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Barrington House - Sarah Smither
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Barrington House - before
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Barrington House - after
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Barrington House - the revamp begins
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Barrington House - before
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Barrington House - before
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Barrington House - after
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Barrington House
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Barrington House - after
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Barrington House - after
The Story of Barrington House
Sarah Smither looks around her beautifully converted kitchen in Barrington House, just off Dartmouth’s Mount Boone, and smiles.
“We spent nearly five years restoring and remodelling the house, so it’s wonderful to be in and settled,” she said. She, her husband Rupert and their three children now have their dream home – which is also their perfect business too.
“We wanted it to be somewhere we could settle for a long time after moving around the world with Rupert’s job,” she said. “We now have a place we can be happy and somewhere that is our way of earning a living – it’s the best of both worlds.”
Sarah first came to Dartmouth in the 1970s when her parents bought a house on Crowther’s Hill. She spent most of her holidays there and made many friends sailing on the Dart. She loved the place so much that she introduced Rupert to the town when they first met and the couple was married at St Petrox Church in 1995.
Both Sarah and Rupert built successful careers in London – Rupert as a Gas Trader and Sarah in personnel working for top companies such as Harrods and Virgin.
Then in 2001 Rupert’s career took the family abroad. Both wanted to keep a base in Britain and their thoughts naturally turned to the South West town where they had shared their happiest day.
“Rupert found Barrington House and spent a long time trying to convince me to buy!” laughs Sarah, “He could see the potential, and once I’d thought about it I could too. There was a lot to do! In the first instance, Rupert’s Dad and step mum ran the house as a B and B, very successfully.”
Then, five years ago, after many years pondering, the time came to start work. The B and B shut and the build began – but it was not a smooth ride.
“There was just so much work to be done,” said Sarah. “We had to start again in the Penthouse and basically rebuild the roof. Although the house looked fine, and it was, once we started work there was so much more we needed to do.”
Two years into the build, Sarah and the couple’s three children, Archie, Jemima and Teddy, came back to Dartmouth, while Rupert continued his work, this time in France.
“We came back to settle and I was determined to get all the work finished,” Sarah said. It would take another two years – but although it took a long time, it sounds like she enjoyed the challenge.
On top of converting the eight-bedroom B and B into a five-bedroom house, builders revamped The Penthouse flat, and took on another big challenge: the swimming pool.
“It was in a lean-to and was basically a useless, ugly hole in the ground,” says Sarah. “We knocked it down and started again – after a lot of different plans and a lot of work we ended up with a self contained holiday let – The Glasshouse.”
Add to this revamping virtually the whole of the grounds – and you have quite a challenging project, which the Smithers seem to have taken completely in their stride.
“From early on we had a vision of what we wanted to achieve – a place people could go on holiday that felt totally luxurious and yet was family friendly – and we have achieved that. We have not only great settings and luxury, but we have dressing up boxes for children, toys and DVD’s and even a large treehouse in the garden!”
They opened in January 2013 and were quickly taking bookings.
The Smither’ were not finished however, there was a house situated at the bottom of their garden.
When it came up for sale it seemed a natural move to purchase it and subject it to the same kind of high-class makeover – and do it in just three months. They created The Hideaway.
“Because of all the work we’d had done on the main house it was actually quite straightforward – we used all the same, local guys we had on Barrington House and yet again they did us proud. We are very lucky with our builders and I feel like I know them so well! Our children are all in local schools and Rupert and I both so happy in our new hometown. The business is going well and we’ve had a great first year – we just hope it continues!”
If you’d like to look at what Barrington House has to offer, check out the website:
www.barringtonhouse-dartmouth.com.
First published By The Dart March 2014
