COMING HOME
Nicholas Jupp is building his first home for a budget of £300,000 in the garden of his West London childhood home
Despite the average self-builder being at least 41, in a marriage or partnership and in the top 20% by way of household income*, at just 33 Niki Jupp is rejecting the generational burden of being a perpetual renter and is building a home for the foreseeable. After changing jobs and moving home with his parents, Niki was faced with the hyper-competitive market of the capital and self-build seemed the only realistic choice in his eyes: “I would be lucky to get a studio flat in some areas of London with the money I’m spending.”
A knock at his parents’ front door years ago first sparked his interest in staying local, as an offer was made to turn his parent’s garden into a potential plot — so when searching for a site, Niki didn’t look too far afield.
Originally, Niki, and Guy Minshull-Fowler, an architect friend, drew up plans for a two-storey home on a plot carved from his neighbours’ land. But after his offer fell through, he began to think even closer to home. New plans for an unusually shaped plot on the edge of Niki’s parents’ land were drawn up by Phillips Tracey Architects. A contemporary, single-storey, two-bed home, clad in black brick and zinc was conceived (left) and achieved planning permission without any issues.
“I’m going to be building in the garden I played in as a kid with my siblings,” Niki mused. “Building on my parents’ land allows me to stay in an area I have lived in for many years and the sentimental value is really driving the project — I want to do it justice.”
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing as Niki, being newly self-employed as a cameraman in broadcast TV and taking out his first mortgage, struggled to find finance and the build was delayed for a year. This didn’t faze the young self-builder though, as he used this time researching as much information as he could so he could interact confidently within the construction sphere.
“Architects have a certain language they like to use,” he laughs. Niki took to the internet and home interest magazines, and enrolled in a course at the National Self Build and Renovation Centre, all which he found invaluable: “There was every bit of information you can imagine.”
After a few issues finding a contractor who could build to budget, the project finally started in October this year and Niki is bursting with excitement. “We used to build forts and silly things on this land and now I’m building a house!” he concludes.
your projects
yanna Zissiadou and jan courtney are in the final stages of renovating and extending their 1960s home in sussex Sitting across from our new wildlife pond (above), the waterfall shutting out any urban static, we are thinking about packing boxes again after 10 months in rented accommodation… December is moving home month!
The oak veranda is complete and ready for Millboard decking to be laid. This will give us a 4m-deep, wrap-around American-style covered porch. The house outline is finally complete and it’s just a case of ‘filling the gaps’.
It seems we asked the electrician for 80 LED lights in the kitchen. Well, we were tired of chopping veg in the dark! Plastering the walls has started; we celebrated by visiting IKEA with a 260-piece shopping list.
It is more than 11 months since our architect Derrick Whittaker drew up the initial plans for this renovation. TJ Veale construction, our building team, breathed life into those drawings and we feel lucky that we were able to have an input at every stage of the build. We’re so thankful to everyone who has helped us along the way; building projects like this shape lives and futures.
your projects
After work on their extension and renovation project stalled when their main contractor went into administration, yuri and Audrey gupta finally begin work on their project in east Brighton
For a month everything stopped. Seagulls nested on the roof, sawdust blew through the rafters and weeds snaked through the garden. Innumerable phone calls, emails and meetings took place as our bust contractor tried to convince us to stick with him as he transferred our contract to another dormant company. Despite negotiating a reduced fee and paying the subcontractors direct to try to minimise the risk, the cost of proceeding with someone who had already proven to be unreliable meant we ultimately decided to switch to another contractor to complete our build.
Although originally one of the most expensive quotes from our original tender, the new contractor visited the site with us to fully assess what work had already been done and see if they could get the quote low enough to convince us to jump ship. Astonishingly, they did, and thankfully it has proven to be the right decision.
The new team took over the site and got to work with enthusiasm and efficiency. The groundworking team have dug out the foundations and poured concrete for the basement, scaffolding has been erected and the roof dismantled, and the timber skeleton of the loft conversion and sea-facing dormer has emerged. It was thrilling to see the views across the channel to the horizon from the loft level for the first time. Although time, money and hair have been lost over the summer, we are again enthused and hopeful that our forever home will be delivered next spring.