Nigel and Jacqui Walker are living in their perfect house which they’ve transformed from average to exceptional. It was a challenge to create that and only a fresh challenge is seeing them up sticks.

The couple needed a larger house when they combined their families on marriage, then added to the numbers. Jacqui’s daughters, Nieve 11, and Caitlin, 16, live there, along with their stepbrother Noah, five. In addition, Nigel’s three children from his first marriage - Andrew, Jessica and Christopher – often stay.

“That’s why we extended the house, for two families to combine,” said Nigel. “We bought it in October 2007 and in the following 12 months the extension was built and the house renovated.

“We built a whole new house and literally doubled the floor space. This was all within the boundaries of the house and garden and we still have a decent-sized garden remaining.”

The house now has a large lounge, dining room, dining kitchen, playroom or fifth bedroom, sunroom, utility and toilet on the ground floor while upstairs are an impressive en-suite master bedroom with views towards the Lorton Fells, three further bedrooms and the family bathroom.

Nigel, who runs his own garden design and landscaping business, and county council worker Jacqui bought the Gable Avenue property because it offered an ideal opportunity to extend.

“Time, effort and hard slog have gone into it,” Nigel said. “I project-managed the extension, probably doing about 40 per cent of the manual work on the whole thing, then got in tradesmen that I knew and trusted to do the things I couldn’t do. It’s been a real labour of love.

“We removed the garage and widened to the boundary line and built the two-storey extension with the sunroom on the back of it. We brought the living room and dining room forward, which was quite an extensive job involving lots of steel work.

“Alongside the extension, the whole house was refurbished with full heating systems, new doors, decorations, fireplaces, the whole works. It was a brand new house basically when it was done.”

His favourite room is the sunroom overlooking the back garden: “It has big open doors, glass, high ceilings. The kids can sit and watch TV while we’re in the kitchen cooking and everyone’s together. That’s where people sit and read, have friends around, it’s a real family space.”

The house is also very versatile and can accommodate large numbers of people. Up to 15 friends and family have slept there at the same time and Nigel’s father stayed for eight months when his own house was flooded.

“It was almost like he lived self-contained with his own room and everything; he was part of the family but he had his own space,” Nigel said. “Elderly parents or teenagers could have their own space here, it’s very adaptable.”

The Walkers had no intention of moving until Nigel spotted an old farmhouse for sale.

“We had a look and it snowballed from there. We had no plans to move because the house still meets our needs but there’s something about this new place I can’t resist. It’s a farmhouse which needs a lot of work, in the countryside, fields behind it - that’s back to my childhood.

"Jacqui was up for the idea of us creating a new identity moving forward but it was quite funny in that when she saw the photographs in the agent’s brochure, she said, ‘We live in a lovely house, it’s my dream home. You look at that and this is where I would want to live.’

“It’s weird, you’re looking at a house you would love to live in and it’s your own house! In a sense you don’t want to move because you’re in the perfect house. But we both want another challenge in life and to do something different.”

Gable Avenue, Cockermouth, is for sale at £335,000 from Smeatons, tel. 01900 825918.