Lettie and Tom Fardon fell in love with a timber-framed 1950s bungalow ripe for renovation and bought it at auction, but didn’t realise just how much work would be involved in bringing it up to modern standards.

TEXT JAYNE DOWLE IMAGES RICHARD CHIVERS

When Tom and Lettie first bought their bungalow the plan was to undertake a simple extension to suit the needs of their young family. However, as time went on their plans progressed to full blown renovation in order to maximise on the property’s full potential and bring it up to standard. 

“As well as extending into the loft to create three bedrooms – previously there were only two – we quickly learned that we would need to pay a lot more attention than we thought to the insulation,” says 37-year-old Tom, who is a diplomat for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

“We had thought we’d just do an extension to start with, but as plans evolved, we decided to pursue a more ambitious retrofitting course which cleared out all our savings, and created a bit more debt,” he explains. “But we accepted that if we did more to improve our new home’s sustainability credentials, we would get a better return on our investment should we ever come to sell in the future.”

It was especially important for the rebuild to create an energy efficient, easy to manage home that requires absolutely minimum maintenance, as Tom’s work means overseas postings. He and Lettie and their young sons aged one and three, are currently in Madrid, Spain. During this posting they are renting out their home through a lettings agency; this also means finishes, such as the engineered ash flooring they’ve fitted, must be hard-wearing and durable. 

When renovation work started, the couple’s architect, Darren Bray, co-founder of Studio BAD Architects in Southampton, asked the contractors to remove “the knackered thin layer of rockwool in the roof. It was freezing in winter, so we replaced it with Celotex between the original rafters. We also insulated under floors with the same product and the walls.”

Darren did research the possibility of using some form of natural insulation. But after much discussion with insulation experts, and Tom and Lettie, the choice of Celotex was made. “We decided that given cost and the longer-term benefits of carbon footprint reduction from excellent insulation, it would be worth the carbon impact of manufacturing the product,” he explains.

Tom and Lettie, also 37, who works in sales and education for the wine industry, loved the quaint charm of the detached bungalow, which stands in a rural spot in Twyford, Hampshire. It is of traditional ‘Colt Frame’ construction, built by Colt Houses, a Kent-based company that has been building homes for more than a century.

They already lived in Twyford and wanted to stay in the same place, but couldn’t afford a house of the size they needed. So they decided to renovate instead, keeping the original name of the bungalow, ‘Cedarwood’ because it has stayed true to its original construction. Keeping that sense of tradition alive was important to Tom and Lettie; they are proud that where possible, they used British-sourced materials, such as the engineered ash floor and larch cladding.

“We purchased the property in August 2022 with the intention of doing work on it,” says Tom. “We saw the original bungalow had the potential to extend relatively easily.” As well as adding extra space, Tom and Lettie were keen to make the build as sustainable as possible and plan their new house to be easy to look after and maintain, as they knew that with Tom’s job, they were guaranteed to spend time living abroad. 

They started planning the project in November 2022, with work starting onsite in June 2023, taking just six months to complete.

The first challenge was ensuring that the house was mortgageable; lenders can be wary of properties built by ‘non-standard construction’. “Thankfully, we checked and were able to port our existing mortgage with Santander,” says Tom. “They needed to know that the house was timber-framed, but it wasn’t a problem.”

The frame was in good shape. Darren checked the joints to check the structural condition of the frame: “Timber-frame houses are more susceptible to moisture damage and rot. This also needs to be carefully inspected before work is started.” The timber frame and foundations were reused to save waste and to contribute towards the project’s sustainable aims.

The accompanying challenge was keeping the budget under control. Saving money and sustainability went hand in hand for the Fardons, who shopped around hard to find the best prices for fixtures and fittings. This included sourcing a “barely-used” second-hand kitchen from The Used Kitchen Company for £4,000, saving “thousands” in the process. 

The original timber cladding was stripped and set aside for recycling. Darren specified a combination of British-grown larch cladding (treated in SiOO:X wood protection to promote quick and even driftwood-like weathering) and a low-maintenance zinc-like metal as a contemporary replacement. 

“The metal is GreenCoat PLX, made by a Swedish company, SSAB, finished in anthracite grey to contrast with the wood cladding,” Darren explains. “We chose it in part due to the green credentials of the manufacturer. The products are free of chromates, which can be hazardous to health. We were really happy with our cladding installer, Jim and his team, they had incredible attention to detail which really shows in the finished home.”

Most of the existing glazing was single pane. This was replaced with super high spec double glazed windows from Norsken. “These were a cheaper option to triple glazed, and the difference in spec between these and triple glazed wasn’t enough for us to decide to spend limited budget on it,” says Darren. “The building was super insulated anyway.”

Tom approached local installers Roost Heating with the brief to make the property as energy efficient as possible. He was already keen on installing an air source heat pump to help meet this aim. A big bonus was that the heat pump, a Worcester Bosch CS2000, was 0% VAT rated, and eligible for a government grant of £7,500 to help with the renovation budget. A contingency has been built into the heating system to add photovoltaics and battery storage at a later date, when Tom and Lettie can fund these additions. Coupled with underfloor heating on the ground floor and oversized radiators upstairs, the heat pump provides a constant gentle heat to the property. There is also an electric vehicle charging point.

The internal floorplan was completely rethought. When they bought the house, Tom and Lettie already had a two-year-old son, and his brother came along in 2023 – born before the renovation was finished, when the family were staying with Lettie’s parents and they knew that they wanted to make it as family-friendly as possible.

“The lady who lived in the house before had her family grow up in the home, and it had clearly been a happy place, the family even left a note for us when we moved in,” smiles Lettie. “We wanted to keep the essence of that, while giving the property a new lease of life, allowing our family to follow in their footsteps.”

However, Lettie explains that the interior of the house “was very dated with the design, finished with very 1960s fixtures and fittings which made it feel quite dark.” The existing layout felt cramped, the living room and kitchen were small and all the bedrooms and the one bathroom were on the ground floor. Tom and Lettie’s priorities were to have “a large, social kitchen with generous glazing to connect to the garden.”

Working with Darren and his team at Studio BAD, Lettie and Tom decided to form two new bedrooms within a dramatic loft extension, leaving one bedroom on the ground floor to double as a snug and allow for flexible use in future. Adding this new storey freed up space to create a new kitchen/dining room, living room and WC. This also allowed new space for an ensuite in the main first floor bedroom and a family bathroom at this level too, taking the size of the house from 100m² to 140m².

The couple knew Darren, as he had carried out a project locally to Lettie’s parents in the New Forest which they really liked. “We got three quotes from different architects, but felt Studio BAD was the best fit for the project, and liked their style,” Tom explains. “The main question we had with the architect was how to add those bedrooms in the loft space, without causing issues of overlooking the neighbours’ properties.”

Their home is located in the South Downs National Park, so Tom and Lettie knew from the start that extra effort would be needed to achieve planning approval, which took eight weeks to secure. Darren brought in a planning consultant, Debra Slade, to help shape their thoughts and understand what was achievable. This collaborative approach helped them engage with the planning team at the South Downs National Park Authority from an early stage of the design process. As Cedarwood stands within a sensitive rural location the designs had to carefully alter the home without impacting the original mass or form, to reduce impact on the surrounding area. 

Keeping conversations open about the design and expectations was especially helpful when it came to the dormer windows. Due to the orientation of the house, adding standard dormer windows would have caused privacy issues as the new glazing would look over the neighbouring homes. 

“We came up with the idea to shift the window openings, angling them to the side,” says Darren. “This offered quite a few advantages. Firstly, it solved the issue of overlooking and created windows with framed views over rural countryside. Secondly, this approach creates an internal window seat space in each bedroom which makes a wonderful place to sit and enjoy the garden. Also, the angled windows make the building look really innovative and striking from the outside, which we all really like.”

To accommodate the new bedrooms in what was a basic loft space, used previously for storage, the roof height was raised to 1.2m. The additional roof height also allowed for more internal space to upgrade the thermal properties of the house.

This major alteration meant structural engineer Scott Boote was brought on board to calculate what additional support was needed so the timber structural frame could take the additional weight.

Tom and Lettie say that the “bedroom benches” are one of their favourite features, along with the large skylight on the landing that brings in both natural daylight and views of stars.

They also love the huge kitchen window, which looks over the garden. Six of the original window openings, in the kitchen, dining and living spaces, plus one opening in the ground floor bedroom/snug, were pulled down to ground level to maximise the garden, and increase the natural daylight drawn into the home.

That quaint bungalow has been replaced with a modern, striking home that feels warm and inviting. Tom and Lettie admit that when they started out on this full-scale renovation they were daunted by the prospect and wondered if they were really doing the right thing. “But once we had a quote, our builders were amazing,” says Tom. “They gave us a quote, and 100% stuck to it while delivering an excellent product. It’s so important to work with people who you trust. And manage expectations on timing. We did have a few delays we didn’t expect.”

The renovation has cost £350,000 so far, funded by the sale of their existing house, savings and a mortgage. When funds allow, Tom and Lettie hope to add a full-length colonnade to the south side of the bungalow, leading off the kitchen/dining room and snug, to create a covered area so outdoor space can be used year round. This colonnade would also help mitigate overheating during the warmer summer months. 

“Holding off on the colonnade was a hard choice, as it’s a part of the design we loved, but we will come back to it,” says Tom. “What we love now is the light, the innovative and cool bits of design that make it unique, like the dormers, the flow, the fact it’s just right for our family. Being as sustainable as we could afford was very important too.”

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