Build It Magazine May 2012 Back Issue

Spring is in the air, and this month the Built It team has focussed its attention on the jobs we need to do to get our homes ready for the warmer months. So, if you are in the midst of compiling a spring strategy for your home, you can garner some inspiration from Build It’s May issue. We look at jobs that you can easily do in a couple of days (cleaning and gardening) and others that will need to be planned now in order to fit them in over the summer (fixing new skirting or reworking your staircase).

We also took the opportunity to look at a range of items that we feel are important to assess over the coming months. For example, assistant editor Sophie Hoyland has turned her attention to windows and the importance of procuring the right products for your home in terms of style and efficiency. Deputy editor Chris Bates looks at home efficiency and smart automation systems that can completely transform your lifestyle (not to mention energy bills), and I’ve taken the opportunity to speak to a home safety expert from the Association of Chief Police Officers to gather information on how to protect homes against burglary.

My favourite readers’ homes this month belong to the Crewe family (on the front cover) and the Swains. Both projects are renovations, of sorts, but they couldn’t be more different. The Crewes had lived in their 1930s family home for years – and eventually outgrew it. But instead of packing up and selling on, they went to great lengths to extend their much-loved property to include the room they needed. Caitlin Swain fell in love with a listed thatched cottage. Aware that it needed a complete overhaul, but desperate to protect its charming original features, she painstakingly took on much of the improvement works herself – real inspiration!