Charm in Yarm (From Living Northeast)

Charm in Yarm

1:09pm Monday 20th April 2009

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When their beloved three-bedroom 1930s semi started feeling too small, Dave and Jackie Bassett didn’t extend – they just bought the house next door, knocked through, and started offering bed and breakfast accommodation. Julia Breen visits.

EVERY part of the house is light and airy, but still feels cosy and lived-in. From the bespoke pine kitchen with a range cooker, to the conservatory that Dave Bassett built himself, with sweeping views into the garden, it’s a real family home.

“I was off work when our youngest daughter was a baby and every time she had a nap I was outside putting another couple of courses of bricks down on the conservatory,” he laughs. “The neighbours must have thought I was mad.”

Dave and Jackie moved into their three-bedroom, semi-detached house on Thirsk Road, in Yarm, seven years ago after buying it from a 95-year-old lady who had barely updated it in years. Jackie was pregnant with her second child and the gas in the house had been condemned when they first moved in.

The pair, who run Homes and Finance estate agents in Yarm High Street, were attracted to the property by the huge garden, which backs on to Yarm tennis club. “Before that we were in a two-up, two-down,” says Dave.

“Our daughter didn’t even have enough room in the yard to go round in a circle on her tricycle, so we decided it was time to move to a home with a garden.”

In the past seven years since moving into the house, the pair have brought up their two daughters, aged seven and ten, started their estate agency and finance business, completely refurbished their home – and now, opened their bed and breakfast. Their most recent refurbishments have set them back well over £250,000.

Jackie says: “We got on really well with our next door neighbours and used to joke with them that if they ever wanted to sell, we would buy their house. We never really took it seriously but then it did come on the market last year and it got us thinking.”

The selling process went to sealed bids and the pair had an anxious wait to find out if theirs was the winner.

“I thought we’d missed out on it,” says Jackie. “I remember looking out of the window into next door’s garden crying and saying to Dave, we’ll never sit out there having our breakfast. You have a dream about things like that. If we hadn’t got next door, I’m not sure if I could have gone on living in our house.”

Their bid won, though, and last year, they spent their time transforming next door into four bed and breakfast rooms, three with en suite bathrooms, a dining room and a snug. They knocked through to next door through their kitchen wall and have made their own snug which looks out on to the decked area of the garden.

Of the decision to run a B&B, Jackie says: “We always have people in our house anyway. Our friends are staying over and we’re always having people over for meals. We love it like that so it was the most natural thing in the world to extend that into a business as a bed and breakfast.”

The bed and breakfast bedrooms are fuss-free, with white bedding and darker throws, chunky wooden wardrobes and chests of drawers from Simply Dutch, at Leeming Bar. Other touches, including some of the mirrors and curtains, are from Laura Ashley and Dunelm Mill.

Each room has a different tassled or feathered lampshade as a touch of opulence.

The dining room is simple white, with small wooden breakfast tables and a full-length window for drinking in the attractive view of the garden. Adjoining it is a little lounge area, with flat screen television, which leads through to a space for guests to make themselves complimentary tea and coffee, or buy a mini bottle of wine or even a packet of jelly babies.

The family home is full of comforting touches, such as the pine kitchen, which Dave fitted himself, complete with a high central island kitchen table, which the couple say is at the very heart of the home.

In one of the outbuildings, Dave has set up a minigym which he is hoping to open to guests during the warmer months.

Dave and Jackie admit that selling homes isn’t the best game to be in at the moment. But they’re making the most of a bad situation. They moved into the rental market on a whim before the property crash – and that side of the business is now keeping them ticking over.

They’re hoping to start marketing the bed and breakfast business more this year, attracting more paying guests, and to add to their hectic life, they’re opening an internet café within the downstairs area of Homes and Finance, on Yarm High Street, offering coffee, tea, sandwiches and home-baked goodies, with Wi-Fi and internet access.

Jackie says: “Some of our clients pop in for coffee and a chat anyway, so we thought we’d extend it. It’s a good way of getting through the recession, as well as getting people through the doors to look at what homes are on the market in a more relaxed setting.”

Despite spending the majority of last year transforming their home, Dave and Jackie are planning the next step – possibly extending out to the side, creating a larger family home as well as a larger bed and breakfast.

“But that’s a long-term plan,” says Jackie. “We’d have to get different stages of planning permission for it and it would depend how it would fit into the community.”

The thing the couple love most about their home is that it’s a large building, without having a sense of imposing grandeur.

“The rooms are small and cosy,” says Jackie. “It’s not like walking into a huge entrance hall with a massive staircase and feeling intimidated by it. It’s a family home with a really nice feel to it.”

■Arden Guest House is at 15-17 Thirsk Road, Yarm; ardenguesthouseyarm.co.uk; 01642-781850.

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