Need advice on bad extension on 19th century cottage

[Maisiedays]

Hello All,

We've just purchased a Georgian cottage with, "a lot of potential". The only thing that has us flummoxed is an unsympathetic addition(s) on the back of the cottage. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.
Right now, we are leaning towards removing the balcony on the right as well as the wall on the right.
Our end goal is to sympathetically restore the cottage using traditional materials.
This is our maiden project, so wish us luck.

Thank you,
Kath

 

[LadyArowana]

Hello and welcome, just bumping this up the ranking ( new members have to have their first few posts moderated, and that means they come in some way down the page and can be missed ). The standard advice is to live with what you have for a while to get the feel of the place before you embark on changes. I assume it isn't listed?

 

[malcolm]

It makes sense to live in the house for at least a year before deciding. You might find the balcony to be a nice space and decide to keep it. Or you might find other places to spend money. (Speaking as a newbie to all this myself one year in who has found enough things apart from my grand design to spend money on).

Aesthetically the extension to the left is a bit big and square for the house. It might look nicer with a pitched roof joining the original roof at 90 degrees, though that gets expensive. I think removing the balcony would make that extension stand out more. You could try alternative materials on the front of the balcony. timber weatherboarding maybe to give some horizontals to break up the boxy verticals. Concrete wall below could be rendered. Or make an oak frame around the balcony opening and fake a barn look.

None of that is conservation advice. I reckon you would be mad to remove both extensions and put it back where it was, so better to make the best of them to modern historical tastes. After all everyone else did their own thing to it in the past so there's no reason why we shouldn't do our own thing too.

 

[paulb33]

Definitely live in for a while before deciding.

The extensions don't look too bad. I wouldn't dress them up or disguise them. Unless you're prepared to pull them down completely, I think its better to respect their integrity and keep them unaltered. Key to this approach, is making sure they're really well maintained. Hack off blown render, paint with really good paints/limewash, nice clean pipework, gutters, clean windows, clean corrugated roof, sound frames, etc.

In this way, the construction of the building can easily be 'read' and it'll look much better. I suspect that anything you do that attempts to blend them in to the cottage will be counter-productive. The risk is, that future owners will be undoing any cladding, frames etc that you add now as 'unsympathetic early 2000s additions'.....

The following site shows some good illustrations of what I'm struggling to articulate. Welsh vernacular buildings with a variety of lean-toos and quirky extensions, which are gorgeous: http://www.underthethatch.co.uk/tyto

 

[plasticpigeon]

For what it's worth I agree that taking down the balcony and wall on the right would be a good idea. It would leave the house looking like a house again. Unless that balcony creates an amazing indoor space, I'd get rid I'm afraid!

 

[88v8]

Hmmm.
The back as it stands says to me Seaside Cottage. The porch/lookout begs for a telescope. The stripy wall to the right says Lighthouse.
With some cottagey windows could look quite nice.
So unless you're set on restoring it to whatever it once was, I'd go with the vibe you've got and enhance it.
Agree about getting rid of the flat roof though. And that jumble of plastic piping.

Ivor

 

[Maisiedays]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.
No, it is not listed. It is in a conservation area though.
The extension on the left will have to stay but we have to do something with the roof as it is a flat roof and having issues, not to mention my extra tall husband can't stand up straight in it. (Should one buy a house one doesn't fit in, I hear you ask).
The problem with the extension on the right, (other than being IMO ugly) is that there is a clear plastic roof on it, and the windows don't open. The floor is concrete and they've had to install a drain in it for the moisture that collects in there. The wood they've put between the house and the plastic roof is rotten and, I'm sure, contributes to this moisture problem.
We will be living with it for awhile at any rate because there are other more pressing issues that need sorted. So, we will definitely be following that advice.
We've had a builder out to look at it just to make sure it isn't going to drop off the house on its own. No luck, he says it's sturdy.

 

[Owain]

Do I see a corrugated plastic roof to the balcony?

On a positive note you appear to have an original Coughtree light fitting adjacent to the balcony door.

 

[malcolm]

Bear with the forum until after 3 posts or so when you can reply without further moderation. It's difficult to spot new posts when they are approved.

Was the balcony covered originally? A lot of southern French houses have open balconies. A concrete floor and drain might suggest yours was originally open. Won't make it look any prettier but could be a halfway step. I would love a first floor balcony and have a suitable flat roof to build it on, but planners don't like them these days.

 

[davidbrac]

I agree that it doesn't look that good now, and by your own comments it isn't a great space. However it could be with a bit of imagination and some work.

My concern on the cast concrete is how far does it go into the wall of the house and how much will it cost to remove. The cast concrete floor and wall could be dressed with brick or wood or even rendered and if you are doing the roof of the house could be extended to include the conservatory. I would look at changing its use and being creative with it.

 

[Penners]

Welcome to the forum, Kath. That's quite a project you've taken on for your first effort!

The way that you approach this will depend hugely on your available budget. But for what it's worth, my suggestion is that it's much better to take more time and spend more money than you planned, rather than doing a quick, cheap job that ultimately doesn't satisfy you or truly enhance the property (or its market value).

I won't beat about the bush - that house looks pretty awful right now (I don't imagine that comes as any news to you)! Assuming that your budget and the constraints of a conservation area allow it, I think you need to take a really adventurous approach to its improvement. It may be that the ugly rear additions don't necessarily need to be removed. Instead, it's possible that you might be able to "restyle" them in a very contemporary idiom, in order to make a dramatic visual separation between them and the original cottage.

Contemporary extensions on traditional dwellings can look wonderful. Whether you like this example or not, the picture below shows the kind of adventurous thinking that I'm talking about - adding a very up-to-the-minute contemporary extension to an otherwise traditional house.

 

[Maisiedays]

You know, I'm not even sure how it is attached to the house. There is an RSJ running across the front and middle of it. When you are standing on it you can see a tiny open space between the floor and the wall. You can't see all the way through though. It doesn't look like a crack. More like a joint.
I think I like the idea of taking the roof off. The windows would probably have to come off too. It would still be odd but at least we could get fresh air into the bedroom.
The modern extension idea is interesting. I don't think I would go that radical but I see what you mean.
I'm so glad I have a place to go for ideas like this. Thank you all again.

 

[Penners]

I'm so glad I have a place to go for ideas like this. Thank you all again.

We all enjoy exploring ideas and techniques, Kath, so don't ever hesitate to come back and ask more questions. We'd also like to know how you're getting on with your project, as often as you feel like reporting in!