Risking everything
A first-time buyer sold all his possessions to finance building his dream, green home
One first-time buyer took a leap of faith to finance his dream, green home
The row of rundown garages didn’t look like much, but for aspiring engineer and architect Byron Howe it was an ideal site to build his own home. The downside was that, as a recent university graduate, he couldn’t afford to buy it, and a few days later the garages sold for about £150,000. So that, he thought, was that.
A few months on, while Byron was still looking for a self-build site, he noticed that the garages were up for sale again, this time for a considerably reduced price. His recently widowed mother offered to remortgage her house to help fund the purchase, and not long afterwards Byron found himself the owner of a row of 1950s garages that nestled into a hillside, shrouded in trees, in a beautiful tree-lined road in Cotham, a suburb of Bristol.
Despite the picturesque surroundings
Byron soon discovered that this build would involve many different challenges: there were party-wall issues, conservation area planning complications, tree protection orders and the fact that both adjacent garden walls were being held in place by the garages. The whole structure had to be demolished carefully by hand, due to restricted access, and rebuilt.
‘It would have been a tough site for even the most battle-hardened builder, let alone a recent graduate like myself with no money or hands-on experience,’ Byron admits.
What made the situation worse was that this was 2009 and Britain was in the grip of the recession, so money to finance the project was difficult to come by, but he was determined not to be put off.
Once the new walls were up and the roof was on, Byron moved in with the basics: a bucket, a pop-up tent and a camping stove. It wasn’t how he had envisaged living in his first property, but at least it was dry and at last he was home.
While working at an engineering firm during the day, Byron spent every spare moment building his new house. The winter of 2010/11 was so cold he took his power tools to bed to ensure the batteries would be protected against sub-zero temperatures – sadly, one was forgotten and died. Later he splashed
out on an old woodburning stove, which a neighbourhood fox would occasionally share.
Byron had definite ideas about how he wanted the new building to look and its layout, and took inspiration from its history. He was also keen to construct an environmentally friendly house, so used reclaimed materials whenever possible.
When the garages were demolished Byron had unearthed a stone lightwell and, below the concrete floor, found thousands of Victorian clay bricks. An elderly neighbour told him that originally there had been stables on the site but the road had been badly bombed in the Second World War. Byron was intrigued and, having done a bit more research, discovered designs from 1904 showing the owner’s intention to convert the building into stables and a billiard room.
He took these plans, a rucksack of salvaged 1904 bricks and a stained-glass panel to Bristol City Planning department to persuade them to let him build his new home predominantly in brick and to his own design. It was to incorporate elements of the stables, garages and the billiard room, and allowed in lots of light. To his delight, they agreed.
To finance the build Byron sold off many possessions, including his music collection and beloved motorbike, and applied for several credit cards. Scaffolding and skips were too expensive so he climbed ladders and made frequent trips to the dump instead. Then, as if things weren’t tough enough, he suffered a back injury that meant he couldn’t continue working on the build, so the site was left untouched and gathering debt for months.
Eventually, Byron was well enough to resume work and finally, seven years after he bought the rundown row of garages, and against incredible odds, his dream of building his own home was realised.
The roof is finished with Edwardian tiles that Byron hand-cleaned of moss, having reclaimed them from a nearby farmhouse that was being demolished. Inside, a twofloor open-plan atrium provides an impressive volume of light, airy space. To the rear a glass and oak roof construction allows natural light to cascade throughout, and the original stable lightwell keeps the subterranean floor bright.
Partly out of financial necessity but also because he wanted to challenge himself to build a ‘healthy house’, Byron used recycled and locally sourced materials. Today, he has his own design practice, Howe Jones Design, and is understandably proud of having created a ‘sustainable, energy-efficient house that’s good for the environment as well as being a home that’s a light and healthy place to live.’
HB
For more information about Howe Jones Design, visit howejones.com