My €1 Dream Home: Woman, 35, spent two years and €60,000 converting a derelict house into her perfect abode…after snagging it for a bargain basement price
- Maxine Sharples, 35, bought a Victorian patio for just £1 but it needed work
- She spent two years and £60,000 remodeling it and has now moved in
- Miss Sharples said ‘It’s been a long journey’ but an ‘amazing transformation’
The chance to buy a house for just £1 was too good to turn down – but there were a few catches.
The property Maxine Sharples bought was partially run down, rat infested and had holes in the roof, rotten windows and a tree growing in it.
But after two years of blood, sweat and tears, she converted the Victorian patio into her dream home for less than £60,000 – and has finally moved in.
Maxine Sharples transformed the Victorian terrace into her dream home for less than £60,000
The 35-year-old is the latest resident to move into his £1 home as part of a Liverpool City Council redevelopment project.
Launched in 2013, it offered locals 130 run-down houses for £1 on the condition that they refurbished the properties and didn’t sell them for at least five years.
Thousands have applied, including Miss Sharples, a project manager at the university and a yoga teacher.
Heavy lifting: Miss Sharples gets to work
Derelict: This is what the house looked like at the beginning of the two-year project
Bright idea: The renovated Victorian patio
Her vision was to turn the house upside down to create a bright, plant-filled home. Interior walls and ceilings have been removed to create a double height open plan kitchen and living space upstairs.
Skylights were inserted into the roof and the two bedrooms and bathroom were moved downstairs.
“It’s a really, really amazing transformation,” said Miss Sharples. “It has been a long and arduous journey. There was a point last year when I just got sick of the cowboy kits and needed to take a break. I’m sure there were a lot of tears, but now that I can move in, it’s definitely been worth it.”
Switch: The bathroom has been moved to the ground floor
Scary: The inside of the run-down property during renovation
To save money, she lived in an RV or stayed with friends. Miss Sharples also took on some of the chores herself during lockdown, dismantling the house down to the bare bricks and using YouTube to learn how to mix concrete and lay bricks and underfloor heating.
Her home in the Wavertree area is now worth more than double what she paid for the remodel.
But money isn’t everything. Miss Sharples said, “I can finally settle down in a house I’ve brought back to life.”
