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A self-build success

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Ask any full time builder and they’ll tell you building a house is a pretty major endeavour.

Yet Geoff Cooper and his wife Louise built Willow House almost single handedly while both working full time jobs and raising their three children.

The couple bought the plot in 2007. It lies up a farm track near the Angus hamlet of Kingoldrum around five miles west of Kirriemuir.

“We spent ages looking for the right plot,” Geoff (48) explains. “We wanted it to be south facing so we could benefit from solar gain. We lived in an old stone house at Lintrathen and our heating bills were astronomical. We were determined to make an eco house.

“We also wanted somewhere quiet with good views.”

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Geoff (48) and Louise (44) moved hundreds of tons of stones to clear the site then dug and laid the foundations themselves.

A carpenter specialising in traditional oak, Geoff made the striking exposed timber frame of the house himself.

In fact, almost everything was done by Geoff and Louise. “You’re not allowed to do your own electrics so we got an electrician in,” Geoff continues. “A plumber put in the bathrooms and a roofer put the slates on. Apart from a few bits and pieces we did the rest ourselves.”

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At the time Geoff was working for Carpenter Oak and Woodland at Loch of Lintrathen. “I was working 10 hour days making timber frames then coming home and spending the rest of the day making more timber frames. It was quite exhausting.”

The hard work began to pay off, however, as Willow House slowly took shape. Geoff installed a wood pellet boiler and underfloor heating downstairs. The upstairs bedrooms have radiators but they’ve never been used.

“The windows are huge and they’re all south facing,” he says. “The amount of solar gain you get is amazing. The floors are dark and store the heat for a long time once the sun is gone.”

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Triple glazing to the north-facing windows reduces heat loss and solar panels on the roof heat water which can be used for underfloor heating. This is topped up by the wood pellet burner in the kitchen.

“Even in the winter when the solar panels don’t provide all our needs they still pre-heat the water,” Geoff says. “Putting the wood burner on for an hour in the morning and an hour at night is all you need to do.”

Louise adds: “Every decision we made was with the view of making the house as economically friendly as possible. We know from our experience of living in the area just how expensive heating a property can be so we set ourselves the goal of seeing just how low we could cut those costs. All our efforts have paid off as the house can be heated for as little as £350 a year.”

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The house is virtually airtight and a mechanical heat exchanger transfers the warmth from stale air leaving the building into fresh air coming in.

Willow House took Geoff and Louise five years to complete. They’re selling because they’ve moved to Sussex for work. Geoff is working as a conservation carpenter restoring late Tudor and medieval homes.

“I love the historical aspect. I’m making square beams out of round logs with an axe, just like they would have 700 years ago.”

And he’s confident his traditional construction methods will stand the test of time. “Most new builds are what I call stick houses. They’re made out of twigs. I make proper timber frame houses. If Willow House is kept dry that timber frame will still be standing in 500 years’ time.”

 

Willow House is on sale through Bell Ingram for offers over £315,000.
www.bellingram.co.uk

jmckeown@thecourier.co.uk