Kitchen Extension — Home

This week will mark one year since we moved into our “new” house. I don’t think we could possibly have foreseen in July 2019 quite how much time we would be spending in it during our first 12 months of residence!

Two slightly nervous new home owners trying not to panic about the number of Roger’s Renoval boxes awaiting them inside

The day we moved in when we still had a nice green lawn that hadn’t been obliterated by football mad boys

Over the course of the last year we have made a start in making it feel a bit more us with renovation projects on the hallway and living room and most recently a budget revamp of the kitchen/diner. But behind the scenes we have also been working with Detail.Architects to draw up bigger plans to transform our Pebble Dash Princess into a Modern Rustic Swan.

Actually I lie, getting rid of the massive radiator cover that hogged the hallway and adding a lower radiator and scaffold bench is my favourite change!

My latest DIY project, sanding back the kitchen floors

I never thought I would be a power tool owner 12 months ago

Adding paneling painted in Farrow & Ball’s Ammonite to the hallway is one of my favourite changes we have made so far.

As I think I have mentioned before, gaining extra (house) girth was one of our main motivations in buying the Pebble Dash Princess (our affectionate nick name for the house). It is at least a third wider than our old house creating the possibility of having the open plan family living space downstairs that I have always dreamed of. However, in its current configuration the ground floor is a bit like the layout of the Crystal Maze so part of our brief to Reah our architect was to redesign the floorplan so that it doesn’t feel like you have to navigate the Aztec zone to get to the utility room.

Welcome to the Crystal Maze! The existing downstairs layout is a bit of a rabbit warren of rooms

Upstairs has the same number of bedrooms as our old house but they are not quite as big and as the kids get older we are conscious that the younger two, who currently share, might not want to go on doing that forever. So we also wanted to add a fifth bedroom and an extra bathroom and then, by removing a hot water tank the size of a small submarine from an airing cupboard, also make the family bathroom bigger.

The submarine size water tank is sandwiched in between the toilet and bathroom

So now you have seen what we were starting with do you want to see the design Reah came up with that achieves everything on our wish list and more?

Renovation Sketch .png — The final design worked up by Detail Architects

What do you think? I hope you love it as much as I do! We are extending at the rear but actually not by much - filling in an unused passage at the side that leads to the utility room then going out a little bit on the right hand side to fulfil my ultimate dream of having a window seat. Inside we are going to take down the wall between the kitchen and second reception room that currently makes this room feel narrow and dark.

Crystal Maze be gone the new layout creates a much better flow to the downstairs space.

We will then move the utility backwards from its’ existing position, borrowing a bit of space from Mr Malmo’s beloved garage. This, along with the extra space we are adding, will hopefully give us a nice big wide, open and airy room with great connection to the garden. These 3Ds that Reah put together really give you a sense of what the space will ultimately be like.

There is a pillar through the Island shown here but we are hoping the structural engineer will come up with plans that allow us to avoid this.

Upstairs we will be adding a loft which will have enough space for a bedroom, dressing room and bathroom. On the middle floor taking out the small submarine will enable us to new, bigger family bathroom that has room for a separate shower. I have shared the plans for the loft in a previous blog. Click here to have a read.

Externally the look I am hoping to achieve is what I would describe as modern Scandinavian farmhouse - I thought that had more of a ring to it than New Nordic Agricultural. The pebble dash is hopefully going to be replaced by a smooth render unless I find out chipping it off will cost the same as a new car in which case I will be seeking to persuade you guys that pebble dash is a material favored by hip Scandinavian farmers. The ground floor will have timber cladding (expect detailed chat about how different types of wood weather coming your way in 2021) and I will be paring that with slimline glazing, with crittal style doors to one side.

The vision for the exterior. Pebble dash replaced with smooth render and timber cladding

The journey through planning has not been without its bumps and compromises. Our original design was turned down owing to concerns about how the roofline would look in comparison to other houses in the street. If I could go back in time I would definitely have paid to have formal pre planning discussions with the council at the outset so that we could have understood their views and incorporated them into the design from the get go. However, we got there in the end and the changes we have had to make to address the Council’s concerns don’t materially alter the space we will end up with internally so all is well that ends well.

I don’t think we can afford to do all of the work at the same time and, to be honest, after the way 2020 has panned out so far, I am not sure I am up for cooking us meals on a camping stove in the garage with only the outside tap and a hose to shower under right now. The current plan (bar a lottery win) is to start with the loft and first floor and then tackle the ground floor work later on when we have saved up a bit more.

The next immediate task now that we have secured planning permission is to get a structural engineer on board to help with the structural drawings and to then get builders quotes for the work once we know how much steel etc we will need (Laksmi Mittal if you are reading call me :-)). It obviously goes without saying that I already have about seventeen pinterest boards on the go to help me plan out the interiors and I am excited to start sharing my ideas with you once we get going but for now here is a little snapshot of what has been inspiring me. I hope you will enjoy following along with our renovation ups and downs.

With planning permission secured I can now start pinteresting with purpose to pull together my ideas for the interior

We moved into the Malmo & Moss house on a scorching hot day in July almost exactly nine years ago. It was just me, my husband and two cats at that point. Although the cats were lucky to survive the move after they spent the entire journey around the South Circular emitting the kind of noise that I imagine would come out of Michael Gove’s mouth if he were to get his penis trapped in a lift door. Maybe they just had feline reservations about their owners moving from South to North London having only visited the area where our new house was located twice before. However, whilst they might have liked to remain #ClaphamCats we didn’t have a budget big enough to stretch to a family home in that part of the City.

Winchmore Hill, the area of North London we alighted upon, is probably most famous for once having played host (if that is the right word) to Augustus Pinochet who was briefly exiled here in 1998. However, before you get the impression that it is some sort of haven for war criminals I should balance that fact act out by telling you that it’s other famous ex resident is Lionel Ritchie (whose crimes are mainly perm and power ballad related).

Winchmore Hill Green the pretty heart of this lesser known part of North London

We moved when I was 37 weeks pregnant with our first son who arrived just two short weeks later. Whilst the move to a little known area where we had no friends just as we were about to become first time parents was definitely risky, it is a gamble that has more than paid off. Unlike Pinochet we have stuck around, seduced by lots of green open space, great schools and a street so friendly we go on holiday with our neighbours (although not John at the end of the street who I once overheard in Tesco trying to return some chicken he had purchased in 1999) .

July 2010: just two weeks after moving in we welcomed our first son

Two tired first time parents and a very proud (and very young looking!) uncle in the days before the front room went over to the dark side!

The house has slowly but sure been transformed from a #SanitaryPadPurplePalace with a conservatory #StraightOuttaBrookside to a light, bright modern rustic home. We have knocked through, extended and renovated the kitchen, enlarged and overhauled the family bathroom, reconfigured the loft space and breathed fresh life into the ensuite, tiled the hallway and installed crittal style dividing doors and added hygge to the living room by going over to the dark side and installing a woodburner.

You can get a glimpse in the background of the very off message Kermit the Frog green conservatory we inherited when we moved in

A couple of years (and another son later) we said goodbye to #KermitsConservatory and replaced it with a modern extension. This is it just days after it was finished

6 years later we still love how it has transformed the house

My favourite view looking back into the kitchen from the garden

Knocking through from the kitchen to the dining room has also been a gamechanger

However nine years and two further sons later we are on the move once more. This time there will fortunately be no need to subject ourselves to #CatCarTorture on the South Circular as we are actually only moving five minutes up the road!

Reasons for the Move

So why are we moving? The answer can be summed up in one word really: space. Or rather a growing realisation that we could do with a bit more of it. Our existing house, unlike me, is tall but comparatively narrow. Click here to see our floorplan. We have already extended the kitchen and the loft was converted before we moved in so we have no real options left to create extra square metres we are after.

We have maximised our existing space to create a kitchen/diner

But alas we cannot magic up enough space for another bedroom

Our two youngest currently happily share a room but we know there will come a time when that arrangement may become less harmonious. Possibly between the ages 11-16 judging by my relationship with my own sister. Apparently having your little sister pick up the phone whenever you are on the line to your first boyfriend and sing “Let’s Talk About Sex” is not as funny as I thought it was at the time.

One day we anticipate all of the boys will want a (Scandi Forest Chic) room of their own

So when I saw a girthier house on a street we have always loved come up for sale 4 months ago with a floorplan that made heart flutter we decided to go for it.

The New House

OK brace yourself, this is the back of the new house which looks like it started a fight with pebbledash and lost. Inside it is less Scandi Rustic and more Sharps Showroom circa 1996 when fitted wardrobes were all the rage. But when I saw the floorplan I was sold. It actually currently has less space upstairs than our existing house but there is scope to add a generous loft and the downstairs space, after a reconfiguration and possible further extension, will offer us the big open plan kitchen/diner we have always wanted. And, of course, most importantly of all, I will finally be able to realise my greatest dream: a separate utility room.

My new rear end is decidedly bigger. It is the width of this house that really sold us on it

As well as the lovely big garden complete with apple tree

For the boys there is a bigger garden with plenty of Wembley and Hide and Seek possibilities . Whereas the clincher for Mr Malmo was the prospect of a garage of his own. Not because he is a car nut (our family car is more likely to be quarantined by DEFRA than appear at Goodwood) but rather because he has an ever growing collection of impulse purchased power tools which will now have a home of their own. I am slightly worried I am going to come downstairs and find him jigsawing wood in his pants at 2am down there!

First on my hit list: transforming the fitted wardrobes . Decor wise everything is actually pretty neutral though and has been well cared for so it is definitely liveable if not immediately instagrammable!

We move a week tomorrow so the next seven days are going to be spent in a haze of cardboard boxes, trips to the tip and snotty hankies as I reminisce about about all the memories we have made together in this house. We arrived as a couple and will leave as a family of five. This is the house is where our son’s first steps were taken, first words spoken and first poos on the potty (and floor) were completed. We have ticked off so many milestones, celebrating birthdays, christenings, christmases, and surviving a brush with Brian the misogynist bathroom tiler. It’s going to be emotional, not least as I have to say goodbye to my greatest ever E-Bay bargain: our £25 roll top bath.

Moving will be sweet sweet sorrow in that I will have to bid farewell to my roll top bath

So are you ready for Malmo & Moss: The Renovation Years?! My head is already spinning with ideas so over the coming weeks/months/possibly decades I am looking forward to sharing more pictures of the new place with you and my ideas for transforming it one fitted wardrobe at a time! I hope you enjoy coming along with me for the renovation ride.