The chalet bungalow they were buying had decent living accommodation, but they wanted a more open-plan layout and a couple more bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs. Having never extended a home, they were looking for an architect to handle every facet of the project, and to help guide them from concept design through construction to them moving into their perfect family home.

The difficulty with adding a double-height, full-width extension is that the sheer size of the extension can become overbearing and unsightly if not handled with care. In this instance, given the proximity to the neighbours, it was important to understand what the council might allow.

With a baby on the way and a desire to progress through the project quickly, we liaised with the council early on to minimise the risk of refusal at the planning stage. That meant that we achieved planning consent at the first time of asking, and we subsequently tendered the project before starting work on site at the beginning of 2020.

When the COVID pandemic struck we obviously faced considerable challenges with site closure and material supply issues as the pandemic gripped the world, but with the support of a great client, contractor, and wider design team we delivered the project on budget and with only a 6-week delay – a great result for everyone.