“Having a traditional oak cottage, makes the home feel cosy and welcoming, which is enhanced by the use of tactile fabrics, creating a lovely lived-in feeling.”

After successfully completing their first self build, Sam and Stuart Honour decided to begin the search for another plot of land. Sam, being a country girl at heart, wanted a more rural environment, so the couple decided to register with PlotFinder to help get their search underway.

“One day we saw a brownfield site that originally had a Scout hut on it in a village we knew well. The owner told us it had residential planning permission for a building one-and-a-half-storeys high traditional oak cottage. The hard work had already been done and any risk taken away. We knew we could build something special,” recalls Sam.

After putting in an offer and it being accepted virtually straight away, everything was approved within a month ready for the work to commence.

The couple decided to go for a oak cottage-style home with an oak frame structure to make sure the property was in keeping with the rural area. The couple opted for a traditional oak frame design by Welsh Oak Frame. After taking the dimensions, the team drew up plans and produced CAD drawings. This 3D representation allowed Sam to adapt the look of the property and work out how she wanted the light to enter.

Building officially began and it took exactly ten months from start to finish. Access to the site became problematic very early on as the lane leading to the plot was extremely narrow and resulted in a telemount having to be used to bring everything up to the site – even the oak frame had to go up sideways!

Sam was very conscious throughout the entire the build to ensure the ‘cosy country’ look was prominent, tailoring the structure and interior design to create the perfect country look. All the bathroom fittings and kitchen cabinets were ordered in advance, as they learnt from their first build that the interior takes the longest. After living there for a while they decided to indulge Sam’s love of texture and accents of colour.

Sam comments: “We love living here. It’s the perfect location and house. It’s southwest facing, so we get sun from midday to evening. We love the village – everyone is so friendly – and the countryside is beautiful.

“Having a traditional oak frame, makes the house feel cosy and welcoming, which is enhanced by the use of tactile fabrics, creating a lovely lived-in feeling.”