Ok here's a crazy one...

[Rhubarbgarden]

A plot of land has come up in a peach of a location. It includes an old walled garden, bothy and ruined Victorian greenhouses which could be restored. There is a stream running through it and fantastic views.

Problem: I'm not a fan of newbuild houses. As some of you know, we have been looking for a period house for some time with no success because DH is playing silly buggers.

I'd a vague notion you can buy the frames of old barns and relocate them, and a quick google has confirmed this. So theoretically we could buy an old barn frame, reassemble on this wonderful plot of land, and with a clever architect turn it into something that is at least sort of old...

It's a bit out there and I haven't thought it through or done any proper research. Just wondering if the MN property gurus have any experience/observations/pearls of wisdom etc etc.

Ta!

First question before you go any further, can you get planning permission to build on it?

If the answer is no then it is a non-starter. If the answer is yes, it would depend on what they would let you build on the plot. Sounds exciting though.

I know you dislike newbuilds but if you just take a look at House Building and Renovation Magazines you can see what you build that looks like it has been standing for 100 years. Just a thought. Someone won an award for a thatched roof new build, was stunning.

It is "Home Building and Renovation" sorry, not house building. I have subscribed to it and had it for years.

You would think I have been drinking, it is Home Building and Renovating this is me rushing before I have to collect the children from school.

Thanks Fizzy yep there is planning permission in place for a house the right size. I wouldn't want to go for the building they are suggesting, but I think it's just an example. I would imagine that as long as the footprint and height remain similar it would be ok to do something different.

Will go and buy that magazine, good tip.

Oh, who cares about the house? You'd have a ruined Victorian greenhouse and a walled garden.

More sensibly, I don't think I'd advise building a house if you don't actually want to, even to get Victorian greenhouses to renovate. Family members just did a self-build, and it is the most incredible amount of mental effort and expense. If you don't enjoy it, it would be grim. Imagine having to select literally everything that goes into a house, in a very short space of time, from door handles to boilers.

But then you'd have Victorian greenhouses...

I'm a sucker for a Victorian greenhouse, Grendel. Did you see that film, Green Card? That was about me, that was...

A Border Oak house was built near us three years ago - it looks as if it's been there for a couple of hundred years. However, unlike actual old houses, it's all warm and efficient and everything works.

I was very sniffy about the idea of it. The word "pastiche" was mentioned a lot. However, when it got built and I got to have a nosy round I was

our self build is entirely different to what you'd be doing - but if I were you I'd give it serious consideration: a good architect makes all the difference and as MsRinky says - it will be warm and once the actual stress of the build is over, you will be done - all the stress will be concentrated in 1 - 2 years, rather than facing decades of work

What could be better than having a custom built house to your design? Would love to self build but due to being extremely picky on location, it would be nigh on impossible for us. We're doing the next best thing which is to gut/extend/alter an appropriate house in our favoured location but even then we waited 12+mths before a suitable house came on the market.

Buy it quick - because if you don't someone else will and ruin it Sites like that never come up. I'd scrap the barn idea pronto, they're a pig to live in. Look lovely mind, but the soaring ceilings steal your heat, and the upstairs are always weird. Bedrooms are usually narrow and in institutional rows. Maintenance sucks as well, all that outside wood needs regular proofing.

A friend has a Georgian farmhouse. I nearly fell over when she told me it was about 5 years old. New builds don't have to be horrible, and personally I'd love to live in a home which had functional mod cons.

There's a lot to be said for traditional style houses of modern, draught-free, well insulated construction. What's not to like?? It can be done.

My dad did this no greenhouses or stream though. He hated new builds but after years of looking for the right house he knocked down our family home and had it rebuilt on the land.

He had it 'solidly' built in his words. To be fitting to the old house, they reclaimed a lot of materials from the original and used them. He had pieces copied to match and the house was/is amazing.

Actually it was for sale recently, and I was horrified to see they had taken out the spindles in a huge oak gull wing landing and replaced it with perspex , and replaced reclaimed bathroom suites with modern wet rooms. They are very fond a feature wall too . Heathens.

Ahem anyway, as already said, there is alot you can do with a new build when you are in charge of it. We always think of them as the houses on estates or lovely footballers wives style places, but they can be whatever you want.

There are also some fantastic skilled craftsment around who work with traditional methods.

I think it would be an amazing oppourtunity. You could have your current house replicated if you so desired .

That sounds like my dream location - and I think the possibilities are endless in terms of style. We recently went to see a house, and behind it was a new build, just a couple of years old. But it didn't look that was as it had been done perfectly in the style of the local houses round here, with beams over the windows, lovely local stone, as though they'd taken an old farm building and converted it. The estate agent was telling me that he thought it was the best new build he'd seen in the town in 20 years.

If you do like the barn idea though, you don't have to buy an old one, there are quite a few people now who use traditional oak frames to make slightly more practical houses.

IMO it depends on why you (and ever so fussy DH ) like period houses.

If what you like is the style, the detailing, the decorative plasterwork etc... that can all be created in a new mock-period house IF you spend enough on it. Proper cornicing, fireplaces etc cost a fortune mind you, never mind getting specialist masons to come and carve twiddly bits into the brickwork which you'd probably want to do I suspect.

If what you like is the oldness, you know, the fact that things are a bit irregular and wobbly and have had their crisp edges worn down over time... that's a bit harder to create.

Thanks guys, just a quickie to say signing off now for a bit (well, probably ) as I popped out the new sprog this morning so might be a bit busy for a bit.

Thanks for all the advice. Property hunt and angst to be continued...

Oh my! Congratulations!

Congratulations mummy rhubarb

Yey! Was it the nipple tweaking?

Congratulations and welcome baby Rhubarb!

Congratulations, Rhubarb! No need to sign off though - surely you can cuddle a baby in one arm and surf Rightmove with the other?

congrats on the sprog and finding a fantastic location and thinking up a brilliant idea!

i think you could also think about a traditional oak-framed house and ask the architect to incorporate the old frames if you can't get the right old barn.

good luck! sounds very, very exciting.

will we be seeing you on grand designs? if so, give us a wink.

Well, congratulations Baby Rhubarb, Big Sibling Rhubarb, Fussy Rhubarb Dad and Rhubarb!

Would you like me to make you cry now ;-)