Scots couple transform bat-infested farmhouse left empty for six years into dream home

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Cairnton Farm had been uninhabited for six years when it came into new hands.There were roosting bats, rotten windows and a roof to replace, as well as a shambles of trees and bushes encircling the house.It needed a lot of work, but Kim Stephen and Ryan Carter could see its potential shining through.

Kim, 34, and Ryan, 33, gladly took on the challenge of breathing new life into a 180-year-old Aberdeenshire farmhouse while documenting the process on their Instagram @cairntonfarm.

Given its size - five bedrooms and five bathrooms over 200 square metres - and stonework that included granite, Kim suspected its origins were a bit more grand than an ordinary farmhouse.She contacted local historian Duncan Downie who found that Cairnton Farm had been built on the Kemnay Estate in the 1840s as the home of Stuart Moubray Burnett, a brother of the laird at the time.Fast forward to the 21st century and its newest owners were ripping out spongy thick pile carpet, pink striped wallpaper, and a baked potato they discovered wrapped in foil inside the oven."We joked at the beginning that we didn't keep very much in the house," Kim said. "More definitely went, but every period feature that we could keep, we did."She had renovated her flat with her dad before she met Ryan, who had also redone his own flat and previously owned his own plumbing business.The two sold the properties and lived with her parents for a year and half before Cairnton was move-in ready.Part of the reason why Kim thoroughly photographed the transformation was to share every step of the process with her dad on days he wasn't helping."My dad was so excited about the house," Kim said.He liked to drive past it and he once took visiting family members to see the property