K. is a writer. She wrote her first fiction novel during the three years it took to design and construct the extension to her house. By her own account, the house is not featured in her book. Nor are Grace Mortlock and Lindsay Mulligan from Other Architects, who designed and supervised the construction. The lengthy conversations over the dining room table that defined the project are also missing from its pages. Still, the cottage described in K.’s novel, “with its small square rooms, low ceilings, bare timber floorboards, add-on bathrooms and toilets outside,” seems intimately intertwined with the recent alteration to her home.
The house’s history precedes K.’s tenure. It began as a six-room bungalow with
