When Ben and Claire Macland bought a 230m~2, tired inter-war bungalow on a corner plot in the Great Austin Conservation Area, one mile south of Farnham town centre in Surrey, in 2015, they started with the objective of retaining the existing building. The house was a pebbledash 'Toblerone', as they nicknamed it - four lined up gable-ended segments joined to another pitched volume across the back. They had bought it 'rather recklessly' not knowing what needed to come of it, explains Ben. They had been living in the house and felt that its orientation was well set up. Snapping a few bits off and upgrading its performance should do it. Besides, the couple had renovated properties before but never built from scratch. 'Building a new house, you are quite exposed. We also liked having a starting point as a reference to change this or that,' he adds.
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