house on the market and it sold straight away.”


At that point, Heidi’s dream came to an abrupt halt. The owners were unable to find anything suitable to move to and a year dragged by, with the buying chain held in limbo. Eventually Heidi and John’s buyers got tired of waiting and pulled out and a second year passed.


“Eventually, the owners got in touch and said they’d finally found somewhere to live, so we put our house back on the market,” says Heidi. “It was a nail-biting time. My heart was absolutely set on this place and I was terrified of losing it if we couldn’t sell ours.” Fortunately for the Exleys it was second time


lucky and in 2015 they paid £325,000 for the four-bedroom detached house near Doncaster, moving in at the end of October. They waited until after Christmas before John, who runs his own plumbing and heating business, launched a major renovation of the property by updating the entire central heating system. This involved removing plaster from the walls and taking up floors. Very quickly, the renovation took on a momentum of its own and led to re-plastering most of the internal walls and Artexed ceilings, refitting the bathrooms, laying new floors, replacing the wobbly staircase with a bespoke one built by a joiner, rewiring throughout and updating the front door.


The architect was particularly keen to make the garden and beautiful country views the focus of the extension


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