The latest in bedroom flooring was beach pebbles – or so believed my mother-in-law.

‘This is going to be rather uncomfortable underfoot’ I remarked as I gingerly made my way over to the single bed in the spare room.

The seaside theme was also evident elsewhere. In the stairwell my father-in-law had replaced the wooden banister with nautical rope, and outside just across the back lawn I could see the side of a massive shipwrecked boat bobbing up and down in the waves.