Sailing free

Figuring out how to unlock a neglected seaside plot was the key to success for Stephen and Mandy’s ‘fabric first’ self-build

- Alison Wall

HOMEOWNERS Stephen Ralph and Mandy Summons

LOCATION Essex

BUILD TIME May 2018 - Nov 2020

SIZE 225m2

PLOT COST £90,000 (Oct 2016)

BUILD COST £370,000

After a career spent restoring period properties, Stephen Ralph was looking for a project to take him and his partner Mandy into retirement — and found what he was looking for when he purchased a neglected infill plot near the sea in a coastal town near Harwich in Essex.

To be sure, the narrow slither of sloping land, with no foul drainage connection, was a gamble. Luckily Stephen managed to persuade a neighbour to sell him a slice more land, and figured out how to install pumps to deal with drainage problems. The self-build project was on.

Harvey Norman Architects created the design, a contemporary ‘upside down’ two-bedroomed house with dramatic views over the Harwich shipping channel — Stephen likens it to living in a boat rather than a house. Stand-out features include a second storey crow’s nest viewing platform facing the sea, a generous double height, double aspect open plan living space on the upper ground level, and a sloping roof clad in copper standing seam.

A structural engineer worked with Stephen to figure out how best to build on the small sloping plot and a planning consultant helped get the designs through planning (‘inspirational’, according to one planner). Stephen, drawing on his decades of construction experience, took on the job of project manager. Once the groundworks were complete (an astonishing 1,600 tons of spoil were taken offsite), construction work on the complex superstructure could begin.