‘we injected some la cool into our bungalow’

Sometimes estate-agent listings don’t do a property justice, as Fran and Martin Holden discovered when they first came across their Mid-century bungalow in Scotland. Having outgrown their previous Victorian house in the town of Broxburn in West Lothian, the couple had set their sights on Linlithgow, a favourite town of theirs situated 20 miles west of Edinburgh.

‘It was quite tricky during lockdown and houses were selling fast,’ recalls Fran. ‘I’d seen this property lots of times online, but Martin always said it looked like a 1970s primary school! However, I finally convinced him to go and view it and, like me, he instantly loved the setting in its own grounds, and the amount of light coming through all the big windows.’

Since the property was too large for downsizers and a big leap up the ladder for families, it had languished on the market for a year. ‘A property developer had acquired it in a part-exchange deal, and they just wanted to shift it, so we got it for less than the home report valuation,’ explains Fran. ‘However, they gave us a tight deadline to complete the sale, then our initial buyer pulled out, so it was a race against the clock. We eventually moved in three days before Christmas in 2020, which was stressful to say the least.’

In Scotland, once an offer is accepted you can’t re-enter the property, so the couple’s memory of their half-hour viewing had begun to fade. ‘In my head, the living room was on the other side,’ says Fran. ‘So living in the space first to see how we used it before committing to a plan made sense.’

The first major task was taking up the flooring in the living room, kitchen-diner and hall before adding underfloor heating and new engineered oak flooring. Although there was original hardwood parquet under the living room carpet, it couldn’t be salvaged since newer boards had been glued and nailed to it, says Fran. ‘Esmé was just learning to walk, a