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Although she is based in Lytham St Annes, Katharine has a strong affection for the area of Marple Bridge, Stockport, where she bought and restored a period terraced property during the Nineties.
Ironically, she lived in a holiday location during the week and came to her cottage in Marple as a weekend retreat.
“I’ve always loved the countryside around Marple,” explains Katharine. “I have friends in the area there and like to go walking. When I made the decision to leave work, I put my cottage on the market and soon after fell in love with a Grade II listed property in Compstall, which was already under offer.”
Fortunately for Katharine, fate played a hand in helping her on to the first rung of the property development ladder. The day after she received an offer on her cottage, the buyers on the Compstall house pulled out, leaving the way clear for her to move ahead. She completed the sale exactly a year ago today.
“It was strange the way it happened,” Katharine recalls.
“I’d been really attracted to the house because it had lovely Georgian features, a wonderful cottage style garden at the front and there were great views over nearby Etherow Country Park.
“Historically, this house had played its part in establishing the Compstall community. It was built in 1836 by the Andrews family who owned the mill in the village and who also built the adjacent church of St Paul’s. The fact that it was a Grade 2 listed property in a conservation area made the renovation slightly more difficult. Everything I wanted to change had to be approved by Paul Hartley, the Conservation Officer from Stockport MBC, but fortunately he was very helpful.”
In order to obtain Listed Building Consent, Katharine was advised by the Conservation Officer to get an architect to draw up the plans for her renovation, which she hadn’t originally budgeted for.
Stockport
“At first I wondered why I couldn’t just do it myself, but bringing in Tony Matthews from Matthews Walker Architecture in Stockport made everything move along so much more smoothly.
“When restoring a listed building you have to use traditional materials in keeping with the age of the house, so when I replaced the drainpipe, it had to be made of cast iron.”
Katharine had a full structural survey on the three-bedroom semi-detached property so she went in to the renovation with her eyes open. She pulled together a team of reliable people headed by John Garlick of Rage Construction in Oldham.
“It was really important for me to retain the charm and essence of the house while bringing it up to date. I was very lucky to work with such a great bunch of people.
"My electrician, Ben Cartwright of Cartwright Electrical in Marple, was really helpful.
“I’m an ergonomist by profession, having worked in cockpit design, so I’m used to running projects and working to budgets and timescales. I love property programmes and I’ve learned such a lot just watching other people doing their developments. In my head, Sarah Beeny was with me throughout this renovation and I was always thinking what she would say and do.”
Internally Katharine made a few changes that Sarah would no doubt have approved of. To dramatically improve the size of what was a poky kitchen, she removed two chimneybreasts and created a recess area for a breakfast bar. She also turned a downstairs shower room into a utility and storage area.
The new kitchen oozes classic simplicity with Shaker style cupboards hand-painted in Farrow and Ball shades and an impressive granite worktop, made and fitted by Rock of Ages in Chapel-en-le-Frith.
The original steep staircase leading up from the dining room was replaced and given a turn at the bottom. Extra head height was added in the stairwell by cutting into the second bedroom and rebuilding a wall.
Where possible Katharine restored the original Georgian casement windows or had identical ones made, as was the case with the deep skirting boards. The original cupboards and fireplaces were restored and the wide floorboards stripped and treated by Ashley Flooring Specialists in Middlewich. Katharine also commissioned Stonecraft in Delph, Oldham, to build a new stone fireplace.
Throughout the house, the period details, such as cornicing to ceilings, have all been perfectly preserved or replaced giving the property a tangible period charm but the bathroom is thoroughly modern, fully tiled with marble from Porcelanosa.
Reflection
“People want bathrooms to be practical and as this was a small room I wanted to maximise the space with good fitting and the use of reflection,” says Katharine. “I borrowed a little bit of space from the third bedroom in order to fit in a full size bath with the shower recessed at one end. I also adapted the window to let in more light.”
While all this work was taking place, Katharine, having sold her property in Marple Bridge, was commuting daily back and forth to Lytham St Annes with her dog Rudi.
“The travelling got a little tedious but I used the drive to think over the things that had happened during the day and rationalise them in my mind. Working on a development you have to be pragmatic and diplomatic. Not everything comes out the way you want it but sometimes that’s for the better. I learned a lot from the people I was working with and Rudi ate a lot of sandwiches fed to him by the builders!”
With her keen eye for detail, Katharine gave just as much thought to the interior finishings and decoration as to the structural work. Choosing a calming palette of RIBA paints by Crown, all the rooms have been professionally decorated in tones of ‘Palladian’ that contrast beautifully with the natural wood.
The finished house has a warm, inviting feel with double doors opening into the lounge and the spacious reception rooms leading through to each other around the central stairs.
Upstairs, there are three generous sized bedrooms with the master bedroom having pretty views over the long garden to the front and Etherow to the side. The third bedroom has an unusual bed deck that makes it an ideal guest room-cum-study.
In just six months, Katharine has transformed a tired rundown property into an elegant period home and completed her first development.
“I have really enjoyed the process of restoring this property,” she concludes. “It’s so lovely that I have been tempted to keep it but I have to look ahead to the next project. I’d love to do another listed property, this time in the Lytham area. I feel lucky to be doing something so rewarding.”
Katharine’s property in Compstall is for sale priced £349,950 through Gascoigne Halman, 10 Town Street, Marple Bridge, Stockport Tel: 0161 427 2488 www.gascoignehalman.co.uk.
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