Granny in the garden
Yes, say Andy and his mum Kath – part of a growing number who’ve built a separate mini-home so elderly loved ones can be close . . . but not too close!
stances, so it was very much her decision.’
The pair initially thought about moving to a property with a granny annexe but the cost of moving and lack of suitable homes put paid to that. They then considered converting Andy’s garage before coming up with the idea of a bespoke building in the garden.
‘Mum didn’t just want to live in something that had been dumped in my back garden,’ says Andy. After a bit of research they came across a design — known as the Arca — by a company called Garden Hideouts.
They fine-tuned the layout and applied for planning permission in March. After spending £13,000 on groundworks to level the site and connect water and electrical supplies, the build was completed in June.
‘It’s been great so far,’ says Andy. ‘As soon as I get home I go up to the lodge and have a cup of tea and share the news of the day with Mum and we take it in turns to cook tea.’
Because there are no steps or stairs, if Kath’s care needs ever change they can be easily catered for. And if she has to move out, the building could become an office or even rented out for short stays on a site such as Airbnb. But for now, and hopefully many years to come, Kath is enjoying her new way of living.
She says: ‘I am 81 now and I have got my son at the end of the path. Compared with an old people’s home or sheltered housing it is a dream.’
Similar sentiments motivated the move of Wyn Mayne-Flower, who has been happily living in her son’s back garden in Cheshire since 2012.
Having been widowed 29 years ago, she was determined to maintain her independence come what may. But, suffering from arthritis, she began to find coping with the stairs and the garden in her fourbed home too much.
She, too, gave short shrift to the idea of moving into a residential care home. ‘I would never move in to sheltered housing because I just don’t like it,’ she says. ‘I don’t like old age full- stop, so I try to keep away from seeing it as much as possible. I don’t want to be reminded of it.’
So moving in — or almost in — with her son Edward, 63, a postmaster, and his wife Rosemary, seemed the obvious answer. ‘They had some land with the house and offered me a spot on the cabbage patch — the rabbits were taking it over so he was relieved, actually.’
She was also determined to move into something of a decent size. As Wyn herself puts it: ‘I don’t like small areas.’
And so for the past five years she has lived in a lodge measuring a very spacious 20 ft by 60 ft. THE
annexe, built by Homelodge, boasts two en- suite bedrooms, a cloakroom, utility room, an open plan kitchen, dining room and sitting room with a woodburner in a brick inglenook.
The build cost around £150,000 and, despite its size, did not require planning permission because it was designed to comply with the criteria of the Mobile Home Act.
A certificate of lawful development — a legal document confirming the legality of the lodge — was obtained from the local council to ensure Wyn’s total peace of mind. And Wyn likes the fact that she is living near her son, who has three grown-up sons of his own, but not with him.
‘I wouldn’t want to,’ she says. ‘It wouldn’t be fair on them or me because I don’t honestly believe it works — we had always been very good friends and that is the way I wanted to keep it.
‘I see my son every day, he walks the dog past and pops in, and any more than that we do as we want. For me it’s the ideal way of living — it’s cheap and convenient. I have had some very nice homes in the past but I love this.’
Of course, the merging of multiple generations is not all plain sailing. Back in Bardsey, there have been one or two waves caused around the dinner table.
‘Mum is very much from a meatand-two-veg background,’ says Andy. ‘I like things such as pasta and rice and cous cous. She’s been trying to take that on board when it’s her turn to cook but we’ve have had some interesting combinations — her pasta with curry is one that springs to mind!’