Ann-Louise Roswald and Nick Hartley exchanged their modern London apartment for an abandoned 18th-century farm. The modernization and repair took almost 10 years — and the work is not finished yet! But the result may already surprise

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Ten years ago, fashion designer Ann-Louise Roswald and her husband Nick Hartley lived in a trendy two-bedroom loft in East London with their two eldest children, a toddler and a three-year-old. Everything went on as usual, the life of the family was adjusted, and nothing hinted at big changes. But in all such stories there is a magic word “bye…”. And indeed, everything was quiet for the time being, until the family decided to visit their grandparents in Scarborough — the place where Ann-Louise and Nick were born and grew up. There they caught sight of an ad in a local newspaper about the sale of an abandoned old 18th—century farm in the nearby town of Hosker on the coast – and it became fateful for them.

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They went to Hosker, quickly inspected the farm, which consisted of a dilapidated farmhouse and old outbuildings on a plot of 32 acres (12.95 hectares), and the next day they were hotly bargaining with the seller. “It was a quick decision and quite a spontaneous purchase, but we never regretted it,” says Hartley. The mortgage on the London apartment was repaid, so they gave her a new loan for the purchase of real estate, and the funds accumulated by the family were enough to start repairs.

Since 2011, the family has been living happily outside the city, the children are already 14, 11, 9 and 6 years old, and the younger ones already have little memory of their former life in a large metropolis. Hartley, who had his own printing house in London, is now engaged in the coffee business and roasts coffee right in the former barn, where he equipped a professional roaster. The children walk a lot in the fresh air, and on weekends the whole family goes surfing on the sea, where they have a small beach house.

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The repair of the main farm is still not fully completed — after all, the front of work was really huge: the house was absolutely not suitable for life, the roof was leaking, the floor was falling through, the wooden paneling was rotten… To put the building in order, it was dismantled to brick walls and wooden beams, waterproofing was continued, insulated, old parts were replaced, new electrics were installed, a more modern, open layout was made, but at the same time they tried to preserve as much as possible the Georgian architecture and rustic atmosphere that Ann and Nick liked so much when they first met this place. They even managed to restore the dormer windows in the attic from a 50-year-old photo.

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I had to give up some ideas. For example, at first they wanted to make a glass extension to the dining room out of expensive double-glazed windows. “We almost fell off the chair when we found out how much it costs,” laughs Nick. The new solution turned out to be more budget-friendly, but now the family can’t even imagine what could have been otherwise.

From the annex you can get into a spacious family living room with a fireplace and soft sofas, located in the neighboring new building, which was built of red brick — to match the main house. There, in addition to the living room, there is a dining room and a summer kitchen on the terrace, and in front of it there is a barbecue area with an outdoor hearth, around which the family likes to gather in summer.

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In addition to repairing the house, the owners had to spend a lot of time and effort to turn the two-acre area overgrown with weeds into a blooming garden. Some of the old dilapidated outbuildings were dismantled, and the stone was used to repair those that were better preserved, as well as to create picturesque terraces and stone fences in the garden.

By the way, Ann-Louise became so interested in the project that she slowly began to work professionally as an interior designer. Among her completed projects are cafes in London and private orders, in which she harmoniously combines traditional English features with a modern Scandinavian style (after all, she is half Swedish!)

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