A Stone Extension

Andrew and Allison Page have more than doubled the size of their 1930s home with a seamless stone extension.

Deciding whether to opt for traditional or contemporary interiors was never a dilemma for Andrew and Allison Page: they chose both. The couple purchased a dilapidated 1930s property in Leeds, which they have renovated and extended to create an imposing six bedroom family home, boasting a host of original features, as well as some sleek modern finishes. As a builder, Andrew had previous experience of renovating and extending other properties, but had never undertaken anything on quite such a grand scale for himself. He moved from Sussex to live with Allison in Leeds after they met four years ago, and the couple married shortly after purchasing The Old Stead, which is located in one of the city’s most desirable areas and stands in half an acre of mature grounds.

“We actually moved into the house on our stag and hen weekend, so it was complete chaos,” he recalls. “An elderly lady had lived here for the past 50 years, and the place then stood empty for a while, which meant it was in a fairly shocking state by the time we bought it. Some bad choices had been made during the 1960s, such as bricking up a beautiful stone fireplace in the drawing room, but we wanted a project and planned to uncover and restore as many of the original features as possible.”

The Pages worked hard to refurbish the drawing room, a bathroom and two bedrooms prior to moving in, and then virtually camped out in the house. “The rest of the house was screened off and we just lived in a small area and made do with a makeshift kitchen and electric heaters,” Allison explains.

“Luckily we’re both very keen on renovation and interior design, so we did enjoy the process. It was our first proper home together after living in rented accommodation, and we had very similar ideas about how we wanted the finished house to look, which made everything much easier.”

When the Pages first purchased the property it had already been clumsily extended to create an additional ground floor bedroom and en suite bathroom, which stood out in stark contrast to the pretty Arts & Craftsinspired main house. Planning permission was obtained to replace this unattractive flat-roofed structure with a two storey side addition, which is actually far larger than its predecessor.

“A local architect put our ideas down on paper, and we soon realised that we were going to need another entrance door and hallway to serve the extension, rather than trying to organise everything around the existing hall,” says Allison. “Incorporating a second staircase has worked really well, and means that we’ve been able to achieve a much more flowing circulation between the various rooms.”

The new extension is the size of a small house, and contains a spacious contemporary kitchen/breakfast room with an open plan dining area, an integral garage and a new hallway. Upstairs are two good-sized bedrooms, each with their own en suite shower rooms and dressing areas. The extension more than doubles the size of the original house, but an existing detached garage and workshop were demolished in a trade-off which helped to secure planning permission.

“The original kitchen had been boxy and dark, and was combined with the former dining room to make a good-sized games room, which is a bit of a boys’ pad,” explains Andrew, who enjoys watching the plasma TV in this room and playing snooker with his friends. “The old main bathroom is now the smallest of our en suites, and the two new bedrooms are far larger than the ones in the original part of the house, so the extension really has made a dramatic difference.”

Andrew and Allison were determined that the external appearance of the house would not be sacrificed in their quest for more space, however, and thought long and hard about the design of their new extension. Externally, they wanted the two halves of the property to match exactly, so that the new element would appear to have been built in the 1930s as part of the original house, and visitors would have difficulty differentiating between the two.

The existing single glazed metal windows were rusted closed and have been replaced, although some original stained glass was retained in the sitting room and hallway. Crittall window frames were chosen for the front and side elevations, and have been set into stone mullions, created by masons to Andrew’s own design.

“It was important that the front of the house looked totally unified, so we moved the old back door into the extension, along with a round window which now sits above the garage,” he explains. “The roof was stripped, felted and battened before the slates were put back, and we used reproduction stone slates on the extension, with cast iron rooflights which are in keeping with the house. One of the most difficult things was finding suitable reclaimed York stone, and I travelled for miles to get the perfect match, but new stone would have stuck out like a sore thumb.”

Andrew built the stone and blockwork cavity walls himself, and tackled virtually every other part of the work, including dry-lining the interiors with over 250 sheets of plasterboard. The entire property has been rewired and re-plumbed, with new central heating, and every room is completed to a superb standard with sleek Italian door handles and chrome switches and sockets.

“Sometimes the sheer size of the project meant it was rather soul destroying, because you knew there was such a long way to go, and I was often here on site by myself working from 7.30 in the morning,” says Andrew. “I was also new to the area, so the biggest problem was trying to source decent labour. Let’s just say that a good holiday was had after the house was finished! We’d lived and breathed The Old Stead for almost a year, so it actually felt good to take a break and get away for a while.”

Living in the house during such major building work had meant enduring months of cold, dirt and noise, with rainwater caught in buckets when the roof was stripped off. In spite of these problems, the Pages still thoroughly enjoyed redesigning their home and choosing the contemporary kitchen units, sanitaryware and lighting, which make such an impact. “It’s a real blend of old and new,” says Andrew. “Our sitting room and the snooker room still have the old ceiling beams, and the traditional windows and reclaimed stone helps link the extension with the original 1930s house.We’ve chosen some very modern fittings for the kitchen and bathrooms, but the two styles seem to work together without jarring. The house is now the perfect size for a family, and we plan to stay here for a while, but we’ve both got the building bug and our ultimate dream would be to build a brand new home from scratch — so I suspect we’ll be moving on again before too long.”