The first plans

The sale included planning permission for a single-storey pitched-roof extension replacing the current collapsing one. Here are the drawings for the proposed new front and back:


The extension was to wrap around the back of the house, making the kitchen much bigger, and included a utility room and downstairs bathroom between the kitchen and TV room, like so:



We decided from the beginning, however, that we would prefer to build two storeys, adding an en suite bedroom and dressing room to the upper floor. In January we sat down with a friendly architect to begin throwing ideas around. He came back last week with an ambitious set of plans:



The ground floor footprint is fairly similar to the current one, though it opens a set of doors between the library and living room. The new kitchen does not extend any further back than at present.



Upstairs there's no en suite, just the bedroom at the back and dressing room to the fore. One of the big problems with the two-storey extension was always going to be getting light into the stairway. Here, that is solved by glazed screens at the bathroom and "study" (currently the box room), and internal windows from the new bedroom and dressing room.

So far, so simple, but here's the bit that'd turn heads:



Seen here from the side, instead of a normal pitched roof there's a "factory roof" of two pitches sloping the same way. The vertical surface of each is a window bringing light into the new upstairs rooms.

In 3-D, the ground and first floors would look like this:



We rejected the factory roof idea, largely because we don't want that much light coming in to the bedroom - one of the reasons it's at the back, west-facing, is to keep it as dark as possible. Nor do we like the internal windows, except for the two glazed screens at the bathroom and study. The full-length dressing room window is another keeper from this plan. An en suite, shower and hot press, however, are must-haves for upstairs.

Downstairs we won't be opening that new door from the library as shelving space is at a premium. A utility room is essential, and we don't think there will be sufficient dining space in this design. Extending backwards seems the only way to go. Based on the first, wraparound, kitchen we hoped to be able to extend the original kitchen as well as the new one, but our architect informs us this will leave the middle of the room very dark. So only the new part of the kitchen will be extended in the next, eagerly awaited, set of drawings.

First impressions

This is our beautiful new house. The extension to the left of the picture was built without proper foundations and is now pulling away from the main house, hence the huge cracks in the masonry around the window.

We first saw the place in June 2006. The estate agent's brochure said:

We finally moved in on 11th December. This is how it was left to us:
	The hall doesn't merit much comment except for the unpleasant dark red carpet. The kitchen is at the back and two doors lead off to the right: the dining room is at the front and the sitting room at the back.
	The living room looks a mess but did shape up once our furniture went in. It has the advantage of a fireplace and a storage heater, making it the only room in the house which doesn't require a separate electric heater to make it habitable.
	One of the blanker canvases in the house, this is a well proportioned, square-ish room at the front. It has temporarily become a substitute kitchen but it will probably end up as a library in the final plans.
	The brochure above runs the kitchen and "breakfast room" together, almost as if it was trying to hurry you through and out again. The kitchen to the right is part of the original house. To the left, the "breakfast room" is an extension. The two rooms are not quite joined at the ceiling as the extension is slowly pulling away from the main house. This leaves a crack big enough to see the sky through.
	Here we are in the breakfast room looking back into the kitchen. The crack separating the two is clearly visible in the wall above the leftover fridge. One of the first construction tasks will be getting the L-shaped gap here bricked up with a door installed. This will weather the original house and allow for the demolition of the extension.
	The last room downstairs is at the front of the extension. The white plaster shows the structural cracks quite clearly. From the lack of carpet, I suspect that this room never really got used for the purpose it was intended.
	Here's a close-up of the room from the outside, with those cracks in glorious detail. Thankfully it seems that all of the damage is in the extension (and we have a surveyor's report to back that up). The whole condemned wing should come down without too much fuss, hopefully.
	The master bedroom at the back, with its built-in wardrobes (all of which is coming out, eventually). The room is a good size and merely requires luxuries like a source of heat.
	This is the upstairs front bedroom. Facing out onto the main road it's probably too noisy to ever use as a bedroom, but it does get the sun in the morning so I'm sure we'll find some use for it. It was supplied with the carcass of a sliderobe, minus the mirrored doors. Two days with a manual screwdriver took the whole thing out, and the filthy threadbare carpet followed. We shall not see their like again. With luck.
	The box room at the front was one of the disaster zones. Awful carpet, non-functioning blind, leftover junk and no working source of electricity (most of the other rooms have one working socket). Out came the junk, up came the carpet and the cats moved in. They don't seem to mind the wallpaper. This will probably eventually become a study of some sort. Until then it's just for keeping things (like cats) out of the way.
	The brochure saves the best room to last. Tiny bathrooms and kitchens seem to have been the norm in the mid-1960s when the place was built. I'm guessing it was last renovated some time in the '80s, during the coloured suite craze. Turning this into something habitable is one of the major challenges facing us.
	A side passage, including the extension's back door, leads down to the garden (though this is the view towards the main road at the front).
	It's quite a generous space, overshadowed (though not overlooked) by the apartments next door.

Nothing for it now but to get to work.