Eric Strickland points to the wooded hillside at the back of his house.
“There’s a track leading all the way up to the lookout point that then goes along to Weem and towards Aberfeldy. My wife and I go running up there all the time.”
White Gables is located beside Camserney, a tiny hamlet a couple of miles outside the Highland Perthshire town of Aberfeldy.
Eric and his wife Naomi bought the house 10 years ago and have extensively remodelled it.
“It was a Scandia kit house that was built in 1998,” Eric explains. “It was pretty tired and in need of attention but we saw a lot of potential in it.”
Eric is a partner in McKenzie Strickland Associates, an architects practice that works all over Scotland and has offices in Perth, Aberfeldy and Crieff.
He and Naomi also own and run Taymouth Marina, a development of holiday homes, restaurant and sauna on the shores of Loch Tay.
Eric brought his architect’s eye to the renovation of White Gables. He created a substantial open plan living/dining/kitchen area, knocking four rooms into one to create the space.
Exposed steel beams show where the load bearing walls once stood. “I think it’s more honest to show some of the structure rather than boxing them over,” he says.
The living room’s large picture windows frame the view across the Upper Tay Valley, while a feature fireplace casts a cosy glow across the room in the evening time.
Also downstairs are two en suite guest bedrooms (one of which is currently used as a gym) and another room that is Eric and Naomi’s home office.
The stairs lead into a large space that’s used as a cinema room. There’s a ceiling mounted projector and surround sound speaker system. Double banks of Velux windows showcase the views and one has a cute window seat built in.
To one side of this room are the two bedrooms occupied by the couple’s 11 and 13-year old daughters.
At the other end of the upstairs space is Eric (44) and Naomi’s (45) enormous master bedroom. The en suite bathroom has a very special walk-in steam shower that has two shower heads and looks more like something you’d find in a high end spa than a 1990s kit house.
White Gables is the second to last home up a dead-end tarmac lane on the sunny side of the valley and enjoys tremendous seclusion.
It’s heaven for outdoors-oriented people like Eric and Naomi.
“We run in the hills behind us and mountain bike as well. Now the girls are bigger they come out biking and running as well.”
The couple both used to be outdoors instructors and enjoy the Highland Perthshire landscape whatever the weather.
“In the winter we get our cross country skis on and head straight out. It’s a fantastic playground.”
Eric and Naomi have planning permission to build two detached homes in one end of White Gables’ garden.
“They’re set to the side so won’t overlook the house at all,” Eric says. “And White Gables will still be left with nearly an acre and a half of garden, which should be as much as anyone could need.”
White Gables, Camserney, is on sale through Rettie for offers over £590,000.