A Coastal Renovation

As an impulse buy, the dilapidated old property leaning against the cold northeasterly winds in Runswick Bay could have been a disaster. Andrew Yeats and Lucy Nelson had already gone £5,000 over budget to clinch the deal at auction – after frantic bidding above their baby’s screaming – and the building was in such a poor state of repair that they would have to spend a small fortune just to make it habitable. To cap it all off, architects Andrew and Lucy wondered whether they had finally met their match when they still couldn’t make their proposed plans work for the property after 150 drawings.

“I had always assumed that we would split the property vertically into two, each with three storeys,” says Andrew. “Then a friend came along to see it and suggested we split it horizontally into three, and from that moment on, it all fell into place. We would let out two and keep one to use ourselves.”

Until 1953 the property had been used as a hotel with a tearoom and was a focal point in the tiny coastal village, set on a hillside directly overlooking the sea near Whitby. It was this view across the bay which sold it to Andrew and Lucy. “Everything felt completely right,” recalls Andrew. “I love this part of the country. In my teens I used to come to Runswick Bay, sleep on the beach in a tent, have a swim and eat fish and chips. I think of it as my spiritual home — my idea of heaven,” he says. “But it was a very spontaneous purchase. We were actually looking for a house in Cumbria and couldn’t find anything, then Lucy spotted this place for sale and, within a week, we’d bought it.”

At the auction, the couple agreed a top price and that Lucy would hold their baby daughter, Iona, while Andrew did the bidding. Arriving late, they pushed their way through a crowd of 150 people and sat at the front, on the floor. As the bidding became increasingly frantic, baby Iona sensed the tension and started to scream. Passing her to Andrew, Lucy took over the bidding. “In no time at all she was nodding away like billy-o and after another £30,000 I wondered what the heck we’d done, but Lucy was determined!” laughs Andrew. “We had hit our absolute limit and we still went over by £5,000.”

Andrew and Lucy renovated the property as a single project, which Lucy managed by travelling from their home near York, with baby Iona, on a regular 80-mile-round trip. “It was quite a feat,” recalls Andrew. “She would feed Iona in the back of the car and then organise ten builders to move a wall!”

The building was undoubtedly in a poor state of neglect. It hadn’t been touched for decades and wood chip wallpaper seemed to be literally holding the plaster in place on the walls. All the internal hardwood doors needed to come out and the windows were virtually rotten.

Andrew and Lucy initially stripped the property back to a shell, hiring a farm labourer and his uncle to work on site. They demolished the interior with sledge hammers and removed all the rubbish – which had to be barrowed along a narrow path and up a set of steep steps – into the back of a transit van. “It was the biggest vehicle we could get up the narrow road to the back of the house,” says Andrew. Rubble from an outside bathroom, which was also knocked down, was taken off site in a similar fashion and a decked area pulled apart because it was rotten.

With the building open and bare, apart from the load-bearing walls, Andrew could begin to see the way the divisions in the house would work. He knew that by rebuilding most of the internal walls he could create the three individual properties they wanted, and still meet the planners’ approval.

“It took about eight months to get planning permission, but during that time we were doing all the demolition work so it tied in quite well,” Andrew recalls. “I have to say that the planners from the North York Moors National Park Authority were fantastic. They could see that we were going to transform the place for the better,” he says.

The lowest levels were tanked, but the section reserved for Andrew and Lucy’s own use incorporates two former bedrooms knocked into one large living area. An outside balcony was also incorporated into the living area and was Argon-filled double glazed to create a south-facing, all-year-round suntrap. “We wanted a completely glazed wrap-around, but this wasn’t allowed, although we could have a glazed corner with rooflights, bi-fold doors and railings,” says Andrew. “We changed things as we went along, rather than stick to a grand plan. The challenges came with the detail — it didn’t help that none of the walls in the building were straight!”

In fact, one internal wall had to be rebuilt three times before Andrew and Lucy were happy with it. “We wanted to build a wall between the children’s bedroom and our own, so that there was enough room for bunk beds in one and a double bed in the other, but space was really tight,” Andrew says. “We couldn’t achieve what we wanted with a straight, vertical wall, so it had to go in on a lean, following the slant of the window. The room is now like a vertical wedge.”

With the basic structure completed, Andrew and Lucy concentrated on the details — a galley kitchen, a timber mezzanine sleeping area, secret bunk beds and a steep staircase which opens into the living area with instant views across the sea. “We keep it as uncluttered as possible so everything focuses on the beach hut look inside and the fabulous view beyond,” smiles Andrew.

“In stormy weather you feel as though you are on the bow of a ship with the waves pounding below, and on a sunny day we open up the windows and soak up the heat in the privacy of our own space. Just being here certainly has the potential to move your spirit. For me, it’s as good as it gets.”

The Perfect Ceiling

One of the most striking features of the property – apart from the fabulous view of the bay – is the white wooden pitched ceiling in the main living area. Andrew and Lucy removed the original plasterboard ceiling to expose the rafters, insulated between them and cut out ties so they could insert just one large steel beam at the ridge. It took 15 men to carry the beam up scaffolding and slip it into a hole cut into the stonework. Two peephole windows were also removed and a lintel installed to accommodate a larger window offering views across the village rooftops. “We boarded the ceiling to emphasise the coastal location,” says Andrew. “We bought the cheapest, rough-sawn white wood, lightly sanded it to remove the coarseness and then white-washed it all in Farrow & Ball Pointing. We then left gaps between the boards to create shadows.”