Remodel · Mendip Hills
No. 06 of 20
A tired bungalow above the strawberry fields, given a timber upper floor that looks out across the Levels.
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Mark and Ruth bought the bungalow for the view, then found they could only see it from the bottom of the garden. Knocking it down would have wasted a sound house and a lot of carbon. So we kept the ground floor and put a light timber floor on top, turned to face the Levels.
01
A 1960s bungalow on the south slope of the Mendips above Draycott, with strawberry fields running down the hill below it and the Levels spread out beyond. The house was sound, cold and facing the wrong way, with its best windows looking at the hedge.
02
The new floor steps out over the old walls towards the view, with one long window that frames the Levels from Glastonbury Tor to Brent Knoll. It is clad in larch that will go silver like the old field barns nearby. The planners asked for a lower roof line, so we dropped it by 400mm and they approved it.
03
The new floor is a timber frame made off site and lifted on in a week, so the walls below only carry what they were built for. Mark and Ruth lived in a caravan by the strawberry fields for the seven months the work took.
“We bought it for the view and could not see it. Now we cannot stop looking at it, even doing the washing up.”
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