CLASS Q CONVERSION
After a two-year wait to gain planning, Teresa Townsend and Keith Hayes worked together with local trades to create a stunning barn-style home that’s as impressive inside as it is on the outside
HOMEOWNERS Teresa Townsend and Keith Hayes
LOCATION Devon PROJECT Class Qbarn conversion
HOUSE TYPE Detached four-bedroom house
SIZE 492m2
BUILD ROUTE Architect and building company
BUILD TIME 16 months
PLOT COST £600,000
BUILD COST £1.2 million
VALUE £3.25 million+
Buying a plot of land unseen is not usually advised as the best route to follow when building your own home, but that’s exactly what Teresa Townsend and Keith Hayes chose to do. “A piece of land with some timber barns suddenly came onto the market in a great location near our home in Devon while we were on holiday,’ says Teresa. “Luckily, we trusted our builder friend Tim to attend the open day viewing. He bought the land and barns on our behalf and then built our new home there.”
Teresa and her husband Keith first moved to Devon 17 years ago, when they bought a rambling Georgian house in the beautiful South Hams. “Our children are now grown up with children of their own, and we decided to look for a plot to build an energy-efficient house that would be large enough to accommodate them all when they visit,” explains Teresa. “It took a long time to find the land, and the build itself started just three weeks before the first Covid lockdown.”
DARING DESIGN
A series of three connected timber barns stood on the elevated former sheep farm, which served as the starting point for the predominantly single-storey design. “Teresa and Keith wanted to create a bright, open new home, which would remain true to the forms and materials of local agricultural buildings externally,” explains Eilir Sheryn, managing director of VESP Architects in Devon, who had been recommended by a friend. “We were able to selectively reconfigure the existing buildings on the same footprint, carving recesses into the barn arrangement to add definition to each independent volume.”
