Revealed: the best restoration this year, according to the Historic Houses Association – Telegraph.co.uk

The entrance to the house is now a central atrium-style lobby with a staircase, fronted by a handsome wooden front door that swings on casters into the hallway. This is littered, like many family homes, with car keys, cats and family photographs mostly of the three Brand children, Lucian, 11, Mary, 10, and Hannah, eight.

At the far end of the lobby, double doors lead to the courtyard, once the centre of life at Glynde, but now home to the peaceful pond, transposed from the main garden at the suggestion of landscape designer Kim Wilkie. Its not always so tranquil, Brand laughs. The children swim in it!

The hallway leads around the sides of the courtyard into the rest of the house, with comfortable sitting rooms, a family kitchen and a succession of solid wooden staircases, many of which have been tidied up and restored. As well as redoing the roof and gutters, the Brands knocked down walls that had been built in the middle of large rooms, returning them to their original size. Along the way, they discovered hidden doorways and replaced 174 window panes. Pretty much every part of the back of the house was restored, Brand says.

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Revealed: the best restoration this year, according to the Historic Houses Association - Telegraph.co.uk