A sideways move
Clare and Kieran Jay have taken a slither of unused space and cleverly used it to unlock the potential of their victorian family home
A clever renovation and extension scheme provides room for a growing family in their London Victorian terrace home
What do you do if you love the area you live in, but you’ve outgrown your home and it’s just too expensive to trade up locally? That was the situation facing Clare and Kieran Jay, who’d just had their third child. “We needed to either move a long way out of London, buy another house in a terrible state, or extend,” remembers Clare. The only available extension space in their Victorian end-terrace (locally listed, and in a conservation area) was a tiny side passage, only 2m at its widest, and a mere 1m at its narrowest. But with one toddler still sleeping in the couple’s bedroom, they badly needed a fourth bedroom, as well as more bathrooms, a home office and masses more storage space.
A lack of space wasn’t the only issue. “We had to reach the front door by going up steps, and there was no real hallway once you were inside, so the front sitting room became a dumping ground,” says Clare. Elsewhere, a previous glazed kitchen extension was in need of some renovation, as was an earlier loft conversion — and the whole house needed rewiring and refreshing.
Creating more useable space
“The problem was the house had too many living rooms,” explains London-based designer Robert Rhodes, who designed plans for the extension and remodelling scheme and also acted as project manager for Clare and Kieran. “Having an entrance at raised ground floor meant an entire level was set aside for reception rooms that the family didn’t use very often. And to reach the kitchen and garden at lower ground level, they had to come into the house at the raised ground level and then go down again.”
The key to making the house work properly for the family is a slim, two-storey, brick-clad and glazed roof extension at ground and basement level, that brings the house’s main entrance, hallway and service areas from the front to the side.
The original basement is now a light, bright, open-plan kitchen/dining/living room leading out to the garden. The fully glazed kitchen space, built in 2003, has also been overhauled.
With the heart of the home now at the lower level, the previously unused rooms on the upper ground floor could become private family spaces, with a new master en suite, dressing room and shower room. The suite is accessed through a hidden ‘jib’ door (one that’s flush with the wall, and without door frames or furniture) in the fireplace alcove. The old front room, previously a dumping ground for family clutter, has taken on a new life as the home office, with a storage area also behind a jib door.
Building begins
With planning approved (the couple put in separate applications for the side extension and a dormer addition to the original loft conversion) and both sets of neighbours happy to sign their Party Wall Agreements, the building works could start.the family moved out during the year-long project,
living in Clare’s mother’s house a few miles away (“that was a godsend”, says Clare).
For the extension, Robert and his team opted for a brick and block construction with cavity wall insulation. “It’s structurally independent from the original house, to allow for differential movements between the old and new structures,” he explains.
The extended kitchen was fully refurbished, too, with new glazing throughout. “Two sides of the sliding doors needed to be replaced, as the sealed units were failing. Aesthetics and thermal efficiency had moved on, and the original door system was no longer on sale, so Clare and Kieran chose to replace all of the doors, rather than just two,” says Robert. That cost £18,000 rather than £10,000 but was, he adds, “the right decision”. Now only the kitchen’s green roof, damaged when scaffolding was placed on it during the original loft conversion, remains to be repaired. Internally, the kitchen features intense blue kitchen cabinetry, a restored original resin floor and a new kitchen island.
The couple chose not to project manage for themselves, after the experience of their previous kitchen extension 16 years ago. “I tried to project
manage the extension then and it was a nightmare; we made lots of mistakes,” says Clare. “People think that it’s easy, but it’s a massive job.” Instead, Robert took on the role.
Even now, she says, there were a few aspects that she’d do differently. “Read the details of the building contract thoroughly,” she says. “Whatever you don’t understand, ask the project manager or builder. I’d also underestimated what a massive job rewiring was — it was the dirtiest and hardest part of the project. We had the ceilings down, we had to pull out the wires and re-plaster everything.”
A HOME SUITABLE FOR FAMILY LIFE
“The house functions much better now,” says Clare. “There was so much dead space before. Even in our kitchen, which was massive, we had a tiny workspace and now we have an island.”
Putting a sink by the new front door, and moving the washing machine into the family bathroom, so that the bathroom doubles as a laundry, was another revelation — it means that the family’s washing no longer has to be hauled up and down stairs. More than anything, Clare and Kieran enjoy having a proper hallway (Kieran is delighted with his ‘dad shelf’forkeys,walletandthelike).“youcanclose the door on it if you want, so it can be a proper messy family hallway,” says Clare.
“When we stood in the original alley we even wondered if the extension was ever going to be possible — it was a tiny slither of space. But it’s amazing the way it completely changes this house. It’s a very clever design.we love it here; we can close the door and it’s a really lovely space.”