The sun is warming its way through early morning mist, promising a pretty blue sky day. From where we are standing you can see the first early buds peeking out shyly on a row of cherry blossom trees.

Spring, it seems, has sprung… And we’ve come to a wonderful spot to watch it happen.

We are on a rooftop terrace overlooking the long, lawned garden of a fine family house in Station Road, Haxby, home to Robert and Rebecca Hollingsworth.

The couple bought the house in 1998 and have since considerably extended and improved the original property.

“A lot of the work had already been done when we arrived,” Robert says, “but we felt we needed more space, especially when our son Harvey was born.”

They had indeed a good foundation to build upon, this being an attractive detached 1920s house with a handsome white walled exterior and that internal semi art deco feel so representative of the Twenties and Thirties.

By that we mean rooms with character and style thanks to cornicing and picture rails, respectable solid wood doors and handsome skirting – understatedly elegant without being overbearing, as it were.

We begin our tour, naturally enough, in the hallway which has a ground floor cloakroom off to one side before leading us into a bay windowed front living room which has a fine feature fireplace at its heart and with rustic oak flooring (the latter being a feature of most of the downstairs rooms). From here there is an archway through to a dining or further sitting area.

When Robert and Rebecca arrived this already reasonably spacious set up also had a wooden conservatory leaning into its side.

However, that was to give way to an even more space-providing improvement…

“When we were looking for more space we decided to extend properly and to create a family room,” Robert says. “What we ended up with was a really good extra room.”

Indeed. A fine space, a romper of a bright, light, sunny room which – judging by the number of toys and games in evidence is very much a spot for little Harvey.

“Yes, it is more or less Harvey’s room now,” Robert says, “lucky boy that he is.” (As we will discover, however, there is another space for big boys and their toys, though we will save that for later).

The extension has French doors leading out onto a patio area and, should grown-ups want to reclaim it, would make an excellent entertaining space. Doubling back on ourselves we now wander into a breakfast kitchen with views over the garden. There were plans to further extend here – with drawings prepared to push out and produce even more space. They are now on hold, perhaps for the new owner to consider.

Now for the first floor, where we find a smart master bedroom and, back to where we began, French doors which open onto that rooftop terrace.

It is a delightful spot with timber decking underfoot, attractive wrought iron balustrades all round and, says Robert, is an area which gets the sun pretty much all day.

“Rebecca spends a lot of time out here,” he adds, “too much time.”

Rebecca laughs. “It’s where I get my sun tan. People ask me ‘have you been away’ and I say, ‘yes, on my terrace’.”

It’s certainly a wonderful, warm spot, with plenty of room for sunbathing or for simply sitting, drink in hand, whiling away the late afternoon and early evening.

(A scenario not quite so hard to imagine now the rain has stopped and the sun is beginning at last to make its presence felt).

There is more to see on the first floor, however, including a second double bedroomand a single bedroom/study/nursery and a bathroom which has only recently been completely redone to provide a smart and stylish area including bath and separate walk-in shower cubicle.

The internal accommodation is concluded on the second floor where there is further double bedroom, a nice tucked away spot.

“Ideal for getting teenagers out of the way,” as Robert puts it…

If there is much to admire inside then this is a house which also has a lively outside, too, in the shape of a paved patio area with a step up to a lawn, fringed by high hedge to one side and those aforementioned cherry blossom trees to the other.

As we walk down the lawn Robert points out some strategically placed small indents.

“This is a two-hole, par three course,” he laughs. “We’ve got the flags and everything.”

That, as it turns out, is the least of the entertainment to be had here.

After we have gone through a gate and crunched across a hard-standing parking area, Robert swings open the doors to a huge double garage.

This, it transpires, has a double life... as a games room, housing a snooker table, television, hi-fi speakers and, until recently, a beer store.

Harvey has his space and Robert has his…

“This became my games room, we had table football, darts, snooker, television and music and a nice fridge well stocked with beer.”

You don’t use it for putting cars in, then?

“Are you kidding? What a waste of a good space that would be!”

And there you have it, really, this is a splendid fun family home, with lots of space and lots of entertaining areas for good weather and not so good.

What’s more, sitting on the edge of Haxby village, it’s handy for the local primary school (about a hundred yards away) easy access to York (there’s a bus stop literally over the road) and for the thriving village shops and coffee bars and pubs.

No wonder the sun is shining on Station Road…

 

AT A GLANCE

Station Road, Haxby

Bedrooms: 3 plus study/nursery

Reception rooms: 2.

Gardens: Small garden to front, drive to side, good-sized rear private garden with patio and lawned areas, further free-standing parking space and large double garage.

Wow factor: A combination of the gardens and that terrific roof terrace.

Price: £369,950.

Contact: William H Brown.

Phone: 01904 769991