A family build at Sandbanks, Poole
We’re building our forever home by the sea.
We’re John and Kiki. We said goodbye to our old house and started building the home we plan to grow old in, at Sandbanks, where Poole Harbour meets the open sea. This is the story - told slowly, one postcard at a time.

the house, from us x
No. 01
46
posts and counting
11.3K
of you following along
One
forever home
Postcards from the build

No. 08
June 2026
What comes next
No promised dates, no grand announcements — just the next stretch of the road, and plenty of daydreaming about where it goes.
onwards, upwards

No. 07
May 2026
Down at the fence
Not every trip to the plot is about progress. Some are just about standing still for a bit.
no place we'd rather be

No. 06
March 2026
Digging in
Groundworks, it turns out, are mostly about what you can't see. We can't stop watching anyway.
mud, glorious mud

still a render — for now x
The house
Low, quiet, and facing the water
Timber, stone and a flat roof holding up a lot of sky. It only exists in renders for now, but we already know exactly how it will feel.
Where we’re up to
mud everywhere right now x
Finding the plot
Done — the one by the water
Goodbye to the old house
Done — one last photo on the doorstep
Dreaming and drawing
The renders are ours now
Groundworks
Happening now — mud everywhere
The frame goes up
Next — a shape against the sky
Moving day
One day — sand in the hallway
The family
The people doing the living
A build is just scaffolding and paperwork until you add the people. Meet the crew doing the living while the house gets built.

the whole crew x
Watch
As one of our reels puts it: FULL STORY ON YOUTUBE — for all the bits that never fit in a caption.