the very best high quality all through the home. She undertook all tiling work herself, together with laying the pure roof slates, tiling bathroom floors and partitions, and exactly laying the outsized limestone flagstones over underfloor heating downstairs.
“I labored with a labourer, who was mixing muck and slicing slabs for me to put,” she explains. “The limestone tiles are about an inch thick and have been significantly heavy. I actually loved tiling the inside flooring, kitchen, and loos to my very own design, after which – as a result of I do not suppose I am going to ever be a gardener – I laid a big patio with Indian flagstones. Tiles are such an necessary component of a house which might usually be ignored, and though individuals gained’t discover after they’re laid properly, you might be certain they’ll spot a poor end, which might spoil a complete room.”
The ground plan maximises area
The compact home has been designed to maximise the sense of area, with an open plan kitchen/eating/dwelling space on the bottom flooring, a separate workplace, utility, moist room, and foyer.
Stairs lead up from the dwelling space to 2 bedrooms, a rest room and storage cabinet. The bottom flooring has no thresholds or steps and has minimal doorways and partitions, making it simply navigated by wheelchair, and the workplace may very well be used as an accessible bed room beside the wet room if required
Roxy’s dwelling gained the award for the Spirit of Self Construct in The Every day Telegraph Homebuilding & Renovating Awards 2023.