Future Ready Homes went to visit Ruth and Terry to hear the extraordinary story of their hands on renovation of Lock House, Newport, which you can visit during our Green Open Homes event. They did a lot of the work themselves and lived in a building site for over a year – despite being newly retired. Ruth told the story.

• Thanks so much for having us over to your lovely home. How did you come to buy it?

We were living in Poole and approaching retirement when we found it. We already had connections with Shropshire. My father was an engineer so he loved industrial archaeology, Thomas Telford was a big hero of his. As a child I was brought to Shropshire to see the Ironbridge. 

In 2013 our daughter was marrying a local farmer and my son was working up here too, not far from Newport. The Lock House was the first that came up on Rightmove. We didn’t look at anything else! It was so run down, it was a suitable candidate for a total retrofit. And we wanted to rescue the original building to its 1834 appearance, as designed by Telford.

We had some experience of building works before, remodelling our previous house in Poole and building an extension. But what we really wanted to do was a complete renovation and this was our chance. 

• So what plans did you have for this house besides renovating it? What did you want out of the retrofit?

Our aims were to be fossil fuel free and to make the house as energy efficient as we could. We’ve been fossil fuel free for about 30 years actually, as we’re with Good Energy who supply 100% renewable energy, but the trick really is to reduce demand. Even here I cook on the woodburning stove to reduce our electricity use. Both of our stoves are Chilli Penguins, made in Wales, they’re wonderful, very efficient and low emission.  

Anyway, our son lived in the house for 2 years while we were still in Poole, so we knew all about the cold and dripping condensation, and slugs in kitchen cupboards! It struggled to retain any heat and there was a flat roofed kitchen extension which leaked. 

To insulate the house the best we could, that was pretty much our starting point. We wanted our heating to be from an air source heat pump, with solar PV. Solar was a must. And grey water recycling. 

• What was your motivation?

Our ethos in life is to tread lightly on the Earth. We have both been concerned about man’s impact on the environment for a long time. I was worried by learning about the Carbon Cycle at O level and realising the Carbon Cycle was unsustainable because of the inputs of carbon through industry, transport, heating, you name it. We have been active members of Greenpeace since the 1980s.

To me it’s ethics – we’re making things worse for our grandchildren. When we first met, we were both surprised to meet someone with the same thoughts. I was always considered a freak! To live modestly, that was our thinking. Thankfully sustainability is a lot more mainstream now.

• So how did you go about it? Who did the building work?

A lot of it we did ourselves. It was just lovely, I loved every bit of it. We started just before Christmas 2015 stripping everything out.  

As this is a historic property we were finding out about lime products. We went to see Lime Green on Wenlock Edge, they were so helpful. We didn’t even think about using Celotex or normal gypsum plaster. Lime Green gave us excellent advice about the building fabric – such as using woodfibre insulation and lime plaster on the walls, plus lime mortar on any repairs, to maintain breathability. From our previous experience of condensation we knew dampness can occur after improving insulation and draughtproofing. So we decided to take the opportunity to fit MVHR (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) which is fantastic.

We wanted a builder who would let us work with them. By doing the stripping out, insulation, woodwork, and boarding out ceilings ourselves it allowed the builders, roofers and heating engineers to get on with their specialisms. I helped the brickie Steve. I cut all the half bricks up with a block cutter, clunk clunk clunk. It was fun. I was one of the blokes, barrowing all the spoil out. My barrow was just as full as their barrows. It’s a fantastic feeling at the end of the day when you’ve spent the whole day barrowing. 

Naill Jenkins from Lilleshall was our builder, he was brilliant, we had a very good relationship. They were a 3 man band and our son Steven joined as a labourer. 

Every bit of woodwork in this house was done by Terry himself. Woodworking is his thing. We had a little oil filled radiator – the only heated room in the house was his tool room – he didn’t want his tools to go rusty!

We took all the plaster off the walls, back to bare brick so they could be insulated with woodfibre and replastered with lime. When we took the ceilings down that gave us the opportunity to install the ducting for the MVHR, which gives us fresh air without losing heat from the house. The heating system is an 8kW air source heat pump, we put in underfloor heating along with lots of insulation while redoing the floors. We have a mix of solid and suspended timber floors. 

We were so lucky with our lime plasterer Marek. He’s Polish, he works all over the country but he lives in Shrewsbury. He was able to come and plaster 1 or 2 rooms at a time when he had an available day or two. A text would arrive suddenly (‘I come tomorrow’). Then we would get rooms ready for his next visit. That was the worst time. It was constantly damp and cold as we couldn’t heat the house as the plaster had to cure! Cold damp beds and clothes!

We did the build in stages so that we had somewhere to live. We had to keep moving house inside the house! It was primitive to say the least. But it was such good fun.

• You mean you lived in the house – while doing the work yourselves?

Yes, we moved around the house a room at a time – and we had a kitchen in every room. Our water supply was a garden hose connected to the outside tap. We had no bathroom but we kept the loo in the middle of the room – we just put a shower curtain around it.

My one thing I insisted on was not sleeping on the floor – we had a bed.

• Ruth – if I may ask a personal question – how old were you?

In 2015 we moved up here, I was 63 and Terry was 64. 

• Wow! I did a renovation like yours in my 20s, I didn’t mind living in all the dust and chaos, but I’m not sure I’d feel the same in my 60s!

When tradesmen turned up here without knowing us, the first thing they’d say to me was ‘My wife wouldn’t put up with this’. 

But it was brilliant, I just loved it.

We were 18 months without central heating! Right from the beginning we wanted a heat pump. The very first thing we did was get the gas disconnected because we wanted to be fossil fuel free. National Grid were horrified, why would you want it disconnected? They asked. We were so pleased.

But we were lucky we didn’t have a really cold winter. The second winter we had no roof, we were just living under roofing felt. 

We really own this home – it’s been very rewarding. We had a vision, we knew how we wanted it to be and we held onto that vision. It’s because we’re retired, we really threw ourselves into it. We were working 7 days a week, we didn’t want to stop. We couldn’t go away for the weekend anyway because we couldn’t lock up the house!

• And you’re pleased with the end result? You must be!

Oh yes. All the work we’ve done has transformed the house into a really comfortable place to live, warm in the winter and cool in the summer, with low energy usage. That was our vision and we did it!

• We’re looking for homes like yours that have been retrofitted – and enthusiasts like you  – to take part in Green Open Homes, to help give other people the confidence and knowledge they need. Would you like to?

Yes! We’d love to do it again this year. It’s great, lots of people have come and been inspired, they go away with lots of ideas. Gladly.

Green Open Homes this year is running over two weekends, 19th – 20th and 26th – 27th October. To visit Ruth and Terry’s wonderful home, and others like it near you, use the postcode search at https://www.greenopenhomes.net/