A 17-year-old has shared his journey building a house for under £3,600. Teenager Shaun appeared in a spin-off of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, where he built his first home out of a £500 lorry.
“The goal of my house is so I don’t have to live with my parents anymore,” he explained. The Channel 4 programme saw his “cool alternative” to the £232,000 first-time buyers’ house price in Shropshire.
From refrigerated trailer to rustic cabin
Shaun transformed a disused 45ft refrigerated trailer by himself. “This is the lorry trailer I’ve bought for my project,” he explained. “It used to be cold storage for food, transporting up and down the country. It’s perfect insulation for a house because if it can keep things cold, it’ll keep me warm.”
The episode showed how Shaun transformed his home with one of the lowest budgets George had seen. Shaun’s mum said: “He’s taken the project very seriously, he wants to do it right. But because he’s acquired a lot of the stuff, he’s got to go with what he’s got. But at the same time he wants perfection.”
Inside the finished home
Shaun did all the welding himself, turning the boring white lorry into a rustic cabin. He told George how he did everything, with his mum stepping in for the painting. Inside, his home had turned into a light, generous space with a decent-sized lounge and dining area, a modern kitchen, and a proper bathroom, surprising George with a bath.
“I’m over the moon for you,” he said. George added: “It’s fantastic.” Shaun’s stylish home had been built on his parents’ farm but gave him the independence he was looking for.
Total cost revealed
After all the work, he revealed the total cost to be £3,532, with George commenting: “That is astonishing. You’ve built an entire house and you haven’t even spent your £5,000 budget. That is staggering.”
His new four-part series, George Clarke's Amazing Spaces: First Homes, was announced earlier this year. He’d said: “We're living through a time when having a home of your own feels increasingly out of reach for many people.
“Across this series I was lucky enough to follow the stories of some truly amazing people working hard to build their own first home for the very first time. It’s full of ambition, hope, creativity and optimism, but it also highlights why our broken housing system needs to change.”
Clemency Green, Senior Commissioning Editor, Channel 4, said: "This series takes the much-loved Amazing Spaces formula and applies it to a subject that affects millions of people across the UK. It's inventive, timely and full of surprising solutions."
George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces First Home is available to watch on Channel 4.
