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The Age
28-05-2025
- The Age
Twenty things that will surprise first-time visitors to Bangkok
The west bank of the river was home to the first European settlers in Siam (as Thailand was then known), 16th-century Portuguese traders, missionaries and mercenaries. Kudichin, also known as Kudijeen, consists of narrow lanes (or soi) and old teak houses, including the ancestral Baan Kudichin Museum. The domed 1770 Santa Cruz Church and nearby Wat Prayurawongsawat ('Turtle Mountain Temple') with its hollow, 60-metre stupa are open to visitors. And look for the small family bakeries that sell the European-inspired tart called khanom farang ('foreigner cake'). See There are cannabis shops everywhere In 2022 Thailand surprised the world, and itself, by radically loosening its previously strict marijuana laws. Cannabis-based products, supposedly for 'medical use only', were soon on sale across the kingdom in glitzy shops, kerbside vans and street stalls. A new conservative government now hopes, belatedly, to legislate the billion-dollar genie back into its bottle. Whatever the outcome and your herbal inclinations, don't even think about exporting anything. It's home to the world's largest outdoor shopping mall Chatuchak Weekend Market is the world's largest, busiest, noisiest and allegedly best-bargain marketplace of all. Catch the SkyTrain north to Mo Chit to find this Mecca for impulse purchasers. With more than 15,000 stalls covering 14 hectares and selling everything from jewels, curios and pets to amulets and electronics, you'll need extra bags to lug home the loot. It's always a long weekend at Chatuchak, which trades full-tilt from Wednesday to Sunday. See History lives in the side streets The dowager Atlanta Hotel sits amid its considerable memories down Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road. The classic Bauhaus-deco lobby is unchanged from the 1950s, when this was the place to dine in Bangkok. A 1962 photograph shows the young King Rama IX playing saxophone there with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. The menu in the hotel's original LA-style diner declares: 'Typically, the Atlanta is not moving with the times.' See Hotel California isn't played here Forget the chrome pole clubs or beer bars still playing The Eagles, Bangkok has plenty of cool musical watering holes. The Saxophone Jazz and Blues Pub at the Victory Monument has delivered live Thai-Latino-whatever jazz, good drinks and great atmosphere with no cover charge or go-go dancers since 1987 ( Meanwhile, upmarket and down by the river, the Mandarin Oriental's elegant Bamboo Bar stirs smoky jazz into your late-night cocktail musings ( Something similar happens high above the river at the Millennium Hilton's ThreeSixty Bar. See A street corner named devotion Erawan Shrine in front of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel is renowned as Bangkok's most wish-fulfilling shrine. Day and night, Thais from all walks of life make offerings before its centrepiece, a four-faced golden Brahma statue. They pray for wealth, health, education or business success, or give thanks for prayers answered. Traditional dancers often perform here. Visitors welcome, respectful photography appreciated. See The world's most beautiful boatshed The National Museum of Royal Barges, the most beautiful boatshed in the world, houses the Crown's fleet of gilded, ceremonial vessels. These works of art with swan-necked prows and mythological figureheads glide out on rare occasions for the extraordinary Royal Barge Procession, when they parade, rowed by chanting sailors, past the Grand Palace and its dreaming spires. The barge museum, on the west bank in Bangkok Noi, displays these intricate vessels. Watch as artisans maintain them. See It's still a backpacker mecca Khao San Road, unofficial world backpacker HQ, gained fame last century with Alex Garland's novel (and subsequent Hollywood movie) The Beach. 'The main function for the street was as a decompression chamber … a halfway house between East and West,' he wrote. It still is. KSR endures, with the dreads-and-tatts crew sharing space with flashpackers and selfie-obsessives. By night the street is closed to traffic and becomes a free-range party zone. Explore it for music in clubs like Brick Bar. Above all, decompress. See The nicknames are delightful Don't be surprise to meet, for instance, a woman called Pla (meaning Fish) or another named Porn. Because formal Thai names can seem as long as a stretch limo, many Thais adopt a short, convenient nickname. Foreigners will be surprised to meet someone called Poo (Crab), Meaw (Cat), Moo (Pig) or Gai (Chicken). As for Porn, forget any preconceptions; it's an auspicious name, meaning blessing or grace. Thais sometimes translate their nicknames into English and you might find yourself chatting with Glass (Kaew), Smile (Yim) or Snack (Khanom), or perhaps plain Pop (as in music). It's easy to get high, literally The Great City of Angels lets you brush wings with its namesake celestial spirits via its rooftop bars. From up there you can muse, cocktail in hand, on the glittering street circuitry below or the looping calligraphy of the river as it signs off on its long run to the sea. In this city without hills, vertigo is a rare sensation, except at the MahaNakhon skyscraper. As Thailand's tallest building it trumps the skybars with its 78th-floor skywalk, the city's highest public point. Defy your survival instincts by stepping out onto its glass deck and then looking 310 vertiginous metres down to the toy town cars below. See Tuk-tuks are for tourists (and more expensive than taxis) Probably, yes. The iconic tuk-tuk (proper name samlor, 'three-wheel') functions today mostly as a tourist rattle-trap. They're unmetered, wind-in-your-hair fun, for sure. A first-time hoot. Until the end of the trip when, if you didn't first agree on the fare, the driver is charging you whatever he likes. For farang (foreigners), they're usually more expensive than a metered taxi. Go local, live like a Thai, catch the SkyTrain, Metro or ferry – all faster and cheaper than a tuk-tuk, even if less Insta fun. Thailand didn't invent massage, but perfected it Skip the fluffy rub-downs and five-orchid spa sessions. Try the real thing, where many Thai therapists learn their basics, at Wat Pho temple's 70-year-old Thai Traditional Massage School. Massage as developed here is included on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. For $20, a skilled trainee will turn your shoulder knots to noodles during an hour of pummelling, prodding and stretching. While you're at Wat Pho, visit its famous, 46-metre long, gold-plated Reclining Buddha. It has the world's wettest new year celebration Songkran, the world's wettest new year. Thailand's traditional new year falls in mid-April. Once the first jet of water hits your neck, things can descend into days of being drenched anytime you set foot outside. As a farang, you are an affectionate 'mark', so don't hit the streets wearing or carrying anything you can't afford to have soaked. You've stepped into the middle of the world's biggest water fight. Should you become a target, don't bother to plead: you're painting an even bigger bull's eye on yourself. Often the most indiscriminate water-bombers are inebriated, newbie tourists trying to 'go local'. The river commute is a fast and furious ride Khlong Saen Saep, built between 1837 and 1840, snakes its way through the city. Hop aboard a rocket and see how some Bangkokians get to the office. The skinny, 15-metre-long, 50-seat canal ferries rip along the muddy waters, making Formula One-speed pit stops at the khlong's 18 wharves. Leap – almost literally – on and off whenever you dare. A conductor collects fares as the projectile travels the 18-kilometre route. Blasting past temples and shacks, mansions and malls, it's your cheap-as-chips tour of the real Bangkok's backdoors. See The Risky Market is called 'risky' for good reason Talat Rhom Hoop – literally 'Closing Umbrella Market' – sounds curious enough, but its English name is more ominous – The Risky Market. You look up to see why: a locomotive is bearing down on you amid the market stalls. Their trackside awnings suddenly retract. You press yourself against a wall, flat as a Peking duck, with the train rumbling by, inches away. The fishing port of Samut Songkhram, also known as Mae Khlong, 80 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, is home to this death-defying shopping excursion and its 33-kilometre Mae Khlong-Mahachai railway, the shortest line in Thailand. See One of the world's longest roads runs through it Loading Hail a taxi on Sukhumvit and say: 'To the end of the road, please.' Four hundred and ninety kilometres later you'll be at Cambodia. Thanon Sukhumvit, Bangkok's boulevard of dreams and schemes, is not only the country's longest thoroughfare but one of the world's longest main roads. Until the mid-1960s, rice paddies and aristocratic estates bordered it. Novelist and composer S.P. Somtow recalled his family enclave there as 'our remote little island kingdom on Sukhumvit Road'. The rip-roaring progress monster that ate old Bangkok soon consumed the agriculture and enchantment alike. It's home to the world's narrowest Chinatown alley Bangkok is said to be home to the largest diaspora Chinatown in the world. Which might make Soi Itsara Nuphap, between Yaowarat and Charoen Krung roads, the skinniest Chinatown alley of almost anywhere. Inch your way along as it pinches down to a two-metre-wide crush of food stalls, handcarts, shoppers, monks, motorbike delivery drivers, grandmothers, schoolkids and bargain hunters. Ten minutes later you pop out at the other end, having sampled a parallel Thai-Chinese universe at very close quarters. Celebrate with a pickled egg. Watch your wallet. See
Sydney Morning Herald
28-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Twenty things that will surprise first-time visitors to Bangkok
The west bank of the river was home to the first European settlers in Siam (as Thailand was then known), 16th-century Portuguese traders, missionaries and mercenaries. Kudichin, also known as Kudijeen, consists of narrow lanes (or soi) and old teak houses, including the ancestral Baan Kudichin Museum. The domed 1770 Santa Cruz Church and nearby Wat Prayurawongsawat ('Turtle Mountain Temple') with its hollow, 60-metre stupa are open to visitors. And look for the small family bakeries that sell the European-inspired tart called khanom farang ('foreigner cake'). See There are cannabis shops everywhere In 2022 Thailand surprised the world, and itself, by radically loosening its previously strict marijuana laws. Cannabis-based products, supposedly for 'medical use only', were soon on sale across the kingdom in glitzy shops, kerbside vans and street stalls. A new conservative government now hopes, belatedly, to legislate the billion-dollar genie back into its bottle. Whatever the outcome and your herbal inclinations, don't even think about exporting anything. It's home to the world's largest outdoor shopping mall Chatuchak Weekend Market is the world's largest, busiest, noisiest and allegedly best-bargain marketplace of all. Catch the SkyTrain north to Mo Chit to find this Mecca for impulse purchasers. With more than 15,000 stalls covering 14 hectares and selling everything from jewels, curios and pets to amulets and electronics, you'll need extra bags to lug home the loot. It's always a long weekend at Chatuchak, which trades full-tilt from Wednesday to Sunday. See History lives in the side streets The dowager Atlanta Hotel sits amid its considerable memories down Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road. The classic Bauhaus-deco lobby is unchanged from the 1950s, when this was the place to dine in Bangkok. A 1962 photograph shows the young King Rama IX playing saxophone there with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. The menu in the hotel's original LA-style diner declares: 'Typically, the Atlanta is not moving with the times.' See Hotel California isn't played here Forget the chrome pole clubs or beer bars still playing The Eagles, Bangkok has plenty of cool musical watering holes. The Saxophone Jazz and Blues Pub at the Victory Monument has delivered live Thai-Latino-whatever jazz, good drinks and great atmosphere with no cover charge or go-go dancers since 1987 ( Meanwhile, upmarket and down by the river, the Mandarin Oriental's elegant Bamboo Bar stirs smoky jazz into your late-night cocktail musings ( Something similar happens high above the river at the Millennium Hilton's ThreeSixty Bar. See A street corner named devotion Erawan Shrine in front of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel is renowned as Bangkok's most wish-fulfilling shrine. Day and night, Thais from all walks of life make offerings before its centrepiece, a four-faced golden Brahma statue. They pray for wealth, health, education or business success, or give thanks for prayers answered. Traditional dancers often perform here. Visitors welcome, respectful photography appreciated. See The world's most beautiful boatshed The National Museum of Royal Barges, the most beautiful boatshed in the world, houses the Crown's fleet of gilded, ceremonial vessels. These works of art with swan-necked prows and mythological figureheads glide out on rare occasions for the extraordinary Royal Barge Procession, when they parade, rowed by chanting sailors, past the Grand Palace and its dreaming spires. The barge museum, on the west bank in Bangkok Noi, displays these intricate vessels. Watch as artisans maintain them. See It's still a backpacker mecca Khao San Road, unofficial world backpacker HQ, gained fame last century with Alex Garland's novel (and subsequent Hollywood movie) The Beach. 'The main function for the street was as a decompression chamber … a halfway house between East and West,' he wrote. It still is. KSR endures, with the dreads-and-tatts crew sharing space with flashpackers and selfie-obsessives. By night the street is closed to traffic and becomes a free-range party zone. Explore it for music in clubs like Brick Bar. Above all, decompress. See The nicknames are delightful Don't be surprise to meet, for instance, a woman called Pla (meaning Fish) or another named Porn. Because formal Thai names can seem as long as a stretch limo, many Thais adopt a short, convenient nickname. Foreigners will be surprised to meet someone called Poo (Crab), Meaw (Cat), Moo (Pig) or Gai (Chicken). As for Porn, forget any preconceptions; it's an auspicious name, meaning blessing or grace. Thais sometimes translate their nicknames into English and you might find yourself chatting with Glass (Kaew), Smile (Yim) or Snack (Khanom), or perhaps plain Pop (as in music). It's easy to get high, literally The Great City of Angels lets you brush wings with its namesake celestial spirits via its rooftop bars. From up there you can muse, cocktail in hand, on the glittering street circuitry below or the looping calligraphy of the river as it signs off on its long run to the sea. In this city without hills, vertigo is a rare sensation, except at the MahaNakhon skyscraper. As Thailand's tallest building it trumps the skybars with its 78th-floor skywalk, the city's highest public point. Defy your survival instincts by stepping out onto its glass deck and then looking 310 vertiginous metres down to the toy town cars below. See Tuk-tuks are for tourists (and more expensive than taxis) Probably, yes. The iconic tuk-tuk (proper name samlor, 'three-wheel') functions today mostly as a tourist rattle-trap. They're unmetered, wind-in-your-hair fun, for sure. A first-time hoot. Until the end of the trip when, if you didn't first agree on the fare, the driver is charging you whatever he likes. For farang (foreigners), they're usually more expensive than a metered taxi. Go local, live like a Thai, catch the SkyTrain, Metro or ferry – all faster and cheaper than a tuk-tuk, even if less Insta fun. Thailand didn't invent massage, but perfected it Skip the fluffy rub-downs and five-orchid spa sessions. Try the real thing, where many Thai therapists learn their basics, at Wat Pho temple's 70-year-old Thai Traditional Massage School. Massage as developed here is included on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. For $20, a skilled trainee will turn your shoulder knots to noodles during an hour of pummelling, prodding and stretching. While you're at Wat Pho, visit its famous, 46-metre long, gold-plated Reclining Buddha. It has the world's wettest new year celebration Songkran, the world's wettest new year. Thailand's traditional new year falls in mid-April. Once the first jet of water hits your neck, things can descend into days of being drenched anytime you set foot outside. As a farang, you are an affectionate 'mark', so don't hit the streets wearing or carrying anything you can't afford to have soaked. You've stepped into the middle of the world's biggest water fight. Should you become a target, don't bother to plead: you're painting an even bigger bull's eye on yourself. Often the most indiscriminate water-bombers are inebriated, newbie tourists trying to 'go local'. The river commute is a fast and furious ride Khlong Saen Saep, built between 1837 and 1840, snakes its way through the city. Hop aboard a rocket and see how some Bangkokians get to the office. The skinny, 15-metre-long, 50-seat canal ferries rip along the muddy waters, making Formula One-speed pit stops at the khlong's 18 wharves. Leap – almost literally – on and off whenever you dare. A conductor collects fares as the projectile travels the 18-kilometre route. Blasting past temples and shacks, mansions and malls, it's your cheap-as-chips tour of the real Bangkok's backdoors. See The Risky Market is called 'risky' for good reason Talat Rhom Hoop – literally 'Closing Umbrella Market' – sounds curious enough, but its English name is more ominous – The Risky Market. You look up to see why: a locomotive is bearing down on you amid the market stalls. Their trackside awnings suddenly retract. You press yourself against a wall, flat as a Peking duck, with the train rumbling by, inches away. The fishing port of Samut Songkhram, also known as Mae Khlong, 80 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, is home to this death-defying shopping excursion and its 33-kilometre Mae Khlong-Mahachai railway, the shortest line in Thailand. See One of the world's longest roads runs through it Loading Hail a taxi on Sukhumvit and say: 'To the end of the road, please.' Four hundred and ninety kilometres later you'll be at Cambodia. Thanon Sukhumvit, Bangkok's boulevard of dreams and schemes, is not only the country's longest thoroughfare but one of the world's longest main roads. Until the mid-1960s, rice paddies and aristocratic estates bordered it. Novelist and composer S.P. Somtow recalled his family enclave there as 'our remote little island kingdom on Sukhumvit Road'. The rip-roaring progress monster that ate old Bangkok soon consumed the agriculture and enchantment alike. It's home to the world's narrowest Chinatown alley Bangkok is said to be home to the largest diaspora Chinatown in the world. Which might make Soi Itsara Nuphap, between Yaowarat and Charoen Krung roads, the skinniest Chinatown alley of almost anywhere. Inch your way along as it pinches down to a two-metre-wide crush of food stalls, handcarts, shoppers, monks, motorbike delivery drivers, grandmothers, schoolkids and bargain hunters. Ten minutes later you pop out at the other end, having sampled a parallel Thai-Chinese universe at very close quarters. Celebrate with a pickled egg. Watch your wallet. See
Irish Examiner
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Irish Examiner
New roads mean more traffic, not less — somebody should tell Galway County Council
Even the most casual observer of our transport failings as a nation will be aware of Galway's atrocious traffic problems. Along with the notoriety of the Cork to Limerick road, recently covered in these pages, the running joke of the city of many roundabouts and its LA-style traffic jams is synonymous with our seemingly intractable planning problems. The saga of the Galway City Ring Road plan is just another punchline. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Subscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner. Annual €120€60 Best value Monthly €10€4 / month Unlimited access. Subscriber content. Daily ePaper. Additional benefits.
Business Insider
23-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- Business Insider
I moved from New York City to Los Angeles. Drinking culture and work-life balance feel so different on the West Coast.
I was born and raised in New York City, and moved to Los Angeles a year ago. Some things have surprised me, like that people in LA seem to drink less than people in NYC. In my opinion, hustle culture doesn't feel as glamorized in LA as it does in NYC. I'm a born and raised New Yorker. I grew up in Queens and, after a four-year stint in Washington, DC for college, I moved to Manhattan. I thought I was going to live there for the rest of my life. I didn't drive, I loved walking everywhere, and I thought I wouldn't be able to live without a grocery store, nail salon, dry cleaner, ice cream shop, and bar within sight of my front door. Then, I packed up and moved to Los Angeles. I just felt like it was time for a change, and I wanted to experience the "perfect" California weather that so many rave about. I knew there would be differences between life on the East Coast and West Coast, but here are a few things that have surprised me most so far. People seem to treat cars like accessories in LA. I knew Los Angeles was a driving city, but I didn't realize how common it feels for people here to treat their cars like big, expensive accessories. It feels like the norm to spend significant amounts of time and money washing and caring for vehicles here. In my experience, when someone has a car in NYC (and can actually find a parking spot for it), they really only drive it on weekends to leave the city — and they're almost certainly not souping the vehicle up LA-style. Bar culture feels more destination-oriented. On a Saturday night in New York City, my friends and I usually casually hopped around without a clear plan. We might have chosen a neighborhood or had a starting point in mind, but we'd always end up walking a block or two to try to find our next hangout spot. In contrast, I've found that Los Angeles bar culture seems more destination-oriented. People pick a spot — maybe two — and that's the night. There seems to be more forethought and logistics involved in night-out plans, perhaps because a lot of people drive and don't want to leave their cars, or they need to plan their drinking around sobering up to drive home. Mocktails seem to be more popular here, too. In my experience, drinking alcohol in LA doesn't seem as popular here as it did in NYC. In LA, I've found there's a strong chance you or someone in your friend group is driving home from the bar, so they'll be drinking less alcohol or sticking to mocktails. Comparatively, in NYC, I've noticed that people are more likely to use public transportation, so they don't have to worry about getting behind the wheel after a night out. It also feels easier to make plans that don't involve alcohol in LA since the warm weather lends itself to a lot of other options for socializing, like hiking, biking, or walking on the beach. Since the weather is often perfect, I've noticed people are more unhappy when it's not. Since LA's weather is great most of the time with lots of sunshine and warmth, people here are quick to be unhappy when it's anything less than perfect. When there's a strong breeze, it's cloudy, it's below 60 degrees, or it's raining a little, I've noticed that Angelenos seem more likely to cancel plans or be quick to complain. The attitude feels contagious, too. Just the other week, I decided it was too chilly to write in my yard and went inside — it was 65 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny with a slight breeze. I wasn't always this way, though. During my time in NYC, 65 degrees and sunny in March equaled hundreds of people (including myself) flocking to Central Park with picnic baskets, games, and cheese boards to bask in the sun all day. New Yorkers know very well what all the highs and lows of changing seasons can look like, and a little rain or wind doesn't stop them. It feels like people in LA have better boundaries between work and life. In my opinion, hustle culture doesn't feel as glamorized in LA as it did back home. Where being busy can translate to looking important in NYC — I've been that girl with her computer at the bar on a Friday night — people I've encountered in LA seem to set better boundaries to protect their work-life balance. I can't help but think the perfect weather has something to do with it. Sure, this city is also full of people chasing their dreams, but it feels a lot easier to stop and take a break when you've got the California coast at your fingertips.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'We turned a dated 1930s three-bed bungalow into a luxury five-bed house - now we're selling it for £775,000'
A DIY-savvy couple have transformed what was one an old-fashioned three-bed bungalow into a stunning five-bedroom house - and it's now looking for a new owner. Sarah Meadows and her husband, who have a passion for bringing older properties back to life, took on their latest project more than six years ago when they stumbled across an old 1930s bungalow which 'hadn't been touched for nearly 50 years'. After seeing its potential, they purchased the home in Marple, Stockport in September 2018 and have extended and fully renovated it, all whilst living in it with their two children. READ MORE: First look inside new set of luxury 'LA-style' apartments in desirable Greater Manchester village READ MORE: Warning issued to anyone who has a tree stump in their garden Now, they have decided to put their bespoke five-bed detached house on the market for a new family to love and make memories in, whilst they search for their next project. Sarah spoke to the Manchester Evening News as part of our Where I Live series. Each week we chat to a different homeowner from across the region to hear about their buying and renovation journey, whilst taking a look inside their home. 'Myself and my husband have done quite a lot of property renovations. This is our biggest one that we've lived in at the same time as doing," Sarah told the M.E.N. "We do the majority of the work ourselves. My husband is a joiner and builder, so he can put his hand to anything. I work in the interior design field, so I absolutely love doing up houses. My husband does all of the building work and the knocking down walls and I do all of the interiors, so we make a really good team." The couple were looking for their next project when they came across a bungalow down the road from their previous house. "We were already living in the village and it was just down the road. When it came on the market, we viewed it and straight away we thought 'yes, that's for us'," said Sarah. "We're pretty good at walking in places, knowing if it needs a bit of love put into it and visualising what we can do to it. It was a 1930s three-bedroom bungalow that hadn't been touched for around 50 years. The lady who lived there still had the same original carpets and nothing had changed from the decor to the layout." Excited by the prospect of transforming the dated home, Sarah and her husband put their house straight on the market - but soon encountered a problem. "We put ours on the market specifically for this bungalow. But then somebody had put an offer in before we'd sold ours, and it sold," she explained. "We were like 'Oh my god', as we had put our house on the market just to buy the bungalow. We didn't know what to do, we wondered do we take it off, or do we look for another one?." But their luck turned around when the estate agent contacted them. "We looked around and then the previous offer must have fallen through as the estate agent told us it was back on the market, and asked if we still wanted it. We were thrilled and thought it was just meant to be," Sarah said. "Our last property was a Victorian house, so it was a very different project for us. But it was a nice blank canvas really to do what we wanted to it." After buying the house in September 2018, the DIY duo had to wait six months before they could get stuck into renovating, which Sarah says was a blessing. "We had to wait for planning to be approved, but that was good for us as we were able to live in the property and make sure that what we thought we wanted to do with it was correct," she said. "We did change it slightly from a layout point of view. We've got two older children, so we wanted to make sure they both had enough space and they were happy with what we were doing." The couple started at the top with a loft conversion to make it a two-storey house. "We started at the top because the roof configuration and style changed as well. "We had a new roof put on, we put two rooms up in the loft, and then we had to make stairs up there and get plumbing done too," Sarah explained. "After that we then came downstairs and we did a big rear extension to create a new open-plan kitchen, dining and living space." But their plans were halted and budget stretched when the Coronavirus pandemic hit. "In the middle of all this we had Covid so of course so it was difficult to get materials and the prices of everything went sky high. We had a budget but the budget was going crazy," Sarah said. "We had to kind of rein it in a bit by looking around at auction houses. We bought the whole bathroom suite downstairs from an auction house for a couple of thousand, whereas it would probably be about £10,000 brand new." Sarah added: "We had to be very savvy, as we had to add about 10 to 20 percent on top of what we thought it would cost because prices were just escalating. Everybody was charging a premium because everybody was doing the houses up." "It was also quite hard living there whilst renovating, especially when we got rid of the existing kitchen. We were living off toasties and takeaways. We just kept reminding ourselves that it was only short term." The pair finally finished renovating their home in June last year. "Getting the extension done and putting the kitchen in probably took around nine months to a year in itself. "We've done everything we can ourselves, it's been a big project and quite tearful at times. But we had a vision for it and we followed through with it." The couple put their beloved house on the market this month for £775,000 as they're now ready for a new project, and want someone else to be able to enjoy living in the space they've created. "One of our older children has moved out and it's a big house, and we're now just ready for another project," Sarah said. "It could be suitable for a growing family or someone of an older generation who has lots of visitors. It could also be ideal for people who work from home. 'We'll be very sad to sell it because we've put a lot of effort, love, sweat, and tears into it - but that's all part of renovating. We like to pass a nice house onto somebody else so that they can enjoy it." Spanning more than 2,300 square foot, the house has a spacious hallway leading to a large kitchen dining area which opens into a snug lounge with a feature wood burner. Bi-fold doors from the kitchen lead out into the rear garden which wraps around the property on two sides, with a partly covered sun deck area with a hot tub. There is also a separate utility room, storage room and bay fronted living room with a media wall and patio doors leading out to the rear terrace. The main bedroom suite sits on the ground floor, featuring a bay window, panelling and fitted wardrobes, as well as a luxury ensuite bathroom with a large walk-in shower and freestanding bath. There are two further double bedrooms on the ground floor, one currently used as a home office. Stairs in the hallway lead up to the first floor, where there are two double bedroom suites that mirror each other with Velux windows, ensuite shower rooms, walk in wardrobe and snug areas. Outside there is driveway parking to the front for multiple vehicles, a detached single garage with electric doors and electric gates on entry to the home for privacy and security. Nikki Davies Estate Agents, who is marketing the property, says: "This is a bespoke designed contemporary detached home, beautifully renovated to the highest standard with no expense spared. "The epitome of luxury living and set back from the road with a gated entrance; this immaculate property is conveniently located for Rose Hill Primary school and a short walk from the centre of Marple where you will find a superb selection of shops, bars and eateries. "Marple is one of those 'best of both worlds' locations. Close enough to the city and transport links for commuters yet sits on the edge of the Peak District with the countryside on the doorstep. "In our view, this exceptional home is ideal for anyone looking for a turnkey property close to a host of local amenities, reputable schools and public transport." You can view more of the property on the listing here. If you are interested in a viewing, contact eXp quoting reference ND0151.
