The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Tower house and retro
Anew-build tower house in Fife and a 1970s Dunblane villa with an audaciously retro revamp feature in Scotland’s Home of the Year on BBC Scotland this week.
Brick, stone, steel and timber come together to create Iron Mill Bay, a unique house overlooking the River Forth.
It’s lived in by Lisa Malube, her husband Martin, their three children Robyn, 13, Katie, 10, and Ava, nine, and their dog Rocky.
Lisa, 44, was brought up in nearby Limekilns. After 15 years in London she and Martin, 44, decided to return to Scotland.
“My parents were getting older and we decided it was time to move back,” she says. “We started looking for a plot of land and found one that ticked all the boxes for us.”
Formerly part of the Elgin Estate, the 2.3 acre site is located next to Ironmill Bay, close to the village of Charlestown, and a former foundry still stands on the Lyne Burn nearby.
The couple used East Neuk-based Fife Architects to come up with a design that put a circular stone tower at its centre.
“The old foundry tower is nearby and we wanted to pay homage to that,” Lisa explains.
The five-bedroom, two-storey home has a T-shaped floor plan with a large, open-plan living, kitchen, dining area that has a double-height ceiling and gallery above.
The reception room and most of the bedrooms are located to take advantage of the sweeping views across the river.
Eco features were a priority and the house has an air source heat pump, solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system.
Many of the external elements were chosen to reflect the site’s industrial heritage, with a sawtooth roof profile and rusted steel cladding. Brick walls and timber cladding add to a rich palette of materials.
The house took just over a year to build and the family moved in just in time for Christmas 2018.
Martin works as accountant while Lisa yoga teacher.
“We were very lucky to have this house during Covid,” she says. “It lends itself really well to working from home.
“I’m now looking to add a yurt in the garden that can be used as a yoga studio.
“We absolutely love watching Scotland’s Home of the Year and decided to put Iron Mill Bay forward for it.”
The Mid Century Fun House may look like an ordinary 1970s home on a quiet suburban street in Dunblane but step inside and everything changes.
The interior is a wonderful tribute to the 1960s, inspired in part by the hit TV show Mad Men. It’s full of yellows and greens, along with vintage fixtures and furnishings.
The house has been an eight-year labour of love for owners Nick and Fiona Grant, who live there with their 11-year-old son Eddie.
Nick, 50, and Fiona, 48, bought the house in 2012 and immediately set about turning it into their dream home.
Nick got a new job in Scotland and started commuting to Edinburgh and Glasgow from London each week.
The couple wanted to be close to the central belt but within reach of Fiona’s parents in Pitlochry.
“I was up here myself so I started the house hunt on my own,” he says.
“As soon as I saw this place – and especially the garden – it became a shortlist of one. Fiona came up to have a look and she loved it too.”
The house was built in the early 1970s but contains a lot of design cues from Nick’s favourite decade.
“I really love the 1960s and the kind of Mad Men aesthetic,” he says.
“Our house was built in 1973 but a lot of its design comes from the 60s, such as the staircase and the parquet flooring.
“It also had a great layout for us. There are five bedrooms and only two of them are upstairs.
“Because there are just three of us, that has allowed us to use one of the downstairs bedrooms as a an is a second living room and another as my home office.”
Nick works as an IT consultant specialising in rescuing failing projects. Remarkably, he carried out almost all of the work on their house himself.
“The plan was to get a company in to do the extension but it was hard to find good builders and the only quote we got was for an astronomical sum, so I decided to have a go myself,” he says.
“The architect plans gave me all the information I needed on insulation specification and that sort of thing, so I used them as my guide.”
The house fronts on to a suburban Dunblane street but backs on to wilderness.
A decked path leads from the back of the house into a wooded section of the garden where there’s a surprise awaiting – a wooden shed with a door the size of the gable end that swings open to reveal a bar and seating area.
It’s called the Kon Tiki and an enormous poster of a tropical beach highlights the Pacific Ocean theme.
“The bar was the first thing I built myself,” Nick says. “It’s really come into its own during lockdown. When restrictions were eased recently, we had four friends over for some beers there.
“We used a lot of G Plan and Mcintosh furniture – Mcintosh was made in Kirkcaldy, so has a local connection.
“A few of the neighbours have been here since their houses were new and we have some of the same furniture as they do, which is a nice sign that we got the era right.”
Episode five of Scotland’s Home of the Year is on BBC Scotland tonight at 8pm and repeated on BBC One on Monday. Catch up with previous episodes on iplayer.
Scotland’s Home of the Year is looking for outstanding homes to feature in the fourth series of the hit show.
To put your home forward, email filmmakers IWC at scotlandshomes@ iwcmedia.co.uk and include a brief description of your home along with some pictures and contact details.