Sarah and Mark Stower were living in the suburbs of York when they started to look for a bungalow to buy. They weren’t heading for stair-free retirement, but wanted to find a house with a large garden for their two young daughters: a potential doer-upper. “Bungalows are often associated with the older generation, but they have so much to off er and often sit in a sizeable plot,” says Mark. “We liked the village location of this one. When it came up for auction we waited until two days before the sale date to put in an off er. It was down to the wire.” Their £200,000 bid was accepted and the couple found themselves moving into a dated – and very compact – 1960s bungalow. It had many design fl aws, including a bedroom directly off the kitchen, a corridor-style layout and a driveway with limited visibility leading straight onto a busy road. However, Sarah and Mark bided their time while they worked out what they wanted to achieve.
“The firstday here was a bit of an eye-opener,” says Mark. “It felt very damp and we wondered what we had done, but at the same time we knew it had huge potential to become a modern family home.”
A suburban 1960s bungalow near York has been extended and redesigned to create a very modern family home
WORDS HEATHER DIXON PHOTOS DAVE BURTON