Extras Chiswick: What Happened Next

Date Published:

19/06/2008

In this episode from series six, Sarah Beeny visited Richard and Isabelle's house in Chiswick, which they were literally doubling in size by creating a gigantic basement beneath. So what happened next? Did the house sell? Heres what they told us.

By Lucy Searle

Lucy: 'The question we all want answered - have you sold the house?'

Richard: 'The property was only placed on the market in the past few weeks, so no, we have not yet sold. This is a unique property and will only appeal to certain people who will not be able to find this type of property anywhere else in the area. As you saw, the valuations varied wildly and we also had two further valuations of £1.2 million and £1.3 million so the range increased to over £400,000 from the highest to the lowest valuation. We have obviously chosen to market at the highest valuation. We do not have a crystal ball so it is very difficult to tell what the future will hold. We are not desperate to sell. If we win the lottery we will keep the property for ourselves as we love it so much.'

Richard and Isabelle's house teetered on stilts for four weeks before the proper support was brought in. During that time, cracks appeared on the walls of the interior of the building and Sarah advised Isabelle and Richard to move out. However, huge steel supports did eventually arrive, which now support the building.

Lucy: 'Have you reconsidered splitting the property into two flats, as per Sarah's suggestion?'

Richard: 'Definitely not because whoever owned the lower flat, would be totally overlooked as well as having the upstairs people staring down from the roof lights and the upper terrace, resulting in one feeling much like a goldfish! The light that Sarah liked so much would have to be removed thus making the lower flat dark and dingy. The whole point of the property, which was not mentioned on the show, is the privacy it affords, but is not readily available in cities. The lower patio area is not overlooked at all, which is difficult to come across in London, the idea of splitting the property into two flats was always a non-starter as it would destroy this concept.'

Lucy: 'What made you buy that particular house and what inspired the enormous basement?'

Richard: 'We spent a long time looking for an investment property in the Chiswick-Kew area that could be extended and spruced up to give us a profit, this was proving to be tricky with our budget, then we came across North Lodge. This was fully detached with a sizeable plot of land, easy access to public transport and roads as well as local amenities, riverside pubs and restaurants. It also came with planning permission for the basement and all in our price range. How could we pass it up?'

Lucy: 'How tricky was it to get planning permission to double the size of the house?'

Richard: 'Not at all, the previous owners had already employed a brilliant architect and gone through the process of getting planning permission. All the hard work had already been completed, we would have felt that the idea would not have gone through planning if we had thought of it ourselves based on our previous experiences with planning permissions.'

Lucy: 'Did you have an architect or structural engineer to help you come up with the plans?'

Richard: 'Our architect has been invaluable in drawing up the plans and taking on board changes proposed by us at the start, he also acted as technical authority and assisted in the build scheduling. The structural engineer was an essential member of the team to ensure that the end product was structurally sound.'