A couple who bought an "ugly" house that "no one else wanted" say they have fallen in love with it after giving it a stunning revamp. Jo Lemos, 36, and Chris Gilheaney, 33, had planned to buy the run-down home in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, so they could renovate it and re-sell it quickly, but they fell in love with it.
The couple ended up spending around £30,000 to turn the 1930s property, which they paid £244,000 for in November 2019, into their dream home - turning the "worst house on the street" into the quirky and modern Scandi-style abode they love now, according to the Manchester Evening News.
After the house sale went through - a "stressful" process that took six months as they were in a chain of four - the pair, who met on a dating site seven years ago, set about renovating the property, but then the pandemic hit. The Covid lockdowns came just as the couple were renovating the downstairs, leaving them living in a building site for a while.
They also struggled to get hold of plaster or materials because of the virus, but when restrictions eased, they continued patching up the house. Luckily, Jo and Chris enjoy DIY and did around 80 to 90 per cent of the work themselves, with the pandemic allowing them to spend much more time transforming their home.
The couple said they have practically changed every room in the house to transform it into a stunning Scandinavian-style modern living space, which they have fallen in love with.
“We’ve basically changed every single room but some of the bigger stuff that we did was we moved the kitchen into the middle reception room and then turned the old kitchen into a utility room and a downstairs toilet," Chris explained.
"The middle room was a much bigger space for a kitchen. We put the kitchen in ourselves and added an island in, it's now just a much more user friendly space.
“The renovation is more or less finished now. It’s really liveable, it’s really comfortable and every room is done to a good standard, it’s just more tweaks that we are making now."
Jo added: “Our interior style is a Scandinavian eclectic vibe. We like our house to be a bit toned and a bit more muted. It’s sort of mid-century meets Scandi style.
“I think we’ve spent around £30,000 renovating it. We spent a fair bit on the garden because it was so overgrown. We cut down 14 trees because they were just so big."
The couple say they managed to keep costs down by learning the skills needed. “We did a bit of DIY on our previous homes but anything we hadn’t done we just learnt off YouTube," said Chris.
"It was just about not being afraid to give things a try. We’re both quite handy and we just cracked on with it. Doing it ourselves massively helped us to cut costs. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done for that cost if we had got people in to do it."
During the renovation, and due to how long it took because of the pandemic, Jo and Chris had a change of heart about flipping their home. Jo explained: “We initially bought this as a doer-upper to sell on, but the house took longer to renovate because of the pandemic. The longer we stayed, the more we fell in love with it.
"Is it what we set out to do? Possibly not, but the outcome is great. If we knew we were staying here we might have done certain things slightly differently, but as a whole we love what we've done.
"The more we add to it, the more we're adding ourselves to it. It's not just a flip, it's home now."
Talking through the layout of their home, Chris explained: “When you first enter we’ve got a hallway which branches off into the reception rooms. First we've got what we call our formal living room which is our entertaining space, we've got a fire in there and it's just a nice, cosy space.
"That then goes into the kitchen area which we have been calling a broken plan - it's not fully open, but it’s not all closed. There’s no doors in between all these rooms, just large openings.
“At the back there's quite a large conservatory and that’s become an everyday room for us. It’s got an insulated roof on it so it’s a relatively pleasant temperature most of the year. We put some new skylights on that which just gives it a bit more light. What was the old kitchen is now our utility room and then we have a downstairs toilet as well."
Chris continued: “Upstairs we have three bedrooms, our main bedroom, the spare bedroom and the box room which we turned into a dressing room, then the bathroom. We have a large garden and we’ve also built a really lovely summer house at the back and we have a pond that we have made bigger."
The couple set up their home Instagram account @two.men.and.a.semi to document their renovation journey - which has now amassed 18,000 followers.
“Starting the account was almost accidental to be honest. We were putting a new kitchen in our old house and we started taking photos and putting them up," Jo explained. "We realised that people were enjoying it and it went from there. It was my personal Instagram account and I changed it to @two.men.and.a.semi when we moved into our semi-detached.
"We just started out sharing photos between friends and family and then it grew from there.”
Chris said: “We started getting a lot more involved with the interiors community and then you get a bit more hooked on it, then we started working with brands.
"There’s a lot of work that goes into it. There’s definitely things that we've done over the last four years that have been more for Instagram rather than ourselves. It's not as simple as just taking a photo, you have to fully renovate a room, document it the whole way through and if you're working with a brand you need to get their approval and sign off on things.
"One Instagram post can often be weeks and weeks of planning and negotiation."
Jo added: “We used to look at other home Instagram accounts for inspiration so it’s nice that people now come to our page for the same thing. Instagram was definitely how it started for us.”
Talking about their plans for the future, the couple say this isn't their forever home. "We got our house valued in the summer because we wanted to decide what was best for us to do. We bought the house for about £244,000 and it’s been valued between £350,000 and £375,000," said Chris.
“We will probably stay here for around three to five years. I’m originally from Northern Ireland so we’ve talked about maybe moving there to a much more rural community. Jo is Portuguese so we’ve often talked about moving there too.
"I think that's probably the next move - go to either Northern Ireland or Portugal.”
Giving advice to those wanting to work their way up the property ladder, Chris said: "It's hard work but you need to persevere because it is worth it.
"There will always be unforeseen or unplanned events when renovating. We thought we'd fly through it but actually there have been a lot of problems whether that's with electrics or plumbing.
"Our house was built in 1931 so it's had so many lives and generations of people going through it who have all made changes to it themselves and errors along the way. But once it's finished you forget all the pain and just enjoy it."
Asked whether buying a rundown house is the best route, Jo said: “It depends on the person and what they want. If you want an easy life then go for a new build and if you really love building something and putting your own stamp on it then I would recommend the route we did. It’s harder but I think it’s much more satisfying in the end. We’re very proud of our home.”
