location location location

Look how amazing this site is.........I am seriously jealous!

The house was built for a family who spent many, many years in a caravan waiting for planning approval for an agricultural workers dwelling - they spent all seasons in the caravan, working on the family farm and proving the need to be near their animals. And I guess this shows what happens when you persevere with a genuine set of circumstances. A fabulous oak cottage in a great plot with a beautiful horse for lovely people. ahhhhhh.......

Oooh, what a great idea - I was looking for a giant spoon and fork for my kitchen wall a few years ago but I LOVE this display of antique implements hanging in their hall. Maybe I will have a look on ebay for something similar or maybe some old shop signs (not actual signs as such - but giant object representing the shop - an huge key for a locksmith for example. Have I gone as crazy as I sound?)

Looks great anyway

what a handsome horse

p.s thank you for all your 'open day' comments. We are going to do it - sometime in October I think (enough time to paint and tidy) so I will let you know when exactly.

home sweet home

Just a quick post before I pop over to my parents house for my little sisters 30th Birthday.

This morning I met a lovely couple who built a large Border Oak house in a nearby village - on a great plot that they have totally transformed. I had popped over to chat about the Homebuilding and Renovation awards (they are going to wait and enter next year to give the garden time) but we got talking about my parents house and how Border Oak started.

And so I thought I would post a photo of my parents house - the first Border Oak house, and the first full oak frame made since the mid 1700's we think. It probably isn't what people imagine and it certainly doesn't look new - but it was where I was brought up and I LOVE it. What do you all think?

p.s. we are thinking about having an open day here at my own home to show a 'normal' Border Oak family home (after the TV programme we have been inundated with enquiries!) Would people really want to look at our little cottage with its garden full of toys and scribbles on the wall? Might be worth a try?

another new house

I have so many great houses to share over the next week or so........here's the first.

This is a project we built a few years ago for a lovely family - they kindly sent me some photos which really show how wonderfully the house has mellowed. It's a large house, I guess around 3000 sq ft, but isn't at all stuffy or ostentatious. Lovely to see how a Border Oak house improves with age like a decent bottle of red.................which gets me thinking - is 2 pm too early to start a bottle of Chianti?

watch Border Oak on SKY TV tonight - monday 19th july

We have just heard that the long awaited 'My Flat Pack Home' series will start tonight on SKY TV

Virgin 265 or Sky 246 at either 9.00pm or 10.00pm UK TV Homes.

Presented by Amanda Lamb it will follow the build of one of our oak framed houses. I don't have Sky but will try and find a clip that I can upload here and will be badgering my friends with Sky to see if I can borrow their sofa. It is going to be so exciting! The Border Oak website hits have already rocketed.

We have three different oak framed houses being shown on these dates below. We are so very lucky to have some lovely customers who don't mind the TV cameras following their dream home being created- watch the series if you can- it sounds great!

19th July

28th July

3rd August

boo!

Hi there!

I bet you thought I had forgotten all about my little blog? No fear!

But I have been super busy making ridiculous amounts of work for myself - trying to prove that 'working from home' is actually viable.........

In no particular order here are some of the tasks I have been wrestling into submission (aka making a list every day of things to do - do none of them - but at the end of the day add a few more 'to do things' onto the aforementioned to do list) oh dear.

1. A new, all singing all dancing, Border Oak website

2. A new, all singing all dancing, Border Oak Outbuildings brochure

3. A new, blah blah blah, set of design portfolios

4. Brand new branding (one of the founders retired so the headed note paper needs changing and as it is our 30th year we have a change of mini logo - quite exciting having a new look!)

5. Helping some of our lovely, lovely clients enter a self build competition (boy have I been humbled by how kind and passionate our clients are - very touching).

6. Setting up the redecoration and landscaping of the main office - which reminds me, why would a paint supplier quote 10 WEEKS delivery when you can nip into town and get the colour matched in an hour? Bizarre.

7. working out ways to celebrate our 30th year - needs to be something fun, inclusive and hopefully charity based. We collected some great ideas but have to narrow them down - hopefully before 2011.

8. Interview and employ a new 'front of house'

9. Design a new seasonal newsletter

10. Complete the little showhouse cottage and plan the big 'proper' showhouse.

Phew - see how easy it is to make a list? I have more, but thought 10 was a good round number. Strangely I love nothing more than getting a note book and a decent pen and making a list. And as all 'listmakers' will testify - a good list has sublist for each category. And I like to make little sketches next to my sublists so all in all an hour or so can be passed under the premise of list making. Cup of Earl Grey is compulsory. Which reminds me to add to the list.....

11. Design and commission Border Oak mugs and tea towel.

I didn't have much to show you so here are some old photos I have collected over a year or so for inspiration, and a beautiful sketch of the showhouse we are hoping to build when we get a spare 5 mins.