A FAMILY built the UK's cheapest house for just £27,000 and it even featured on Grand Designs – but the project was cursed and ended up in disaster.
The blaze at the ecopad on New Year's Day in 2018 left Simon and Jasmine Dale and their two children homeless.
The couple began the project in the Lammas eco village in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, with just £500 in the bank and the home itself took six years to build.
The home appeared on Channel 4's Grand Designs, which is known for its ambitious housing projects and unique architectural work, in 2016.
It impressed host Kevin McCloud with its innovative design and he praised the couple as 'real role models' for sustainable living.
McCloud told viewers: "This won’t be a cramped hobbit house, but a spacious, solid, three-bed, low-impact family home."
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The family originally built the eco house because they wanted an outdoor lifestyle and to live off the land.
But disaster hit when a faulty electric heater sparked a fire while Jasmine was home alone.
The rest of the Dale family were visiting relatives a few miles away.
It was a devastating coincidence as their first eco-property also burnt to the ground.
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Known as The Hobbit House, it was built in 2003 using £3,000 worth of materials – including straw bales.
"We're still in complete shock, I can't say how I feel. But we know the feeling, our first home burnt down so we have been here before I suppose," Jasmine told The Telegraph at the time.
She added: "We're trying to hope that this will be a blessing in disguise and we have received so much love, but we know we won't be able to recreate this home."
Andy Wells, a close friend and neighbour, continued: "She managed to get out safely then had to stand there as the home they built and loved disappeared in a short time.
"We got in touch with Simon but we told him not to come – it would have been too much for him and the children to see."
Up to 20 firemen spent six hours battling to save the house and the fire was stopped before it reached the eight other houses in the village.
Dai Swan, group manager for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said the straw material made it difficult to extinguish the fire-ravaged home.
He said: 'It's utterly heartbreaking for the crews seeing how much workmanship has gone into these frames. Each piece of this building is bespoke, it's done to a beautifully high standard and to see it damaged by fire is just heartbreaking.'
A year after the fire, Jasmine said they will forever miss the site and the grand design that they achieved.
She told WalesOnline: "I will miss the wonderful people, we had really bedded into the community. We went from a bare field to a home with very diverse, landscaped gardens with hundreds, if not thousands, of birds, trees, plant life and insects and we created it all from scratch.
"It's a big thing to leave it but we can build roots again, we've had experience."
Dad Simon added: "We decided we didn't have it in us to rebuild that house in a way that would fit our children, now 14 and 15."
Over the past decade the family added 10,000 trees and plants, 1,600 sq ft of greenhouses and a shared hydroelectric turbine to their five-acre smallholding.
The Dales put the site up for sale for £290,000 in 2019, including planning consent for the new four-bedroom eco house.
The property was originally built using rammed earth for the floors, while the structure was made with round timber poles.
Reclaimed glass was also used to create the windows.
Featuring in Season 17, the Low Impact House was the most over-budget Grand Designs ever – a massive 5,300% more than the initial starting sum.
During filming with Grand Designs, Simon said: "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.
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"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."
You can read more about the property here.
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