Feeling Grand

Anne and Johnny needed a weekday crash pad but did it in grand style with a period apartment in a 19th century merchant’s house apartment conversion in Belfast.

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Having grown up in Northern Ireland, securing a job there in the 2010 was something of a homecoming for retired colonel and diplomat, Johnny. His London-born wife, Anne was not so sure though. ‘We’d been living in Rutland in the East Midlands in what had been the wing of a large manor house, parts of which were 400 years old, in what’s an idyllic part of England so I was quite happy to keep the family home there and commute the short hour-long flight to see Johnny at weekends,’ says Anne. ‘Initially Johnny moved in with his mother who was living in Northern Ireland and did his house hunting from there, emailing me the various properties he’d spotted which might fit the bill. However, having lived in such a beautiful home in England the bar was pretty high and Johnny was under strict instructions not to do anything drastic about any property he saw until I’d seen it too!’