Our clients brief was to i) extend the house the lower ground floor level and create a large open plan family room with a kitchen, sitting room and dining room ii) refurbish the whole house generally, including new bathrooms, flooring, windows iii) update the central heating system to run on an air source heat pump, including underfloor heating throughout and fitting new insulation. We developed the design with our clients. During this process we found that the existing stair area could be opened up to form a dramatic double height space in the centre of the new family room.