IT IS a rags to riches fairytale story for Anthony and Nina Tagliaferro who, as teenage lovers, camped out for 60 hours to buy the house of their dreams.

The young couple couldn't believe their luck when the Ministry of Defence put up some of its RAF married quarters for sale at a knockdown price in 1982.

They set up sleeping bags and chairs with determination to buy their first home together, with plans to decorate it before they got married and move in when they returned from honeymoon.

Anthony was a poor apprentice and Nina helped make ends meet by working in an old people's home.

Now, 16 years on, the couple are still blissfully happy but Anthony, affectionately called 'Tag' by Nina, owns his own company and the couple live with their five children in a beautiful big house in Launton, near Bicester.

It is a real story of success for the couple.

"We camped out and were first in the queue to buy one of the houses.

"As I was an apprentice at the time, I couldn't get much time off work so Nina's dad stepped in and camped out whenever I had to work to keep Nina company.

"It was quite funny because we had gone to have a quick look at the houses to go on sale and there were a few more couples looking around as well and they asked us if we were starting a queue. So Nina and I looked at each other and said 'Yes' so that's how we ended up at the front of the queue!" he laughed. "We camped night and day. It was Nina's idea and we both knew we were going to get married. These houses were being sold at so much under the market price and we camped because we were so desperate to buy one.

"We lived locally so Nina shot home to get sleeping bags and chairs and I stayed in the queue which we had formed.

"It was crazy!"

Finally their queuing paid off and they bought a three-bedroomed semi-detached house at about £16,500 but spent a year-and-a-half doing it up.

Two years later they sold the house for much more than they had paid and made a profit before moving into a house in Bicester. Now they live in a beautiful large six-bedroom house.

Nina, now 32, said: "I was just leaving school and was working in an old folks' home and Tag was an apprentice.

"It's really strange because people thought we were mad for wanting to buy a house.

"But we were already engaged by then and we were so determined and it was such a deal to get something like this. And we are still as much in love now as we were then. I still get excited when he comes home from work.

"We have lots of very happy memories of the first house we bought.

"The house we have now is very old - about 300 years - and the man who owned it before was a builder and put a very tasteful extension on it.

"It is a brilliant family farmhouse in the sort of place people go to for walks on Sundays.

"We have been very lucky."

Our picture shows Anthony and Nina with children Tara, left, Miles, Gemma, Aidan and Sky

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