Repaying the favour
Grayson House got its second chance – as did its owners, says
SOMETIMES you see the right property, but the timing is wrong. When Les and Pamela Wood starting thinking about relocating from Arran eight years ago, they viewed Grayson House in Fife but held off making a decision. The house appeared to sell, and Les says: “It was just too early in our search, but it became the benchmark against which we judged other places and nothing else we saw lived up to it.”
Fortunately for the couple, it came back on to the market and they had no hesitation the second time around. They moved in in 2007.
The C listed building is a classic Scottish manse “like a child’s drawing of a house”, according to Les, and it is certainly picture-postcard pretty. Close to Cupar and St Andrews, it was constructed in 1849, so owes much of its design to elegant Georgian styling, rather than the sometimes heavier Victorian proportions. Inside, the rooms are large and square, with high ceilings and windows and both the main bedroom and sitting room are double aspect so very light.
That is not to say that the couple haven’t made improvements in their time here. The biggest projects were the addition of a Mozolowski and Murray conservatory off the kitchen, and the company also fitted the replacement of a flat roofed porch at the back of the house. These add to the public rooms – there is also a drawing room and library – and bring in yet more light. The new entrance has an apex glass roof which matches the line of the house outside.
The kitchen was replaced; it had quite a cottagey feel, with faux polystyrene beams, but in removing the plaster from the walls, Les found the original brick which he repointed and restored, giving a much more authentic look.
Likewise, shutters in the five bedrooms upstairs had been painted over; when eventually opened they revealed glimpses of the original wallpaper. One by one they were painstakingly brought back to beautiful working order.
Most of the work inside and out has been done by Les and Pamela themselves in a long-term project, and their guiding principle was always to keep in mind what exactly would f it the house and its period. A selection of different styles of radiators were replaced with mod-