A Five Bedroom Home For Just £150,000

Donald Bisset is definitely no wuss. He stands six feet four inches tall, abseils off oil rigs in the North Sea for a living and enjoys climbing, skiing and sailing in his spare time — but building the family home still managed to lay him low with pneumonia after months spent battling the Scottish elements. Not only did he take a break from his work inspecting oil rigs to concentrate on constructing the house, but he taught himself virtually every trade from scratch — relying on books and knowledgeable family and friends for support and advice.

“I’m so proud of what he’s achieved. It’s an extraordinary thing for someone who’s never built a house before,” beams Donald’s wife, Catherine, who admits to preferring the indoor lifestyle to the great outdoors. “We could never have afforded such a fantastic house if he hadn’t taken on so much of the work himself.”

The couple had been living in a classic Victorian tenement flat in Edinburgh, which had two bedrooms and two box rooms. They grew tired of lugging the shopping up flights of stairs when their son Daniel was born three years ago, and began hunting for a house. Struggling to find anything suitable in their price range, they then started casually looking for a plot of land on which they might be able to build.

"When this site came up for sale, Don insisted I see it," continues Catherine. The plot stands beside the River Lyne, just half an hour's drive from Edinburgh, in an idyllic setting overlooking the green in a thriving village community. "It had everything we wanted and was so pretty that we just couldn't understand why nobody else had bought it. Although it's a small plot, the location alone was worth the money, and we thought we must be missing something. But there was no catch, and we managed to buy it with detailed planning permission for a five bedroom house."

The plot had previously hosted a metal prefab house, which had already been demolished. Planning permission had been obtained to build a larger replacement dwelling, but the Bissets wanted to make better use of the plot and employed an architect to revise this design. They had used the existing plans to secure their stage payment mortgage, and therefore needed to ensure that any alterations would not adversely affect the overall value of the finished house.

"We had to keep the same number of rooms, but it needed to be a family home which would be practical for young children," says Catherine, who would have preferred a funkier New England-inspired exterior, but appreciated that living in a Conservation village would place certain restraints on the overall design. "At first I wanted some split levels to add character, with steps between different rooms, but I soon changed my mind when I realised that children and steps just don't mix. Far better to have one large area where Dan could whiz around without too many obstacles."

A large bright reception hall with full-height bookcases was also high on the wish-list, as was a spacious kitchen/dining room and a separate lounge. The latter has been nominally divided into two sections, with a cosy seating area formed by low, squashy sofas around a raised fireplace, and a play area for the children which also accommodates a sofa and Catherine's piano.

One of the additions to the original plans involved creating a single-storey lean-to nook as a ‘pop out' off the kitchen/dining room, which serves as an informal snug that's ideal for enjoying morning coffee. Reminiscent of a Bedouin tent, thanks to Catherine's love of cushions, rugs, throws and ethnic artefacts, visitors often prefer to sit on the floor in this area or gravitate to admire the views. Two skylights, windows and a door onto the deck outside ensure that this relaxing space feels like a brightly lit conservatory overlooking the river.

"I travelled to India when I was 17 and brought back a lot of ethnic things which I still have almost 20 years later," says Catherine. "My taste hasn't really changed that much, and I'm a big fan of cushions and love rich colours and textures for bed linen and rugs, so this house was never going to be minimal or industrial. I concentrated on the interior design side of things while Donald was more interested in solving structural problems, so we were really a very good team."

The stonework, rendering, tiling and plastering were completed by specialist subcontractors, and though family and friends lent a hand when they could, Donald took on everything else, from roofing to plumbing, and worked endless hours seven days a week.

Real stone has been used externally around the windows to create a traditional feel, in keeping with the largely Victorian neighbouring properties. This proved to be an expensive choice but - determined not to scrimp - the Bissets also chose solid timber Andersen windows. Somehow they still managed to stick to their original budget of £150,000, thanks to the huge amount of DIY labour, but by the end of the nine-month build Donald was utterly exhausted, contracted severe pneumonia and was bed-ridden for several months.

By this time Catherine was pregnant with the couple's second child, Amy, and had been working full time as a Government social researcher to try and make ends meet. "We moved in as soon as the house was habitable, which allowed us to sell the flat and finally stop paying two mortgages," she says. "The new house had all this uninviting blank white wall space, but there was simply no money left over to buy any artwork. It just looked so bare, so when Donald jokingly suggested I try and paint something, I thought I would give it a go. I bought a blank canvas and some acrylics and began experimenting - thinking that I could always throw it away and no one would ever know!" However, Catherine discovered she actually had a flair for painting, and has gone on to produce a number of pictures

Not only has the house exceeded their expectations, but Catherine and Donald both love living in their recently adopted village. "We have everything we need here - it's the perfect place for bringing up a family," says Catherine. "It's been hard work building this house, and Donald has now returned to working offshore for two weeks out of four, but it's something we enjoyed doing and would certainly consider doing again in the future. It has allowed us to live in a dream home in a truly fantastic location, and is also a constant reminder of all the good friends who rallied round to help us out with our adventure."

Further reading:

• A Scandinavian-style home built for under £150,000
• A Hillside Home built for £140,000
• The Secrets of Building to a Budget