A house bought for just £1 has been left unrecognisable after its owner transformed it into a stunning dream home.
Maxine Sharples lived out of a campervan as she carried out the painstaking renovations on her run-down home, with the work taking a staggering 27 months. She bought the two-bedroom Victorian terrace for little more than the price of a pint of milk thanks to a programme introduced by her local council.
Liverpool City Council’s ‘Homes for a Pound’ scheme aims to help restore areas of the city by transforming dilapidated empty properties into liveable homes, as well as offering people a chance to get on the property ladder. Anyone who takes part in the scheme must use their own money and resources to bring their new house back to life, the Liverpool Echo reports .
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Maxine, a 35-year-old yoga teacher, admitted that she “couldn’t have been more naïve” about the work it would take to do up the derelict house. The arduous process wasn’t helped by the fact that the country was gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic and placed into lockdown just weeks after she got the keys.
With tradespeople hard to come by, Maxine began ripping out the old interior of the house by herself. It took her nine months to reduce the property back to brick - during which time she discovered several problems including a hole in the roof that had led to water damage and a tree taking root inside, as well as asbestos and a rat infestation.
Maxine enlisted the help of an architect to “flip the house upside down” - removing the loft and all internal walls upstairs to create a double-height open space with skylights, filling five skips as she did so. The renovation has cost her £56k so far, and she estimates that she will have to spend a further £10k to finish off the work.
But she insisted that all the hard work has been worth it. "I've essentially been homeless for two years,” Maxine said.
“Having underfloor heating is going to be such a luxury, triple glazed windows and a place to hang my plants once and for all. I've moved so many times in my life, from Liverpool at the age of six and back at the age of 18, I feel I can finally settle in a house that I brought back to life,” she added.
Despite the gruelling renovation process, Maxine has praised the £1 scheme as a “massive success”. She will be joining a street full of the transformed houses owned by others who have taken part in the programme, and has dubbed her neighbours “local heroes”.
“Because ordinary people have put their blood sweat and life savings into transforming these houses, woe betide anyone in the community not pulling their weight,” she said. “We are a strong community and I'm looking forward to joining it immensely and seeing how I can give back.”
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