Like many during lockdown, Becky Lane and her husband Adam were eager to escape London.
In 2021 the pair ditched the city, and moved into a 1930s bungalow in the Surrey countryside, with their two children, then five and one.
Having already renovated two properties, Becky says she ‘saw potential’ in the rural retreat, and planned to build a ‘dream home’ for her family.
But that dream quickly turned into a nightmare: ‘We never signed up for all this drama,’ she tells Metro.
We’ve all watched an episode of Grand Designs or Homes Under the Hammer and fantasised about buying a run-down property and transforming it into a dream home – or selling it for twice the price.
And it seems to make a lot of financial sense. The average UK house price has hit a record high of £293,999, so these older properties can appear like a cost-effective route to home ownership.
But with mortgage rates rising and the cost of building materials in the UK increasing by over 40% since the pandemic, the fixer-upper is far from easy.
Many buyers who have taken on these mammoth projects have found themselves straddled with unexpected costs and never-ending setbacks.
‘We spent double our £100,000 budget’
Having previously renovated their London flat making £100,000 in equity, Becky, 38, and Adam, 37, were seasoned house-flippers when they purchased their new home
Excited to start the project, they weren’t initially put off by any issues. ‘It was really old and had mice in the roof,’ Becky explains. ‘There were also carpets in the bathroom and no access to the garden.
‘So many of our friends looked at this house and said they wouldn’t have gone near it because of how much work needed to be done.’
But Becky insists she saw ‘potential’. With their £100,000 budget, they planned to build a ‘simple’ side extension and completely redecorate the downstairs before moving onto the loft space.
Work started on the build in 2022, and the family moved into a separate rental property. But costs soon spiralled as the couple admit they hadn’t considered the restrictions that come with building on the Green Belt.
‘We could have created the bungalow of our dreams if there weren’t so many rules and regulations,’ she said.
‘We thought we could do a side and back extension so we could have a good size bathroom, kitchen, another bedroom for the kids, and access to the garden.
‘But because of the Green Belt, there were so many rules and regulations even down to the type of dormer roof, and we weren’t allowed a porch.’
They ended up having to knock the entire house down, leaving just three walls standing. Unable to afford to pay rent on a separate property, they were forced to live among the chaos.
They converted the garage into a makeshift living and kitchen area, slept in a small static caravan, and used a Portaloo for five months, from August to December.
‘We had to trudge through sand and dirt to be able to go into the garage of an evening. It was so cold and you couldn’t see anything, so at night time we had to have lights on our heads,’ she said.
‘We kept the kids warm, but my husband and I ended up getting chilblains on our feet.’
They also had to sacrifice plenty during their renovation. The family didn’t go on holiday for two years, couldn’t afford dinners out and had to save on costs by buying materials second-hand and sourcing products on Facebook Marketplace.
When the house was liveable, they moved in, but Becky says it was still a ‘shell’, adding: ‘All they had done is plastered the walls, so we had to live among the builders.’
Becky described the last few years as a ‘challenge’ and admits they’ve spent double their £100,000 budget.
But she adds: ‘To get the house you desire in this financial climate, what else are you going to do? This is what people have to do now to try and get the property they want.’
Although she’s ‘happy where they are now’, Becky will have to wait until the new year to save up even more money to add the finishing touches to her home.
Follow Becky and Adam’s progress on Instagram @house.of.lane.
‘I wish we hadn’t bought it’
Cassandra Davis, 34, and her husband Rikki, 37, also purchased a 1930s bungalow that they hoped to turn into an idyllic family home.
The property in Berkshire was in a quiet neighbourhood, with spacious rooms, perfect for their daughter, then five.
But just a few months after moving in 2018, Cassandra learnt she was pregnant. ‘We’d been trying for three years and had pretty much given up on having a child altogether,’ she says.
While it was a happy surprise, Cassandra admits that it became ‘impossible to renovate around a newborn’.
Then, four months after their second daughter was born, Covid hit. Any renovation plans the pair had were halted. While Cassandra says it was ‘livable’, she explains they needed a new bathroom, new kitchen and new electrics.
The couple shifted their focus to decorating to try and make the space more ‘homely’, but even then, Cassandra says every project turned into ‘something bigger and unexpected’. She says: ‘Even trying to strip the wallpaper in the nursery turned into us having to re-plaster the whole room first.’
Their boiler broke down twice, there was an oil leak, a mains water leak, and their central heating power flushed – a deep cleaning process which removes dirt, rust and debris from their boiler, pipes and radiators.
So far, they’re down £25,000 – and they haven’t even started the building work yet.
‘Nothing is straightforward,’ she says. ‘We’ve been here almost six years and in hindsight, I wish we hadn’t bought it.
‘We’re living in a house that seems to have a new problem every week and we’re constantly having to do a quick fix on things.’Just last week the pair have had to hire a plumber after the hot water stopped working in their bathroom.
With two young children, living in the house hasn’t been easy. Cassandra said: ‘I really felt it the worst when the heating stopped working in January 2021 in lockdown. It was absolutely freezing and with two small kids, it was so difficult to keep warm.’ She adds: ‘The fireplace and one electric heater were all we had.’
The pair have been quoted £150,000 for the building work – which includes removing three fireplaces, replacing the roof, adding a side extension and removing an existing garage and shed. The pair were told they need to ‘completely gut it and start again’.
They can’t afford to pay the huge chunk and so are currently in limbo, waiting to borrow the money in three years when their fixed-rate mortgage ends.
The work itself should take a year to complete, so the property won’t be finished until 2028, a decade after they bought it.
Cassandra said: ‘It’s not the family home that I had pictured and while we couldn’t have predicted Covid, we’ve had so many setbacks that it feels like getting the planning permission and the funds together are getting closer to a pipe dream than a reality.’
Moving out isn’t an option either. Cassandra explained that property prices have ‘skyrocketed’ in their village and they can’t afford to stay there if they sell.
For now, Cassandra’s children are happy and settled, so they’re resigned to stay there. However, she says: ‘We’re still undecided if it’s our forever home.’
‘It’s hard to relax when there’s so much left to do’
Even small spaces can pose big problems. Jenna Rayner, a 36-year-old marketing coordinator from Southampton, bought her doer-upper flat in Eastbourne in October 2022, spending £186,250.
She said: ‘I’ve always been obsessed with renovation and property shows and had a knack for visualising a space’s potential.’
Jenna explained it was a dream of hers to renovate her own place. So, when she found the flat, it felt like the perfect opportunity to do so.
She said: ‘I thought I’d just be stripping wallpaper, patching the walls and repainting when I moved in.’ But the project turned out much bigger than she first envisioned.
She began with an initial budget of £15,000, but far ‘underestimated how much things actually cost’ and has now spent over £22,000.
She explained: ‘Once I removed the wallpaper, I discovered the plaster on all my exterior walls had blown, which I hadn’t expected at all.
‘It meant I had to learn how to plasterboard, tape and joint walls, which wasn’t originally in the plan.’
One of the biggest challenges for Jenna is living in the renovation itself. ‘It’s hard to relax when there’s so much left to do,’ she said.
Since ripping out her kitchen, for example, she’s spent the last five months washing up in the bath.
She’s taken on the bulk of the work primarily by herself and has carried around 200 ‘heavy’ bags of rubble from the top-floor flat down two flights of stairs to the skip.
Despite its challenges, Jenna is still positive about the renovation and predicts it will take another year to complete fully.
What does she wish she knew before she started? She said: ‘It’s going to take twice as long and cost at least double what you expect. But if you’ve got the determination, it’s worth it in the end to create a space that’s exactly what you want.’
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