Homebuilding & Renovating - History Rewritten

Da Sotto le querce.

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Homebuilding and Renovating
History Rewritten

Helen Flavell has renovated and extended a run-down cottage dating from the 16th century to create a spacious and bright family home, yet has managed to keep its original charm and character.

Text by Natasha Brinsmead. Photography by Mark Hazeldine - Homebuilding and Renovating December 2017


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Natasha Brinsmead

Dicembre 2017

Helen Flavell has renovated and extended a run-down cottage dating from the 16th century to create a spacious and bright family home, yet has managed to keep its original charm and character.

Project Notes

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Designer's View

Living Oak says: “Roundles Cottage dates back to the 16th century and Helen asked us for a design that would open up the small, dark cottage. “The clients liked the fact that our design for the new wing was not a carbon copy of their existing home — our less is more ethos is a perfect example of how you can add to an existing traditional design and offer a modern, pared back version, complementing the existing oak frame in the house, while creating a modern, spacious feature to this stunning home.”

The Floorplan ►

The extension has added 240m2 of additional space, creating a new kitchen, dining room, master bedroom with en suite, covered walkway and double garage with accommodation over.

Project Notes

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Designer's View

Living Oak says: “Roundles Cottage dates back to the 16th century and Helen asked us for a design that would open up the small, dark cottage. “The clients liked the fact that our design for the new wing was not a carbon copy of their existing home — our less is more ethos is a perfect example of how you can add to an existing traditional design and offer a modern, pared back version, complementing the existing oak frame in the house, while creating a modern, spacious feature to this stunning home.”

The Floorplan ►

The extension has added 240m2 of additional space, creating a new kitchen, dining room, master bedroom with en suite, covered walkway and double garage with accommodation over.

When Helen Flavell and her family first moved into their run-down home, previously built as a forestry cottage for workers in the area, the idea was to add a small extension that was in keeping with the original.

“The oldest part of the house dates from the 16th century and there had already been two extensions, one in the 1960s and another about 12 years ago,” begins Helen. “But the layout wasn’t working and we wanted to add another extension to the other side to create a more balanced look.”

Luckily for Helen, the house wasn’t listed, despite its age, and although it took some time for planning to be granted, they discovered they could add the extension under Permitted Development. They had to apply for permission to add the clay tile hanging to the front elevation of the house, as well as for the new timber-clad plant room leading off from the two-storey carport.

“The house was rather dated, but liveable,” says Helen, who lived in the house for half of the build — and working in Singapore for the other half while the house was knocked through into the new section.


A Sympathetic Extension

“We only planned on adding a small extension, but when we started looking at the design, it became clear that a larger addition was needed for the proportions to work.”

The couple chose oak frame specialists Living Oak to design and build the extension, while Helen and her builder, Bob Pearce, worked on the existing sections of the house, as well as redesigning the layout.

In just a week, the frame of the extension, which is made from French oak, pegged together, was constructed. “It went up very quickly,” says Helen. “We wanted the extension to mirror the old section of the house and were keen that we could see the new timber frame from both the interior as well as the exterior.” This meant that the bricks used for the new gable end of the extension had to be sawn to fit between the beams — a job made more time consuming by the combination of traditional and herringbone patterns that the bricks have been laid in.

“We only planned on adding a small extension, but a larger addition was needed to make the proportions work”

When it came to reorganising the layout, the old kitchen is now home to a formal living area, while the three bedrooms and bathrooms in this section have all been updated. “The house was previously made up of lots of smaller rooms,” says Helen. “We removed a lot of the dividing walls in order to open up the spaces, as well as removing the old staircase and adding a simple oak design in a new location instead — it was all a lot more work than we originally intended.”

The original house and the new extension are linked by a new dual-height section at the centre. This bright space, with its expanse of timber bifold doors and stunning roof lantern, is now home to the main family space and living area, along with the relocated entrance hall, with its dramatic double- height ceilings.

The simple, yet stylish, kitchen is partially open to this sociable space. French doors open from the kitchen to a covered walkway leading to the new carport, which features a gym and shower room above.

All the windows in the house are new double-glazed bronze casements, while, in keeping with the family’s wish to remain true to the traditional character of the 16thcentury building, local stone was quarried to clad the new front elevation of the house at ground floor level.

Despite its traditional appearance, the house is very energy efficient, thanks to increased levels of insulation that have been added to the old single-skin brickwork of the original cottage, along with the new ground source heat pump that now provides all of the hot water and heat for the house.

“Even though we were working in Singapore for half of the build, Bob made it easy for us to stay up to date with the build,” says Helen. “I did underestimate how many last-minute decisions would have to be made, but I tried to keep things simple. For example, all the bathroom suites are from the same range.

“The extension has completely transformed the way we live in the house — this is definitely our home for life.” </div>


Kitchen and Dining Space

Helen was keen that the new kitchen – which was designed by Martin Moore – was simple yet high quality. A combination of Silestone worktops and limestone flooring provides a neutral backdrop. Light pours in, thanks to glazed French doors that lead out to a covered walkway to the garage and the swathe of glazed bifold doors that run along the length of the new single-storey section, which contains the family room/dining space.

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Master Bedroom Suite

The new master bedroom features engineered oak flooring and a fully exposed oak frame.

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Luxury Fittings

The dressing room and en suite retain a classic feel, thanks to the new bronze casement windows from Vale, oak flooring and high-end fixtures and fittings, such as the freestanding bath and bespoke storage.

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