CASE STUDY


A CHALET FOR ALL SEASONS


Christa and Del Dobson had been planning their alpine-style project for nearly 20 years, and it has finally come to fruition in a luxurious off-grid chalet


TEXT NICHOLA HUNTER IMAGES DOUGLAS GIBB


lthough Christa grew up in England, her mother’s family hail from the German/Austrian border and the influence of the Alps has been prevalent throughout her life. When she met Del, he shared her passion and the couple opened two alpine shops in Bath. One specialising in interiors and the other in clothing. “It was always our plan to do what we’re doing now,” Christa explains. “We wanted to have a really small bed and breakfast, a small shop and a beautiful chalet. The chalet was always part of the plan but not necessarily to build it ourselves!” About eight years ago, they were made an offer on the shops that was “really too good to turn down,” but the buyer pulled out.


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By that point, says Christa, “we’d already started the ball rolling to move. We didn’t know where we wanted to go, we just knew what we were looking for.” She explains further: “It had to be remote but not overly so, and on a main road but not a busy one. It was difficult to find the right place; we looked all over the UK.” About 18 months after they started their search, they found a house in the Scottish Borders, which was “perfect.”


Originally owned by Jedburgh Abbey, Singdean was a small ‘steading’ (farmstead), located on a larger sheep farm, until the 1950s. When Christa and Del bought it eight years ago they changed the main house into a bed and breakfast and the small barn into an alpine shop. Two years ago, they realised the last part of their


issue 01 2021 LOW POINT


“Del broke his thumb, cladding the front of the house up a ladder. But we just had to carry on. It still hurts!”


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