Ch urch home is heaven sent
Couple fell in love with holiday home and retired to the country
KEN and Janine Wilson admit to having had a holiday romance – but not with each other. The object of their desire is Cairns House, a converted church in the Borders they fell in love with during a holiday.
Two years later the property – in Stichill near Kelso – was theirs after they happily relinquished the four bedroom home in Grays, Essex, they had lived in for nearly a quarter of a century.
That was in 2014 and they haven’t looked back since. Ken recalls: “When I walked in I thought ‘wow this is such a lovely place.’ And, when we stayed here, in my mind it all started to fall into place.
“I’d always wanted to retire early but I didn’t know how it could happen. Suddenly owning and running a holiday property seemed like something we could do. Of course there were some questions to be answered, such as, would the owners want to sell, would Janine go for it and would we be able to make it work?”
The answer to all three questions was ‘yes’. “Ken was the driving force,” Janine admits. “But I suppose I’ve always wanted to retire and maybe run a bed and breakfast or a holiday cottage. We already owned a number of rental properties so the market wasn’t completely unknown to us.”
Constructed over two levels, the former church has had a very contemporary makeover. The ground floor houses the sleeping accommodation, bathrooms and a link through to a vestry.
On the first floor there is a vast, open-plan living space which incorporates the kitchen, dining, living and family areas.
Centred around the stunning, oversized staircase and tiled floor, the various areas exist in their own right but when required come together to work equally well. The vestry is currently where Ken and Janine live. And they are busy injecting their own personalities into the building. Janine explains: “‘ We started with the garden and the upstairs balcony. It was very low maintenance because the previous owners lived in London, but now we’re here, we can make it more interesting.”
Internally, the changes have been more tentative. Janine says: “The design of the windows is such that upstairs the windows are low so you can see the surrounding countryside and downstairs the windows are high which floods the rooms with light but provides privacy. It’s clever but no good for curtains which makes it hard to add colour, so I experimented with wallpaper.”
The couple continue to rent the church for holiday lets, however Jane has a plan. She reveals: “I’ve always wanted a big house and I’m trying to convince Ken that at some point in the future, we could rent out the vestry and live in the church. Fingers crossed.”