Work and finances, as well as strict planning regulations, meant Kevin & Christine Choules had to be patient when it came to developing their dream home in Surrey

WORDS SOPHIE VENING

Second-time self builders Kevin and Christine designed their house themselves. The five-bedroom home is built with oak frame encased in thermally efficient structural insulated panels (SIPs)

PHOTOS FRASER MARR

Kevin and Christine Choules are seasoned self builders. Having employed an oak frame company to project manage and self build a home in Oxted, Surrey for them back in 1992 (avid readers may remember their story from the September 1994 issue of Build It), they fell in love with the process of creating their own home and decided to do it all over again. “We found an uninspiring chalet bungalow on a beautiful plot close to where we were living,” says Kevin. Located on a road of 1950s Tudorstyle detached old-worldly houses, it was ripe for a knock down and rebuild project. The couple sold their home and moved into the bungalow in 1999, with the intention of taking some time before embarking on the development to build up funds.

Fast-forward 18 years and the couple were finally ready to realise their dream. “It took us a lot longer than anticipated with work and finances getting in the way,” explains Kevin. “I was a police officer with Scotland Yard and wasn’t really home much to be able to do a big project. We also used the money from the sale of the first home on some other property ventures to increase our budget for the next project, but the cost of building kept increasing. It was a catch-22 scenario – never enough time and never enough money.”