The Appletons bought their house, which dates back to the 1870s, at the turn of this century from elderly occupants who had lived there for 50 years, and set about bringing it up to date.

“It needed quite a lot of renovation work,” said Steve. “The whole house has been rewired and almost every room has been knocked back to brick and replastered.

“We’ve chipped away at it room by room over a period of 10 years to get it to the state it’s in now. We’ve lifted carpets, sanded floors and put in new double glazing with Georgian bars to reflect what was originally in the house, it was a major project.”

The couple’s renovations have been in keeping with the age of the house.

“We were told it was 130 years old when we bought it. It has sandstone lintels around windows and one of the rooms has the original coving and ceiling rose. The doors are all original, the skirting boards, architraves – some of it has been replaced.

“The fireplaces that were in were all 1970s tiled rubbish so we’ve put in new fireplaces which are in keeping with the period the property was built.

“It took 10 years working nights and weekends to do up the house because we were working full-time in the garage we own, Appleton’s of Carlisle. When we bought the house we stretched ourselves financially so had to do a lot of the work ourselves. The bits we couldn’t do we got outside contractors in.”

Steve and Sue were parents to Natasha, when they moved into their Scotby Road home and son Keane was born that year. Since then they’ve have extended twice, making what was already a spacious property even bigger.

Steve said: “Where there was a flat roof we extended and created the master bedroom which is split-level. We sort of extended the house straight up and turned what was a double bedroom into a double bedroom with dressing area.

“This doubled the size of the bathroom and at the top of the landing there’s a little office space for the computer. After that we put an orangery on the back with a slate roof.

“The porch was built when we came here and it’s a real sun trap. It’s nice to sit in there in the summer. There’s a garage-size shed at the back which I built as a workshop for my woodwork, which I no longer do. You can get a car in there.”

The house is double-fronted with two reception rooms at the front, a dining kitchen with Belfast sink, Rayburn cooker, second electric cooker and walk-in pantry.

There’s a downstairs toilet, cellar and door into the ground-floor extension which is currently used an entertaining area with dance floor and bar.

Steve said: “My favourite room in the house has to be the bar at the back which we built. I suppose it could be called the entertainment room but we actually call it the bar.

“We built it because when we moved in we had young kids, and a lot of our friends did as well, and we couldn’t afford to go out. So we made our own entertainment at home and that was the purpose of the bar originally. It was a lot cheaper than going out.”

Steve also built a treehouse in the garden for the children’s entertainment: “We’ve had a lot of fun in the back garden with parties, paddling pools and slides. It’s a good size.

“We’re both local to Carlisle and chose Scotby because we wanted to live in a village on the outskirts of town without being too far out, which had a good school. It’s a nice place and there’s a great local atmosphere.

“It’s been a fantastic family home, over and above. We’ve got really nice neighbours around which has made it a pleasure to live here."