Couple renovates home in four months and add £80,000 to property value

A couple has shared the incredible transformation they carried out on their period home which added a huge £80,000 to the property value. 

Molly Bell, 26, and Sam Heptonstall, 29, from Staffordshire, bought the 1930s property for £185,000 in August 2020. 

Its interiors were extremely dated. Painted in bright colours and with old-style furnishings, they were keen to give it a complete makeover. 

With three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, lounge and conservatory, it was to be a significant project. 

Both Molly and Sam admit they were ‘naive’ when they purchased the home and believed it would simply need redecorating. 

However, they realised very quickly that the property needed rewiring and plastering. 

‘When we first looked around the house we fell in love with it straight away,’ marketing manager Molly says. 

‘We wanted to put our own stamp on it and create something we could call our own, so we decided to go for it and do a complete renovation.

‘It soon turned into a building site!’

Alongside the added work, the couple wished to turn the kitchen and dining room into one open living space. To do this, they needed to remove an internal wall. 

They then decided to rework the conservatory with a new roof, bi-fold doors and create a separate lounge in the space. 

To carry out the more complicated changes, they employed professionals but the young pair decided to tackle the cosmetic work themselves. 

‘The majority of the work took place in the second lockdown so we had evenings and weekends where we could just crack on and get stuff finished – we would sometimes be here until 9pm or 10pm at night finishing off bits,’ Molly explains. 

‘Me and Sam were useless going into this – I’d never even painted a room before and Sam hadn’t used a drill, but you just kind of learn as you go.’ 

Cutting costs at every corner, they both learned DIY skills and upcycled furniture to suit their tastes so as to avoid any hefty price tags. 

Molly modified the downstairs shower/utility room a makeover using leftover Frenchic black paint and a marble vinyl cover which cost £10.

She then painted the chrome shower doors and utility cupboards and covered the work surface in the marble sticky roll.

Meanwhile, she upcycled an old storage box and turned a £17 plain glass vase from IKEA into a neutral toned decorative pot. Using a sample pot of concrete-effect spray from B&Q that cost £5.50, she created an almost bespoke addition.

Molly guesses that a similar stone vase would have cost £40.

And it didn’t stop there, Molly also created her own abstract art piece for the lounge, spending £20 on paints and a canvas. She estimates she would have spent nearly £300 on a similar piece. 

The couple also did the panelling in their bedroom and the dining room by following Instagram video tutorials and spending £150 on materials. 

In just four months, they completed the interior works and in March of this year, they finished renovations on their garden. To improve the area, they removed old decking and added a beautiful patio area and grass. 

Following its completion, the couple got their home reassessed and found the value had increased by an incredible £80,000.

This puts its worth at £265,000. 

In total, they spent £37,000 on the transformation – including £10,000 on new bifold doors and the conservatory roof, which was the most expensive aspect of the renovation. 

‘We are completely finished now and it has completely transformed our home,’ Molly says.

‘We’re really pleased with the results – we’ve created our dream home, which we can see us living in forever.’

Cost breakdown

Conservatory – £10,000

Kitchen – £8,000

Plastering- £3,000

Electric- £1,400

Wall removed & steel beam – £1,500

Bathroom – £2,800

Flooring & carpets – £3,000

Garden – £4,000

Paint, panelling materials & furniture – £3,300

Total cost – £37,000

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