We’d moved into Beaconsfield in 2017 hoping to buy a new family home, but there was always something we wanted to change. So, with advice from Andy Stevens [project manager and HB&R contributor], we sat down and drew up what we wanted on squared paper and then got an architect to draw it up more formally.
We found the house, a 1950s property, on a large plot in a sought-after street — the same one as the girls’ school. We decided to go for a renovation rather than starting again, although now we’re done very few elements of the original are left — just one wall and a room. Our builder asked why we didn’t just knock the house down, but our architect pointed out that this would put us back a year. We didn’t want any delays, especially with lockdown and the cost of materials going up, and doing it this way has meant we’ve been able to re-use some of the existing foundations.