Bartons was a chalet bungalow we purchased just a few weeks after selling Old Orchard. It was a 1960's bungalow that had been extended a little and was in a very quiet corner, looking out over fields below. You couldn't see another property from anywhere around the garden and the garden was all around the who bungalow. We initially had a young couple of estate agents renting it, then a couple with their two children. 

The property required minimal upkeep but it did need a complete electrical overhaul when first bought, then the roof repaired at one point, and the water softener replaced. A new kitchen tap was also required but that was about all we did here.

We did get plans drawn up to renovate the property and when the architect brought the draft plans to us I was amazed that we could get all that he had outlined for the cost of the budget we had given him. When we said that we were amazed, the architect looked back at his notes and then looked embarrassed, he had doubled our budget!

Ray was quite keen that when we sold The Kennels that we would retire here and do the place up to suit us. Although I loved the actual location of the property itself I wasn't so keen on the wider area and facilities and I also wasn't sure that the layout of the property internally was something we could remedy. When we did live in it for a short while we lived downstairs, as it would have been originally before the top rooms were put in. This made more sense to us and we had a bedroom and bathroom at the end of a corridor and the kitchen, lounge and my study in the main part of the house. This worked for us whilst we were living there for 9 months but having a bathroom with a toilet and then a separate toilet next to it, both taking up the 'view' side of the house seemed nonsensical.