CASE STUDY PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
By astutely saving up for over a decade, Chris and Linda Anderson had the time and money to re-configure their 1930s London semi to be exactly how they wanted, including a dramatic blend of indoor and outdoor
TEXT KAREN WILSON IMAGES ODC DOOR & GLASS REAR EXTERIOR T
aking their time has paid dividends for Chris and Linda Anderson, who were able to fastidiously plan every single element of their home extension, resulting in a relatively stress-free build.
“I wouldn’t change anything, as we spent such a long time planning and putting together mood boards,” says Chris, who has a furniture making start-up after working in the fashion industry for many years. “We even have a dedicated power socket for the Christmas tree – that’s the level of intricate detail we’re talking about.” After their daughter was born in 2004, the couple wanted to move from their Victorian terraced house in Haringey, north London, to a more family friendly home – even though it was a big step up financially. Their search area was wide, encompassing London and also Hertfordshire where they grew up. Eventually they found a four bedroom 1930s semi in north London that fitted the bill. “It was a probate sale and had been on the market a while,” says Chris. “But it had a garage, decent sized loft and lots of scope to re-jig the interior layout in future. We particularly loved the 90 ft rear garden which fans out, giving the opportunity for a future extension that would still leave ample garden space.”
Built by its original occupant, Chris and Linda were only the third owners and inherited a very dated interior. However they were in no rush to dive into major work straight away so initially focused on smaller quick fixes and cosmetic changes to make the house liveable. “We didn’t want to end up in debt for the rest of our lives but didn’t want to compromise either,” he explains. “So we decided if we can’t do it the way we want, we’ll just wait.”
To begin with, a wall was knocked down between the tiny kitchen and dining room, timber bi-folds were installed to replace the old metal sliding doors, and the hall carpet was ripped up to reveal the original oak parquet flooring. Moving the recessed side door out by three feet was another no-brainer, in order to make the outside toilet inside, and the greenhouse and pond were removed for safety.
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By demolishing a raised terrace and excavating the sloping site at the rear, Chris and Linda managed to add a basement family room with extended kitchen diner above
LOW POINT
“When we started excavating and
As the kitchen and diner were flipped around, they were able to fit a range cooker in the chimney breast
During the intervening years, the couple saved up and made overpayments on their offset mortgage to gather the funds for a much more ambitious extension. This thinking time proved invaluable to solve the house’s flaws. “There was plenty of natural light through the stained glass windows at the front, but the north-east facing rear was crying out for more,” says Chris. “As there was no way of doing a sympathetic extension, we had to create a new modern aesthetic at the rear while keeping the front untouched.”
Since it’s a sloping site, the kitchen diner is at street level from the front door but opens out onto a raised terrace with basement storage at the rear. “There was no link between the house and garden, just stairs down from the terrace,” says Chris. “So as we wanted to extend the kitchen diner by about three metres, it made sense to create an additional basement level
nov/dec 2020
discovered a huge three metre lump of concrete. We needed a digger with a breaker for a week, which cost significantly more. It was also bad timing to do the loft conversion in winter as there was water coming down the walls.” – Chris Anderson
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