When I moved to Leeds (2010) I didn’t fight to keep my house in Warwick. It was a case of survival – at the time all I wanted was a new life. It’s been a journey. I also owned a flat that was home to a friend and her partner. As the rent she paid covered the outgoings, I put it on a back burner as it ran itself. For a couple of years I blocked out Warwick and the tragedy that forced me to flee my business and family almost six years ago.

Here’s some photos taken in 2006 when I renovated it. Of course, style and taste has changed since this. Plus, between then it went bright red (courtesy of lodgers – not my taste.) I’ll show you the new pictures when it’s online and for sale …

So moving to Leeds, rock being my youngest son who at the time was a student. I turned his world upside down (and all of his friends …) I hope they can forgive me one day – although … my son has never once complained.

The happiest home I had was my flat. There’s something stable, airy and calming about the place. I’d quite forgotten how lovely it is. I spent all of Christmas there and got to grips with fragments of my elapsed past that had hidden itself in the darker alcoves of memory.

I admit when my lodgers left I felt a great sense of anticipation putting the keys back in the door.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks giving it an icy white coating of paint. I’ve up cycled the existing furnishings. Cleaned sofa covers, painted pine, scrubbed lamp shades. I haven’t replaced the kitchen and bathroom as the new owners will want to put their own mark on it. The place goes on the market ‘officially’ at the weekend.

It’s taken me a lot of courage to let go of the final piece of my past. I feel liberated.

A couple of days later:-

Here’s a photo ‘after’ the red walls … It’s sold SSTC. Pay off mortgage then the retreat. I so want a place to help the vulnerable, the awake and the wise.

Tiffany Belle Harper.