Category: Home Renovation Projects

October 11, 2016 Home Renovation Projects Post a Comment

Month Three: An update of progress at ‘Project Pego’

Month three of Project Pego.  Wow! Our Spanish townhouse renovation has been hard going this trip.  When we arrived just over four weeks ago I though I was going to have a full on melt down.  We’d just come back to Spain after spending the summer in our  clean, warm flat in Southampton.  Chilling out.  Going to festivals.  Visiting friends and family.

We arrived in Pego after a long drive from the UK  via France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland (our 30th country visited!) and soon remembered just what sort of project we had let ourselves in for.

See blog post: Oh F#*k! What have we brought?

Our original plan to concentrate on the main living.  Then we decided to make the terrace nice and fit the family bathroom.  But, as ever, the plans changed.

In the past four weeks, the house has completely changed.  The terrace has had a lot of work done to it, and although not finished, it looks a million miles from the drab, dilapidated, and leaking space that it was. 

The family bathroom now has a new external wall (how the original ever lasted is beyond us) with a new window.  The internal wall is gone – it took less than a minute to completely remove all trace!

Downstairs, the hideous courtyard wall has been rendered.  Gee what a difference that has made.  All three other external walls on the courtyard have been amended, too.  We’ve removed a set of doors from one side which we wont be replacing, and blocked another which will form the new wall of the downstairs ensuite.  The upper stable wall has been rebuilt with a huge space for patio doors which will now be part of the master bedroom suite.

Talking of master bedroom.  I am going to be like a princess!  We knocked the wall down adjoining the original large bedroom and stable to create one humongous space.  I’m pretty excited about this room.  And yes, I have already drawn the furniture in its space.  And a vase of flowers…. As well as knocking down the wall, we pulled down the original ceiling ready to replace next time, and rebuilt the floor in the stable before the termites ate it into a pile.

If that wasn’t enough, tiles have been flying off the wall in the kitchen, bathroom and from the ‘skirting boards’ around the other rooms and up the stairs.

Here’s a video of our progress at month three.  It’s a bit of a blurry quality this time (not sure why) and I sniff a few too many times (sorry – we’ve been quite poorly this last week) but it’s incredible the progress we’ve made this month!  I honestly didn’t think this would be the case four weeks ago!  Thanks mum & Gary for helping us 🙂

See blog post: Project Pego Progress: 2 months in

June 5, 2016 Home Renovation Projects Post a Comment

Our Sixth Renovation Begins: A Video Tour

Darren and I have just started our sixth renovation project.  This time, our task is to renovate a two bedroom Spanish town house in Pego, an hours drive from both Alicante or Valencia.  After mum bought her own villa in the town, we pursued the local estate agents online, and fell in love with the house we are now calling our Spanish home.  Having never visited the town before, we put a cheeky offer in on the property the first time we saw it (just 5 days after arriving in Pego).  Much to our surprise, the offer was accepted straight away.

Although perhaps we shouldn’t have been so surprised that he wanted to get the house off his hands.

The house is in need of a full renovation.  The roof leaks.  The water pipes leak.  There is minimal working electrics.  The electrics which do work cause electric shocks.  Bare wires dangling down are common.    Some plug sockets only work if you have a light switch on.  Others don’t work at all.  There is only hot water in the shower (although this is a new addition – there was no hot water when we moved in).  The toilet doesn’t flush.  The drains are knackered.  And they stink.  Paint is peeling off the wall.  In fact the walls are crumbling.  Some of the windows don’t have glass.  Some of the door frames don’t have doors – this includes external doors.  There is no such thing as central heating, and although we have two fireplaces there are no chimneys.  We also have woodworm.

Here’s a little video I took a few days after collecting the keys to the derelict house that we bought.  It’s the first time I’ve made a video of a home renovation project, and I can’t wait to look back on it next year, when we *hope* to have finished the works!

If you’ve done a similar project, I’ld love you to leave some links below so I can have a look at your progress / achievement.

A video tour of our Spanish town house renovation project

May 27, 2016 Home Renovation Projects Post a Comment

Our Fifth Renovation Project: Boston Court

Our fifth renovation project  was our smallest to date.  After selling our second renovation project, we struggled to find a new property to transfer the our mortgage to. Market conditions in Southampton were at a peak, and despite a number of above asking price offers, we failed to find a suitable property in the area. Set to loose the £7000 redemption fee imposed, I expanded the search radius on Rightmove, and a 2 bedroom flat appeared in the Chandlers Ford area. When we phoned to enquire we were told it had sold that morning (typical at the time), there was however a one bedroom property for sale in the same block.

At first, Darren point blank refused to consider a viewing a one bedroom property.  He said it  would be too small, but I really liked it, so he agreed to come and have a look round. Surprisingly for Darren, Boston Court stole both our hearts at the first viewing. Within an hour of looking around we called the estate agent and made an offer; after a few days and a little negotiation, the flat was ours.

Considering the other home renovation projects we have undertaken, Boston Court was in a fairly good state of repair. It even had a recently fitted kitchen and bathroom. The decoration however, was not to our taste. After exchanging contracts, we had just 5 weeks to renovate the property as we would be leaving the UK to realise our dream of travelling; starting with a road trip around Europe.

After emptying the property of furniture, keeping a few bits that would do us a turn (dining table, table nest and dining room table & chairs) we began with the quickest renovation we have undertaken to date. We striped all wallpaper (my absolute favourite renovation job!) and repainted the flat in our favourite paint colour ‘Antique White’ by B&Q colours which we complimented with brilliant white satin woodwork and new chrome handles.

We kept the flooring originally found in the flat, including the love/hate tartan hall carpet. We did however clean the tired and very dirty carpets with a hired ‘Dr Rug’ machine which provided the most amazing results!

With no gas to the property, we kept the economy 7 heaters (groan) and covered them with some pretty radiator covers (the B&Q Kensington range) and installed a new shower screen and removed the hideous purple carpets (really, why do people use carpets in bathrooms?), laying travertine tiles instead.

Lighting in the flat was a bit of a pain and it appears the original owner had installed customised wall lighting instead of the standard ceiling lights the rest of the flats have. There were no electrics for standard ceiling lights but luckily Ikea provided some pretty light fittings, if not entirely bright enough!

The most extravagant expense in our small budget renovation were made to measure blinds for the bedroom, bathroom and living room windows (a step we would never miss from a renovation project again). We fitted curtains to the kitchen patio doors and using the remnants (the fabric measured 3m), we covered two dining chairs which were left behind by previous owners, creating matching kitchen furniture.

It took just two weeks to complete our 5th renovation. With more time, and for a better potential return, we would like to replace the kitchen and bathroom and either lay laminate or tiles throughout the property. We would ideally like to design a new front door but the restraints on the building mean we may not be able to create our own design as we would like.

For now, Boston Court is the perfect flat for us. For a one bedroom property, we have a reasonable floor space and enough cupboards to store what little belonging we have left after selling everything we owned (again) to go travelling. We have a communal garden which is tended to weekly, meaning we can sit on our patio and look at the gardens without lifting a finger. The flat is easy to manage – cleaning is pretty swift, and with our current lifestyle, the flat it is perfect for renting out on a short term basis.

The only problem is; despite just three rooms in the property we still can never find our keys, phones or wallets. Some things never change.

May 15, 2016 Home Renovation Projects Post a Comment

Our Fourth Renovation Project: Vale Drive

Vale Drive, a two bedroom ground floor flat situated in Midanbury, Southampton became our fourth renovation project.  It also became our first property rental.  But it came about by complete accident.  We weren’t even looking for another project.

Darren had been asked by the nephew of the previous owner to quote on some renovations, but the day before he was scheduled to survey the property, Alan phoned and cancelled the appointment.  He felt that too much work needed doing on the property and had decided to sell up.  Darren sensed an opportunity to buy a cheap property, and Alan agreed to keep the appointment so we could have the first viewing.

The only problem was, having nearly finished our 2nd home renovation, and recently opening an ice cream parlour, we didn’t actually have any money to buy a new property.  Luckily we did have an idea that we thought might work.

My stepdad, Gary, had just sold his house, and whilst he and my mum were searching for the perfect property to purchase in Spain, the equity was sat in the bank.  Darren proposed that we purchase Vale Drive together, do it up, and sell it, giving Gary back his investment and splitting the profit.  Gary thought it was a good idea, too, so a couple of days later we truddled off to the meeting together and viewed the flat.

Vale Drive was in a sorry state of affairs.  Since his late wife had died some 25 years previously, the owner had barely ventured out, and apparently spent his final years sat in his chair, seemingly chain smoking  himself to death.

The walls of the flat were thick with nicotine.  The ceilings were thick with nicotine.  The carpets and curtains the same.  A room was filled with neat stacks of newspapers – The Daily Express – dating back to the nineties, with seemingly few copies missing.  Microwave meal boxes were neatly stacked next to the papers.

Alan was right.  The flat needed some work.  And that was only to clear it out.

With properties on Vale Drive fetching around £120,000 we offered Alan £75,000 for the flat with a lease extension, budgeting £15,000 for fees and renovation costs, which he accepted.

Once the gentleman shake had been done, we began clearing the flat right away, filling our local paper bin to the brim with 2 transit van loads of yellowing Daily Express newspapers, and the recycling bin with 33 empty catering sized pots of Bisto gravy!

There were problems with getting the 59 year lease renewed.  After a few months, we decided to offer Alan a lower price for the flat without the lease which we would renew ourselves.  In the end, we agreed on a £60,000 asking price and the payment of Alans legal fees.

With the flat cleared of all possessions, newspapers and gravy pots, we set about with the proper work.  

New windows and patio doors were installed, and the walls were re-plastered by a friend (one of the only jobs we don’t do ourselves on home renovations).  We fitted a new boiler and central heating, and rewired the electrics.  The entire house was painted in brilliant white, with the wood work in a stain gloss white.  New internal doors were added and we chose to paint them slate grey (left over from our front door and banister paint in Thorold Road).  We fitted laminate wood flooring to the kitchen and living areas and grey new carpets to the two bedrooms, and the windows had made to measure blinds fitted.  A new kitchen came from Magnets, and bathroom (except from sink unit which we were given) was bought from B&Q.

Outside, the house was painted with Sandtex Masonry Paint, and the patio jet-washed, making for instant improvements.  With a new fence and shed built and grass laid, the back garden looked beautiful!  Despite my initial reservations of using a grass seed, we used a product called Speedy Seed, and at just £8.99 per box had tufts of grass within a week, and a lush garden lawn within three.

In the end, the entire program of renovation cost us just over £7000, which brought the total cost of the flat to £70,000!

Although we first considered selling the flat, we had it valued for rental, and decided to take that route.  After a living in the flat ourselves for a couple of months, we found a tenant within a day of advertising (on Facebook, nonetheless) who has been looking after our flat ever since.

March 9, 2016 Home Renovation Projects Post a Comment

Our Second Home Renovation: Thorold Road

If we thought our first home renovation was hard going, our second home renovation, now becoming known as a ‘Metcalfe Makeover’ was in another league altogether! The three bedroom semi detached property which we bought in March 2013 was in a pretty bad state. We actually brought the house in the dark as there was no electric to the property, and I offered the full asking price at the viewing (much to Darrens dismay).

When we returned to have a proper look at the house during daylight hours, we saw the true extent of what we had bought. Our second home renovation project would be no quick flip…..

Our estate agent advised us to offer slightly less than the £175,000 asking price; a previous offer of £172,500 had been accepted before the buyers pulled out, so we did, and our lower offer was accepted. However, the mortgage survey claimed that the property needed wall ties, replacement soffit & facias, guttering and new lintels to the rear of the house and a retention was enforced. We split the retention charges with the seller. In the end, we purchased our second home renovation project for £170,000.

Thorold Road was a repossession, and sadly for the previous occupants, they felt the need to leave most of their possessions behind. We were told that the property would be cleared by the bank prior to our moving in, but as expected, our new property wasn’t emptied. As if we didn’t have a big enough project, the first two days of our home renovation were spent clearing the house (which included an incredible 12 TV’s). Nothing was salvageable, furniture and clothes stank so I couldn’t give it away, despite my initial plans to.

After we emptied the house, we had pest control visit. The mortgage company felt the house had wood worm, and added pest control to the condition of the retention. After a thorough inspection, it turns out the house didn’t have woodwor.  Still, I wanted to be sure there were no other creepy crawlies left behind, so the entire house was fumigated…

We considered, very briefly, to keep the original kitchen in all of its red and wooden glory for a while.  It would have been useful to have the work surfaces, but as disgusting as the rest of the house, we very quickly changed our mind.

After blocking up the backdoor, and replacing the kitchen window and lintels, we fitted a beautiful grey Ikea kitchen with white work surfaces and lovely ceramic butler sink. Most appliances were built in, and except for a few items used on a regular basis, everything was tidy and tucked away. To bring in a bit of colour we fitted a cerise pink roller blind and a layer of pink mosaic tiles over the the travertine edging. Darren didn’t want a splash back, so I spent forever cleaning the back of the cooker.  He didn’t get his own way on the next renovation!

Originally a separate room, we knocked the wall through to the kitchen to create a large kitchen / dinner space. With double aspect windows and a big window in the kitchen, the room was bright and airy. In fact, it was the space we used most in the house; we rarely used the lounge.

Mum had a mango wood table and chairs from gumtree which offered to look after it. The telephone chair also came from gumtree for just £40, but despite my plans to restore it, I never found the time. We bought the rocking chair from eBay for my nan when she was poorly, and I made her cushion to go with it (my first sewing project – it turned out OK). Grandad wouldn’t have it in the house after she passed away so we got it back, and it fitted just perfect in the previously empty corner. Curtains and nets (not only for old people) came from Ikea.

The lounge was the last room that we finished on our second home renovation – in fact, despite the rest of the room being ‘finished’ on Christmas Eve, 2013, we only hung the curtains the day before our first viewing! Because the house was so big, we never really went in the lounge, we were happy enough hanging out in the kitchen/dining space. And anyway, we never could find a solution to hanging curtains in the bay window which we both agreed on.

We created a simple fire place, and decided against having a mantle piece (otherwise known as a space for clutter) with a beautiful mirror – the frame of which we found at the local skip with mirrored glass cut to fit.

Never did we buy a TV stand, an old box was used to hold the TV off the floor, which we probably watched less than 5 times, and the three piece suite, like the mango table in the dining room was on loan.

Matching the rest of the downstairs area, we fitted a distressed look white laminate floor. We loved it, but we were asked a few times when we were going to finish the floor…

Originally the master bedroom (half filled with with a lifetime of possessions) had an entire wall of inbuilt cupboards, covered with a hideous patterned wallpaper to match the rest of the room. As we emptied the rubbish (thrown straight out of the windows) we bashed out the cupboards, and the room was instantly bigger.  We chose this room to be the master bedroom in part for its dual aspect windows, but mainly because of the beautiful views to the right over Southampton Waters and the Dock, where we could watch the cruise liners come in and out of the city.

Together with the entire house, the room was re-plastered and new UPVC windows installed. The walls were pained in our favourite ‘Antique White’ paint and new internal doors fitted. With my Dad a carpet fitter, we were lucky to have posh carpets at trade cost fitted upstairs.

We already had our bedroom furniture from our first home, which we actually bought just before we decided to move, and because of the eight-week wait for delivery, it was never unwrapped in the home it was intended. Fortunately, it fitted in our new home, which was lucky; it cost over £2000 just for the bed!

The chandelier was bought from eBay for just £50, curtains were bought from The Range, and curtain poles with more nets came from Ikea. The room was finished with the washing box which was left behind by the previous owner of our first house, a photograph from our round the world travels blown into large canvas, and a mirror I managed to acquire from a skip.

Our minimal guest bedroom contained the Hemnes furniture from our master bedroom in our first home renovation. Like the rest of the house it was very minimal, with only a bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers and mirror, and one canvas on the wall – just how I like it!

Our third bedroom, again with the fantastic views over Southampton water would have made a large single bedroom (it was actually advertised as a double but large single is a better description).  We used it as the office, and had enough room for two large untidy desks, restored chest of drawers and wardrobe, and a filing cabinet otherwise known as a dark hole.

The bathroom was quite possibly the most disgusting room in the house; mouldy windows, filthy fixtures and fittings and a radiator above the bath (why?).  With a large inbuilt airing cupboard, the bathroom was pretty cramped, so we smashed the airing cupboard out, built a new internal wall and moved the bath back which freed up space to move the sink to the back of the bathroom.

We bought all new appliances, including a bath for just £10. There wasn’t quite enough room for a separate shower, so we fitted a rainwater shower over the bath – and moved the radiator to a more suitable spot!  We chose travertine tiles for the floor, and used the same tiles on the wall around the bath, sink and shower area, which we finished with a mosaic trim.  I repainted a Hemnes chest of drawers from the Ikea bargain basement to cover the scratches, and finished it off with crystal knobs.

The open hallway was the one thing I fell in love with when we viewed the house.  When Darren asked why I wanted to buy a wreck the answer I gave was ‘that hallway’.  It was so open and bright!  We blocked up the original kitchen wall and used the dining room entrance instead.  What once was a pantry at the back of the kitchen became a downstairs toilet.  Upstairs, we moved the bathroom and bedroom doors, and whilst we did look a small piece of hallway, the floor space flowed much better.

Instead of buying a new front door, we sanded back and paint the original wooden door.  It looked great, so we decided to tie the colour in by painting the stair banister the same colour.  We weren’t sure that it would work, but it did!  (In the end we painted the garage door the same colour, too!)

Originally, the cloakroom was the kitchen pantry.  As much as I love a pantry, we figured that as we were creating a family home, and a downstairs toilet in its place would be more suitable.  The pantry was just about big enough to pull it off.

It’s perhaps not surprising we had a retention on our mortgage to sort the back of the property out. The back of the house certainly got the weather from Southampton water and was looking a bit sorry when we moved in. After knocking the kitchen and diner into one, we blocked up the single door in the kitchen and installed a larger window and new lintel as per retention (to take in more of the views of Southampton football stadium for tall people and little people on tip toes). We painted the house with brilliant white Sandtex paint, and with fresh guttering and a bit of decking to hide the horrid patio the back of the house looked beautiful!

The garden, or jungle, which it better resembled was the one project which we really didn’t want to tackle. For a three bedroom semi in Southampton, the garden was a very good size. In the end, we didn’t finish the garden – and it didn’t make a difference to the selling price. We saved a lot of time and a lot of money in the garden. Although it looked tidy by the time we moved out it certainly had none of the appeal that the garden in our first home had. We still look back with a sigh of relief that we got away from tackling the garden!  Never again will we buy a house with a jungle for a garden.

(Updated in 2026 to confirm we actually did buy a house with a jungle garden: Honeysuckle Cottage)

The majority of the renovations of our second home were completed within 9 months,  just in time for us to host our first large family Christmas.  Sometimes I wonder just where we found the time to finish these renovations as well as both work full time.  Most days we would be up at 6am and then not go to bed until 12am.  Still it paid off.  Two years to the day that we bought our second home, we moved out, having sold the house for significantly more than we had paid for it, and we were looking for project number five.

Whilst living at in this house we had already completed another two renovations – the Ice Cream Parlour Dora’s Cups & Cones which we had designed, opened and were now in the midst of selling, and and our fourth renovation project, a two bedroom flat that we would be moving into for the interim.  

But in a time of fast and overpriced house sales (which no doubt benefited our own home sale) – it was easier said than done….

Updated January 2026:

Looking back, it was Thorold Road that instilled the love of property renovation to Darren and I have to this day. And, ever since we have juggled multiple home renovation projects, spending most of our married life living out of a suitcase…