Almost every time over the past forty-seven years that British-born couple John and Val Barker finish fixing up or building a house, they have a habit of saying “Well, we’ll never do that again.” You can almost hear the sigh of relief in the words. Funny thing is though, they do it again… and again. From their first house in their hometown in Leicester, England (where their little sign shop was over their first apartment) to their ten-bedroom villa, Le Bleu, set on two beachfront acres in Anguilla, this dynamo couple can’t seem to stop creating cozy spaces for themselves and others.

“It’s more her,” John says, laying “blame” for what is clearly a lifelong joy on his wife of nearly half century. “She likes doing houses more than I do.”  Val chuckles and says she’ll accept at least part of the blame. House do-overs are definitely her passion and one that started at an early age when she asked her cash-strapped parents if she might “redecorate” her tiny room. A can of lilac paint and a second hand dressing table bought with her own pocket money did the trick for the 11 year old with a talent for design. But design college was not on cards. “I left school at fifteen because I had to work,” she says. However, Val never gave up her interest and as John tells it, even as a young couple when they had “nothing but the coins in their pockets” they would drive around and look at houses under construction and dream.

When John tries to explain his multiple building ventures (and note bene he is not “in real estate”) he says simply, “I guess I just like projects.” Indeed! From his first project at the age of 9, buying and rebuilding junker motorbikes (with his paper route earnings), to a project with a children’s hospice he’s been working on for the last fifteen years which he calls his “most satisfying venture,” John Barker, with his wife Val, has dreamed up and made manifest projects that linger as daydreams for most other people.

While growing their illuminated sign and merchandising display business from a tiny two-person enterprise to a worldwide operation, they have built, restored or renovated close to twenty-five properties. There are almost too many to remember. “There were a dozen in England, two in Connecticut, one in Florida…” Val laughs and pauses trying to recall the rest. “Oh yes”, she says, and continues the list. There was that farmhouse in France and the three holiday homes in Spain and of course, four in Anguilla including their cherished Le Bleu. “And we once fixed up a yacht!” What on earth is behind this hobby, that makes most people tear their hair out but fills this couple with delight?

“We just get excited and think what fun it would be to use the house with the family – doing over houses is something I just love to do,” she explains. “It always feels like a good idea at the time,” she says laughing. Val admits they just are so focused on the work of the house-of-the-moment they aren’t thinking about what will happen when they finish. And naturally, she says, in the end there is never enough time to spend at the new property what with the business to attend to, and four children and 12 grandchildren at home in England.

All of the projects including their fairly recent pride and joy, Villa Le Bleu, involved hard work. John, at an age when many are retired, is even known to drive the construction machinery himself. Hard work, however, is not something John and Val shy away from. In fact, you might even say they chase it.  “You know,” John says with nostalgic admiration in his voice as he reminisces about their long relationship, “Val was on a drilling machine in our sign shop until 9pm the night before she had a baby.”

The couple, both of whom left school at fifteen, has never stopped working. They created and grew to maturity an international merchandising and display business. They bred milking cows, raised four children, restored, repaired and built houses in France and Spain and the Caribbean. John insists that neither building houses nor any of the businesses he has pursued have been about money. Yes, it’s nice to have some money says the man who at 11 years old was delivering newspapers and meat on a bicycle and working in a gas station. But, he says emphatically, “Money isn’t a goal and it isn’t the definition of success. What we do is never ever about money. “ Their satisfaction, he says, echoed by his wife, is just working hard and doing good.

Le Bleu, the couple’s tranquil hideout on Anguilla, was one of their most daunting projects. They went through several architects but felt no one really got what they were after. In the end, John says, they just sat down four hours a day for a month and studied and studied other building projects. “I drew it and handed it over to someone to draw in CAD,” he says, leaving the listener with the impression that doing the architectural drawings for a ten-bedroom house was the simplest thing in the world. “We flew by the seat of our pants,” Val says cheerily.

The result of this couple’s version of flying by the seat of their pants is a stately home with a quiet character all its own. The Barker touch includes details such as a gazebo on the beach, an Oriental water garden, baths carved out of Indian stone, and tiles from a Turkish quarry. The enclave has attracted photo shoots for brands such as Ralph Lauren and even grabbed the attention of the producers of the popular US reality TV show,The Bachelor, which found Le Bleu the perfect location for an episode.

When queried on her design aesthetic, Val responds with the same kind of modesty and understatement that characterizes both partners in this couple. “I don’t really think about it. It just comes to me.” And, of course, John and Val Barker say that when Le Bleu was finally finished they absolutely swore it was their final project. But that turned out not to be the case. Stay tuned. Who knows there may just be a Barker project coming to your neighborhood!