Escape To The Country

Claire and Ed Croft bought Claire’s parents’ holiday home in Norfolk and customised it to suit their busy family.

Snug

‘This was the kitchen-diner, but it’s much better now as a snug,’ says Claire. ‘It’s tucked away from the hustle and bustle. We love unwrapping presents here in front of the fire at Christmas.’

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Claire and Ed Croft bought this property from Claire’s parents five years ago. ‘They had bought it as a holiday home back in the Seventies, when my brother Tim and I were still living at home in Yorkshire,’ she says. ‘When Ed and I lived in London, we stayed here with my parents regularly, so it has a lot of fond memories for us all.’

When her parents decided to sell up, Claire and Ed bought the house as a bolthole for themselves, but they soon decided to make the move permanent. ‘We carried on using the cottage as a base for the first couple of years, while we were still based in London, but then decided to make the break completely and set up home here full time. The children are at school nearby, our warehouse is up here, and we’ve got an outbuilding in the garden that we converted into our office, so there’s no need to be spending half a day on Mondays and Fridays travelling up and down the A11.

‘Aside from being in an enviable location, we were fortunate that my parents had done most of the major restoration work. But, to make it work for us as a full-time home, we did make some changes. Some rooms were under-used and we tended to spend most of our time in the cosy room at the far end of the house, which was the old kitchen-diner, but was more suited to being a snug. So we knocked through to an adjoining barn that was being used for storage and rearranged the layout.’