A winning formation
No 1 Brinsley Close, in Solihull, felt like a mansion to us. It was called the
White House: very posh!
We were living just round the corner when Bryant Homes built a new
development, and this was the show home. It was really beautiful; very
grand, very spacious. It had a hand-painted kitchen, four bedrooms – two
with ensuites – private gardens . . . all the things you believe make a
bespoke home. To us, it was the bee’s knees. We used to look round it all
the time.
I took the job at Birmingham in 1993, when I was 23, after David Sullivan – my
previous boss at Sport Newspapers, in London – became joint owner of the
club. There was lots of fuss about my being the youngest woman in a
high-profile role in top-class football. Paul was playing for Birmingham
City then, and we got together in 1994. We were married in July 1995 after
he was transferred to Stoke City. Our first house was brand-new, too, but
had just three bedrooms, one bathroom and one ensuite.
We were not really looking to move house because I was pregnant with Sophia.
Because Bryant knew we liked it, they phoned and said they really wanted to
sell the house, and were prepared to do a deal. My dad lent us £30,000, as
we could not quite make it on our own. It was generous of him, because he
was the difference between us having it and not. In the end, we bought the
place lock, stock and barrel for £224,000.
We moved to Brinsley Close in December 1995. We even walked some of our
smaller stuff round there. But the move was frantic. Because I was heavily
pregnant, I could barely lift anything, but I was good on the old
instructions! It surprised me how much we had accumulated, because I keep
very few things and I am very tidy. I think that comes from being at
boarding school, where you don’t really have any space of your own – I was
at Poles Convent, in Ware, Hertfordshire.
Because the show house was furnished, I left nearly everything behind. But I
did take a dining table and a sideboard that Paul’s grand-parents gave us as
a wedding present. Barry Fry was manager at Birmingham then, and he moved
into my old house.
I have never been so in love with a house in all my life. My oldest
schoolfriend and maid of honour at our wedding, Charlotte Murray – she is a
famous hairstylist and make-up artist to rock stars – thought it was
amazing. It was like I had finally grown up and moved into a posh house.
Soon after we moved, before Sophia was born in May 1996, I asked the interior
designer responsible for the show house to come back and decorate the
nursery. We chose a Wind in the Willows theme on the walls and dresser. When
Paolo, now eight, was born, he moved into that room and we had cowboys and
Indians painted all over it. I went back to my job a few weeks after Sophia
was born, but I had a little study at home where I could work in the
evenings or at weekends if necessary. It was decorated in dark green, as is
my study in our new house.
We made quite a few other changes to Brinsley Close while we were there. We
extended the kitchen at the back, putting in a huge double-height window and
exposed beams. After that, we hardly went into the lounge for the next
couple of years. There was a Hatt kitchen with a double oven, which I took
out to make room for a big American-style fridge. I chose a cooking range
instead, but in our new house, we have an Aga. I like cooking, especially
English and Italian – my mother is Italian – and I enjoy baking. Sunday is
my day: I always bake a cake to last for the rest of the week.
I love gardening, too. I do most of it myself with my daughter. We keep a
scrapbook with photographs of flowers that were significant to us. The first
is one that was in flower when Sophia was born; there’s a gladioli from her
christening and a rose from a restaurant where we ate the first time we took
her out to dinner. We press the flower on the opposite page. Our garden at
Brinsley Close was well landscaped, with quite mature trees. We had decking
and a hot tub fitted outside – real Footballers’ Wives stuff! And we put in
a really pretty playhouse for the children.
We had lots of parties. When Sophia, who is now 11, was christened, Paul’s
mother and sister came over from Canada, and my mother came. We cooked lots
of food and had a big barbecue. At Christmas, friends would come from all
over the world. Everyone would grab a place to sleep and I would decorate a
big tree in the hall.
The lounge had a big inglenook fireplace and a beautiful carpet from Ireland,
cream with a border of flowers. We set up a few magazine photo shoots in
that room. It had two dark-green sofas with tassels and trims, which sounds
awful now; I brought them to our present house, just a few miles away in
Knowle, and had them recovered in cream.
We lived at Brinsley Close for more than seven years, and really loved it.
During that time, Solihull had become more built up, and the short drive to
school was taking 25 minutes instead of only 10 or 15. We thought it was
time to move, but, if I could have picked up the house and moved a few
streets out, I would have been happy. In 2003, we sold it for £595,000 to
some friends who had always liked it. I cried on the day I left.
