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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Paige Freshwater

Couple spend £12k transforming rotting shed into dream home for family-of-four

A couple has transformed a rotting shed into a dream house for around $16,000 (£12,942). Katy and Michael Krebs, from Fayetteville, North Carolina, inherited the shed from a grandparent and decided to turn it into a family home to live in temporarily with their two daughters, Carolina, seven, and Harper, four.

Knowing that they had their work cut out for them, the pair wasted no time stripping the shed back to its bare bones, scraping off its rotting paint, and rebuilding it from the ground up. The couple have been documenting their progress on TikTok under the username @katyelizkrebs - and have gained almost 50,000 followers in the process.

The shed was built in the 1980s as an extra storage space (@katyelizkrebs/Tiktok)
Katy knew it would make the perfect, tiny family home (@katyelizkrebs/Tiktok)

In a number of short clips, they show viewers before and after shots of their transformation, covering almost every aspect of the build.

The 280-square-foot shed was constructed in the 1980s as an extra storage space for Michael's grandparent's who lived in the main house on the same plot.

It didn't have a proper plumbing and electrical system - but Katy knew she could turn it into a welcoming space for her family as they saved up money to buy their forever home.

She said: "I've been in love with tiny homes forever. I used to watch tiny home shows on TV all the time."

They carried out most of the work themselves (@katyelizkrebs/Tiktok)
They plan to list it on Airbnb when they move into their forever home (@katyelizkrebs/Tiktok)

Due to being on a tight budget, Katy and Michael took on most of the renovation work themselves, including restoring the roof, installing partition walls to make bedrooms and adding windows.

"[I could] tell the shed was definitely old and the paint was dry-rotting. [We had to] scrape all of that off," she added.

The couple tried to restore and reuse as much materials as possible to keep costs down - and thankfully, they were able to reuse ceiling insulation and keep the original flooring.

They put up a bean that they "found in an old barn out in the pasture on the property" and dismantled the barn to use its wood for their shed's ceiling.

Katy said: "The [barn] door was in such great shape when we found it. I 'just sanded it down and put a window in it. I didn't even paint it. I thought that would be perfect for the tiny house."

The most challenging part came when the couple mapped out their floor plan, realising they only had enough room for an open plan kitchen living room, one bedroom and one bathroom.

Once they decided on a floor plan, they set about constructing the partition walls, with Katy saying: [We] looked on YouTube a lot to figure out how to do this and how to do that.

"We did all the framing ourselves — it was just us, me and Michael, with our two girls by our side."

As well as renovating the inside, the couple installed an eight-foot porch on the front of their new home to make it look even more inviting.

Not wanting to part with their tiny house after moving into their forever home, Katy plans to list it on Airbnb as a holiday rental so she never has to part with it for good.

Do you have a story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.

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