Spirit of Adventure

Reportage 13595354 | © living4media / Narratives / Darby, Brent | 34 images

David and Angy have always lived life adventurously, rarely baulking at a challenging renovation. Their combined talents in architecture and horticulture are a winning formula and their latest project was perhaps the most rewarding of all. ‘First impressions of the interior were not encouraging, ’ admits Angy. For a start the front door was rotten and hanging off its hinges, and would take the gentlest of nudges to collapse altogether. Almost all of the other doors throughout the house were missing, the windows were mainly cracked or caving in, walls were crumbling, and the floorboards were rotten throughout. One staircase was utterly dilapidated and the other missing altogether. They gutted the house from top to bottom, stripping ancient walls back to make good for re-plastering. They started from scratch with new plumbing and electricity throughout the house, had new windows fitted and rethatched the smaller cottage make the roof water tight. A new staircase was added in the gaping space where once a staircase had been and rotten floorboards, and concrete floors were taken up to re-floor throughout.