C


hristina and Dean Horspool have always had big ideas, and one of them was to buy a chateau in France to renovate. They


had travelled around the country when they were younger, camping in the grounds of grand chateaus and dreamt of having one of their own. nortunatel te finances didnt add up  and we don’t speak French!” says Christina wryly. However, after living in a town house in central


erdeen or around eigt ears te finall decided it was time to take the plunge and move. “We adored our three-storey town house which we had completely renovated,” Christina recalls. “However, with our daughters, Chloe and Amelie, under the age of two it wasn’t a practical family home. We needed to look at how to make lie easier  a driewa a larger garden. When Christina and Dean spotted Manar House in Inverurie on the market in 2019, the finances still werent on target ut te propert was not dissimilar to a French chateau. “It was way over our budget, but this was the dream, and I made an appointment to view. It was a horrible day, but soon as we got here, we knew. It was beautiful, it just needed someone to put it back together.”


It seemed like fate, and Christina and Dean made an offer which was accepted. But house buying often isn’t simple and putting it back together was indeed the main issue as the instant the house was under offer the lead was stolen off the roof. Immediately, the couple were dealing with a house that was now not only derelict but not watertight either. “There


50 www.sbhonline.co.uk


was water pouring through the ceilings and everything we wanted to save and rescue like the original coving was getting wet.” This also meant that the house was pulled out of the sale and put into an auction. After a nerve-wracking auction te couple finall copleted te purchase and started on rescuing the property. The dream, however, was fast disappearing and to add ore uel to te fire te pandeic was coming.


“It was a very strange Christmas that year,” Christina recalls. “The house was pulled out of the sale in October, and we had to wait until January for the auction, then didn’t collect the keys until February so we got the roofers in the same day to get started on making it watertight.” However, although Dean and Christina had a few weeks before they actually moved in, they knew they had to work fast. “It was becoming clear that something major was going to happen with Covid and we wanted to be in the property rather than unable to move into it.”


When the pandemic hit, Christina was still working full-time in charge of a team of 100 in a consultancy while Dean was working in asset integrity and they had to work from home. The family moved into one room with a sofa, two desks, a fridge freezer and a microwave. This one roo ecae a plaroooficeliing room and bedroom, and the couple’s two young daughters were stuck at home in a house that was in reality, a building site. “I recall giving a speech for an energy industry conference which


jul/aug 2024


LOW POINT


“The leak in the girls’ bedroom; thank


goodness for Instagram and gin!”  Christina Horspool


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