WHEN Tony and Angela Bennett were searching for their new home they knew exactly where to look.
The couple were living in Fixby but had their eye on a particular road in the area.
Tony, a structural engineer, said: “We had always loved Dorchester Road. The houses are all individual with different stonework and it was the one road we would go past and say ‘that's where we want to live’.”
The couple were delighted when a house on their dream road did come up for sale, five years ago. But the aged bungalow was far from ideal.
The property had previously been used as a doctor's surgery and there were remnants of a working practice still there.
Says Tony: “We could see where the waiting room had been and the rooms had glass doors.
“There must have been thousands of medical books scattered around the place, which we made sure were removed before we moved in!”
The couple also had the problem that the layout of the house wasn't suited to their needs. But they knew the potential was there for them to create a great family house.
Tony says: “It was not ideal. It was an old bungalow and the way it was laid out wasn't suitable for us; but the potential was there and it came with a decent plot of land so we knew we could make it work.”
The couple were so determined to get it right they lived in it for two years before calling in the builders.
Tony says: “Our original plan was just to change the front of the house to make it more appealing – nobody even knew where the front door was – and everything just expanded from there.
“We wanted to create some space upstairs and ended up taking the roof off and putting a great big canvas tent over the top, which stayed there for six months.
“In the end we created a whole two-storey house. The ironic thing though is that we never even touched the front!”
The transformation of the couple's home took 10 months and was a mammoth task.
The downstairs space was re-jigged, with a huge new kitchen dining space created together with a sun room.
The upstairs was completely built, going from just a small box room to full working bedrooms and en suite bathrooms. The rooms were crafted to mirror the same sense of space given to the large rooms downstairs.
And it wasn't just a huge project Tony and Angela had to contend with, they also had to live amongst all the mess of the building work!
Says Tony: “We originally planned to have a purpose-made area to live in and sleep but in the end we just used one of the spare rooms downstairs.
“It was tough and we had to make do with things like a makeshift oven, but without a doubt it was worth being on site.
“It meant we could speak to the builders every day, see what was happening and tweak things if we needed to.
“We had a great team of joiners who helped us with the internal work and came up with the different recesses for the rooms.”
The couple had a strong image of how they wanted the interior of their now five-bedroom home to look inside. They spent two years compiling a scrapbook full of images from home magazines to take their inspiration from.
Tony explains: “We had it full with things we liked and either picked these ideas or modified them.
“We had some really strong ideas, like with the sun room. We didn't want it to look like a conservatory, we wanted it to feel like it was part of the building.
“We had two stone masons working on site who helped us create a sense of flow from the original building to the extensions by ensuring all the brickwork matched exactly to look like they'd always belonged to the house.”
One space the couple were determined to ensure looked spectacular was the dining kitchen.
They wanted to create a great space for entertaining, so came up with the idea of adding retractable doors leading through to the sun lounge.
Says Tony: “That gave us the option of having one big space, but in winter we could also close it off and just have a very large kitchen.
“Originally we had planned for the lounge to be the hub of the house but that's now moved into the kitchen. It's a fantastic entertaining space and now we don't really use the other rooms!”
The couple have decided to put their home up for sale, as they are looking for the next project as well as a holiday home in Minorca.
Dorchester Road, Fixby is on the market with Bramleys estate agents. Call 01484 530361.
Dorchester Road, Fixby
Price: £500,000
Five bedroom detached property
In a popular and highly regarded area
Extended from its original form and recently refurbished
Luxurious breakfast kitchen
