Double Your House For Half The Money! Series 1 Episode 4 - FULL EPISODE

[Music] Britten's homeowners you need not be content with what you've got you can transform an ordinary home into the home of your dreams for a fraction of the price you can't afford your dream house in the location you really want you do have two options you can buy a house that works very well on the inside but the shell just doesn't work or buy something where the shell works really well but the inside doesn't work on this show I'm with two homeowners whose properties aren't working for them inside or out but who dream of transforming them into extraordinary homes but they're both challenging projects for different reasons if you were purists you'd be horrifying in Liverpool Vicky's home stop dreams of turning a grade 2 listed windmill into a luxury designer home and that's gonna be like a whole wall of gas doors okay but first I'm on my way - sorry to meet the Allens they want to massively increase the size of their four-bedroom house that's why they end up getting the sitting room when we end up getting relegated to the kitchen personnel manager Stuart Allen and his wife Fiona bought this house 10 years ago the house is probably the ugliest house in the road I think we had to really use our imagination when we first looked at the property the 1970s up tagging all tiles but we first saw them when we thought okay they've been saving hard to give the place a facelift ever since they moved in and with two growing daughters like lots of families they've become desperate for more space on the outnumbered sort of three to one in terms of girls to boys there's only one winner there they're all a bit fed up with sharing the only bathroom and it's not just the kids who are dying to get their own space stuff again sorry guys but extra space costs dearly in this affluent area where house prices are sky high Fiona and Stuart are taking me just down the road from their house to their dream home a bigger detached house with period features and a really attractive exterior this is the sort of house you'd ideally like that's the sort of thing it's a pretty looking house isn't it has a nice feel to it it's very much the kind of thing that would be looking for you know it's still really not affordable how much you reckon your property's worth at the moment about six hundred thousand at the moment whereas their dream house is on the market for nine hundred and fifty thousand pounds so Fiona's - it would need to find another 400,000 pounds to move here how much money have you got the budget is 180 okay so you're hoping to get twice as much house and only spend one hundred eighty thousand pounds achieving that so to buy their dream home they'd have to spend four hundred thousand pounds and they have less than half that money right now the reality is their house will need a lot of hard work and imagination downstairs there's a living room a cramped hallway a kitchen and a loo up says there are three good-sized bedrooms and a boxy fourth but just one family bathroom at the moment not many people would give this exterior a second glance I think a lot of people really struggle with with imagining how a building would look if it had different windows and different doors and different ports and different cladding on the outside because it can be really dramatic the difference something magic you could do with this house there's serious magic needed inside to where the problems are not only cosmetic its constricted isn't it this hallway feels a little like walking the back door if you get you know four or five people coming in at the same time we have to then sort of spill out into the kitchen yeah you need to clear the space quickly don't you this isn't Noah to hang coats or put any boots oh and he like that yes squeeze lips you come in go to the new go to the kitchen for God says that's it yes there is no love lost between the only living space and the four members of the family who share it talk me through why you don't like it this room it's quite a cold room I suppose the size of the windows and it's not very well insulated fine it's been perfectly nice sized room it just is a little bit bland hey I say there's no focal point in this room so yes it's just the box really so it's a cold damp box that you all share and some gentle parental bribery is at work here too we've been bugged by our eldest daughter in particular about getting a gerbil and I think he made the mistake of saying when we get the extension done you can have a gerbil so you're extending the house to fit a gerbil but it's not just the kids who wants some space for their hobbies so this is your study is it yes this shows how the balance of power works in the house the smallest room in the house is my room that's something that's got to change so you're feeling a bit put upon yeah and so what do you do in at the moment I've got acoustic guitar here I've got my bass guitar an amp in my cupboard in the bedroom for boys daily really a little bit of a den yeah yeah that's right yeah that you want all your all your toys in here with you that would be good Fiona and Stuart's budget of 180,000 pounds sounds like a lot of cash but it will be very tight indeed to make their house twice the size and transform both the inside and the outside so dramatically and their preferred looks the exterior doesn't come cheap the outside is one of our main issues was that you know we didn't look at the house at all how do you picture it in your head I think the style that we were looking for is a New England type style my sister lives in Canada and we've seen properties similar to that and we thought actually quite like one here if you want a traditional look but you're building a new house it works really well the New England look they like is inspired by the early colonies around Cape Cod people used wooden weather-boarding to protect their homes against the stormy weather and kept interiors clean and simple because resources were limited it's a great look but not as easy to achieve or as cheap as you might think if you're gonna go New England you need to go for it you do need to make sure that the detailing is absolutely spot-on I sort of think what you do do you need to make sure you do right and not try and scrimp and save everything that we've allocated is already in their budget so anything further I think will be a bit of a tricky one feeling a half way it could end up looking a bit like a garden shed good look for a new house you spend a fortune done well this could be such an exciting transformation of the exterior downstairs they're planning a single-story wraparound extension this will give the girls a playroom a funeral utility room as well as a kitchen diner with doors onto the garden on the front a double height addition will get rid of the boxy outline provides Stewart with a man cave and add a master ensuite upstairs but I'm particularly worried about the exterior as compromise could spell disaster the dangerous if they don't see it through I think it might just look like a sort of slightly peculiar 1970s house with plastic windows a bit of platforming on the outside the difficulty week and a half is that it's not her money there may be certain things that we decide to go with and we say we'll make sacrifices elsewhere and there may be other things that we say yeah we'd love to do it but we just can't afford it I know well the Allens Mull things over I'm on my way to Liverpool to meet yoga teacher Vikki Homestuck I really really like unique buildings and I didn't everyone see how I could bear a still home over the last 10 years Vicky's renovated eight flats and filled with confidence she took the plunge and bought this derelict grade 2 listed windmill for me the windmill is it's definitely my dream home is I want to be able to have amazing parties here I think it would be an amazing place to bring my children up and they can pretend to be Rapunzel in the towel Vickie paid a hundred and fifty thousand pounds for her windmill four years ago a similar sized three-bedroom house around here would've cost around six hundred thousand pounds so she would need to find over 450,000 pounds to move to a ready-made house but she only has a hundred thousand pounds she says it's her dream home but the last four years have been a nightmare for romantic Vicky I knew it was listed and therefore the planning might be a little bit more tricky but then I found out that lots of it was condemned and so that wasn't ideal endless chewing and throwing with a local authority in for architects later and things are still not finalized with the Planning Department and four years on she's still living in a caravan it does contain some say statistic come on give me a break even Vicky's most ardent supporter mom Ruth is tiring of the audio I kind of used to go round boasting about windmill saying my daughter's got a windmill now I'm like they mentioned the windmill I'm not surprised Vicky took the Sun because it's such an exciting and unusual building but we're storing unusual historic buildings comes with a host of problems I just hope she's up for the challenge it's clear on first glance that the windmill is a monster of a project especially with only a hundred thousand pounds it's 81 feet tall with seven floors increasing in size towards the bottom there's also a small ground-floor extension but at the moment it's windowless damp and derelict Vicky must resolve matters with the local authorities so she can begin her building work but it's important to clarify just what the various issues are so was it originally rendered it had a concrete render on the process of rendering the building they insisted it the alignment of which we all agree the ball was the sensible solution and so I had to pay extra because they wanted it white that problem has been resolved but there are still issues with this wall are you going to demolish this industry builder this is the council originally said I had to knock down and then I found out it's been there for 200 years there is also debate over the precise detailing of the window she can install it won't the glazing bars to be 25 mils or less which means I can't put a devil plays unit in local authorities very dramatically on their opinion and practice for listed buildings but I'm not sure wiki knew what she was taking on here and she's certainly in denial about how much there is to do if you took each floor and laid them out like a bungalow just got a bit of plaster and a wiring today getting Vikki to face facts could be a bit of a challenge but it is a worthwhile fight Towers windmills and lighthouses can make astonishing homes panoramic views gorgeous original features an amazing light make these houses truly special but their design quirks round rooms thick walls and lots of stairs also make conversions costly and time-consuming [Music] in Surrey Fiona Allen is project managing with no previous experience and the builders have arrived I don't think I'm gonna get lots of sleep builder Kevin and his team need to remove this three meter high banks so they can get equipment on an off-site day one I'm taking the back out but then two unexpected visitors from the camps and arrive basically your bridge a condition that you should be 8 metres or victory the problem is this beech tree it has a tree preservation order on it and Fiona's planning permission had a condition to say that its roots had to be protected and it's the fact there's no proof particularly whatsoever possibly being damaged breaching a tree preservation order can carry a fine of up to 20,000 pounds this could be a costly mistake for Fiona and Stewart they have no contingency in their budget and there's more bad news to come fortunately made redundant that's scary time the timing could be better I'm with two home improvers aiming to turn unusual properties into dream homes at a fraction of the cost of buying one in Liverpool Vicky's heart has completely swept aside any practical thinking I just knew it and refit they've stretched the way that had to have it that this was gonna be my dream home and in Surrey the Allen's are spending a hundred and eighty thousand pounds hoping to transform their boxy 70s house they want to give it a beautiful New England exterior and they're hoping to save a massive 220 thousand pounds by not moving it's not started well they have unwittingly breached a tree preservation order and could face a 20,000 pound file as far as we're concerned we have confirmation from Surrey County Council that we have the the authority to to remove the bank as long as we keep this tree which is what we've done first time project manager fiona has had a scary three weeks waiting for the council's decision hello it's me just heard from the council they're not good to do anything with the tree and so yeah good news something that we were obviously rather concerned about and very glad that it's all over now a scary moment for the Allens they can't afford to make any more mistakes like this one in Liverpool this derelict hundred and fifty thousand pound windmill is Vicki home stocks dream home although it doesn't look that dreamy at the moment she has designer plans for it how are you going to transform this into your dream home what's your vision for it all of this is gonna be a hard landscaping and I want this to be my like barbecue area a really nice seating thought like it would be really nice to put heated part in this is gonna be the kitchen it's gonna be a vaulted ceiling with chandeliers coming down and then that's gonna be like a whole wall of glass doors that all opened with a Jacuzzi out there okay I can see she's got the vision from downstairs you'll see up but I'm starting to wonder about her commitment to this huge project her current plans give Vickie five luxurious floors on the ground floor she's planning a kitchen extension and a self-contained flat to one side of the windmill inside there'll be a double height dining room and a yoga studio and two more bedrooms on the floors above but Vicky's biggest problem now is damp and decay the reality is I would concentrate on getting the windows in getting the doors in getting the heating on and getting it ventilated you need to heat the inside ventilate it and slowly the walls will start to dry up and I have more bad news do you think hundred thousand pound could finish this I don't think you're going to get this finished for your budget really but I do think that you can get it watertight dry with services in personally I don't think a hundred thousand pounds will get to a finished home but it can get her out of the woods if she starts to focus on practicalities this is a cautionary tale if you have a project that seems overwhelming and bogged down with problems you need to focus on achievable goals for Vickie the problem isn't getting finished it's getting started at all [Music] if you're working on a derelict building like Vickie's get watertight get a roof on and windows in so the weather can't do any more damage get advice from a qualified structural engineer support walls and floors with scaffolding and underpinning to prevent further collapse and add a contingency of at least 25% to your build budget for more information about this show or extending a house check out my scrapbook at channel for calm forward slash Sara [Music] over in Surrey fiona is trying to project manage if coming up really quickly and you know wasn't expecting it to be quite so quick the build is a huge challenge that needs to be dealt with carefully and hundreds of decisions need to be made very quickly I'll get your sample of what the fascia is going to look like get electrician's here to do the first fix I've got some samples coming for the guttering as well but you want fully glazed doors in those or to be honest I don't find that particularly exciting in things like the interior is you know it's more of my bag the responsibilities of a project manager are wide and varied but ultimately the smooth running and completion of a site rests with them this can be a much harder role than you imagined as it means you need to be across every single element of the build it takes knowledge and experience so if you don't have the knowledge and confidence it's well worth outsourcing this role if you're employing a project manager you should ask them for a full schedule of works including dates when you'll need to supply extras like kitchen and bathroom fittings a breakdown of all costs so you can economize if necessary and a materials list so that you can see what is budgeted as part of the build and what will be charged on top [Music] fiona is lucky she has a good and communicative builder the key ingredient to make up for her inexperience so what's the plan for the rest of the week or couple of weeks we've got the roof done we'll be inside we're open up that window we're skip the partition in that up the biggest area if the downstairs conversion is the kitchen fiona is keen to get the right one so if money was no object I have a bespoke kitchen you know lovely work tops and a large islands but this kind of handmade finish doesn't come cheap I didn't quite realize you know how much they are some of these kitchens say well I don't know don't know what we're going to do we've got to find a cheaper solution quickly before it causes delays we need a plan of the kitchen quite soon so that we can get electrics in we can get plumbing in we can get heating in because you can't do any of those until we know where any of the unions go but to avoid further delays which could have a huge impact on the budget I've got an idea so I'm showing them one way to get the kitchen they want for Less the kitchen what do you think it looks like the thirty thousand pound kitchen fiona has dreamt of but it's not there's lots and lots of things here that I think might enable you to bring the price of your kitchen right right right down there was this very reclaimed feel to this kitchen in fact most of this kitchen is secondhand sink is lovely isn't it do you think sadly souls through reclamation yards antique shops and online the kind of recycling that's good for the pocket the planet the dresser here and the cupboard here a repainted to match this is old reclaimed woods the covers around the corner these are old wine boxes that they turned into a cupboard and this under here these were made out of reclaimed bits of wood not much money has been spent this is teak which has been very inexpensive with a decent jointer you could cobble together a really pretty amazing kitchen there are lots of ways to save money on your kitchen by second hand you can find bespoke and display kitchens for sale online for a fraction of their original cost keep your units but replace just the work tops and doors to freshen up the kitchen mix and match your units then paint them to unify the look do you think you have put a lot of effort into sauce in the kitchen so far I suppose we've gone for looking at different companies rather than looking elsewhere outside of the actual kitchen companies themselves part of the challenge if we're to go this route is you know having the vision of the creativity to be able to spot that piece of furniture that little fantastic I'm hoping they give it a go using your creativity can save you money and if they buy a cheaper off-the-shelf kitchen instead they may compromise on quality and really regret it in Liverpool progress with yoga teacher Viki is a disaster exhale pants after two months she hasn't done an awful lot little seems to have changed at the windmill and so as anything actually happened to the building itself okay so you put temporary windows in but she still hasn't got matters resolved with the planning department if she doesn't she can wave goodbye to her dreams and her 150,000 pound investment I just wonder if a meeting with everybody where you say right we ought to resolve these issues and and then move forward may be a good idea there's a history here that almost needs to be sort of put two beds a few days on and finally some action Viki goes ahead and arranges a face-to-face meeting at the council I mean the meetin was quite positive yeah it was Vicky and her build a Karl are granted permission to retain a disputed wall and build the extension which will house her kitchen yeah I've got permission for the wall and that's all I was entrusted her yeah I believe it will be okay [Laughter] now she's cleared this hurdle surely she must go headlong into making the windmill watertight before it literally starts rotting away but after two more months of passed there is still little sign of progress Vicki isn't here instead she's celebrating her 30th birthday in Ibiza I don't regret coming away but when I'm lying around the pool reading a book I'm really annoyed I'm not pushing for words not the best time for a holiday the only way to complete a verb like Vicki's is to drive it forward relentlessly because it won't happen on its own it may feel like a thankless task but if you don't treat it like a job in itself you will end up treading water and going nowhere indefinitely and it's not that big a job and I know I keep saying it and everything's okay I think action must be taken Vicky needs to get someone experienced and practical to even stand a chance of saving the windmill and protecting her investment let alone having a beautiful home in Surrey things couldn't be more different after 11 weeks Fiona's become more confident and decisive working effectively with her builder Kabbalistic uttering aluminium aluminium yet the huge front and rear extensions are almost built and it's fully water types with roof and windows in place I can't wait to see how the Berbers progressing amazing project managing it's promoting me Kevin's been brilliant he's you know he's he's very you know he's been doing it for 30 years or so so would you say that you haven't really put Fiona and Stuart have saved money by compromising on materials choosing new PVC windows and fibre ball cladding rather than more expensive and traditional timber this saved them 20,000 pounds it does look great there's a bit of a shame they're not wooden windows they were really good wooden windows as they're really nice detail on them if you were purist you'd be horrified but the outside is making progress but I still think there are problems with what they're proposing to do inside the kitchen we'll sit in the middle of the house leading from the hall to the back extension but whenever you extend you need to make sure that the new rooms don't feel bolted on by sticking a QR code on the back wall before it's knocked down I can show them what the new space will look like and head off a potential problem now this is what your kitchen will look like but they haven't linked the Old Hall and their new kitchen at all a common mistake when extending but I've got a solution instead of this and put a window at the far end of the kitchen so that the window that you have the other side of the staircase floods through this window and will light all this area of the kitchen something we haven't thought about actually having seen that now we need to go away and ever think about it and decide what's the right thing to do I'm hoping they go for it because it will make the whole of the downstairs flow better yeah but while I'm here Stuart reveals some news that could stop this whole build in its tracks business I've been working for it's just been sold and so I thought should being made redundant main priority is really funny a lot of jobs that's scary times it is a little bit if I can't get another job then we probably would need to sell the property and moved to a smaller smaller house would you start the building right now if you knew that the redundancy was gonna happen I don't think we'd start it this moment the timing could be better I guess the problem is is that with redundancy looming ultimately every single penny going over well it's not coming in from anywhere so that's a major is it with no money coming in and with no contingency they need to stick to their budget more than ever and the first place to look is that kitchen so how much is the one that you'd really like to get it's about coming up to about thirty thousand pounds how much money have you got put aside for kitchen I've got eight thousand pounds that's a third of the price whether they go for a reclaimed kitchen like the one I showed them or not they must decide soon because now both time and money are running out I'm with two households trying to add value to their homes by extending and remodeling in Liverpool Vickie wants to play Rapunzel in her grade 2 listed windmill and is spending a hundred thousand pounds converting it into a home but there's been no progress on sight and drastic action has been taken Vicky has finally seen sense and has got someone practical in to help her mom Ruth has experience in building and planning I think he's quite a romantic soul I think she has visions of things of how they'll be I remember the day she came home with a glittery door handle and I said to her you just you're not gonna have a building that needs door handles like that Vickie my level of input it's all the practical stuff need to see if we can get the bath in this way well we're gonna have to get a bath in there somewhere she's the practical in - Vickie's dreamy yang exactly what Vicky needs to get things moving here try to keep her feet on the ground and find solutions for what she wants to do that are within her budget she's driving the bill forwards yeah we need a word about this roof Oh keep going more that's on the sill now loose energy is keeping morale high and progress quick Paul is looking absolutely fantastic what I want to know is can you win teddy bears so when does she need to order these french windows what we all need them for another week assault at last Viki is ditching her interior design dreams and concentrating on stabilizing the fabric of this building so I reckon in in about two and a half three months she'd be able to move in she's more realistic about what she can achieve and when it'd be freezing in the carat band in October they've been that I love a nice little one warm room and a bed one habitable room is pretty much what I reckon she could achieve on her budgets and over the next six weeks under mummeries control this derelict she'll begin isn't it more homely [Music] in Surrey Fiona and Stuart Allen are doubling the size of their 1970s house four months into the build it's time to break down the wall between the old house and the new extension and new steel beams in place to support the weight so Fiona can safely take out her aggression I always wanted to knock some wall down or other so I could do with a bit more but there's a snag this will be their new kitchen but they still haven't actually ordered any units to put in it they're not keen on the idea of sourcing solid wood carcasses from antique shops and online and at the last minute decided to buy ready-made cabinets off the shelf from a local joinery firm so if we decided to go ahead how long would it actually take if you wanted the kitchen tomorrow and give it to you tomorrow with the time frame fiona has left herself it's a practical decision and at 9 grand it's close to their 8 grand budget I just hope the finish lives up to Fiona's designer kitchen dreams for more information about this show or extending a house check out my scrapbook at channel for calm forward-slash Sarah when I first met Vicki six months ago her window was windowless damp and derelict [Music] now it may not look that different from the outside but inside it has been transformed and is well on the way to being habitable the walls are dry and no longer in danger of falling down the rotten beams and floorboards have been replaced with brand new wooden floors and stairs on the final run now we really are I know been saying it for a long time but we are this is still very much an ongoing project but at this rate should be finished in six months Vicki's biggest battle was getting this structure sound and she's done it the buttons are in place for the stud walls the rooms are taking shape and the window openings are prepared ready for the windows to arrive she's always going to be a bit of a dreamer but practical mum an imaginative Vicky have made a good team here when I first came here it felt a little bit like you're wading through treacle trying to get started and you've come on such a long way since then but now I've got a good team in place it seems to be just flying up do you have a very strong vision of what life's going to be like in here yeah I've been pitching it for so long kind of already picked out all the bedding than the lamps that's the important thing the bedding that's at this stage I'm thinking what you need is a scatter cushion when it's finished the ground floor will be a multi-purpose space Vickey plans to use it as her yoga studio but it will also double as a dining room with the kitchen in an extension after one side the ceiling will be removed creating a double height space featuring a mezzanine with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves this is gonna be wonderful so you'll have all this wallaby lined with books yeah which is really good for sound actually acoustically it's fantastic because it sucks up the echo it's a great idea to the line anything with books and good it'll make it a cozier space at the moment there's a ladder to reach the upper floors but soon a glamorous staircase will give access to the bedrooms above each floor we'll have a separate bathroom and bedroom you can really see how it's taking shape now I think it is a wise move to have bathroom facilities and every store not access to a bedroom because you don't want to go up or down three stories that find a little quite a few women that have been to see when you come up the stairs go through the bedrooms and it doesn't really work I just wouldn't want them for walking through your bedrooms and actually it is an unconventional building and it is tricky to make it work yes it's working it's making it look good [Music] I'm really impressed that Vicky and her architect have been so practical about their plans for the windmill creating as many flat walls as possible these are cheap to build and furnish because she won't need to Commission bespoke furniture she's staying true to the original windmill but also turning it into a successful modern space but it's been a long and painful journey to get here this has been such a battle hasn't it really when you think yes and for four years this building stood pretty much empty with you but almost paralyzed by the amount of work to do and knowing where to start I knew when I bought it I wanted to completely remodel it but having done a country with one bedroom flat self I thought I had an idea what what that would entail and it's not the same in a listed building I thought once I've got my planning consent which was the big fight I just get a builder and then I'd move in and it would all be done if I'd had the four years experience I've got now and I bought this again it would be finished in 12 months so you'd have done it very differently so has it all been worth it do you did have a budget of a hundred thousands now it's not finished and and it's not gonna cost a hundred thousand is it how much do you think it'll now cost in total one hundred and fifty thousand it would have cost Vicky an extra four hundred and fifty thousand pounds to buy a house with the same living space as her windmill will have if she manages to complete the renovations for 150,000 she'll have made a saving of 300 thousand pounds on moving I think it will be quite useable to assume its value when it's finished would be around six hundred thousand so you should end up with with double what you spent on it so three hundred thousand pounds of equity sitting in your house yeah and it's a win though it's a win will [Music] I'm not that surprised that Vicki ran into a whole host of problems with this unusual project but she's now well on her way to creating her magical tower if she can stay focused she should soon not only end up with a valuable asset but also a perfect home to live in but will the Allen family end up with their dream home back in Surrey yes that looks spectacular did you imagine it to be as gorgeous as this it's pretty much identical to what we wanted [Music] six months ago Fiona and Stuart's home was a boxy 70s build in need of cosmetic surgery it was given a dramatic facelift and now it's almost unrecognizable yes that looks spectacular the house has been transformed into a New England style villa [Music] they've ditched the 1970s tiles and replaced them with coordinating render and weather boarding [Music] the dated windows are now smart sashes and their floor space has doubled to more than 2,000 square feet [Music] hi this looks amazing that really is the most brilliant transformation your beautiful new New England home has swallowed up disappears did you imagine it to be in real life as gorgeous as this we hoped it was going to turn out as well as the pictures and the drawings and if it was 80 90 percent of that we'd be delighted and it's pretty much identical to what we wanted so it's actually a hundred percent what you wanted not just 80 percent exactly six months ago the inside of the house was boxy featureless and lacking in personality now they've knocked out the back wall of the house and built a huge wraparound ground-floor extension creating a spectacular open-plan kitchen diner goodness me where's Sol ice and bright out here so all of this is new isn't this absolutely the dark kitchen where the family squashed together to cook work and play is now an airy space with doors onto the garden [Music] there's space for food preparation eating and socializing and the way the space works with the new extension and then blending through to the old part of the house works brilliantly fiona has got her painted wood kitchen so is this your dream kitchen come to me pretty much yeah yes it's all that I want love the look of it the color and you know just been really pleased with it all the kitchen looks great and at nine thousand pounds it's also amazing value and the worktops are a great success now you were quite sold on composite or granite at the beginning of this project won't be for worktop and you change around along the way the key thing that made the difference was actually seeing how good the other property looked with a wood surface and also the fact that it was Wes granite worktops would have set them back around 2400 pounds this wood block was just 1450 a brilliant saving they've kept a tight rein on their tight budget and done really well but in some places I think they might have missed opportunities to make things even better I was always worried the hallway might feel a bit pokey and it still does for such a beautiful house but they've managed to give each member of the family their own space upstairs Stewart of Fiona have a new master bedroom and ensuite which means they don't have to cube the family bathroom in the mornings the girls have a playroom and the pet they were promised and Stewart has his mancave next door this is now a really successful room where it really didn't work before I think having a focal feature with a fireplace and the windows means that there's a direction that you're focusing in on in the room which enables you to put the furniture in a more logical place and makes the whole room work better when the kids have got the playroom and they can make as much mess as they like in there and you know we can enjoy entertaining friends here I've got to say it does look very grown-up [Laughter] Fiona and Stewart saved hard for nine long years to fund this amazing build and it's time to see if the sums add up having wasted nine years to make sure you did this project when you were financially secure then halfway through the bills you may have done them which must have been horrendous it was quite tough and fortunately I've been able to find another job which is a fantastic opportunity I'm really really excited about you had 180,000 budget did you manage to stick to the budgets pretty much in terms of the original scope of the build I mean we took some decisions once I've secured another job to be able to finish things properly in total we've spent 190,000 it would have cost them four hundred thousand pounds to move to their dream house around the corner they've overspent on their original budget with final costs of a hundred and ninety thousand pounds but they've still saved two hundred and ten thousand pounds and I've more good news you started off with this house that wasn't particularly popular or attractive being worth about six hundred thousand I think it would be very realistic to say that it would now be worth around nine hundred thousand pounds that must feel pretty good how does it feel that it's all over can you quite believe it really excited about how much turned out and delighted that we've been able to do it done it's exactly what we wanted and we're so pleased with what we've got [Music] and Stewart's have done amazingly well they've created their dream home at for nineteen seventies shoe box this is the sort of project which feels my passion for prophecy you'd never guess in a million years there was once an ugly duckling where now stands this beautiful swamp [Music]

Channel: HomeStyle

Views: 185,731

Rating: 4.83569 out of 5

Keywords: home style, homestyle, daytime, daytime tv, british tv, fashion, building a house, house transformation, styling guide, bargain hunt, redesign, restoration home, restoration, home flipping, lifestyle tv, Sarah Beeny, double your home, double your house, double your house for half the money, double your house episode, crafts, diy projects, DIY room decor, double your house full episodes, before and after, sarah beeny renovate, sarah beeny tv, home projects

Id: sb8qkMYdKsk

Length: 45min 49sec (2749 seconds)

Published: Sun May 03 2020