A couple have transformed their "dated" home making it unrecognisable - all thanks to some handy DIY skills that helped keep the costs low.
The young couple bought their home in Sheffield in 2019, saving up a £20,000 deposit and mortgaging the remaining £130,000 - and spent just £12,500 turning it into their dream home.
Adele Teather and Tom Jackson spent three months putting their best DIY skills to the test, with a little help from friends and family - and managed to keep the cost low, despite completely stripping the home back and living on a "building site" and working every evening and weekend to complete.
The pair were even forced to wash pots and pans in the bath when they were without a kitchen - but it all paid off and their home was then valued at £170,000.
The pair completely stripped the home to give themselves a "blank canvas" (dulltodesirable.com/Jam Press)
Adele admitted it looked worse before it got better (dulltodesirable.com/Jam Press)Adele, who is a full-time administrator in a GP surgery, said in 2020: "Tom and I had always spoken about wanting to renovate a house as Tom is a joiner, so he is extremely handy. We liked the idea that we could transform our house completely to our taste and decor and put our stamp on it.
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"We were both so excited to buy our first home together so when the time finally came, we already had quite a few decor ideas in mind. We created a board on Pinterest for house ideas and we began to speak about colour schemes for each room and think about how we imagined the room layouts to look.
Adele Teather and Tom Jackson bought the home in March 2019 (dulltodesirable.com/Jam Press)
They used Pinterest and planned the design before they moved in (dulltodesirable.com/Jam Press)"We would visit kitchen showrooms such as B&Q, Wickes and other local stores for inspiration. We began to put things in place before we even got the keys and this enabled us to be really organised."
Features including Artex ceilings, interior walls and decking in the garden were replaced, with the laminate floors throughout pulled up to make way for carpets. They ordered a kitchen before they had moved in, as well as paint and wallpaper for other rooms, to ensure they could get started straight away, ripping out everything to provide a blank canvas - which Adele said was daunting as it ended up looking "much worse before it looked better".
The dated home was given a modern interior (dulltodesirable.com/Jam Press)Every room was plastered and modernised, the garden was landscaped and fitted with artificial grass, and even the unexpected set back of finding a wasp nest in a ceiling didn't throw their plans off course. The pair spent every evening and weekend working on the project, starting at 4.30pm and finishing at 9.30pm, saying the hardest things were "little setbacks, tiredness or a job taking longer than anticipated".
They lived in the house during the renovation, which they admit was tough, as Adele added: "At first we didn’t have a kitchen so would wash pots in the bath. We were literally living in a building site for three months."
The garden was landscaped and given artificial grass (dulltodesirable.com/Jam Press)The most expensive outlay was £5,000 for a red tarmac drive, with the total cost of the renovation coming to about £12,500. Adele said: "We really enjoyed taking on the renovation project and would love to do it again one day in the future. The best part was seeing the house come together and the excitement of cracking on with the next stages.
"Having our friends and family over to help in different rooms while listening to music and laughing was also great and they even said it inspired them to decorate their own homes, too. It’s so rewarding to have decorated your own home completely to your taste and to fit your lifestyle, and there’s a potential to add value to the house too which is always a bonus."
You can see more and get tips on how to do it yourself by following @Dulltodesirable on Instagram.
A version of this story was originally published in December 2020.
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