Kitchen thieves, a collapsing roof, and then a pandemic would be enough to make anyone throw in the towel on a renovation project, but Suzanne and David Williamson are made of sterner stuff
TEXT & IMAGES HEATHER DIXON
The Williamsons had been searching for years for the right house to renovate in the right area of Sheffield, so they could create a family home specifically to suit their busy lifestyles. When they found one that ticked all the boxes they were not prepared to back down – whatever challenges they faced.
Suzanne, who is the founder of a yoga company, and David, who is in audio-visual sales, have two young daughters, and they needed to find a bigger house which would evolve along with their changing family needs.
“We were living in a 1930s place which had been modernised by a developer, which gave us a good idea of what could be achieved, but we were really keen to find a property that we could renovate so we could put our own stamp on it,” says Suzanne.
After years of searching on and off, Suzanne and her mum eventually stumbled across a tired old 1930s bungalow for sale and went to have a look – as she says, “sneaking” around the back to discover a large garden hidden away behind the property.
“The size of the garden sold it to me in an instant. I put in an offer straight away,” says Suzanne. “David hadn’t even seen it and I hadn’t seen inside. We didn’t go to look around properly until the offer was accepted.”
REFURB & REMOVAL CHALLENGES
Their first impressions were that the bungalow was extremely ‘tired’. The roof was clearly bowing, and they knew it would have to be replaced. The kitchen was tiny and dated, and the property felt cold and damp throughout. Some of the windows and doors were rotting and everything looked ‘brown’. The large garden, however, sealed the deal – a transformation was possible.
“We agreed that we could live in the bungalow while we got planning permission to do it up,” says Suzanne. “We were excited by the possibilities, and knew it would be short term pain for long term gain.”
The first hitch came when a couple of offers on their own house fell through and they took a £15,000 reduction on the asking price in order to move things along. Fortunately they were able to negotiate a reduction on the bungalow, finally agreeing on £435,000. The money, however, was not transferred until the eleventh hour on completion day in October 2018, and the keys were not handed over until the following day.
“The removal men had been waiting outside to unload while we were frantically trying to finalise the completion. Then there was a mad panic with all hands on deck to get the furniture out of the van and into the house so they could move on to their next job. It was all very stressful.”
They also faced the challenge of trying to fit everything into a smaller house which, at that point, had three bedrooms and much smaller rooms.
DESIGN OBJECTIONS
“One of the first things we did in those first few days was contact architect Paul Testa,” says Suzanne. “We had seen and loved his work, and he was also based in our home city of Sheffield, so for us he was a natural choice.”
Within weeks they had the ball rolling on their proposed design, which included an extension across the back of the house, a second storey with glazed roof panels, and wooden shingles on the exterior. Sheffield City Council’s planning department objected to everything, based largely on concerns from neighbours who said the proposed house was too large and out of keeping with the area.
“It was hugely disappointing,” says Suzanne. “By this time the roof was getting considerably worse, creating so much pressure that it was pushing the walls out and there was a massive gap developing around the patio doors. There was also a crack around the bay window in the girls’ room, and mould was coming through the walls.”
They sought advice from a structural engineer who said there were no guarantees that the roof would hold up for much longer.
“We were under pressure to get things moving pretty quickly,” says Suzanne. We needed to come up with a plan which couldn’t be refused.”
BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
Going back to the drawing board they agreed to make best use of permitted development without compromising their idea of creating more accommodation in the roof space and opening up the ground floor to bring more light into the property. This meant the height of the property could remain the same and the overall footprint would not make the building stick out in the neighbourhood. Planning permission was finally granted in November 2019, and the family moved into rented accommodation just before Christmas.
With the cracks in the house getting bigger at an alarming rate, the Williamsons put the building work out to tender to begin what turned out to be a long process.
The first tender came in at £500,000 – much higher than they had hoped or expected. The next builder never came back with a quote but with the third builder – Whitshaws – they ‘struck gold’.
COVID-PROOF BUILD
“By this time we were paying a lot of rent which was eating into the build budget, but Whitshaws the builders were our saviours,” says Suzanne. “They suggested it would be cheaper and easier to demolish the bungalow and effectively start again, for which we had to go back to planning for further approval.”
Luckily there were no objections and in March 2020 they were given the go-ahead, only to hit a setback they could never have predicted: the pandemic.
Fortunately the building team was able to continue working, and in June they started to demolish the bungalow, armed with a huge skip and a digger. They began the demolition at 8 am one morning. By 9 am most of the building was a pile of rubble.
“They knocked out the bowing roof timber and the whole roof caved in,” says Suzanne.
Once the site was cleared the builders started work on the foundations. The original bungalow had been built directly on top of clay so there were no traditional foundations to speak of. The builders dug a one metre-deep
concrete foundation before building the breeze block walls, specifically chosen for their insulating properties.
The exterior walls were eventually rendered for a modern, unifying finish. “The walls went up quite quickly,” says Suzanne. “It was summer and the weather was really warm, so the builders were able to make good progress.”
Suzanne kept an eye on things – “I was on site most days to make sure everything was going according to plan and to answer any questions that arose along the way.” She says that the most striking thing was that “at this stage in the build, the house looked very small. I started to worry that we hadn’t made it big enough and that we would run out of space. It’s an illusion, because all that changes as the build progresses.”
The joiners employed by the builder made and fitted the new roof trusses, and the pantiles were laid to make the property watertight from above, ahead of the windows going in.
The triple glazed windows were sourced from Internorm and meticulously measured – but they took so long to manufacture that the progress of the build was delayed by several weeks, forcing the team to complete other jobs while they waited. This included installation of the rooflights, fitting steel beams to support the main open plan living space at the heart of the property, and boarding the window openings so they could complete first fixes and plaster the internal walls.
Underfloor heating was laid, topped by screed and resin. Unfortunately the house was still boarded up and the interior was too damp to allow the resin to properly set. To add insult to injury, the ceiling plaster had soaked up
moisture from the floor and collapsed onto the resin. In the end, the first layer of resin had to be ground off and repoured and the ceiling plaster reskimmed.
“It worked the second time, but it was a bit of a setback,” says Suzanne. “Nothing could be done while the floor was drying out and that took well over a week to reach the stage where we could walk on it.”
AN ALARMING MOMENT
The windows had still not arrived when the kitchen units were delivered, so they were stored in one of the rooms, which was fitted with a burglar alarm.
“One evening we were at the rented property when the alarm went off,” recalls Suzanne. “David went down to the site but there was no one about, so he sat guard in his car until 11pm, then I took the next shift, because we knew that whoever had been in the property would return at some point. It was a cold January night and by 2 am I’d had enough and went home.”
At 6.30 am the alarm went off again, and they rushed to the site, only to discover the boarding had been ripped from the window and the kitchen had gone. Fortunately they had comprehensive insurance, but the experience understandably left them upset, and on edge.
Unable to move into the half-finished house, but worried about leaving it unattended, Suzanne put a call-out for help on a community social media site. A neighbour immediately got in touch and offered them his caravan so they could live on site until the windows were installed, second fixes completed and the house fit to move into. “We will always be grateful for that support,” says Suzanne. “It was well into February before the windows and doors were finally installed and the property secured.”
After that stressful incident, the pace started to pick up. The OSB floors upstairs were completed, the kitchen and bathrooms were installed and the staircase went in.
“We originally chose a metal and glass staircase, but the OSB option was a lot less expensive and looked just as good,” says Suzanne. “By this time we were running over our £375,000 budget because the windows were more expensive than we had allocated for. We didn’t want the spend to run away with us.”
SUCCESS AT LAST
Suzanne, David and the girls finally moved back into the new-look, completely redesigned house in April 2021 before all the finishing works were complete.
“It was a huge relief,” says Suzanne. “It had taken 16 months and been a bit of a roller coaster at times, but we moved in thinking we never have to move again if we don’t want to. The house is future proofed and has everything we wanted, with more space than we thought possible.”
Having moved in, they were able to turn their attention to the finer details of decorating and designing the garden. Although the garden was planned alongside the rebuild, so that the two worked together as a whole, very little was done to the plot until September 2021.
“We wanted something different, inside and out,” says Suzanne. The garden features black painted reclaimed brick walls, structured patio areas and tropical planting, much of it linked to the house via full height glazed doors.
Inside, Suzanne has allowed her creative skills full rein with black floors and walls, a huge play net separating the two floors over the stairwell and a large sliding barn door – made to Suzanne’s design by the joiners – between the main living space and the snug.
“We wanted the house to be quirky, bold and fun,” she says. “We did go way over our budget, but we saved on the staircase and the resin floor, which is much less expensive than tiles, and we invested in the really important things like the windows and the quality of the build. Thanks to Paul Testa, the architect, it’s exceeded all our expectations and it works for us in every way as a family. We absolutely love it.”
HIGH POINT
“Moving in and realising that the design and build had ticked all their boxes on every level”
LOW POINT
Trying to get planning permission before the roof caved in, and then keeping watch on the house after the burglary. “We didn’t get a lot of sleep!”
CONTACTS/SUPPLIERS
WINDOWS
Internorm from Ecotec
DOORS
Clear View Doors and
Windows
RESIN FLOOR
Monarch Resin Floors
UNDERFLOOR HEATING
Underfloor Heating Shop
BATHROOMS
Clifton tiles & bathrooms
GARDEN DESIGN
Lush Garden Design
GARDEN LANDSCAPING
Wildwood
LOFT CARGO NET
Loft Nets
KITCHEN
IKEA