I DOUBLED the value of my house by doing it up myself – and I only spent £15k
A SAVVY couple have increased the value of their home by a staggering £173k and shared how they did it.
Claire Air, managing director of creative agency The Traveller and the Bear and her husband Paul did all the DIY themselves for just £15k.
Claire, 39 and Paul, 40 purchased the house in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea 12 years ago even though they were initially put off by the cost.
Claire explained: "Our house needed a lot of work when we bought it.
"It was like a squat when we moved in, it had been a rental and really unloved.
"It didn’t scare us off though - we could see past the horror."
At first, the couple worked hard to clean up the house and make it liveable by taking out anything that was outdated or didn’t work.
Claire said the house was dirty and battered when they first moved in and the couple tackled one room at a time, bleaching the house within an inch of its life and painting everything white.
Most read in Real Life
"Initially we had all of the family here helping us gut the place and clean.
"We didn’t have the money to replace the kitchen and bathroom so we made good use of what we had.
"Over time we got to know the house more, how light or dark rooms were at different times of the day and what we wanted to do with it longer term.
"As soon as we introduced bold dark colours, we didn’t look back. We found our style."
As the couple became more accustom to DIY, they proved buying the most expensive decorations wasn’t necessary to add value and style to their home.
Her husband Paul, makes much of the furniture and extras himself, and the couple hunt for thrifty bargains rather than buying things brand new.
"It’s really hard to estimate how much we have spent on the house over the past twelve years.
"Paul does all of the DIY excluding plumbing and electrics, so we have saved heaps on labour.
"I would estimate that we have spent perhaps £15k in total." Explained Claire.
The £15k has stretched across every room in the house, converting the loft and replacing both the bathroom and the kitchen, as well as redecorating the bedrooms.
“We just changed each room at a time depending on what ideas we had,” said Claire.
“When we had our daughter Wren, 3, we transformed the spare room into her nursery - that was Paul’s favourite project. We’ve really enjoyed transforming spaces for her.
“I find it really hard to choose my favourite room transformation because every room means something different to me.
“I know if we ever moved I would find it so hard to leave our bathroom behind. That’s because we hand-prepared every single parquet tile from scratch - our parquet was reclaimed and cost us £20.
“It’s such a unique room and our blood, sweat and tears went into that.
“But then I love our loft space too, it feels like you’ve been transported somewhere completely different.”
Claire added that the family is able to easily switch the house around to suit them as their needs change.
“We recently changed a space in Wren’s room so she has desk space to play and do her crafts, it’s important for her space to grow and change as she does,” she said.
“Paul literally just moved his office space from the front room to our bedroom to make way for the Christmas tree - we’re able to make fairly quick changes like that because he does it himself.”
The house was originally on the market for £125k, which Claire admits was out of the couple’s price range.
The couple decided to take a look anyway as it was down the road from Claire’s childhood home and managed to haggle the price down to £122k, but the house still wasn’t quite up to scratch for the couple.
Now, after the family’s renovations, the house is worth £295k - more than double the original £125k price that was out of their range.
An interior design expert reveals the simple trick to make rooms appear bigger.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Plus, woman shares clever DIY to make Ikea wardrobes look luxe without the need for power tools.
Meanwhile, I transformed my grotty garden with just £100, people say it's unrecognisable.
FABULOUS BINGO: GET A £5 FREE BONUS WITH NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED