'A shed worth living in': Grand Designs heads to Belfast as an architect and self-confessed shed fanatic sets out to create a four-bedroom family house for £245,000

In London, a budget of £245,000 will just about buy a studio flat on the fringes of the capital. In Belfast, it will comfortably buy a pretty standard three-bedroom semi-detached home.

But just outside of Belfast, well, the same budget has funded the construction of a spacious four-bedroom family home that most of us could only ever dream of living in. And it’s inspired by a shed.

Husband and father of two boys, Micah Jones is also an architect and shed fanatic. He perfected the art of his trade in his formative years by creating “Shed Land” — essentially lots of sheds on land by his childhood home.

When Micah and wife Elaine, look to upsize in Belfast, they realise they can't afford the home they want on their budget. Instead, they decide to live in a caravan while building their own home outside of the city, in County Down.

With an extremely tight budget and an even tighter timeline, basing the design on the idea on one of Micah’s favourite structures is the obvious choice.

"We haven’t been too sophisticated about the design, it is essentially a big empty shed to live in,” he says.

The project is financed from the sale of the house plus a mortgage they have secured. When estimated costs inevitably overrun, the couple have to rethink their plans.

“The bottom line is there is a finite budget,” says Micah. "If we runaway with the budget in one area we’ll end up with an unfinished house.”

One solution is to take on a lot of the hard graft themselves, before the couple find out Elaine is pregnant.

Five months in and Micah says: “The odd night I walk down to do some stonework and i just think this is impossible, this is a life’s work not a few months… the thing that keeps me going is that it’s for our family, it’s not a high architecture trophy.”

A year later and the final result is so much more than shed — modern yet true to its heritage, imposing — yet somehow humble.

As Elaine says, “This building is uncomplicated... and that’s what our family needs because life is complicated enough.”

It’s huge, but large windows keep its size in perspective with views across the endless rolling landscape of County Down.

If ever you watch Grand Designs to be inspired that this is something you could do yourself, tonight is the episode to watch.

It proves what can be created with clever design, patience, and an ability to see how small details enhance the bigger picture.

Grand Designs, Wednesdays, 9pm, Channel 4