A house on the beach in Portobello

Buying a property without actually seeing it can require nerves of steel. But perhaps if you have moved house eight times in nine years, it is a little less daunting.

Katherine Peveraro’s husband, Harry, is in the forces and so moving so often has been part of their married life.

They sold their flat in Glasgow two years ago and were looking for another Scottish base while serving out a posting in the south of England when Katherine spotted a Portobello Victorian double upper on the internet.

She says: “With all our furniture in storage we were desperate to find a new house and fell in love with the look of this one, and its location so close to the beach in Portobello.”

The property is right on the sands and, being the top two floors of the house, has beautiful elevated views out to sea and across to Fife.

Katherine’s parents, who are based in Linlithgow, were despatched to view on the couple’s behalf and giving their enthusiastic approval, things moved very quickly.

Katherine says: “It went on the market on the Tuesday, they went to see it on Wednesday, we made an offer on Thursday and it was all agreed by Friday.”

What is perhaps even more unusual is that Katherine and Harry didn’t actually see the property till they arrived with the removal men on the day they moved in.

She says: “They kept asking me where I wanted them to put everything, and I didn’t know because I hadn’t had a chance to look in all the rooms yet.”

Fortunately, when they did have the chance to take stock, 59/6 Promenade didn’t disappoint with Katherine saying that no amount of photographs could do justice to the view in particular.

Another of the attractions of the house was the room sizes which are very spacious and light-filled with high ceilings.

Katherine had worked in antiques for the auction house Christies in the past and has a collection of furniture.

She says: “I love auctions and picking up bargains and so there was more furniture to bring up from the south, but it has all fitted in really well with the style of the house.”

The couple redecorated throughout, changing bright primary colours to more muted tones with a definite seaside feel such as the duck egg blue in the drawing room and the warm grey tones in the dining room.

Having two small children, Bruno, who is now nine, and Cara, four, they also replaced a huge bath in the house’s second bathroom to a more modest tub which took less time and less water to fill, but the rest of the house needed little work.

However, they replaced paper light fittings with chandeliers in the drawing room and dining room.

It is half of a townhouse which has been split in two, but the upper part feels like a complete house in the way that it is laid out with bedrooms on the fourth floor and public rooms on the third.

The drawing room and dining room with their spectacular sea views are on the lower level, along with a dining kitchen, study and second sitting room which they have used as the children’s playroom. There is a shower room by the front door too, which has been handy to divert sandy children, or the family’s Westie, Daisy, coming in from playing on the beach or from the shared garden at the back of the house.

The four bedrooms are upstairs, and here the master bedroom has the sea views along with a guest bedroom.

The smaller children’s rooms are particularly delightful, with coombed ceilings and low level windows. The stripped floors and painted furniture has the feel of a beachhouse.

But then Portobello beach has dominated their time here. Katherine says: “Although we weren’t posted back to Scotland so have never lived in the house permanently, we have had the best two years of holidays up here, going on to the beach in all weathers.”

On a clear summer’s day the beach is busy with swimmers, canoes and dog walkers, while even in winter the view is spectacular.

She says: “We can see over to Fife, East Lothian and Berwick Law and on a December evening you look out and see the white horses out to sea in a storm and the view is absolutely mesmerising.

“We know we will never live with a better view.”

Offers over £485,000.

Contact Knight Frank on 0131 222 9600.