“Every time we touched a pipe, there was a flood. Everything that could go wrong on the build, did”


D


ebbie met Dave 17 years ago. Debbie was living in Bolton with her three children and Dave (who has two children) moved from Scotland to be with her. “We ran a consultancy business together,” Debbie explains, “but Dave never really enjoyed living in Bolton. When our youngest was 16 we decided to go travelling and we knew we’d never go back to living in England, Scotland would be our future.” After three enjoyable years living in Mallorca, the uncertainty of Brexit gave the family concern, and they decided it was time to make the move to Scotland. Fast forward to December 2019 and the Halls-Evans moved back just in time for the pandemic to hit. “We based ourselves in West Linton and although viewing houses in person was a no go, we had a wish list of properties to look at.” As and when restrictions allowed them to, the couple spent their weekends eliminating properties from their list. Six months later, in July 2020 Easter Shian


Farm near Dunkeld was the only property they hadn’t viewed. “The agent warned us that it was incredibly remote and very few people wanted to live there.” This was music to Debbie and Dave’s ears! “When we parked on the drive,


42 www.sbhonline.co.uk


we knew this was the house for us.” The keys were handed over on Debbie’s 50th birthday and within six weeks of viewing the family had moved in. Before Easter Shian, every home that Debbie has lived in has been rented. “I spoke to the landlord in Mallorca, and he allowed me to gut the house we were staying in and I realised then that my living space is really important to me.” With her philosophy being “perfectly imperfectly,” Easter Shian was an opportunity for Debbie to properly make a house her own. “My approach is, if what I do is rubbish, I’ll get someone to come and fi it Unfortunately, two weeks after moving in, getting someone to come and fi it was ery much the case as the honeymoon period was well and truly over, as Debbie recalls: “We’d spent a fortnight stripping the house back to a bare shell and then we found mice, the boiler blew up, the chimneys dropped everything, and we had not one, but seen oods ery time we touched a pipe, there was a ood. erything that could go wrong did.” Aware that they now had no option but to start completely from scratch, the couple


HIGH POINT


“Seeing the work so far, and when others appreciate your hard work and effort, and can see and feel what we do for Easter Shian. The recognition by others of what we have done; winning Scotland’s Home of the Year Christmas  was the final icing on the cake.”


jul/aug 2023


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