THE city centre apartment took months to perfect.

Jane Broughton wanted it to appeal to people in their 20s and 30s so the wackier the design the better.

By the time she'd finished, the Manchester home was kitted out with stainless steel and glass furniture and inflatable chairs - set against a backdrop of orange, lime and silver.

"I couldn't have lived there myself," said Jane. "It would have given me a headache." The Princess Street home - with its silver bacofoil curtains - went on to win an award.

Jane has worked for Crosby Homes for five years as the company's customer liaison manager.

"We take a great deal of care over what goes into the show house because it's so important to show the property at its best," said Jane, 49, of High Legh.

Her latest designs are now on show at St George's Park - Crosby's new development off Goughs Lane, Knutsford. For more than six months they planned what the Georgian-style show home should look, then moved everything in - in a week.

"I was busy on it all the time," said Jane, who worked with Arighi Bianchi, which loaned all the furniture.

Getting it right is crucial.

For style errors can deter potential buyers.

One customer noticed that the marble tiles in the entrance hall didn't quite match the downstairs toilet in the £500,000-plus show home.

"I know," said Jane.

But very little else gets past her eye for perfection.

"At the end of the day I have got very discerning customers who want everything from me yesterday."

Jane was born on Yarwood Heath Farm, off Chester Road, but now lives in High Legh.

It's not a Crosby home and it is, Jane admits, rather untidy.

But at work, she's a perfectionist.

"I am not known for my patience," she said. "I like things to be done."

She currently has to satisfy the varied demands of 60 buyers and as she talks, her mobile phone rings constantly.

Among the caller's was Posh Spice's mum. Her daughter's just bought a Crosby home in Alderley Edge with footballing fiance David Beckham.

Jane's hours are long - often 11-hours a day, seven days a week.

"I can meet each customer 10 times before they move in," she said.

Each show home is tailored to the lifestyle of the expected buyer and always starts in the kitchen.

"The kitchen and bathroom will always sell a house," said Jane.

At St George's Park, off Goughs Lane, no expense was spared on the five-bedroomed show home. It paid off. There are only five of the 23 properties left.

"Originally we planned to sell them over two years but they have gone so quickly that it will probably end after only a year," she said.

Crosby's, meanwhile, are now looking to Manchester - to an archway of 102 apartments spanning the canal.

But the developers love Knutsford.

"We will always keep building new houses out here," she said. "After all Crosby's have been in Knutsford a long time - they built most of the properties on Mereside Road."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.