The excitement is building in the Nuttall household as they will soon be moving out of their Highgate house in North London, where they have lived happily for the past eight years, so that its demolition can begin! Anna, Robin and their three young sons Mark, Elliot and four month old Daniel are about to embark on an incredible journey with us. The family was quickly outgrowing the extended 1960s pebble-dashed bungalow where they live currently, yet they loved its location with wonderful views over fields to the front and only a short walk to Highgate Village and local schools.
Buying another larger house nearby would have meant paying a huge Stamp Duty bill, and we pointed out that there’s 0% VAT on new build homes. Even better, because our company fall into the category of “Design and Build”, there is no VAT payable on our professional fees either, unlike when using a local architect or consultant. So Anna and Robin made the decision – stay put, but start from scratch and build a brand new Facit Home.
We’ve been working closely with Anna and Robin to design them the prefect property using our unique digital design production process (we’ve called it the D-Process™).
Each of our customers have different needs and ideas so it’s always interesting having insightful conversations when the designs are being drawn up. The Nuttalls originally wanted a home built with a period exterior but our planning consultants pointed out that this wouldn’t be in keeping with the immediate area so we discussed other possibilities and very soon our architects came up with a stunning contemporary design. Lots of light-filled open plan living space to share with family and friends was on the agenda which had to be balanced by tranquil bedrooms on the upper floors that make the most of the country-like views and light aspect.
This large 475m2 home will include an underground swimming pool – a first for us! The thinking behind this was the family’s love of staying in hotels on their travels and they wanted to maintain a holiday feel to their new home. The luxury of a subterranean retreat with steps leading up to the spacious garden beyond does just that.
The house will be super insulated and air tight making the most of solar gain to heat the house during the winter months, supplemented by a Mechanical Heat Recovery System. In the summer, the open plan spaces will be cross ventilated by large opening windows connected into ventilation stacks running up through the building. The window openings on both sides of the building will provide excellent ambient light levels throughout the year reducing the need for artificial light and therefore reducing energy demand.
A new home is a daunting prospect for many but while the work is in progress the family will be renting a home close-by. This means that Anna and Robin will be able to regularly observe the build programme that with Facit Homes is a completely different process to the construction of any other new home you can buy in the UK.
Anna has many happy memories of living in the family home so she isn’t looking forward to it being demolished, instead she will look forward to the new home rising from the plot when work starts next month.
"We’re all really excited. The opportunity to build a house like this in London doesn’t come up very often. We are already enjoying working with the team who totally understand what we want so now we can’t wait to see the results unfolding."
We’ll be blogging regularly on this project so please check in again soon to catch up with the progress.
