Firmly grounded
Steve and Janet McCurdy’s Border Oak house is not their first oak frame self build – but this home exactly suits their needs and lifestyle for today, as well as looking to the future
WORDS EMILY BROOKS PHOTOS JEREMY PHILLIPS
THE McCURDY FILE
NAMES Steve & Janet McCurdy
OCCUPATIONS Managing director of tree nursery & teacher
LOCATION Near St Albans, Herts
TYPE OF BUILD Self build
STYLE Traditional
CONSTRUCTION METHOD Oak frame & structural insulated panels (SIPs)
PLOT SIZE 0.375 acres
LAND COST Around £250,000 (part of a larger sale)
BOUGHT August 2012
HOUSE SIZE 283m2
PROJECT COST £649,000
PROJECT COST PER M2 £2,293
TOTAL COST £899,000
VAT RECLAIM £18,200
BUILDING WORK COMMENCED March 2014
BUILDING WORK TOOK Nine months
CURRENT VALUE £1.2m
The Shaker-style solid oak kitchen from Celfiderw Oakencraft features easyopening drawers with pewter handles
You might expect someone who grows trees for a living to have a natural affinity with an oak frame building – which is definitely the case for Steve McCurdy. He runs a tree nursery on the edge of a Hertfordshire village, and now lives mere metres from his business. Step out the back gate, in fact, and you soon find yourself in the shadow of rows and rows of leafy specimens, all for sale. The garden has been beautifully landscaped, of course, but the house is pretty special, too: a Border Oak home that is the perfect complement to such a green setting.
This self build project wasn’t the first time Steve and his wife Janet had worked with Border Oak. When they initially bought the land for the nursery, they sought planning permission for an oak frame property on site, which they moved into in 2004. At the time, they had three sons at home, so the five-bedroom house was ideal for a family.
When the plot on the other side of the nursery came up for sale in 2012, they were quick to seize the opportunity. “We were ready to downsize, but there was also an issue about the access driveway to the business – it was on a bend at the bottom of a hill, and it was dangerous with lorries going in and out all the time,” says Steve. Buying the new plot could therefore solve two issues. It would allow them to move the access road a few metres up the hill, away from the bend, and then split off one section for themselves – hopefully getting a new home out of it, too.