EXTENSION AND REMODEL
Mike and Jane Cuva embraced the challenge of both designing and project managing their large-scale renovation, building around a small property to create a sleek light-filled home
HOMEOWNERS Mike and Jane Cuva
HOUSE TYPE Detached two-storey five-bedroom house
HOUSE SIZE 375m²
LOCATION Woking, Surrey
PROJECT Extensive remodel and extension
BUILD ROUTE Self-managed subcontractors and DIY
BUILD TIME Four years
PLOT/HOUSE COST £937,000 in 2015
BUILD COST £1.2 million
CURRENT VALUE £3 million+
Sleek Mediterranean and West Coast architecture were the inspiration for Mike and Jane Cuva’s contemporary flat-roofed home. Their new home is unrecognisable from the small pitch-roofed building that previously inhabited the site, and which still stands at the core of the new house.
“In 2015, we bought a property that was marketed as a cottage on two acres, but in reality it was more like a dark and dingy double garage with a kitchenette and two small bedrooms upstairs,” says Mike. “It was the worst building in the area, but on the best road. The big draw was the property’s woodland garden, which backs onto a golf course and is an incredibly secluded and peaceful setting.”
Mike and Jane spent a large chunk of their budget on simply buying the property, which was affordable to them because only permitted development rights existed for the small structure —one of the main factors that deterred other prospective buyers and developers.
“We took a calculated risk, and then spent the next year fighting the council planners to overturn their restrictions,” Jane explains. “Land is so expensive, but this was our best hope to accomplish what we really wanted to create —a unique and modern home with high ceilings and large glass doors to maximise the view of the garden and woodland.”
PLANNING CHALLENGES
Inspired by images they had collected from Pinterest and Instagram, Mike and Jane decided to draw up plans themselves. Mike is Italian and loves Mediterranean and LA West Coast architecture, which influenced certain elements of the design, such as the crisp white render and overhanging flat roof.
“As we’re in the greenbelt the council felt our contemporary design wasn’t in keeping with the other houses in the road,” says Mike. “They told us we could only amend the existing building – keeping the four external walls, rather than knocking it down and starting again – which presented us with a real challenge.”
However, retain the original four walls they did, and these walls now make up the entrance hallway and core of th
