Wealden Times | WT260 | January 2024 | Good Living Supplement inside

Previous pages and above: The black steels make a feature
of the building’s structure and also help to divide up the
space, partitioning it into kitchen, dining and living areas
House renovation, like many other adventures,
is not for the faint-hearted, requiring not
just practical skills but bravery, tenacity and
money (but not always as much as you’d think). Most
importantly you need vision and faith – think of all
those Grand Designs shows where the journey inevitably
falters – to carry you through the tough times. When
Emma and her husband Terry went to view Doves
Barn they saw an old timber barn and next to it a
ramshackle corrugated pig shed. Planning permission
had been granted for conversion, but it had been on
the market for a while. Where others had faltered
and walked away they stood firm and took a deep
breath. “It was just an oak frame that housed a cold
store,” explains Emma, “so the interior was completely
invisible and it was impossible to see what the building
was like. I think that put a lot of people off.’
The vision to imagine – when faced with a giant
apple store and a pig shed – what things could look
like on completion, the stop off points along the way,
and then the ability to hold onto that vision until
it becomes a reality, is where faith comes in. When
you are doing all this yourselves and living on site
as a family, that faith has to extend to one another,
especially when you are working together.
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