A Thoughtful Renovation To A Much Loved Victorian Terrace
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We love to hear the stories behind house purchases, and think it's just wonderful that @Townhouse&Tiffany bought their friends much loved Grandmother's house, knowing that it would be falling into safe hands.
So much time, dedication and love has gone into creating this beautiful space, with most of the work carried out by the couple themselves, taking 4 years to finish.
The result is an immaculate home, with the same style flowing from room to room. Having just finished this huge process, we chat to Tiffany who shares with us her renovation story and advice for anybody about to start!
Can you tell us about your home and renovation project?
We hadn’t yet started looking for our first home, when one weekend I was out with a friend who was telling me of her family’s upset that her Grandma’s home had recently been listed for sale, that she had lived in for around 50 years, as she had sadly died.
The house immediately caught our attention as it was in a sought after area, an area where houses rarely came up for sale and had many original features and quirks, it sounded perfect! Two days later, our offer was accepted. My friend and her family were so pleased the family home was being bought by us as our first home and to start our life and family together, just as her grandparents did.
It is a three storey, four bedroom, Victorian terraced house with a courtyard style yard. It needed the ‘full works’ renovation: rewire; new heating system; new windows and doors; even a new kitchen roof.
Shortly after starting the renovation, my partner Scott was given a new job meaning the work only happened on weekends, leading to it taking us 4 years to get to the carpet stage. We’ve still got some odd jobs to finish, but the majority of renovating is over now, a time I never thought would come!
The beautiful classic shaker kitchen with a burst of colour from the pink Smeg
The kitchen before the update - the units were moved to the other wall, allowing more wall space for the cabinets
What was the most challenging thing about the renovation?
Isn’t everything about a renovation challenging? We were lucky to not live in the house while we renovated, but I still found it hard. Once we started the work, I felt like the whole house just turned into a building site.
We didn’t stick to a floor or room at a time and it turned the place upside down, there was no clean or tidy space for us to use for a break or a rest. Most nights after work and nearly every weekend for four years, we have spent renovating.
We have tried to do the majority of work ourselves and it has been such hard, cold, dusty work at times, with long hours. Often, just finding the motivation is a challenge in itself (especially in the winter with no heating) I think not living in the house made me less motivated to find the get up and go to put on my working clothes and get round to do some work.
The master bathroom after which is so glamorous with the fixtures
The master bathroom before which had been untouched for some time
Did you have a budget and do you have any budgeting tips?
We didn’t actually have a budget or a big pot of money for the renovation. We had some money left over after our 10% deposit and fees etc. that we used for the new heating system and kitchen roof. Everything else we saved for or worked payday to payday, another reason it has taken us 4 years to finish!
However, we have completed the majority of work ourselves, Scott is an electrician by trade and so he rewired the house along with his dad, who is also very handy. Between friends and family, we have fully renovated our home using only a trade plumber and tiler, everything else we have completed ourselves.
I would 100% recommend giving anything a go yourselves if you can, this will help with the budget! We shopped around for best prices when buying materials etc, and always received a few quotes to compare each time we needed a job doing.
Choose wisely when deciding what to splurge on and what to save on. Some things I knew I definitely wanted and we splurged on those (a Smeg fridge), and vice versa, we saved on some things to make more of a budget in other places.
The exterior after with rendering and pink door to brighten the exterior
The exterior before the work was carried out
We love your style, what inspired you and any advice for others designing their home?
Our house inspired me! Our house is Victorian and has lots of original features so considering it was our first home and I haven’t been through this process before, I found it very easy to renovate and design.
As it already had lots of character and original features, I embraced it! For example, some rooms had original coving so we wanted to add ornate coving back to rooms that did not, we added ceiling roses to every bedroom and kept all the cast iron bedroom fireplaces after stripping them of gloss, we also renewed some skirting boards, but sourced high ones to match the originals.
My advice would be to embrace any original features and keep them! I always think it’s such a shame to see old houses ripped of their character. Keep any quirks of your house you may have too, it’s a talking point, a story. For example, we have some of the staircase showing/ open in our kitchen and I decided to leave them and have them plastered properly. It is not often nowadays that homes still have these features, so keep them and show them off!
The shower room which maximises the space
The shower room was originally a cupboard which has been put to great use
What are you most proud of and why?
I am most proud of us, our hard work and our patience! We went into this renovation not knowing how hard it would be or how long it would take, I was naïve to think it would take one year! But we persevered and have created a dream home we never thought we would have, especially as our first.
I am proud of us for giving everything a go, I was a spa goer/holiday maker before our renovation, I had never painted in my life, but now I can proudly say I have put up coving, dug up concrete, taken down lath and plaster walls, painted the full house from top to bottom, stripped many layers of gloss off cast iron fireplaces. Scott has learnt to tile, panel a three storey staircase, created bathrooms for me that were cupboards, the list is endless of jobs we have finished ourselves. At the start of renovation, I’d never have believed you if you told me we were going to achieve all that.
The stylish dining room after
The dining room during the work
What would be your advice for anyone just about to start out a renovation project?
A new renovation project? Congratulations! It is the most rewarding job ever, you get the chance to design a home exactly to your tastes and how you want it. Be patient, try not to rush when things get hard or take A LOT longer than you're expecting, it’s so easy to want to rush it just to get it finished.
Have a go, give everything a try, you might do an amazing job and will have saved yourself some money in the process. Take your time and enjoy every moment of renovating, designing, creating your home to exactly how you like it!
The master bedroom after
The master bedroom during the work
If you are thinking about a renovation project in the near future and need some help finding an architect or designer, we can match you with the most suitable ones for your project.
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Published: September 30, 2022
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