Size matters

The Bye family were pretty desperate to find a new home. “We were renting in Baildon, waiting until houses prices settled down. Then one day our landlord said he had sold the house we were living in and gave us a month. Richard, my husband, managed to talk him up to six weeks, but we had to find somewhere to live quick,” says Lynn Bye.

“My sister-in-law rang one morning at 7am, and said ‘I’ve got the Gazette and there’s a house on Bridge Lane I think you should see. You probably won’t like it – but you can at least get back on the ladder’.

Fortunately, despite her initial doubts she stepped through the front door, into another world.

“When we got inside it was amazingly tardis-like and it had a really lovely feeling about it. The sitting room was a decent size, although it was more like two separate rooms with a stone arch between. The cellar kitchen was pretty much as it is now, spacious, and it opened on to the gardens. We got into the kitchen and kind of went, ‘wow, we’ll take it!’. The estate agent asked us if we wanted to see the bedrooms and we said ‘well, we’re not really bothered. Oh alright then, yes’.

“I fell in love with it partly because of the kitchen, but also its aura. We had rented a couple of houses since we sold ours and one of them was decidedly weird and unpleasant. Even the dog couldn’t settle. This house had such a fab feeling.

“So I rang my husband who was in Amsterdam on business. He’s a Yorkshireman through and through and the first thing he asked was what I had paid, and I said it was the asking price. He went mad, so I had to explain that no-one else had seen it, and if they did they were bound to want it. He was very grumpy, but he gave in.”

So the house was bought and Lynn moved in with Richard, sons Josh and Jake, and a grumpy black Labrador cross named Barker.

The previous owners had carried out a lot of basic work like modern wiring and central heating, but there were pipes and wires running across the top of skirtings and down walls. “I hate that,” says Lynn.

“They’d created the kitchen by digging out and converting the cellar, so it was modern, though perhaps not as contemporary as I might like. The attic had been developed and a new en-suite bathroom created, although there was only one very large bedroom.”

The house was built sometime around the mid-1800s and was originally a back-to-back together with number 22 and 24. “In the early 1900s there was a flood and the three houses on the back were washed away. We still have the footing in our garden and the walls are green.

“The street is full of snippets of history like Donkey Jackson, who used to give donkey rides to people who came to visit Ilkley in Victorian and Edwardian times, and did so from the old stone steps in the lane.

“The front door was originally where the small lounge window is and the existing front door is where the snicket was which gave access to the houses at the back. We have a piece of the old handrail in the garden and the old street lamp.

“There are shutter fixings around the window, which has almost definitely been enlarged, so it looks like at one time it was a shop. Next door was a sweet shop, but I don’t know what this one sold.”

The family love the house, but even Lynn admits that from the outside it is not exactly beautiful – but beyond the front door, well that’s a whole different story.

Inside, the family set to with a will, replacing the central heating boiler with a combi, re-designing the layout and replacing the bathrooms. An en-suite shower and a walk-in closet wardrobe were created in the master bedroom, walls were re-plastered and the lounge opened up to make one large room.

“We took out the gas fire and surround to make it minimal and put down oak flooring in the hall, lounge and our bedroom. To start with we had a carpet in the lounge. What was I thinking – children and pets and a cream carpet? It had to go. Now it is so easy to keep clean.

“New windows were put in everywhere with new patio doors to the lounge and some decking. We moved the back door to create a little cloakroom in the kitchen. Replaced the kitchen door fronts and split the attic bedroom into two rooms.”

Bravely the whole family lived in the house while the work was being carried out. But they did everything in stages and mostly it went pretty smoothly. Apart from a plumbing disaster that is.

“I was just showing him out the Friday before Christmas when he said he’d see us in the New Year, and oh, by the way, there’s no water in the bathrooms.

“We did have water in the kitchen, but with two small children, I really needed a bathroom. The other plumber who was doing the central heating kindly re-connected it for us. The plumber number one had routed the hot and cold taps the wrong way round. So our electric shower was either hot, or really, really hot.

“The only other minor set-back was when Richard decided to remove a door casing at eight o’clock at night. So I just poured myself another glass of wine as I watched 150 years of black dust poor on to the stairs carpet and float around the living room.”

Today, this four-bedroom stunning home has featured in several lifestyle magazines, thanks to its elegant style and imaginative use of space, and pinning Lynn down on which is her favourite room was understandably difficult.

“Do I have to choose? I love the kitchen because I can seat 12 for dinner, and still not miss out on the action. The pantry is fab. Why don’t people have pantries nowadays? They take up a quarter of the space of cupboards and you can get loads in and then just shut the door..

“The lounge is just lovely. I still like just sitting there and relaxing. The balcony is a lovely place to sit and watch the birds go to bed and the bats get us, with the sound of church bells ringing – it’s so English.”

Outside is a low maintenance garden, which is another space Lynn loves: “It’s perfect for us and the dogs. I love it on a night when we have friends round and sit round the fire.

“I have some great memories of evenings with friends and their kids. Fab afternoons in the park playing rounders or cricket. Masses of kids, dogs, friends, and wine. Lots of laughter and some tears.

“What will I miss? Well, we haven’t seen anything on the market yet we even want to look at. We were inspired by the work of the previous owners and now have a house that has really useable spaces that fits in with modern family life. I think we need a blank canvas to recreate that in our next house. Cubbyholes everywhere and never needing a car because everything is on the doorstep, so you can walk everywhere. We can just spill out of the back door on to the park with the dogs and go on fabulous walks. This house has soul.”

With two businesses – one run from home – Lynn knew that they would eventually run out of room. “The teenagers who frequent our house are large with enormous feet. We need somewhere to put them where we can’t hear or smell them! Also we need a work space each, because I am messy. And the busier my internet business, Everlasting Wishes, becomes, the more room we need.”