Transformers to the rescue

Overhauling an existing home is a monumental task, but sometimes the most daunting projects produce the most innovative results, says Caroline McGhie

Alarge Victorian house in north Oxford that had been divided into a dozen or more student rooms, all peppered with bathrooms, didn’t scare Jeanne Flynn as it would most of us. Having done up flats in London, she has an eye for these things. “It was all higgledy-piggledy, in a terrible state, so I knew it was perfect,” she says. She also knew that the value of a beautifully done-up house close to the high-performing Dragon School could exceed £2.5million. The property was in the hands of a developer who had the planning permission and architect’s drawings done, but Jeanne had one more requirement – a basement dig-out. She bought the house, successfully resubmitted the planning application and then found a builder whose praises she cannot sing too highly. Robin Sporn, who runs a family firm, Sporn Construction, arrived with a doorstep-sized binder of all that he would do, what each bit would cost and the dates he would work to. “He said he would come in on time and on budget and he was true to his word,” says Jeanne. She gave him a year to do the job, and on the appointed date she moved in with her husband, Tim, and their children, Jack, 16; Chase, 15; Zoe, 13; and Grace, 11. The students’ rabbit warren had become a highly insulated six-bedroom 21st-century house with a nanny suite, a den Canny conversions: from left, Christian Bonard with his bungalow; Jeanne Flynn’s basement; Scarletts Furnace and Old Stone Barn in the basement and a huge open-plan glazed kitchen and living space running into a new extension. It was a dramatic transformation of a house built originally by the University of Oxford in 1870 without indoor plumbing and with only a galley kitchen. Jeanne has trail-blazed without having the meltdowns and nightmares that the rest of us might have. “I think I am still the only basement dig-out in this area,” she says, “but they are starting now because people realise that, with prices so high, space is important.” Her secret was the builder, Robin. She nominated Sporn Construction (spornconstruction.com) for a Federation of Master Builders award, and this week he was named overall winner. Unusual though it may seem, Jeanne is not alone in praising her builder. Work doesn’t always have to end up costing double the estimate. Christian Bonard, for example, bought a dilapidated Thirties bungalow in Worplesdon, Surrey, with the intention of remodelling it. He asked the advice of Architecturall (architecturall. co.uk), an unusual team of architects and builders who undertake whole projects in one bite. He had a strict budget of £165,000. “There had been so much neglect and too many extensions, so we thought it would be more cost-effective