Wednesday 20 March 2019

Cute three-storey town/country house to renovate


Last week I posted a couple of handsome town houses, and I thought I'd stay with that theme this week and show you this rather lovely house that is almost town, almost country.
The three-storey semi is in the lovely Snowdonia market town of Bala. It's Grade II listed and sits on the corner of Tegid Street (the B4391) and a sort-of square, with a church to the side and a backpacker's hostel to the front, according to the God of maps:


The house itself is a good size, with a large kitchen/diner, pantry, hall and two reception rooms on the ground floor; two bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor, and two more bedrooms on the second floor.




 

There's also a weird extra room - a bedroom/office/loft on the first floor but currently only accessed via that ladder and access hatch in the kitchen.


I'm not quite sure what the green filter is about in some of the pictures, either a mistake or an experiment with adding a vintage vibe? But the filter can't hide that extraordinary mishmash of prints and colours. Or the damp patches and peeling wallpaper. Lovely, lovely wrecks ; )



Also, can I mention that old heater on the wall?
I've seen these things a few times in older houses, including the cute wreck of a semi in Hull that my little brother is living in and renovating. Sometimes electric, sometimes gas - like the one my brother has just taken out of his bedroom.
The pipes and fittings are tucked inside the wall cavity, which seems a quite fantastic idea to me - sort of underfloor heating in the walls, plus the boost from the heater itself. Not sure how effective - or safe - these things were (?) but I really like the concept - and I think they're prettier and more space efficient than today's big clunky radiators.
Outside is a decent size garden, and there's access to a garage and outbuildings via an arrangement with the church.



The property has a flying freehold in place, maybe something to do with that weird extra room on the first floor. Anyway, it does mean you may need to find a more amenable mortgage company than many of our algorithm-driven high street lenders (says the woman currently becalmed on the property sea between risk-averse Nationwide and ultra-cautious Valunation....).


But back to Tegid Street, the house is on the market through agents Tom Parry at offers around £169k. Details here and here.
Thanks by the way to regular Wreck reader Jacky for sending me this house. And, if any of my readers can help out with a question from a fellow reader, Jill emailed me this query.
My husband and I have been avid followers of your website for quite sometime whilst looking for a wreck of our own to renovate. We have now found a wreck and bought it, a derelict stone cottage in Staffordshire with 6 acres of land!! Could we ask whether any of your wreck owners have experience of insuring their properties?