If there is a couple who know how to get more bang for their buck, it's got to be Simon and Jasmine Dale.
Although building a property from scratch usually costs an arm and a leg, this couple managed to complete their extremely ambitious eco-home - which was featured on Grand Designs - with a budget of just £27,000.
Host of the Channel 4 show Kevin McCloud crowned it as 'the cheapest house ever built in the Western Hemisphere' upon its completion in 2016... however, it now no longer exists.
Tragically, the Dale family's penny-pinching efforts went up in smoke, along with their beloved pad, when a fire tore through the place on New Year's Day in 2018.
Advert
The couple, who have two kids, had decided to join the Lamma community in Pembrokeshire, Wales, which is an 'eco-village' where households live off-grid in an environmentally friendly way.
Simon and Jasmine took an unorthodox approach to construction of their dream home, which saw them turn trash into treasure while also making the most of what the Earth had to offer them.
They went for quite a whimsical look, with the dad explaining they wanted their eco-home - which they affectionately dubbed their 'Hobbit House' - to embody a 'romantic magical fairytale'.
It was created using entirely reclaimed materials, including glass, timber, straw, mud, clay and wood, while the property was also insulated with sheeps wool.
While appearing on Grand Designs, Simon explained that he wanted the floors to be made from 'rammed earth' which was polished and hardened with linseed oil.
The structure of the eco-home was supported by round timber timber poles, from wood which had been grown, felled, prepared and sawn by the dad himself.
Discussing its design with Great Big Story in 2017, Simon said: "We built a small, simple, modest house out of the things that were around us, things that we could easily get from waste and from the natural world rather than going and buying."
Jasmine also spoke of the 'very high standard' her husband was finishing their home to, explaining that they hoped that it would 'have a lot of longevity' and could 'last for generations'.
But sadly, this was not meant to be.
The couple began the project with just £500 in the bank, which was a detail that really impressed Grand Designs host McCloud when he visited the site in Pembrokeshire.
Describing the pair as 'real role models' for sustainable living, the presenter told viewers: "This won’t be a cramped hobbit house, but a spacious, solid, three-bed, low-impact family home."
But just as the years of construction finally came to an end, disaster struck at the Dale's extraordinary eco-home when a faulty electric heater sparked a devastating blaze.
Jasmine was home when the flames began to envelop the Hobbit House, but thankfully, she managed to escape.
Simon and their two children were away visiting relatives when the fire erupted and burnt their labour of love to the ground.
Horrifically, this was the family's second experience of a house fire, after their first home also burned to the ground.
"We’re still in complete shock, I can’t say how I feel. But we know the feeling, our first home burnt down so we have been here before I suppose," Jasmine told The Telegraph at the time.
"We’re trying to hope that this will be a blessing in disguise and we have received so much love, but we know we won’t be able to recreate this home. The fire was caused by a freak electrical fault.
"I was in the house just a few moments before the fire broke out, and there is a junction box downstairs with many electrical wires."
In a cruel twist of fate, it seems the couple's frugal approach may have contributed to the force of the blaze.
Dai Swan, group manager for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, explained that the straw material used on the property made it even more difficult to extinguish the flames.
"It's utterly heart-breaking for the crews seeing how much workmanship has gone into these frames," he said. "Each piece of this building is bespoke, it's done to a beautifully high standard and to see it damaged by fire is just heartbreaking."
The couple have said they will always miss the property and the 'wonderful' local people in the Lamma community, but admitted that they 'didn't have it in [them]' to try and rebuild it again.
Simon told WalesOnline: "We decided we didn't have it in us to rebuild that house in a way that would fit our children."
The Dales put the site up for sale for £290,000 in 2019 and new planning consent for a four-bedroom eco property there was thrown in with the price.
Speaking about how they had moved on from the ordeal in 2020, Jasmine told Sustainable Life School: "We will not build again for ourselves, however Simon does design homes for other people.
"Living in nature and visitors were a pleasure and a joy. The endless work and poor community dynamics were exhausting."
Topics: Home, Environment, Money, Grand Designs, UK News, TV
Olivia Burke