Family affair
Victor Day took on his first oak frame self build with the help of his brother, resulting in the award-winning cottage he now shares with wife Helen and his in-laws
For their seventh self build, Victor and Helen Day chose to do something a little different. Find out how they snatched up the Best Oak Frame Home title in the Build It Awards 2018
Victor and Helen Day are self build veterans, having created six of their previous houses during the last 35 years. However, this is the couple’s first venture into the oak frame method, which earned them an accolade for Best Oak Frame House at the 2018 Build It Awards. Victor, who jointly owns a construction business with his brother, has been a bricklayer since he was in his teens and wanted to explore a new challenge. “Helen and I have always lived in new houses that I’ve developed in brick and block,” he says. “is time around, we wanted a property with the character that comes with oak, plus space to accommodate Helen’s parents and my office.”
Unexpected opportunity
Back in summer 2015, when Victor first spotted this plot, the couple were quite happy in their current home and had no intention of starting self build number seven. However the site, once part of a horticultural nursery, had a lot going for it. Situated behind a house on a quiet residential street, it benefitted from expansive views onto open farmland. “It’s hard to come by an individual patch of land of this size, for this price, near the village. Plus, it was only a five-minute drive from where we were living,” Victor explains. “Helen and I really liked the views and the space, and the pond with an old willow tree in the middle. We knew it wouldn’t be available for long – it had planning for two houses and had come back onto the market after a previous sale fell through – so we decided to go for it.”
Once the couple’s offer was accepted that August, Helen began seeking inspiration for their new home, looking for something a little bit different. She found herself drawn towards pictures of oak frame cottages, liking the complete contrast in look and feel to the modern houses they’d always lived in before. Meanwhile,
Victor attended a pre-planning meeting with the council to see if he could change the existing consent from two houses to one. “ere was always a chance they’d say no,” says Victor. “My thinking was that if the local authority refused, I would have treated the land purchase as a commercial project through our building company, developed both houses and sold them. Fortunately, however, they did say yes.”
Creating character
e couple stood on the plot to see where the sun fell and liked the idea of incorporating a glazed garden room to look out across the outdoor area, fields and pond. ey sketched out a few ideas and decided an oak frame house was definitely the route they wanted to pursue – and worth the additional build costs compared to standard brick and block. An online search led them to Border Oak’s website and they instantly liked the style of the Pearmain Cottage. “We were drawn to the pitched roof and cream render with the oak detail in the porch and windows,” says Victor. “e appearance was exactly how we wanted our house to look as we came up the drive.”
Although Border Oak was located a four hour drive away, Victor and Helen were keen to meet with the company to discuss their ideas about adapting the design. By now Helen wanted this to be their last project, so future-proofing was a top priority. e property would require an annexe for Helen’s parents to live in and an office
Build It September 2019 for Victor. “Our trip was well worth the journey,” recalls Helen. “Later on, one of the team came and did a site visit before they presented their design – it was spot on first time.”
e alterations to the original Pearmain Cottage layout increased room sizes in the Days’ house, creating a larger boot room, the oak glazed garden room and bigger master bedroom directly above. e annexe is completely self-contained, separated from the house by the garages and office, which are built in brick and block. e barnstyle exterior looks like an old building that’s been converted. Border Oak also added a number of design details that the couple are really
taken with. “Instead of one window in the master suite, we have two Juliet balconies,” says Helen. “One overlooks the whole garden and the other faces out towards the pond – they’re both lovely.”
Helen and Victor asked Border Oak to handle their planning application and drawings were submitted in November 2015. In January the couple received approval without any queries. As the housing market was slow, they put their previous home on the market expecting the sale to take a while, but it went quickly, pushing the couple into a caravan on site in April, just as the project started. “We bought a second-hand tourer that was uncomfortably hot in summer and freezing in winter, and we lived there until the build was finished the following February,” Helen recalls. “My mum and dad had sold their bungalow quickly, too, and my daughter kindly had them to stay.”
All hands on deck
e whole project became a family affair. Victor and his brother, Vince, who is also a business partner, brought in their own subcontractors to undertake the electrics, plumbing and carpentry works. e pair have been builders for nearly 40 years. ey
‘‘ is really is the ultimate ’’ house – it’s our forever home
learnt the bricklaying trade from their father, whose construction firm, Day & Hammond Buildings, they inherited.
e brothers spent six weeks preparing the groundworks, with the odd day back with the business if they were needed. Since the site was sloped, 660 tons of clean soil were brought in to level the garden area before the services pipework was laid. As the Days came to finish this stage, however, they realised the new level didn’t have the fall needed to connect to the mains sewer. “We installed a small pumping station for an extra £1,500, so all the waste can be fed to the mains,” says Victor. “e extra cost was annoying but one of those things that happens on projects.”
e most stressful part of the build for Victor and Vince was building the foundation slab to the exact calculations for the oak structure to sit on. “With a brick and block build you have a lot more flexibility,” says Victor. “I was out of my comfort zone and there were a few times when I needed to check a detail with Border Oak, who were always at the end of the phone, happy to speak to me. We all breathed a sigh of relief when they came in late May to check the slab, which, thanks to Vince, was spot on.”
Soon Border Oak were back again. ey spent six weeks erecting the frame and wrapping it in structural insulated panels (SIPS). Vince went back to full-time work in the business, while Victor stayed on to construct the office and two garages. When it came to tiling the roof, the brothers had estimated a six-week turnaround. “We discovered that handmade clay units take longer to fit because they’re not a uniform shape, and we needed more roof battens to hang them to,” says Victor. “is phase took 12 weeks in the end and added to our labour costs.but it was definitely worth the trouble and expense, as the roof is an important feature in the finished appearance of our new property.”
With the house watertight by autumn 2016, it was largely business as usual for Victor as his trades got on with first and second fix.
“e carpenters were really good,” says Helen. “ey came up with some great ideas, like installing the useful cupboard under the main stairs, complete with a secret door that you can’t see, and adding the shelves that are in the library area.”
Helen took on the project management of the interior finishes, sourcing the Shaker-style kitchen from a local firm, which has since closed, and Burlington bathroom sanitaryware from MKM Building Supplies. She kept a close eye on progress and at one point asked Victor to regrout the floor tiles. “I’d been ill for a few days and missed the grouting,” she explains. “e colour was all wrong and looked awful. I got a very black look from Victor when I said he had to scrape it all out and start again, but I really couldn’t live with it.”
Pleasing result
Victor and his team worked tirelessly throughout the process to keep the project moving. eir hard work paid off, as Victor estimates a saving of around £200,000 with all the free labour he and Vince put in, and their loyal network of local trades. “e project was stressful at times, especially when I was needed back in the business, but I’ve got some great subcontractors I can rely on and they more than pulled out the stops,” says Victor. “We began with a build budget of around £375,000 and we weren’t far off that by the end. We spent more than we expected to level the ground and extra on the roof tiles, and the total took us to £406,000.”
e couple moved into their new home in February 2017, which has recently won more recognition having been highly commended in the Best Individual New Home category at the East Midlands LABC (Local Authority Building Control) Excellence Awards. “is is our ultimate house – it’s our forever home – and there’s nothing we would change,” Helen concludes. “We’d recommend Border Oak, they were brilliant, and it’s been a very satisfying project for us both.”