TWIST OF FATE

Buying a home is very rarely straightforward, something that Rachel and Steve Robinson have learnt. Wc were on the brink of completing but the sale fell through at the last minute. recalls Rachel. Unfortunately, wed sold our home and had to be out in five weeks. After scouring properties online. Steve found  home in Derbyshire he knew well from his childhood. It was the house my husbands best friend James grew up in. and we bought it the next day. says Rachel. You might call it fate that the other property fell through.
Rachel and Steve assessed what they needed to do to make the house feel like their own. The building had been well looked after and didnt require much more than decorating, says Rachel. But the couple decided to make a few structural alterations so the dowstairs space flowed better. One of the first things wc did was to knock through from the kitchen into the dining room. explains Rachel. This area of the house also had damp, so we had to address that, too.
The kitchen had many redeeming features the Robinsons wanted to keep. All the beautiful exposed brickwork in the kitchen was here when we moved in. smiles Rachel. But compromises had to be made when the time came to lay the flooring - after removing the dividing wall. Rachel and Steve realised it was no: level. Wc tiled the kitchen but laid carpet in the skting - cunv - dining room, explains Rachel. We would have liked to have fitted tiles right the way through but it wasnt feasible - - it was a major job to level the floors and way too expensive.
The only other major alteration was to relocate one of the bathrooms from a smaller room in the middle of the house to the back of the property. The only way to get to this bathroom was to walk through one of the bedrooms, which just wasnt logical," says Rachel.