We'd all love to live mortgage free.
And graphic designer Stephanie Bertenshaw is doing just that – for she’s converted her parents’ garages.
Now the 27-year-old’s story will feature on a Channel 4 programme, How to be Mortgage Free: Design your way out of Debt, at 8pm on Wednesday with Sarah Beeny.
Stephanie was initially planning to convert the rundown garages at Cellars Clough, Marsden, into a studio for her business Create Yourself Design.
But the idea grew and she now lives in them too.
Her home, called The Studio, has one bedroom, a mezzanine with bed for guests, a living room, kitchen, toilet and her studio which has a separate entrance for clients.
Stephanie said: “I wanted to start my business and the idea was to use the garages for that.
“As I started to invest in it I thought that maybe I could live here too, so we put a planning application in for a small extension.
“It has taken a long time, I started thinking of it when I was 21 and I’m now 27.
“The budget was really small, it was £12,000 and now I think I’ve spent £15,000.
“It was a family project, the reason I was able to keep the cost so low was because my parents and grandparents all did a bit.
“It’s still not finished but I set it up for my business and spent time on that and whenever I had some spare cash I’d do a bit more on converting it.”
Her parents, Chris and Sue Bertenshaw, bought The Old Coach House and also did their own conversion project to create the Coach House Healing Centre.
Stephanie added: “I’m lucky having this space, obviously it belongs to my parents and we had to valued at about £150,000, but I’m so grateful to them for letting me have somewhere to live and work and not be in debt.
“I love it here and it will most likely never be sold.
“My grandma and granddad sold up and moved up here too not long after. My grandma works with my mum as an holistic therapist at the Coach House, and my grandad is now hired as their handy man/decorator. It’s nice we all get to live and work so close, especially as my grandparents get older.”
Stephanie lives in The Studio with her partner Alex Brown and her two dogs, and runs her graphic design business which focuses on wedding and event stationery, logos and branding and personalised gifts.
She featured on a TV programme with Kirstie Allsopp in 2014 called The Best of Both Worlds and the crew got back in touch and asked if they could tell her story.
