A HYDE couple have swapped their family home for a luxury granny annexe in the garden – allowing their daughter and grandchildren to move into the house where she grew up.
Tom and Terri Beirne say the move has “changed our lives”, creating a three-generation set-up that keeps the family close while giving everyone their own space.
The bespoke two-bedroom annexe, built in the garden of their semi-detached home by Rubicon Garden Rooms, includes a large bathroom, open-plan kitchen and living area, and a home office for Tom.
For Terri, 65, the decision was shaped by her experience caring for her late father.
She said: “One of the reasons we went for an annexe was probably from the experience we had with my dad. Dad was very ill and I lost him in 2021 at the age of 87 and he and my mum lived in an old detached three-bedroomed house.
“He could not get up the stairs, his health was failing and it put a lot of pressure on me as the eldest daughter nearby and also on Abi who supported me in looking after him. I just don’t want Abi to go through that.”
Terri and husband Tom, 62, who works as a planning officer at Bury Council, moved into the annexe so daughter Abi, her husband Ben, and children Phoebe, 10, and Pippa, seven, could take over the main house.
“The house has been a brilliant family house,” Terri said. “The grandchildren have always loved it and me and Tom were rattling around in there. Abi has always wanted the house, and it’s fantastic we can make that happen while living close by.”
She added: “All I can say is how lucky am I that I can see my daughter and her family enjoying that house while I am alive?
“I can watch my granddaughters every day growing up, it’s wonderful, it is life-changing.”
Abi, 35, said keeping the home in the family had always been important to her.
“I grew up in the house since the age of 12 and it has been a brilliant house for us as a family, it’s a proper home and is full of great memories, and I wanted to keep it in the family,” she said.
“With my mum being a single parent and me as a single child I always wanted a big family around, and I have it now.”
She added: “Having the annexe has been an absolute game-changer for the family. Nanny and grandad are on the doorstep, it is great, it has changed our lives.”
Tom said he had seen demand for annexes and garden rooms rise sharply since the Covid pandemic.
“Applications for annexes have become more popular, I think, especially since Covid,” he said.
“When people had to stay at home to work, you had office workers at home, with the kids who are also staying at home, so people were wanting to build a garden annexe for an office. With our annexe we have enough separation and privacy, but we can mind the grandchildren and help out with them, it’s perfect really.”