The Beginning
It all began on the 4th of June 2023, during a walk along the seafront, taking in the views. The little cottage had already been in my mind for years, after watching it go on the market, to be being bought, to progress being made with an extension and lots of building work. We would creep around the back during our nightly Maisie walks and imagine the cottage was ours and how excited we would be to see its future.
Sadly it had been left in disrepair, with a smashed window, rubble and litter strewn in the garden and we concluded that the cottage's life was at an end.
On June the 4th 2023, we happened to wander past with friends and noticed a sign posted in the window. Curiosity got the better of us and we had to take a closer look, again creeping round the back but this time edging into the garden. In all honesty, you couldn't call it a garden. It was mountains of building waste and rubbish, a half finished extension and the lack of love saddened us.
The lovely lady next door shouted us over and introduced herself. She greeted us as friends and gave us a brief history of the unloved cottage and said we should take a look.
It turned out that the cottage had been bought, but then all had gone wrong and the front window had been smashed in anger. This saddened us further and we couldn't help but find a way into the cottage to take a look for ourselves.
Inside was truly worse than the outside, if that was possible. Graffiti scrawled over the left over building materials; concrete, sand, cement bags everywhere, holes in the floor. What saddened me the most was the original light-shades still hanging from the ceilings, pinks, oranges and reds, coated with dirt, falling apart.
The darkness was dense, with the windows boarded, there was no way to see the cottage's potential, but we could feel it. At the risk of sounding emotional, it felt like it was meant to be and my love for the cottage was already growing.
Our friends, Barry and Bernadette, were already talking about how we could renovate the cottage, how to make it whole again and for a second I took a breath and questioned if it could be real. We left that day with a plan. Contact the auction house, find a way to make the cottage ours.
After Barry's endless phone calls to the auction house and his sheer determination to make the cottage ours, on the 22nd of July 2023, the cottage belonged to us. it wasn't all plain sailing, firstly we were only given a few days to complete the sale, meaning our solicitor had to go into overdrive to get the deal done. Amazingly she did it and contracts were exchanged.
The journey then really began and our first miracle was finding our builder, Martyn, and his team. They jumped into action, and even now, months later, they are still working at Seabreeze, getting it ready for guests. We send the biggest thank you to the bestest building team, We really couldn't have done it without you.
And that was how it began, the little abandoned cottage finally has had love and we hope it is everything the original owner, Joe, could have wished for.
We know that the cottage means so much to people of the town and we send everyone a huge thank you for all the support and well wishes we have received.
So now we move forward, filling the cottage with laughter, fun, family and friends.
This is only the beginning, the blogs will continue as will our journey...
Melanie xx
