A couple have transformed their Edwardian home and saved around £17,000 by doing lots of the work themselves using YouTube videos.
Stephanie Savvides-Howell, 38, and husband Simon, 40, from London, bought their house in 2017 for £920,000, but with a brown and beige colour scheme, they were desperate to give it a makeover to better suit their tastes.
Over the last four years, they have overhauled the place from top to bottom but used online tips to do lots of the work themselves to save money.
The Edwardian property includes five bedrooms including an attic conversion, two bathrooms, a downstairs toilet, kitchen and two living spaces.
“When we moved in, the theme throughout was brown and beige with a lot of wooden furniture which made the spaces feel smaller. It just wasn’t us,” Stephanie, who is mum to daughter Marnie, told Jam press.
“The worktops and carpets were brown, all walls were beige apart from one of the bedrooms which even had a graffiti wall.
“I think my taste continues to evolve but when we first moved in I wanted dark, bold colours with metal and marble accents.
“I wanted to have spaces that stood the test of time and so when thinking about our expensive purchases which were the kitchen and the bathroom and went for timeless colours.
“Walls and ceilings can always be changed but worktops and expensive items cannot.”
They spent around £100,000 and the house has recently been valued at £1.2million, meaning they have already made the money back.
Stephanie said: “For our kitchen and living space at the back of the house, we knocked through and did quite extensive work, adding in steel support beams and then a complete remodel of the space including fitting a new kitchen.
“For our main bathroom it was again quite a lot of work as we had to relocate the hot tank into another room and then knock down dividing walls before fitting in our new bathroom furniture.
The mum-of-one learned DIY skills by following YouTube tutorials to create a stunning terrazzo worktop for her bathroom for less than £400, after being quoted £2,000 by a professional.
The couple also did all the painting themselves to cut costs, as well as fitting picture rails and doing the panelling in Stephanie’s office.
They estimate they saved £5,000 alone on stripping their own walls, fixing and filling them, and then painting.
Stephanie also fitted the carpet in her office herself, saving a further £500.
Stephanie said: “The terrazzo worktop in the bathroom is the jewel in the crown of our DIY efforts. We were quoted ridiculous amounts for the size we needed and so we figured it couldn’t be too hard [to do] it ourselves.
“After watching a couple of YouTube videos on cement worktops, we adapted the ratios to accommodate the glass stones, which I purchased off Ebay and were intended for aquariums.
“The results were incredible!”
Outside, they were quoted over £30,000 for a landscape gardener to remodel the garden so again they decided to do as much as they could themselves, saving £10,000.
Deputy headteacher Stephanie said: “I designed it myself and we fitted the roofing on our decking area ourselves too, which saved us another £600.”
When it came to decorating, Stephanie looked for inspiration online and then tried to recreate her favourite items on a budget.
She said: “For Marnie’s headboard, I made a rainbow headboard from swimming noodles, each wrapped in a coloured yarn to give an upholstered look.
“That took hours and most evenings for a week. I’m not sure I would repeat the process but the great thing about this is that I’ve been able to reuse the headboard when we switched her bed and it’s been surprisingly hard-wearing.
“I bought some cheap dining chairs from Mano Mano and instead of fitting the faux leather seat pad, I weaved white paracord to make it more on trend and improve the aesthetic.”
But the project wasn’t always plain sailing for the family, as they faced delays and had to live in the property throughout.
Stephanie said: “I think the hardest part was the renovations at the back of the house.
“We never moved out and when the kitchen fitters first began work, there was no heating in the back and it was one of the coldest winters, around the time of the Beast from the East.
“We had no external wall due to a large hole that was made to accommodate our floor to ceiling window.
“I was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time and really struggled with the lack of heat and dust from the works. I ended up with sinusitis from it all and had to take pretty strong antibiotics.
“For all renovations, including all building work, the cost of fitting a brand new kitchen and bathroom and the remodelling of the garden, we think it has cost us £100,000.”
In total, they pair believe they have saved an estimated £17,000 thanks to their DIY efforts.
Despite spending four years renovating the house Stephanie still plans to tackle the attic space in the new year.
She added: “Our next big job will be the attic space.
“We don’t have wardrobes in any of the bedrooms because I want to keep them as spacious as possible so the attic room will become a walk-in closet.
“It’s taken a while for me to figure out the best layout for this as I want to keep a bedroom space up there too, but I’m really excited about my vision and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
COSTS BREAKDOWN:
Kitchen £40,000 (including new kitchen and all building work)
Garden £20,000 (including plants, materials, cost of labour)
Bathroom £10,000 (including all new furniture and plumbers)
Materials, paint, new flooring £30,000
In other news, influencer puts mascara on her ‘moustache’!
