WHEN friends of Claire and Richard Davies offered to paint the outside of their new house, the couple didn’t expect pink with lime green hearts.

The couple have just bought a home in Linden Road, Bicester, and when their friends said they would give the outside a lick of paint as a house-warming gift, they accepted without hesitation.

Last Monday, a team of handymen and women went to the house to give it a new look.

The group, led by Steve Brennan, Barry Maggs and Lloyd Bryant, went armed with ladders, brushes, pink paint found in one of their garages, and a specially chosen lime green.

The once cream-fronted house was left in the pink, decorated with a lime smiley face, flower and big hearts.

Mr Brennan, also of Linden Road, said: “It was our last chance to do something before they picked up the keys.

“Eight of us came down here about 9pm with ladders and paint and off we went.

“We were doing it in the dark – people in the street started to notice and all of a sudden there was a group of people and flashes were going off from people taking pictures.”

The next morning, when Mr and Mrs Davies turned up at the house to measure for carpets and curtains, they needed sunglasses.

Mrs Davies, 24, said: “I turned up and it was pink.

“I burst out laughing, I thought it was brilliant, but my husband wasn’t impressed.

“It will be coming off at some point, because they’re going to paint the whole thing for us. They were just having some fun with it before they do it properly.”