When we sold our last house and started looking for places to buy we looked at all sorts of "renovation projects", but then found Hillcroft: a tired old bungalow sitting on a fair-sized plot at the end of a row of houses, on the edge of the village of Twyford in the South Downs National Park. The first time we went to see it we walked along the footpath further up the hill and flying above Hillcroft was a kestrel carrying a snake! That sold it.
After a somewhat stressful purchase process we finally became owners in November 2016.
It took ages to get planning permission due to lots of extra national park rules, but planning was granted in August 2018 and we've been sorting the details since, with work starting on site early 2019.
Hillcroft v2 has been designed by Paul and Ollie from Paul Cashin Architects, with lots of input from us. It features two gable-fronted building forms with a flat green roof link between them. The main form sits on part of the site of the original bungalow, with the smaller form set back to sit on the site of what was once a garage/outbuilding. The gable-fronted design and long shape means it looks small when viewed from the front, but stretches out along the length of the plot, with the 3 bedrooms in the rear section all having views to the east across fields.
We are building the structure using a timber frame by Touchwood Homes, who build highly insulated homes in all shapes and designs. The pieces of timber come to site ready-cut and are erected in place, with cellulose insulation from recycled newspaper blown in afterward making the walls very dense. The external walls will be clad in natural coloured larch, and the roof will be dark grey metal. The link in the middle around the porch area will feature a corner wall faced in the flint that we've found lying about the garden, much of which was once part of an old garden wall that had already been broken up when we bought the place.We'll be getting the structure built for us and made watertight, and much of the follow on work will follow on gradually with us doing what we can. It might take a while!
Liz and Andy
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