Comment: From horse boxes to Hovis lorries, what does your dream home look like?
The concrete dream home, as seen on C4's Grand Designs. Picture: C4/Grand Designs - Credit: Archant
We love a quirky home story, and in the last week alone I’ve read about a man who lives in a horse box and a couple who turned a former Hovis lorry into a special sort of motorhome so they could travel the world.
We love a quirky home story, and in the last week alone I’ve read about a man who lives in a horse box and a couple who turned a former Hovis lorry into a special sort of motorhome so they could travel the world.
As those of us living in Hertfordshire know all too well, buying a house isn’t cheap, and sometimes it’s necessary to think laterally to come up with an alternative to renting.
Horse box living needn’t be a last resort, of course: bricks and mortar aren’t for everyone, regardless of whether a massive mortgage is required to achieve ownership.
Likewise, quirkiness isn’t always to do with the affordability factor – clever conversions and bespoke homes don’t come cheap and the couple featured in last week’s episode of Grand Designs. for example, spent nearly a million pounds creating a dream home out of concrete.
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The fact that their pride and joy was compared to a “car park”, an “electricity substation” and a “nuclear bunker” by presenter Kevin McCloud did nothing to deter the pair, who remained loyal to their original vision and proud of its resulting appearance.
“Bold but brutal,” is how McCloud ultimatley summed it up, which, while clearly not to everyone’s taste, is a step up from a nuclear bunker.
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Personally I prefer the bricks and mortar look, mainly because I can’t commit to a new hall and stair carpet, and the 100-plus lorry loads of concrete required to create a pad like that sounds like far too much commitment, organisation and expense. Plus, yes, it does look a bit too bunker-esque for my taste.
This place is in Lewes, East Sussex, and I can’t imagine it fitting in especially well here in Herts. But maybe you think car park-style living is exactly what we’re lacking? Email us at jane.howdle@archant.co.uk and let us know.
