‘we blended old with new’

Having always loved period properties, Madelaine Maddock knew that when her husband Andrew changed jobs, meaning a move from their London flat to Surrey, a Victorian or Edwardian house was at the top of the wish list.

‘I’d pictured living in an older house with a modern extension for a while, and we loved that this three-floor semi had the potential to do that,’ she says. ‘My vision was an open-plan room with bi-folds onto the garden.’

The house was laid out with two rooms per floor, each being a good size with a fireplace – even in the bathroom – which the couple loved. However, the lower ground floor was damp and gloomy with a staircase in the middle separating the kitchen and dining room, and the only way into the garden was through a side door and along a passageway.

‘The house was liveable, and at first we got on with decorating the bedrooms and getting Élodie’s nursery ready while we saved up,’ explains Madelaine. ‘As time passed, we spent most of our relaxation time in the ground-floor living room as downstairs wasn’t a pleasant place to sit and unwind.’

The couple began to think about how they could streamline the layout and make the garden more accessible so they could see the children playing outside. A local architect suggested moving the staircase and building a large extension, but they weren’t sure it made financial sense, and didn’t want to lose too much outdoor space. Instead, the couple decided to leave the staircase as it was, knock through the kitchen and dining room – and extend 2.5 metres over the concrete patio.

‘We love the long roof window in the extension, which marks the change between the old and new, and brings in lots of ambient light,’ explains Madelaine.

Madelaine and Andrew brought in building contractor Campbell Keats because they liked the company’s attention to detail. The trickiest part of the project was having the lower ground floor tanked and waterproofed, which was req