A Georgian Country House

If he had not become a doctor, Julian Muir would probably have been a builder. “My father, also a doctor, was always involved in building projects, so I guess it is in my blood,” says Julian, a London-based physician.

The house in rural Hampshire, set in 130 acres, which he and his wife Jo completed just under two years ago, is their seventh self–build. Four of the others were in London and the other two also in Hampshire. Their new nine-bed­roomed house, built in the early Georgian style, was to have been a radical renovation and part-rebuild of the previous large house that stood on the plot. Instead it became almost a total rebuild.

“So many of the walls were just built of rubble when we got down to it that in the end we left just eight feet of original wall, one original window, which we moved, and the cellar, which we have kept,” says Julian.

There are stunning views from three sides of the 920m2 house, which is set in downland near Winchester,” he continues. “To the south, the tower of Ryde church on the Isle of Wight, 35 miles away, is sometimes visible, while to the east they can just see Petersfield, 20 miles distant. “From the ground floor you can’t see a single other house. It is quite amazing for the crowded south-east of England.”

When Jo found the site through a local estate agent  Julian was at first rather lukewarm, as there is no convenient station and it would mean a two hour drive each way to his practice in Knightsbridge. However, like Jo, he was totally won over by the exceptional nature of the site. Eventually, as there was a great deal of interest being shown, they paid £1.6m — more than the asking price. “We realised immediately that the previous house, parts of which we were told dated back to Regency times, was of no great quality and would have to be largely demolished,” says Julian. "However, we did not originally intend to demolish over 90 per cent of it as we did in the end, but fortunately it was not listed and so there was no problem.”

Julian and Jo also found that – surprisingly – the house was not in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and there were no preservation orders on the many large trees that surrounded the building and had grown so tall that they removed a lot of light. Many were also seriously diseased, so they felled a lot of them in order to open up the site and improve the views. All these factors, combined with a remarkably straightforward passage through the planning process, proved a great stroke of luck.

The other side of the coin was that because the house was not a complete new build they were unable to reclaim the sizeable sum in VAT relief that would otherwise have been due to them. However, another amazingly fortunate opportunity arose on a train journey near London when Julian found himself sitting opposite an old friend, who was speaking on a mobile telephone. Julian could not help overhearing the conversation in which his friend, a chartered surveyor, was negotiating to sell the Georgian pine panelling in the office that he was to vacate in two days’ time. When he came off the phone Julian seized the opportunity to renegotiate the deal. He went to see and approve the panelling the next day and and it was promptly removed and transported to Hampshire.

“I won’t say how much I paid for the panelling but it was a ridiculously low figure,” Julian says. It now adorns the ground floor library of the house. Julian says that if he had had to have it specially constructed it would have cost around £50,000.

Despite four months of excessive rain the project was finished in ten months – more or less on time. The Muirs were less successful on budget, which was running at something like 20 per cent over their initial estimates. “We had no regrets here as this was not so much bad budgeting but the result of add-on luxuries and upgraded joinery and electrics,” he says.

There were few major problems. Extra deep foundations were needed in one section where they found they were on clay and not chalk and the roof structure turned out to be not as Julian had envisaged. “My understanding was that it was to be supported by a steel frame and in effect be one vast space beneath so we could divide this up as we wanted,” he says. “But as it turned out a number of structural walls were needed to support the roof, which means that we had to modify the second floor layout. I found this very irritating.” As it was a wet build – the walls are all cavity and the entire house is rendered on the exterior — there has also been a certain amount of shrinkage in the timber architraves and skirtings and the render.

There are many exciting features about the house.  Julian and Jo are particularly fond of the early Georgian period, when houses were comparatively plain and unadorned, and they like to think they have pitched it at around the time of George I.

Julian went to tremendous trouble to get a variety of plaster cornice styles that were all consistent with the first half of the 18th century. He also went to great lengths to design the lantern light that brings light in over the main stairwell; also the staircase itself, and the detached games room, which is meant to look like a classical style Georgian stable block. He is also rather pleased with the two sets of double bay windows at the west facing rear of the house.

“We intended the house to be asymmetrical and to look as though it had evolved,” he says. “The whole intention was to build something that fitted in with the surround­ings and did not look or feel like a new house. Many people who come here do not realise it is new.”

One way in which the Muirs have achieved this is to make a stand against double glazing. “We just do not like double glazing,” Julian says. “It would not have been at all consistent with the fine glazing bars in the Georgian style, single pane, vertical sliding sashes we wanted and we also feel modern double glazing makes a house feel ‘dead.’

“We have compensated for this in terms of insulation by having a 100mm cavity and extra insulation in the walls. Together with the underfloor heating on all three floors we find we keep warm despite the large size of the downstairs rooms, especially the drawing room, which faces south and west, and in which we recently held a reception for 140 people.

“The building inspector could not insist on even higher levels of insulation because technically the project was a renovation and not a new-build. However, my under­standing is that as from April 1st under the new insulation requirements it will just not be possible to undertake a new build [or renovation] without double glazing. I feel this is a gross infringement of personal freedoms."

Julian was responsible for the basic design and acted as project manager, while Jo was what he calls the ‘Sounding Board.’ “She is an essential mate and very good at smooth­ing things out at sticky periods,” he says. The day-to-day running was controlled by foreman and clerk of works Ray Harries, whom they knew from their previous Hampshire project.

“I am bound to say we are pretty pleased with it, partic­ular­ly because it looks so ‘right’ in the setting and because we have had so many compliments," says Julian. It is hard to believe that the original design, including the roof and the two storey bay windows at the rear, began as a draw­ing on the back of an envelope between appointments.

“By acting as our own main contractors and subcon­tract­ing all the work, we have built to less than £1,000/m2 – not bad for this quality of build!

“With 57 windows and nine bedrooms, all en suite, it has been our biggest project to date. I’d love to do another but somehow I don’t think we shall move from here in a hurry. The children would kill us!”