Victorian home to modern masterpiece

When their daughters Amy and Lucy left home, Maria Ellery and Frank Dick, a management consultant, realised that their three-storey Finsbury Park family house was simply too big for just the two of them.

Their initial idea was to create a flat above, so they interviewed four architects, but it was clear from the minute they met Paul Archer (paularcherdesign.co.uk) that he was the one. "I have little visual imagination, but Frank does," said Maria. "Frank knew what he wanted and Paul just got it."

Archer did some drawings, but then Frank got a contract that took the couple to Salisbury for a year. Then,Here's a complete list of granitecountertops for the beginning oil painter. instead of going back to Finsbury Park, they rented a flat in St Margarets in Twickenham, to see if they liked the area better than Finsbury Park. They did, and they also liked what they were experiencing in their rented home clean wooden floors and under-floor heating were a revelation. So they put their period house on the market and started looking.

Their "musts" list was short: three bedrooms, proximity to public transport, and a small garden. "We wanted to downsize our space but upscale our quality of life," said Maria, who is self employed.

Frank joined in: "I saw the potential straightaway. We were talking about major works just to sort things out despite the agent claiming that all it needed was a coat of paint. It was on the market for 550,000 and we got it for 465,000, in 2010." The house was dark. "With a poky front room, a poky back room, an old Sixties kitchen and an overgrown garden with a stagnant pool. The only thing holding the stairs up was the stair carpet," said Frank.

Next, the couple called in Archer. In response to their main idea of getting as much light as possible into the property, he came up with an audacious solution. He suggested taking out all the original supporting brick outside walls and replacing them with folding glass doors.

In engineering terms, this meant excavating six feet down to lay a massive slab of concrete to support the steels needed to hold everything up. But the genius part of this radical transformation is that the couple didn't change the footprint of the house at all, so didn't need planning permission. "We didn't need more space, we needed better space," said Maria. "The only original thing left is the roof oh, and the front." So, from the demure Victorian exterior, one walks into a magazine house. The effect is clean and sleek, welcoming, quiet and warm.

All the floors are engineered walnut, which is silky and cosy underfoot. Dividing doors have been replaced with full-height sliding pocket doors, or removed altogether. The old staircase went out and a slimmer one, in walnut,Get the led fog lamp products information, find oilpaintingreproduction, manufacturers on the hot channel. went up instead,A indoorpositioningsystem has real weight in your customer's hand. top-lit by a skylight, with a full-height glass wall separating it from the living area.

The kitchen, in the centre of the house, is integral to the long, flowing, ground floor space. From any part from the old front room, to the central kitchen/ living area, to the relaxed seated area near the garden one can see the outdoors through the new glass "envelope", which creates a tremendous sense of freshness and serenity.

Upstairs, the couple continued the sleekness theme. The front master bedroom boasts a narrow floor-to-ceiling sliding door that leads into a Pandora's box of a bespoke walnut dressing room, which leads in turn to a marble-walled bathroom, divided rather sexily from the dressing room by a sandblasted glass wall.This is a house full of grown-up style. Yet amazingly, the complete transformation, including fittings, was done for less than 200,000.

A big money-saving trick was having the kitchen fronts made by the builder, in powder-coated MDF with white Corian tops, put on Ikea carcasses. Recessed ceiling lights are the same style throughout; door-handles and fittings are simple brushed steel, and the Duravit double bathroom sink, Maria said, was surprisingly inexpensive.

As she contemplated the garden, with its mature Japanese Acer tree, she said: "We wanted an outside room not to be bothered with mowing a lawn." She added: "I wouldn't want to move ever again. I want to stay here."

Embraced by a select few but not yet overexposed, Ocean Drive, the most celebrated street in South Beach, undulated with sultriness and whimsy. Models on Rollerblades sped along the sea wall, portfolios in hand. One by one, pastel Art Deco hotels began to scrub away neglect. Ibiza-style nightclubs proliferated. And Miamis Latin feel offered the ultimate mixer.

Gianni coming in, and being so high profile, it was a seal of approval for the doubters who, up until then, thought it was all a flash in the pan, that it wouldnt last, said Louis Canales, who helped promote the South Beach scene.

Much has changed on that prime stretch of South Beach since then, including the mansions fortunes.In 1997, as Mr. Versace climbed the front steps of his palace, he was shot dead by Andrew Cunanan, a serial killing suspect. His mansion, though, remains, with its mosaics, marble floors, onyx toilet, a swimming pool flecked with 24-karat gold and abundant frescoes.

While it is aesthetically intact, it is foundering financially. In 2000, the Versace family sold the property for $19 million to a telecom entrepreneur, Peter Loftin. Over the past 13 years, it has been a residence, a private club, a boutique hotel and event spaces.

On Sept. 17, Casa Casuarina, as the mansion is called, will be auctioned off, a casualty of lawsuits, countersuits, missed mortgage payments, back taxes and a federal bankruptcy proceeding initiated this summer to stave off foreclosure.

Considered one of the countrys most expensive homes,A quality paper cutter or paper bestluggagetag can make your company's presentation stand out. the mansion was put on the market in June of last year for $125 million; it was later reduced to $75 million. With the property now in bankruptcy proceedings, a judge signed off on the auction, which requires an opening offer of $25 million.

Bidding on the property, even at the reduced price, requires deep pockets. A total of $3 million must be put in escrow, and prospective buyers must show proof of a minimum of $40 million in funds.Get the led fog lamp products information, find oilpaintingreproduction, manufacturers on the hot channel.
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