UPPER MALL W6

My client had long admired this house which she had cycled past virtually every day for the previous three years. When she saw the Estate Agent nailing his board up she realized that it was destiny calling and two weeks later her offer was accepted. She persuaded the people who were moving into her old house, to rent it to her for two months, whilst she prepared the new one for temporary occupation by husband, four children, dog, Svetlana, publishing business, terrapins etc.

It took a few months to obtain the necessary consents, during which time we negotiated a tender for the refurbishment work proper with the unflappable builder who had carried out the initial blitz. The whole family, including terrapins, decamped to a house round the corner, and construction started the day Planning Consent was due. In the interim it had become clear that it would be madness not to add a new basement “to take advantage of the disruption”. A specialist firm began the excavations three months after the chaps had started working on the roof. The basementeers moved out more or less as the decorators reached the ground floor so the family were able to move back in to the whole house all at once.