THE HOBBIT HOUSE

Simon Dale was fed up with huge mortgage payments, so one day he decided to take matters into his own hands, literally. He only had a chisel, a chainsaw and a hammer. The 32-year-old moved his family to a hillside in Wales and started digging. The result is a wooden eco-home. Simon built it in four months, and it cost just £3,000. The house would look perfectly at ease alongside the Hobbit houses in The Lord of the Rings. Mr Dale, who has no experience in carpentry or architecture, constructed his sustainable family- home using scrap wood for floors. He also diverted a nearby spring to give the house access to freshwater. While he was doing the building work, his wife Jasmine Saville and their two toddler children camped in the nearby countryside. He said, “Being your own have-a-go architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself. Building from natural materials takes away producers’ profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.” The family struck lucky searching for a site for their dream project. In return for looking after the area, the owner of the woods gave them their plot for free. After digging into the hillside, Mr Dale, with the help of his father-in-law, first constructed the building’s timber frame. The roof, which came next, has a layer of straw bales for insulation and is covered with sheets of plastic to make it waterproof. Finally, it is covered with a layer of earth, which ensures the house blends perfectly into its surroundings. As well as being made from sustainable material, the Hobbit house, as it is dubbed by locals, has lime plaster on its walls instead of cement, a compost toilet, a fridge cooled by air from beneath the foundations and solar panels for power.