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A formerly unusable basement is now the beating heart of this home, thanks to a full scale rethink of how a house should work

- Caroline Ednie

As they prepared to move into this townhouse in Glasgow’s west end eight years ago, the new owners knew they’d need to do a bit of decorating to lose the salmon-pink walls and carpets and modernise the interiors. What they didn’t realise was that mere cosmetic upgrades wouldn’t be enough and that they’d soon have grander ambitions, leading to fundamental changes to their home and how they now live in it.

“The building has an interesting history,” says Anna McManus, who shares the house with her husband Craig and their three children. “At one point it had been converted into four flats. The people before us had bought it as two flats and they converted it back into a single property. But there were still remnants of the various subdivisions – the main door leading to one of the flats entered into our living room, for instance, and there was an odd staircase from there to the basement. These old interventions were very confusing, even to us who knew the layout well.”

The house had appeared to be in good condition when the family moved in, but the experience of living in it day to day quickly revealed several major shortcomings, particularly relating to the basement (which opens to garden level at the rear) and the two-storey conservatory. “The basement was a warren of small, impractical rooms,” recalls McManus. “It was basically a full floor that couldn’t be used as there were so many doors and small cupboards. It also had two bathrooms that were in poor condition, so we knew we had to do something.”