If it really is all about location, location, location, then this house definitely qualifies as quality. After all, addresses don’t come that much ritzier than Mount Vale, The Mount, York.

But with this particular property it’s about more than a postcode – for this is a super house which has been considerably improved and extended in the 12 years since owner Michael McLoud and his wife Alison moved in.

“It has completely changed in that time,” Michael says. “We’ve extended it completely. It was a fairly basic three-bed semi when we came but it is a lot more than that now.”

Quite. For as well as adding a bedroom/playroom/den to the top they have created a new kitchen and bedroom to the side – and the roof was replaced and… well, basically just about everything has been changed.

“Basically we have taken away two-thirds of what was here originally and replaced it with something that has a lot more space and a lot more light,” Michael says.

There’s certainly plenty of both in this home, an elegant, smartly designed and beautifully presented property.

We began the tour in the huge dining kitchen, a large and attractive area which has a Raburn range cooker in a feature stone inset at its heart and a beamed ceiling above adding character and charm. The light flows in from a wide window and there are French doors opening out onto the garden (more of which later). Underfoot there is Indian stone flooring – as there is in the gracious reception hallway.

Off that hallway there is a formal dining room, again with lots of charm and style and with another set of French doors opening out onto a terraced patio area. More panache here, in the shape of moulded ceiling coving and large ceiling rose, deep skirting boards and a solid Antiga wood floor.

That style is mirrored in the front living room – with identical coving and ceiling rose.

Here, as in the rest of the house, there are new windows, with lead paned windows which reflect something of the original look of the house.

It’s a testament to Michael’s fine eye for what a home should have, perhaps surprising as he does not work in the building field but owns a well-known and successful hairdressing business in York.

But then again perhaps not so surprising, as Michael explains that this is the third house that he has bought as a basic property and then considerably enhanced and enlarged.

And he doesn’t do it with an eye for a future sale.

“No,” he says. “It’s something I like doing. You do things to a house not to sell it but because it is what you want to live in. I do things the way I like them, how I like my home to look.

Somewhere I can be happy.”

Next we head for the upper floors – up a staircase which, naturally, has been rebuilt and which, at its head, splits off in two different directions.

We take the right turn first to find a fine master bedroom and two more bedrooms, one with a small terrace. The bathroom offers a definite eye-catching wow factor, with its raised inset bath and a big open ‘wet room’–style shower area.

This room has been refined not once, not twice but three times, says Michael. “I kept putting in a bathroom and then deciding to change it. I like this one best!”

Doubling back on ourselves we cross the landing where there is a fourth bedroom, presently used as a large walk-in dressing room (now that’s luxury for you) and then up to what, in our view, is one of the best rooms in the house.

It’s a new space, built into the raised roof, open plan to the front (which is why, technically speaking, estate agents are not allowed to describe it as a bedroom). Who cares about what you call it – or, for that matter, what you use it for?

This is a superb space, again very light and bright with three windows and with plenty of room to romp in (in the nicest possible sense of that phrase).

At the moment Michael and Alison have it as a bedroom – but it is a very versatile space which could become a playroom, entertainment room, study, den… you name it. Especially as it has the added advantage of an immaculate an en-suite with corner spa bath.

So, as you’ve seen, plenty of room inside – and plenty outside, too, where there are very pleasant gardens including that aforementioned flagged terrace patio area, a lawn, mature trees and shrubs and a timber built summerhouse.

All in all, then, a very smart house in a very des res area. So why are Michael and Alison leaving?

Michael smiles. “We’ve two children and another on the way,” he says. “And I have my eye on somewhere with some land.”

And, we dare to guess, somewhere else that is ready for Michael’s imaginative restyling touch.


At a glance

186 Mount Vale, The Mount, York

Reception rooms: Two.

Bedrooms: Four/five.

Bathrooms: Two.

Gardens: Hard driveway to front, behind electronic gates; pretty lawned garden and flagged patio area to the rear.

Wow factor: A tough call between the light, bright kitchen and a superb versatile second-floor space.

Price: £560,000.

Contact: Reeds Rains.

Phone: 01904 655546.