This timeless Resi home belongs to Lubi and her family, who have been living here in Surrey since 2021. Since the purchase the house has undergone quite the transformation, having been generously extended on the ground floor, plus modifications to the first floor and a loft extension.

The project was successfully completed in late 2022, marking the end of a remarkably swift renovation process. The family purchased the house in 2021, with the intention of starting renovations immediately, keen to prioritise speed without sacrificing quality. They knew that the original layout would not suit their family's needs; while the house was spacious and had undeniable potential, it was compartmentalised into lots of smaller rooms, and the look, feel and design of the home was dated.

The house is part of an oddly shaped plot due to the house being situated within a road bend, meaning we had to be creative with our designs. Originally, the layout featured a living room to the left upon entry, with a kitchen to the right, which extended back in an L shape towards the rear, connecting to a separate dining room and followed by a conservatory.

We maintained the original shape of the living room but repurposed it as a study, incorporating a small playroom to the right at the front of the house. The remainder of the ground floor was transformed into a wonderful open-plan layout, featuring a spacious kitchen plus separate utility area and WC, dining area and a separate lounge area, all made possible by a 4-meter extension to the rear.

The family also opted to expand into the loft, creating an additional master bedroom complete with an en-suite and built-in wardrobes. This necessitated the installation of stairs from the first floor, for access. There were two tiny bedrooms on the first floor, and so we knocked the wall down between those to create one larger guest bedroom, resulting in three big bedrooms and a family bathroom. We also designed an outhouse at the end of the garden, intended as a separate space from the main house.

As soon as we found Resi on Google, we reached out and decided to go with you pretty much straight away. We knew what we wanted to do, as that's why we bought the house in the first place, so we wanted to get the right people on board to get the drawings together. It was all about speed for us. The only thing that slowed us down was making sure we found the right builders, we wanted to take our time with this. We got numerous tenders and ended up going with some that were £30k cheaper than the others, and they were great.

The house before was just lots of small rooms. We wanted bigger rooms, more space, and to go for more of an open plan. The loft before was just dead space, which is now our bedroom with an en-suite. The views are great from up there!

We still have things to finish even now. With the kids, life is busy! We have painting to do, and need to finish the playroom. But it’s great. We used to live in a much smaller house out towards Heathrow, so it’s really nice being able to have the garden, the kids love it in the summer. Part of the design was also the outhouse, which is great especially with the dog.

Photography by Peter Furlong.