A couple spent ten years building their dream home when plans for their dream home turned into a ‘medley of delays and obsessive craftsmanship’.
Golf coach Chris and ex-figure skater Kayo found themselves embroiled in a gruelling six-year battle to begin work on a sprawling family home on protected land surrounding a historic abbey in south Hertfordshire.
The couple, who were constrained by stringent planning conditions, entrusted their friend, architectural designer Rogan, to help them realise their dream – but were beset with a string of problems along the way.
For 30 years, nobody had been allowed to build on the protected land surrounding one of Britain’s most historic abbeys, which lies next door to their current property.
Their plans to build their house – a ‘passion project’ – was also a bid to prevent local youths from drinking, taking drugs and leaving litter on the strip of ‘wasteland’.
Grand ambitions? A couple set out to build their dream home on this stretch of protected land surrounding a historic abbey in south Hertfordshire (pictured: the finished product, finally completed after years of legal and financial struggles)
Golf coach Chris (right) and his wife, ex-figure skater Kayo (centre), told Kevin McCloud how they had found themselves embroiled in a gruelling six-year battle to build their family home on protected land surrounding a historic abbey
Appearing on Wednesday night’s ‘one-off’ episode of Grand Designs, host Kevin McCloud learned of Chris and Kayo’s plans for a ‘unique’ single-storey, Roman-inspired home designed to sit in a zig-zag shape.
The project has taken a total of ten years to realise, with the couple still working on their garden.
But the Roman villa-style design, which features a sprawling garden and a mini putting green, proved painfully intricate and complicated, putting the family-of-five’s schedule and budget under immense pressure.
Admitting to feeling a sense of foreboding at the scale of the project, Chris said: ‘I got a “eureka” moment when I got the planning permission, then I had to ask myself, do I really want to live in this house?’
The new home is restricted to just one storey, will need room for all three children, and will also need an ‘extremely large’ utility room to house all of Kayo’s kitchen gadgets, including her beloved rice cooker.
The couple’s sprawling family home looks onto a lush green garden complete with a pond and plenty of foliage. The pair, who were constrained by stringent planning conditions, entrusted their friend, architectural designer Rogan
Chris and Kay’s spacious lounge and dining area, featuring wooden shelves and a skylight to let in plenty of sun. The couple enlisted a friend to help them realise their dream but were beset with a string of problems along the way
A sneak peak of the interior of their new home, including a huge dining table and chairs. The couple overspent dramatically when plans for their dream house turned into a ‘medley of delays and obsessive craftsmanship’
The garden features a mini golf course for Chris to hone his skills. Appearing on Wednesday night’s ‘one-off’ episode of Grand Designs, host Kevin McCloud was suitably impressed by Chris and Kayo’s plans for their new home
Despite claiming they couldn’t ‘remember’ how much the plot of land had cost – with estimates running into six figures – the couple revealed they had set themselves an initial building budget of £600,000 – however McCloud believes it will eventually be closer to between £1.5m to £2m.
After more than 18 months of building, the finished product comprises an elaborate timber frame stretching over 557 square metres – nearly six times the size of the average family home.
Kevin McCloud said of the ambitious design, which is topped with a sedum roof and took four years to build: ‘It’s a really unusual project, a fantastic house, beautifully crafted in a tradition that goes back to the middle of the twentieth century, to [the late Welsh-American architect] Frank Lloyd Wright for example.’
He added: ‘It’s built in the shadows of a great cathedral, on a site of great archaeological importance, both Roman and medieval. Both these things affected the design.’
With plenty of outside space, the couple’s home included an elaborate water feature. Kevin McCloud said of the ambitious design: ‘It’s a really unusual project, a fantastic house, beautifully crafted in a tradition that goes back to the middle of the twentieth century’
The couple’s ultra-modern kitchen. Designer Kevin McCloud said of the impressive build: ‘It’s built in the shadows of a great cathedral, on a site of great archaeological importance, both Roman and medieval. Both these things affected the design’
Images of the couple’s sprawling home and garden show a leafy, perfectly-manicured lawn surrounding their Roman-inspired house – the result of six-year battle and a massive overspend