Restoration and retrofit - The Hempcrete Topic: Designing and Building with Hemp-lime - page 485

Although small, the house still manages to feel spacious
and full of light.
Leah designed the house “on the back of an envelope”, having blown her architect budget
on the house that never was, and freely admits she was broke and “had to beg, borrow and
blag as much money as I could just to get the building to a stage where I could raise a mort-
gage on it”. The ethos of Leah's build is reusing and recycling: window frames made from
pitch pine beams reclaimed from an old church; £6,000-worth of low-emissivity argon-
filled glass from eBay for £400; floor tiles, wall tiles and kitchen all surplus stock from
eBay; and she has used natural, local and responsibly sourced materials wherever possible.
This low-tech, DIY attitude hasn't prevented Leah from creating a beautiful and comfort-
able home with its own unique style.
There were no issues with Planning, who it seems were sympathetic to Leah's style of
building. All the work was carried out under permitted development, and building control
approval was sought retrospectively, as “the build just moved on so quickly”. It took Leah