The exterior: The eco home took four years to build (Pic. Grand Designs)

BEGINNING with just £500, Simon and Jasmine Dale built a three-bedroom family home made with recycled goods and reclaimed material that’s being called ‘the cheapest house ever built in the Western Hemisphere’.

Living in the sustainable community of Lammas, in rural Pembrokeshire, Simon and Jasmine’s eco-home has been featured on the TV programme ‘Grand Designs’.

The home, made with reclaimed materials including glass, timber and insulating sheep’s wool, encompasses the family’s dream of living off the land with their children, Elfie and Cosmo.

Lammas is a pioneering sustainable village and in return for the right to build on the open farmland, Jasmine and Simon will have to prove that they had become self-sufficient on the seven acre plot within five years. If not, they will be forced to move on.

Featured on Wednesday’s (Oct 26) episode of Grand Designs, presenter Kevin McCloud told viewers: “This won’t be a cramped hobbit house, but a spacious, solid, three bed, low impact family home.”

Simon excavated 12 feet into the hillside in order to build a retaining wall along the back of the property, made from sandbags filled with excavated earth.

The floors of the eco-home are made from rammed earth, polished and hardened with linseed oil. The structure of the building comprises of round timber poles grown locally. The trees were then felled, prepared and cut by Simon.

The same poles were used to construct the roof, which was then covered in a damp proof membrane and insulated with sheep’s wool. A layer of grass was then planted on top for further insulation.

Due to delays caused by Welsh winter weather, the construction of the ‘Hobbit home’ took four years to complete.

In 2012, Simon had to postpone work on the eco home due to the wet weather; however, in the spring of 2013, he begun again, constructing the retaining walls made from hundreds of yellow sacks bought from eBay for 7p each. The sacks were filled with clay, sand and fine stone.

Simon and Jasmine planned to move their family into the property by autumn 2013 but, due to requirements of living at Lammas, they first had to set up a small business.

The family made the decision to postpone the main building work whilst they constructed greenhouses. During this time, Jasmine ran horticultural courses and Simon took on consultancy work in order to increase their original £500 fund.

Four years after beginning the project, Jasmine and Simon estimate that their eco home cost £27,000 to build, including the costs of £5,500 on sheep’s wool insulation and £5,000 work of vegetables used to feed volunteers.

Following the completion of their project, Simon commented: “I don’t think I could quantify it, but I can feel it in my heart when I walk around at the end of the day and see the bats flying round and hear the birds sing.

“It’s been hard and I wasn’t asking for an easy life. I like challenge. To put in a hard day’s graft and be tired at the end of the day. That exhaustion is a nice feeling.”