SelfBuild & Design - June issue 2004 - page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Glazed and confused

Architect Rosemary Rennie designed the arched windows to mirror a sunrise with the wood between the panes. The planners passed the design, but Matt changed his mind, feeling it was not in-keeping with the windows in the local area, or the feel of the building. So the design was simplified. Converting or renovating a property of this nature certainly has its restrictions. Even the external window frames had to be painted. Matt wanted to leave the wood exposed, but this was not an option, being told by the Derbyshire Dales District Council that stain would not have been invented when the house was built.

Floor flaws

The flooring in a house of its type can have a detrimental effect on the appearance of the interior if chosen unwisely. The original house had wide floorboards, but these are expensive. Upstairs, Matt opted for 4" pine floorboards. "They shrank after being in a while, and left gaps. The original ones looked much better; I wish I'd waited until I could afford wider ones."

The flooring elsewhere was a difficult choice. "In the lounge, I wanted flagstones, but again money was the obstacle. I settled for Chinese slate, with underfloor heating, in the lounge and atrium."

A stroke of luck provided a beautiful parquet floor for the coe. "Driving through a local village, outside a school, there was an abundance of bags full of 66 square metres of old mahogany parquet floor lying around outside. I called in and they said I could take it away free of charge." Cleaning them up was the hardest part. "They were coated in rock hard bitumen. I tried sanding them, tried to fetch it off with chemicals, but eventually found out the best way of doing it was to put the tiles in the fridge, and slowly chisel it off one by one. Considering there are about two and a half thousand tiles in the dining room and kitchen, it took me a very long time. That was one of the most rewarding parts of the whole project."

Quirky features

At the bottom of the garden, there is a mound that holds the mineshaft. It goes down about 550ft, with a three mile tunnel coming out in Cromford, and during its operation, it would pump water from the mines, allowing deep mining to continue in Wirksworth.

A well in the garden was discovered about a year and a half after Matt moved onto the site. "It wasn't on any of the plans. There were two big lumps of stone about 3ft square. I got a JCB to move them, and underneath was a ring of stone around 2ft wide. I started digging down and found a couple of old bottles made locally with brand names forged onto the glass. I carried on digging, started finding clothes, old mining boots, I even found some WWII bullets. Eventually, I got down to about 28ft, and had to stop as the water was coming into the well faster than I could pump it out. I put fairy lights in it in a helical fashion, with a glass plate over the top; it looks magical.

"This house has given me some brilliant moments, and loads of heartache. My only wish is that I could afford to stay here, but with property prices being what they are, and the fact that I'm living on my own in a four bedroom house, I can't. Every time I walk down the garden to look at the house, it makes me smile. Now it's onwards and upwards to the next project, to apply some of what I've learnt."