HOUSE ABOUT THAT
We’ve turned our dated house into a dream home on a budget – we’d never done DIY before & added £45k to the value
IF you've lived through a house renovation, then you'll know they can be a pretty gruelling process - so it helps if you have DIY experience under your belt to speed things along.
Before the pandemic, Ellie Unwin, 24, and Harry Baines, 25, were saving to buy a house that wouldn't need much work done.
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But as prices shot up in the pandemic, the young couple, from Nottinghamshire, decided they opt for a doer-upper instead - even though they had zero DIY experience.
In July 2020, they purchased their three-bed semi-detached house for £135,000 - and thanks to their incredible transformation, Ellie and Harry have increased its value by a whopping £45,000.
Ellie, who works as an accountant, explained: "When we first got the keys, it was like a building site and we could not live in the house as it was.
"The house was very old and outdated, it looks like a completely different house now."
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Throughout the renovation, the couple have been sharing snippets of the work on their
"We watched lots of tutorials and learned from others," Ellie said in a viral video. "We had no experience in anything that we did."
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Luckily, they could turn to Ellie's dad - who works as a plumber - for help and got the professionals in to do the plastering.
However, they stripped the walls, added wallpaper, replaced the carpet and sanded all the doors themselves.
She added: "We discussed the basics and planned to redo the whole bathroom but to keep the units in the kitchen and replace everything else including the doors and worktops."
For the first few months, the pair lived at Ellie's mum's house nearby - and Harry was at the property most days while he was on furlough.
At the onset, the couple made a spreadsheet detailing how much they wanted to spend in each room and decided to tackle the bedroom first.
She explained: "We worked on the main bedroom first and painted the walls, window sill and skirting boards.
“Harry sanded down the wardrobe frames, repainted them and used elbow grease on the doors."
Next, they put up their geometric dark grey wallpaper and finished it off with a brand new door.
In the living room, the couple replaced the old flooring with some laminate flooring from Costco - which set them back £720.
She added: "We removed half the skirting near the radiator pipes where Harry used a multi-tool cutter and my dad laid the laminate which took three to four days in total.
“We filled the room with a TV cabinet from IKEA, table and curtains from Next and chairs bought separately from Dunelm.
“The last step was our sofa and chair arriving from Sofology and we got a great deal on these in the clearance costing £1,897 in total."
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In order to save some cash, Ellie and Harry simply upgraded their kitchen cabinets with self-adhesive plastic.
She added: "My dad used a router and jigsaw to cut the worktops [at an angle] which we bought from the Worktop Express, costing us £265 and fitted them onto the units."
He then installed a new splash back using some white Metro tiles they bought for £35 from Wickes and finished off with the marble-effect flooring.
As for the bathroom, Ellie and Harry created a hotel-worthy shower using bargains from Plum and Heat.
After laying new turf in the garden, the couple turned the conservatory into an office.
Ellie explained: "We taped up the conservatory with frog tape and painted it dark green.
“We had vinyl light herringbone style flooring from our local carpet company and they glued this down on top of the concrete which cost £180 – this simply transformed the conservatory even though not a lot was done to it.
"The small spare room was turned into my office because I work from home most of the time and this gave me a space to work comfortably and also be a craft room.
“I already had a corner desk from IKEA from the Micke range and bought an extension to keep my circuit machine and sewing machine."
In total, Ellie and Harry spent £14,000 to create their dream house and the property is now worth £180,000.
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