A couple spent £150k on "the ugliest house on the street" and doubled its value - turning it into their dream home - after learning DIY on YouTube.
Lizzy Williams, 37, and her husband, Phil 40, who works in finance, bought the four-bed semi-detached house in St Albans in June 2014.
They claim it was the "ugliest" property on the road due to it not being lived in for four years - it had holes in the ceiling, dead plants, and fungus growing in the downstairs loo.
The couple spent nine years renovating the property themselves and estimate they have saved £200k in costs - turning to YouTube to learn how to do the plumbing, electrics, build a swimming pool and install a kitchen.
They hired builders to construct an extension to the rear of the property and fit a new roof.
They finished the renovations in September 2023 and say they have transformed the house into their perfect family home.
In total, Lizzy and Phil spent £150k transforming "the ugliest house on the street" using savings and their salaries - and they say they have doubled the value of the home.
Lizzy, who works in marketing, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, said: "Phil is very details focused - he absorbs information really well.
"We used a lot of online forums to help us - we would watch YouTube videos too.
"He would lean on friends and family to help us out and ask advice on how to approach situations.
"It is a bit of a myriad of research on the internet and asking friends.
"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.
"The main house renovation took us around six years as we did most of the work ourselves.
"We fully completed the renovation last year, finishing off the garden - nine years after we originally bought the house."
After buying the property in June 2014, the couple moved in six months later to start gutting it.
Phil and Lizzy initially lived in two bedrooms while the renovation work was going on around them.
Lizzy said: "We set the front room up as our bedroom and then we had a back bedroom that we used as a living room.
"Everywhere else we were doing work on - we lived in those rooms for a year.
"We didn't have a back of the house for a year either as we were building the extension."
When they bought the property it had four bedrooms, Phil and Lizzy extended the property to make the bedrooms larger and converted the garage - adding four extra rooms.
Lizzy said: "It is not the same house that we bought, we re-plumbed, we added a two-storey rear extension with the neighbours.
"We were able to extend the footprint of the house, going back into the garden.
"We converted the garage into four rooms that we use as a utility room, toilet, study and boot room.
"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."
In total, Lizzy and Phil spent £150k on the property, they had £40k in savings, borrowed money and used their salary to afford the transformation.
Lizzy said: "The £40k we had saved lasted us around two years, we borrowed some more money and used our salary for the rest of it.
"That is another reason why it has taken us so long as we did not have huge reserves.
"It has been a hard slog but we love it."
Lizzy says her favourite room in the house is the kitchen and enjoys the "quirky" features in the home - including a "hangover bench" to sit in the shower and a TV in the bathroom.
Lizzy said: "We really like the kitchen, we love the high ceilings and the space we have.
"In 1950s houses you don't really get that, our ceilings in the kitchen are three-and-a-half metres tall.
"It gives you a feeling of space and openness which you wouldn't otherwise get.
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"Obviously the swimming pool is cool, it is great in the summer for our son, William, three.
"We have put some fun features into the home, we have a TV in the family bathroom.
"We have a bench in the shower that we lovingly call the hangover bench."
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