‘I breathed new life into a neglected house’

When Ali James and her husband, Gary, moved into their Victorian cottage, it was a far cry from how it is today: walls were painted a dreary magnolia, orange carpet in every room, cracking render and poorly laid tiles. ‘The interior of the house was really quite dated, but we needed somewhere that was big enough for us and our six children. At the time, there was very little on the market, and the potential of this property was incredibly appealing,’ says Ali.

Despite the couple’s tight budget, they were able to transform