SUSSEX COTTAGE
Believing they could complete one final house renovation, Amanda and Niall set up home in their favourite village for their first listed project
FEATURE SARA BIRD
This may be their fifth project but renovation was not something Amanda and Niall really set out to do. ‘It was the only way we could afford to buy and acouple of times we’ve taken the children and moved back in with my parents, working on ahouse at weekends and in evenings,’ Amanda explains.
Their previous home was an adored bungalow that had been updated in New Hampshire style but they found themselves with itchy feet. ‘We were both in our early forties and thinking “we could do one more” when this place popped up in avillage we already loved.’ The area had always been beyond the couple’s reach financially and this 15th-century Grade II listed cottage was no exception, but when it was finally reduced after languishing on the market, they had to take alook.
They bought it in 2015 from a couple in their nineties who had loved the house as much as they did but there was alot to do. Major works included replacing roofs and some of the floors, creating anew bathroom in what was an old cupboard, knocking through one wall and adding bifold doors – all while negotiating listed building consent. ‘We have also repaired brickwork, uncovered the boarded-up fireplaces upstairs and stopped numerous leaks,’ adds Amanda. ‘I think of it as dragging the house into the 21st century and making it work for modern life while retaining all its original charm.’
Not everything original here has that charm. Lifting a worn old pink carpet in the snug revealed damp rot and the doors and the windows to the front can be draughty, but there is still a lot to love. ‘When we came to view it, the house had me at the first glimpse of that inglenook fireplace,’ recalls Amanda. Working on alisted building has been asteep learning curve. ‘Niall is pretty good at DIY but the floors are wonky, the walls aren’t straight and some things we would have liked to
