Original subtitles

In the city of Bath,

antiques dealer and salvage expert Drew Pritchard is fulfilling

a lifelong dream...

Oh, my word. Look at that.

...taking on his biggest restoration project to date.

It's a big, daunting prospect. I'm gambling the lot.

He's trading almost everything he has for his dream home.

A 230-year-old Georgian townhouse.

This was the house I always dreamed of.

But after decades of neglect,

the house has the potential to be a disaster.

And there was water pouring through the ceiling.

This whole floor was flooded.

Perfectly restoring the dilapidated Grade I listed building will take

meticulous attention to detail...

This is stuff going back on and we're doing it the right way.

...will test Drew's patience...

This is bad. There's metal holding the house up.

I really don't need this, not now.

...and demand every penny he has.

If I haven't got the money, we're gonna have to stop the build.

Will Drew, alongside master-builder Keiron...

I didn't know about nipping off the corners.

Learn a new thing every day, don't ya?

...and conservation architect Rhys,

be able to overcome the biggest challenges he's ever faced...

This could have killed somebody. Multiple people.

...to achieve his ultimate salvage success?

Oh, it is genuinely exciting.

For over 18 months, Drew and his expert team

have worked tirelessly on the restoration of

his Grade I Georgian townhouse,

but it's been a bumpier road than expected

and, at times, Drew's dream has become a nightmare.

So, a change of plan. Okay.

Unsurprisingly, I've run out of money.

Okay.So I'm going to have to stop work completely

on certain parts of the house.

At the moment, I can afford to do these top two floors.

Then we will try and find a solution for the rest of the house.

Keeping the build going has pushed Drew to the limit.

I've wheeled and dealed more to get to this point with this house

more than I've ever done in my entire life.

Bought, sold, swapped,

you name it, I've done it to get to this point.

Having sold all of his business assets

and much of his personal antiques collection,

Drew has now also sold his home in Conwy,

to raise the money to finish the restoration.

The last thing to go has been my little cottage in Wales.

That's gone. And it's all gone into here.

As Drew will soon be without a home, head builder

Keiron Dixon-Squire is overseeing the final push

to get everything ready for him to move into

the top two floors in less than two weeks' time.

It's not been the easiest.

It's meant we've been doing stuff slightly out of sync,

which has made the build slightly more complex

and slower, if anything,

but we've had to cut our cloth to suit, as Drew has,

and we've, sort of, accommodated what's had to be done.

With the sale of the cottage raising the additional funds he needed,

work has been able to resume on the lower floors,

including the first-floor reception room,

which is almost ready for decoration.

So this is looking good.

It's come up really well. Really good.Yeah.

So how long has that taken them to do that, then?Several days.

To do this room? Yeah.

Which has left us with this beautiful cornice.

I'm surprised they're still here. I love that stiff-leaf decoration

running all the way around the top. Yeah.

The guys have basically gone over all the ceilings on this floor and,

basically, hand-scraped and steamed off all the old lining paper,

taking it all the way back to the bare plaster

and, if I'm honest, they're in a really good condition.

I don't want to skim them any more than need be.

Unless you absolutely have to. Yeah.

Honestly, I couldn't be happier. They've done a brilliant job. Wow.

It will be a few more months

until the first-floor reception room is complete, but, upstairs,

where Drew will soon be living, work is underway on the master bathroom.

For the walls and woodwork, Drew has chosen a deep, reddish brown.

A colour that, during the Georgian period,

was derived from organic pigments

and found only in the wealthiest households.

With the decorative work on the upper floors almost complete,

it's time for the fixtures and the fittings to be added

and, to ensure he selects pieces that are period-correct,

Drew is tapping into the expertise of old contact and friend

Charles Brooking.

Charles is the British, if not the world, authority

on architectural fittings.

And, today, what I need to talk to him about is

what sort of door furniture I had on that house and if there's anybody

on the face of the planet who is gonna know it, it's Charles.

In the village of Cranleigh in Surrey

is the Charles Brooking Teaching Gallery,

part of the Brooking Museum of Architectural Detail.

Here, you'll find a lovingly curated collection

of British architectural details,

including doors, windows and fixtures and fittings.

It's the lifetime's work of

historic-building specialist Charles Brooking.

I'm the founder of the Brooking and the Architectural Study collection,

which I built up, starting when I was very young,

in about 1957, with Bakelite numbers

and I formally created the museum in 1966.

It's a passion that's kept me going for over 60 years.

It's just amazing, the workmanship and thought

and ingenuity that went into everyday objects.

I range from palaces right down to humble cottages, really.

It's a lifelong enjoyment.

I've just been steeped in it and I will never stop.

Gosh. Hello. Long time no see. Great to see you.Good to see you.

Come and see the new museum. I've done a lot since you last came.

Whoa, Charles, you've been busy.

This is incredible.

I love this place, you know.

If I'm able to walk away from here with Charles saying

that is the door handle that would have been on at this period,

I know that it's absolutely that is the case

and it cannot be argued with.

So, I mean, I can see which ones we're gonna be talking about.

It's these, isn't it? Yeah?

Correct? Yes. You've spotted them.

I mean, this is mid-1790s to about 1825.

That's a bit late. That's Regency.Ooh.

But look, I know. It's lovely, isn't it?It's lovely.

God, they're so beautiful and then gilt.

Yes. This was top of the range. Yeah.

I think you've got to go back to the more round types.

Your house is slightly conservative,

in terms of its mouldings and detailing.

Charles shows me these wonderful door handles

and I realised they are too good.

Those have come off buildings that are way better than mine.

So I have to step back a bit. All right.

Show us what I would have had.

I think this is what you want. Yeah.This is far more 1790s.

But that's so refined, isn't it? Mmm.I know it's not as elaborate.

It's not as pretty, but, still, it's still beautiful.

That I can live with.

And these are bang-on? Yeah? Yes.Right, okay.

This is for secondary rooms. Smaller. Servants' doors.

And cupboards. Bow latches.

Hmm. OK.

In these houses, there's two worlds going on.

It's just fascinating. Under stairs, the servants.

Then the secondary areas and then the attics, the servants again.

And the door furniture tells you so much.It does.

And this knob, here, so they would have been this style,

but smaller?

Smaller. The important thing to remember is the neck.

You see, this is a later one.

The actual shank is straight.

This has got a neck to it. It's actually shaped.

It's narrow-waisted.

That's the earlier design. This is a much later one.

So I need to be looking for exactly that?

Yes.With that profile? That's very important.

See, that's great. I didn't know that.

That really is important. That's really good.

I think the main thing I'm walking away with today

is a realisation about what my house really is,

because if I'm gonna be true to myself

and true to the house, I have to hold back.

So I'm gonna go that way.

I now know what I'm looking at.

Throughout the restoration, Drew has tried to restore

and reuse wherever possible,

even tapping into his own skills

from his days as a stained-glass restorer,

to salvage some of the original panes from the rotten sash windows.

So there we have one almost-ready piece of glass, bar some cleaning.

And, today, he's honouring a tradition

that goes back hundreds of years.

So this is one of the original pieces of glass that we managed

to salvage from the windows that have had to be replaced.

It's the one you actually cut out of the window.Oh, is it?

Yeah. All ready for you to put your moniker on it.

It's a really traditional thing, this, to do.

I've seen pieces of glass from...

the 1500s and the 1600s that have been marked.

In the 18th century, particularly, you'll see a lot of this.

So it's a nice little thing to do. Right.The only problem with it,

you do tend to occasionally crack the glass.

I'll give it a whirl. My signature is not great.

So...

(GLASS SQUEAKS)

A good noise, isn't it? All the glaziers everywhere will be wincing,

because I'm wrecking a wheel.

(CHUCKLES) It's all right. It's mine!Oh, is it?

(BOTH LAUGH) I'll owe you a new wheel.

(GLASS SQUEAKS) I love that noise.

I don't mind that one. It's all right, isn't it?

There you go.

"DP 2024." Yeah.

It's a bit rough.Yeah. But it's there for good.

Yeah, exactly. So when the windows are finished and ready to glaze,

which is not far off, we'll be putting that in there.

Yeah. It'll stay there for...

yeah, a long time. Forever.Yeah.

The dirt will go in there, as well, so you'll notice it more.Yeah.

So I've just vandalised my own house! (LAUGHS)

While work continues to get the upper floors ready

for Drew to move in, he's hit the road, on the hunt for

period-correct door handles.

Whilst on a buying trip with fellow dealer Viki Knott, he's had a tip

that a salvage yard in Norfolk might have what he's looking for.

How do you do?

I'm very well.I'm John. I'm Viki.Hello.

Hello.How are you doing? How are you?Hi, John.

Look at this.

Well, I need doorknobs.

Door handles are something I used to sell loads of all the time.

I had a whole room in my salvage yard, just full of door furniture.

Now I need them for myself, they've all just disappeared

off the face of the Earth and I can't find them anywhere,

because they are very particular, the ones that we want.

What we call the knob shed.

Ah, okay. This is just wonderful.

Look at that.

Now that's a door handle.

Door handles, it's the thing you look at the most.

If you're walking into a door, you go...

They're the door jewellery, basically.

They are the earrings, hanging off the door. They've got to be right.

That one is a nice one.

They're the one thing that you could put on

that could totally throw the whole look of the building.

So it really, really matters. Detail matters.

Can you notice something really interesting about this door handle?

You cannot see a single screwhead.

That's the important bit.

So you undo that there. That's what screws to the door. There.

You'd cover that with the cover plate.

This is all phosphor bronze and then gilt.

What do you want for that, John?

Forty quid. Okay.

Ah! There's one. There's one.

So you see how small that is?

Yeah.That's for your servants' quarters.

So those bits there.

That one.

Why don't we call it 100 quid for the whole lot?

I was including the lock.A hundred and fifty quid for the lot.

With the deadline looming for Drew needing to move into his new home,

his hunt for period-perfect doorknobs

has taken him to a salvage yard in Norfolk...

What we call the knob shed. Ah, okay.

Ah! There's one.

So you see how small that is?

...where he's doing a bulk deal on period-perfect door furniture

for the upper floors, he'll be temporarily living in.

So those bits there.

That one.

Why don't we call it 100 quid for the whole lot?

I was including the lock. Fifty quid for it.

Go on. Done.

A hundred and fifty quid for the lot.Brilliant. Thank you.

Perfect!

Unbelievable. I didn't think we'd be able to find any of those.

But door handles are just one of many period-correct items

on Drew's shopping list.

You know you said you wanted a step.Yeah.

With a bit of wear to it?

That's it. Yes.

Yes, mate.

That's what I wanted. I know.

That's what I wanted. Exactly.

Is that the right size?

Yeah. What do you want for that?

Erm... Probably 140 quid.

Can we put it on the flat?

This, you can't make.

You can't make... You can't make that.Fingers.

There you go.

You're making yourself 150 years' worth of age

to your front door in one motion.

I'm putting a bath on it.

And it's big, weirdly big, for a French copper tub. Right?

And you need to step into it? You've got to get into it.

But I want it to look like it's always been there.

So, if you walk into the bathroom, you go,

"Oh, my God, it's an original bath with an original stone surround."

In that case, it would be a bargain to you, wouldn't it?

(LAUGHTER)

Yeah. All right. You got me there. Fair enough.

(LAUGHS)

Yes. Yes, please. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. That...

Perfect. Perfect.

So John then pulls out the threshold step,

which is the thing that I want to use in my house, in Bath,

to mount under my French copper bath.

And I'm like, "Yes! That's exactly what I want."

Back in Bath...

...work is ploughing ahead to get

the upper floors finished for Drew to move in.

And, after some light restoration, the handles he found

are back in a period-perfect setting,

on the top-floor bedroom doors.

Drew sent these down.

They are correct in the style

and the type which would have been originally on these doors.

They're a really nice, simple mechanism.

Everything is on display.

They needed a bit of TLC to get them to work properly.

Great that we're getting to use stuff

that is reclaimed as much as possible.

Yeah, as you can see,

they spring really nicely.

It's yet another detail where Drew's insistence on sourcing

the right items and doing things the right way has paid off.

I think one of the most refreshing things about this project is

Drew's appreciation of

the age and the patina of the house that he's bought.

There's lots of Grade I listed buildings around Bath,

which don't have the same soul left in them,

because they've been stripped back,

rubbed down, everything just finished to...

...as if it's new.

Drew is not into that, which is really nice.

It's been a lighter touch

on the preparation of all the original stuff,

which has been lovely.

There's no point in having a house like this if you take the essence

and the soul out of it by making it look brand-new.

While the work continues on the lower floors, the only room

left to complete on the top two floors is the master bathroom.

Whilst it won't quite be ready when he moves in,

Drew has been busy sourcing items for it,

including the sandstone step he found in Norfolk.

It's starting to take shape, as you can see.

Look, the colour is on now.

Mostly. It needs to be second-coated on the timber.

But the bath is really rather special.

So imagine bath night, full of water, bubbling away.

Lovely. The fire...

on.

I've got this fabulous chimney piece here.

So you can lie in the bath, with the fire on.

I was thinking, I want it to look like it's always been there.

Now what would the Georgians have done? Maybe old timber.

But it would have rotted away by now. And I thought stone.

They'd have used stone.

So I thought, "Right, I need a threshold step."

I've managed to track down the most wonderful piece of sandstone.

We're gonna put that underneath the bath. I just think it will give

a wonderful feeling of longevity to it.

Sort of... It'll give that little bit of magic.

It's not exactly light, this.

Should be fine. Yeah.

Somebody has already trod on it.

Come to me a touch.

Look at that! Yes.

Okay, so there's a couple of problems straightaway, isn't there?

It's a big gap. Good, though, isn't it?

It looks nice. It's a nice, wide step.Yeah.

Looking at that, you're only gonna need...

a smallish section of stone on either end.Yeah.

Then a piece through the back. And that's it?Yeah.

The floor standing taps are gonna come out here,

so they'll need to be on the raised plinth.

The waste will come out of the back and run along the wall.

I love it. I love it.

Cool.So, are you happy? Yeah. We can make it work.

It's just gonna take 10 times longer. It's worth it.Yeah.

The thing is, you're doing it to live in.

So you've got to do it right. Yeah. I love it.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm gonna put there, but I think it might be

an enormous shop mirror...

Okay....I've found that might go there, I'm not sure.

You can look at yourself when you get out of the bath.

That's the last thing I want to look at.(LAUGHS)Blimey.

Nobody needs to see that, Keiron!

The pane of glass that Drew salvaged and signed has been installed in

one of the original sashes that Keiron has restored

and will be fitted in a few months' time.

So here it is. You've got this done?

Yeah.

Needs decorating. Oh, that's terrible.

(BOTH LAUGH) What a mess!

Yeah.

You had limited toolage.

Limited toolage and limited talent!

Look at the state of that.

What a mess!

Oh, well, it's there now. Yeah.

It's a lovely bit of glass. Yeah.

You've used nearly all reclaimed glass.

Yeah, we retained as much of the original glass as was usable.

And they've all gone back into the restored casements,

which took a lot of repair.

Fantastic.Yeah. I'm happy with that.

That's good. Anything we can save, I'm happy with.

Excellent. And I'm there permanently now.

Until somebody kicks a football through it!(LAUGHS)

The sash with the signed pane will go into one of the windows

at the rear of the house,

ensuring that Drew's mark is on the building for many years to come.

It's starting to feel like home and very, very soon, very soon,

it's gonna be home, because I've got nowhere else to go!

Drew's Georgian townhouse in Bath is a hive of activity.

Having sold and moved out of his cottage in Conwy,

there's added urgency to be able to move into

the upper two floors in just a few days' time.

While the team continue to get Drew's new home ready,

he's on the road sourcing items

that will work perfectly in the house.

One of which is going to be restored

by one of his most trusted contacts in the trade.

Today, I'm going to see Martin Ashby.

One of the very, very best lighting restorers in this country.

Hi, Martin. Hey, Drew. How are you doing?

I'm all right, buddy. Nice to see you.Yeah.

That arrived a couple of days ago. Brilliant.

It's a big, old beast, isn't it? Oh, it looks beautiful.

The lamp that I want Martin to have a look at is

generically known as a colza lamp.

(GRUNTS) Gonna go on this big hook here.

This one was made by Messenger, one of the early 19th century's

very, very best lighting manufacturers and brass-founders,

based in Birmingham and then, latterly, into London.

Age-wise, it's 40 years newer than the room it's going into,

but when they went from candles

and oil through to the next generation

of what they would have done in that room, that's right

and they'd have gone for it.

Now, if you're gonna go for it,

you want one of these Messenger lights, you know, you really do.

So it's about 1835.

Somewhere around there? Yeah?Yeah.This has had,

as you can see, not a great job on it.

And there's one big problem with it. Go on, then.Right?

That pipe...The tube. ...shouldn't be there.

Underneath here, I'm hoping there's a finial.

There should be a little finial there. It's a right mess.

It should also have, sort of, an upside-down

baluster to form glass flutes.

Chimneys on there, as well. Yeah.

Probably get rid of these completely.

They should now have, you know, just the bulb inset here.Yeah, okay.

It's a stunning piece. Very nice.

Thank you for trusting me to have a look at it.

Well, there's nobody else I'd trust to do it, to be honest with you.

I'll leave you to it.Perfect. Thank you. Looking forward to it.

Martin's first job is to carefully dismantle the light.

We'll start stripping this top section off.

Obviously, we want to try and expose the tube

to see if the finials are in there.

Really hopeful that they are.

So, obviously, there's no finial on the bottom of that there.

It's obviously been taken out,

where this steel tube would have gone through.

So I'm really hopeful that the finial is left in this top cover.

(GROANS) Ah, the finial is missing.

So the cover here should just come off.

Easy as that, it is.

I've got to see if this vessel comes off easy enough.

Yeah, that's on a thread.

That's Birmingham manufacturing for you!

Just look at the detail.

Look at the lion's head.

What beautiful workmanship.

I also need to look at the chain, as well. Obviously, going forward,

it will be hanging on the chains,

whereas it was hanging on this steel rod.

Oops! Aaah.

Oh, sadly, the chain has just broken in two.

A real shame,

but I would rather find it now than when we're hanging it up.

So I'm gonna have to do a repair on that one.

So my plan is to drill down through there

and then put a 3 mm screw through it.

I think that would be the strongest.

I just need to be so careful.

Yes.

So I'm just holding this steady in the vice.

My vice has got copper jaws in there.

They're softer than the brass.

So I'll get on and tap it and then we'll see if that, that works.

I'm holding myself steady, because it's, obviously, a very fine tap.

So you screw it in.

Then, as you back off, it cuts the thread back.

It's normally...

half a turn, with a quarter turn back.

So there's a 3 mm thread

now cut nearly all the way down that section there.

So I'll just try the little ball screw into it.

Okay, so that's screwed in.

Well, that's gone together really well.

It's a repair,

but I think that looks pretty good.

With the chain repaired, Martin can continue with the restoration,

replacing missing pieces, cleaning and rewiring.

Whilst Drew is remaining true to the Georgian period

for the key elements of the house, throughout the restoration,

he's been crystal-clear on what his approach will be

when it comes to furnishing it.

Even though I'm being pretty slavish with the house itself,

to getting that as correct as I possibly can,

so 1790 to 1793, in that window, everything else, the gloves are off.

I'm a magpie and my taste and style

and interest in things changes constantly.

I think, if you bought a house in 1719 and you've got a mirror

that's 50 years old that you really like, you'd put it in.

I like things that were made in 1980.

Good things. It doesn't matter about what age they are.

Put it all together. Enjoy it. And the madness that happens

when you put all that stuff together, that's where the magic is.

And, at last, over 18 months since the restoration began,

Drew is finally ready to move into the top two floors

and, true to his word, he's most definitely veered from tradition

when it comes to the bed for his master bedroom.

(CHUCKLES) I planned, right, for,

you know, your classic, four-poster, English country house,

18th-century bed, lovely.

And then I saw this and I thought, "Man, that's it."

I hope it's all right.

It could be quite an expensive mistake, this.

Nineteen-seventies Italian Brutalism. Have a load of that.

You've got cast alloy and welded steel.

Yes, it's a break from the norm.

It is not what you'd expect to have in here.

It's on a really rudimentary, box-section frame.

Really basic,

but it's the design behind it.

The designer is Luciano Frigerio.

I love it. It's just...

It's a bit... It's a bit mad, isn't it?

I love that.

I just think it works really well.

Just great and lightens the room.

Man, it's cool.

Just in this room, there's pieces in here now from the last 300 years.

We've got pure 1970s', Italianate Brutalism

in an 18th-century English house,

with some lights that were designed in the late '20s, early '30s,

with a plafonnier lamp from the 19th century.

And I think it works. I love it.

After a great deal of work,

a more traditional fixture for the house is complete.

Drew's rewired and restored Messenger colza lamp,

which is being delivered by Martin Ashby.

Oh, man.

Wow, Martin.

It's good, in't it?

Oh, wow.

Oh, mate, look at this. Yeah.

So, luckily, that's an original Messenger finial.

God, look at that. And I think the way that

we've rewired it is just in keeping, so we've come down,

weaved down the chain and then we've terminated in there.

Then we've come out to each of the...

This is lovely. I love the way you've done this.

Yeah, it's tidy, in't it? Very nice.

It was a bit of a wreck, wasn't it?

Oh, I'm so pleased.

So this is your colza shade. That's wonderful.

That's...It's good, in't it? Man, that's really impressive.

I had them made by a glass-blower I know in Scotland.

Can I take one off? Yeah, yeah, take them off.

It's lovely.

Nice work, aren't they?

There's a couple of imperfections in them I noticed.Ah, look.

That's a seed. That bubble. That's called a seed.Yeah, yeah.

Where air has been trapped in the glass when it's been mouth-blown.

Truly hand-made. But they are, they are.

Wow.

It's just superb.

I am, oh, fizzing with excitement. Good.It's so good.

Couldn't be any better. Good. That's why I'm happy.

A happy customer.

As the lower floors still don't have electricity

and there is a great deal of work to be done,

it will be months before the lamp is lit up in all its glory,

but, in the meantime,

the rooms on the top floors are ready to be furnished.

So, today, Drew is buying new pieces for the house

and is taking conservation architect Rhys Brookes along,

to open his eyes to the beauty of mixing traditional

and contemporary design.

Right. Here we are.

The Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair.

Yeah.One of my favourites. We've been here a lot.

And now, I suppose, my local one.

Yeah, it will be. I guess you're hitting that exciting period, where

you can begin to get excited about occupying the building.

You've hit that tipping point,

where it's starting to become a home, suddenly.

It's just the finances. Yeah, yeah.

I'm being honest with you. Yeah. I realise.

Every time you do a bit of work on that building,

you're increasing its value.

Well, the standard of the work is fantastic.

I can't wait to live there.

It's just gonna be a lovely place to be.Yeah.

The boys are headed to the Giant Shepton Flea Market,

a bi-monthly event that attracts hundreds of dealers

from the U.K. and beyond

and is less than 25 miles from Drew's new home.

This is the really fun bit. I love the build.

I love all the little aspects of the build,

even though they can drive you to distraction

and really stress you out, sometimes,

but when you get to this bit, it's just fun all the way.

Those are interesting. How much are these?

£180.I'm just thinking those, the top bedroom.

Bedsides.They're nice, aren't they?Ideal.

It's fascinating to see Drew up close and personal,

just going through that whole process.

What will fit here? What's, you know, my personality?

How is this going to work in this building?

Et cetera. So there's a really interesting dynamic going on there.

A pair of Drexel Captiva Hollywood bedside tables.

Oh, they're marked in there.

They're good quality.

Yeah. Really solid, aren't they?

They would do for the...

top floor. Yeah.

Stylistically, they're the 1980s.

Yeah, the early '80s.

They would fit quite well in a Georgian building.

Yeah. Strangely.They're...

I like them. I do like them.

Bedside tables, everybody needs them.

Really tricky to find good ones. Nice ones, that are just right.

That's what I really came for.

Proportionally, they're really good.

There's some nice, little drop handles on them.

They're the right height.

Stylistically, they could work in my own bedroom,

but they'd definitely work on the top floor.

It's right. Just a bit new.

But they're not really, they're nearly half a century old.

Four-fifty.

I really like them. There's one problem.Go on.Too much money.

There's movement. Absolutely. I take them away now.Yeah.

I pay you now, £300.

Yeah, we could do that, yeah.

Thanks very much.

I'm learning a lot from Drew, actually, to be honest with you.

He's seen something that I just did not see in them.

When I started looking at them more, I realised, yes,

these have got a quality to them.

They are really well proportioned, from a side elevation,

so they've been designed to be seen all the way around.

The more I looked, the more I thought yeah, okay.

He's probably nailed it, frustratingly!

That... There you go.

Right, Rhys? Yeah. Isn't that great?

Eileen Gray.

It's an original. Wow. Okay.

So it's not the one you'll commonly see absolutely everywhere.

No. It's lovely, isn't it? Yeah.

Really nice. You want to check that these ball finials aren't missing.

Right? And for any damage.

Also, when people pull them over, they're beautifully made,

but when people get hold of them... Yeah?

...they bend them, so, if you look down it, like that...

Oh, I see, it's slightly distorted. Slightly distorted, but that's OK.

Very elegant, isn't it?

How old do you reckon? Seventy years? The 1950s?

Earlier.The 1930s?Earlier, yeah.

It's nearly 100 years old? Yes.

An Eileen Gray table lamp right there.

A really good one.

Er... Lovely condition.

As... As honest as the day is long.

It's still got the,

sort of, European plug hanging off the back of it.

Hi. Oh, hi.

How much is this? Two-fifty.

Yes, please. Thank you.

We'll take it. Thank you very much.Done.

Thank you very much. That's great.

Would you have that at home? I would, yeah.

There you go. Says it all. Yeah.

The other thing with a Georgian building is getting

the light levels... Low....low.Yeah.

Physically, low down.

And multiple points of light, I think, are really important.

It's a nice piece, as well.

Happy days. Yeah.

This is a fabulous lamp.

And at £250, we're okay, £100 to sort it out properly,

so it's absolutely dead right.

That's a lot of cool for 350 quid.

People spend a fortune on flash cars and this, that and the other

and expensive trainers.

Just buy that. Just buy that.

So a worthwhile day.

To be perfectly honest, there's a million other things that I need.

Putting a house together here, everything is gonna be antique,

reclaimed, recycled, ethical, across the board, that's it.

Up until this point in time, we've been dealing with the building.

That's actually been a very matter of fact,

nuts-and-bolts, problem-solving exercise.

What's been fascinating with this, today, has been Drew's personality

has suddenly been fused into the building.

It's a lovely part of the building process, which is wonderful.

More than 18 months after work began on his dream home

and after a race against time

to get the finishing touches on the upper floors ready,

Drew is finally moving in.

It's just dawning on me. You know?

This is a big step for me.

I'm moving to a different country. England.

To a city. I've never lived in a city.

And I'm living in this enormous house on my own. (CHUCKLES)

And I'm going to enjoy every single minute of it, no matter how...

...terrifying some bits of it are.

Although the lower floors are far from finished,

for now, the top floors will be his new home, as he's sold

his cottage in Conwy to fund the remainder of the restoration.

Finally, moving stuff in. It's exciting,

but you do then have to remember there's four flights of stairs!

And all of it has got to go up.

So this I picked up at Shepton Mallet.

One of my favourites, Eileen Gray.

It was a bit, it was a bit ropey.

We've had to do more work than we thought to it, to be honest.

It was missing one of these, which we've replaced, so that's done.

It was bent, so we've done that.

It's had, obviously, a clean and a rewire.

Erm...

It should work now.

How nice is that?

In a house like this, the lighting would have always been low.

Well, originally, it would have been candle lights and such

and oil lamps.

So low-wattage bulbs.

This should have two bulbs, but I just put one in it.

The bedside lights will be tiny, I mean, so, so gentle,

because lighting is, without a shadow of a doubt,

the most important aspect of a room after paint.

You get those two things right and you're getting very, very close.

It sets the mood in the room and I think it's working, it really is.

Very, very happy.

Over the past year and a half,

Drew has given his all to restore his dream home.

There's so much joy in doing a house like this,

but this house has brought me to, literally, the, the edge.

It's been such a big job.

Financially, mentally, physically, all of it.

It's been really difficult, this one, really difficult.

Despite the challenges he's faced, Drew and the team have

carefully removed centuries' worth of alterations and redecoration

to bring the house back to its former glory,

with traditional techniques, meticulous attention to detail

and period-correct fixtures and fittings wherever possible.

So when I bought this place, it was five flats. All terrible.

I was very excited when I found it

and I was extremely excited when I bought it.

The transformation, what we've done, as well, that's been exciting and...

...you know, terrifying.

All of those different things all rolled into one.

(CHUCKLES) Oh, my God.

And I think it's now getting to a point

where it's become the most exciting bit.

The priority was getting the house watertight,

but the shortcomings of the roof and the windows were plain to see,

so the rear section of the roof was renewed and restored.

Including the replacement of over 1,000 slates,

for which Drew sourced period-correct Welsh blue slates,

exactly like the ones used when the house was built by the Georgians.

Ooh!

Look at that.

Wow.

The windows were rotten through on the inside

and clearly incorrect from the outside.

As instead of Georgian, six over six sashes,

Drew's house had Victorian replacements,

but not anymore.

With 22 period-correct copies of an original window

salvaged from the rear of the property...

There you go.

...Drew's house looks just as it did over 230 years ago.

The windows. That is a wow moment, isn't it?

They're nice, aren't they?

Astonishing, it's changed the whole building.

It's like it's got its eyes back in.

Yeah. It just looks incredible.

What I've found about Drew, which is really, really refreshing is that

he has the right level of understanding of what's going on,

so he's trusted us and he's been present when we've hit hurdles,

so he knows the problems that we're involved in

and yet he's absorbed that, taken a step back and said,

"Get on and sort it out", which is the perfect balance.

Once a self-contained flat furnished with cheap fixtures and fittings,

the second floor has been restored to its original layout.

And is now Drew's master bedroom,

dressing room and a spacious bathroom that's almost finished,

complete with a reclaimed fireplace and an antique copper slipper bath.

While over 100 years' worth of paint has been painstakingly stripped

from the cornices to reveal their original detail.

I'm really pleased that all the colours are working really well.

I wanted masculine and feminine at the same time.

I think, I think it's...

I think that's dead-on, really, really good.

It's one of those rare occurrences,

where all of the things I wanted to happen and how I wanted them to be

are exactly what I want and a little bit better

and that's just great.

Taking it back from the unloved five flats that we started on

to what Drew is gonna end up with,

it's going to be a beautiful Georgian townhouse, is probably

the most satisfying thing about what we do.

It's gonna be a lovely house to live in.

Plain and simple.

It was the top floor of Drew's house that was in the worst condition.

Originally, the servants' quarters,

it had been repurposed as a one-bedroom flat.

But now, returned to three bedrooms and a bathroom,

it's a beautiful and faithful recreation

of how it would have looked through the centuries.

Extensive leaks from the roof

that had destroyed the ceilings have been repaired.

The walls have been refinished in lime plaster.

Period-correct radiators have been fitted.

And the bathroom features a period-correct bath,

toilet, basin and taps.

It now looks as it would have done when bathrooms were first added

to the house in the Victorian period.

The top floor is very, sort of, comfortable, flowery almost,

sort of gentle, layered, a warm country house.

A little bit more ornamentation than there would have been.

There would have been none whatsoever,

when it was the servants' quarters,

but there's nothing wrong with putting

a little bit more comfort in these rooms.

I couldn't be happier. That's really good. I love it.

It says a lot, when I've obviously looked at lots of buildings in Bath

and I would have thought this is, probably,

one of the nicest ones I've ever seen.

I wouldn't say he's lucked out, because he's obviously

thought about it quite carefully,

but he's got probably the best house in the best location in Bath.

I can't see him not being happy, to be honest with you.

I hope he's happy!

It's been over a year and a half of hard work

and there is plenty more to be done,

but Drew's dream is becoming a reality.

I do feel the house has, sort of...

It's given me a lot of kicks,

but it's just starting to pay me back for all the time and the effort

and the money and the work that's gone into it.

But it is this beautiful, period, little jewellery box now,

that I can continue to play and mess around with.

Some things are worth more than money.

I think this house and everything it gives me

and I think will give me in the future

is something I don't want to let go.

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