PICTURE the scene... you are sitting in the living room, enjoying a nice glass of wine (or two). You look up at the covered staircase and see just a chink of light at the top. What, you think, would it be like if you ripped off all that lightblocking panelling?

Well, that’s exactly what happened shortly after Alberto and Vivienne Dascanio moved into The Old School House in Stamford Bridge.

“We call it the night of the glasses of wine,” Vivienne laughs now, recalling how she and Alberto set to and pulled apart what was effectively a partition wall and letting light come dancing into what previously had been a gloomy sitting room.

And what did they do with all the wood? “We burnt it,” she says.

“The house was freezing and the wood came in very handy.”

No-one could now call this house freezing. Or dark. It’s a beautifully warm, cheering and light-filled property, stylishly refurbished and reformed.

That staircase cladding was just one of many walls that were taken down once Antonio and Vivienne set about their reclamation project.

It was a labour of love for the young couple and quite a feat of imagination.

The property was built in 1795 as a school house and has had several other uses over the years.

“We had one old chap who told us he remembered watching movies in the building,” Vivienne says, “and another came up and told us he had had his wedding reception here.”

A mixed history, then. But whenAntonio (he’s Italian, in case you were wondering) and Vivienne (from Cambridgeshire) bought the property three years ago, it had been empty for some time and was in a state of disrepair.

“We had buckets everywhere to catch the rain coming in from the roof,” Antonio says. “If you can imagine that.”

Well, no, to be honest, we can’t.

Because this is now a splendidly watertight home, a delightful character property that is a smart blend of old period touches and contemporary comforts – and so many surprises. And there is so much of it.

Perhaps best, then, to get on with the tour.

We start in the sitting room of the night of the glasses of wine fame.

Today it’s a sparkling spot, with an open staircase taking you to the first floor to one side, French doors opening to a rear garden to the other.

The character comes from ceiling beams overhead and oak flooring underfoot; the styling from a modern vertical radiator.

From here you trot along the hall to a beautifully light and bright kitchen/breakfast room, a super open space with a range of white painted wall and base units, a central preparation island and double hob rangemaster style oven set in an exposed brick alcove.

Again, this is a light and cheerful room thanks in no small part to another set of French doors to the garden.

The kitchen, like just about everything else in the house, is all but brand new – and it shows.

Another new addition, for instance, is the conversion of former hallway space into a groundfloor bedroom and shower room.

But let’s get on because we are about to have our breath snatched away...

From the kitchen, double doors open on to one of the most stunning spots we’ve seen in quite some time. In what must at one time have been the school’s assembly hall is a fantastic flowing arrangement of spaces.

A dining area sits closest to us, with steps up to an amazing music room with a vaulted, beamed ceiling and then up again to a galleried balcony area. Light streams in from overhead windows and yet another set of French doors.

“It is a little bit special, we think,”

says Antonio, displaying not only a fine grasp of the English language but also of English understatement.

Vivienne adds: “I can imagine, if you had children, they could put on shows up on the balcony for the parents.” Well, it’s certainly a show-stopping area, that’s for sure.

And it gets even better when, skipping up a short flight of steps and beyond the balcony, you find yet another reception area – this one in use as an office/den for Antonio.

Back through to the living room, now, and up that staircase to the first floor where we find a superb master bedroom with dressing room and en-suite shower room, two further bedrooms and a modern house bathroom.

That sounds simple but it most certainly was not a simple process getting it this way. Did we mention earlier a labour of love?

Well, along with the considerable vision needed to transform this home, there was most certainly a lot of labour. Here, upstairs, for instance, more walls came tumbling down, bathrooms became bedrooms and bedrooms bathrooms.

And a lot of the actual hard labour was carried out by Vivienne and Antonio – who became quite adept at taking out partition walls.

“When we first started we didn’t think we could do much of the work ourselves,” says Vivienne, “but it’s surprising how much you actually can do when you get down to it.”

So devoted were the couple to this project that they gave up evenings and weekends for almost two years to help complete the job.

“And our birthday and Christmas presents seemed to always be something for the house,” Vivienne laughs.

So, having done all that work, realised the dream, why put the home on the market? Vivienne smiles and pats a not-so-little bump in her tummy. The couple are expecting a baby – and Vivienne feels it’s time to return to Cambridgeshire and to be nearer her family.

“It will be sad to leave,” she says.

“It’s been really nice living here and I am glad that we have had the last year, after the work was finished, to enjoy the house. I hope that whoever comes in will enjoy it as much as we have.”

The Old School House, Main Street, Stamford Bridge

Reception rooms: 4

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 3

Gardens: Large, private, flag-stoned rear garden with raised flower beds and shrubbery, double garage

Wow factor: That stunning light and bright, characterful, open-plan dining room and music room area with raised galleried balcony

Price: £449,999

Contact: Hudson Moody Dunnington agent Alex McClean

Phone: 01904 489906