RENOVATION AND EXTENSION
A sudden job relocation saw Jeremy and Melanie Offer move to another part of the country and into the unknown…
HOMEOWNERS Jeremy and Melanie Offer
LOCATION Henley-on-Thames
PROJECT Renovating two existing barns and building a bedroom annex
SIZE 287m²
BUILD ROUTE Main contractor
CONSTRUCTION Insulated cladding panels, clad in spruce
BUILD TIME Two years (Dec 2018 -Jan 2021)
HOUSE COST £1.25m
BUILD COST £900,000
VALUE £3m
WORDS Seán O’Connell
PHOTOGRAPHY Mark Ashbee
To say that Jeremy and Melanie Offer are happily ensconced in their countryside home in Henley-on-Thames is an understatement, nevertheless their story is one of surprises. Five years ago they were living in Cheshire when Jeremy heard that his work would now be based in the south, at which point they suddenly found themselves relocating. They could have settled for finding a home conveniently close to Jeremy’s new workplace but they took a different approach. “Instead of focusing on one specific area to live in, we looked for our ideal property first,” says Melanie. “We fancied an adventure.”
So when the pair heard about a barn with potential in Henley-on-Thames, they drove down to look at it, both with low expectations, but as soon as they got out of the car they were smitten and soon after put in an offer on it. “The man who lived here before was an architect and I think he converted it from a falling down barn in the 1990s,” says Jeremy. “It was converted into a home and he’d done the structural work really well.”
The couple freely admit they were taking a leap into the unknown, which came with its own moments of self doubt — the biggest of which was on the day they picked up the keys and stood in front of the newly acquired building. “We both said, ‘What have we done, we’ve spent all of this money on a cowshed’ and we had a slight panic attack,” says Melanie. “But we went for a walk around the area and found a friendly old pub and, strangely, that somehow seemed to settle us down!”
Serendipity played its part, too. When the couple were in the process of moving down from Cheshire, they needed a place to stay and ended up renting a local cottage that was annexed to an old barn that had been renovated by Luke McLaren of McLaren Excell Architects. That barn was Luke’s father’s and as well as the building being the inspiration for the whole project, it also cemented the Offers’ relationship with McLaren Excell.
“The barn ca
