In the beginning!

So here we are! August 30th 2013 and Deb and I have just collected the keys to our first project together. We are now the proud owners of 8A Park Street, the worst house on one of the best roads in the area.

 As you can see from the photos, the house is in need of some TLC - that could be the understatement of the year!  Neither of us are builders (can you tell?!) but are up for the challenge and have loads of enthusiasm.

It has been no mean feat to actually buy this house, as the agents seemed very reluctant to sell it - mistakenly I thought that was part of their remit! I first saw this house in March, but it was far to expensive to make the renovation worthwhile, so we left it. Then in May it came back on to the market at a reduced price so I had another look and thought that it could be a goer.  So I asked the roofer to come round and have a look at the hole in the roof (quite an impressive hole don't you think!).

He could only come first thing in the morning, so I rang the agents to arrange access.  At this point the agent reliably informed me that they didn't do viewings in the mornings, and that even if I were the queen there would be no exception to this rule, and that they were not prepared to work round a builder.  Indeed, if the builder wanted the work he should be prepared to visit at the convenience of the agent!  I was a tiny bit taken aback by this, especially in view of the fact that the house is about a 2 minute walk from the agents' office, we were cash buyers with no chain and we wanted to complete in three weeks!  But this counts for nothing!  So we walked away.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, in July I was waiting in the queue for the London Eye with two French girls and my youngest son (I was a child bride!) on the hottest day of the year, but that's a tale for another day, when I got a call from the very posh lady in the agents' office. She wondered if I would still be interested in this house if the price was reduced as they had just had another offer fall through. I felt the need to be slightly off-hand and not very helpful at this point, and told her I would think about it and get back in touch if we were.  So Deb went to have a look, we made an offer way below the asking price and said it was conditional on us completing in 3 weeks.  A month later we finally completed, but only after the agents had mixed us up with some other buyers and sent the wrong solicitors details to the vendors solicitors. But hey ho! Here we are complete at last!

Yes, sorry about the photo! The legs fell off my jeans after the last project which I finished in January, the land Rover is a Series 3 for those of you who are interested, ex-MOD, 30 years old, and I can barely get in unaided as I'm only 5ft tall!  It has a five mile turning circle, top speed of 50 on the flat with the wind behind you and stopping distance of about 2 miles! But it's the most fun one girl could possibly have whilst driving!

Anyway, back to the house. So what does it need doing to it? Not much really! Roof repair, obviously. Then there's the cracks in the front wall, the windows, the electrics, the plumbing, the heating, the bathroom and the kitchen. A bit of decoration, the garden and I think that's about it. Time scale? Finish before Christmas, put it back on the market in the New Year.  Do I hear you gentlemen scoffing?  Perhaps I should confess that I have done something like this before.  Last year another friend and I bought a similar house not far from here, and renovated it whilst taking part in a new Channel 4 programme called 'Beat My Build', which is due to air at the end of October. The premise is that two renovators compete to increase the value of the house by the most.  Did we win? You'll have to watch the programme to find out!  But we did complete the project in 3 months, so it can be done!

Anyway, enough for today, I shall be back soon with the next instalment of our fantastic girls adventure!