- 5 days ago
Grand Designs - Season 27 Episode 1 -
Durham Dales 2025
Durham Dales 2025
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00:00In the story of the three little pigs, one pig chose to build his house out of bricks,
00:10one out of sticks, and the third one, well, he chose a super sustainable, low-impact, low-input,
00:17carbon sequestering miracle product. Yeah, he chose straw, and not just any old straw,
00:22hemp straw, which, in Latin, is cannabis sativa. God, I love architecture. It gives me such a high.
00:52The second is number 19, the red heifer in the middle here.
01:12Amid this bustling cattle auction in the heart of the Durham Dales,
01:16a striking red-overauled figure stands among the native throng, Sarah, an artist who grew up here
01:27in the northeast. We work really, really quickly and capture the relationship, really, between the
01:39farmers and the cattle, and document a really important part of local culture, which carried
01:48on in the same way as it has been for hundreds of years. After 40 years living largely in the
01:55southeast of England, where she raised a family, 18 months ago, Sarah decided to return to her
02:00roots after a divorce, her children having grown up. It's a really difficult time for all mothers
02:07after their children have gone away, because a whole part of your life is kind of, not finished,
02:14but it's a complete change. I didn't want to be left. I didn't have to come back north,
02:21but I just had the idea. My mum thought I was completely mad, you know, 40 years in the south or
02:27whatever. It's with her mum, Joyce, that Sarah's currently living, but not for long, because having
02:34been part of a thriving artistic community in Rye in East Sussex, where she previously lived, Sarah's
02:40now on a mission to establish a creative hub and a home up here. I heard somebody say once that you
02:47can move to a hub of something, or you just create your own. When I heard that, I just thought, well,
02:55yeah, I can just create my own, to build a space, not just for my own work, but also to facilitate
03:02others to make art a hub of the creative rural north. The location is this exposed upland field
03:11she's bought at auction for £200,000. I saw this three-acre field with planning permission five miles
03:20from where my parents lived, and I just thought, I'm definitely going to go for this.
03:28My goodness. It's very exposed here.
03:35Hello. Hello, Kevin. Hi, Sarah. How are you?
03:38Lovely to meet you. Yeah. Yes.
03:40Yeah, you're well camouflaged in New Orleans. Mind you, it's cold today.
03:45It is very cold, yes, and a strong wind is blowing.
03:48Yeah, is it always like this? It is, a lot of the time. Yes, that's what our gloves back on.
03:53Wow, wow, so you're building a house which is going to respect that, respond to that.
03:58Yes, yes. Right, and was that a house? What was here? There was something.
04:02There was, there was an old stone farmhouse, which is just over there, and that remained
04:07empty for about 30 years, and then they had to knock it down because it was then unsafe.
04:13And does it sit then, close to the road? Is it, where are you putting the building?
04:16It's sitting here. Rather than putting it back where it was, which is on the higher
04:20ground, we're moving it to the lower area so that it's not so exposed to the wind.
04:26Really? Yeah. Why would you do that?
04:28Well, I can't imagine.
04:31And what's the house going to be?
04:34I'm building a single-storey home studio eco-house made out of Hentcrete.
04:39Wow.
04:39The exterior, I am cladding in the stone.
04:44What, from here?
04:45Yes, yes.
04:46So Hentcrete, this is hemp stems from hemp grown in fields?
04:51Yes.
04:52Not the psychoactive version, but almost.
04:54No, no, yep.
04:55It's mixed with lime.
04:56That's right, lime binder.
04:58And water, and you make a, basically, it's like a sort of concrete, but made with natural
05:03products.
05:03Exactly.
05:04So, why Hentcrete?
05:06Well, particularly, I love it because it's natural and it's a healthy thing to live with,
05:14unlike modern building materials, which contain so many plastics.
05:19Cast in situ Hentcrete is economical.
05:23It's the only natural material that I've been able to find that I can actually afford to use,
05:28and it's affordable because I'll also be doing a lot of the casting myself.
05:32But the driving force for the whole natural space was to facilitate, like, a healthy and
05:41creative environment to make art in.
05:45Elliot Architects have evolved Sarah's vision for a sustainable home-come art hub into a
05:50design that's as bold as you might imagine.
05:53The first step will be to level the site, dig foundations, and, as Hentcrete can't be
05:59used below ground level, fill them with conventional steel-reinforced concrete.
06:05Next, a lightweight timber frame will go up to form three barn-like structures, with a
06:10few steel I-beams for reinforcement.
06:13A simple entrance hallway will link the barn shapes into one.
06:17Unusually, the roof, a striking, rusty, red steel number, will get fitted before the walls are
06:24fully built, to keep the rain off the Hentcrete process.
06:28Next, a skin of sterling board will wrap around the outside of the timber frame, and inside,
06:33but only up to a height of 60 centimetres.
06:36Into this shuttering section, buckets of wet Hentcrete hemp, mixed with lime binder and water,
06:41will be tipped and tamped down.
06:42Once this first section, or lift, is set, the process repeats in stages up the walls.
06:48Once dry, a breather membrane then goes on, and the building gets clad in stone from the
06:53former home on this site.
06:55Large aluminium and timber windows will add architectural refinement.
07:00A bright, ply-clad hallway-come gallery, for displaying and selling art, will lead to a
07:06world of raw hempcrete, an open-plan kitchen, diner and living space, off which are a bathroom
07:12and Sarah's digs.
07:15On the other side of the gallery will sit Sarah's art studio, where she'll also run courses,
07:21and another two bedrooms for her grown-up sons, Noah and Hector.
07:25Sarah's going to install the hempcrete herself, with some help, having recently got the bug on a
07:30course she took, and rather boldly, despite the innovative and tricky nature of hempcrete,
07:36and despite her complete lack of experience, she wants to project manage the whole thing,
07:40rather her than me.
07:43This is not a kit build, it's not even a system build, you're not even using blocks,
07:49you're using stuff mixed in a bucket, piled into a hole, with wobbly stone on the outside,
07:56and mortar, so there's a lot of risks.
07:58Yeah, I think as risks go, I think this is low risk.
08:01Tell me, how much is all this going to cost?
08:04The total budget is £330,000.
08:07Does that all come from previous homes that you've owned?
08:12Yes, so I used to live on the south-east coast, I had a little house that the boys and I used to
08:18live in, so that's where the money's come from, to buy the field and pay for the build.
08:24And there's no mortgage attached, there's no borrowing going into the project?
08:28No, I don't owe anybody any money, and I'm not going to, I don't want to.
08:30You're not going to?
08:31No, I'm not going to borrow any money, no. I won't go down that route.
08:35OK. Any asset?
08:36Yes, a holiday cottage.
08:38OK.
08:39Yeah. But, if I sell the holiday cottage, I'm getting rid of my income,
08:44because I don't have any kind of pension plan.
08:46Yeah, yeah. So, when do you finish? When do you move in?
08:49As soon as the windows can go in, after the hempcrete's cast.
08:53So, that is October, November.
08:57OK. Eight months.
08:59Oh, God. I'd be in earlier than that, then.
09:01Yes.
09:04Sarah's cheerful disposition suggests that the complexity,
09:08the risk of what she's about to undertake may not have sunk in yet.
09:12The thing is, this project is also so fraught with difficulty, with risk, if you like, design risk,
09:22experimental materials, a lack of money, that you think, how on earth will it actually happen?
09:30But then, you see, buildings don't just occur because somebody's got money.
09:36They also require organisation and administration and craftsmanship and care and love
09:42and vast amounts of human energy.
09:46And that matters almost more than any other component, that human input.
09:54And, goodness me, the one thing that Sarah has in spades is energy.
09:59She has an abundance of it.
10:09Within weeks, the foundations of Sarah's new home are being dug by an experienced local builder,
10:15David and his team.
10:18My role is doing the foundations, the drains and the stone cladding at the end.
10:26Out of this wild upland earth, the full footprint of Sarah's new home is emerging,
10:31along with its fair share of unexpected costs.
10:36We've had to take out 25 to 30 tractor loads of earth.
10:42So that was an unexpected cost.
10:45At the moment, I spent £1,860 getting rid of soil.
10:52A new field drain is another surprise, costing around £5,000.
10:56The idea of it is that it will take all of the water away from the house
11:02and let it naturally run away into the rest of the field.
11:05So it has to be done. You have to pay it.
11:08And when there isn't any money left, then there's no money left.
11:12Even I can understand that arithmetic.
11:16Nevertheless, just a month in, the foundations are ready to be filled with concrete.
11:21Swingers over there.
11:22And with David on hand to oversee progress,
11:25our project manager Sarah even has time for a spot of drawing.
11:30Drop us a bit far back up there.
11:32David's been in the building game in these parts since 1981.
11:36Like standard building, you sort of know what you're going to do.
11:39So there's no unforeseen problems with it, really.
11:43That's it, isn't it?
11:44But as for the hemp, I think she's a little bit far out with that.
11:49You know, that's something just new.
11:51And it'll be the first in this area and it'll probably last.
11:55So I don't think anybody else will do it.
11:58Building homes with hemp isn't conventional at the moment.
12:01So I'm curious to know what Sarah's mum, Joyce, thinks about it.
12:06What's your view about the building?
12:07I'm utterly amazed.
12:08I mean, I just think what she's tackling is phenomenal.
12:13I couldn't have done it.
12:14I'm full of admiration for her.
12:16Should she be doing it, do you see?
12:18Knowing Sarah, yes.
12:20Because this is what she needs to do.
12:22She wants somewhere of her own that she's designed and she's done.
12:26And in a field, yes, it's Sarah.
12:29Yeah, so it suits her.
12:30It suits her, yeah.
12:31Would you live there?
12:32No, I like being in a village.
12:34I think the money side of it is the worry to me.
12:37Because prices have just escalated for materials and everything.
12:42So I do hope she can achieve it.
12:44And it's using materials which are not commonly found.
12:48I mean, and very ecological, of course.
12:50But so expensive.
12:52That's the problem.
12:53Is there a bit of you that thinks actually, you know, what she's doing is overreaching?
12:56Is it mad?
12:57Yes.
12:59I would think it was mad.
13:01I wouldn't do it.
13:02Do you think she's bonkers?
13:06Sarah is tenacious and she wants to be moved into her home in November,
13:11now a mere six months away.
13:15So this is the schedule to see whether you think we're on target for me moving in.
13:21Well, at the moment, timber frame, which we haven't got sorted yet,
13:24like the steel that's supposed to come today, hasn't landed yet.
13:29No.
13:29That's going to have a knock-on effect.
13:31Just three months in doing the stone, building it.
13:34But I can...
13:35Can't build stone in lime any time after November.
13:39But I could still be living in the house,
13:41because the house has got its membrane in and it's watertight.
13:44How are you going to get your windows in?
13:46Windows can't go and melt the stonework,
13:48because the windows sit on the stonework.
13:51No, the windows can sit on the...
13:53on the metal...
13:55propped metal sills, can't they?
13:56Not really, no.
13:58Oh, my God, I hadn't realised that.
14:00Your window is at the back of the timber frame.
14:04So, no, you won't have your windows and doors in.
14:07It's just extraordinary that I hadn't thought of this,
14:13and nobody had made me aware of it.
14:18Bags of innocent enthusiasm and hope can drive a project,
14:23but they can't get your windows to fit.
14:25The prospect of Sarah moving in come November now seems beyond possible.
14:37The prospect of Sarah is three and a half months into an eight-month project
14:47here in the Durham Dales,
14:49and the timber frame should be going up.
14:52My neighbour, Mark, is moving his sheep,
14:55so we don't want them coming in the, er, in the site.
15:01Oh, great. OK, thanks.
15:03It's fun, isn't it? Rural life.
15:08It's a very, very busy Monday morning.
15:11Sheep movement and frame erecting.
15:16After a brief hiatus, the road's clear.
15:21Well, they're hoping to get most of the frame all up today.
15:25Pretty incredible, I think.
15:26I mean, I hadn't realised it was only going to take a day.
15:28No, I'm really, really, absolutely on schedule.
15:32Oh, clean the pen. Come on.
15:36In between project management, there's still time for sketching.
15:41In order to keep the drawing going,
15:43I just draw whatever's happening on site.
15:46They're interesting.
15:47I mean, the scaffolders the other day were all like monkeys, really.
15:51They're, like, hanging onto all of the poles as they're moving around them.
15:55And these guys have enormous tool belts.
15:59By the end of the day, the basic timber structure of Sarah's new home has already taken shape,
16:06ready for the steel beams and timber rafters to go in.
16:10This is the studio.
16:12It's a brilliant space, isn't it?
16:14I like this high, this high window here, because that is...
16:22Actually, that is actually scrubbed out.
16:24That is very high that they've put that in.
16:27But anyway, it's too late now.
16:28Sarah might have forgotten that the finished insulated floor will sit a fair bit higher than the current slab.
16:35For now, the project remains impressively on schedule.
16:40Three weeks later, the timber frame is complete and the installation of the roof starts.
16:46It'll be vital to keep the rain off the hemp walls yet to come.
16:50Hey. Hello, Kevin.
16:51This is amazing.
16:53It is amazing.
16:54Steel work in there.
16:55Yes.
16:56You've got all your perimeter block work done and slabs poured and drainage in.
17:01Yes, thank goodness.
17:02Can't believe it.
17:02So this is the living room and kitchen.
17:04I think it's absolutely amazing and I love the fact that I can see the steel ridge beam.
17:08It's really lovely.
17:09Yeah, it's going to be exposed.
17:10But a lot of hempcrete cast.
17:12Yeah.
17:13But what about the elephant in the caravan on this project?
17:17The money.
17:19Are you on budget?
17:20No.
17:21OK.
17:22So I had a price in for the stone cladding.
17:26Yeah.
17:27£59,000.
17:29Thing is, what do I know about stone masonry and stone cladding?
17:33I didn't have a clue how much it was going to cost.
17:36So I kind of think I put in 20.
17:39So when I saw 59, I just thought, oh my God.
17:45Yeah.
17:46Any other overruns, overspends?
17:48Finishing landscaping.
17:50Yeah.
17:51There's nothing in for that.
17:53And the roof.
17:54How much is that then?
17:56£18,000.
17:58You were going to spend how much, you thought?
17:59£330,000.
18:00£330,000.
18:01Yeah.
18:01And now you think it's going to be?
18:03More like £430,000.
18:04Just like that.
18:05Yes.
18:06Wow.
18:06And so quickly.
18:08Yeah.
18:08And I just can't believe how fast these amounts ramp up.
18:15Yeah.
18:16Yeah.
18:16Yeah.
18:19As to how Sarah funds this £100,000 overspend,
18:24she's going to have to surrender the only financial security she has,
18:28her small one-bedroom holiday cottage nearby.
18:31At the time that I bought it, the intention was that this would provide a steady stream of income.
18:38It's potentially worrying where my income is going to come from in the future.
18:43It's not an ideal scenario, but by taking away the income that this cottage gives me,
18:50it'll sort of force me into really making the future plans for the gallery really work.
18:57So the new house will have to work for its keep.
19:04Sarah's prepared to sacrifice every asset and security she has to build this project,
19:08one she wanted to move into in November in just four months.
19:12But there's an entire roof yet to build before the hempcrete walls start in two weeks.
19:18Sarah's feeling the pressure.
19:21There's not another membrane going on top of the ply.
19:23There is.
19:24What?
19:25We don't want that getting wet.
19:27The membrane goes down on top of the insulation.
19:30There's no other membrane to go on.
19:32Right, but that drawing's completely wrong, Sarah.
19:34That's an old drawing that's not right.
19:37I mean, this ply's been getting soaking wet.
19:41Yeah.
19:41I'm always working with different people running projects,
19:44and people do take on running their own jobs,
19:47and I don't think they realise what a tough job it is, you know.
19:51It's a difficult job and it's a skilled job,
19:53and people who are not used to doing it do struggle running their own projects.
19:57I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah.
20:00And yet, two weeks on, the striking red steel roof installation
20:04is advanced enough for hempcreteing to start.
20:08Bang on schedule.
20:09Today is the day that I've been really looking forward to.
20:11Yeah, here we go. We're ready now.
20:16Sarah's assembled a crack team.
20:20Pro-hempcreteers Jasper and Ronan from Wales,
20:23and Martin from Brighton.
20:25A local friend, Piers, and her sons, Noah and Hector.
20:29The hempcrete decision was an interesting, interesting one.
20:32I was like, I've never heard of that one.
20:35I think she wouldn't be offended by being called the little eccentric.
20:38From what I understand about it, and its incidating properties,
20:41and the breathability, that all sounds good to me.
20:43Yeah, sure. It'll work out. Hopefully.
20:48First, a vertical axis mixer combines the hemp stalk, or shiv,
20:53with a lime-based binder and water.
20:55The hempcrete is then tipped from buckets into the shuttering,
20:58and then tamped down.
21:00I just sort of think of, like, patting a dog's head.
21:03It's like a firm pat, but you're not trying to knock its teeth on,
21:06is what I think of it.
21:09Once this first layer has partially set,
21:11the timber formwork is removed, to reveal that section of finished wall.
21:15Almost perfect.
21:18The process then repeats up the wall,
21:21until the hempcrete reaches the ceiling.
21:24Two weeks has been allowed to complete the hempcreteing.
21:29So the team from Wales, that's the amount of time that I've booked them for,
21:34and it's their mixer. I'm confident we'll get it done in the two weeks,
21:37even though it does look as though it is a big space to fill.
21:42Where does all this hemp come from, you may wonder?
21:47Well, 600 miles away, in the Champagne region of France, where the cultivation of this miracle crop
21:54stretches back hundreds of years.
21:56It's drought tolerant, requires zero pesticides, sequesters carbon, and is ready to harvest in just three months.
22:05This futuristic hemp processing facility nearby extracts dust from the chopped stalks,
22:13and that's vital for good quality hempcrete.
22:16Why would I buy it without dust? What's the advantage?
22:18For the construction, it's really important for the good setup of the product,
22:23because the binder and the dust are not so friends.
22:27The regularity of the product will be not so good.
22:31Okay, so it becomes weaker, yeah, yeah, more brittle, perhaps.
22:34Yeah, by removing the dust, you get a better product, a better guarantee of performance.
22:42Sarah was recommended to use French hemp because of the scale, the history,
22:47and the advanced factories in this region.
22:50If somebody had given you an electric car 10 years ago, you would have said,
22:54oh my goodness, this is from the future.
22:56And it was then, and it sort of still is now.
22:59And the thing about this factory, right, is I couldn't have dreamt of this 10 or 20 years ago,
23:05and yet here it is.
23:08The only difficulty with this high-tech processing plant,
23:10at the very end of that process, we still rely on enthusiasts.
23:16And that's where the weak spot lies.
23:18We don't have, within construction, the skill sets at scale
23:23to really exploit what this factory can produce.
23:27And who bears the risk of that?
23:31Sarah.
23:31And sure enough, back in the Durham Dales, Sarah faces a sucker punch.
23:39There isn't enough hemp and lime binder on site to finish the job,
23:43even though she paid a sustainable building consultancy in the UK several hundred pounds
23:47to advise on the quantity of materials she'd need.
23:50We think some of the volume calculations that have been done might be wildly off,
23:56and we might need roughly double the materials we could go on.
23:58And the lead time can be quite long, three to four weeks,
24:02and we've got to leave before then.
24:04Sarah faces shelling out thousands more on hemp and lime binder.
24:10If the installation exceeds the two allotted weeks,
24:12she'll pay still more on labour to install it.
24:21Why did somebody not pick up before that it was more?
24:24And now it buys so much.
24:27This, I have to say, this is going too much, OK?
24:40High in the Durham Dales, after days of frantic phone calls,
24:54the shortfall in hemp and lime binder is still arriving from suppliers all over the UK,
25:00three days before the hemp treaters are due to leave.
25:03It's multiple deliveries, which has been very stressful,
25:06and every time that happens, work stops, which is something I really don't want to happen.
25:10So all the more work, all the more work, all the more stress, all the more materials,
25:13all the more cost, how much extra?
25:15Over £9,000 more.
25:16Just like that.
25:17Yes. And that's not something that you can think,
25:19um, well, I can't afford it.
25:22You just have to spend it, get the materials in,
25:26and then work out how...
25:28Where you're going to find £9,000.
25:29Yeah.
25:30Yeah.
25:31Yeah, this is like a juggernaut now, it's on the move.
25:34Yes. Oh, it is. There's no stopping it.
25:38The question now is whether the team can install all this extra hempcrete with time running out.
25:45Today's Wednesday afternoons, right, so you've got Thursday Friday left this week.
25:49Yeah.
25:50Monday afternoon, you're on another site.
25:51Cornwall.
25:52Cornwall.
25:52Yeah.
25:53Yeah.
25:53Yeah.
25:55Generally, we would say no, it's not sustainable, but I don't want to leave Sarah
25:59in this position where there's lots of hempcrete still to do because, yeah, the mixer will be gone.
26:04We wouldn't be saying 10 working days for this size of project.
26:11They're desperate for all hands on deck, even mine.
26:15Fairly loose, isn't it, when it goes in?
26:17And then the idea is that you spread it out.
26:19Yeah.
26:20Evenly, about 100 mil.
26:22And then at the edge, tamp down your fingers.
26:24You know, the association with hemp is that any hemp product is conducive to a slow, relaxing lifestyle.
26:31You know, this is the opposite.
26:33Remarkably, despite my contribution, all of the hempcrete walls get finished on schedule.
26:43And this is the finished result.
26:45And boy, is this monumental.
26:48I mean, look, you see these great lines, these horizontal bands, courses where the hemp was put in
26:55and it was slowly built up.
26:56The thing is like a sort of extraordinary giant slab of dark green, grey stone.
27:03And I think it's really, really beautiful.
27:07You might disagree, of course.
27:08You might hate it.
27:09You might think this is absurd.
27:11When are they going to plaster?
27:14In a few weeks, the hempcrete has dried sufficiently to be wrapped on the outside in breather membrane
27:20and then clad in stone.
27:23Sarah ought now to be gearing up to move into her new home.
27:27Instead, her finances are so dire that progress has slowed in an alarming way.
27:33Unfortunately, due to funds being very low now and having not sold the holiday cottage,
27:41I've had to take the decision to only membrane the north part and only stone clad the north part
27:49and probably only put half a window order in and try to make that habitable and all functioning
28:00so that I can carry on working as an artist and also start making some money
28:09by having the gallery open, you know, having the studio open.
28:13It's not a fun situation to find myself in.
28:18Bugger.
28:18I wouldn't be able to do this again.
28:24I don't think, just, just, I don't think my body could do it.
28:27A few weeks later, the stone masonry on the north section has begun.
28:41I'm really happy with it. It's just perfect.
28:44What I really, really wanted originally is an old stone field barn.
28:48And what's lovely is that all of this stone here was on the original house.
28:55However, it's not wrong before Sarah faces another sucker punch.
29:00She hasn't got enough stone.
29:02So Sarah's intention of using the stone was to use all the stone on the site,
29:08but there's not enough because the house that was on the site
29:11probably only had 150 square metres in,
29:15where this property here has 286 square metres.
29:18So we're chopping it, trying to double it up, which hasn't got enough.
29:22So really, I've said to her now to go and source some more, which we have,
29:27which is the right colour, so we can mix it now.
29:30So at the end of the job, it doesn't stand out.
29:34So Sarah has to find more stone as soon as possible.
29:38Having to find stone at the last minute. I mean, it's like...
29:44That's another one of David's. We need more stone, Sarah.
29:48We need to start mixing it in. It's like, what, now?
29:52I think I've found some local reclaimed stone only a couple of miles away.
29:59It'll be £7,200. It's money I haven't got, but I can't leave part of the house unclad with stone,
30:07so I have to buy it.
30:16It's perfect, isn't it? I mean, you can't tell the difference.
30:20Even though it is another £7,200, I think this stone is a really good match.
30:26I have to get a heavy stone two miles up the road.
30:30Stuck between a rock and a hard place.
30:33Yeah, how the fuck are you going to get it back to site?
30:36Money set aside for glazing the north section ends up having to be used to pay for the extra stone instead.
30:42Over the winter, progress slows to a halt, and Sarah spends another winter living with her mum.
30:50And yet, five painful months on, with spring, mercifully arrives some good news.
30:57Even great news.
30:58I sold the holiday cottage, so that means, hopefully now, that there's enough money to
31:08certainly finish the essential things for me to live in the house.
31:12I am incredibly keen, uh, to get the, the house finished and to move back into my own home after
31:20two and a half years of, of not being in my own home.
31:24David and his team are already back on site to finish all the stone lace of me on the house.
31:31Just a few weeks later, all the windows are ready to go in, starting with the 250 kilo picture window
31:38over the gallery, which, thanks to some careful manoeuvring...
31:42Watch that bottom sill, please. ..is ready to secure in just half an hour.
31:47Hooray! Watch your sides. Yep, you're on it.
31:49Go up.
31:50Only Sarah's not happy.
31:52It's a bizarre thing, but it looks as though the left is down compared to the right.
31:56I'm all concerned about the level at the bottom.
31:59Yes, I understand, but at the moment, it looks as though it's dropping down on the left-hand side.
32:05Can it, like, go up?
32:06Well, that would throw the bottom out.
32:08Maybe it might have to because it doesn't look level at the top.
32:12After a battle of wills, a compromise decision is negotiated.
32:17That side needs to come up two mil.
32:19Yeah, can we do that? Yes, we're going to do that.
32:21Oh, amazing.
32:23Inevitably, by the time the second picture window goes in, it's the afternoon.
32:30That one is a much tighter fit.
32:32Makes you wonder, kind of, why they all want more like that.
32:35Yeah, the wind's definitely picked up.
32:38Oh, yeah, that's moving around a lot, isn't it?
32:40I'm kind of glad I don't understand Polish.
32:45Three of the largest panes are installed by the end of the day.
32:49That's perfect.
32:50All 19 panes get ridded come the following week.
32:54Good.
32:57Now the place is watertight, they can screed over the insulation and underfloor heating pipes.
33:02Though unusually, Sarah also wants the cement screed exposed like the hemp.
33:07She wants the raw look of what it is.
33:10I mean, it soaps the walls, doesn't it, when you look at that and the look of the walls?
33:13Well, it is unusual, but it's like the old natural look, isn't it?
33:17Right.
33:18I think it's really beautiful.
33:19I love the relationship with the hempcrete.
33:22Exactly the same tonal range, much more perfect than I thought it was going to be.
33:27A few weeks later, when the screed has cured.
33:36Is this your finished floor?
33:37It is.
33:38I really like it.
33:38Sarah's all set for the interior fit out, assuming she's got any money for that.
33:44Yeah, how much have you got left?
33:45£23,000.
33:49But that £23,000, what's that cover?
33:50That has to cover the air source heat pump,
33:55the electrics, the second fixed electrics, and lighting.
33:59The rest of the insulation, I'm going to labour to put it in.
34:01The plywood, I'm going to have to buy another pallet of plywood.
34:05OK, you've got through £23,000 already?
34:07Yeah. Yeah.
34:08I've more than passed that, and that's the thing.
34:10That £23,000 certainly doesn't cover the kitchen.
34:12There's never been any budget for the kitchen.
34:14I never had any budget for a kitchen.
34:16It transpires that Sarah's going to kit out her home in the traditional artist's way,
34:23by blagging as much free and cheapo stuff she can get.
34:27Oh, look, it's the Aladdin's cave.
34:29Yes.
34:30Of leftovers.
34:31Yes, it is. There's the fridge.
34:33Do you know what? This is good.
34:34This is the bath, which I got from the builder's merchants.
34:37Oh, yes.
34:38It's £50.
34:39What's down there?
34:40Yeah, this is the sink.
34:42That was in a farmer's cattle yard.
34:44What's this, Sarah, under here?
34:45This is a wash-hand basin.
34:47This was dug up, yeah, and it's saltstone.
34:50It's got a hole.
34:51Yeah, yeah.
34:51I can't believe this was in the ground.
34:54And Sarah's resourcefulness extends to second-hand purchases,
34:58from trips to her local tip shop.
35:03I like that.
35:04Is it a cat scratcher?
35:05Oh.
35:06Two of them.
35:07That's a posh one.
35:08That's incredible.
35:09How much is this?
35:1019 altogether, which is great.
35:12Thank you so much.
35:13We've got to try and fit it in.
35:14Can I get everything in?
35:15Yes, you can.
35:18Got it.
35:19Here's room for more crap.
35:20There is more crap.
35:21On top.
35:22Yeah.
35:24That's good.
35:26Well done.
35:29I get that Sarah's a creative, that she has imagination and vision,
35:33but can she really take all that flotsam and jetsam and recycled rubbish
35:37and make sense and beauty from it here?
35:41I mean, I don't know whether the floor's going to work out,
35:44just polished and sealed as screed.
35:47I don't know whether the Hemp Creek walls are going to be beautiful
35:51once art is hung on them.
35:53I don't know if the kitchen's going to look like a dog's dinner
35:56or an expression of something else, a feast of the imagination.
36:04What do you think?
36:20It is three years since Sarah returned to her roots in the high country of the North East,
36:26with ambitions to build a sustainable hybrid home,
36:28come creative hub in the Durham Dales.
36:32So, after 18 months of self-inflicted stress,
36:35has she met her own towering goals?
36:40Oh, will you look at that?
36:42Even from here, across the fields, those barns of Sarah's, they really sink.
36:50You know, this is a landscape of long, low, ground-hugging barns.
36:56Hers, on the other hand, the roofs are a bit more pointed,
36:59they're a bit taller, they're a bit more assertive,
37:01and they are very, very rusty red.
37:06I think everybody here knows they've arrived.
37:08The language of this building seems to be very much of this place.
37:13Close up.
37:14Oh, that is so good!
37:20Beautifully, beautifully built.
37:22The stonework is perfectly coarse.
37:26It's medieval standards of stonework.
37:28It's really, really great.
37:30However, the windows, they are big,
37:32and they do shout that they've arrived, like the roofs, you know?
37:36The whole arrangement says,
37:39I look like barns from a distance, but very clearly I'm not.
37:43I'm a proper piece of architecture.
37:46Hello, Kevin.
37:47Hello!
37:49What a beautiful building you have.
37:51Oh, great to see you.
37:53Oh, look at you!
37:54My goodness me!
37:55You look amazing!
37:57It's the first time I've seen you without overalls.
37:59How long have you been in?
38:00About two weeks.
38:01So that must be a kind of fresh lease.
38:03Brings me deep joy to have my own home back again.
38:06It's powerful.
38:07It's good.
38:08I think it's got a very good energy about it.
38:11One thing it also says to me is, as I get closer to it, is it says,
38:16there's the front door.
38:18This is a welcoming place to invite people in to come and buy art.
38:23Yes!
38:24It's not just a home.
38:25It actually does speak the language of a gallery or of a more public building.
38:30That's good, because that is what it's supposed to be.
38:32Yes.
38:33And that's what it will be.
38:34And in fact, there is a first exhibition up there.
38:37In the space!
38:38In the space!
38:38You've even got that far.
38:40Yes.
38:40Yeah, exhibition of my bill drawings that I've been doing.
38:43Oh, well, what did you do all the way through the process?
38:45Yes.
38:45Oh, how exciting.
38:46I'd love to see those.
38:47Well, come on in.
38:48Yeah, I'd love a bit of shelter from this wind as well.
38:58It's beautiful.
39:01I wasn't expecting the plywood interior.
39:03It's a big wooden box.
39:05Yeah.
39:05It's a beautiful pale and pink.
39:07I've always loved plywood as an interior finish.
39:10Very, very precise.
39:11It's like cabinetry.
39:12It's like living inside a piece of furniture.
39:15Do you know what's such a pleasure?
39:16It's visiting you in your home and your studio and seeing your art on the wall.
39:21They're great.
39:22That's the guys pouring the concrete.
39:24It is, yes, with their amazing tube that the concrete comes through.
39:29And roofers, of course, are very acrobatic and very dexterous.
39:34The glass wall of the gallery places you right into the grasslands outside.
39:38That is a painting waiting to happen, isn't it?
39:40While a door to the left leads you right into another grassy environment,
39:45Sarah's Hempcrete living space.
39:47Oh, Sarah.
39:49Beautiful.
39:51And here, the plywood mixes with the hemp.
39:54Glorious.
39:55Yeah, they work really well together.
39:57Don't they just?
39:58Very rich and beautiful, Sarah.
40:00It's very warm.
40:01It's very...
40:03It's full of you.
40:03It's full of stuff.
40:04It's full of personality.
40:06There's a texture and a life in the material,
40:08which you need to do nothing more to, to enjoy.
40:12So there's a rawness, which is sort of a bit like looking at the stone on the outside.
40:18This is great.
40:20In the end, what, you saved up and bought something decent, yeah?
40:24No, the total cost of this kitchen was £924.
40:29What?
40:30And most of that is labour costs.
40:32There's five different places that all the units came from.
40:36Kitchen carcasses that people were throwing out.
40:38Five different kitchens?
40:39Yes, and I think I was a bit worried, actually.
40:43The drawers are all different, the widths are all different, but it has come together just brilliantly.
40:49You've even made the worktop out of plywood.
40:51Yes, all the offcuts.
40:52It's fabulous.
40:53It's the best kitchen I've ever had.
40:56Back on the other side of the entrance come gallery is the creative heart of Sarah's home,
41:02her studio.
41:03Very, very lovely.
41:04Quite ecclesiastical, you know?
41:05Yes.
41:06Big, long, naive, altar at the end, that beauty of the landscape.
41:10It is a totally special space.
41:12It's energising, but it's calm.
41:14My hope and aim for this is to create a space for musical performance, drama performance,
41:23art classes, anything.
41:25This space might be able to develop creativity.
41:28Sharing it with others is the obvious next step, isn't it?
41:32Absolutely is, yeah.
41:37Also on this side of the house are bedrooms for Sarah's grown-up sons,
41:41one of which she's camping in while she finesses her own bedroom off the living space.
41:46Why do the guest bedrooms first before you do your own?
41:48So I can potentially let one, perhaps to somebody who's on a course,
41:54or maybe let both of them.
41:56Sarah may not have completely finished, but the important thing is she can live and work here now.
42:01That'll be a relief for her and her mum.
42:04I think being together for nearly three years, it's, yes.
42:11She's exhausting to live with.
42:13I think our relationship will be even closer now if we each have our own separate spaces.
42:21I suppose I'm quite fascinated by the hemp cream.
42:25The look of it is growing on me, and it looks nice with her artwork on.
42:30So just how much did Sarah end up spending on her hempcrete house in the end?
42:36I thought your original budget was crazily low, but it was what?
42:40330, that's right.
42:41Which is a fair chunk of money, right? 330,000, but it's also a big building.
42:46Therefore, 330, that would have been phenomenal value.
42:49It would have been.
42:50How much did you spend in the end, you're written?
42:51520.
42:53And now what you've ended up spending seems to me to be about fair
42:56for a building this size, albeit you've still yet to finish.
43:00So there's a bit more to go, I guess.
43:02Mm.
43:03So you now officially have spent everything that I have in the world.
43:07That I have in the world.
43:10Yeah, I don't know why I'm laughing, but actually there was a time when I thought
43:15I would not be able to get as far as I have been able to.
43:19Yeah.
43:19To get to this point and be able to get the studio up and running so I can see an income coming in.
43:25It just happened.
43:26That has to happen pretty quickly.
43:27And the building is what you wanted?
43:30Oh, it's more than that.
43:32It's kind of taken a life of its own, really.
43:34That is definitely to do with the hempcrete being such a lovely material to live with.
43:42And the fact that I built my own walls, part of a team that built the walls.
43:48I think if I can infuse people to creativity and also unlock this thing where people think
43:57that they can't draw or they can't paint, and that's just because somebody's told them
44:03somewhere down the line that they're no good.
44:06And in fact, we can all make a mark, all of us.
44:10It's a really good point, isn't it?
44:11Because you made something of a mark with the building, you know, on the planet.
44:14Yes, this is a mark.
44:15It's a mark, yeah.
44:16Yeah.
44:17And it's very, very lovely.
44:26This is life-affirming, coherent architecture, clad in stone and lime from the ground,
44:32built from natural, sustainable, carbon sequestering stuff like hemp and timber.
44:37If you want to be innovative and exciting in your choice of building materials, then don't
44:46be surprised when the building turns out to be innovative and exciting.
44:51And if you want to experiment with the building, then don't be surprised when the building turns
44:55around and says to you, hey, let's go on this next big part of the adventure together and let's
45:00experiment again.
45:02Sarah's story, which is one of tenacity and belligerence and fraught with pain,
45:10that tells me, reminds me, that within all of us there's a desire to make a mark, to create,
45:18to leave a daub on a piece of paper or on a canvas or to build a building in the landscape.
45:24And it reminds me of something else too, that it is to the artists that we should always be looking
45:31to show us the way forwards.
45:43There'll be five modules built in a factory in Wales.
45:46How are you going to get the thing here? It's crisscross with overhead cables.
45:51That's quick. Wow.
45:55It's an idea.
45:56We've never actually done anything this big before.
45:58What about the trees here?
46:00There'll be a new challenge for us.
46:02Our nails is coming tomorrow.
46:03We're all good.
46:04Okay, let's lift off.
46:06Oh, that's an interesting noise.
46:26Thank you so much to see.
46:39.
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