Nature-loving couple see cost of Grand Designs-inspired eco Hobbit home built out of old TYRES spiral to £250,000
Heidi and Sav Pavlou are building what they claim is the country's first below-the-surface 'earthship' using recycled materials and volunteer labour
A NATURE-loving couple have been left counting the cost of building their own Hobbit House after the budget skyrocketed to £250,000 - despite using manky old tyres for the walls.
Heidi and Sav Pavlou started building what they claim is the country's first below-the-surface "earthship" last May, with a budget of £180,000.
But the concept home, inspired by TV show Grand Designs, is now set to cost over £250,000 even though they have been helped by a team of volunteers giving their labour for nothing.
The five-bedroom house is set on two acres of land owned by Heidi's family for 30 years on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent,
Despite their setbacks, and building the house whilst juggling running a family tool shop and looking after five children, they believe their hard-work stuffing hundreds of old tyres with soil will pay off in the end.
The family are hoping to move in this May - a year after breaking ground.
Heidi, 43, said: "We were hoping to be in by now but, as always on projects like this, things have gone slower than expected.
"It's a little disappointing, but it is still going to be worth it in the long run.
"The hardest thing has been juggling our shop and five kids - and I'm going to become a grandma for the first time soon.
"We started with a £180,000 budget, which is normal for a five-bed house, but it's looking like it will cost more like £250,000-260,000.
"We were given this piece of land and I'd always been fascinated with earthships, so we sold our house to build this as our new family home.
"This is the first earthship in the UK to be used residentially, but we're hoping to use it for educational purposes too."
The eco-house features walls made from 800 recycled car tyres filled with chalk, covered in London clay and clad in Kentish ragstone and flint.
In October, they had a surprise visit from Nick Knowles and the team of the BBC TV show DIY SOS, who were working on another project at the end of the road.
RELATED STORIES
The home has giant double-glazed south-facing windows - luckily installed before this month's bad weather.
A team of volunteers helped the couple and their crew finally seal the roof with rolls of rubber, ready for it to be covered with earth.
Heidi added: "We could have saved a lot of money if we'd foreseen some of the problems - hindsight is wonderful.
"Things like caring for materials and making sure things are being used to their full potential, we'll be able to show other people how to do this in future.
"Keeping an eye on the budget and waste is a major thing to stay on top of.
"But once the house is done, we're hoping not to pay bills apart from water - it heats itself.
"We've kept an honesty window to show people what it's built out of. People don't believe you as it won't show when it's finished.
"The tyres act like a radiator and the thermal mass of the building keeps it warm.
"We've had temperatures of minus two outside, but 12 degrees inside, even though the house isn't totally sealed.
"The clay and tyres along the back and sides take heat from the glass windows and release it back into the room when its cold.
"The house heats itself, but we're having a log burner and air-sourced underfloor heating too."
The project has been helped by a dedicated team of volunteers, who have come from as far away as Argentina and Switzerland, and inmates at nearby HMP Standford Hill.
Heidi says despite many mistakes, forcing work to be redone, the help of volunteers has been invaluable in completing the project.
She said: "It was difficult working with building control - this sort of thing hasn't been seen before, and there was quite a bit of proving to do.
"In terms of help, we looked for people who we knew had done something similar, and people who came to help got something back.
"We didn't know the expertise of people so mistakes got made, but we had an amazing time meeting amazing people.
"We went straight in at the deep end and tried to keep to our word as much as possible when it came to community involvement.
"We worked with inmates from a nearby prison, who helped to build the place, dismantle pallets to use recycled materials and erect stone walls."
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368