Home that's pretty as a picture
Mike Edwards thought he was a fit and healthy 60 year-old when a routine health MOT revealed he was perilously close to death.
The bad cholesterol he had unwittingly inherited had clogged his arteries and within hours he was on the operating table having heart bypass surgery.
It was devastating experience, but the lucky to be alive feeling he was left with has changed his life. He gave up his job to pursue his own business and married his long-term partner Carolyn.
Graphic artist Mike, now 63, says: "It was an awful experience and a big shock because I had no idea how close to death I had been.
"My parents both died very young from heart attacks, but I know now that is was probably from bad cholesterol. My son was tested and he is now on statins as he has inherited it too. It's something a lot of people simply aren't aware of and I think they should be.
"It's actually been positive in a lot of ways. Carolyn told me we were getting married, which was wonderful, and we decided to just go for the business we'd talked about setting up."
His new company Digital Sunrise UK specialises in digital art and a new technique that can transform someone's photograph into a work of art.
But to fund the dream he and Carolyn, a retail specialist with a degree in photography, had to sell their large detached house in Uttley, near Keighley. They downsized to a three bedroom terraced house in nearby Silsden and over the past nine months, they have transformed it into a stylish home.
"One of the reasons we liked it so much is that it gave us the opportunity to re-organise the space," says Mike.
The couple started by knocking the small, narrow kitchen and separate dining room into one big space.
On a tight budget, they used their bargain hunting skills and managed to buy a new kitchen from the MFI closing down sale.
"The price tag on the kitchen we liked was 11,000 and the salesman asked me to make an offer," says Mike.
"I jokingly said 1,000 and the deal was done. We had to dismantle it there and then ourselves and take it away, not really knowing whether it would fit."
Mike, a talented DIYer, made it work and being budget conscious, he also made his own oak dining table using calibrated oak planks for the top that cost 150.
He clamped and glued together some timber for the legs, which cost 100. He also fitted the oak flooring and sourced all the wood he used from British Hardwoods in Cross Hills.
"I had to plane the wood to make it fit but tongue and groove oak would've cost 1,200, so it was worth the effort.
"I've worked in set design and was hands-on helping to build them, so I learned a lot of joinery skills from that and they've been really useful."
What was a tiny shower room upstairs was enlarged by stealing space from the landing and the new bathroom suite was half price in a Bathstore sale.
The dcor is mainly neutral except for the kitchen/dining room, which is aubergine and features digital paintings and wallpaper.
"It's quite bold, but Caz is brilliant with colour and so I had no worries when she said she wanted aubergine and grey," says Mike.
Although they don't see the house as their forever home, the couple plan to stay there while they develop their business. They have invested their money into Digital Sunrise UK after discovering a clever new technique. "I was working on different ways of producing promotional displays and discovered the equipment I was using had huge potential," he says.
While transferring photographs on to canvas is nothing new, what Mike and Carolyn do is completely different.
Their specialist equipment and artistic background enables them to take someone's photograph and make it look like a painting.
"It's digital art and the results are amazing. The beauty of it is that most people can take a photograph and they are amazed at what we can do
with it."
Although he and Carolyn have a gallery and studio in Cononley, near Skipton, customers can turn their photographs into works of art online.
"You just upload the photo, we digitally paint it and then post it out to you."
They are also aiming to do party plans to show off the products, which start at 23, and are also planning to put the images on perspex, aluminium and self-adhesive wallpaper.
Mike says: "I knew we had a good idea, but the operation really made me go for it. People think that if you don't start your business by the time you are 40 you can forget it, but I'm proof that you can start it any time."
Digital Sunrise is at Old Station Mill, Cononley. Tel: 01535 637332. www.digitalsunriseuk.com
British Hardwoods in Cross Hills.
Ttel: 01535 637755. www.britishhardwoods.co.uk
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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