This house in a pretty Welsh valley had been empty, and was in pretty bad shape when we bought it. It had clearly been a cherished family home once, as there were still smart fittings and furniture from the 1960’s in it when we bough it. It was also evident that not much had been done in the way of maintenance since the 1960’s. The back wall of the property was letting in water, and wallpaper in the back bedroom came off in large sheets, without needing a steamer. The kitchen was an empty, mouldy room with a couple of old, freestanding appliances.

We hacked off and re-rendered the whole back wall of the house, and repaired the rotten floor joists in the back bedroom. Here our supervision paid dividends, as the builder was trying to take short cuts by just screwing the old joists and new together. This wouldn’t have been strong enough, so we were able to catch it and insist on proper brackets and bolts for an appropriate level of support.

One bedroom was very long, which made it feel narrower than it was. We were able to take a bit of length off the bedroom and add an upstairs toilet, adding convenience, as the main bathroom was downstairs and improving the proportions of the bedroom.

In addition to fully renovating the whole inside of this house we were able to insulate the exterior through Green Deal energy efficiency funding.
With the refurbishment done to a good standard, this house has been easy to manage, and provides a great return on investment.