Me and my home: Jan Buck

It was too big and too expensive, but Jenny Knight hears how one couple worked out how to make their dream home pay

Francis was a manager for British Gypsum and when he relocated to Nottingham we went house hunting, took a wrong turning and there was Yew Tree Grange with a sale-board up. That was 17 years ago and at £136,000, it was completely unaffordable because we were looking at houses costing £40,000 to £50,000.

Francis was a manager for British Gypsum and when he relocated to Nottingham we went house hunting, took a wrong turning and there was Yew Tree Grange with a sale-board up. That was 17 years ago and at £136,000, it was completely unaffordable because we were looking at houses costing £40,000 to £50,000.

I loved it immediately. Francis said it was a rabbit warren with too many small rooms, but it only looked that way because it was over-furnished.

The house was owned by two families who had set up a religious commune and their Sixties style was unsympathetic to the house, which is basically Georgian with Victorian side extensions and Victorian downstairs windows.

I'd always worked at secretarial jobs and with three children found looking after them in the holidays a terrible headache, so I fancied working for myself from home.

I persuaded Francis that the house would be a good buy and for the first six years we took in university students.

It was absolute hell feeding them seven days a week. One of our first purchases was a couple of dishwashers.

As fast as we did the house up the students wrecked it because they were typical students all out for fun.

The boys brought girls back and the girls brought boys and one morning we found one of our teenage sons in bed with a girl. As fast as we put down new carpets, the students poured beer over them, but we did have some great Christmas parties and made good friends

During the university holidays we did bed and breakfast for tourists and business people, but I was afraid that if we stopped taking students we would have periods without any guests.

Finally we took the plunge, became a full-time bed and breakfast and have been fully booked ever since.

We have 10 letting rooms plus an annex in the garden, which we originally converted for our daughter Lucy. There's two guest dining rooms and a guest sitting room, but only about five bathrooms because I feel we are custodians of this house and don't want to spoil it by making inappropriate changes. If an en-suite bathroom doesn't suit the room we haven't added it.

I did everything from making the curtains to decorating in a style that is basically chintzy Laura Ashley set off by antique furniture.

We have a full breakfast menu: kedgeree, kippers and a traditional English breakfast. It takes about an hour to cook and then two or three hours to clear up, which is why I am now 58 going on 90 and keen to stop while I'm fairly active even though I expect we will be heartbroken when we do.

Francis took early retirement and does all the paperwork, which is a tremendous help. The mortgage is paid off so we could just live here without guests, but it seems ridiculous to have the two of us in this big house and also we have a lot of equity tied up here.

Anyway Francis is a tyrant and won't let me stop running the B&B while we stay here. I've got a horse on the neighbouring farm and I want to have more fun and possibly start something else up.

The problem is that I'm afraid that this house, lovely though it is, might prove hard to sell because of its size.

It would suit a family with four children or people who want their parents to live with them.

It could also carry on as a successful B&B. We have guests from all over the world Sweden, the US, Japan and 99 per cent of the guests are absolutely lovely, very sweet and appreciative with just a few who are ultra fussy and who I wave off with a big smile.

Some of our business people have been here from the beginning and are so upset that we are thinking of moving that they have threatened to buy the house.

We got Savills round for a valuation and they said that we had a building plot in the garden. We said: "What", and they pointed out that part of the garden is apart from the rest and would be an ideal plot for another house.

We are fencing it off and applying for planning permission and if we get it we will build and stay here. It will leave the main house with a much better shaped garden and still two-thirds of an acre.

Yew Tree Grange is on sale for £775,000 through FPDSavills (0115 934 8000)