TWIST OF FATE

After searching for months for the right house, Susie and Chris Evans-Pollard then found one on their doorstep

- CHARLOTTE COLVILLE

Susie and Chris Evans- Pollard had lived in various Victorian and Georgian flats and houses in London and love open, high-ceilinged homes. Artist, writer and illustrator Susie particularly craves a light, airy working environment. Back in 2009, they had recently moved from London with their two young children and were renting a cottage in an Oxfordshire village.

Every day they would walk past a square red house nearby, often pausing to imagine living in the elegant Georgian property with its symmetrical façade. Tantalisingly, it came onto the market soon after they moved into the village but it was out of their budget. They could only watch as potential buyers streamed through but reluctantly accepted that the house was not meant for them.

It was then that fate played her hand. Astonishingly, the house received no offers and the asking price was lowered so the couple arranged to view it and, unsurprisingly, they loved it. ‘The houses we had looked at were quite cottagey, but here you could breathe,’ says Susie. It had a reception room on either side of the front hall and a generous, light kitchen at the back, and upstairs had four bedrooms with soaring exposed rafters.