Although Toby was hands-on at points in the build, his focus was to project manage and delegate jobs. “I was coming at it from a design perspective and learning what goes into a self build project, such as scheduling, logistics etc,” he says. Toby was also free to choose his team of tradespeople and refine his own processes to suit his ethos. With permitted development no longer an option, the couple made some changes to the design to ensure it had more chance of being accepted by the local planners. Tweaks included one end of the barn being widened with a simplified interior to keep more of the original fabric, including some doors and pine trusses. The project was granted permission to go ahead. “Out of the planning constraint came a better layout,” says Toby.

The barn’s only visible nod to modern technology is the solar panel array and Tesla Powerwall batteries, which make the barn energy neutral across the year, although Toby and Bella export energy in the summer and import it for a couple of months in the winter. Despite the learning curve presented by their project, there are only two small things Toby and Bella would do differently. “I would use a different finish in places such as the utility and work with lime render there, not clay plaster, as it’s easier,” says Toby. “And I would move in after we finished, not during! But that was a necessity. When people visit the barn, they can see its amazing character and we believe it was worth every penny.”

On the roof, Toby and Bella replaced the PVC-coated tin with both corrugated tin and a green roof, which they designed themselves. “Being landscape architects, we customised a design and bought the raw materials,” says Toby.

We wanted to use products made by people who care deeply about the environment,” says Toby. “For instance, the Brimstone cladding allows foresters and woodsmen to utilise ash better and funnels money directly into the local economy, so they are able to better care for woodland, replace and expand it. It helps to keep the woods in good condition and jobs local.” The farm came came with many derelict sheds, but it was the cob, stone and timber barn that seemed most worth saving. “Although there had been remedial works to keep it standing, it was in a particularly poor state of repair,” says Toby.

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However, once they started work, the condition of the barn turned out to be worse than Toby and Bella had feared. “Our biggest challenge was realising how bad it was,” says Toby. Water had damaged sections of the barn, due to years of neglect. “When we took the trusses off, the entire front of the stone wall fell off overnight and then most of the front cob wall fell over. I started to wonder if the whole thing was going to fall down,” he says. Specifying Eco-Friendly Materials The entrance hallway benefits from a striking glazed roof. The staircase leads up to the main bedroom and ensuite, with two further bedrooms and a bathroom below. The timber walls looks striking alongside the barn’s stonework Our primary mission is to make you and your pet happy, so we decided to offer you this incredible guarantee. Foundations under a barn are always a thorny issue. The stone segments below the building were on large pad stones, but the new timber corner required strip foundations using concrete with high recycled content. The Diggens used a special eco concrete, Regen 6, which features a high fly-ash content. What makes a “good” building project? Answering that question led landscape architect Toby Diggens and his partner, Bella Lowes, to converting a derelict barn on a tight budget, as well as a change of career. “We had been planning to set up a design studio in Gloucestershire and were looking for a little plot of land to build on and grow plants for our landscape business,” says Toby.

CALMING & COMFY: designed to provide extra comfort and support, ease stress and anxiety, and promote joint pain reduction. With the barn and studio completed, the couple love the open-plan living space with the mezzanine. Toby also appreciates how the timber-clad ceiling creates a level of cosiness all year round. “The barn delivers,” he says. “A lot of things continue to surprise me, which is lovely, and it was amazing to work with such a great bunch of people.” We know it's frustrating when coupon codes don't work as promised. We're shoppers ourselves, so we do everything we can to make sure we're always sharing the latest active coupon codes.Find sympathetic contractors who are interested in buildings from a personal perspective. We worked with several outfits who were very interested in not just the construction, but also the design, history and benefit of re-use. OTF Construction, run by Ollie Lambert, specialises in our type of project, so we didn’t need to teach our philosophy, it came as part of his approach. We chose mostly native plants, plus European species from similar landscapes, and left some bare ground for solitary bees and blow-ins.” Timber features heavily inside the building, with ash floors, a bespoke kitchen crafted locally from birch ply and engineered oak countertops. The bathrooms have spare tiles from a friend and reclaimed sanitaryware, such as the Belfast sinks, which came from a house sale in Norfolk. It was already a tempting offer for Toby and Bella, but coming with the opportunity to convert a barn on the land into a tailor-made home clinched the deal for them. “We realised it was a sensible choice as it would save us the price of a plot elsewhere,” says Toby. Undertaking the Holistic Renovation Toby and Bella chose the international accreditation scheme the Living Building Challenge over the perhaps more widely known Passivhaus standard, as it is more in keeping with their holistic view of the environment. Passivhaus is focused on ‘Net Zero’ and achieving this through energy efficiency – reducing the amount of CO2 a building produces through heating and cooling.

We hope Bella and Toby can resolve this and respond to us soon - otherwise we will certainly return the item at our own cost and then proceed with more formal action. We hope it does not come to this. The code has expired - Every Bella&Toby Brand coupon code expires eventually. We know it's frustrating when you can't get a working code, so we try our best to keep our coupons up to date at all times. Heating is supplied by a woodburning stove, fuelled by timber from hedge-laying and coppicing on the farm. “It’s simple and works really nicely,” says Toby. “The insulation is so efficient that we don’t need another heat source, plus it keeps the bills low.”

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Wethrift exists to help shoppers save money when they shop online. We help millions of shoppers save money every month by helping them discover the latest discount, promos, and coupon codes to their favourite stores. There are other restrictions - Coupons sometimes have restrictions, like only being valid for certain products, or only being valid if you spend over a certain amount of money. Toby and Bella’s first hurdle was planning permission for the project – and this brought up an unexpected issue. Although many barns are now gaining conversion permission through Class Q (permitted development), this was not applicable here. The positioning of a listed farmhouse nearby was the problem. Despite being quite a distance away, planners considered the barn to be within the curtilage of the building and therefore a full planning application was required to enable conversion. Wood and natural materials are at the heart of this project. A striking timber column supports the staircase