Turning a Victorian House into a Home for Modern Family Life
Relocating with two young children, the owners needed their newly purchased Victorian home to work around family life — with a generous open-plan living space, better access to the garden and the practical spaces that busy family life demands.
The customer story
The Problem
The owners had relocated to Hoylake with two young children and bought a Victorian house that had character and potential, but its existing layout didn't suit the way a modern young family wanted to live.
They wanted the main family space to feel connected rather than divided between separate rooms, with a much stronger relationship between the house and rear garden.
Just as importantly, the everyday practicalities needed to work too. A separate utility and ground-floor WC were part of the brief from the outset.
There was also one firm commercial constraint: the project budget was fixed.
What We Designed
We designed the new ground floor around one large open-plan family living space at the rear of the house.
The extension opened the home towards the garden, allowing the main living area to benefit from better natural light, easier access outside and a layout in which cooking, eating, playing and relaxing could happen together.
Alongside the main space, we incorporated a separate utility and ground-floor WC so that the practical functions of family life didn't have to compete with the open-plan living area.
The design wasn't developed independently of the budget. The shape, size and scope of the project were considered alongside cost from the beginning, allowing the owners to make decisions before the scheme progressed into detailed architectural drawings.
What We Built
The completed rear extension created a new kitchen and open-plan family living space with a direct connection to the garden.
A separate utility and downstairs WC provided the practical accommodation the original Victorian layout lacked.
The result retained the character and proportions of the existing house while changing the way the ground floor worked for everyday family life.
How It Improved the Way They Live
The house changed from a property the family had bought into a home designed around the way they actually wanted to live.
The new open-plan space became the centre of family life, allowing parents and children to use the same environment for cooking, eating, playing and relaxing while remaining connected to the garden.
The utility and ground-floor WC took care of the less glamorous but essential parts of family life without cluttering the main living space.
For a family starting a new chapter in a new area, the project allowed an older Victorian house to support a very modern way of living.
How we got there
Understanding the family
The starting point wasn't simply a request for an extension. The owners were relocating with two young children and needed their new home to work around a busy stage of family life.
They wanted a generous shared living space, a stronger connection with the garden and practical additions including a utility and ground-floor WC. Those requirements became the basis of the design.
Designing around a fixed budget
This project became one of OPB's early Design & Build projects, and the commercial approach was fundamental to how the scheme developed.
Before the architectural drawings were produced, we established the shape and scale of the proposed space and our in-house quantity surveyor costed it, labour and materials included, against the available budget.
That allowed the owners to understand what the budget could accommodate and make any necessary trade-offs while the project was still being designed, rather than discovering them once construction had begun.
Only once the design and cost were aligned did the scheme progress, with our partner architect, into the detailed architectural and approval stages.
Creating the heart of the home
The design concentrated the new accommodation at the rear of the property, where it could transform the relationship between the house and garden.
The new open-plan environment brought the kitchen, dining and family living functions together into one connected space.
Rather than allowing the practical requirements to dominate that room, the utility and WC were kept separate, giving the family the benefits of open-plan living without asking one space to do absolutely everything.
From design to construction
Once the scope, layout and budget had been established, the project progressed through the architectural and approval process before moving into construction.
Because the key commercial decisions had already been made during the design stage, the construction team was working towards a clearly understood scope and budget from the outset.
Building to the budget
The project had a fixed budget, and the agreed contract value was £90,000. The final account was also £90,000.
For the owners, that meant the figure agreed before construction remained the figure they ultimately paid for the contracted project.
For OPB, the project became an early demonstration of the principle that now sits at the heart of our Design & Build approach: design decisions and commercial decisions should be made together, not months apart.
- Budget
- Fixed
- Contract value
- £90,000
- Final account
- £90,000
Build, finish & handover
OPB delivered the rear extension, new open-plan family living space, utility and ground-floor WC through to completion.
The finished home gave a relocating young family the space they needed without losing the character of the Victorian property they had chosen to make their home.
In their words
“We couldn't be happier with our new extension from the Open Plan Building Co, it completely transformed the house; it is full of light and space, and we love living in it.”
Gallery
Inside the finished home
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