This beautifully-renovated house in Whitby with sweeping sea views is on the market for £1m
When Frances Baines decided to sell her second home in California, she set her sights on the Yorkshire Coast, determined to create the same holiday spirit in her home county.
Her key criteria was a property with a sea view so when she discovered Solimar House in Whitby, with its sweeping coastal outlook, she knew she’d found the right place.
“The windows have sea views but you can be in the back garden and you can still see the sea through the house,” she says. “Whitby’s a really nice place, it’s got lovely beaches and nice restaurants.”
Frances, who lives in York, bought the five bedroom detached property, on the town’s North Promenade, with her late husband, Richard, in 2017. They shipped over their furniture from the California home in a 40 ft container and set to work on modernising the dated interior.
"It had pink and green bathroom suites with carpet and the kitchen needed modernising,” says Frances. "But we could see the potential.”
The couple knocked through a wall to create a large shaker style kitchen diner, installed patio doors into the garden and modernised all three bathrooms. All the rooms were repainted to create a sleek and modern interior.
Additional refurbishment works included re-wiring and re-plumbing, with a new central heating system incorporating a large unvented cylinder, and quality vintage style radiators.
Solimar House features 2,300 sq ft of space over two floors, with enormous further potential to extend if required. On the ground floor is an entrance hall, family kitchen/dining room, utility, wc and sitting room. Upstairs are five double bedrooms, two with ensuite facilities, and a family bathroom. Outside, there is a generous garage, plenty of off-street parking, a large front garden with uninterrupted sea views and a signifcant south facing rear garden "We’re quite minimalist in how we live. We put a tiled floor downstairs, thinking of dogs. It looks good but it’s also easy maintenance,” says Frances.
Solimar House is used a second home and, since Covid, has also been rented out as a holiday let.
Whitby sits at the heart of the Heritage Coast, surrounded by the glorious scenery of the North York Moors National Park. It has excellent local amenities and is just a short walk from the equally popular village of Sandsend.
The property holds lots of happy memories for Frances after hosting many family gatherings there.
“It’s a great place for the family. I’ve got three sons and three grandchildren so often, when we’re there, it’s full but there’s lots of space,” she says.
"We love being in the sea, we’ve got bodyboards, surfboards. If we’re not by it, we like to be in it.”
Frances says her favourite part of Solimar House is the kitchen. “You can be in there cooking and you can see the garden and the sea. I’m not one for heat but the garden is like a little micro climate, it’s so warm,” she says.
Solimar House is on the market with no forward chain for offers over £1m with Prime Residential prime-resi.com or 01904 202820.