Owen Freeman spent weeks moving earth from underneath the Edinburgh home he bought with Nicky Scott, but the result is property heaven

He is digging out 210 tonnes of earth and brick, and transporting it by bucket to a skip at the front of the house. And he’s doing it all by hand as the basement is not machine-friendly.

As well as excavating this lower level to create today’s fabulous dining-kitchen space, the house is also extended at the rear and a new living room links into the garden. For all this to work, huge structural steel beams had to be inserted to support the two floors above. One of these beams weighs 1,100kg, which Owen and a team of guys heaved into place. “I didn’t realise the work I’d be undertaking,” Owen acknowledges. “The worst part was the digging; it was like a pit down here.”

The garden level was completed in June last year, while the entire project – which included a two-storey extension on the side of the house, creating two additional bedrooms – lasted 18 months. “I had one day off between January and June, and was working 12-to-15-hour days,” Owen recalls.

The end result is a beautifully styled and immaculately finished home. Owen and Nicky Scott knew they were taking on a substantial project when they viewed the property in June 2010, having tackled previous projects together. “We’ve always bought places and put our hearts into them,” says Owen, who recently launched his own company, Sevenine9 Design, focusing on project management and build work.

The house dates from the 1950s. There was a small kitchen on the ground floor and a similarly dated bathroom upstairs. Owen and Nicky spent the first few months stripping things out before moving into the house in November, when the major work commenced. Although they had a vision from the outset, creating the new basement level wasn’t straightforward. “What we didn’t know was how we would connect everything properly with the new staircase,” Nicky explains. “It was about finding a solution that would fit and flow.”

Owen and Nicky consulted architect Anthony Rochmankowski, of Rochmankowski Architecture Design, who came up with the solution for positioning the staircase so that it flows seamlessly with the existing staircase between the ground and first floors.

Once the design was in place, Owen constructed the frame himself. Artisan Roofing clad the roof in zinc, while Owen clad the exterior of the extension in oak, each plank cut in strips lengthwise and the strips applied ‘randomly’ to create more texture. “I spent three days just cutting the wood,” he says.

Owen and Nicky tackled as much of the work as they could, with Owen channelling his energies into the build while Nicky, who works for the Met Office, focused on finishes, decorating and fittings. Every feature took time, such as the new wooden balusters and balustrade on the staircase. “I’d be painting for an hour and realise I’d done four or five spindles and still had 40 to go,” Nicky says.

Having been inspired by the look of New York lofts, a wall in the lounge was chipped back to the brick before being painted white. “It went on for days,” Owen says.

“It gives a nice texture, and I wish we could have done more, but it was an exceptional amount of time for one wall,” Nicky acknowledges.

That is what this interior is about: inspired ideas, a confident sense of style and hard graft. Owen and Nicky were working to a budget, hence their hands-on approach. Owen had been given a quote of £60,000 to dig out the basement, pour the concrete and install the steelwork.

“If I’d brought someone in to do that, there wouldn’t have been anything else in the house,” he says.

Similarly, they tweaked the initial kitchen design, by Development Direct, to lower the cost without compromising on the finished look – choosing a combination of wenge-finish and cappuccino-hued cabinets. “A kitchen should last 10, 20 years even, as long as it suits the house and style,” says Nicky, who complemented the kitchen’s warm palette with a large mural and dark timber furniture for the dining area. “I wanted a jazz theme,” she says of the mural, “and it took a lot of searching online, but I knew this image was right as soon as I saw it.”

Nicky describes the aesthetic as “sharp, but not polished”, and she wanted to “complement the house and to bring in solid quality”. Each area has an eye-catching detail, whether it’s the classic Eames RAR rocker in the hallway, topped with a Union Jack cushion in grey, or the Habitat pendant lamps framing the bed in the master bedroom as an alternative to bedside lights. There is a sprinkling of wallpapers from Cole & Son and Harlequin. A plaster border was added to one wall in the guest bedroom, creating a frame for Cole & Son’s Cow Parsley paper. It looks like a giant artwork.

Owen began work on the side of the house in October last year, extending the width by three metres. The master bedroom, on the upper floor, opens into a dressing room and en-suite shower room. It’s a stunning space that is drenched with light from the full-height window at the rear. The latter was a late addition. “I was working on the roof of the extension and was sitting up there one day, having lunch, when I realised – what an incredible view,” Owen says. The rear of the house faces south, looking out towards the Pentland Hills. He extended the window so the bedroom became a room with a view.

This house is a testament to Owen and Nicky’s skills and vision, and offers a beautiful home for whoever lives here next. k

Offers over £515,000, contact Leslie Deans & Co (0800 917 6948, www.lesliedeans.co.uk); Sevenine9 Design (07921 454 089)