A DIY-loving mom shared how she completely rebuilt her “derelict” historic home, adding £ 153,000 in value.
Hannah Janikiewicz, 41, of Wirral, bought her four bedroom Victorian home for £ 347,000 in 2013 with plans to completely transform the space.
The mother of three and her husband were ready to start the renovation as soon as they got their hands on the keys. Her first job was to knock through the two bathrooms to create one large family bathroom.
They also rewired the house, removed all wallpaper from the walls in each room, sanded the floorboards, plastered it again and redecorated it to their liking.
They brought the house to a livable condition before Hannah’s husband had to move to Qatar for work.
They rented it out for a couple of years while they moved
(Image: Jam Press / @ mywirralvictorian)
The family – including their children Isabella, 9, Xabi, 7, and five-year-old Miller – rented the property for the next five years and returned for good in 2018.
In the summer of 2020, they finally had enough time to make their house a home and embarked on a “massive” renovation project – redesigning the floor plan of the property’s ground floor, pounding through the kitchen and dining room, and removing breasts five chimneys.
The house also needed complete rewiring, new plumbing, new floors and windows – as well as a complete renovation to bring it up to scratch.
The family also decided to build a double garage in the garden to open up the space.
“I wanted to create a large, bright, usable space for the family,” says Hannah, who works as a project manager.
They had to rewire the entire house, redecorate, and reconfigure the entire first floor floor plan
(Image: Jam Press / @ mywirralvictorian)
“We really wanted to sympathize with the original features and have therefore had all sliding windows with double glazing restored.
“We restored an original fireplace in the front room as it had one from the 1930s that wasn’t the right age for the house.
“At the moment we are finished with the renovation work.
“We live and use the house very differently, now the ground floor works better for modern family life.
“The difference is incredible.
“It was one of the worst houses on the street, the sandstone was either crumbled or cracked, we’d been building scaffolding for seven months while stonemasons carefully rebuilt everything to look like it originally would.”
It’s no longer the “worst house on the street”
(Image: Jam Press / @ mywirralvictorian)
Hannah hired craftsmen while she home-schooled her children throughout the lockdown, but tackled home improvement wherever she could.
The mother upcycled furniture, including an old piano she had given to her daughter that she turned into a fancy black organ, and painted parts of the house herself.
Hannah also designed a fluted coffee table for the lounge.
She made a simple table out of MDF and procured corrugated cardboard, which she then glued around the legs and painted black.
Other upcycling items around the house include a sideboard, works of art, and prints – Hannah whipped them all up with one coat of paint.
Hannah did as many DIY jobs as she could
(Image: Jam Press / @ mywirralvictorian)
She also came up with a clever wall light hack that doesn’t require electricity.
She said, “I couldn’t get rewired, so I moved into two wall lights that I knew I could use a battery operated remote control light.
“I plugged them in instead of a lightbulb and they were mounted on the wall.”
While Hannah struggled to arrange home schooling with renovation project management, Hannah’s hard work clearly paid off as her home is almost unrecognizable.
As an avowed fan of monochrome, Hannah has upgraded the kitchen from a narrow space with old-fashioned cream and wood cabinets to a breathtaking black and white retreat for the whole family.
The open design features a large marble-quartz island lit by dangling gold lights and surrounded by black cabinets and appliances.
The whole house is light and airy, far from what it looked like when Hannah bought it
(Image: Jam Press / @ mywirralvictorian)
Directly behind it is a large wooden dining table, the double doors of which lead into the garden and bathe the room in natural light.
The lounge has undergone an equally dramatic transformation, with dated magenta walls and a patterned carpet in favor of herringbone floors and crisp cream walls.
The original stained glass windows have been retained by the family and add a nice splash of color to the room.
Upstairs, two small bathrooms were taken down to create one large family bathroom – with stunning beige tiles, a large white tub, and funky framed prints.
The master bedroom, once home to tired pink wallpaper and a black fireplace, has been painted in fresh light tones, with a seating area under the bay windows that makes perfect use of the natural light.
The couple plan to add a loft extension in the future
(Image: Jam Press / @ mywirralvictorian)
In the garden, just as the garage was torn out, the family tore down the old fence and put in a new one, as well as a terrace, artificial turf and three raised planters.
The exterior has also been created with sandstone paint for protection, as well as repainted window frames, the added touch of a dark door to highlight the color of the walls, and a driveway.
In total, the family spent £ 85,000 on the transformation.
After recently appraising the property, they found it had increased in value by £ 153,000, to a new value of £ 585,000.
The family plans to continue the renovation with a loft extension in 2023.
Comments are closed.