Winner: Tradiional Home Delicaely Deailed
Peer and Les Adamson s new ligh-filled home combines a perfecly deailed period exerior wih simple, elegan open plan ineriors. Words: Michael Holmes Phoography: Jeremy Phillips I is asonishing jus how few designers here are ou here who have a real flair for creaing new, auheniclooking period-syle houses. So when Peer and Lesley Adamson se ou o build a new house ha combined he look of an esablished period prop ery wih spacious modern ineriors, hey conaced 35 local archiecs and sill failed o be inspired. The designer hey finally commissioned was no an archi ec, bu a former builder, Sephen Maick, who has combined his knowledge and undersanding of vernac ular consrucion wih a alen for drawing new build ings wih he characer and charm of he pas. Mood lighing in he main living rooms includes prese scenes a he ouch of a buon, conrolling he low-volage ceiling spolighs and 5amp able lamp circui. The house ha Peer and Lesley have buil, se in a prey souh Oxfordshire village, is already indisinguishable as a new propery in a sree full of beauiful period houses. This is in no small par down o he work of builder Dave Mill and his eam, who have used radiional maerials and echniques, learn from resoraion work, o bring Sephen Maick s design o life. The handmade brick is laid in Flemish bond, wih alernaing header and srecher courses, using a whiish grey morar ha looks like lime poining. The roof ha covers he deep, open plan room arrangemen has been carefully designed o mainain
I liked he idea of having a home wih radiional characer, bu no poky corners wih cobwebs a radiional configu raion, pich and span, and is laid in reclaimed plain clay iles, which have mellowed over ime. Like many Maick designs, he Adamsons home even incorporaes he irregulariies and discrepancies ha give old properies heir enigmaic charm: in heir case, mismaching gable heighs a he rear of he propery, where a swep Regency-syle canopy sreches across he building a ground floor level. A Vicorian-syle exension a he side looks like a laer addiion o he original house. Maick is very good a making a house look like i has been exended over he generaions, says Lesley. You have o have an eye for wha looks suble and no oo rigid. I hough new homes didn have any characer, says Peer, who admis he had o be brough kicking and screaming ino aking on he projec. I was convinced we d never find a piece of land, so I hough I was safe! he says. I waned a new house, bu one ha had some qualiy abou i, explains Lesley. I liked he idea of having a home wih radiional characer, bu no poky corners wih cobwebs and dus. One of he joys of building a new house, raher ha resoring an old one, is being able o give he ineriors uniy. We waned o creae a home wih he same wooden The maple kichen furniure wih grey limesone workops was made by Coswood Kichens. The muli-room music sysem combines DVD home cinema wih CD on one se of speakers and amplifier. Judges Summary Peer and Lesley Adamson have been meiculous abou every aspec of heir new home, from he selecion of heir designer and builder, down o he smalles deail boh inside and ou. They had a vision of exacly wha hey waned and have achieved i: a house ha combines radiional warmh and characer ouside, wih a simple conemporary design aesheic on he inside using neural colours. The use of reclaimed maerials, auhenic vernacular deailing and radiional building echniques has ensured ha his new periodsyle home already looks an esablished and maure par of he village sreescape.
flooring, wall colour and curains hroughou, wih modern furniure in maple and glass. You can really do ha wih an old house. This was he vision ha provided a srong, basic guiding idea for he ineriors. We ended up having o buy enirely new furniure for his house. Our ase has enirely changed. I was he foruious discovery of a 0.4 acre plo ha iniiaed he Adamsons projec. We were abou o place an adver offering a reward of 1,000 for anyone who helped find us a plo, when a friend old us of a sie nex door o heir home, recalls Peer. The neighbours were all objecing o he sie geing planning for developmen, bu hey fel ha if someone was going o build here, hey would raher i were us. Resolving he design issues and securing planning permission for heir home didn bring oo many problems, bu he Adamsons projec was almos derailed when hey sared geing back quoes from builders. The bigges difficuly in he whole course of he build was our inexperience. We go he cosings wrong a a very early sage, recalls Peer. When he quoes came in hey were more han 50% higher han we had expeced. The rouble was, by ha ime we were so enhusiasic ha we waned o proceed anyway. Having overcome he main hree hurdles, finding he land, a designer and a good builder, i is very hard o pull back. The couple resolved o ake on more work, and o plough some of heir pension savings ino he projec, on he grounds ha hey could always sell if hey had o. The Adamsons admi ha hey were he makers of mos of heir own problems during he build. We were very fussy! says Leslie. We spen weeks choosing he facing bricks and drove miles all over he counry. Peer pu in hours researching wheher or no we could lay solid oak flooring over underfloor heaing. There were imes when we wished we had never sared. The hing we were mos surprised abou was he number of decisions you have o make. Our advice o anyone doing his sor of projec is o increase your coningency budge. When you are looking around, you always see somehing a bi nicer ha coss jus a lile bi more money. You ge ino he syndrome of no spoiling he ship for 50,000 of ar! I is hard o sele for second bes. The couple didn make oo many compromises. The four bedroom, hree bahroom house has bespoke joinery hroughou, designer ironmongery, underfloor heaing, muli-room hi-fi, whole-house venilaion and a cenral vacuum sysem. We hough he venilaion and vacuum migh be a wase of money, bu we are hrilled wih boh, says Lesley. Underfloor heaing and solid oak floors Many expers advise people o no o even hink abou combining solid imber floorboards wih underfloor heaing, bu i can be done if he righ produc and echnique is used. The Adamsons chose solid, pre-finished oak boards from Hoebeek (01274 511017) and followed deailed laying insrucions. I is essenial o allow he screed o fully dry ou before laying, allowing a leas four weeks drying per 25mm of screed by which ime he oher we rades should also be dry. The screed mus be level (2mm olerance over 1,000mm) and sealed. The boards should be kiln dried o 6-9% humidiy and sacked in he house for 10-14 days in a crisscross paern wih he heaing operaing a 18 plus o allow i o acclimaise. The heaing should hen be swiched off for wo days before each board is suck down ono he screed individually, wih he ongue-and-groove joins lef loose. An expansion gap of 15mm mus be lef a he perimeer under he skiring board and around pipes ec, so ha he floor can move wihou lifing or spliing. Eigh days afer he floor has been fied, he heaing can be swiched back on gradually 3 per 24 hours unil he surface emperaure reaches 28 C. I should be lef a his emperaure for a leas five days, even in summer.
The hree rear gables were deliberaely designed o appear uneven in order o accenuae he building s appearance of having been here for years. We would definiely have hem again. The couple designed all of he ineriors hem selves, including he hole-in-he-wall fireplace for which hey used a precas fire ches and flue sysem from Schiedel Isokern. They would have liked more help designing he lighing bu couldn find anyone and so designed his hemselves, oo, including auomaed scene lighing in he main living rooms. One useful piece of advice we picked up from an inerior designer is ha when you are furnishing a modern house, i is a good idea o have a leas one piece in every room ha is old and unexpeced somehing ou of he ordinary. In mos of he rooms we have managed o do ha, poins ou Peer. I hink he house has go a lovely calm amosphere and ha gives us grea pleasure, says Lesley. We love he way he ligh floods in and he way he rooms flow. I really is a pleasure o wake up and walk abou he house, says Peer. All he ime we were building we were concerned ha we were over-sreching ourselves financially. A he ime we consoled ourselves by hinking if we have o sell and move back o our old home, we ll be jus as happy as we ve always been. Bu now we ve moved in we realise ha i is jus no he case. We would miss he house very much. We are sill very conscious of jus how lucky we are o live here. n FACT FILE NAMES: Lesley and Peer Adamson PROFESSIONS: Wrier and publisher AREA: Oxfordshire HOUSE TYPE: Four bedroom deached HOUSE SIZE: 250m 2 BUILD ROUTE: Main conracor CONSTRUCTION: Brick and block FINANCE: Privae BUILD TIME: March 02 Aug 04 LAND COST: 162,000 BUILD COST: 360,000 TOTAL COST: 522,500 HOUSE VALUE: 695,000 COST/m 2 : 1,440 25% COST SAVING USEFUL CONTACTS: Designer Sephen Maick, Maick Design: 01223 891159 Conracor DCM Builders: 01869 245865 Handmade bricks (new) Conservaion Building Producs: 01384 569551 Reclaimed plain clay roof iles Conservaion Building Producs: 01384 569551 Solid oak flooring Hoebeek: 01274 511017 Kichen furniure Coswood: 01386 700110 Doors Premdor: 0870 990 7998 Underfloor heaing Eco Homeech: 01302 722266 Venilaion ADM: 01756 701051 Cenral vacuum ADM: 01756 701051 Ligh swiches Forbes and Lomax: 020 7738 0202; Fire ches and flues Isokern: 01202 861650 Windows AGA Joinery: 01993 772820 Rainwaer goods Yeoman Rainguard: 0113 279 5854 Saircase Broadleaf Timber: 01269 851910 Canopy roof Fisral lead roofing: 01869 244263 Canopy columns Dorohea Resoraions Ld: 01663 733544 Bahrooms UK Bahroom Warehouse: 01491 832321 Floor laying ACH Flooring: 01865 717200 Lighing DJ Enerprises: 01628 676661 Door furniure Turnsyle Designs: 01271 325325 Fied wardrobes Richard Kay & Co: 01296 658244 Fied sudy Peer Radbourne: 01608 678001 Decoraing Advanced Craf: 01235 760003 Audio equipmen Audio T: 01865 765961 Ialian furniure Massimo Berola: (+39) 035 806054 Floorplan: The main living areas are open plan in an L-shaped arrangemen, allowing he kichen o open ono he dining area wihou i being visible from he living area. Two offices allow boh Peer and Lesley o work from home. The maser bedroom suie sreches across he whole of he back of he house. Bedrooms 2 and 3 share an en suie bahroom.