PROJECT / CO DOWN
it had a high-end range cooker,” says Mairead. “We found some old photos in the roof space,” adds Tim. “The house was originally a farm, a single storey stone building with a later single red brick extension on top, which probably dates from the 1800s. A neighbour says the site was used as a hospital during the battle of Saintfield in 1798.” “The extension/return on the old house was built in 1996, they also rewired then. The original barn was converted and joined to the main house in 2002. It was quite dark in places and was used as an entertainment area with a hot tub, gym and bar. The walls of the barn were a metre thick in places.” “This was a brilliant site even though we could see it was going to be a lot of work,” continues Mairead. “We were a bit green, and quite naïve going into it. The estate agent told us he’d known the house in its previous condition and said if we spent £100,000 we’d make it look fabulous. We thought £200,000 was a more realistic figure but it ended up at double that amount.” “The reason we spent so much is we tried to keep as many of the features as possible and chose the finishes we really liked,” explains Tim. “There was damage to the cornicing on the old part, and there was quite a bit of repair work to do on the upper storey which
‘It’s the kind of property we passed on our way to work every day but never dreamt of owning.’
Before
had been added on after the original house was built. We also improved the insulation in the walls upstairs because it was single skin (one layer of blocks).” “It was a choice to do all the cornices, bring back the sash windows. We could have cut down and done less – we have two patio doors and a lot of windows – but we would have been kicking ourselves if we hadn’t invested in the house the way we did,” comments Mairead.
Year in the planning
“We took our time planning the renovation. We gutted the house, put in new windows, took floors out, rewired, replumbed and got rid of the porch one of the previous owners had added. We added a double height entrance in the barn conversion which had a low ceiling in places.” “The previous owners had tried to match the windows on the barn to those on the original house and that didn’t really work so we went for contrast. The new part 50 / SELFBUILD / WINTER 2018