We are Laura and Jamie Currie from the Isle of Wight, and we recently embarked upon our first renovation in Gurnard near Cowes, which we are project managing around our day jobs! 

We’ve always lived on the island, but in 2019, along with our two daughters, we decided that we wanted to live closer to the sea. The perfect renovation project was sitting just metres away from where Jamie grew up, with the added bonus of some stunning sea views. 

We finally moved in to what would be our new home in mid February 2020, just a matter of weeks before the first lockdown. We achieved planning permission (thanks to our architect Colman at Modh Design), for a project to turn the chalet bungalow into a four-bed house, with an office/gym, large downstairs family room and an upstairs lounge plus a balcony with views over the Solent.

Due to the size of the rear ground floor extension we knew we would need to undertake any major works in the back garden before we started the bungalow renovation. The previous owners had a fishpond and a large shed in the sunniest part of the garden, but we had different ideas. We started work a year after we moved in, in February 2021, and had hoped to have the garden finished by May, however it took until mid September to fully excavate and turn it into what it is now, an amazing space for entertaining with a sun terrace and an outdoor kitchen with a handmade Spanish ‘Fuego’ wood fired pizza oven. It is our favourite part of the garden and we get so much use out of it, assisted by an outdoor beer and wine fridge and an American ‘Pit Boss’ barbecue. 

We used the time that the work was taking place in the garden to have the footings put in for the rear extension. This meant we wouldn’t need to have further plant machinery in the garden once it was complete; we then turfed over it for a year. 

We had a bit of a break from building works, and spent this summer enjoying the garden we had worked so hard on with several boozy evenings with close friends and family. We waited until the start of September to start the renovation on the bungalow; this gave us the time to plan the build, and to make some vital – and exciting – decisions. 

KITCHEN DECISIONS

The first decision we made was on the kitchen; it was our aim to have a big space for entertaining downstairs. This meant the kitchen would be the focal point, so it was where we decided to focus our thoughts. We wanted something extra special, so chose to have it bespoke designed and built by Design Interiors, who are based in Hove on the south coast. We visited their designers a couple of times in the summer; they were meetings that we found to be invaluable as they led to complete changes to the shape of the kitchen.

We were able to tweak our plans and remove a structural pillar to open out the area – without the insight from our designers Tim and Mike we wouldn’t have been able to create such a large space. The rest of the decisions were finalised on Zoom; it was actually a great way to discuss the finer detail once the kitchen was designed.

WORK/LIFE BALANCE

We have been incredibly lucky as we were able to move into our next-door neighbour’s house whilst we undertake the main construction work, and thus living ‘onsite but not onsite’ – such a bonus. We moved out just as our ‘tin hat’ scaffold wrap started to be erected.

Being so close to the site means that we can put a few hours work in after we both finish our day jobs, but still be able to have some time to relax.

We are trying to do as much as we can ourselves not only to save money to spend on other areas as we have a very tight budget but also as we really enjoy the project and the rewards it brings. We are building our house as a ‘team’ and investing our time in our forever home – these will be things we look back on in years to come.

We chose to have a scaffold wrap on the bungalow to keep it watertight and weatherproof as we don’t want the weather to affect our schedule, as we need to be able to move back in early in the new year. It won’t be a fully completed house, but nearly – that’s part of the adventure though. Mother nature showed us very quickly that the tin hat was worth it, from the day we took the roof off it rained non-stop for the best part of two weeks! 

The demolition has happened so quickly, we can’t believe how much the bungalow changed in such a short space of time, work is slower now as we are at the painstaking stage of cutting in each window and door, so the changes aren’t as dramatic as they were recently. The steels have been ordered, and once they arrive onsite we hope to start seeing the rebuild take shape.

In terms of next stages, we are very much looking forward to seeing the black zinc roof go on, it’s so striking and will be a huge landmark point in the build. Then later on, when we are at fit out stage, we are both really looking forward to seeing the kitchen and bathrooms come together, and obviously getting to move back in to our dream home! 

We have been documenting our build on Instagram (@little_gurnard_padso). We created an account that we can look back on and see how far we have come, but if you are interested, you can follow our progress there.