Desirable downsize

To create a home that was tailor-made for their needs and lifestyle, Steve and Susanne Clarke built a stunning oak frame home in their very own garden

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The idea of building their own house was the last thing on Steve and Susanne Clarke’s mind when they began searching around for a potential new home. “We’d never had the desire to build our own home and we loved the idea of moving into a barn conversion,” says Steve. But unimpressed with any of the barns they had viewed, the couple began to formulate the idea of building a new house in the garden of their existing home in Essex where they had lived for 20 years, before concluding that planning permission for a new build in and around the village would almost certainly be declined. “We then found a plot a couple of miles away but soon realised it wouldn’t give us the must-haves we needed from our new home, one of which was the ability to enjoy distant views over green fields,” says Steve.

At that point, the couple’s lives took a turn when a new business opportunity saw them move to California for two years. When they returned and restarted plans for a new build, they thought of the house in which they’d lived in the US. “It was situated on top of a hill with panoramic views,” says Steve. “We knew this was the kind of setting we should be aiming for.”

HOMEOWNERS Steve and Susanne Clarke
LOCATION Little Easton, Essex
SIZE 260m²
CONSTRUCTION Green oak frame
BUILD TIME 13 months
BUILD COST Circa £750,000
VALUE £1.6m