AFTER a year-and-a-half of hard graft, made all the more difficult by thieves, Jon and Sally Jeeves' converted dairy has been nominated for a national building accolade.

The couple, who are both 39 and from Leigh Delamere, near Chippenham, are finalists in the renovation category of Build It magazine's Self Builders of the Year Awards.

Their work to convert a derelict dairy into a three-bedroom home began in June 2001 and cost £142,000 to complete.

"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, while living in a caravan on site.

"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.

"And needless to say, my husband and I quickly became pretty good labourers! It was a tough learning curve," she continued.

"But I had always fancied the idea of having a go at things like dry-stone walling and luckily there was a firm of dry-stone wallers working nearby and I learned a lot from them."

The dairy was also Listed and situated in a conservation area, so the Jeeves had to work closely with the local conservation officer to ensure the building complied with building regulations.

The most serious setback however, came when valuable Cotswold stone roof tiles from the roof, were stolen.

"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 was terrible, but there wasn't a lot more we could have done," said Mrs Jeeves. "That was one of a few occasions when I asked myself if we'd done the right thing taking on the dairy.

"Another time was when I found myself trying to thaw out the caravan's pipes with a hairdryer in the dead of winter. It wasn't a comfortable way to live and even our clothes turned mouldy."

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."

Now happy in their new home, the couple say all the hard work was well worth it and that they are thrilled to have been shortlisted in the Build It awards.

"I read about the 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.

"Winning would be a perfect way to round off the project, but the most important thing is that we now love our life here at the dairy especially being able to look outside and see our horses grazing.

"It was a very rewarding thing to do and although my husband might disagree, I wouldn't rule out renovating another place in the future although I probably wouldn't want to live in a caravan in the winter again."

Mr and Mrs Jeeves have already won £250 for their efforts but are now up against other finalists from Bath and Kent to win £1,000 and the title of Self Builders of the Year.

Readers of Build It magazine will vote for the winner and the results will be announced in early 2004.