GAZETTE & HERALD: BY Jeeves, what a wonderful pad! Jon and Sally Jeeves, who spent a year-and-a-half and £142,000 renovating a derelict dairy, have been crowned winners in the housebuilders' equivalent of the Oscars.

The couple from Leigh Delemere, near Chippenham, beat finalists from Bath and Kent to win £1,000 and the title of Build It magazine's Self Builders of the Year awards.

Calling their win 'an amazing surprise', the Jeeves said it was the perfect ending to a tough 18 months, in which they lived in a cold caravan and even had a brush with burglars.

Their project to convert the derelict dairy into a three-bedroom home began in June 2001. "We had been looking for a new property for quite some time and wanted one with quite a lot of land to keep our two horses, so when the Old Dairy came up, complete with seven acres of land, we couldn't resist it," said Mrs Jeeves.

A self-employed management consultant, like her husband, Mrs Jeeves gave up her job to work on the dairy full-time, while her husband continued to work to raise funds.

To further keep costs down, the Jeeves' managed most of the conversion themselves.

"The dairy had only three good walls. There were a lot of remains of other farm buildings on the land and these had to be removed," said Mrs Jeeves.

"Needless to say, my husband and I quickly became pretty good labourers."

Mrs Jeeves recalled: "One of my lowest points was when I found myself underneath the caravan, in the dead of winter, using a hairdryer to try and thaw out the water pipes."

And the cold wasn't the only enemy the Jeeves had to contend with. Their most serious setback came when valuable Cotswold stone roof tiles from the roof were stolen by thieves.

"We knew that there was a risk the tiles would be targeted and we got insurance and even put up eight-foot fences and barbed wire to keep out thieves," said Mrs Jeeves.

"But it seems that they must have been watching what we were doing, because as soon as we took the tiles down off the roof, as part of the renovation, they got in and took all four tonnes of them."

As a result, the couple spent several months, frantically hunting for new tiles in reclamation yards, a task that set them back a further £4,500.

It took around nine months for the couple to eventually move into the dairy and another year to landscape the gardens, which had previously been a concreted farmyard.

"I read about the Self Build competition in the Times and had found Build It magazine very helpful in the past, so I sent off some information and a few pictures and we were thrilled to be nominated," said Mrs Jeeves.

"When we found out we'd won last week, we were amazed particularly as we knew that one of the houses we were up against was a huge wood-framed building that was worth a fortune.

"I've bought lots of copies of the magazines to show our relatives and we really are thrilled."

Mrs Jeeves said she and her husband found the renovation very rewarding and wouldn't rule out renovating another place in the future.

"I always keep my eyes open for places coming up for sale, although I probably wouldn't want to live in a caravan in the winter again" she joked.

The couple plan to use their £1,000 prize money to hold a joint 40th birthday party at their home in the summer.