“When we first saw it we thought it was horrible,” says Jon. “It looked like a bombsite. The seven acres of land hadn’t been touched for years. Although the run-down barn had planning permission for a two-bedroom conversion, it was surrounded by tons of concrete from old farm buildings and there were dead rats and rabbits everywhere. We decided it wasn’t for us and a builder bought it.”

Two months later, the site was for sale again. “The builder had decided that the site needed too much work and it wasn’t worth it for him,” explains Jon.

In the meantime, however, Sally and Jon had become more used to plot hunting and had developed a key self-build ingredient — vision.

“Sally and I realised that if we wanted to make our dream home with stables happen, we had to see beyond the state a plot was in. We had to go for a site that needed work and make it happen.”

A big reason for their change in thinking was the escalating cost of property in Wiltshire. Prices for more straightforward conversions that required less work were out of their reach.

“Estate agents basically laughed in my face, saying we’d never get a barn conversion for under half a million pounds,” says Jon.

In the end they paid £168,000 for the site in September 2001. Two years later, they had their dream home. They spent £142,000 on the conversion, giving them a total cost of £310,000 — a fraction of what the house would have cost new. Their home is now worth almost £600,000.

DO

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