Synopsis
While some people spend months or even years, searching for their perfect property, Jo Roche confesses that she was not even house-hunting when she found hers,
“It was definitely a spur-of-the-moment decision,” she says, “A friend showed me a picture in the local paper of the house she was buying. The photo alongside caught my eye, because it was a house in the village where I’d grown up. We went to have a look, for fun more than anything.”
The location was attractive, and the potential of the house was clear. With their first son, Harvey, just a year old, Jo and her husband Paul were beginning to feel they might soon outgrow their current home, so, despite having had no immediate plans to move, they agreed to take the plunge.
The ground floor of the house had originally been a bakery and sweet shop with accommodation at the back and above. It had been also used as offices, before the previous owners converted it to a house and started to extend it. The interior was reasonable condition although the décor was tired, and part of the extension was unfinished. In the first two years, Jo and Paul completed the extension, landscaped the garden and freshened up the inside, before the arrival of their second son, Miles,
“We wondered whether we should move again, but with two boys, the position was perfect,” recalls Jo, “We can walk to the shops or school, so we decided to stay put, and invest in customising the house.”
|
|
