South Herefordshire

Furniture maker Lucinda has had a lifelong love affair with wood. Now she’s retired from creating beautiful bespoke items for other people, she wants to construct something for herself. Not just tables or chairs, but an entire house out of wood. It'll be low impact, wooden tiled like an armadillo, and set in the woodland just above the old family home where her children grew up. It’ll be a huge undertaking for a single woman in her 60s, so she’s recruited the help of son Dan and daughter Rosie. They spent their childhood with plenty of tools and the freedom to roam the surrounding woodland, without wi-fi or a mobile signal. Lucinda hopes she has two creative, capable adult helpers on board.

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The challenge now is to erect a beautifully crafted two storey, highly insulated timber home for a very modest construction budget of £150,000. They need to find innovative ways to transport materials through the woodland without damaging roots or vegetation, and to build a structure without any heavy machinery. It’s a feat which can only be achieved by drawing on a lifetime of woodworking skills, inventiveness, and family co-operation. But up against major logistical difficulties and sky rocketing material costs, can they pull it off?