There are many benefits to buying an older house - from a cheaper asking price to bigger rooms with an array of original features. But despite the pros it is no secret that period properties often come with unprecedented problems.
Buyers who are taking on a renovation project in a dated home commonly come across hidden issues including mould, leaks, electric and plumbing issues - which are just some of the problems Claire Bakan faced after buying her Victorian house in Tameside and doing a DIY renovation.
Claire spoke to the Manchester Evening News as part of our Where I Live series. Each week, we chat to a different homeowner about their buying and renovation journey, and take a look inside to see how they've transformed their home.
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Single mum Claire, who is originally from Stoke, got on the property ladder around 20 years ago after buying her first house in Manchester.
Claire then went on to buy her second house in Levenshulme where she lived for eight years, but a surprising revelation in 2019 led her to make a sudden move to Audenshaw.
'“It was a really quick decision, basically there was another house that had gone up for sale on the same street and they were asking for silly money," Claire told the Manchester Evening News.
"The last time I had my house valued in 2018 it was £195,000 and this house had gone up for offers over £380,000 - I couldn’t believe it.
"I got it touch with the estate agents and they said my house would sell for offers over £350,000, so I just put it up for sale and it sold for £350,000 within two days."
But the spur of the moment decision meant that Claire had to find another home quickly.
"The buyers were cash buyers and they were moving from London so they wanted it to be a really quick sale," Claire explained.
"I viewed quite a few but there was nothing I loved. It was the estate agents who said 'have you looked at this house?' which they said would be 'perfect' for me.
"When I walked into this one I thought 'this is it'. It was bigger than my previous house and had really high ceilings and a lot of space. I put an offer in there and then, and I moved in around six weeks later."
The house in question was a four-bed Victorian semi-detached which Claire bought for £220,000 mortgage-free.
"As I made money on my house in Levenshulme it enabled me to buy this house without a mortgage," the mum-of-two said.
But as it was built in 1856, Claire came across various problems which she didn't expect.
"The previous owners were quite old so they had done their best with it, but it was just very dated," she said.
"The boiler was 40 years old and it was actually condemned, so the first winter I had no hot water or heating, which was horrendous. I had an electric shower and then just loads of plug-in heaters to keep me warm.
"There were damp patches all over, rooms that needed re-plastering and it needed a full rewire downstairs. I didn’t expect the house to have this many issues when I bought it."
After buying it and moving in, Claire had a sudden sense of regret.
"When I first moved, I remember sitting on the sofa with my youngest daughter and I just turned to her and started crying and said I felt like I'd made the biggest mistake," she admitted.
"But she was like we'll figure it out. We just kind of came up with different ideas for different rooms and we had to kind of just live in the space. I think living in the space and not doing anything with it made me realise what I wanted to do with it."
As she didn't have any savings, Claire had to do the renovation by herself on a tight budget, putting what she earned each month into the house and learning new skills like rendering and plumbing.
"It probably took me a year just to get all the essentials done because it was just me on my own. I didn’t have any savings so I was just working by myself to pay for the house," Claire said.
"The first thing I did was all the really important stuff like changing the boiler and putting in the bathroom. I then had to damp proof it all myself, take render off, put render back on.
"I’d never done anything like this before, I was just learning as I go from YouTube tutorials. It was lockdown too whilst I was renovating so I just had to work with what I had and try to do what I could.
“It was quite hard to manage and at times it felt like I was camping. I had to boil water on the stove and things like that. But I had no other money and nowhere else to go so I had to live there whilst I was renovating."
Claire said the biggest and most unexpected problem she faced was the cellar flooding.
"There were some things that were a big surprise like the cellar flooding. It hadn’t flooded the whole time the last owners lived there, which was 40 years," she said.
"When the cellar flooded one of the issues was tree roots. I had to take down one of the trees but then I realised that because I live next to some flats and there’s a car park at the back, the tree was supporting the car park.
"I then had to build a supporting wall in my garden to support the car park. It was all a total nightmare."
After all the essentials were done, Claire got stuck into making the house a home.
Describing her interior style, she said: "I like to keep my style in with the Victorian parts of the property whilst putting a modern twist on it.
“There's a lot of my personality in here but I’d say it's quite a traditional look. I like exploring different things and adding in bits of colour so my kitchen is pink, and my living room has navy blue in it.
"I don’t like carpet so there’s no carpet in the house, I ripped it all up and sanded the original floorboards by hand and varnished them all.
“My house has all the original features, like the big skirting boards, cornices and the original bricks behind the fireplace. The cellar also has the original gas lights on the wall."
All in all Claire has spent around £50,000 transforming her home over the last three years.
"I’ve probably spent around £50,000 on the renovation but I know I’ve also saved a lot by doing it myself. I've also made it back as recently I got it valued and it was around £395,000, which is nearly double what I bought it for, so it’s been worth it.
Giving a walkthrough of her home, Claire described: "As you come in through the front door you’re in the hall. To the right is the living room and then at the back of the property is the kitchen which originally was two rooms, but now its an open-plan kitchen dining space.
"The kitchen is quite a focal point of my house as, if I've got friends coming over or my kids are home from university, we tend to sit in the kitchen together.
"As you go up the stairs there’s the spare bedroom at the back, the bathroom, my office and the main bedroom. Then there’s another flight of stairs up to the attic room which is currently used as a bedroom and a gym area.
"Downstairs there’s another door which leads down to a four chambered cellar."
Giving advice to other homeowners who are taking on a big DIY renovation project in an old house, Claire said: "Just believe that you can actually do it yourself and give it a go, because the worst thing that can happen is you can get it wrong and then you need someone to come in, but if you try it and you get it right then you save yourself a lot of money."
Want to feature your home in Where I Live? If so, please email your details to phoebe.jobling@reachplc.com.
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