THE CONTEMPORARY REPLACEMENT
Sarah & Barry Phillips swapped the country life for a striking and modern self build development close to Canterbury
WORDS SHARON SMITH
PHOTOS DAVID GILES
When Sarah and Barry Phillips decided to move home, they never dreamt that their next property would be self built. Sarah explains that, while they liked their house at the time (a fivebedroom, new build on a one acre plot in rural Kent) they thought that it would be better for their daughters, Amelie and Jemima, to live near a town. “We wanted the girls to be closer to their friends and other facilities as they got older, not stuck out in the sticks,” says Sarah. “And I wanted to be able to walk out of my house and be able to get a coffee or go shopping without having to drive everywhere.”
With the decision made, Sarah registered with some online property websites to see what opportunities came up. “We viewed houses, but always ended up saying ‘well, we’d need to change this and change that, and do this and do that’,” she says. After a two-year search, they decided they would be better off building their own house to their own specifications. While neither had self built before, Sarah, an interior designer, had previously converted a shop into a bar and restaurant, and Barry is an engineering surveyor with his own company, BJP Site Engineering Services.
Overgrown opportunity
In October 2016, the couple spotted an empty bungalow advertised for sale in the property section of a Sunday newspaper. It came with a four-acre plot and outline planning permission. The site was in an area they knew well; a rural location that was in close proximity to the city of Canterbury and had good transport links.
‘‘ We were rather gung-ho about it, I remember thinking : I can design and build my own house here ’’
The white brickwork acts as a foil to the larch cladding. The flat roof is Sinafelt, with a concave design to allow rainwater to drain through a pipe inside the house and out into a soakaway. They chose a flat roof to allow the house to more easily blend into its surroundings
WE LEARNED...
THINK ABOUT HOW THINGS will be used and if you are allowing enough room to achieve that. I would have made the breakfast bar bigger to accommodate six chairs, rather than the four we have, and made the drawers in the island smaller. When the girls have their friends here, we need more room for them.
USE TECHNOLOGY to visualise all spaces. In hindsight, this would have helped us to counteract the fact that Jemima’s window looks out onto the front pod (Amelie and Jemima’s private study).
We should have given Jemima a door and a balcony so she could enjoy better views to the side of the house.
GET RECOMMENDATIONS from real users about how different products work once they’re installed. We used waterproof, polished plaster for all the bathroom walls, rather than a conventional finish. But we’re going to replace it with tiles because it stains terribly and the silicone around the bath won’t stick to it very well.
CONSIDER WHAT ITEMS are worth the price tag. If I were to do it again I’d go for standard windows, not super-slim aluminium. Although they are lovely, they’re expensive and you have to use a specialist company – so I am not sure they were worth it.