Build a New Life In the Country

This week, Lisa and Michael attempt to convert a 400-year-old barn into an eco-friendly family home. The project begins well, but progress is slow thanks to problems with planning permission, bad weather, illness and damp. Will the couple manage to complete the build before another winter arrives? For many years, entrepreneurs Michael and Lisa have dreamed of creating a sustainable life for themselves and their two children, four-year-old Thomas and three-year-old Lucy. To turn their dream into reality, they plan to convert a 400-year-old barn in rural Nottinghamshire into a contemporary, eco-friendly family home with six bedrooms and five bathrooms. The couple also want to reinstate a 1960s extension to house a wet room and a snug. The new house will feature all the latest environmental technology, including doublethick insulation, a rainwater-harvesting tank and a heat-recovery system. Michael and Lisa bought the barn and six acres of land for £495,000 and plan to spend £450,000 on the renovation. After living on site in a caravan for a year, the couple finally receive planning permission for the conversion and can start work. However, the builders’ quote comes in at £560,000 – a massive £110,000 more than the couple were expecting. To cut costs, Michael decides to take on much of the work himself. He begins by excavating the original sandstone to rebuild the extension and digging trenches for the ground-source heat pumps. Despite beginning well, the project soon runs into trouble. When the coldest winter for 30 years arrives, it looks as if the roof could fall in and take the walls of the barn with it. The cold weather delays the work as the lime mortar used to repair the walls cannot set in freezing temperatures. In addition to the weather, the family must also cope with Lisa’s illness. As a lupus sufferer, she is often unable to work, meaning Michael must manage the build alone whilst looking after the children and running the rainwater-harvesting business. To top it all, problems with the bank then threaten to derail the whole project. As the delays begin to mount, Lisa worries that they will have to spend another winter in the caravan. To spend more time on site, Lisa brings home work from the office, while Michael plants 4,000 trees that will be turned into fuel for the new house. However, as one problem is solved, another arises. This time, it is damp in the extension causing concern - while Michael’s exacting standards lead to their own delays. It is not until the 100-tonne steel frame finally arrives that the build begins to take shape. For the first time, Lisa and Michael can see that the barn is slowly turning into their dream home. Can the couple finish the build on time, or are Thomas and Lucy set to spend another cold winter in the caravan?

Charlie Luxton visits Beachy Head cliffs in East Sussex, where a couple face mounting costs and legal wrangles as they try to transform one of England's oldest lighthouses into a luxury B With £500,000 already spent on the ambitious project, Charlie believes they have underestimated the cost of the renovation and the problems multiply as they deal with strong sea winds, a perilous access road and a delayed schedule.

This week, Charlie meets a couple who have moved their four young children from Oxfordshire to France to begin a new, idyllic life. Keith and Antoinette dream of converting a 19th century chateau-style mansion in Languedoc into a family home and B&B. However, increasing financial demands threaten to derail the project. When Keith and Antoinette met six years ago, they had two children from previous relationships. Since then, they have had two more children of their own. However, Keith’s long working hours running his own company have left them with little time together as a family. Having always dreamed of moving to France, the couple have finally taken the plunge. Their hope is that the children will lead an idyllic village life and become bilingual. However, in order to finance the build, Keith has to sell his IT business in the UK. While Keith divides his time between England and France, Antoinette faces the huge task of project-managing a team of French builders – a job made even more difficult as she does not speak fluent French. She also has to keep an eye on the four kids. The plan is to have the guest accommodation ready to rent for the summer season – but when the couple’s financial situation worsens, their hopes of a better life begin to recede. Can Keith and Antoinette realise their dream?

David and Hilary Body dream of creating a new life in France with their two daughters. As they plan to run barge holidays on the French canals, they're renovating a rusty old cargo vessel, with a view to it becoming the family home in winter and a much-needed source of income in the summer. Will they escape the daily grind, or will their plans of leaving Essex run aground? The family bought a run-down Dutch barge, Lotte, for £120,000, and have already spent £30,000 on getting her seaworthy. This means that they have just £20,000 to finish the renovation. If that wasn't difficult enough, winter is setting in - and their teenage daughters, Sophie and Katy, are getting fed up of life without central heating and other creature comforts on a muddy mooring in Essex. In order to get the boat ready for the summer season, the Bodys end up relying on the proceeds from the sale of some possessions on the internet. However, when the weather takes a turn for the worse, their dream of crossing the Channel hangs in the balance like never before...

This week, Charlie meets a couple who have uprooted their three young daughters to start a new life in beautiful Barbados. Dawn and Marcus plan to build a large, open-plan home with a guest apartment for rent. But they face an array of challenges, from hurricanes and labour difficulties to the demands of a foreign environment. Dawn and Marcus want to give their three young daughters an amazing childhood in the Caribbean. They are fed up with their busy, stressful lives in London and want a more relaxed existence so they can spend more time together as a family. Dawn’s mother is from Barbados and moved to Britain in the 1960s. Seven years ago, Dawn’s family inherited a 10,000sq ft plot of land on the island and they have wanted to do something with it ever since. The plan is to build a large home with a swimming pool, guest studio and separate two bedroom apartment, which they can rent out to generate an income. The build will cost £200,000 and they have £50,000 to live off for the year during the build. Dawn, Marcus and the children move to Barbados in the autumn. They hope to start the build as soon as they arrive and plan to move into their new home by the summer. Although Marcus runs his own construction company in the UK, he has never before built his own house. He will be fully involved in the project, overseeing the work and mucking in to help the local builders. The project faces numerous challenges, from hurricanes to termites as well as the difficulties of sourcing local labour and transporting materials to the island. Once the house is completed, Marcus hopes to use the family home as a showpiece and springboard to set up a business designing similar properties for locals and ex-pats. The couple hope this business will support their new life in the long term. Marcus believes there is a strong market for ‘modern homes’ rather than the “mock colonial horrors” scattered across the island. Since they met 11 years ago, Marcus and Dawn have never lived outside London, so they face the challenge of adapting to the pace of island life. Although they will miss family and friends, they are looking forward to the adventure of a lifetime 4,000 miles away from the UK...

This week, Hugh and Jude leave leafy Surrey for a sustainable future in a remote corner of Wales. With the couple hoping to host their daughter's wedding just six months after the project begins, the heat is on to finish the complex build in time. Hugh and Jude Crawford are looking forward to the next chapter in their lives. They have given up their house in Surrey to create a more rewarding, sustainable life in a remote area of Wales. The couple have spent £300,000 on a 15-acre smallholding with a run-down farmhouse in Cardigan Bay, and hope to renovate and extend the property to create their dream home. The smallholding also includes derelict barns, which Hugh and Jude plan to turn into holiday lets to provide an income for their retirement. Hugh has a unique vision for this project. After years of working as an architect specialising in underground railways, he is excited about designing his own home. His plans for the farmhouse extension are inspired by what he calls ‘postagricultural architecture’. Sustainable elements will be used throughout the build – including cement-free construction techniques, heat stores, a wind turbine and solar panels. The couple also have dreams of being self-sufficient – they want to set up a polytunnel, and have plans for keeping hens and other animals further down the line. Hugh and Jude are working to a strict deadline – their oldest daughter, Jessica, is getting married in six months and they are determined to have one of the stone barns ready to host the wedding. This is a big incentive to push ahead with the build, but as the barn takes priority during the winter and spring, the work on the farmhouse starts to fall behind... Fortunately, the couple manage to meet their deadline. The wedding is a huge success, with the whole family coming together to make the site beautiful for the big day. But once the wedding is over there is little time for Hugh and Jude to relax. The pair know the project will have to move at a more rapid pace if they are to complete the house before the end of the year. Hugh and Jude make good progress – the roof lights are fitted, the house is plumbed and the electrics start to go in. But just as things are picking up, Hugh’s plans for agricultural-style tin roofs are rejected by the council in favour of a more traditional material. The couple are upset by the decision, but they continue work on the rest of the house and lodge an appeal. Can Hugh and Jude persuade the council to approve their beloved roofs – or will they be spending another wet Welsh winter in their caravan?

The Kennedy family have decided to leave their big city lives behind, and renovate and restore a once-in-a-lifetime property that will become their dream home in Canterbury, Kent. Alex, having grown up in the town, always dreamed of moving back here with his family. So when he found out that a Grade II listed property, in which he attended dance lessons as a child, had come up for sale, he knew that it was now or never to make the move. The 500-year-old All Saints Court is a unique property, which sits by the river and boasts fantastic views of Canterbury's historic cathedral. However, as a listed building, it's very much on the radar of the local council. The couple have already worked with officials closely in order to get their plans approved, but nevertheless they are required to meet a long list of conditions. For example, they must use specialist materials, such as wattle and daub plaster to repair the walls. To save on money, Alex and Mia are project managing the build themselves, as well as keeping up full time jobs as an IT consultant and an executive coach. And though Alex is also determined to do as much of the work as possible by himself, he and his architect must source and hire a team of highly skilled workers familiar with the processes of restoring such a specialist home. It all sounds idyllic, but the family come up against various hurdles when the real renovation work begins; their plans for solar panels are rejected due to their appearance (despite the fact they are at the back of the house and can only be seen from one street in Canterbury) and, when work starts on stripping out the kitchen, Al has to invite archaeologists in to conduct some research before the new floor goes down. Also, quality and authenticity of materials is of great importance if they are to do this house justice. Al renovates and repairs over 50 windows in the house himself, and commissions a number of hand-crafted oak staircases from a local joiners to match the original staircase in the house. So, before the Kennedy family can move in, they must climb a steep learning curve - and work their fingers close to the bone. Charlie Luxton charts their highs and lows as they endeavour to create a comfortable family home in a derelict and ancient shell...

Rebecca and Jim Constantine moved from Wimbledon, south London, to the Buckinghamshire village of Sherington to stay with Rebecca's mother following the death of her father in 2003. A temporary arrangement lasted longer than expected, so, as they continued to have children, they decided to stay for good and buy somewhere of their own. They bought a 1960s bungalow on a plot of land backing onto Rebecca's mum's house for £420,000. With a mortgage of £350,000, they demolished the bungalow to build their dream Georgian-style house, made from mostly reclaimed materials and built to their own specifications. Rebecca has spent a lot of time sourcing materials and features from across Europe: from windows reclaimed from a Georgian house in London, to doors from France and tiles from Geneva. The whole house has been designed to fit around a reclaimed Georgian stone staircase. The renovation bug is something Rebecca has inherited from her late father, a builder by trade, and wants to produce something that would make him proud. She shops online for antiques and bargains every night after putting the kids to bed and, as a result, deliveries are turning up on site every week. Also, she regularly presents new challenges to her builders - fixing some French windows into the barn roof, or building the front of the house from reclaimed stone. When she finds a feature banister on the internet which will go with her staircase, she drags Jim off to Paris to have a look at it before buying it. Whilst there, she makes the most of the trip by visiting her contacts at reclaimed yards and comes home with a few additional purchases too. Whilst Jim continues to work full-time, commuting to London every day, Rebecca is on site with four children and dealing with the builders. Once the main building work has been done, the plan is for Jim to work in the evenings and on days off, laying Rebecca's French parquet flooring throughout the house and finishing the bathrooms and kitchen. But although they have some experience in building extensions in the past, the Constantines have never managed a build of this scale and each job takes longer than expected. Will they make their end-of-summer deadline, or will they end up spending another winter in a caravan? It all sounds idyllic, but the family come up against various hurdles when the real renovation work begins; their plans for solar panels are rejected due to their appearance (despite the fact they are at the back of the house and can only be seen from one street in Canterbury) and, when work starts on stripping out the kitchen, Al has to invite archaeologists in to conduct some research before the new floor goes down. Also, quality and authenticity of materials is of great importance if they are to do this house justice. Al renovates and repairs over 50 windows in the house himself, and commissions a number of hand-crafted oak staircases from a local joiners to match the original staircase in the house. So, before the Kennedy family can move in, they must climb a steep learning curve - and work their fingers close to the bone. Charlie Luxton charts their highs and lows as they endeavour to create a comfortable family home in a derelict and ancient shell...

Charlie Luxton meets a couple who have moved to Ludlow in Shropshire, but have been living in a caravan with their three children for 18 months due to problems obtaining planning permission. The building of their new home can finally get under way, but with little experience and a budget of just £50,000, they face a steep learning curve that tests their relationship to the limit.

Charlie revisits a couple who planned to convert a dilapidated lighthouse in Eastbourne into a luxury B He discovers how the pair helped finance their ambitious scheme by convincing builders to pose for a nude calendar, and learns why unexploded bombs from the Second World War left the would-be hoteliers wrangling with the council over permission to build a road to the premises.

Charlie revisits a young couple who tried to convert a Grade II-listed Yorkshire farmhouse into a stylish modern home.