Stylish and sustainable

Looking for a life away from the city, architects Spencer and Emma Guy spent a decade working tirelessly towards their dream lifestyle, with a CLT self-build at its heart

- Amy Reeves

HOMEOWNERS Spencer and Emma Guy, with their children James and Olivia

LOCATION Buckinghamshire

SIZE 270m2 (plus 100m2 garage)

BUILD ROUTE DIY

CONSTRUCTION Cross laminated timber

BUILD TIME Five years

PLOT COST £400,000

BUILD COST £450,000

VALUE £1.5million (estimated)

Living on site is not for the faint-hearted, but Spencer and Emma Guy have most certainly proved their mettle by living in a work-in-progress self-build for more than 10 years.

CONSIDERED CLADDING

The cladding wasn't added to the house until the family had been living in the house for four years. Local clay bricks were used for the base, with black-painted larch timber boards above. A large balcony extends from the master suite and creates a patio pergola.

Their journey first started in 2007, when their abstract idea to move out of London, where they worked and had renovated a terraced house, changed into a firm plan for a new lifestyle outside of the city. "We're both architects and we've always wanted to build a house,"," begins Spencer Guy, founder of Levitate Architects. "We started to think a bit more seriously about moving to the countryside so we began looking on plot finding sites. We're both from Yorkshire so wanted somewhere north of London and a plot came up in Buckinghamshire in 2009, so we went to have a look at it."