But it is a melting pot of styles that really works because it has been done truthfully and patiently and with a real passion. Likewise, the interior has Shelagh’s trademark look, a place where her lively imagination has been let loose with patterned rugs, colourful walls and abstract paintings.

Downstairs the tempo takes on a traditional slant, and a bespoke wooden kitchen made by a local carpenter is offset with rich ochre and terracotta walls and rack upon rack of open shelving to stash crockery, bottles, jars, you name it, everything a cook requires. This is a home where everything is on show – and the owner is proud of it.

As you walk upstairs however the blast of natural light and magnificent views out to the ever-changing countryside offers a dramatic talking point. Here, the open-plan space – half sitting room, half bedroom – adds a clean, contemporary dimension with floor-to-ceiling windows and a modern iron frame to strengthen the pitched roof. Colour creeps in here too, with soft green walls, a vivid tangerine sofa and of course, the evolving vista outside. The look is cluttered yet somehow calm, a place where Shelagh has managed to show off all of her possessions without the place being overcrowded or overstuffed.

It may seem that this is a home of two halves: downstairs full of period and character, upstairs a modern, light-filled hideaway. But thanks to Shelagh’s creative flair, it is a place, which naturally merges into one comfortable, colourful home, where the old and not-so-old rub shoulders. It is a space, which will evolve organically as Shelagh grows with the house and it grows with her.