WHEN the Sundaram family home was first built in 1932 it would have taken a team of builders months of back- breaking labour to construct their brick bungalow.

Now the family of five are getting used to a new standard of living after demolishing their 78-year-old home and replacing it with an eco-friendly, flat-pack super house – assembled in just two days.

The Sundarams caused a stir when they chose to bulldoze their draughty bungalow in Norman Avenue, Abingdon.

And neighbours were even more surprised when their new four-bedroom home arrived on the back of three lorries and was constructed by a four-man gang in less than 48 hours.

The family paid about £126,000 for the shell of their new home from German firm Meisterstück, which prefabricated the house at a factory in Hameln, near Hannover, and drove it to Oxfordshire.

Now the Sundarams are getting used to life in their futuristic, low-energy, air-tight, house which boasts triple glazing, a heat pump, two thermal solar panels to provide 60 per cent of their hot water and underfloor heating instead of radiators.

Mum-of-three Brigid, who oversaw the project, said: “It was an incredible experience. I just stood outside for two days watching them work from start to finish.

“We had dozens of people in the street watching the house go up and most people were standing there with their mouths open amazed as they watched the staircases being lifted inside the house.

“It’s a bit like building with Lego and they put the house into place on a floor slab we’d prepared.”

“The whole thing has been so quick it makes much less disturbance for your neighbours than it would be with a conventional rebuild.”

The Sundarams began thinking about designing their dream home as their three bedroom bungalow no longer had enough space for husband Hardy and children, Jaxom, 16, Olivia, 14, and Sophie, 12.

The family considered extending the property but were thwarted by the discovery of woodworm, so opted to go-ahead with the low-energy home.

As her new home is prefabricated, Mrs Sundaram had to design everything three months beforehand from the layout of the kitchen to the location of plugs and light switches.

She said: “The key reason to do this is from an environmental standpoint we wanted to show you can live in a better quality of house.

“This is the house of the future in the UK but people have lived in houses built like this in Germany and Europe for many years.”

Construction of the shell of the house finished in June but the family spent the next three months kitting it out and are still working at planting and landscaping their garden. The home, made from German hardwood, is expected to last more than 100 years.