AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT
Childhood sweethearts Maria and Mike Shemilt couldn’t believe their luck when, despite fierce competition, they eventually managed to clinch the deal on a quintessentially English thatched cottage. ‘Even though I rang the estate agent the day this pretty thatched home went on the market, eight other house-hunters had already booked viewings so we were well down the waiting list,’ Maria recalls.
After discovering that the cottage had been snapped up, the pair assumed they’d completely missed out. However, some
