This Country Home Is Worth $1.4 MILLION And Now I Risk Losing It | Country House Rescue | Abode

abbey door court in herefordshire has been empty for almost a decade and is in a perilous state carys ward has owned the estate since 1967 and she's determined to keep the house in the family it wouldn't be sold if i was around no way desperate to save abby door from dereliction granddaughter claire sage has called in ruth watson to help but finding a solution isn't going to be easy the whole family is so uninformed to bring in much needed revenue ruth wants to see this fine house open as a bed and breakfast well from my point of view i can think of nothing more ghastly has ruth watson finally met her match in cary's ward we haven't got a committee i actually do know what i'm talking about do not know no those figures i am jack spratt [Music] caris ward fell in love with abby door court over 40 years ago she sold her small farm in warwickshire and bought the estate for 12 000 pounds it is a very special place the whole atmosphere here is totally different to anywhere that i've ever been to before and i think that's where its strength lies a passionate horticulturalist 81 year old carys has single-handedly cultivated a stunning garden out of the surrounding fields her creation attracts visitors from all over the country carys brought up her three children in the main house but ten years ago when the property became too much to manage she moved out into a smaller cottage on the ground this is warm for a start having always lived in very cold houses the feeling of being warm is quite surprising left empty and unloved abby door court is falling into disrepair houses can withstand anything houses will rise from the ashes if they're going to carys granddaughter claire sage is passionate about abbey door court she and siblings hannah and julian grew up with their parents in the old servants quarters claire's parents now live away but the siblings all in their twenties still live on the estate but it's claire who has a strong affinity with the house i can't explain what it is about the house and living here that i just i can't bear to see it how it is and how it's falling apart and knowing how it was i think that's the worst and how happy we all were in the house and how happy the house was claire still lives in the servant's quarters and works as a hospital administrator but it's her dream to give up her job and devote herself to restoring the mansion to its former glory my goal in life now is to make the house work and to make it a business and a home grandmother carys insists she's happy to take a back seat i don't really mind what happens to the house as long as it doesn't intrude on the garden i can't wait to back out but as head of the family carries very much overseas proceedings and if claire's to get her wish she'll have to convince her grandmother that she's up to the job we do differ but we have discussions and some of the things she says i don't agree with and some of the things i say she can't see that would work in a bid to win her grandmother over claire's called in renowned hotelier and businesswoman ruth watson to help save the crumbling pile ruth's come to herefordshire to meet claire she receives a warm welcome albeit under a rather precarious porch hi there hello are we safe just about yes okay nice to meet you nice to meet you too though i think we could find some better surroundings yes i think this kind of defines dilapidation doesn't it let's go in let's go in ruth discovers that part of the house is already being redecorated and the ornate plaster moldings restored [Music] so what's going on here claire what are all these we had a horrible water leak in the drawing room and the bedroom above remains pipe burst so we have water just pouring through so i'm lucky we're all insured so we'll have all the work redone at the moment but the insurance money will only pay for the rooms affected by the leak financing the rest is up to the family [Music] oh that's a very ugly mark on the wall yeah we had some gutterings were blocked on the other side so we didn't realize for quite some time we've now kind of removed it so it's drying out does nobody realize that all householders have to actually just get up once a year to clear the gutters yeah just no one took responsibility for it we all just closed doors and it was out of sight out of mind and no one's really thought anything with it so when your grandmother vacated did she do that you said it was because the house was too big but did she literally just lock the door and say sorry don't care anymore pretty much bluntly yes that's kind of just it was just too much the house might be in a bad state of repair but claire is still lost in the romance of abby door court this is the drawing room just in here oh now this isn't a small room no this is definitely the main feature this is one of my future what a beautiful room this was just a lovely kind of family room really had lots of kind of sofas and chairs we had a rocking horse in the window normally one wouldn't think this but the pipes bursting mean that you were able to make an insurance claim it was a blessing in disguise actually it was horrendous when it happened and to see the damage that it caused was just unbearable but now it's just so exciting coming in here and just seeing it and imagining how it's going to look like when it's finished claire realizes that this is a good opportunity to get the whole house up and running if she can persuade her grandmother to help just watch your step right here it is very simple this is slightly overgrown here's my grandmother hard at work is there everything he certainly is that's my grandmother i'm guessing your cat i'm curious carrick it's very good to meet you and what enormous effort you must put into this garden it's so labor intensive it is very labor intensive i suppose but um it's not too bad the gardens are looking in very good array and the house looks in desperate straits did you feel that you deliberately abandoned it or that you just know no it's never been abandoned it kind of in a way we just left it be you know because but it wasn't abandoned i don't know i think it's been easy to kind of close doors and it's left a time as the one we've had with parties and things with carys now in her 80s the return of three grandchildren to abbey door court is something of a blessing did you expect all the grandchildren to come back no never so what would you have done what i'm doing now which is living here and doing the garden and then the rest of it would have just well something would have turned up i expect abidor court has languished for some 10 years and is crying out for affection to find out where their loyalties lie ruth gathers together carys claire and brother julian so the neutrality possibly of your grandmother lack of enthusiasm if i'm you know taking it step further about the house is actually in direct contrast to how you feel about the house i think that's how it works well is that i'm so enthusiastic about it my future is bringing the house back to how it was i'm trying to understand where everyone lives for a start caris here in the huntsman's cottage and jules you're over in the gardener's cottage yep that's right and do you normally come and work here or have you got a would appear you have a job somewhere else i do have a job yeah um i work full-time in hereford at the moment and i do help out when i can here you lean more towards your grandmother's love of the land i would say so yeah yeah but if all could be kept together and all could be enjoyed together yeah in harmony that we can all have our own roles and and work together and keep the place going i'm with the garden with the main house with the ancillary cottages yeah that would be lovely so we've each got our own everyone would be happy charis even you even me but i shall be here that much longer hopefully that's the thing about gardeners you know they tend to go on a long time the problem is who's going to take ultimate responsibility and put a stop to the rot at abbey door court the one thing i'm absolutely certain of is that carys really loves the garden loves the landscape and the house doesn't mean too much to her and that claire really loves the house and it's just as well that somebody does because i think it is going to be down to the grandchildren to make this work having met ruth julian and claire realize she's got a battle on her hands to win over their grandmother she can probably come across as quite intimidating with some of some of the questions ruth yeah no no i think ruth can come across quite intimidating i think they've got similar characteristics is that the kind of the better way but i think it's good it's kind of it's a bit like an arm wrestle at the moment and yeah we're waiting for someone to give rescuing abby door court from ruin is a massive undertaking it would make a beautiful bedroom but there has to be some investment here and ruth crosses swords with carys i don't believe you come on how is it i don't know [Music] the history of abidor court in herefordshire stretches back to the 12th century when it is said to have provided accommodation for the nearby door abbey the stable yard was built in the 17th century when the house became a coaching inn today the estate has 140 acres of prime land and an exquisite garden on the banks of the river door [Music] the centerpiece of the estate is this charming mansion these grand rooms with their fine moldings and handsome facade were added to the existing house in 1857 claire sage wants to see the deserted house restored and dreams of giving up her job to run it commercially but she needs to convince her grandmother caris ward that she can manage a viable business here the only current income is from visitors to the gardens plant sales and a tea room open at weekends but these only bring in 2 000 pounds a year and the house will need to dramatically increase its revenue if it's to survive claire's called on businesswoman ruth watson to help still living in the old servants quarters where she was brought up as a child claire meets ruth here at the back of the house hello hi morning chair how are you good thank you yes not so bad this is your little quarters it's easy so this was the seventh quarters but you've always lived here haven't you always lived this is the sitting room just in through here i have to say it's quite little it's cozy it's nice i love it how do you relate to that bit over there i guess because this has always been home so for me this is kind of where i feel comfortable and i'm happy and and through there i kind of see as the future of of here really so it's that sort of work is that the business yeah my grandmother wonders why because she said she always says one day you can live in there but i don't think i ever will in my mind i won't ever live in there how are we doing in terms of decor and dilapidation because we talk about the main house having lots of things wrong but i mean this ceiling doesn't look the best under the bath we've got um old pipes on the bath and they've had a leak and we didn't realize we're not sure what this one is that's kind of just deadly getting worse we've got water coming in on the stairs and on the landing and i've got buckets catching that but that's kind of it's nowhere near as bad as through there and it's kind of i'm used to it i guess now i just live with it this is where you're talking about the damp yeah yeah just at the top of the side on the stairs the water comes through there i've got a bucket catching the drips that come through when claire was growing up her family lived in the modest servants quarters while carys lived alone in the main house next door it's interesting because other people would be more selfish they would want to be in this part of the house and you know hang that bit i've always been in that half of the house my grandmother had this half and we came in kind of family occasions and things like that so it's always been very separate sweet it's sweet and the kitchens come on we're on our way to the house hasn't been lived in for around 10 years but claire has warm memories of her childhood here this is one of the kitchens here oh now isn't that strange one always expects an auger to be piping hot not frigid cold yeah very much used to be it was always kind of this was the center of the house when we were younger we used to sit here with children or leaning up against the ark of my grandmother in the chair there my mum there and then kind of sunday night tv on in the corner and the dogs around us it doesn't feel that way now does it no it's not i don't like being in this room so much now it's nowhere near what it was like when we were small no it's not fair on the house that it's going to the state at the moment i just think if we can bring it back and people can come and enjoy it i think that's the main thing that i want for the house definitely claire has already started making some income by opening a tea room at weekends for visitors to her grandmother's garden and this is obviously the stables it is yet to do the old stables that when they first came here yeah and i'm really charming you've done a really nice job it's very professional it's it's got a nice homely feel but it looks proper as well and tidy hopefully it's lovely yeah this is a good omen for the house hopefully thank you in her first year claire has made a success of the tea room but even with the money from the gardens it won't make nearly enough to pay for the upkeep of the house ruth sets off on her own to find out what potential the rest of the estate has to offer she starts in the menage once used for exercising horses it's the most fantastic space and if you got rid of the tractors and logs and put them into one of the other outbuildings how about this for an indoor market or a permanent retail space i mean it's such a waste not to be used ruth is also convinced that the house itself has money making potential in such a picture-perfect location the property could make an ideal guest house but it will take upwards of 150 000 pounds to restore the mansion you know one thing about this house is there isn't a rotten view out of any winter it is so beautifully situated but this room is above the drawing room and it's where the damage occurred from through the roof and it's lost all its cornicing it would make a beautiful bedroom but there has to be some investment here and my view is that while the whole of the house needs redoing and certainly the upstairs bedrooms you might as well go the whole hog and actually make if not all the bedrooms ensuite at least a number of them because if this is going to trade in any capacity it's got to look rather better than it does now as a successful hotelier ruth knows that guests looking for a country house retreat demand a high standard of accommodation [Music] i can actually see daylight through there [Music] boasting some of the most beautiful countryside in england herefordshire is a popular destination with tourists and ruth thinks abby dawg court should be capitalizing on this to secure its future she's on her way to nearby heyon y home to the world famous book festival to meet organizer peter florence how many visitors do you have here we have 75 000 visitors every year so where do they go well we used to worry about hotels and b and b's but actually what happens is that every guest room anywhere around here is full the kids are in a tent in the garden and it's a wonderful gathering social gathering people come home like a kind of thanksgiving um without turkey so somebody who might be setting up a b b within half an hour 45 minutes is not going to have any problem filling their rooms no and there's so much that goes on through the year even in festivals terms there are festivals every month around here what sort oh there's the fantastic ledbury poetry festival there's the cheltenham festival which is even within 45 minutes driving distance as well there's the abigail food festival which is now i think one of the most exciting in britain so all the time visitors love to come to this area and the joy that i guess is that it's a very peculiarly british weekend that they would have when they came with no shortage of visitors it's clear that abbey door court could attract year-round paying guests ruth's next port of call is the old vicarage 30 miles away in norton prestaine like abby daw it was once dilapidated but has been lovingly restored and turned into a successful bnb by paul gerrard and john mccall i'm paul hello paul hi and hello i'm john john hello and i'm ruth and what a very handsome house you have yes and staggering good reviews and a staggering george clooney's got licorice was it really difficult to find three years of struggle yeah but we got here in the end paul and john bought the house in 1997 for 240 000 pounds and spent a further 150 000 pounds lovingly restoring it it's wonderful with the dual aspect it's really beautiful room yes it's lovely lovely very nice what we wanted to share with people was our home in that sense everything we do here is based on home so guests are welcome to use this drawing room or study or the dining room or whatever really and it's a friendly environment where there's no little signs telling you not to do things and that's been very successful because guests come back time and time again was it in a really polished state or it was very much unloved yeah and everything was here but hidden away under layers and loads of paint this room took 16 weeks of work for example really yes so a lot of investment in time and dare i ask money yes look a little bit but we didn't keep too close to tab if you wanted to remain sane but was it tens of thousands to restore yes it must have been yes something you love doing yes you have to um enjoy meeting people you have to enjoy being with people it is very hard work but the rewards financial and otherwise are enormous the old vicarage has fewer bedrooms than abidor court rates are 100 pounds per night and with a high occupancy it brings in enough money to support the business [Applause] having done her research ruth's even more convinced that abby dawg can operate as a successful business she's back to share her findings with carys and claire hello how are you claire full marks for asking for help i have to say that because i do think the house is in a pretty parlour state you know i know you've had the damp problems which have been caused by pipes but i do think there is actually quite a lot of work that needs to be done here because if this house is going to trade i'm afraid the standards need to be raised first ruth has a money-making idea for the menage i have noticed that there's a real absence of shops when i drive around the place if you could actually have a monthly event that wasn't just about produce but was about everything to do with crafts local crafts people coming here food producers for sure but everything that anyone wanted to sell because you've got that amazing space the menage the benefit for you is that you charge rent for the stalls you get an up trade because you've got the tea room there and if you were to provide light lunches as well so much the better i think you should have a stall yourself selling cakes and all the wonderful things people like to buy and go and scoff we've got plant cells already so you can add to your plant cells and of course people can go into the gardens as well next ruth turns her attention to accommodation with several bnbs in the village she's worked out that abbey door court could turn over around sixty thousand pounds a year providing an income of at least thirty thousand [Music] what i think the house could be turned into is a five bedroom mostly ensuite guest house with the place that i went to they only have three bedrooms they have fabulous views but the house is no nicer than this the bedrooms are a lot smaller than these would be they are charging 100 pounds per night they are about 85 percent occupancy full the year round and they are making enough money for two people to live quite happily off the earnings and and to keep investing back into the house if you could see that your whole family your grandchildren would be able to live here enjoy this house this estate this garden and all get a living from it is that something that you think that you might be prepared to do to help well obviously somehow or another we've got to find money to do it there's no doubt about that what i do know is that there is a shortage of accommodation in herefordshire and that you do have the most extraordinary amount of happenings going on from food and literary festivals to you know that the place is teeming with events it's just wonderful and i don't think you'll have any problem filling i really don't i quite like the idea do you it's going to be that the hardest for you but if the family is to make a success of a business they'll have to decide how they manage the project how do you feel about merging with the others and you know everybody benefiting i think we need to talk about that definitely finally ruth leaves claire with some homework now before my next visit i'd like to charge you with some activities i think claire you need to go and look at a b b to see how they do it i think it'll be very encouraging and inspirational and i'd also like to see if we could do a trial of this internal farmer's market stroke trading area in the menage it's a brilliant space and i think if you could set that up with stall holders coming to sell their wares let's see how it works i think it could be a real success i really think that if this family all pulls together in the way that it can do because you're all strong determined hard-working people i think this is really attainable the idea that abby dole court is sustainable that the family can all live here together and the family can all prosper here to make any change at abby door claire realizes that her grandmother needs to be on board the bmb idea is definitely something that's come up in the past but i don't know i never really got i think because my grandmother said um not really we all just couldn't all know that won't happen let's move on to the next thing but ruth knows that to make a success here the next generation needs to be given the opportunity although her grandmother didn't think she would like the idea of running a b b claire actually said yes she would love doing it but there's a long way to go because this family have now got to sit down and talk to each other about who does what they've got to create some kind of proper strategy that will work long term and above all there's got to be some funding found from somewhere if claire's to achieve her dream of running abby door court as a business she must prove that she's got what it takes do you think your grandmother's got confidence in you sometimes i question it but it's not going to be easy she's the one that stirred it up and started it [Music] abbey door court in herefordshire is in trouble claire sage has drafted in ruth watson to save the family home from dereliction i've lived here my whole life 27 years it's horrible to see something you love just deteriorate like that but ruth faces two obstacles the house requires a massive cash injection and needs to earn its keep it's claire's ambition to run the house as a bnb and successful hotelier ruth thinks it's a concept that could work but claire's grandmother carys ward is less convinced well from my point of view i can think of nothing more ghastly but i'm a bit worried about what claire might be landed with despite karis's concerns ruth wants claire to experience the bnb industry for herself saturday 7 a.m and claire's come to hanover house in cheltenham it's a smaller property than abby dawg court but requires just as much work sorry i'm james yes hello nice to meet you welcome to hannover house this morning i've got um two cup breakfasts five scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and one poached egg today claire's assisting owner veronica ritchie have you ever cooked scrambled eggs um no microwave from my university days there's tomatoes and mushrooms to go on making breakfast for six guests might appear easy but it requires a lot of planning and organization this bnb gets through 1200 sausages over 2 000 rounds of toast and 2 500 eggs a year this one starts to get very complicated everybody wanting different things [Music] coffees [Music] the tea room seems very easy right now compared to running this there's a poached egg isn't it with this one too yeah does that have that bacon doing two more to come down is that right here this is how you thought it would be it's a lot of work that's the main thing that's coming across at the moment actually today's quite organized it takes veronica almost four hours to prepare cook serve and clear breakfast and then it's time to move on to the bedrooms just check the teapot all this has to be replenished washed and brought back for the new guests i'll do this the new banana will strip the beds remake them how long does it take to do everything in the room i would think you're looking at a good hour easy dressing gowns need to be flunk first impressions are very important claire when people come into the bedrooms yeah on top of this there's cleaning laundry and ironing even with help this would be a full day's work for claire at abbey doors just right appreciate it thank you bye-bye bye-bye sophie claire's arduous shift has made her realize that working in the hospitality business is tough incredible experience really enjoyed it it was really good to come and done that and just to see how much work there really is what their day is really and then i'll take it back to the family and we'll go from there really as well as opening as a bnb ruth wants the family to consider alternative revenue streams she suggested they utilize the outbuildings at abbey door and trial a farmers market in the menage but grandmother carys is skeptical i think they're too many farmers markets there are so many and yes i think a farmers market is not the thing to do here really claire's pulled out all the stops to arrange today's market but there's one thing that she hasn't been able to organize if you have the weather i don't think it's going to go very well and i think people will be put off from leaving their homes and caris remains lukewarm about the event i really have no feelings about it i mean it'll either work or it won't i'm going to use some cutlery napkins and all that on the tables and all the crisps can come out now as well [Music] despite claire's optimism the bad weather means a poor turnout it's been a very interesting day and some lovely people about but i've sold one item i don't know how i feel i'm just quite exhausted from it all really learn things and learn for next time the trial still manages to raise 500 pounds which claire will donate to charity farmers markets can prove lucrative but such ventures require time to become established abby daw court is in need of more immediate funding [Music] after years of decay it's finally dawned on the family that drastic action is required over the summer they struggle to agree on a solution to abbydore's predicament they finally agree to pool their savings to raise the 150 000 pounds needed to finance restoration but as they procrastinate the house continues to languish [Music] it's four months since ruth's last visit and she's back to find out what progress has been made at abidor court well nothing much has changed here the ceiling's still falling down it's still being propped up sycamore seedling's still about to cause even more damage ruth discovers from claire that it's not just a financial plan that the family have decided on when i last met with you all and i was suggesting the house should be a b b is that happening or not yeah we've looked into it and we've just kind of got quite stuck on it that the money we need to raise to kind of set ourselves up as a b b and we just can't meet that money at the moment and also the work involved running a b b and it's just we just don't think that's the right thing for us at the moment so where are you going we're looking at weekly and weekend self-catering to come and have the house for the time they want it so why do you think that that requires less investment than having it as a b b because we can put the house to a level that we think well we're going to get someone to come and advise us from the letting agencies to come and advise us what we need to do i think there's a whole raft of things that are required for weekly rentals that would actually probably come in more expensive the other consideration is that weekly rentals tend to only take place in school holiday times at christmas easter whereas b and b i mean it runs throughout the year and this is such an ideal spot so i'm quite surprised that you know the family seemed to have made that decision especially when you haven't even had the rental people in to say what they consider is the right thing for this house with the whole family now investing in the project claire's found her ambitions for the family home relegated to the back burner i still am keen to run a bmb but i just think maybe in the future that's something we can look at you're now saying we instead of i is this significant it's we now very much we um hannah my sister and jules my brother the three of us are very much together now we're gonna do the business of three of us at one point this was your baby entirely and then it started to be chipped away at by the members of the family i mean have you gone through a painful curve at all on this yeah it's been it's been hard but that's life and you're gonna keep moving forward it's been it's been emotional couple of months definitely do you think your grandmother's got confidence in you sometimes i question it but i did get carried away i know i did but then i think yeah it was my dream and it still is but just on a different level now i think so just gotta keep moving forward with it claire is not the same girl i met three months ago i find the whole thing hugely depressing because yes hopefully the house will get done but all that energy i saw before all that desire to turn this house into something special and claire at the helm of it has gone by the wayside with a proposal to convert the house into a holiday let and claire now out of the driving seat ruth wants to talk to carys and get to the heart of the matter claire wanted things to happen didn't she i mean she's the one that stirred it up and started it so you never had any intention of letting her just come and do her own thing yeah she couldn't have done it no one person can do this on their own i think it would be an absolute nightmare for her with the tea room in the garden and a bmb and i think it is ideal as a country house really this just seemed to happen so you you think there's less work involved than and running it as a b b oh i think so yes yeah my worry about it being um used for families is is how many much the facilities would still need to be done to the same standards the b and b but the the cash flow wouldn't be as great we'd have to wait and see carys also has personal reasons for not wanting to open as a guest house well i certainly don't think we can set up in opposition to other people in the village that are doing b b how many bedrooms are available in the village do you know no idea i don't go into it but i i wouldn't want to do that at all would you be worried about sort of stepping on people's toes then very much yes people can't stop other people trading if somebody wants to do yes i think one can and we live in a very small area it matters what the neighbours think it's just what the neighbours think we haven't gotten in a lot of neighbours but you don't want to get in other people's way [Music] there's no doubt about carys influence on this family and i think the problem is that she is so subjective in her decision making and the whole family is so uninformed in so many of the things that they're contemplating doing or not doing that i'm really concerned that actually the wrong decisions will be made both for claire and for this house concerned about the direction the project is taking ruth calls carys claire and siblings julian and hannah to a meeting as she's still convinced that running a bnb at abbey door court is the way forward i mean we're definitely not work shy and it's not a question trying to find an easy option to make money what we're saying is on a day-to-day basis bnbs is going to be a lot more work if you want to forsake b b be my guest but please don't think that having families staying for a week or more is going to make life a lot easier because it's not at this present time in our lives we don't have the time to run a bnb you don't because you've got a full-time job but claire has got also i can remind you claire said at the beginning she wanted to leave her full-time job in order to devote her attention and time here now if the remit has completely changed and i suspect it has completely changed i am superfluous to any decision making here and nobody's going to listen to a word i say that is absolutely fine that is completely your prerogative to do so right but i have completely wasted my time because i actually do know what i'm talking about when it comes to bnb weddings events what have you that is my business has been it for 25 years i actually do know what i'm talking about frustrated by the lack of progress ruth is beginning to wonder if the family will ever make any headway at abidor have you ever heard of a committee who actually come to a good decision we haven't got a committee we do it as a family and we all go along as a family and we just harmoniously jog along and i hope it'll work if this has all been harmonious every bit of the discussion then i will lay all my worldly possessions that that is not the truth because nothing in a family is ever harmonious from top to bottom and i do not believe for one second that every single one of you has agreed every single step of the way with every single decision that hasn't been made i'm not trying to put dissension in the way of this i'm trying to put practical aims and needs in the way of this cara says this is not a business this is a family and of course she's right and i wouldn't wish it to be any other way but a family can still be potent it can still be well advised it can still know where it's going and i remain unconvinced that this family does ruth's stern words appear to have done some good [Music] hannah and claire make a start on clearing out 40 years of detritus [Music] nice [Music] and renovation begins on the house [Music] abby door court is at last showing signs of life [Music] autumn and ruth returns for her final visit to visible signs of progress the scaffolding is up and the renovation has begun starting at the top with such an ambitious project underway ruth is keen to check with caris that every detail has been thought through do you know how much this roof is going to cost i don't like to think about it we will thirty thousand i don't know i've no idea have they not quoted sort of what do you mean we're a bit vague on anything because things are sort of in with things you know who is running the project good question well i don't know really i think we all are at the moment a bit yeah can we go and have a look around upstairs yes yeah yes you can see the scaffolding from inside then i'd like to see more than that [Music] once the roof is watertight plans are in hand to renovate the entire house but with the family savings tied up in the scheme ruth's keen that they ensure a healthy return on their investment hundreds and hundreds of books good so what are you planning on spending on restoring the house as little as possible and how little would that be i just don't know carys i do not know no those figures i am jack spratt i honestly i will be perfectly serious to you i do not know so when the builders came and said they were going to do the roof and things they didn't give you a price no i don't think so we've all don't believe you come on i don't know i don't know don't believe her i'm not i can't give you figures i don't believe a word i cannot give you figures because i am prerogative totally not sure don't ask me to believe it i'm not sure of them with renovation finally underway abbey door court can look forward to a more confident future but if it's to thrive the family needs to face up to some home truth you need to stand up for yourselves because there will never be a point in time when your grandmother will think that you are capable of doing everything [Music] after a decade of neglect and months of deliberation restoration work has started in earnest at abidor court in herefordshire [Music] ruth watson's at odds with carys ward about how best to trade the property she's convinced that opening a bnb would be the most lucrative but carys feels self-catering is the better option [Music] to get an idea of what the house could earn granddaughter claire sage has invited holiday letting agent clive sykes to this view room looks a bit better now it's beautiful isn't it amazing open floors um from a holiday perspective um this room the most important thing there needs to be seating for everyone who is effectively sleeping in the property so if the property is sleeping 16 then there needs to be 16 comfy seats and just through there we've got the dining room and the kitchen if you want to go through i'll show you the rest of it great okay there's still a lot of work to do but abby dawg court's potential is clear you've obviously got people on your books who've been doing this a long time how many weeks of the year can they be assured of renting out the property the larger properties traditionally have had a slightly shorter season than than the smaller properties for that reason um i i would be reasonably confident of doing um even the first year in excess of 30 weeks bookings i mean season generally runs from easter until the end of october i would um hang my head in shame if we didn't do gross rents of um 30 000 in in year one and and very very roughly obviously agents commission in the region of sort of 20 and that's is pretty standard in our industry and obviously you've got all your overheads if you've got any loans any mortgages any any debts obviously that needs to come to the equation all the cleaning and maintenance and insurance and everything so very roughly half of that should be a worst case scenario should should be profit if abby doe traded as a b ruth's worked out that even at 65 percent occupancy profit would be around 30 000 pounds a year double that of the self-catering model resigned to the fact that she might be fighting a losing battle ruth gathers the family together for the last time i think congratulations are in order scaffolding building work progress being made on the house carys how have you found this tedious tedious slow why slow because in fact it's happened a lot more quickly than if i hadn't been around hasn't it oh yes it probably wouldn't have happened at all claire how have you found the process because for me the biggest change is is what's happened with you because you're the one who asked me to come you were the one who all excited about getting the house restored maybe having a b b here and you've kind of rather gone backwards as it were in coming forwards um it's been a roller coaster we've kind of gone up and down up and down and beginning writing to you was my aim was to rescue the house and yes if i could have a part of it but we didn't know where to go with it so yeah lots of ideas coming in going and now it's just it feels really exciting because we've got we're going somewhere all i'm saying to you is that yes you won't fail with doing holiday let's i know you won't fail there will be money coming in and it will be lettable but i still would like you to not shut the door on the notion of b b because i think you can make more money out of it would would you consider keeping the door open on that i definitely would yeah the major thing has been achieved which is that this building is currently being restored carys i have to say that i actually really like and admire you i know that you have got where you have got today by guts and determination hard work and all those good old honest qualities and good luck and some good luck as well we all need that but i do believe you also make your luck and the fact that you are a very difficult indomitable and contrary woman only makes you more interesting to me claire i think and julian you need to carry on respecting and loving your grandmother but you also need a certain stage to stand up for yourselves because there will never be a point in time when your grandmother will think that you are capable of doing everything because of the person she is so what you have got to show is the same indomitability the same hard work and the same qualities that your grandmother has in order to make this work the funny thing about all this is if paris hasn't done this to actually spite me she's certainly done it to prove that she doesn't need my help but so what it's happening and good for her [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Abode

Views: 121,737

Keywords: Abode, DIY renovation, DIY tips, country charm, country house, country living lifestyle, countryside estate, cozy interiors, exclusive property, family home history, garden sanctuary, heritage home, home maintenance, home makeover, house renovation, legacy preservation, property rescue, real estate rescue, rural lifestyle, rustic living, unique property features

Id: Op8-S6WxLHE

Length: 47min 26sec (2846 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 16 2022