Bungalow renovation/extension...before and after

[dugsud]

I thought some of you might be interested in our little project that has been taking up most of our spare time over the last year or so. We have done as much as we can ourselves including tree felling, demolishing walls, tearing out the old kitchen and bathroom, all tiling, flooring, decorating inside and out and lots more. It's allowed us to complete the whole project for less than £80k which we don't think is too bad!

Starting off with a bog standard 60's bungalow which already had a detached double garage :-)set in about a third of an acre but had not changed inside since the late 60's. It needed a full re-wire, re-plum, new heating etc but we have ended up with a four bedroom, two bathroom house with an en-suite master bedroom. It's been very hard work but we now have something we would not have been able to afford to buy in our area.

Still bits and bobs to finish but we are taking our time now.

As we bought it...









During.....













And after.....













Edit to add kitchen pic.

Edited by dugsud on Wednesday 15th June 16:58

[dugsud]

aberdeeneuan said:

Looks great! I'm confused though, does it actually have rooms on the first floor? As the outside shot looks to have a patio type door at 1st floor level but I can't work out what it meets.

I'd love to do something like this though.

Yes, on the first floor there's the master bedroom (5m x 5m) with an en-suite at the front accessed by a spiral staircase from the front entrance hall. We have also added a utility room off the hall at the front.

Here's a couple of pics of the en-suite and house bathroom which were our first attempt at tiling....talk about going in at the deep end :-)

[dugsud]

Thanks for all of the nice comments, glad you like it

Irish said:

This is all well and good but what about the double garage? Stunning job.

Ha ha, it was actually the garage that caused us to find this house as we didn't even think of looking at bungalows howerer an estate agent search filtered on 'properties with double garages' brought it up!!

m3sye said:

How much more do you think the house is worth since you bought it? Fantastic job, looks gorgeous

We don't really know as we have done it for us and we intend to stay long-term but it has certainly covered our spend and probably the same again!

[dugsud]

m3sye said:

Is it your mrs with the interior eye or you ?

Actually we have both chosen and designed everything between us, we even drew plans out for the building work in detail on sheets of A3 which our builder then had drawn to scale but basically we designed the lot.

aberdeeneuan said:

Ah, think I've got it now! As I said, looks superb. You got lucky with the plot size to be able to do it, the houses don't appear to be that close together. Have next door done something similar? One of the photos show a similar outside profile (though it has to be said, it looks a bit tired!).

Next door is similar if a bit more trad and was built in the 70s I think. We probably have 8-10m gap.

Doing something like this is very very tiring when you both work full time and it totally takes over your life for a year at least but unless you have lots of money to go out and buy something someone else has done it's the only way.

It's a load of hard work but hopefully we will enjoy the fruits of our labors for years to come

[dugsud]

dirty boy said:

Smashing job! Love the open plan aspect, does seem a nice way to live.

Not trying to threadcrash, but I've just completed mine too, although I still have bits to finish, as we've not yet touched the inside on the old part of the house, and still need to sort out wires on the front.

Nice.....Major improvement!

[dugsud]

jardinec said:

lovely job. not often email a PH thread to the mrs!

How was the planning process?

No real problems, we had to reduce the gable height by a couple of foot but once we made the amendments it went straight through.

No objections from the neighbours which helped although we did discuss our plans with those immediately next to us before submitting them.

[dugsud]

telecat said:

So given the thread was dragged up can we ask the OP how they are finding the house?

Wonderful, particularly the open plan living. Its everything we hoped it would be and suits us more than we could ever imagine.

Very sociable and the feeling of space is great although, as you mentioned earlier I'm not sure if it would have suited us quite so well when the kids were little!

The other thing to note is that our house is up to(and past)current insulation standards and has underfloor heating which makes the whole space warm and cosy but if your house is cold in winter, trying to heat a big badly insulated room would be difficult and costly.

[dugsud]

Esseesse said:

OP, your house looks really great and is really inspirational.

I saw your thread some time ago and looked it up again because I've been trying to convince the OH about a similar bungalow (although it doesn't really need extending, just gutting) and have failed to inspire her (we have the budget). After a few times trying to explain the vision I give up, as I think you need more than a semi-reluctant 'OK' behind you to take on this kind of job. Sad times...

Thanks for the kind words. I think a project like this is very difficult if both of you are not 100% on-board as it really does take teamwork and commitment to make it happen. It's easy for me to say its all worth it in the end but persuading a reluctant OH is another thing!

How about looking round some houses that have been already renovated to a high standard (that you know she'll like) but are above your budget just to show what you could have with a bit of effort and teamwork......just a thought!