readers’ homes
ON THE DOORSTEP
Royan and Helen Anthony had almost given up trying to find the perfect house, but building an oak frame home in their garden unexpectedly ticked all their boxes
WORDS JANE CRITTENDEN
PHOTOS NIKHILESH HAVAL
When Ryan and Helen Anthony’s children flew the nest for university, the couple decided it was time to downsize – and spent two years searching for a house in and around their Cheshire village. Staying local was key, as was a house with character, but they couldn’t find anywhere that appealed to them both. Then on a weekend away, over dinner, they discovered the answer had been in front of them all along.
“We’d bought our home some 25 years before, which had a half-acre paddock that we kept as part of our garden,” says Royan. “We’d never viewed the land as an investment and had turned down offers from developers in the past, as we valued our privacy. Way back, the previous owners had been refused planning consent to build three bungalows, so the idea to self build hadn’t been front of our minds.”
Drawing a blank in their house search and aware that local planning rules had eased a bit over the years, the couple thought it was worth exploring the possibility of building a new home on their own land. Royan was keen for an easy-to-maintain house with character, as was Helen, but she also didn’t want to live anywhere that looked too new. With no real design direction, they sought inspiration from magazines and attended self build shows. It was here they were first introduced to oak frame houses.
“Our previous home had once been the main farmhouse in the village and had its roots in the 1750s,” says Royan. “The idea of an oak home spoke to both of us. We loved the character and warmth, which was like nothing we’d seen anywhere else.”
Oak ambitions
The couple began researching oak frame specialists online and having conversations. “One of the first questions I asked was: how much is this going to cost?” says Royan. “Most companies wanted a meeting and I could feel a hard sell coming on, but I didn’t want to waste my time getting too far into a project we couldn’t afford. Out of the four or five firms I contacted, Welsh Oak Frame was the only one prepared to be straight, giving us rough figures for a budget, mid-range and luxury house, so we knew from the start that this was feasible.