CONVERTING AN OLD BUNGALOW
INTO A BREATH-TAKING FAMILY HOME

What the client says: "We would never have ended up with the home we have without the team"

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We bought the property with the intention of creating a 4 bedroom home here. It was in the area we needed for schools and was on a fantastic sized plot. Our original idea was to create a single storey extension with open plan living room, kitchen, and diner.

We had met with other builders previous to meeting with John and Steve and they had all gone with our idea and quoted on it. When John and Steve came round, they looked around and talked to us about potential issues but asked if we would look at going up rather than out.

We wanted either all of the bedrooms upstairs or all downstairs and had thought that we may only get a master bedroom up in the roof space so discounted that idea, especially with 3 young children. They took measurements of the roof and asked us to give them a day or two. Two days later, they came back round, had checked everything out and in their opinion believed that we could get 4 bedrooms in the roof and free up the downstairs just for living space which would mean our usable property space would be vast! We took a punt on the planning and were bowled over when we got it through on permitted development 8 weeks later. Now, even though we had the permission, we still had no idea how roomy the rooms would feel in the roof so trying to work out the layout was tough. The front dormers and slopes of the roof were really tricky to visualise. John assured us that all would be well and that we could confirm once he had built the roof outline. He explained that we could walk around the space and split it into rooms once we had a feel for it.

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The team were completely right, we ended up with the most amazing property! We have 5 bedrooms upstairs, 3 doubles, 1 single and a 28ft long master bedroom with walk through wardrobe/dressing area and an amazing ensuite! Downstairs, we had the option of having 3 separate reception rooms as well as the open plan kitchen/diner. In the end, we opted for 2 reception rooms with a really big hallway that housed a piano, room for 5 lots of shoes, coats and bags, a fish tank recessed in the wall and a secret bookcase that leads to a cinema room!!!

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I remember the scariest part of the project was at the end of the clear out. We had a huge mortgage, had already spent out on removing material, scaffolding and tons of materials ready to go back in. I remember standing at the top of the scaffolding and looking down on what I can only describe as roman ruins! We literally only had the outside walls left and you could see down to the dirt! At that point, we thought, "Oh bugger, what have we done?!" That was scariest part!!!  

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The house we ended up with was far superior to what it would have been had we never listened to the advice and expertise of John. Every day when we pull up on the drive, we still can’t believe we live in a home like we do! We thought we may have this sort of property after the next move or two! We owe it all to John, Steve and their team and cannot speak highly enough of our experience with them. We’ll proudly show anyone who is interested in John's work. They won't be disappointed!

Our Thoughts

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We met the client at their property on the day after they had moved in. It was a two-bedroom bungalow that needed complete renovation. It had a 1960s gas fire, an avocado bath suite and sparse kitchen. It had been built in the 60’s and hadn’t really been touched since. The property had been sold to the clients after the previous owners had passed away.

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We suggested that they relook at the single storey rear extension that they had originally intended to do and look at going up into the roof, extending out the gable ends, bringing the front pitch forward and up in line with the rest of the roof height and extending over the garage. This would give them way more living area than their original plan. The clients were easy to work with and open to the ideas that we gave them throughout the build. Sometimes, they gave us some unusual ones back too!

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Unusually, the clients decided what they wanted the spaces upstairs to be as they went along which is very unusual but once the decision was made, they didn’t deviate. This project was tough as the clients had to make some harsh budget decisions as they had only intended on a single storey rear conversion initially. We future proofed any potential changes, for example, allowing them to still have bifold doors in the future but pretty much everything came down to budget in this build.

This was one of our favourite builds and the clients were so thankful for what they ended up with!

The end result was breath-taking and even they came up with some crazy ideas for the finishes which we managed to create for them. One was a recessed fishtank fitted flush with the wall with a picture frame round it and the other was a secret door (you push open a handmade bookcase) that leads into a cinema room!