German-Inspired Timber Frame Home

Brian and Amanda Sherrington had spent their lives moving round Army rented accommodation dreaming of self-building but weren’t experienced in DIY.

Yet, by the time their beautiful German-inspired dream home was complete, Brian was a hands-on, sleeves-rolled up enthusiast and Amanda reports “an indescribable sense of achievement” to the point where they now feel they could do it again!

“We didn’t have an architect and literally started with a blank sheet of paper,” says Brian. “We had a vision in our heads, from seeing houses we liked in Germany, and looked at Fleming Homes’ case studies. Then we worked out a floor plan together”

They chose timber frame having been impressed by the European approach to house construction.

“It was the Scandinavian style, modern design, high insulation values, fast erection,” explains Brian. “And our house is really beautiful: white rendered, with a big gable, full of glass and light.”

Brian says Fleming Homes always made them feel as if they were their most important customers.

“One of the reasons we chose Fleming Homes is we knew we weren’t likely to be pushed to the bottom of the pile by bigger contractors, as they only do one-off builds,” he says.

When it comes to choosing your team, Brian’s advice to self builders is: “Be careful with your team. We know someone else doing a self-build that had loads of problems, so we were really lucky.”

On choosing a timber frame supplier he says: “Look nowhere else! The whole Fleming Homes team was absolutely brilliant. They knew exactly what they were doing, at every stage.”

And the best bit? “Finishing it and moving in, knowing that, despite our huge inexperience, we’d done it, and it was something all our friends and family love, too,” says Brian.

Find out more about this project from Fleming Homes website.

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