A couple renovated an old stable formerly used by brewery Adnams – which still had tack on a cobbled floor – into a romantic holiday home for two.
Tiffany and Andrew Doe bought Mole End along with an adjoining cottage, Garden Lodge, on Queens Road in Southwold. After transforming them into holiday homes for rent with Suffolk Secrets, they have just been awarded a five star 'platinum' rating by parent company Original Cottages.
Part of the reason for this is the fact the homes have been fitted with all the latest technology including a heating system which can manage the temperature of each room, a sound system operated room by room and the latest in cookers, costing £15,000.
Mr Doe runs a London-based IT company DoeTaylor, which specialises in creating 'intuitive' systems for restaurant chains. Mrs Doe said: "We bought the properties three years ago as we adore Southwold, coming here often for holidays and visits. For us, it's our favourite place."
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Garden Lodge hadn't been touched since the 1960s, whilst Mole End, was used as stabling for the horses which used to pull the drays loaded with barrels of beer from the brewery to the pubs around town.
"I'm a firm believer that if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well," added Mrs Doe. "Whilst my mother has often commented that I wanted a 'champagne lifestyle on lemonade money' we are fortunate to now be in the position where we could create a property with the wow factor."
"We both wanted the property to offer something very high end, something aspirational," said Mr Doe. "We always splashed out on five-star luxury when we went away - we wanted to be spoiled - and it's this measurement which we used as a benchmark when renovating."
Mrs Doe said: "As a holiday let, a 'home from home' should be the absolute minimum you want to provide for guests, and we admit, that at some point during the build, we abandoned the budget completely."
Garden Lodge, which sleeps six, costs from £880 per week and Mole End, which sleeps two, is from £590 per week from Suffolk Secrets.
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