On a hillside overlooking Hastings,East Sussex, Sue Dawson andPaul Gammon’s home has greatviews across the rooftops of theold town and out to sea. The couple were impressedfrom their first visit to the site. ‘We loved the way thesun struck the water on a sunny day,’ Paul recalls.Yet the property was at the end of a narrow lane andhad seen better days. ‘It was a dilapidated three-bedroom1920s bungalow,’ says Sue. ‘The front door was in thegarden at the top of a steep flight of concrete steps andthe back door opened off the lane. It seemed to havebeen built the wrong way around.’Paul, 67, who is an architect, realised that theycould add space to the 74sqm property and improve thelayout by building a two-storey extension and convertingthe attic.
As the house is in a conservation area, it tookmore than a year to gain planning consent, but the coupleeventually got the go-ahead to turn the bungalow intoa home on three levels.Sue, 67, who is a scriptwriter and novelist, sold herproperty to pay for the project. But before long it becameclear that the couple’s estimated budget of around £220,000 for the renovations was unrealistic, so theyalso increased their mortgage.One reason for the overspend was the difficulty ingetting materials to the site – everything from 200kgsteels to 500 bags of cement had to be hand-deliveredfrom the road, 300m away. ‘We didn’t appreciate quitehow labour-intensive it would be,’ says Sue.Removing the building waste would have been equallyexpensive, but the couple managed to keep it on site,burying concrete rubble under a series of garden pondswith old carpets layered on top to prevent it from piercingthe liners. They also used rubble to fill gabion retainingwalls in the garden. ‘It takes longer to recycle and reusematerials, but it was the right thing to do,’ says Sue.
The original back door is now a front entrance. It openson to a spacious hallway, which leads to two bedroomsand an office. Stairs down to the lower ground floor reveala snug created from the cellar. Sue and Paul’s en-suitebedroom is on the upper floor in the converted attic.The new extension includes a kitchen with a dining areaon the lower-ground floor level and a living room above it.Paul acted as the architect, project manager and builder.‘I’m fairly handy, so I tackled as much as I could,’ he says.‘The electrical and plumbing work was inspected, testedand certified by qualified trades, but everything else wasdone by me or by people working under my supervision.’
The couple lived in the bungalow during the build to save money, at one stage camping in the half-built extension for six months. Delays occurred when the glazing arrived unfinished and a corner of the extension’s steel frame dropped by 4cm, resulting in a dispute between the fabricator and engineer. Eventually they found a solution. But the lowest point was in October 2019 when Sue slipped and broke her hip, leading to two operations and a year on crutches. While she was in hospital, Paul prioritised completing their bedroom and en-suite bathroom so she had somewhere to recuperate. ‘The project was too far along to do anything else,’ says Sue.
The house showcases simple materials such as plywood, concrete and timber, with the metal flues from the woodburning stoves tracking across unpainted plaster walls. In the snug the couple left a rough section of the bungalow’s original foundations exposed. ‘We like honest materials that speak for themselves,’ says Paul. Against this backdrop there are flashes of colour, from the bathrooms that are decorated in orange, yellow and pale pink to the bright yellow front door. ‘Lots of overhead glazing means you’re always aware of the sky and the light,’ says Paul. With the hard work behind them, the couple love waking up in their attic bedroom and looking out across the green roof to the sea. ‘Getting to this point was worth all the effort,’ says Paul. ‘The house is light, bright and warm. It’s so easy to live in.
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