Extending/remodelling 60s Dormer Bungalow - part 5 - internal

Well, things have moved on at a pace. The upper doors are now fitted, and awaiting the Juliet balcony, as I decided to design something bespoke rather than going with the standard 'prison bars' style railing.

Inside the extension we've overcome the technical challenges of moving the electricity connection and meter (after paying e-on the outrageous price of £541 for 90 minutes work) and moving in the oil-fired boiler, from the temporary shelter they preserved when the garage was pulled down and into the new utility area. The electrics have been put into place very efficiently.

They have put up the stud walls for the utility and cloakroom, and plastered the walls. They are also prepared to cut through a new door to the dining room, although they aren't doing this until the window of the cloakroom is fitted and the whole building is secure and weather-tight.

Upstairs they have sectioned off the en suite bathroom, plastered the new master bedroom, built some large wardrobes, and created a corridor between the two smaller existing bedrooms to access the new room.

I saw them cut the first hole through from the old house to the new:

Then they blocked off the bedrooms and corridor to prevent dust and draughts, so I was left with frustrated curiosity!

Then they revealed they had put up the studs for the corridor. This looks great as it lines up exactly with the existing landing, and also with the wall of the en-suite (the latter I'm told was a happy coincidence). The light coming in to the new room is great, through the big windows and the skylights:

The sanitary ware has been delivered and is being plumbed in, and the en suite is being tiled. Again, I've taken a creative option, as we are leaving the squares in the ventanas and the border until I've had a chance to see whether I can make something cool in my glass kiln. In the meanwhile we do get some awful karaoke for free :o)

Now they are working on door frames, and plasterboarding the corridors and the new walls to the two existing bedrooms either side:

There is a lot going on, but it is well organised chaos! As John always says "no dramas".

John and Neil have remained polite and cheery, and seem to strike a good balance between asking for my input and getting on and doing things autonomously. They seem to have a lot of friends who cover all the trades to draw on, which is reassuring as they all seem to hold the same high standards. I'm getting used to the work pattern of an early start, a late breakfast at the local cafe, coffee in the afternoon to keep them going, and a finish somewhere between dark and 8pm. As they are keen to make the extension habitable by Christmas, they are working most weekends too!

Extending/remodelling 60s Dormer Bungalow - part 4 - extension walls and roof

So, I've shown images of the garages disappearing and new groundworks being laid, here are the images of the new walls and roof going up!

First the new floor slab is laid and levelled:

Then the blockwork for the section of the wall that will be rendered is built:

Then the windows were laid out, and the exterior bricks and interior blocks were laid up to that level: There were regular deliveries of building materials:

Then when we were up to plate height the roof trusses were delivered, and hoisted into place by a crane:

The trusses were attached in the right places:

Then the peaks were added, and they started to add the white waterproof layer that goes below the tiles:

Then the roof started to take shape! They walked around fearlessly on those boards!

The velux roof lights were set into place, and suddely it felt like an enclosed room inside:

The downstairs room was fully enclosed with gaps where the windows would go:

The gable end was built up, so there was a wall all the way to the top:

The downstairs windows were fitted. Suddenly we could see how the south face of the house would look:

And from the close you could see the size and shape of the extended house.

Now the front of the extension section needs to be rendered, the upstairs windows need fitting, and there are 12 half tiles needed to complete the roof around the velux windows.

Extending/remodelling 60s Dormer Bungalow - part 3 - rear dormers

This is a bird's eye view of our house from a mapping site, as I didn't take a picture from the right angle prior to the work starting. You can see the front dormers in the first entry to the blog, and the rear ones are pretty similar although less central on the roof and less wide: This is the first pitched gable structure being constructed over the bathroom window (as seen from a driveway further down the road):

This is the wider pitched gable being constructed over the bedroom window:

This is them working up on the scaffold, starting to prepare the new gables for tiling:

This is the front of the wider gable which has been completed in wood reclaimed from the garage roof:

Here the first coat of the white stucco has been painted onto the small gable, and the sides have been completed too:
And here the wider gable has been painted with the stucco:

And here they have barge boards and gutters, and are completed:

There are two more to do on the front of the property, and two velux roof lights to insert to complete the roof works. The scaffold has been moved round the front of the property for when they have a chance (and good enough weather) to do the rest.

Extending/remodelling 60s Dormer Bungalow - part 2 - demolition

They remove the doors (which I give away on freecycle) and start to pull the roof off the garage.

Then they start to remove the boards (which they are able to later re-use) and the rafters (which will later be the edges to my raised veg beds).

They box in the boiler, then the electricity junction and fusebox into temporary housing, whilst we arrange for them to be moved.

They start to reclaim the good bricks, and demolish the walls.

Almost all of the garage is gone within 3 days work.

Then the digger starts to remove the foundations and drive.

Then a grab removed the rubble.

They dig trenches for the new foundations (to depths specified by building control) and fill them with concrete.

Then the walls start to go up again, after careful planning how to make them level, when the original house no longer appears to be!

Then the first fill is added, a radon sump (to scare off naughty gases) and two layers of insulation.

Then the concrete for the floor slab is poured and levelled. Unfotunately the boys forgot their welly boots!

Extending/remodelling 60s Dormer Bungalow - part 1 - the brief

I own a sixties dormer bungalow in a small village near Milton Keynes.

It looks like this:

As you can see, its kind of ugly from the outside! But its much better inside, and in a good location, in a pretty little village not far from the motorway.

When I first looked at the house in 2002 I saw that it had potential. I knew that we needed to do the house up in two phases. We immediately had to do a lot of work to make the house habitable.
This included:

- new central heating
- new windows
- new fascias, soffits, barge-boards and gutters
- new kitchen
- new bathroom
- new carpets
- complete redecoration
- a radical garden overhaul

However, this was just the immediate works. I always knew if we stayed here we needed to address much more fundamental problems with the house.

Its on a fairly big corner plot of 0.21 acres, but unusually oriented as it faces a small private close and has a garden to the left and right of the house rather than front and back. It faces a (nearly) identical house over the close:

There is a large south facing garden to the left of the house which is currently ‘disconnected’ by being accessed around the ugly double garage:


You’ll also note that there are lots of windows on the north face of the house and none on the south. This is due to it being a mirror image of the original design which was rotated in order to (cheaply) meet the 1960s planning condition of the garage being further up the private close from the road than the house.

In 2007 we secured planning permission for a large extension on the south of the house (extending on the same profile to add over 1/3 the volume of the existing house and adding the much needed south facing windows) plus demolishing the existing attached garage in favour of a detached double garage sited at the end of the garden.

However, we never felt that the design was brave enough, or really solved the minor niggles we had with the existing house. For example, the dormer windows always seemed particularly ugly and appeared to get minor leaks in really wet weather. We also disliked the concrete ‘skirt’ that made the path around the house, the wood cladding in the kitchen, the tiny fireplace in the lounge and the back garden was pretty much a blank canvas we didn't use. We got a few quotes, but never clicked with any of the builders or felt inspired enough to start work.

However, we recently decided after two years of looking online at houses that came up for sale in the area that nothing seemed more appealing than fixing what we have already got. We also began to get to know more people in the village than our immediate neighbours and felt more settled here. To add to that we have recently doubled the size of our family with the arrival of our twin daughters prematurely in May.

So, I contacted a couple more builders to speak about our plans for the house, to see whether it was possible to realise my fantasy that there must be a way to make the house work effectively and also to get rid of the 1960s first impression. As with our experience in 2007 most of the people we spoke to were either pretentious and hugely expensive, or desperately pushy. None seemed to have any enthusiasm about the project or a vision of the small tweaks it would take to the design to make the house really work. Thankfully a neighbour put us in touch with Jeff Clarkson of Admiral Home Improvements (who do driveways, patios, fences and conservatories) and he put us in touch with John and Neil at Fusion Design and Build.

From the first meeting it was apparant that John and Neil had that rare combination of being genuinely pleasant people, and a high level of professional expertise coupled with meticulous standards. I contacted two of their recent customers and had never heard references like it - they were praised for being considerate, keeping the site tidy, for keeping in budget and on schedule, for honesty, and roundly for the quality of their work. Amazingly their quote was also cheaper than any of the others!

They helped us reach a decision to replace the flat roof dormers with pitched gables, and velux rooflights, and to do the other small remodelling tasks. Their quote even included relocating our garden pond and making it child-safe! We agreed a contract of works and within 3 weeks they started work, promising the work would be completed by Christmas.

This blog is a way to share the work that is going on with our friends and family, and also a record of our experience of them as builders that Fusion Design and Build might wish to share with future customers.