Self Building at Graven Hill – Karen & Rhys

In this instalment of a series of interviews with other self builders, I’ve been talking to Karen & Rhys who’ve built a 5 bed house on Graven Hill’s Roberts Drive.

You can listen to the interview here.

Karen & Rhys were looking for somewhere to suit their home-working lifestyle, and with limited options in the standard housing market saw the opportunity for something bespoke at Graven Hill.

Their hearts were fully set on a large corner plot, which would allow them to build the ground floor layout they wanted – separate office spaces and plenty of room for entertaining guests. The clever part of their design was to allow for future adaptions – offices could become living spaces for example.

The style of the house is contemporary, with plenty twists, such as the varying roof-lines. There is also the eye-catching full height glazing in the entrance/stairwell, which helps to flood the open plan kitchen/diner with light.

About as savvy as it’s possible to be as self builders, Karen & Rhys went full turn key, but still carefully managed the process to ensure it stayed on track. They faced plenty of perils, including their turnkey company running into financial problems, but were able to complete by their intended target of winter 2018 – which is just as well because they had the date literally carved in stone!

They are thrilled with the result, making the effort truly worthwhile. Now, Graven Hill just needs a pub to complete the dream 🙂