“We bought the property 20 years ago from my fiancé’s father, who in turn had bought it from his elderly mother. We were living in the city at the time so the offer first went to his brothers who turned it down. The house was in such poor condition but we went there one easter and wandered around inside it. The sunlight was coming through onto the window recesses and at that moment the potential of what the house could become was starting to show to me. And later when I went outside into the garden to rake up the maple leaves, an ocean of flowers revealed itself from underneath and that just settled it - this was going to be our home. Little did we know that one day we would be hosts as well, sharing all this with other people!”

“We immediately terminated our lease on the city flat and started the renovation of the old limestone house in the countryside. My brother is a carpenter and the three of us joined forces to create what would become our new home. The whole interior had to be torn out and rebuilt. We lived in the ruins of what was to become something new. Those were happy times. We installed a coffee brewer and a microwave oven, and in the nighttime we were sitting together, sipping red wine and chatting about the day. We knew we were handy. We knew we could make it. But it would take another seven years before we were done.”