This article about La Source was written by Amanda Astill

The House That Friendship Built

Ripped off by French builders Saskia Anley-McCallum refused to say goodbye to her dream of a home in the Alps. Instead she came up with a unique solution - relying on the kindness of strangers to help them build it…

With the French Alps sparkling against the crisp backdrop of blue skies, Saskia Anley-McCallum, 39, should have been enjoying the peaceful life she had craved. But work on the stunning Alpine farm she and her husband, Duncan McCallum, 48, were renovating had ground to a halt. Months ago, a digger had hacked a vast crater outside the farm, where beautiful meadows should be. The hole was still there. The toilet was no longer working, and whilst Saskia had come up with an innovative, if not basic, bin bag system, it was a nightmare. Her two children, Miki Bee, 8, and Jay, 6, viewed their new life as one big adventure, but the roller coaster ride had finally derailed. Speaking to lawyers, the reality finally sunk in. The building company they’d put all their faith in had gone bust – taking a big chunk of their budget. It looked like their dream of a new life was over. Unless Saskia could come up with a radical solution…

Facing a bleak winter, it was a far cry from the glittering city life she’d enjoyed the previous year in 2006. With homes in London and Edinburgh, Saskia enjoyed a jet setting lifestyle as a film director. Happily married with two beautiful children, from the outside life looked perfect. But behind the closed doors of her five-bedroom house she felt worn out from juggling motherhood and a hectic career. She says, “I went back to work three months after having my first baby. I’d take a breast pump on shoots and even courier milk home from the set.”

Deep down she knew she wanted a different life. “I yearned for the simplicity of the family life I had enjoyed as a child,” she says. “My father finished work at 3pm, and we’d walk into the village together to buy vegetables.”

At breaking point, during a skiing holiday in the Alps at the end of 2006 Saskia made a decision. She had to quit the rat race. Despite her husband’s misgivings, he agreed to move to the Alps for a year. Renting their house out, he could run his successful adventure sports design company remotely – and Saskia could finally spend quality time with the kids.

Overshadowed by Mont Blanc, with vivid green meadows that appeared to be in high definition colour, Saskia and her family felt like they’d landed in paradise. Samoens, the small village they’d settled in was like stepping back in time. “I’d walk into the village and everyone would smile at me and strike up conversation – unlike London. After picking the kids up from school, we’d go apple picking in nearby orchards. Every day I had a different invitation to pop in for a coffee or have a glass of wine. The sense of community was incredible, and a world away from the isolation of city life.”

After three months, the family decided to stay for good.

Now all they had to do was find their dream home. They’d already seen a perfect place - a massive 400 square metre alpine farm on the sunny side of the mountain, but unfortunately it had recently been sold. So when they discovered the sale had fallen through, they leapt at the chance to buy it. Friends, however, thought they were crazy to take the project on. Especially as they had decided to make the renovations eco friendly, making the cost of the building work e400,000 on top of the e530,000 purchase price. “I didn’t have a clue about renovating a farm,” Saskia admits. “And Duncan was virtually allergic to DIY. But I’d already fallen in love with the place; Built in 1865, the vast space of the barn, with its curving beams and shafts of clear mountain sunlight streaming in, felt like the perfect antidote to the claustrophobia of city homes I’d lived in before.”

On a recommendation, they hired a French building company to take care of everything. All Saskia had to do was sit back and watch her dream home be built. But right from the start, the French firm appeared suspiciously inept. “There was no project manager, just a bunch of itinerant builders on site, mooching in through our kitchen with dirty boots. With no health and safety regulations in place, the site had become a death trap,” says Saskia. In desperation, she spent hours researching eco renovations and trying to account for the e180,000 they had already paid in advance. By the winter of 2007, the situation became critical when she discovered the shocking news that the firm had gone bust. “I put the phone down and sat sobbing,” she recalls. “There was nothing we could do. The manager had run off leaving his wife and six children behind. Our money was gone.”

Without enough cash to complete the renovations, their dream was in tatters. But despite these setbacks, there was one ray of light. During all the chaos, Saskia had put an ad on community website Gumtree.com to find an au pair. A gorgeous Kiwi called David had replied, turning up wearing a rock t shirt. But he was more than a handsome face - he was also a Godsend to the family. In the evenings, he’d strum Tender is The Night by Blur as he sat underneath the canopy of mountain stars, making Duncan and Saskia feel like the life they’d dreamed of wasn’t quite lost. He even decided to take on the garden, turning the mud bath back into its beautiful natural glory. Through the website Saskia found a replacement au pair, Petra, who also felt more like a member of the family, than staff. It gave Saskia a radical idea.

She decided to start a commune – advertising for members on Gumtree. The plan was to offer people the chance to experience community life in exchange for helping build the house. It sounded like a crazy idea, but an experience from her youth inspired her. “After university, I’d worked as an Outward Bound instructor in America, where we taught people to live in the woods with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” she remembers.

This simple life, where people pulled together to survive, had struck a chord with her. But in the consumer-driven world of London she’d forgotten about these ideals. Could her Alpine farm be the place to resurrect them? “If I was so desperate to escape city life I reasoned there must be others who felt the same – even builders!” Saskia says.

“Come and live in an adventure sports paradise, work hard and play hard on an eco renovation of an old farm in the Alps,” the ad read, as Saskia pinged it into cyberspace, wondering if she’d get any replies. Within minutes the responses flooded in, and over the next few weeks hundreds of people replied, desperate for the chance of adventure and to swap their settled life for a new experience.

Instinctively, Saskia knew the people who would fit in with the family. “We were looking for people drawn to the adventure sports and the challenge of an eco build,” she says.

By April 2007, ten people from all around the world were travelling to join them.

Some of the recruits were surprising. When Chris, 27, the owner of a plastering company in Yorkshire arrived, after driving the entire distance in his white van, he looked every inch like a typical Brit builder. Short, but stocky, with cropped blonde hair and a vivid scar on his face, he usually spent his evenings down the pub having a pint. How would he cope living in a ‘hippy commune’? But he had hidden depths. “You wouldn’t expect to find a vegetarian builder from Scarborough, but we did,” Saskia laughs. “He’d been glassed in the pub, and it had been the final straw for him – he wanted a new life.”

Having left school at fifteen with dyslexia and no qualifications he’d never read a book before. Within days, he was devouring Autobiography of a Yogi.

Right from the beginning, everyone instantly bonded. The family stayed in their cramped quarters in the habitable rooms of the farmhouse, and the rest of the commune slept in the open space of the barn, with only sleeping bags for beds. But no one complained – instead they were excited by the adventure they had embarked on.

“I wanted to fulfil my promise and make it a life-changing experience,” says Saskia, “Every morning we all woke up at seven, walking through the dew of the early morning meadows until we got to the nearby lake – where I would teach an outdoor yoga class. I’d taken classes in London, but no one else had done yoga before - they loved it though.”

After a breakfast of homemade bread and local fruit, work would begin at eight with everyone throwing themselves into the challenge. Two local builders, Pierrick and Victor, had also joined the commune, and they passed their expertise onto those who weren’t builders by trade. But the fun began when the commune workers knocked off at five. “We had a big wooden farmhouse table in the kitchen, and everyone would gather round in the evening to eat dinner, which we would all take it in turns to cook. Sharing simple meals like pesto pasta, under the glow of candlelight was magical,” says Saskia. “Afterwards, we’d gather round and tell stories, strumming guitars and singing songs. It felt like travelling in your own home. I couldn’t believe how lonely and stressed out my life had once been.”

As the house progressed, life became easier. Soon the commune workers had walls to sleep within, and when David built a sixty metre decked area, it became an impromptu outdoor dance floor for the commune. “We’d have BBQ’s outside, and afterwards it would became a disco, with everyone dancing like crazy under starlight. Neighbours and locals often popped by to join in with the festivities,” says Saskia. “Everyone was on an amazing journey together. Travellers such as Paul, 28, – who’d come from Australia to join us – said they’d never felt such a community spirit in their lives. No one was motivated by money, which felt liberating.”

At weekends Duncan would take everyone biking and climbing, making the most of the incredible landscape around them. “The kids were in their element too, and they loved being surrounded by people giving them attention. They were also very independent,” says Saskia. “It wasn’t like living in a city where you had to keep them close. They were free to run about and play. At six-years-old, Miki Bee would walk quarter of a mile through fields to visit her little friend at a neighbouring farm.”

Of course, not everything went smoothly. “Mostly everyone got on, but there could be arguments. One of the guys slept with a local girl another commune member had his eye on. They didn’t talk to each other for a week, which was awkward. But they soon made it up, and it was never mentioned again. Some disagreements are only to be expected.”

By November 2008 the house was complete – built with an invisible framework of friendship. It was a beautiful five-bedroom conversion with a mezzanine area, which meant it could sleep twelve. It felt like their extended family home. Ricky and Andy, from the UK, decided to stay with the family. But one by one the other commune members had to return back to their lives, bidding each other sad goodbyes. Some returned back home and set up their own businesses, whilst others, like Chris, were inspired to live differently. “With long sun-kissed blonde hair and a healthy tan, you would hardly recognise the person who arrived,” says Saskia. “Instead of returning to Yorkshire, along with another commune member, he headed for India.”

Life for Saskia and her family had irrevocably changed too. Afterwards she took five weeks off – the first time she had ever been apart from her kids – to train as a yoga teacher. Now, the farm is an eco retreat where people can take yoga classes and head off on rock climbing and skiing expeditions to renew themselves. It’s still run by the principles of the commune – shared meals and the soothing sound of sinagalongs drifting through the alpine valleys, bringing strangers together. “I’m happier than I could have ever imagined,” admits Saskia. “I don’t miss my successful city career for one minute. There’s more to life than money – and this beautiful farmhouse proves it.”

www.sourcealps.com

www.adventureconcepts.net