We catch up with a couple from the first series of Property Ladder who've turned their passion for design into a hugely successful business

 Philip Martinson and Stephen Hodgkinson are a go-getting couple who gave up their high-flying careers and luxurious lifestyle in London to chase a dream of becoming property developers in rural Lincolnshire. Featured on the first ever series of Property Ladder back in 2001, their talents were evident immediately as they transformed the shell of an old barn into a beautifully designed home, complete with stunning interior decor - to great financial gain.

Since their first appearance on the show, Sarah Beeny and Property Ladder have followed the progress of the pair, filming subsequent renovations and documenting their success. Here, Philip fills us in on the ups and downs of their lucrative journey.

'Nine years ago Stephen and I both decided to change careers. I'd been a make-up artist in London for ten plus years and was beginning to tire of it, and Stephen was a barrister - he'd been qualified for a few years but wasn't enjoying the bar as much as he'd thought he might, and we both felt like moving direction.

'We'd been doing interiors for friends and family and got some really positive feedback. Then we heard that Stephen's dad, who's a big developer, was selling off some of the family's land in Lincolnshire and we thought we might buy it to build on. After visiting and asking his advice, however, we realised we weren't quite ready to build a house from scratch, but that we could look at renovating somewhere. It was as simple as that - a chat, sat over a pint in the local village pub. The penny dropped and we knew what we wanted to do.

'Within two months of that conversation we'd both left our jobs and moved to Lincolnshire. We always knew that's where we wanted to find our first project because Stephen's father has so many contacts there - it eased the risk somewhat. He was able to recommend various reliable tradesmen, and we knew we'd get the best team.

  Country pile
'After a lot of reccying we eventually found our first barn conversion, in Corringham. It was a big project but it felt right. The village was quiet but pretty and the property had beautiful views. There were no plans for anything to be built in the surrounding area and it just seemed the right decision. In the end we paid £90,000 in all, including the plot of land behind, which we had in mind either to develop another house on - there was sufficient space - or to turn into a massive garden.

'After we'd secured the property, Stephen and I went on holiday for two weeks to take a step back and consider what our next move would be. But while we were in Sri Lanka, Stephen's father rang to say our agents had been contacted by researchers at Channel 4, who were keen for us to appear on a new TV show - Property Ladder. We gave it a lot of thought, and both decided it would be something we'd like to be involved in, so when we got back to England a crew came and filmed us and interviewed us about our thoughts and ideas for the property and decided to film our progress for the show.

Making the vision a reality
'We were definitely a little nervous before that first project, as we knew it could make or break us. But that gave it an element of excitement, too. Sarah was great, not obtrusive in any way - and although we didn't tend to agree with her on an awful lot - there were some things about the development she managed to convince us about. She was adamant, for example, that we put a fireplace in the living room as it needed a focal point, and it's such a big space I can see now that she was definitely right.

'But on the whole we wanted to stick with our original vision. We're so passionate about design that we did spend a lot of money making it perfect. We thought of it as a showcase for our talents, so it meant a lot to go high end. The kitchen, for example, was quite expensive but we wanted it to look amazing - and it did - the layout really worked.

'During the development, we lived on site in a huge caravan, as we were working really long hours, and commuting from our home at the time would have eaten too much into our day. Plus, it made sense from a security perspective, too. It was actually great fun and, as you can imagine, being two interior designers, we made the caravan look fabulous, and, in fact, ended up selling it for a profit! 'The whole development took us less than a year from start to finish and when we eventually came to sell the barn conversion we made a profit of about £115 grand!

We were obviously delighted with this result, but it was a much stronger market then than now.

Period property
'Our next project was a Georgian house -Wickentree, in Kirton Lindsey, Lincolnshire. We knew the village well and while driving through noticed a property that we particularly loved, and pretty much bought it straight away. The interior hadn't been touched for about 40 or 50 years, so it was another big job, but we didn't have to make any major structural changes. It was more of a complete refurb and decorating task. But this did include a new kitchen and bathroom, meaning a total rewire and replumb was necessary.

'Again, we decided to live on site, but this time in the actual house. It was a painful experience and one I don't think I'd ever do again. We did have a few mad parties there, which were fun, but the whole thing was really stressful. You couldn't ever escape from work, there was dust everywhere and for months we were washing our dishes in a big turquoise bath! But when we came to sell, we made over £100,000 again, which we were thrilled with.

'After the Georgian house, the interiors side of our business really kicked in and we didn't do any renovation for about 18 months - commissions in both Yorkshire and London kept us busy. But after a while we both started to miss it, and began to look for development projects once more.

Here we go again
'We found the perfect opportunity in the village of Welton Hill, Lincolnshire - a barn on a lovely plot of land, with unspoilt views on three sides.

'It was a pretty similar development to the first one, and we went for the same sort of style - as it had been so successful the first time around. We wanted to maximise the fantastic space with clean lines and an uncluttered feel. Again, we turned it round in less than a year and made a profit of about £90,000.

Looking to the future
'All of our renovations have been featured on Property Ladder and the show's been great for us. Besides the advice from Sarah with the original project, it's also been a really great platform for showcasing our business, and helped it grow from strength to strength.

It's the interior and conceptual design of projects that really interests us, and since the last show we appeared on aired, we've been inundated with prospective clients for our design business, The Treehouse Interior Design. We've been approached by companies building million pound homes in Cheshire for our help in conceptual design as well as hotels and a new development of luxury housing in Lincolnshire - the first of it's kind in the area. It's so exciting and I'm thrilled that we're doing so well, especially given the current climate in the property and housing market.

Friends I speak to in the south who are also in the design trade are finding it hard to get work, but I'm proud to say that our books are full, and we're even having to turn stuff down.'

First Published in At Home with Sarah Beeny, September 2008