Donna Morris loves her home so much that she vowed to never sell it but now has perhaps the best excuse possible for overturning that pledge - she and her family are emigrating Down Under.

Donna and her husband Lee are starting a new life in Australia with their five sons Kyle, 13, Liam, 11, Rhys, nine, Alex, four, and Jake, 11 months old.

"We've been here 11 years and have totally transformed it in that time," Donna said. "We extended on to the side and out from the back and now have five bedrooms and a conservatory, the main living room and the second reception room which we use as for games/movies.

"We created the house around the size of the family although we started the extension when we only had four children – Alex had turned a year old and he’s now four so it’s taken us three years.

"We only got a builder to do the shell and the roof and did everything else ourselves. Lee is a joiner and a plasterer, he's multi-skilled really, so he did the majority of the work, although we had to get someone in to do the gas and electric."

The semi-detached house is now a very spacious family home with a large living room running the full length of the property with a conservatory overlooking the back garden. The breakfasting kitchen is open plan to the dining room and again both spaces are full length at 21ft.

"The kids spend most of their time in the dining room, " Donna said. "It has a breakfast bar, dining table and a sofa area as well so we can house everybody in one room.

"We needed the space downstairs and a big dining room to have a big enough table to seat us all. It didn’t fit in the existing house so we had to extend. I also wanted a downstairs toilet for the boys to use if they were playing in the back garden, to save them having to trek through the house. It sounds funny but I like the downstairs toilet as it’s the only pink room in the house, the only room I’ve got girly.

"I also love the kitchen which I built around my stove. I got a Hot Jalapeno range from Stoves with a double oven and seven rings - the first thing we bought before we decided what to do with the kitchen.

"Because it has red in it we went for white flush units with high-line cupboards to make the room look taller and more spacious. I bake for the kids as I have two born on the same day and one on the next day. When they were at primary school I would bake three cakes for school and three for home. Trying to turn around six cakes in the small oven was not easy. The double oven has really helped."

There are five double bedrooms, family bathroom and separate shower room upstairs. "I didn’t want an en-suite for our bedroom as I thought an extra bedroom would be more beneficial," Donna said.

"The shower room is for for the boys who all play sport. However all the pipes are up there so an en-suite could easily be created."

The front garden is paved and provides ample parking and there's also a single garage in the back garden. A gate leads from the back garden to a field.

"It's like an extension of our garden," said Donna. "It has football nets and the boys play there so I don’t need to churn my own grass up!"

Deepdale Drive, Morton, Carlisle, is for sale at £185,000 from BPK Estate Agents. For more details see here .