STARTING OVER

Buying a 1960s property stuck in a slight timewarp provided Ann and Jonathan Hawthorne with the perfect canvas for all their ideas

- JULIET BENNING

After their last renovation, Ann Hawthorne and her husband Jonathan vowed ‘never again’, but having been gazumped in a sluggish property market they returned to the drawing board. ‘We had sold our smaller property and so had to move into rented accommodation until we found somewhere to buy. The problem was that there wasn’t a lot on the market and we didn’t want a boxy new build,’ Ann explains. The house that captured the couple’s imagination was a 1960s property in a desirable area of Edinburgh with powers of seduction strong enough to make them forget their previous renovation pain. ‘When we walked in we really liked the feel of the place and Jens, our architect, was excited, too. But as we knew we weren’t going to be living there during the renovation, it seemed less daunting and I suppose it’s like childbirth, you forget about the pain involved afterwards.