Hathersage House
The one that's close to home
This is actually our house! We purchased the property with a large concrete-block outbuilding, in the back garden with an outside w/c, all detached from the main house and a timber lean-to structure on the side. The kitchen was dark and dated, with only one small window, dark floors and worktops and poor lighting. The outbuildings, built into the rising garden, were wet from condensation from the metal roof and occasional streams running through, meant it was unfit even for storage and looked awful.
The proposals, which quickly received approval from the Peak Park, were to re-build the lean-to and clad it in modern oak cladding, to make the “addition” distinctly separate from the main dwelling and raise the floor level to that of the existing adjacent kitchen, knock down the side wall, inserting a beam over, and line the whole structure to increase the kitchen by 50%. Rooflights in the lean-to roof and widening the existing kitchen window and dropping it to patio doors brought in a huge amount of additional natural light.
The existing outbuildings were re-roofed with a timber roof, to take a green, meadow-mix natural roof covering, to increase biodiversity and soften the previous harsh solid roof landscape. The external walls are to be clad in stacked dry-stone walling and new windows and rooflights added. It was tanked internally and lined and insulated to create a Utility Room and Home Office.
Between the outbuilding and the lean-to, a new timber structure has been constructed to connect the two spaces, utilising the existing outhouse drainage for a new downstairs W/c and a South-facing Garden Room created. The house only has West and East facing windows, meaning that direct solar gain and natural lighting to the existing house are limited.
The project has been a self-build by Tom Crooks, and it has provided invaluable insight into construction “from the other side” and a further appreciation of matters such as finance, construction techniques and life as the Client, living with a building project.
The project is now complete and has changed the way we live and work in the house.