Experienced self builder Christine Stewart and her husband Robert have renovated an outdated church hall, self-managing the works to make savings along the way

WORDS CAROLINE EDNIE

Having gained confidence from the experience of completing her first home building project in the Scottish Borders town of Kelso in 2019 (you can read this story at www.self-buid.co.uk/hamilton), Christine Stewart decided to do it all again two years later when she arrived at an important crossroads. “I was in the process of a big change,” says Christine. “When my mum retired, we decided to sell the childcare business that we had run together since 1993. I felt that giving up work would allow me the opportunity and finances to take on another building project, this time as a full-time project manager, rather than juggling it with my job running the company.”

Christine didn’t have to look very far for her next opportunity; it was literally on her doorstep, or rather adjacent to her previous project, in the shape of a former 1930s church hall. The building had been the premises of the family’s childcare business up until 2019, when they moved to a different location in the town. It was at this point that Christine converted the front part of the singlestorey hall into a two storey, three-bedroom home for herself. The undeveloped, 112m2 -long back part of the hall, which was being rented out as a commercial storage premises at the time, was originally earmarked as an accessible home for her parents to retire to. But this plan changed when they decided to stay put in their home in the Borders countryside.

“I started thinking about converting it in 2021, as a sister project to my first house,” says Christine. “To start with, it was just about ensuring the whole building was practical and sustainable for the future. Internally, everything was in need of an upgrade, including decor, energy efficiency and making the best use of the available space. But after meeting my husband Robert, it became a way to create a home for us to grow into as a family.”

Christine was keen to bring in the same architects, Edinburghbased Chambers McMillan, which was responsible for designing her first home next door. The company has since evolved into two separate practices, Studio McMillan and Mind-the-Gap Inclusive Design Consultancy. Christine was looking for a similar design approach for her new house – namely a future-proofed, adaptable and accessible home. “I still wanted to retain as much of the original structure and character of the church hall as possible,” she says. Knocking down and starting again would probably have been cheaper, but it was never on the cards. “The size of the site would have provided lots of flexibility and options, however it never even crossed my mind to demolish it,” says Christine. “The building is an important part of my family history. From the inception of our business here in 1993, it has sustained us in so many ways through the years, and created memories that are embedded in its fabric.”