The owners of this completed conversion, a British man and his Canarian wife, have lived in Tenerife for many years. They had always wanted to build their own house but after having seen what friends had achieved renovating old buildings they decided that was the route they should follow.

One day an old tobacco drying barn with two adjoining rooms and a small garden came on the market at a very reasonable price. Having seen it, they both immediately saw its possibilities and bought it.

The main building was one large room from dirt floor to the roof ( which had a large hole in one corner), filled with more than a thousand breeze-blocks. There were two windows high up on one side and a large door and another window high up on the other.

There were two other rooms. One, which used to be a stable, had a hollowed out tree trunk once used as a trough along one 5.5 metre wall and the other, an upstairs room, was sunny with a beautiful wooden (though filthy) floor.

Having removed all the blocks from inside and twenty eight pick-up trucks of rubble from the garden the couple finally decided how the house should be designed.

The main building would have two storeys- a hall, toilet and large kitchen/dining room downstairs and two large bedrooms and a spacious bathroom upstairs.

The building next door would have the living room upstairs and a further bedroom/office in the old stable, leaving the trough which was too heavy to remove as a feature.

They did as much of the work as they could themselves. They were in no hurry so it didn´t matter that it took them several years to complete.

It is now a lovely home which preserves all the character and features of the original building such as the floor and windows in the lounge and the beams and rafters in the lounge and upstairs rooms. The walls inside where possible were left with the original stone exposed.