COTTAGE RENOVATION
Rob and Charlie Shaw embarked on a project that no tradesman would touch — renovating a 250-year-old cottage nestled at the bottom of a steep coastal valley
HOMEOWNERS Rob and Charlie Shaw
LOCATION Staithes, North Yorkshire
HOUSE SIZE 107m²
BUILD ROUTE Self-managed renovation
CONSTRUCTION Stone and render
RENOVATION TIME 12 months
HOUSE COST £120,000 in 2016
RENOVATION COST £25,000
VALUE circa £400,000
You can imagine the challenges of renovating a property that sits at the bottom of a steep coastal valley, reachable only by a road with a 12% incline or steep, narrow steps meandering between cottages nestled into the hillside. So when Rob and Charlie Shaw decided to renovate their 250-year-old former fisherman’s cottage in Staithes near Whitby, they quickly realised that the only way to accomplish the task was to undertake it themselves.
Had they known then what they know now, they might never have embarked on this endeavour — given the challenges posed by its beautiful yet inaccessible location. “I thought I knew what to expect,” says Rob, “but it was much harder than I thought. Nothing was easy or straightforward.”
FINDING THE PERFECT PLACE
In 2009, Rob returned to Staithes, relinquishing a 10-year career in architecture and design to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time professional artist. Drawn to the rugged North Yorkshire coastline, he initially rented a two-bed midterrace cottage and transformed the spacious, beamed attic into his artist’s studio. Five years later, he purchased the cottage, continuing to reside and work in the whitewashed property. “It was perfect for a single guy,” he recalls. “It was damp and cold and desperately needed modernising, but it worked for me, and I was able to sell enough paintings through the Staithes Gallery to earn a reasonable living.”
In 2019, Rob met and married Charlie, and they moved into her house 50 miles inland with her three children. But they were reluctant to sell the cottage in Staithes. “I have a daughter, and it’s as much her home as mine,” explains Rob. “We also wanted to come back to Staithes whenever we liked – Istill come here to paint, and it’s great for family weekends away – so we decided to run it as an Airbnb and let it earn its keep in between times.”
UNFORESEEN PROBLEMS
To make this plan a reality, they realised the property required a fairly significant and all-encompassing overhaul. “At first, we thought about renting it out as it was, but no sooner had I moved out than mould started to grow on the walls, and we realised we had to address some basic issues to bring it up to the right standard,” Rob recalls.
