While most couples dream of charm and curb appeal, Alex Warnock-Smith and Jean Wang landed on the ugliest house on the street in Finchley, North London—and they couldn’t have been happier. With its drab, browny-gray pebbledash facade and a timber porch on the brink of collapse, it looked more like a haunted house than a welcoming family home. “Inside was even worse,” Alex says with a laugh. “A proper horror show.”

But the bones were there: wider-than-usual proportions, soaring ceilings, and a four-bedroom layout. It had been sitting unloved on the market, and they snapped it up before anyone else could see its potential.

The plan was to move in straight away and renovate slowly. “We figured it would be messy but manageable,” says Jean. They had two young kids, full-time jobs (Alex and Jean are architects and codirectors at Urban Projects Bureau), and just enough optimism to believe they could make it work.

Then the pandemic hit.

“Suddenly, we were working from home, the kids were out of school, and the place was a literal building site,” says Jean. They shuffled between rooms like human Tetris, sleeping in the kitchen one week, the back room the next. “The kids were in the living room with a hole in the wall and no heating,” says Alex. “It was grim. But also…kind of exhilarating?”

Their first priority was finishing the kids’ bedrooms. “We knew we could tolerate chaos, but they needed somewhere stable,” Jean says. Their own bedroom was the very last thing on the list. “We’re architects,” Alex says with a shrug. “There’s something masochistically fun about living in a half-finished project.”

£25,000 Structural	£15,000 Wall Finishes	£12,000 Flooring
£22,000 Electrical	£4,000 Plumbing	£2,500 Landscaping
£400 Lighting	£12,000 Cabinetry	£38,000 Windows & Glazing
£1,800 Doors	£3,500 Tilework	£4,450 Furnishings & Decor
£3,000 Bathroom Fixtures
Grand Total: £143,650 (Approximately $191,241)

Like most Victorian terraces, the house was originally a maze of small, dark rooms. “They were designed for a different way of life with formal front rooms, dark dining rooms, and tiny kitchens,” says Alex. “We wanted something more open, more active. A place the kids could cartwheel through.”

So, they knocked through the front and back living rooms, joining them with a proscenium arch of built-in bookshelves, both practical and symbolic. “We’re academics,” says Jean. “Books are part of our home.”

The back half of the double room is now a relaxed family library, with a corner window seat that has become the heart of the house. “We read there, play music, and dump toys before racing outside. It anchors our daily life,” says Alex. “It wasn’t even in the original plans,” Jean adds.

Upstairs, they reconfigured the layout to suit the whole family. What was once a massive front bedroom became two generously sized kids’ rooms. “It still feels like one big room split in two,” says Jean. “But now it’s like their own little apartment that can evolve with them.”

They focused their budget on what mattered most: making the house livable, energy-efficient, and full of light. That meant splurging on custom timber windows to match the original Victorian sashes; the new units are double-glazed for warmth, with bespoke shutters. “I hate curtains,” Alex admits. “There’s something satisfying about closing shutters at night and throwing them open in the morning. It’s a ritual.”

Other investments were less romantic. Like relocating the main electrical box, which had been plonked smack in the middle of what’s now the living room. “That cost us more than we planned and a lot of paperwork,” says Alex. “Total nightmare, but worth it.”

Then there were the truly unexpected money pits, like reinforcing a failing side wall and realizing the roof wasn’t just leaky, it needed to be completely rebuilt. “That was painful,” says Alex. “But not optional. You can’t do a nice kitchen if the roof’s caving in.”

But not every splurge was about function—some were just about giving the old house its dignity back. One of their proudest moments was salvaging the original coving in the front room, which had been buried under more than a century of gloss paint. “Everyone told us we couldn’t save it,” says Alex. “But we found someone who carefully stripped it all back.” Rather than repaint it, they left it raw. “It’s like a sculpture,” he says. “There’s something really powerful about letting the age of the house show.”

That balance between new and old, practical and poetic, sums up their entire approach.

While the renovation took longer than they expected (and forced them to live in less-than-ideal conditions), Alex and Jean agree, it was a meaningful part of the process. “This house taught us patience,” Jean reflects. “It’s not always about big moves. Sometimes it’s just getting the right light, the right corner, the right feel.” Living in the space also kept them honest about what they truly needed.

With a little vision, a lot of patience, and a fair bit of mess, the house that once scared off buyers is now the place they never want to leave.

More Budget Breakdown stories:

A Midcentury-Inspired Kitchen Update Leads to a $229K Home Revamp

This $250K Prefab Cabin Is an Ode to the Finnish Sauna

An Architect’s £224K Remodel Makes a Splash With Pastel Tile

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Urban Projects Bureau / @urbanprojectsbureau

Builder/General Contractor: St. Albans Joinery

Structural Engineer: Michael Baigent Orla Kelly

Correction on 5/27/25: Jean Wang is an architect and codirector at Urban Projects Bureau, not a landscape architect.