Welcome to my home

Primary school teacher Emily Hadley lives here with her husband Kev, a design technology teacher, and their children, Finn, 14, and Florence, 12.

THE PROPERTY

A five-bed Edwardian semi-detached house in Torbay, Devon.

“It’s

been a real labour of love, but we now have a welcoming family home, and are proud that our vision has turned into a

reality” wonderful

VALUE

Bought in 2015 for £325k; current value £550,000.

Having renovated their previous coastal home, Emily and Kev were looking for a new challenge when their dream property came on to the market. ‘I’d walked past this house for years on the school run and always admired it,’ says Emily. ‘It’s rare to find a place of this size in this area and we knew the minute we walked in that it had the potential to be a wonderful family home.’ Seeing through the ancient floral wallpaper and grubby carpets, the couple could imagine how the well-proportioned space might work for them. ‘It had three reception rooms, a guest bedroom and bathroom, and good-sized gardens. But it was run down, with crumbling walls and leaking loos, and after we moved in the enormity of the project made us question our decision,’ says Emily.

‘Kev and I are no strangers to hard work. The kids have spent their childhoods avoiding wet paint and stepping over power tools, but this was on another level. We worked every evening and weekend for four months, cleaning and fixing things up just to make the house bearable. Our reward was our first big family Christmas, with 20 of us around a makeshift table.’

Kev and Emily have updated every part of the house, researching and looking at different options before coming up with a way to do the work themselves within their tight budget. ‘There are plenty of ways you can get a high-end finish without spending lots of money, but that approach does take time and you have to have lots of patience,’ says Emily. ‘Kev has also been able to put his skills as a design & technology teacher into practice – he’s full of design ideas.’ Over the last five years the couple have renovated four bathrooms, converted an empty space into a pantry, created a utility room, stripped all the floors, added bifold doors and replastered and exposed original features throughout. ‘We spent a long time planning the kitchen,’ says Emily. ‘A major high was pulling out the fusty old cabinets and installing our dream kitchen. We still pinch ourselves that it’s ours!’