Life is precious and it's fragile
and that, that is written into every creature's DNA.
And to help protect themselves,
so many build themselves homes.
Some go a step further.
They don't build just for protection,
but for transformation.
They build a gateway for a whole new way of life.
A whole new freedom.
A house can have no finer ambition.
To affect that kind of change,
to radically alter the lives of the people who live in it.
This is Bronte country.
A windswept,
romantic landscape
that inspires great pride in those lucky enough to live here.
We're nearly home!
Living in Yorkshire is absolutely wonderful.
Yeah, I love being a Yorkshire lass.
Can you see that there, Isaac? The cinema?
That's where Mummy used to work when she was younger.
Kara, her husband Jonny and their son Isaac
live near Bradford,
where Jonny is a self-employed electrician.
I employ one person.
We're a small kind of local firm you know,
we just work mainly in the local area to where we live.
Just keep it simple, keep it kind of...old school.
Kara ran her own holistic therapy business,
but three years ago this family's life changed, irrevocably.
We'd gone on a family holiday
and my legs had started to go a bit numb,
and I walked onto the plane,
and I had to get wheelchaired off the plane
and I've never walked since.
Ready, steady, go!
Do you want a push?
Right, I'm going to win now because he's dropped his coat.
Kara was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica or NMO,
a rare autoimmune disease that can flare up
and cause irreparable damage to the central nervous system.
You don't think it's ever going to happen to you, do you?
You don't think as a family,
you would have to be facing disability.
On learning Kara would never walk again,
this family made another life-changing discovery.
A month and a half later, they said,
"Oh, we've kind of found a shadow and we're a bit concerned."
And it turns out it was a baby.
So, for the past three years,
Kara and Jonny have been parenting Winnie alongside Isaac
while adapting to disability.
They now squeeze family life into a small, hastily converted garage
next door to Kara's parents' house where she grew up.
Urgh, tight squeeze.
Not a space well suited for a wheelchair user.
Not unusual for Kara to fall out of her chair.
Always kind of got to be somebody else around, hasn't there?
From here down, the muscles just don't work,
so when I pick something up,
if I go too far forward,
I go bam and I'm down.
As Kara's parents are so close by,
Kara will often rely on them for help while Jonny's at work.
It's been hard, for all of us.
We just deal with that from day to day.
They need a space that works for them as a family.
Where's Isaac's bedroom going to be?
There. Yes! Next to you.
Now, in place of an old stable block in her parents' garden,
Kara and Jonny want to a build
a new, beautiful, accessible home.
A home that'll satisfy all their needs and transform their lives.
I want to have a beautiful home that works for me,
that is functional.
I want functionality and style to marry up
and create a beautiful house for me and my family.
It's going to give us the joy in life
that I don't necessarily have now.
Rarely does a project shoulder such responsibility.
I think this is the place.
Oh, magnificent view.
That is the house they're currently living in, I think.
And the site's just below.
I have to say, it's a very tidy site.
Oh, I like it!
It's even got a promenade deck to view it from. That's neat.
Kara and Jonny sold their previous house
to finance this new single-storey home.
And they've already built the foundations.
An exciting threshold for a promised freedom.
It's sizeable, isn't it?
But then, you know, being single storey...
Yeah, a few people have walked past and they've been like,
"So how many houses are you building?"
And I've been like, "Just one." Yeah.
My favourite thing, actually, is that tree there.
I love that view, I just love it.
So, you've got this far with the help of a groundworker, presumably,
to get you out of the ground? Yes.
Groundworks is awful, though, because they come in
and they spend so much time doing it, but there's nothing to see.
Tell me something, though. Did either of you ever say
"I want a new build, I want to build a house"? Well...
We wouldn't have chosen this, but it's circumstantial.
This has had to happen because of my disability.
Kara is one of over 16 million registered disabled people
living in the UK,
yet accessible design is often overlooked
and will nearly always place function ahead of aesthetics.
Disability access generally means you end up with
a home full of levers and grab rails and...
Yep. Which are not normally very beautiful.
No. Accessibility and functionality,
people haven't designed it to look sexy,
it's not beautiful. You want...
You want to go into somewhere and think "woohoo!," you know?
Have you worked with an architect then, so far,
to get what you need right?
We've kind of got the backbone with the architect,
so the actual structure, but beyond that,
that's kind of then down to us, isn't it?
The architects were fantastic
but finding architects that specialise in disability...
Well, disability equals money.
It costs so much to become disabled.
Unfortunately, we don't have that kind of money to be able to pay
for everything that goes with it. Additional design and... Yeah. Yeah.
So, we've kind of left a lot of that to us.
Kara and Jonny have designed much of
the layout of their new accessible home themselves
so if it doesn't work, they'll have no-one to blame.
Set on the site of the old stable block on a steep slope,
a perfectly level groundworks platform
has already been built up at the front
and cut into the hill at the back
beneath a long stone retaining wall.
Structurally insulated timber panels
will form the walls
and five laminated timber beams
will allow the interior to be open,
tall and large.
Wide, accessible doorways will lead you across flat floors
to an open living room
with views across the valley
and a dramatic roof light
atop an audacious pyramid.
The tall kitchen will have one wall
clad in local reclaimed bricks,
and the aim is to incorporate accessibility into the design.
Any mobility aids will be super subtle.
The floors will be ultra-flat
and threshold-free for wheelchair access
between the four bedrooms, two bathrooms,
a therapy room and a small office
which will give onto
a sheltered courtyard at the back.
All these spaces have to be accessible,
practical and beautiful.
The gable ends will be clad in the stone
from the old stable block that once stood here,
while an overcoat of zinc will wrap the roof
and the other elevations.
So there can be no mistaking this
for anything other than a modern building.
Jonny will project manage,
while Kara designs the interior.
A shared adventure to wrangle a beautiful new future.
A wheelchair accessible path down which they have never been before.
No building project is simple.
Every one is stressful,
and this seems to be quite an extraordinary one.
So, with the proceeds of the sale of your previous home,
how much money did you start this project with?
280.
How much is it going to cost to build?
About 380.
Oh, OK. Where's the extra £100,000 coming from?
We're going to need to borrow that money. Yeah.
We can't really scrimp on certain aspects, can we, really, so...
No, but it's exciting because even if the sacrifice is made,
it doesn't matter because I'm going to have
a house that's functional and beautiful.
Their £380,000 budget includes
the 83 grand they've already spent on foundations.
And that leaves a precarious future
for this high performance building,
where form, function and finance
will all be tested.
The difficulties of making
a disability access home
while at the same time making it remarkably beautiful...
I don't know if a building can do that.
I'm not sure whether or not it can in the end
answer everything asked of it.
Ahh, there we are.
A few days before their timber frame arrives,
Kara is already in search of
the new independence this building can offer.
I'm going on an accessible wheelchair course.
I'm going to go and learn some new skills in my wheelchair.
First time I've been away since paralysis.
When I get back, I'm hoping to see
a bit of our home, aren't I?
I love you.
Kara's condition was first diagnosed in Liverpool
by one of the world's leading consultants on this rare disease.
Neuromyelitis optica or NMO, is an autoimmune condition.
We don't know why people get this disease.
When NMO strikes, it's... it does so with attacks,
and they're devastating because their life gets turned upside down.
One minute they're living their life,
and the next minute they're a wheelchair user
for the rest of their life.
And I'm in, hey presto!
Kara is a remarkable individual.
She's so resilient, it's just amazing.
Bye, Kara. Bye, love you. Bye, darling. Have fun. See ya!
The following week,
Kara and Jonny's home begins to take shape.
I think there's about four guys on site today.
Er, it looks big.
The SIPS, structurally insulated panels,
are manhandled into position.
And by the time Kara returns with some new wheelchair skills...
It's bigger than I ever, ever imagined.
..there are walls and window openings.
We need some manpower!
Not from me, obviously.
In just a few days, the structure's ready for the large,
laminated beams which will give this building its tall volumes.
I think this is the biggest beam to go in.
So, we've got an overhead cable
which supplies our fibre to our house,
and I think that's really caused a lot of people problems for access.
Pivotal moment now.
Lift that side up.
That's it.
Oh, well done, guys.
Wow!
That was very tight.
This may become an accessible house,
but Kara is discovering there is no such thing
as an accessible building site.
I don't know if you'd noticed but the building trade,
you don't see any wheelchair users in it.
So it's not really catered for to be wheelchair accessible.
Ahh! Jonny! Don't be scared.
My life at the minute involves a lot of help.
And going from a fiercely independent person
to somebody who has to rely on people very heavily...
It's easy, that you can just do it so easily.
..is very awkward.
Oh, my God!
It's that reliance upon people that I struggle with sometimes.
Wow. It's ace, isn't it?
Doesn't it look different,
now there's a wall there? Yeah, it's like it's framed, isn't it?
You know, Kara wants to be independent.
In an ideal world, Kara wouldn't want any help,
she would want to do everything herself.
Wow.
But the reality of it is it doesn't happen that way.
It can't happen because of
the physical sort of circumstances she's in,
which is for the rest of her life, you know.
This isn't something that's going to get better in five years' time.
This is Kara now until she gets to an old lady
and she has to learn...
..to deal with that.
But for Kara,
these walls and their promise of independence
are already weaving their magic.
I've grown up here and I've seen these views and...
God, I feel really, really happy.
Of course, there is still one big obstacle
to any future happiness.
Money.
So I think the timber frame was about £80,000.
We're going to be skint. We need to borrow some money.
If they don't find the extra £100,000
missing from their 380 grand budget,
the freedom this timber shell represents
will almost certainly be more elusive than they hope.
Kara and Jonny are trying to build
an accessible four-bedroom house
in the romantic West Yorkshire landscape for £380,000.
Once the roof's on,
it's all just going to come alive
and everything's going to... Oh!
My mind's going to go, "Oh, my God, I've got a house!"
As the final roofing panels are positioned...
As far as roofs go, one of the best roofs we've put on.
Went together like a dream.
..the interior spaces are revealed,
and Kara and her mum can begin
to experience how this home might feel.
Oh, gosh, doesn't it feel huge?
Isn't it amazing?
It's just going to... Oh, it's just going to be so exciting.
I know. Yeah, I love it.
Because I'm physically not able
to do things any more,
it doesn't feel like I've been involved in it that much.
It's just that you're not able... Just physically, I'm not able.
..to do what everybody else is doing. Yeah.
Just one month since the SIPS arrived,
these walls have been wrapped in a waterproof membrane.
The gable ends are being clad in stone
from the old stable block.
It should help this modern building meld into
the ancient landscape here.
Is this a Yorkshire limestone?
Yorkshire sandstone, this.
Sandstone. Yeah, yeah, this will last forever.
It's old stuff, you can tell.
Yeah, remarkable.
And we're actually trying to match it in
to a different type of stone which is going to run along
the face of the entrance.
The new stuff is coming from about a five minute drive away from here.
OK. And it's coming in big rocks about 18 inch high
and random lengths.
It's split, but not sawn, so it's going to be flat.
So, it'll be quite a difference in character then,
between the old rustic stuff and that? Yeah, yeah, it will, yeah.
Nothing I've done before.
Experimental stonework will not make this house any cheaper.
Kara and Jonny are still £100,000 shy
of their 380 grand budget.
Money is becoming an issue.
Once the timber frame came up, there was like a...
..like a realisation of, right. That follows immediately.
That was bigger than what I thought. Yeah.
And that's going to take a lot more work and money.
Skint as well, so.
Did you begin a conversation with a mortgage company?
My dad said to me,
"Look, you know, I would much prefer to help you."
Is this bank of Mum and Dad?
Yeah, yeah. Just because we're getting it,
it doesn't mean we're going to go crazy.
It's got to be spent wisely.
To make this parental loan stretch,
Jonny is becoming a proper self-builder.
With the help of two mates,
he's building up the flat roof himself.
A process that demands dry conditions.
Everything is very wet.
If you look down there,
you can see how much water is coming off the roof.
So that's kind of what it's like every day.
Jonny and Kara are spending over £10,000 on this roof
but the large scaffold is
an unexpected cost of almost £4,000.
That end up there's popping out.
But it's essential to keep work on the roof dry.
Without the roof covering now,
I mean, this whole area would just be like a swimming pool.
It takes almost four weeks to install the insulation and timber.
But the really tricky bit
is applying the fibreglass finish.
The OSB deck that we'll install
the fibre glass onto has to be completely dry.
If there's any water on there, the resin will not cure.
It's a cumbersome process,
and the slightest drop of water
could cause the roof to fail.
This past week, I've just ignored my phone completely
because we just need to get this roof done.
Fibreglass sheets are cut
and then fixed to the timber with a toxic resin.
Well, this is sort of like heavy-duty matting
so it takes a lot of resin to absorb into it.
As Jonny struggles on with the roof,
Kara considers the critical accessible interiors.
Well, because we live somewhere that doesn't work for us
and doesn't work for me in a wheelchair,
it's made me think of what I do want.
There's a pressure to get things right.
I just don't want to get it wrong.
I just don't want to
make mistakes that we can't alter.
If I was able-bodied, I'd be down there every night,
and I'd be planning rooms and planning spaces.
And as it stands, I think I've been down there maybe three times.
It's sad because...
..I want to be involved.
However, sanding a freshly laid fibreglass roof
is a job we could all really do without.
The sanding is horrible!
Jonny wanted this job to take three weeks.
In fact, it takes twice as long.
An incredible amount of work has gone into this roof,
and I think we've done a pretty good job.
At a cost of almost £4,000,
the external stonework cladding is now almost finished.
We've had to cut these stones
to suit this steel, which you can see here.
And the reason we're doing this is to
completely cover this steel.
Took probably nearly a full day to cut them up,
cut the channels up and make them right.
It's going to look brilliant when it's done, yeah, yeah.
It's going to look completely seamless.
Inside, the reclaimed brick wall in the kitchen is finished.
GASPS
Oh, my lordy Lord!
Winnie! Oh, my God.
I can actually touch it!
Look at this.
A long-awaited internal detail.
The house is now going to have to be
as good as this wall, because it's reclaimed,
it's old, it's got character, it's got us.
It's got, like, where we come from, what we're about.
By the new year, torrential rain has turned to snow.
The glazing, happily, is fitted.
Yeah, it's good.
Now it's watertight, work can move inside,
where they'll need to find room for two huge, reclaimed doors.
So, these are the kitchen doors, Kevin.
What, these great things here?
Yeah. They're massive.
They're huge, aren't they? Yeah.
The doors don't scream accessibility,
but then this is a couple that don't make life easy for themselves.
Is that all finished? Everything's done, yeah. Yeah?
By way of example, Jonny's fibreglass roof.
This is a material that I would run from.
Did you always want to use a material which would,
you know, shorten your lifespan?
Yeah... Well, not particularly, but it's a real learning curve
because I'd never done anything like that before.
You know, I thought maybe two, three weeks.
How long did it take?
I think we were probably six to seven weeks.
Between November and December was pretty much a write-off.
If you knew it was going to take six weeks,
would it have been cheaper to go out and work
and earn the money and pay someone to do it?
Well, I've worked that out we've still saved some money.
However, it probably, you know, with the stress it caused, you know...
Well, it's one of those things. We've done it now, so...
Is it all done? Yes.
Yeah, I'm not going to miss fibreglass roofing at all. No.
Yeah, I mean, you've suffered a baptism of fibreglass.
Yes!
It's taken five months for this sturdy shell
to emerge from its foundations.
But inside, there's still a huge amount to do
and much of it will be done by Jonny.
The amount of effort he has to
invest in this project is phenomenal.
The fibreglass roof is just the tip of the iceberg.
Wow.
These stones embody so many things in this building,
so many hopes and aspirations and needs.
You know, you or I might buy a house or build a house,
if we're lucky, that represents everything we hope and dream for.
And yet for here, for Jonny and Kara,
dreams come much lower down the list in comparison to needs.
The rest of us can indulge our whims and our hopes.
This building has to just simply perform
at a phenomenally high level.
She can sit on my knee, it's fine.
Kara and Jonny are building a family home
in the foothills of the Pennines in Yorkshire,
but they're struggling to keep within their £380,000 budget.
For the first time,
Jonny's working alone on site, so the pace on the project has slowed.
Bloody snowing.
I've lost my husband to a house because he's out there all the time.
The man is on a mission and he's really doing something
for us and for a future for our family.
Jonny is spending every weekend and evening after work here,
giving this building a plywood skin in freezing temperatures.
At the minute, it does feel a bit never-ending,
but, you know, it's all heading in the right direction.
While Jonny prepares the exterior for the zinc cladding...
Kids, dinner!
..Kara's looking after the children in a desperately unsuitable
multi-level home.
She's had a serious fall in this house, which broke her back.
Now, she has a huge quantity of metalwork supporting her spine.
And, as a result, she's on a daily diet of painkillers
as well as medication to control her autoimmune condition.
I take between 15 and 20 pills a day.
Azathioprine, steroids...
If I hadn't have had medical intervention,
I would be dead, you know.
I'd much prefer to see my family grow up than be six foot under,
you know, and so I'll take the pain and I'll take whatever I need to
because I'm here.
By early spring, this family's
inspiring determination is rewarded
as their new house is ready for its zinc skin.
Today, they're going to start zincing the front of the house,
so it's exciting times! Yeah.
Zinc is far from the cheapest cladding material.
It is soft metal, hand-worked on site.
It will be this building's tailored metallic suit.
All of a sudden, it seems to be all coming together.
Modern with a traditional twist.
But the fitters don't have the site to themselves,
having to work around the delivery of several tonnes
of limestone aggregate that should help improve
the site's accessibility.
Yeah, we're hoping by the end of play today that we've got enough
hardcore down so Kara can access the house again.
This is one I want to work on for lots of reasons, really, but...
..you know, it's bespoke,
it's interesting on that side of things,
but also knowing that, you know, it's going to give both Jonny
and Kara a better quality of life, that's...
Yeah, it's a big thing.
Seven months since the Sips arrived, Kara and Jonny
have the makings of a very striking building.
That's beautiful.
And, and some levels are in,
which makes - well, certainly for Kara - makes it easier getting in.
There is real quality on show.
But quality is expensive.
Hello, you two. How are you?
Hey. Good, thank you. How are you? Good, yeah. Yeah, good.
Let me ask you a question. This project, right?
Super tight budget, yeah?
And yet that stonework out there is really, really beautifully done,
it's really nicely crafted, yeah? Yes.
And you're using zinc.
Lesser mortals... Yes.
..with more money...
..would be spending their money on steel cos it's, well, it's cheaper.
You want it to look beautiful.
You know, you want to see your house and go, "This is really nice."
And this is our fort, this is our fortress,
it's our castle, in't it?
But we'll try and then, on the inside,
we'll try and pull back on certain things.
I cannot believe you've been able to stick to your budget.
We've spent now £316,000.
That's nearly your budget?
Are you working for customers during the day? Yes.
And then you come here in the evening? Yes.
My word!
These rooms will need to marry form and function seamlessly
and nowhere will that be more important than in the kitchen.
Kara and Jonny have now finalised their layouts
and now their kitchen designer...
Sam. How are you? I'm all right.
..has mocked up Kara and Jonny's design.
Do you do this for every client?
No. We've done this so that Kara can see what space she has
and if it's not right, we tweak it.
Yeah. I've designed it in a way that I thought would be better for her,
but she doesn't like the look of it cos it looks too accessible.
OK. So there's little tweaks that we're going to do
to remove those elements.
Watch out, here's the client.
LAUGHTER
Hey, look at this!
Wow. Woohoo!
Have you seen this before? No.
SHE GASPS Wow. This is awesome.
Can you get comfortably right under?
Boop-boom... Bang.
Yeah. Argh, my knees!
I can't feel 'em, so it's all right.
So, we just need it a bit higher, yeah.
You need that rail gone, don't you?
Basically, with this kitchen, I don't want it to look like an,
you know, NHS kitchen with grab rails and things, you know, and...
Yeah. I don't want it to look so it's made for a wheelchair.
I want it to look beautiful.
For Kara, how this kitchen balances utility and beauty
will be central to the success of the whole interior.
Over the coming weeks, Jonny focuses on making this
building function thermally by insulating the floor
and installing the underfloor heating.
There's a hell of a lot of time and effort that goes into it.
This is endless.
It takes Johnny almost two months to prepare the floor.
It'll be screeded over in half a day.
So, these tripods,
basically, what you do is you set your main level,
so obviously it's going to be that exact level all the way through.
You just take them out at the end and then you smooth it off,
and that's your job done.
Mixed on site, this liquid concrete floods into every room to leave
a faultless, level finish.
Looking good.
Now that there's flush wheelchair access inside and out,
Kara can at last get more involved with the project
and spend more time on site.
So, this is what? Where did this come from?
From a pub. Foot rail?
Yeah. It's as good second time around as it was first time around.
It's sort of better. But it's going to be used in the kitchen,
it's going to be used in the bathroom.
OK, so this is going to be a grab rail, is that right?
Yeah, it's perfect, really.
You know, it's not a white, plastic, crappy bar, is it?
How easy is it to clean up?
It is... Well, a bit of elbow grease.
This is the first thing on the build that I have actually been
able to physically do. Yeah.
It's empowering to think that I'm involved now.
And it might just be polishing some brass, but, to me,
I'm doing something for our home.
How long has that taken us?
And look how good it looks already. Yeah, absolutely.
As summer slips into autumn...
..Jonny continues with the insulation
and starts the first fix electrics.
When he's not on site or at work,
he relaxes by refurbishing a collection of old electrical
fittings he wants to use in the house.
This, this particular one, was £40.
To buy a restored one, you'd be looking at £2-300,
so there's a bit of time and work involved,
but I think it's quite rewarding.
But just as this family begin to focus on their future,
Kara has a serious fall
and the metalwork in her back works loose.
She now needs surgery.
Just got to get on.
Yeah.
Just got to carry on and, er...
..hopefully it... Well, it WILL be OK.
I've just got to get some corrective surgery.
Hopefully it's the pain, you know,
I just get a lot of pain with it, so, erm...
And it just makes me feel like, you know,
Jonny's out there, working so hard,
and I just want to kind of do my bit,
but just everything that comes with having a spinal injury,
it's just a bit difficult sometimes.
Kara has to wait for reconstructive surgery on her back
and, for the first time,
the optimism which has driven this project seems shadowed by anxiety.
You know Mummy's told you about her operation?
What do you think about it?
Scary. Hmm.
All hopes for the future are now consumed by the present.
Buildings are powerful objects.
They can amplify our relationships with people and place.
Sometimes they can even effect real change
and help us become the people we dream of being.
I am more than usually excited to see Jonny and Kara's house,
and to see Jonny and Kara, because this is a rare project,
a beautiful thing, where they're trying so hard themselves to forge
a new sort of way of building,
a way of building for accessibility.
I don't know if it's finished
and, in a way, I'm not expecting it to be completely done
because the last thing I knew, they were skint.
Kara and Jonny's ambition for ergonomic, beautiful accessibility
far outweighed their 380-grand budget,
but they felt that with steely determination
and boundless energy, anything might be possible.
Wow.
It is magnificent.
All that zinc looks amazing.
Far more than I thought there would be.
Gosh. I think they've done such a beautiful job.
The crisp zinc cladding is softened into the hill
with a wild-flower roof
and bookended by the local stone gables.
It is a faultless, fresh chunk of 21st-century Yorkshire...
..as rooted, proud and as hardworking
as the couple who built it.
Hello, hello!
So good to see you. Ahh.
Look at you. How are you doing?
Yeah, brilliant. I love your hair. Oh, thank you very much.
Great. Hi, Kevin.
You're both very smart. Almost as tidy as the house.
Yep. Absolutely beautiful. So sharp.
Sharp and at the same time,
there's the little dancing meadow on the roof.
It's one of my favourite things.
Hey, listen, how's your back? How was the operation?
My back is doing really well, yeah.
And did they remove the metalwork yet?
They did. Well, the metalwork tried to pop out and say hello,
so it all got taken out, yeah.
Yeah. So, this really is the starting of a really,
powerfully different chapter in your lives, isn't it? Oh, yeah.
It's going to be huge, yeah.
Oh, gosh, that's all posi...
You are looking great.
It's cos I've got a beautiful home and beautiful husband.
We've created something beautiful in the eye of a storm.
Can we have a look in? Of course we can.
Shall we go in the front door? Yeah.
Cos I'd like the full... Yep. Let's go in.
Oh, are you excited? Cos you should be!
Oh, I am.
I like the gold door and super-flat floors everywhere, yeah?
Yeah. Everything's completely level.
Ahh...
With that great view out there.
It took a lot of work, but it was worth it.
An open, accessible space with level floor and a raised, firm sofa
for Kara to easily transfer onto,
all beneath a palatial glazed pyramid.
Every socket and switch has been considered.
This is a self-build home,
but you know the moment you walk in that it's built by an electrician.
Yeah.
Where'd you get these?
Just online.
They're probably 40, 50 years in terms of when they were
probably last in used.
I think there's something special about, you know, re-using something
that's had a former life.
Reinvention was always at the core of this project,
underscoring a fearless attitude to accessibility design
and embodied by two huge sliding doors.
Are you ready? Yep. Look at that!
Oh, yeah. Yep.
Oh, yeah. Ahh.
Our beautiful kitchen, Kevin.
Bricks are all... Are they all local?
Yeah, just ones I've pulled out from jobs,
you know, fireplaces being pulled out.
They're frogged with the names of the makers.
I think that's probably the nicest thing about them.
Listen, how is it all in terms of accessibility?
The brass bars, we've used as handrails and as bumper bars.
That just prevents Kara from hitting the units.
Is that one of those things
that people used to have in their pantries?
And I've noticed there are bells around the house, right?
The push buttons, yes.
A bit of fun really, but if she needs some assistance...
I love it. ..then it's there.
BELL RINGS Oh, yes!Ha-ha.
That is brilliant
because the alternative to that delightful, fun thing
straight out of a Wes Anderson film...
That's right. ..is one of those big, red pull cords.
We've designed what we want and we've made it work for us.
Off the kitchen is a small, sheltered courtyard...
Can we get out? Yeah.
..where Kara can hang washing for the first time in so long.
We've got the utility room just there
and all the windows are lower,
which means I can push the washing out onto the bench
and then hang it up... You can reach it. ..independently. Yeah.
I haven't been to a washing machine in five years.
You've regained something. Yeah.
And that, to me, feels important.
This house is full of life-changing and subtle accessibility solutions -
a wheel-in kitchen pantry with appliances all out and ready,
a level serving hatch to slide pans and drinks through,
a floating lowered worktop.
All thoughtful ways that enhance Kara's day-to-day.
But the home can't just work for her - it's for her children too.
This is my hallway of happiness.
SHE CHUCKLES
Open, wide corridors.
For the first time, Winnie and Isaac have their own bedrooms.
They, too, now have a new place to play.
Your lives have been on hold and, all of a sudden,
they've got their own rooms.
I mean that's a big step up for them.
Yeah, I think they've been really excited, haven't they?
The children's rooms are tall and spacious.
There's also a small therapy room for Kara
and a fully accessible family bathroom.
At the end of Kara's hallway of happiness,
Johnny has eked out a small office.
A space for him.
I like your taste.
And all this glassware...
That's my passion.
You know, these old objects bring me joy.
This is kind of another step back to life and normality again.
Can you enjoy this yet, this place?
Yeah, definitely, yeah.
We've done what we set out to achieve, I think.
Now, it's incredible. It's unbelievable.
Have to pinch yourself cos,
you know, it's better than you could expect.
Well, that's only thanks to Jonny's own remarkable selflessness
and empathy in creating this house.
His work here is quite noble.
The main bedroom has a wheel-in wardrobe.
The en-suite, an exquisite example of tailored, accessible design.
Jonny's love for his family is in every detail.
Did you ever suspect that Jonny was not going to be able
to fully rise to the challenge here?
Cos it's been him, hasn't it, all along?
It has, yeah, yeah.
His attention to detail is just so good
and every piece of tape seems to be put on with a spirit level.
What kind of lease of life do you think this is going to give them?
You know, Kara's condition is life-changing
and we, as parents, you know,
I sort of feel a deep responsibility for protecting her,
just making sure she's safe. Hmm.
And I think she doesn't want that, she wants to be...
She wants to live. She wants to live and be independent,
and I think this house... Will give her that.
Starts to do that.
She wants to be the best mum in the world,
she wants to be the best wife in the world,
and I think the house will be able to deliver something
that will help her achieve that.
I think we all hope for that, don't we? Yes.
And I think we all believe it can.
Yes, I think so. I think so.
This building is full of potential
and new opportunity for Kara to explore and realise.
She just has to allow it to show her what is possible.
This is a really good width for you cos it's safe and wide. Yep.
It's also a good height for me to sit at.
Is it a good height for you? Yeah, it's perfect.
I've never seen you without your chair.
Yeah, I know.
This was one of the first things that we specifically designed for
the house and it's lovely
because I grew up playing in these fields...
..and now I can watch the kids doing it.
This building gives me freedom.
It means that I can do all the things that I've been longing to do,
you know, I don't feel trapped.
Me and Jonny have tried to show that just by thinking
a bit harder, you can make accessibility work.
I wanted it all and I've got it all and more, Kevin.
Got it all and more, yep.
However bold the ambition contained within these walls,
all construction is underpinned by fierce reality.
For Kara and Johnny, their biggest fear was always money.
I have to ask you, really,
how you've done this because the one thing you kept saying all
the way through was, "We've got no money, we're skint,"
and I think the quality of what you've got here
and the fact that it is finished is entirely down to the fact
you've just worked your nuts off. SHE CHUCKLES
Yeah, I think we wanted to make sure it was
a good-quality build, but money was always on,
you know, the back of our minds. Yeah.
I mean, you were building in that terrible time when material prices
were just... Everything jumped up... Yep.
..and it just seemed like the material list was never-ending.
How much, then, did you spend, all in?
About 400,000, I think, all in.
Yeah. We'll never spend money like this again, you know.
Got to say, you've been the main man.
You've been the one doing the work, haven't you?
If somebody rang you up and said, "You're a great electrician,
"we suspect you're a brilliant project manager,
"you built that house, would you come and build ours for us
"cos I'm in a wheelchair..."?
Sure, why not? Yeah? Would you do that?
Yeah, definitely, yeah.
You know, we've learnt so much doing this house
and it's kind of a shame that you would learn all those skills
and then never re-use them. Yeah.
Are you excited about the future?
Yes. I've always known that we would have a beautiful home
cos that's just what we would do.
That is us, you know,
we've got force and determination, you know.
Hmm. We've done it and it makes me so joyful for the future
to imagine raising our family here.
I can see it all happening now
and I can see me being a part if it,
not just watching from the sidelines.
I feel like I'm in the centre of it.
Doing it. Hmm. Yeah, doing it, and WE'RE in the centre of it,
and it's just such a happy feeling.
It really, really is. Yeah.
Jonny and Kara never WANTED to build this house.
It's only here because Kara became paralysed.
Filled with light and joy and their bravery,
it breaks the mould of what accessible design means.
So, right at the start of this project, I admit,
I didn't think that Jonny and Kara could really achieve
everything they wanted because they wanted so much.
To build a house which was functional and ergonomic,
and delivered all the accessibility they needed,
which was also properly constructed and beautiful at the same time,
it's a big ask, isn't it?
But, you know, they cracked it.
They cracked it because, well,
Kara has this amazing ability to stand back
and see the bigger vision and to know what she needs.
And Jonny also knows what she needs.
He put so much energy and positivity into the project, of course,
and has amazing stamina,
but, fundamentally, I think the secret weapon here was
Jonny's understanding of Kara's needs in a way
that no commercial builder, I think, could deliver everything
she really, really required.
I just hope, going forwards, of course, that it does more than that.
That in lifting their spirits and making them a little happier,
filling the house with joy,
connecting them to this landscape where she grew up,
and connecting them to each other and their friends...
..well, that surely, that surely has
got to have a really positive impact on their lives.
We are building a new house,
a very environmentally friendly house.
And to have a space that allows me to heal.
So, I'm basically making it up as I go along.
It's a harmonious process when things move in flow and harmony.
I'm way, way over budget.
You know, you just have to do it.
Oh! What trickery is this?!
That's incredible!
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