A Three Storey Georgian Self-build

Like Russian dolls stacked one inside the other, Neil and Gill Dowlmans' Lincolnshire home hides another far older property within its walls. Visitors would be unlikely to notice this fact - focusing instead on the luxury and quality of the Georgian-style brick house - but the entire building was effectively designed to accommodate the small 19th century cottage it now envelopes.

"We could have demolished the existing property and replaced it," explains Neil, a chartered architectural technologist and MD of Neil Dowlman Architecture Ltd, "but the councils Local Plan policy would have prevented us from increasing the original volume by more than 15 per cent, so we'd never have been able to build the family-sized home we needed. Instead, the idea was born to both remodel and extend the cottage, which gave us much more flexibility in terms of allowable size of development to create what we wanted."

Neil had designed and built his own home once before: a traditional cottage with pretty detailing and decorative bargeboards, which caused people to liken it to a gingerbread house. He later married Gill and the couple now have two young daughters Emily, seven, and three-year-old Alice.

Set back from the road on the edge of a village, and surrounded by open fields and mature trees, Monson House Farm was a small two storey cottage which had originally been built in the traditional Lincolnshire style, but had later suffered internal and external alterations which left the building virtually unrecognisable. The brickwork was rendered in the 20th century, unsympathetic PVCu windows had been fitted and although habitable the entire property was somewhat tired and neglected.

"We set about designing a house that would be very sympathetic to the local style - which is my love anyway," explains Neil, whose practice enjoys an enviable reputation for designing traditional Lincolnshire buildings. "Not only did we want to extend the property outwards, but we also wanted to increase the height and use dormer windows to add an extra two rooms in the roof. It was quite a challenge incorporating the old cottage, and it did become a bit of an obsession. I would often find myself working into the early hours of the morning, tweaking the design, but then it just sailed through planning with absolutely no problem at all."

The original cottage has become a wing to the Dowlmans' new house, containing the ground floor living room and much of the dining room. To this has been added an extension which is more than double the volume of the existing building and accommodates a spacious kitchen and separate utility room, a new entrance hallway and playroom. Upstairs, there are now four bedrooms, a bathroom and two en suites, with a study and hobbies room located on the second floor.

A structural report had confirmed that the existing cottage was subsiding due to poor drainage and clay soil, and therefore needed to be underpinned to prevent any further subsidence. New foundations were designed to allow a brick skin to cover the existing render, and all that now remains of the original building is the roof structure and three external walls, which have been concealed by new bricks and roof tiles. Rooms were carefully orientated to maximise passive solar gain, and the Lincolnshire catslide roof faces north and protects the house from the prevailing wind.

The newly remodelled and extended building sits very comfortably within its mature landscaped setting, and to all accounts appears to be an original Georgian grange that has stood the tests of the past 250 years boasting handmade local clay tiles, tumbled brick gables, mockcast iron rainwater goods and handmade brickwork laid in a Flemish bond with lime mortar. "Neil and I both love the symmetry and detailing of Georgian buildings," says Gill, "so there was never really any question about the kind of house we wanted to build."

The couple sold their home and moved into rented accommodation, which was located close to the site. Neil took on the role of project manager and tendered for a building contractor, ultimately employing a company he had worked with in the past. The builders used traditional techniques to produce a truly individual building, which is perfectly complemented by detailed handmade joinery true to the Georgian period.

Once the new brickwork had been built up to eaves height it was possible to take out the internal walls and first floor of the old cottage - leaving just a shell which forms the inner leaf of new insulated cavity brick walls.

"It was always my worry that, because the old cottage had previously subsided, it could crack and collapse while we were stripping away the supports," says Neil. "After this stage it became much easier because we could start to cut out the new openings and block in the existing ones. The beauty of adding the additional skin and cavity was that, as well as being highly insulated, the house now has very deep window reveals which allowed us to splay them in the traditional way and add mock shutters."

"We did overrun the planned build time a little," he explains. "Designing a continuous handrail for the stairs to avoid clumsy newel posts proved quite a challenge for the joiners, and there was also a problem with slight colour variations between batches of brickwork but the builder carefully mixed them together so that you can't tell the difference."

Internally, Georgian grandeur has been combined with practical considerations to ensure that the house works well for a young family. The formal dining room is ideal for entertaining but, unsurprisingly, it is the spacious kitchen which is the heart of the home with its informal seating and dining area, a large island unit/breakfast bar and walk-in larder. Mock-wood cushion flooring is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, and has been laid over underfloor heating - which runs throughout the ground floor of the house.

"We did a lot of research on door styles and detailing, topping up our knowledge of the era," says Neil. "The lighting and much of the furniture has been scaled to the size of the rooms, and we designed the limestone fireplace for the lounge which was then made by a local stonemason."

"I think the key is to remain as true to the style as possible without compromising on comfort. Building this house gave us the perfect opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds in a beautiful setting, so we are very grateful to the old cottage for allowing us to realise our dream."

Further reading:

• A Georgian style self build
• Georgian elegance
• A Self-built Four Bedroom Georgian Villa