How one family turned a derelict garage into a home

Thanks to an online search error, an architect transformed a tumbledown building into a three-bedroom house

Melanie Schubert and partner Paolo Vimercati didn't set out to buy a derelict double garage when they were looking for a new home. In one online search, Schubert forgot to include a minimum value - and this was the cheapest property you could buy here", she says. As architects, the couple realised that, with planning permission, this seven-metre-square plot with no garden in south-east London might just be a route to the best possible home for their budget.