“Now we have the lift, I’m back in action; I’ve no excuses. I can take the tray up again – and earn some brownie points.”
We meet a couple who’ve spent nearly three decades shaping their part of a stunning Kent farmhouse into the heart of their family life and who now, with the help of Stiltz Homelifts, have ensured it keeps supporting them for years to come.
There’s a particular kind of ease which settles into a home over time, and you feel it the moment you walk into Di and Stuart’s farmhouse conversion near Sevenoaks, Kent. A late Georgian – early Victorian retreat, it’s nestled into a courtyard of ten homes that affords beautiful views, a well-stocked garden, and plays host to an array of birds alongside occasional confident deer who know exactly where the best blooms for nibbling are!
Loving restoration
“We love the whole ambience of the place,” Di says, settling into a chair. “The views, the neighbours, the wildlife, it’s everything we want. Why would we ever move?” Her husband Stuart agrees. “It’s the best home I’ve ever lived in, and we’ve worked hard to make it what it is.”
When they first arrived, the house was, as Di puts it, “in an incredible condition – and not in a good way!” Over time, they added a garden room, restored original features, created a proper front door and shaped the spaces into something that felt both welcoming and deeply personal.
They are, however, candid about the practicalities of ageing. Both are now in their mid to late eighties and have been faced with the well-meaning narrative of the ‘sensible downsize’.
“People say you don’t need a house this size, but this has been our home for nearly 30 years,” Stuart says. “We love it; the space, the setting, the whole feel of the place. Why would we leave?” At six-foot-three, he jokes that he’s “not exactly built for compact living”, and the generous rooms suit them perfectly. What they needed wasn’t a new address; it was a futureproofed way to keep enjoying every inch of the one they already loved.
Injury stops play
It’s a question which became more than just rhetorical last year, when life delivered what Stuart likes to call “a sidewinder”. While on holiday in Antigua, he ruptured a tendon in his thigh, so for a man who had been playing tennis in his eighties, the shift was sudden. Stairs, once an afterthought, became a daily negotiation.
Initial thoughts turned to a stairlift, but that was quickly dismissed. “It would have been the first thing you saw when you walked in the front door, and I thought, absolutely not,” said Di, “We didn’t want the house to look like an old people’s home!”
The breakthrough came when they saw Stiltz Homelifts advertised and realised a corridor towards the rear of their property could potentially house a lift. As luck would have it, that space led straight up to a bedroom with an ensuite, so they quickly contacted Stiltz, who carried out a home visit and confirmed it was indeed the perfect position for the Duo+ lift model. “They were marvellous,” enthuses Di. “Every member of staff was friendly, excellent, and professional.”
An elegantly engineered solution
Stuart is a retired nuclear engineer with a master’s from Imperial College and worked around the world until well into his seventies, so he’s a hard customer to impress! “Working in the nuclear industry makes you very mindful of hazards,” he explains. “The safety features on the Stiltz are significant,” he continues. “There is a back-up battery should there be a power cut, and it’s sensitive to knowing if there’s an obstruction or the door isn’t shut. These are the sort of things I wanted to know about.”
And as for the installation – their worst fears simply didn’t materialise. As Stuart puts it, “the process was far smoother than we expected, for a Georgian property with all its idiosyncrasies.” But it wasn’t just the workmanship that impressed them. “When the team left, there was no evidence that anyone had been working there. Every bit of rubbish – gone.”
Part of family life
In just three months since their Stiltz Homelift was installed, it’s already become part of their daily rhythm, weaving itself into the fabric of their life. It has also, unexpectedly, become a wonderful part of their morning ritual.
“Before my accident, I always did breakfast and took it up to bed. Then Di had to take over for nearly a year. Now we have the lift, I’m back in action; I’ve no excuses. I can take the tray up again – and earn some brownie points.”
“He’s so well trained!” laughs Di.
Now life continues to crack on at a pace, and the couple remain wonderfully active. Stuart is vice chairman of the Westerham U3A, overseeing 47 groups ranging from theatre to languages. “It’s given us lots of friends,” Di says. “We’re exceedingly busy.” Di goes to keep-fit classes, does her daily Wordle, meets friends for coffee, and hosts a steady stream of visiting family. “We run a very good bed and breakfast,” she jokes. Their granddaughter has just got engaged; the wedding is in America next spring, and another has just graduated. “Life keeps rolling,” Di says.
A home ready for every chapter
For Di and Stuart, the future is brighter now that the Stiltz Duo+ is in place. It’s already helping with Stuart’s recuperation, and it’s certainly put paid to any difficult conversations about moving. They’ve travelled the world as a couple, from Asia to Australia, New Zealand to South America, even the Falklands, and they hope to be back travelling again soon.
“Our Stiltz Lift is silent, compact, beautifully engineered,” says Di. “It keeps the house working for us – and keeps us where we belong.”
