Home offers perfect work-life balance with room to spare

FOUR storeys high, Checkendon Hill House in Stichens Green, near Streatley, is a six-bedroom property that is flexible enough to suit a multitude of lifestyles.

The owners built the house in 2010. They say: “There was an old bungalow there when we bought it back in roughly 1999, 2000, thereabouts. After some iterations with the planning authority, we engaged a wonderful award-winning local architect, Richard Cutler of Wallingford.

“He was in there right from the beginning and shepherded it through and is responsible for the design. Modern Arts and Crafts is perhaps the best way one might describe it.”

The house entrance comprises a four-storey main staircase tower. A half flight leads to the main, upper ground floor.

The two-and-a-half-storey-high vaulted dining hall is overlooked by a galleried landing. There is a further library balcony on the second floor. The north wall has French doors leading on to the deck.

The main drawing room is south facing and vaulted and also over two-and-a-half storeys. It has full-height glazing, a Juliet balcony and French doors, with far-reaching views. It has a large feature fireplace and bifold doors opening on to an external, covered deck. The room features two internal balconies, linked by a spiral staircase.

The large kitchen and family room has a wood-burning stove and bifold doors on to the deck in both south and west aspects.

The east wing of the upper ground floor has two bedrooms and a family bathroom.

The first and second floor master bedroom suite is fully flexible. A main vaulted room has a wood-burning stove and bifold doors to a private balcony, with a spiral stair to the deck. This can be used as the bedroom or a private lounge with sleeping area on the second floor, reached by a spiral stair. There is a large dressing area and bathroom.

The east wing of the first floor has two bedrooms and a family bathroom.

The second floor has a very private bedroom with en suite in the east wing at the top of the tower. The flexible lower ground floor has a garage, two large reception rooms with bifold doors, a full kitchen and utility room and a shower room. Surrounded by open countryside, the house sits in approximately 1.8 acres of gardens and grounds.

The owners say: “There are actually four habitable levels and the lowest level has got separate entrances, both functional front-door kind of entrances at the back of the house.

“It’s got the same sliding, opening doors out on to the garden at the front.

“So it’s a complete self-contained space. If you had, say, a granny you wanted to be really kind to, it’s a lot of square feet.

“It also works as a business, even one where you needed to have clients come. There is separate access that doesn’t involve going into the house. It is extremely flexible.”

The couple are moving to Portugal after years of preparation. “It just wasn’t sensible to keep a giant place like that as a pied-à-terre in England. It’s with some reluctance because we’ve put so much effort into the design and build and planning and so on but have steeled ourselves to it in exchange for the sunny weather.

“We’ll be sorry to see it go but it’s better that it moves on. We had a fantastic family wedding for our son at the tag end of covid. It was the most wonderful wedding venue and it was a nice swansong.”

l Checkendon Hill House has a guide price of £2,750,000. For more information and to arrange a viewing, call Warmingham on (01491) 874144.