At home with a real ESPC buyer: Ciara McCartney
When Ciara McCartney started looking for her first house search in 2020 with her partner Arran McPhee, she struggled to find what she wanted because house prices had inflated due to Covid. She originally wanted somewhere that could be a family home but when she heard a family friend was selling his one-bedroom cottage in Fort William she grabbed the opportunity.
“A family friend was going to sell the house so we did it all privately,” Ciara explains. “He bought it two years prior to that. I initially found out he was going to rent it and I couldn’t afford the private rent at the time but thought it would be a good investment.
“It was our 10-year anniversary when we bought it and we moved in four weeks later after renovating almost all of it except the kitchen. When we went to view the house we didn’t know what to expect but we immediately fell in love with it. It feels like a wee safe haven and you can’t help but be happy in it.”
The cottage, which dates from around 1800, is small but distinctive and has been renovated to include quirky space-saving designs and bold colour schemes from room to room. The couple wanted a property that needed no structural work.
Ciara and Arran drew up ambitious plans to decorate and revamp the cottage, with the goal of moving into the furnished house in time for Christmas – only three weeks after the sale went through.
“We'd always wanted to put our own stamp on something,” Ciara says. “We said we would love to have a second property one day that we would rent out but we decided to live in the cottage now and buy another home later.
“We've done everything that we want to since moving in. The previous owner put in a nice kitchen but it wasn’t our taste so we ripped it out.
“We put in a walk-in shower and tiled wetroom in the bathroom. The other two rooms were just paint, floor and furniture. We knew that we wanted it to be colourful and fun so we bought everything in that style.”
A pop of colour
The couple’s use of colour is shown throughout the home, all in calming pastels and monochromatic colours in order to create a peaceful atmosphere, and humorous slogan art prints on the walls. The front door has been painted a lovely shade of lilac, with matching guttering and drainpipes.
With a smaller living room, the temptation might have been to plump for white or lighter shades, but the couple have gone for a dark blue with a mustard sofa adding a pop of colour, while a mirror positioned above the fireplace reflects natural light streaming in from the dual aspect windows to make the room feel bigger.
Highs and lows of renovating
When asked if she has any regrets from the renovation process, Ciara says: “We learned a lot that was not necessary to spend a lot of money on. One thing we would have done is underfloor heating in the bathroom.”
The pair are planning to move to a bigger property as they have a baby on the way and feel more confident about renovating the second time round.
“We have lots of helpful people locally so we were lucky, Ciara says. “If you buy local you know people who can help you do things. Arran was the second-hand man to the plumber, joiner, etc. With our new house it is easier because we have seen a lot of it get done before.”
The cottage was one of this year’s finalists on Scotland’s Home of the Year in April, with judges lifestyle blogger Kate Spiers, architect Michael Angus and interior designer Anna Campbell-Jones saying it’s ‘like a child’s drawing of a perfect imaginary home’. They also admired the shelving in the kitchen which is made from old scaffolding, the pink tiles in the shower and black-and-white hexagon mosaic floor design in the bathroom.
Ciara said the Home of the Year experience was ‘very quick’, adding: “They only spent two days filming – just four hours the first day and a full day the second day. We've had a good reaction to it, everyone has been so nice online and in Fort William. I was really impressed with how they captured the house.”
What was it like having to tidy your home for the BBC to film there? “Everyone asks that,” Ciara says, laughing. “We’re very tidy anyway but I don’t know if it will ever be that clean again.”
Compact living
The home has quirky space-saving designs such as floating bedside tables and shelves freeing up floor space, as well the TV on the wall in the living room being on a bracket so it can be pushed out of the way when the couple aren’t watching it. The cottage has a cupboard in the hall and a loft and they also added another cupboard with bi-folding doors and lots of shelves where they keep their microwave, hoover, dog food and dry ingredients.
Ciara explains: “The house is so tiny so it forces us to live with a lot less and we can’t have clutter lying around. We're now having a baby so we have outgrown that way of living. We have a loft and a shed so stuff lives in there.”
Ciara says first-time buyers should be open to the possibility of change. “I am quite envious of people in cities as they are spoilt for choice with a range of properties,” the 27-year-old said. “We reshifted what our long-term plan was and decided to live in a one-bedroom house and see how it goes.
“Fort William isn’t that big. For a family home we wanted something a bit more rural. This is so close to the high street and everything a tourist would want. We were both looking forward to living closer to town. We are spoilt with coffee shops on our doorstep. The possibilities are endless.”