A Three Bedroom Oak Framed Home

"When I told Anna Lena that I wanted us to leave our lovely old cottage and move to a shabby 1950s bungalow just down the road, she was less than impressed," recalls Christopher Allen. The couple had spent many years carefully renovating their pretty 17th century home, but an increasingly busy A-road was beginning to impinge on their peace and quiet.

"We came to live in this part of East Sussex partly because of the beautiful countryside, with lakes and secret valleys as well as thousands of acres of the Ashdown Forest on our doorstep, so moving away was never an option," Christopher continues. "When I realised that a ramshackle timber bungalow was up for sale further down the lane, I had an idea. We could take our dream home to an ideal setting by building a virtual replica of the cottage just a short distance away."

Originally built in 1953, the bungalow was approached along a quiet country lane in an idyllic elevated position with spectacular views of the South Downs. The Allens also negotiated to purchase some additional land from the neighbouring farm, with the hope that they would gain planning permission to build a replacement house on the site which would be more fitting to the rural surroundings.

"I moved into the bungalow, where I stayed throughout the build," says Christopher, "but Anna Lena refused to live in what was practically a timber shed, and spent most of the time in a rented flat in London with our daughter, Sophie. She definitely made the right decision because the new house was constructed right up against the old place, and when I realised that I hadn't allowed enough space for the scaffolding, I literally had to take a chainsaw and cut away part of the building - which happened to be my bedroom. All that remained was a plastic sheet between me and the elements!"

Determined to duplicate their previous period home as closely as possible, Christopher had drawn up a set of floorplans which mimicked the layout and appearance of the couple's old three-gabled cottage - tweaking and improving certain elements along the way. The hallway was made wider, and has become a room in its own right - complete with an open fireplace and enough space for a dining table - and the central gable now thrusts forward to form a jetty, which contains the main bathroom upstairs.

To one side of the hallway is a sitting room, which features a large brick fireplace and has an open plan dining area. To the other, the kitchen leads into a TV snug/library, with a door into Christopher's study. This, together with the utility room/larder and a WC, is contained in an oak weatherboarded lean-to, above which is tucked a small dressing room. There are three further bedrooms on the first floor, with a master en suite and the jettied bathroom projecting forward over the front door.

"There's no doubt we would have liked a larger house," says Christopher, "but the planners wouldn't allow it so we had to make certain compromises. I was just very relieved that we'd been allowed to demolish the bungalow and build again, and we have since gained planning permission to add a two storey oast house extension, which will totally change the layout and create an awful lot more living space."

The Allens approached Border Oak, a family-run business specialising in oak framing and design, and asked them to redraw their plans and apply for planning consent for the replacement property. This proved to be a fairly lengthy process, and various restrictions were placed on the new house, including limiting the overall volume and the ridge height. At first the planners insisted on a single storey bungalow, but later relented and allowed the couple to build up into the roof space.

"Our old cottage was also one-and-a-half storeys," explains Christopher, "and all of the oak framing was exposed internally in the same way as in this house. I like square rooms and symmetry, so I measured the room sizes in the cottage and used these as a template. When you've never built before it's far easier to work to a scale you can recognise, because you know that the layout should be fine."

In fact, copying the steeply pitched roof of their old property brought certain problems for the Allens. Part way through the build it became apparent that the imposed ridge height would be significantly exceeded, and the couple applied for retrospective permission for this increase, which was duly granted.

"I hadn't fully considered that having such a steep pitch of 47-and-a-half degrees would actually make the house narrower," admits Christopher, who became preoccupied with recreating an authentic-looking period home which would accommodate all of the couple's existing furniture.

A great deal of time was spent driving around the country in search of reclaimed materials which would have a genuine, pre-weathered appearance. Luckily, the local builder who worked on the house was equally enthusiastic and was happy to incorporate these salvaged items into the design.

"He was a friend I met playing darts in the pub, and I dont know how I would have done it without him," says Christopher, who worked alongside the builders on site. "He knew everybody and brought in various subcontractors, and we paid everyone by the day. We didn't have a strict budget or a set time scale because we were using so many second-hand materials, and the costs did spiral, but we trusted our builder implicitly and he didn't let us down."

Poor weather conditions delayed the project and blackened the 55-ton oak frame, which was designed and erected by Border Oak. Their crane sank into the ground and a new hardcore road needed to be built before work could continue. Anna Lena then took charge of cleaning all of the marked timbers by hand, which proved to be a labour-intensive task.

The majestic oak frame stands on a sandstone plinth, built from stone salvaged from a local farm wall and brought to the site before being cut and laid. Internally, the plinth has been replicated by a trompe l'oeil artist, who copied the 3D effect onto the plastered blockwork base.

Sussex clay terracotta roof tiles were taken from a 1920s bungalow which was being demolished, and also provided the gnarled oak window frames, which have been re-glazed with faux leaded double glazed units.

"We filled my mother's garage with the roof tiles and stored them there until they were needed," says Christopher. "It was hard work and far more expensive than buying new. In fact, finding these old materials became something of an obsession for me. The marble fireplace in the hall came from a vicarage in a nearby village and the double entrance doors are from a post office. Some of our door locks and handles came from Newcastle and the lights are from Hungerford."

Lack of space also played a large part in the interior design, and produced some imaginative solutions. Christopher designed a bookcase in the snug which also forms a secret doorway into his study, with its French marble fireplace, creating additional storage and an inexpensive but unusual feature.

"I'd always fancied the idea, but worried whether the hinges would be strong enough to take the weight of the books," he explains. "Our joiners were fantastic, though, and they also made the split drawers in the kitchen to take all our knives and cutlery. They even created a drawer just for the Magimix, as well as crafting the oak doors, the staircase and pergola, making the stands for the washbasins and modifying the old window frames. It was a real pleasure to find such talented people."

After all their hard work, Christopher and Anna Lena have now decided that they will sell their new oak framed home in order to fund renovation projects in Stockholm and Burgundy, which they plan to complete for their retirement. "We've got the bug and need a fresh challenge," says Christopher, 60. "We might even build a new house in France, and I've already started sketching out a design. The exciting thing is that we don't quite know where we'll end up next!"

Further reading:

• How to Choose Your Timber Frame
• Timber Frame or Blockwork?
• A Traditional Style Oak Frame Self-build