Couples Home That Used To Be A Public Lavatory.

Jon Du Croz and his partner Emma wanted to build their own home in Oxfordshire and set about looking for the ideal plot of land. Jon admits that ideally he wanted a piece of virgin land but realised that these were few and far between. So with his preferred option having to be ruled out he needed to find an alternative. Being an architect Jon was in a better position than many as he could use his vision and tenacity to find something suitable, he realised that he may have to renovate an existing property due to the lack of affordable land on offer in the region.



Jon looked at around twenty buildings which ranged from a houseboat to redundant commercial buildings but they were always snapped up by developers paying with cash before he could begin to think about financing it. It was when Jon was listening to the radio and the local news mentioned that someone had turned a public convenience by Oxford railway station into flat that Jon realised that he had to think outside of the box. He needed to see the potential in something which nobody else would really want.



Jon started to look at old industrial and municipal buildings that developers would not want to get involved with. One day on a bus journey home Jon say a For Sale board attached to the public conveniences in his home town of Witney and realised that if it was big enough for a family home then he would put in an offer. West District Council owned the building and purchasing the building was lot harder than the couple first anticipated. Firstly the building housed an fully operational substation which was owned by Scottish and Southern Energy and supplied power to the local district, so whoever bought it would have to build a new substation and build a stone enclosure on the site.



Jon felt that he could overcome the problems that came with this site and spent many hours researching what he could do and spent hours designing a contemporary home on the site. The sale had to go to sealed bids and Jon knew that someone else would get the site because they may not have done as much research as him and would not know the cost of moving the substation. This proved true but six months later the estate agent rang and said that the buyer had pulled out and asked if he was still interested. The couple renegotiated and paid 36,000 for the site in October 2005.



However things were not plain sailing for the couple now. Initially Jon had consulted a conservation officer who was happy with his plans but when it came to the second time around when they actually went in for planning they were met with a different planning officer who recommended a refusal for the plans. This was a massive blow to the couple but they went on a submitted a more detailed planning application which was finally approved in April 2007. They then had to move the substation which took until Christmas to complete at a cost of 75,000.To help save on costs Jon became project manager and enlisted the help of family and friends. An uncle owned a glass firm which helped with the windows and toughened glass staircase. The result is a very unique and contemporary three bedroom home. They spent 155,000 on renovation and have kept some of the original features even the ladies and Gentlemen signs.



These sorts of building would be knocked down if innovative self builders did not see them a potentially unique family home. These days more and more buildings such as these are coming onto the market due to council cuts and so if you have an idea of what you would like your individual home to look like then there are some unique buildings up for sale all over the country. Due to the lack of land available then self builders are increasingly looking to renovate old buildings.
http://www.uklandforsale.org