the loo with a view

Some people joke about it, " says Tracy Woodhouse. "At work they'll say things like, 'Oh yes, you're the couple who live in a lavatory'. Not quite, I tell them. We have a lovely little house with a sea view that used to be a loo.

"We understand the amusement it causes. It tickles us, too. Our TV set is where the Gents' urinals used to be, and our bedroom and bathroom was the Ladies."

Queen Victoria was on the throne when the public convenience was built into the cliffside overlooking Scarborough's North Bay. For almost a century it met the needs of holidaymakers and locals until falling victim to raised expectations – the toilets were too small for modern comfort and closed. In 1990, the site became a seasonal lock-up caf under various names. Inevitably, there was a Lou's View and latterly, most fitting of all, the Buena Vista.

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Tracy's partner Graham Peck remembers having cuppas, ice-cream and cake there and musing that, whatever the weather, the premises could make someone a magical home. When the lease became available, he said to her, "Why not ours?"

That was more than five years ago. Since then, admits Graham: "There's been a lot of sweat and tears and I often wondered if we'd embarked on a lunatic project." Then he looks out of their lounge window, at the ever-changing sea, the Marine Drive below, the castle to the right, and marvels. "What a scene! To us, the best view on the coast."

When he'd persuaded Tracy of the potential, they investigated the practicalities. The council own the building and it had been empty for a couple of years. "Former toilet unoccupied," said Graham, who has plenty more puns like that. There was a favourable response when the couple suggested turning it into a dwelling, "but the council wanted to see our plans," recalls Tracy, "because it wasn't an easy conversion to imagine.

"My family come from Scarborough and in their minds they'd always seen a lavatory or caf here and apparently during the war it had been an ammunition store. They couldn't see how it would become a home. Others were sceptical, too, but we went to a local architect, Barry Denton, and he got the idea straight off. 'You have to do this, it'll work,' he said, and the council agreed. They gave us planning permission and praised the idea. They called it the building's renaissance."

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Graham chips in: "So there I am, a Renaissance man, but with little experience of DIY and a technically complex task ahead. Tracy knew even less than me, and we'd paid 15,000 for the remaining seven years of the existing lease. We had a heck of a lot to learn.You can see why at times I thought we were mad."

Metal gates at the separate entrances for Gentlemen and Ladies are the only obvious signs of the building's original use, but once they started digging much of its past was revealed. They filled six skips in uncovering maroon glazed earthenware bricks and digging out the drains of the old urinals and a dozen cubicles.

Most of the single-storey structure is set into the cliff and beneath a council flowerbed, commemorative seats and the pavement on Queen's Parade, as muffled footsteps above can testify. Where a section of the flat roof is visible there's an old metal plate attached saying, "Private property. Trespassing forbidden under penalty of law".

To comply with building regulations they had to strengthen their oak-beamed ceiling with a steel girder, modernise the plumbing, electrics and ventilation and add damp-proofing and insulation. They installed underfloor gas heating, patio doors and windows, and created a bathroom and one double bedroom with a bay view which is shared by the lounge and, at Tracy's insistence, the kitchen sink.

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In Victorian times, their kitchen was used as a left-luggage store and separated the men's WC from the women's. It's the centrepiece of the building's exterior and still has its oyster shell feature in sandstone above the former serving hatch.

After the heavy-duty work, how best to decorate and furnish an unconventional home with limited space but cosily big enough for two people and a cat? Graham went on a three-day course on plastering and then Tracy – "the best builder's mate you could wish for" – took over.

For their sitting room she chose a mixture of flowered wallpaper and a shade of emulsion paint called "guess what – Coastline." She found matching wall units and shelves and there's room for a three and four-seater settee. "We call the end result Ikea-on-Sea."

Now Graham is turning his attention to the garden which has a wider frontage than he expected, and includes two stone benches from the lavatory's days. "The council said we could fence off as much land as we liked because it would reduce their grass-cutting. This spring and summer I'm hoping for our first full show of colour, assuming the bulbs and plants withstand the wind and salt-spray."

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They've spent 35-40,000 creating their home and estimate that by doing virtually all the work themselves in their spare time, they saved up to 30,000. They negotiated a new lease with the council which has another 21 years to run and costs them 1,800-a-year, the property is in the lowest band for council tax, and they have a permit to park across the road.

It has also produced situations they never experienced with their three-storey Victorian house across town. A representative of Ordnance Survey called to measure up and literally put them on the map because theirs is the only building on Albert Road, which winds down to the promenade.

Likewise, Royal Mail needed an address and postcode for them and they chose to name their home The Lookout. Then there are the visitors, often uninvited and not only seagulls who serve as an alarm clock.

Graham explains: "During the site work, a lot of people stopped and asked if we were opening a new caf. When we told them we'd be living here the interest increased and any number of folk who've been visiting Scarborough for years would call for a progress report. Some have since become friends.

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"Others are curious to discover such an unusual home on the cliffside. We can be watching TV or washing the dishes and suddenly a face will peer through the window. I don't know who's more surprised, them or us. We don't mind because we appreciate that in one form or another this little building has been a focal point of the North Bay since the 19th century.

"What we didn't expect was people wanting to buy our home. We've received two or three offers already. There was a chap from London who'd been looking at new apartments on the seafront. Then he saw our place, knocked on the door and made a bid there and then. Serious money, too. We explained that it wasn't a question of money for us. We haven't spent all this time and effort on placing a financial value on what we've done. To us the value is in the view. We have the sea in all its moods and the other morning was particularly beautiful.

"There was a fret and the castle keep peered above it, like it was suspended over the mist. Why would anyone give that up?" You can see what he means, but a nagging thought remains. Aren't they just a bit concerned about coastal erosion?

Not too far away it put paid to the Holbeck Hall Hotel, and threatens ever more homes.

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Graham is 55 and philosophical. "It'll take a long time to reach here, and certainly not in our lifetime."

Then he's back to his binoculars, still bewitched to be living there and looking out on surfers, ships on the horizon, wheeling seabirds, the remorseless tide. From the new family seat there's nothing to beat the call of nature.

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