Building up and out from the basement of a 1980s house gave one family a home with a stunning outlook
WORDS ELIZABETH CAKE PHOTOGRAPHY LISE BJELLAND/A DESIGN FEATURES
When it comes to hobbies, May Irene and Leif Ugletveit’s favourite is renovating. The couple’s black-stained, timber-clad house in the city of Stavanger on the south-west coast of Norway is the fifth property they’ve refurbished. In the past they learned on the job, taking on all the work themselves, but this ambitious project required input from a firm of architects.
Finding a practice to realise their vision was easy. May Irene is distantly related by marriage to architect Kjersti Heradstveit. Following a two-year-long search and a tip-off from an estate agent, sales manager May Irene, 44, and Leif, 51, an electrician who works in the oil industry, came across a 1980s house with mountain views two miles from the city centre in January 2021. It was important for the couple and their three children, Adrian, 19, Styrk, 16, and Adele, 12, to be in Stavanger for school and to enjoy city life. But the property, which nestles on a slope in the hills above the sea, is also within easy reach of the area’s fjords, mountains, beaches and woodland walks.
Kjersti’s design for the new-build elements of the project capitalises on the house’s hillside setting, enabling the family to enjoy the incredible views from all floors.
Leaving the basement level untouched, the ground floor, first floor and roof structures were demolished. Timber-frame walls and a pitched roof with dormers are supported by the original foundations, with new foundations built for the single-storey extension to the ground-floor living area that reaches 3.6m into the garden.
During the demolition phase, May Irene and Leif collected the old windows, insulation, electrical and plumbing waste, as well as unwanted wood, concrete and steel girders, and took them to recycling facilities. Keen to salvage some elements, they remodelled a fireplace to comply with the Building Regulations and recycled the chimney, but moved it to a new spot.
The family rented a house nearby while May Irene and Leif worked on site, overseeing the build and tackling most of the plumbing together. Leif set to installing all the electrics with May Irene’s help, after which the electrical contractor checked and certified the works.
