We love our cosy cottage

Natalie and Ollie Reade spent two years helping her father to renovate and extend a tiny Yorkshire cottage into their dream home

Feature Heather Dixon Photos Colin Poole

On reflection, Natalie and Ollie wonder whether it would have been better to demolish their pretty period cottage and start again, rather than endure two years of ‘ups and downs’ to renovate and extend it. ‘In hindsight it would certainly have been a lot easier,’ says Natalie. ‘We literally stripped it back to two walls. But we were keen to keep its integrity and build on what we could salvage, rather than create something brand new.’ Fortunately Natalie’s father is a builder and he was happy to devote every spare hour, over two years, on the extension and transformation of the tiny period cottage.

The previous owner had lived in the house all her life, for 95 years, and little had changed since the 1950s when it was last updated. Upstairs there were two small bedrooms divided by a makeshift wall made with papier mâché and battens. Downstairs there was a small sitting room with a tiny kitchen, barely big enough to house a cooker, sink and two cupboards, an even smaller utility and a pantry. The bathroom was in a lean-to.

Checks and warm tones create a cosy atmosphere in the sitting room. The country theme of the Laura Ashley curtains is reflected in the pictures and ornaments to add to its rural charm. The coffee table came from The Cotswold Company

Natalie and Ollie lived with her parents, whose house is in the same village, for the time it took to do up the cottage. In those two years the property was stripped back to bare brick walls. The roof came off and the few walls that remained were rebuilt where necessary to make them stronger. ‘All our savings had gone into the deposit and we were left with a pile of rubble,’ says Natalie. ‘It was very scary. We were saving and spending as we went along, working evenings and weekends to help Dad with the labouring. Most of the time we were really excited, but sometimes I just wanted to cry. We always knew it was going to be a major project, though, and there were no nasty surprises.’