A renovation story - or two

A little bit of a different post today - in part because several of you have asked for updates on some of the properties I've featured.
I'm going to start  with this one, because I had a lovely email from the couple who took on the gorgeous Mount Pleasant (above), in the Cotswold village of Painswick, after seeing it on 'Wreck' three years ago ("Many thanks for leading us to what has been a magical place to live", wrote Alice).
Here's my original post.
I wrote at the time about how this pretty two-bed cottage had bobbed in and out of estate agent's lists, despite its lovely location and views.
Alice and John-Paul who took Mount Pleasant on, did a LOT of work and pretty much all of it themselves. Stripping out three-inch thick concrete plaster from the living room and replacing it with massively superior lime; exposing an original fireplace found behind stud walls; installing an upstairs bathroom and raising ceilings to expose beams and create light and height, and generally opening up the space. Lovely job.
Here's the before and after of the reconfigured layout:

Here are a few before and after pics.

And outside, that drab garden with potential is starting to really make the most of those lovely views, as the picture at the top of this post and the before and after below show.

However, Mount Pleasant is now back on the market, as Alice explained:

We renovated it expecting to live here for a long time but having just had our second baby (our first was born just a few months after we moved in) we realise we need more space and do not have the energy left to extend.

As someone who is also gearing up to sell a house we've been renovating and living in for the past six years, I appreciate that whole running out of steam thing. Sometimes the joy is in doing the work and seeing the house reveal itself in all its hidden gorgeousness, as other 'Wreck' renovators have said, but life moves you on. 

And if your hard work delivers a decent renovation profit, that's a plus too ; )

Mount Pleasant is on the market through Hamptons at £400k. Details here and here.

I also want to give a shout-out to some Wreck readers who are blogging about their own renovations, some renovating properties I've featured, but all with really interesting renovation stories to tell.

Caroline in the Scottish Highlands is a serial renovator (and frequently sends me other gorgeous crofts she comes across). She has three renovations - her own home, Ethel's House (now a holiday let) and Tor Aluinn - and is now helping on the revamp of the local village hall. Phew!

Ethel's House was one of a bunch of Scottish crofts I featured back in 2015 - this three-bed at Armadale:

Caroline has done an AMAZING job on it:

And the detailing of the work on Ethel's House is really inspiring, with lots of useful information for anyone taking on a similar Scottish project (also, I love her paint choices!).  Her blog is The House Hoarder and well worth spending an afternoon browsing and making notes if you're thinking of going down the renovate to holiday let route.

Finally, Robin's blog 2bedroomterraced is also packed with tips and ideas for anyone who, like him, may be looking to buy and renovate multiple properties to sell. It's a great behind-the-scenes look from someone starting out on the renovate-develop journey and the sort of problems you're likely to tackle along the way.

Cambridgeshire renovation project

Going a little off-topic today to share with you the project story of Wreck readers Sarah and Jonathan.
They bought the cottages in Haddenham, above, that I featured last March. In my original post I wrote that there was lot of work to be done to turn the three cottages into one home but it "could be a great project in a very pretty area of Cambridgeshire". This was part of the challenge:

Anyhow, about a week ago I got this lovely email from Sarah:

I thought that you may be interested to know that we bought 28 Church Lane, Haddenham, after seeing the property on your blog. We were looking for a renovation project to get us out of London and into country life and frequently read your blog. When we saw it, we wanted it.
We got held up in probate for the entire of that glorious summer (the owner sadly passed away in the middle of the buying process) but finally owned it in August and work started in mid September.
We are now mid-renovation and are turning the three cottages into two 3 bed houses. We took down the old lean-tos on the back as they were totally ruined. Upstairs we found papers from 1942 on the floor and think that we were the first people up there in decades. There was also a large cellar that no one knew about. And a structural chair holding up most of the outbuildings.
I could talk about the project for hours but I am a house bore these days. Mainly I wanted to let you know that it was your website that linked us to this wonderful house.

They hope to be watertight by early Feb and to finish the first house in April. In the meantime, here are a few photos from their build in progress:

 

The floor needed to be lowered!

PS: Want to know what else is worth a look in the same area? This four-bed detached is in Manea, around six miles from Haddenham:

It has a river to the front, a third of an acre of garden at the back, outbuildings and needs a full refurb (I'd ask about flooding). It's on the market at £180k through Maxey Grounds. Details and more pix here.

Boats for living on

This time last week I was watching my father's coffin being marched through an honour guard of old soldiers.
He'd had dementia for around ten years and it eventually killed him. I've spent much of the last month travelling between his home and mine - hence the gap between posts.
In his youth, my father was an adventurer and a traveller: fighting wars in Palestine and Korea and sailing the world in the Merchant Navy. He was happiest being on or near water.
So this post is for dad - waterborne 'wrecks' he would have loved.
As a teenager, he manhauled his uncle's Humber Keel boat along the River Ouse. The Humber Keels were basically barges with motors and sails built for river and estuary travel. They're the chunkier, plainer cousins of canal boats - not so pretty on the outside but a bigger space to work with inside. This link is to a Keel that has sold but the pictures will give you an idea of that extra space.
Alan G Pease, in Goole, is a good source for Keels and barges. I think dad would have picked this one, the John William:

Built in 1904, its current owners have lived onboard for 38 years and sailed it around the UK and European coasts. Now ill health and a £10k bill to replate the hull is forcing the sale. 

The John William has four bedrooms and is on the market at a bargain £17k. There's a conditon that £10k of the sale price goes to pay for the replating, and you'll need to spend another £8-£10k on top, but this a beautiful, cared for boat. Details and more pictures here.

Pricier but still an absolute bargain for the quality is the three-bedroom, converted tug, below - the Addie. Lovely job done on it (definitely not a 'Wreck'!) and its owners have cruised the Baleraics in it (they're selling up to emigrate).

It's on the market at £125k (reduced from £155k). Details and pictures here.

There are plenty of places to buy canal boats (Narrowboats) - apolloduck is good aggregator site, but most moorings have their own sales lists too. Narrowboats, like caravans, range from elderly wrecks to swish newbuild. Secondhand prices are around the £25k-£60k mark. Have a look at Nationwide Narrowboats' list or Whilton Marina's site.

The latter has some nice looking narrow boats at under £20k - although smaller prices mean either shorter boats or ones needing work. Like the 70ft Chequered Flag, below, £11k to buy as seen. Details and pictures here.

For anyone looking to sail off into the sunset, MJ Lewis has some beautiful sea-going yachts and cruisers for around the £30-£50k mark. Like this well cared for Bermudan Sloop, below, built in 1963 and sailed by one family since 1976. She's on the market at £33.5k. Details here.

Finally woodenships.co.uk, in Dartmouth, is selling this graceful wooden Bermudan sloop, built in 1939, at a reduced price of £15k. Details here.

Sail on, dad.

Railway carriages for sale

There's a bloke who lives near me who renovates steam engines. The traction ones you can sit on, not the Thomas the tank-engine-sized things. He has a garden full of them.
Anyway, walking past that garden again made me think about vintage railway carriages and how easy it might be to buy a carriage 'wreck' to renovate and live in? Maybe on that cheap plot of land you've had your eye on?
They're not easy to find, and what's available changes from week to week so you need to check the sites  below regularly, but here are some examples.
C.A.R Services, a Shropshire business specialising in selling redundant train stock, currently has a gorgeous batch of carriages for sale. Including this restored, three car group of carriages (DMU Class 115), pictured top and below:

C.A.R also has this 1961 Mk 1 RBR (below). RBR means a restaurant buffet carriage which, in this case, means it also has a galley kitchen and pantry as well as the dining area - so a great space to work with.

Click to open the plans, below, to see what I mean.

Carriages average 66-feet-long, by just over nine-feet-wide.  C.A.R have useful information on their site, including this PDF guide to carriage types.
Carriage Exchange is an enthusiasts' site with a regularly updated list of sites selling train stock.
WNXX is also a train fan's with news, pictures, forums etc. It includes a private sales section for members to advertise their own stock. Right now, that includes this unrestored MK 2 carriage ("most of the copper has been robbed from the vehicle"):

The seller is looking for "offers in excess of scrap price" (about £2-£4k). Poor little Clarabel...
(PS: Fab inspirational photos of carriage restoration on RailHoliday's facebook page- click on 'Photos').

Desperately seeking Cornwall

So what is it about Cornwall? Something going on down there that I don't know about?
I've had two WOW fans email me, both looking for a Cornish 'wreck' to stamp their mark on.
Glen, a carpenter builder, and his family are desperate to leave their east London home and move to Cornwall (or Devon) where they dream of renovating a house and starting a business.
He told me he'd looked at over 30 properties: "My mum and dad's dream is to have a small campsite somewhere rural which needs work. But they are becoming very depressed as we have been looking for over a year now with two houses falling through last minute."
Sonet emailed me from South Africa. She and her husband are reluctantly selling up and leaving the beautiful house they renovated in SA (pictured above) to move in with relatives in Cornwall while they look for their own Cornish 'wreck'.
They have very little money but they've already renovated one 'wreck' themselves and, as Sonet said: "We just love creating something out of nothing."
So - anyone out there selling a 'wreck' in or close to Cornwall? Drop me an email and I'll pass it on.

Christchurch, Welshpool, Powys

Karl emailed me to tell me about the absolutely stunning church (above) that he and his family have spent the last eight years renovating.
The story of that Herculean task is told here, in Karl and Natalie's excellent blog.
He emailed: "Came across your blog quite by accident, it's very good and makes interesting reading. Your site would have been great - we could have found a more manageable project." (At this point I would insert one of those blushing emoticons except I don't know how...!)
Anyway, I'm hoping they'll let me pick their brains to put together an advice feature for WOW readers similarly tempted by one of the many redundant churches for sale.
In the meantime, here's a quote from their blog - well worth reading as you digest your Xmas pud and dream renovation dreams:

"We are often asked if we are experienced builders or architects. We are not but we are keen learners and hard workers and it’s amazing what you can achieve just by getting on with it. Every little thing we do achieve here helps this building's cause. We work with integrity, and try our best to do the right thing by this building, as we are only custodians."

Merry Christmas Karl, Natalie, Owen, Fred and Victor - may 2012 bring you more finished rooms!