Property Drop Issue 13

12 THROUGH THE KEYHOLE
Purpose-built family home
Sharon Chilcott visits a Monmouthshire home
designed to fit a family’s lifestyle…
Sharon Chilcott
When Gayna and Philip Evans set about
creating a purpose-built family home
on a piece of land they had bought at
auction, they achieved it, on every level!
One of the obstacles presented by the plot in
The Narth, near Monmouth, was the fact that it
was on a slope. “We either had to work with the
levels or import a lot of soil and build it up, so
we said, let’s go with the slope,” said Gayna. As
a result, the individually-designed, six-bedroom
family home is set out over five split floors. These
divide the accommodation into formal space and
family space, with two bedrooms and a Jack and
Jill bathroom on the top floor and a games room
above the double garage providing lots of space
for the couple’s two children and their school
friends, away from the main part of the house.
The house also has a heart-of-the home kitchen/
breakfast room and lots of space for entertaining.
“This has been a real party house in its time,” said
Gayna.
When Gayna and Philip bought the plot with
outline planning about 14 years ago, they were
already experienced home-builders. “You get what
you want if you build from scratch,” said Gayna.
“We had built a house in the village, literally just
round the corner so we used the same architect
who designed that one for us. We had always said
we would do two or three ‘self builds’ because by
the third time, we would get it right. But, on the
whole, we got it right with this one.”
One of Gayna’s ‘must haves’ was at least five
bedrooms, to accommodate visitors. “Our other
house had four bedrooms, but our children, Paige
and James, often had friends to stay and the spare
room was downstairs, so that didn’t really work.
So I briefed the architect that I wanted another
bedroom. I also said the house must have high
ceilings and lots of light.”
The couple sold their existing property and
moved into rented accommodation whilst they
got full planning permission and started the build.
When they finally moved to their new, purposebuilt
home about twelve years ago, there was still
work to finish off. Gayna said: “It was probably
two to three years before it was completely the
way we wanted it and we are still doing things
now - while we live here, I don’t think we will
stop!”
The property, which sits in grounds of about
three quarters of an acre, provides generous
and well-laid out accommodation. The front
door leads from a car parking area to a ground
floor hallway, with a study one side and a
cloakroom the other. The double-height hallway
is overlooked by a gallery landing and a short