Inside violinist's £1.2m Bucks home on the market

The views over farmland from the road that runs along the Ridge could stop you in your tracks if you haven’t been there before.

It’s like looking down from a light aircraft.

In 2006 it was the elevated position of a quarter acre building plot for sale on the ridge that led to this house being built.

The musician who bought the land in Haw Lane had no doubt about the potential.

She commissioned architect Philip Tann from the Flackwell Heath practice Reform Architecture to design an eco-friendly family home with lots of glass to capitalise on the views.

Greenfields has been home to the violinist since 2007. To a large extent it’s also her workplace.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of The Chiltern Camarata, the chamber orchestra she founded.

The contemporary internal layout of her house in Haw Lane extends to 4,704 sq ft spread across three levels.

In total there are five bedrooms, four bath/shower rooms, three reception rooms and loads of storage space.

The kitchen is a vision of Zimbabwean granite worksurfaces. An extra large Prochef oven and a Stoves induction hob are included. There’s also a utility room.

As well as a healthy air flow, the overall design of the whole property is geared to maximising natural daylight.

The main living room is 29 sq ft. There’s also a study.

The two principal bedrooms are on the first floor: one is en suite, the other gets priority use of the family bathroom on days when the third bedroom isn’t occupied. Each of the main bedrooms has a Juliet balcony.

The other two bedrooms are on the lower ground floor. Each has its own bathroom.

In retrospect Greenfields built in 2007 was ahead of its time. The interior design has the wherewithal for at least two adults in the household to work from home without getting under each other’s feet, an advantage for future owners should the need arise as it did this year.

During business hours never the twain need meet if that’s the way they want it. Each partner can have their own space and rarely feel cold even in winter.

The house is built with pre-insulated energy efficient concrete blocks.

Among the myriad of eco features is a tank for the collection of rainwater. Grey water as it’s called in the building industry is generally used for flushing loos and other purposes which don’t involve drinking and cooking.

With so much glass upstairs and down, fuel bills could be a concern in some places. Not here.

A ground source heat pump heats the water for the radiators while up in the roof a ventilation system transfers the heat from outgoing stale air to warm up the fresh air coming in.

The fifth bedroom, if you’ve been counting, is a large single or small double depending how you judge it. It’s on the first floor.

Under the present ownership the basement has also been the nerve centre of a business enterprise. The 26ft workshop leading to the double garage is where the musician now nearing retirement has been restoring stringed instruments – mainly violins and violas.

“It’s surprisingly cool,” she told the BFP as she emerged from her workshop to find the temperature outside well over 30 degrees. “I practice in the rooms down there,” she said.

“For some reason the sound level doesn’t travel as much as it does on the floors above.”

The agents at the Great Missenden office of Hamptons who have Greenfields on their books are inviting offers in the region of £1,199,950. They reckon the basement has considerable potential for alternative uses, not just music making - a granny annexe could be one option, consulting rooms another.