“I suggested a veranda balcony going round the house at first floor level, but Tim said it wouldn’t work in the setting – so we compromised with a Juliet balcony,” says Tom. “Tim also suggested the nibs and portico, using K-Rend to create shadow lines and visual interest when you view the house from the garden.”
The final agreed concept included a 5 x 6 metre extension on the ground floor plus 3.5 x 4.5 metres of new space on the first floor, creating a total two-storey increase in living space of around 45 m2
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Tom’s biggest regret was that he had to park his dream scheme of building an underground ‘man-cave’ due to an estimated £100,000 price tag.
“Since I was a boy I’ve loved the concept of bunkers,” says Tom. “I always said I would have one when I grew up – a man cave, cinema room, music room or a kids playroom. I asked Tim to include it in his design but it was cost-prohibitive. It’s not entirely out of the question, though!”
Plans were finally passed in January 2017 and Tom and Carly then spent a further six months trying to find a suitable builder. “We chose the first builder because he said he was able to project manage it, but in the end it didn’t work out so we found another builder, Chris Smith, on Facebook. He turned out to be a great find – his attention to detail was amazing,” says Tom.
“We really wanted to find someone who would be reliable, easy to work with and who
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would also go the extra mile to get the best deals on building materials,” says Carly. “We liked the fact that Chris was always very ‘can-do’ and would come up with suggestions that would improve the build, rather than simply being negative.”
Carly and Tom moved from London into a house in nearby York while the building work was done, so they could be close enough to oversee the build on a daily basis. The build involved knocking down the old lean-to and erecting a new kitchen extension in its place, before knocking out the original exterior wall to create one large room. The exterior was also redesigned to turn the dark traditional cottage into a light, open, modern family home featuring white rendered walls and rooflights.
It was February 2018 by the time the trench foundations were completed and a double leaf masonry wall built for the extension. Working in snowy, freezing conditions, the builder also dug out the entire ground floor to lay underfloor heating pipes, using a mini digger to remove the debris. It was unexpectedly challenging: the previous owners had laid ultra hard concrete which “ruined” several pneumatic drills before they finally broke through it all. Part of the first floor was also taken down and rebuilt to create a higher ceiling in the extension. Access to the house created its own set of challenges. The lane to the back of the property is very narrow and a cable running across the lane had to be held up to enable lorries to squeeze underneath. Many materials were left
september/october 2019
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