CASE STUDY A LONG TIME COMING
For Paula and David Matthews, creating their dream home began back in the late s when they first bought their house, completing decades of good and not-so-good alterations before finally unlocking its full potential
TEXT HEATHER DIXON IMAGES PAULA & DAVID MATTHEWS P
aula and David Matthews’ house in West Yorkshire has been a ‘work in progress’ ever since they bought it, nearly 30 years ago. Most of that time has been a long and expensive learning curve as they have added, reformed and modernised their 1960s detached property to try and achieve the home of their dreams. Yet no matter how hard they tried, they never felt the house had quite reached its full potential, and they were always left wanting more.
That was until they were introduced to
architect Mark Scratchyard of Guiseley-based MAS Design Consultants in 2019. With a visionary eye and an (almost) unlimited client budget, he came up with a grand plan that would shake out the property’s niggles once and for all and turn the relatively uninspiring house into an ‘eat-your-heart-out’ family home with the Matthews’ eagerly sought-after ‘wow’ factor. The design was so radical that Paula and avid eetingly wondered whether it would have been better to demolish the house and start again, but the architect’s main focus was to open up the disjointed ground oor rooms, replace an entire rear wall with glass and create free-owing spaces that would transform the way in which it was used and lived in. For Paula and David, it was a game changer. “We spent a lot of time and money and made a lot of mistakes trying to get the house as we wanted, but we never quite felt we had got it right,” says David.
“I think the house looked quite ugly before this,” added Paula. “It was just an ordinary red brick house with white windows on the outside and a series of rooms inside. Lots of things didn’t work from a design perspective. There had been so many additions over the years, including ours, yet nothing seemed joined up and we made some expensive mistakes trying to get it right.” The protracted story of their dream house began in 1997 when the property they had often driven past and commented on came up for sale.
“At that time we were living in a four-bedroom detached estate house, in a cul-de-sac, and had
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reached a point where we wanted something bigger,” says Paula. “We were young and starting out, and wanted to up-scale. We had no idea, really, what we were taking on.” The house they had their eye on was a five-
bedroom detached property sitting in four acres of land in the middle of the countryside. It was close to Harrogate and Leeds, where David ran a packaging factory, and was well located for their two daughters’ schooling. For large chunks of the year it was standing empty, the former owner spending a lot of time abroad, so when it eventually came up for sale Paula and David’s offer was readily accepted.
On the day of completion, the house was still full of furniture and personal belongings, which the former owner then had professionally cleared while he was still in Italy.
“After that it was all systems go, and not long after moving in we decorated, recarpeted and generally gave the house a refresh,” says Paula. “It had been neglected and was quite dated, but we wanted to live in it for a while before making any major changes.”
Over the next 10 years they made a number of key changes to the oorplan to create more living space and join the garage to the house. They built a single-storey games room and replaced the dark brown stained wooden windows with Georgian-style white PVCu windows – a decision they later regretted even though it was a popular choice at the time. They also built dormer rooms over the garage. These adjustments gave them three extra rooms, increasing the house from a four bedroom to eight-bedroom property with four family bathrooms.
Things settled down again while work and family commitments occupied most of their time but then, in 2019, they found themselves with enough time and funds to be able to revisit their plans for the house and take it to its next phase. By this time the girls were young adults, David had diversified into property development alongside the packaging business, and they had reached the crossroads of either selling up or getting the best out of their family home.
may/jun 2024 LOW POINT
“Changing our minds over small things which were then changed 10 times.” – David Matthews
“Delays with deliveries or days when I couldn’t see progress being made. I learnt that you have to allow for factors beyond your control, that even though you have a time- line in mind you have no control over unexpected problems that crop up along the way.” – Paula Matthews
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