'We really love this SCANDI VIBE'

By adding a side extension and boxing off chimney breasts, Kate and Luke have given their home the open, clean-lined aesthetic they craved

- KAREN WILSON

It was a short trip for the removal company when we moved four doors down from our two-bedroom terrace into a four-bedroom Victorian villa,' says Kate.

'I first noticed the house when I was walking past it chatting to a friend about it being the only wreck on the street. Luckily for us, one of the students who lived there overheard me and told us it was up for sale. I soon discovered that it had been rented out for 20 years and we arranged an off-market deal with the family of the late owner.

Luke and I had our work cut out for us, as there was damp everywhere, the rear windows were falling out, the garden was just a mound of grass and there was a grimy galley kitchen upstairs in our master bedroom! However, we really loved the street and we wanted a bigger house with a garden so we were happy to take on a project.

Back to basics

We had booked builders to start the day after the move, so the whole house was stripped back to brick, damp-proofed, and re-plastered within eight weeks. They also demolished a huge derelict three-car garage with an asbestos roof. It was great to have the two ground-floor reception rooms finished, along with the cloakroom and utility room.

Upstairs the main job was relocating the bathroom into the neighboring bedroom, the smallest of the four, at the back. As we wanted to fit in a big walk-in shower, a freestanding bath, and a double basin, space was stolen from the landing and the dressing room to make the new bathroom even larger and more luxurious. It was a big job as it required new plumbing and we sourced taps from Italy as the black ones that we wanted were hard to find at the time. We also had to wait six months for a part to arrive for the shower, so we could only have baths for a while.