A dark and derelict little house in the Cape coastal suburb of St James gets a modern makeover, thanks to Mandy Sayer’s passion for restoring historic homes.
“I love property, but older homes have a special place in my heart,” says Mandy Sayer, who recently transformed a dilapidated historic cottage into a charming, contemporary living space. Today, it’s difficult to imagine it as the ugly duckling that nobody wanted.
Known as the Matchbox Cottage and dating back to 1886 (see ‘History of the Matchbox Cottage’ overleaf), the property had been on the market for years by the time Mandy and her husband Trevor bought it. “Although it’s just off Main Road in St James, no buyer wanted to touch it as it was marketed as an ‘extra’ sold with the adjacent shop,” says Mandy, a property developer who started Sayer Projects together with Trevor in 2008. Last year, the couple snapped up the entire property, including the shop and the rights to build two apartments above it.
Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Home South Africa.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Home South Africa.
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