“WE THOROUGHLY believe we have got a bargain. It was designed to be a family home and it will be again,” the new owners of Hawthorn House declare.

The Sandhu family is full of pride as they survey the Georgian mansion which they plan to convert into their dream family home.

But before they can even begin to start rattling around the 50 rooms of the property there is a major restoration programme to undertake, one which could cost at least as much as the £775,000 they paid for the Grade II listed building in July.

They estimate it will take at least two years to get the house ready for occupation after which they say it could be worth more than £2 million.

Already Jaswant Singh Sandhu and Surinder Kaur Sandhu, owners of Gurmat Travels, in Handsworth, their son Harkamal and daughter-in-law Kiranjit Kaur, both qualified accountants, have worked out a plan – a vast family kitchen and family quarters to one side of the grand hallway, with guest rooms to the other side.

In its current condition it bears all the signs of a home which has been drastically altered from family to office use over the years. Since the Second World War it has been owned by the local authority, used first as a children’s home and nursery and more recently as the community library and offices.

The library and welcome sign and checking out hatch are still in place. A telephone exchange and computer server cabinet remain on the top floor. The IT cabling bolted to floors and walls, security locks, room numbers, partition walls, suspended ceilings, strip lights, notice boards and a still working CCTV system all show that this is not a home, but a place of work.