A couple spent $160,000 on the “ugliest house on the street” and has doubled its value by turning it into their dream home—after learning DIY on YouTube.
Lizzy Williams, 37, and her husband, Phil Williams, 40, bought a four-bed, semi-detached house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, in June 2014.
The couple claims it was the “ugliest” property on the road as it hadn’t been occupied for four years. Describing the interiors, the couple said the house had holes in the ceiling, dead plants, and fungus growing in the bathroom downstairs.
The couple, who spent nine years renovating the property themselves, estimate they’ve saved $253,840 by turning to YouTube to teach themselves plumbing, electrics, swimming pool construction, and kitchen installation.
“Phil is very details-focused—he absorbs information really well,” Mrs. Williams, who works in marketing, said. “We used a lot of online forums to help us—we would watch YouTube videos too.”
However, when Mr. Williams didn’t know how to approach a specific problem, he leaned on family and friends for help.
Within six months of buying the property in June 2014, the couple had moved in and started gutting it. They initially lived in just two bedrooms whilst the renovation work went on around them.
“We set the front room up as our bedroom, and then we had a back bedroom that we used as a living room,” Mrs. Williams said.
When they first bought the property it had four bedrooms, however, Mr. and Mrs. William extended the property to make the bedrooms larger and converted the garage to add four more rooms.
The garage was converted into four rooms: a utility room, a toilet, a study, and a boot room.
“It is not the same house that we bought, we re-plumbed, we added a two-story rear extension with the neighbors,” Mrs. Williams said. “We were able to extend the footprint of the house, going back into the garden.
“We went down a bit too, underneath the house was just a void that was used for storage. We regained that space and now you step into our kitchen area.”
The main house renovation took the couple six years to complete. However, the full renovation was only done by September 2023 with the completion of the garden.
In total, the pair spent $160,000 on the property; they used their $50,771 in savings, took out loans, and used their salaries to fund the transformation.
“That is another reason why it has taken us so long as we did not have huge reserves,” Mrs. William said. “It has been a hard slog but we love it.”
She says her favorite room in the house is the kitchen.
“We really like the kitchen, we love the high ceilings and the space we have,” she said. “In 1950s houses you don’t really get that, our ceilings in the kitchen are 3.5 meters [11.4 feet] tall.”
She explained that this gives her a feeling of space and openness that she wouldn’t otherwise get.
Additionally, she also enjoys the other quirky features in the house such as the “hangover bench” for sitting in the shower and a television in the bathroom.
The swimming pool, she believes, is great for her 3-year-old son to enjoy in summer.
Reflecting on their renovation journey, Mrs. Williams said: “We put our heart and soul into the house—the fact that we did a lot of the renovation ourselves makes our home really special.”
