Original subtitles

Here in the UK, we do love a period property.

I never dreamt I would own a castle.

For me, it looks like a typical doll's house.

From countryside houses...

It was everything you could dream of, it was a palace.

...to timeless terraces.

I turned up and I thought, "Whoa, this is pretty cute."

But beneath the grand facades...

Hopefully the house won't fall down. We'll see, won't we?!

...these historical homes are falling to bits.

Everyone told us to tear this building down.

All over the country, an army of renovators are snapping them up

at knockdown prices...

I think we should leave it like this. It looks old-timely.

...then facing challenges of epic proportions.

CRASHING

I said all along to get a new-build.

This series, we meet the brave new renovators...

We were looking for a bungalow with a shed.

...and return to our familiar band of determined dreamers...

Who else has got a chapel in their house?

...all risking everything...

I thought I had a good idea of what was needed.

I was quite wrong.

People think renovation is lovely, don't they?

HE LAUGHS

Oh, God, I'm trembling.

...to create the forever home of their dreams...

Oh, my God, it's so nice.

...brick by brick...

Whoa! This is amazing.

...room by room.

I'm still having my pinch-me moment.

We're nowhere near finished, but it feels like a house now.

We are a renovation nation.

This week, five new sets of renovators...

Hang on, lift. Hang on.

...trying to save architectural beauties from decay.

Go on, buddy.

Today we rejoin Lucy and Seb in Humberside...

We were pigeon free for a while, weren't we?

...as they prepare to start the interior reno

of their Georgian home.

Come on, pigeon!

In Shropshire, Alan and Catherine

pause the reno of their country hall...

We need more money coming in to be able

to finish the renovation.

...to take on another epic project.

We bought it as a 16-bed care home, and we're going to turn it

into a beautiful five, maybe six-bed property.

And in the Scottish Borders, a deceptively spacious farmhouse...

It is life-changing for us, isn't it?

...opens up for its new owners.

We've actually done a little extension on it

without actually extending.

In the Scottish Borders,

on the River Teviot, near Hawick,

lies this imposing five-bed farmhouse with six-and-a-half acres of land

originally built in the early 1700s.

In a state of decay, it lay empty for two years

until purchased for 615 grand

by Rosie, a creative consultant,

and architectural antiques dealer, Antony,

and not forgetting Tig the dog.

Crucially, the property also comes with a number of barns

and outbuildings, which will eventually house the huge quantities

of stock from Antony's current business base

160 miles away in North Yorkshire.

Have you ever bought a house with a key that size before?

I've bought a lock, but not a house.

It's April 2023,

they have just got the keys.

Well, one rather large key.

What's our timescale?

20 years I've got left, left in me. So that's all you're getting.

It's going to take 20 years.

Come on, Tig. It works. The doorbell works!

I didn't realise it would do that. Better than the door.

Come on, Tig.

It's such an amazing hallway, isn't it?

The height of the space is just incredible in here.

I mean, the scale of everything.

I've never seen a door as big as that.

I can't reach the top of it!

All this panelling still here.

I think the more we're here, the more we're going to discover.

A house is like a person and you get to know them,

and they have their own character and idiosyncrasies

and little bad habits.

Just don't fall out with them.

No, we don't want to fall... We want to stay on good terms.

But staying on good terms could prove difficult

if future quotes for repairs are as eye-watering

as those they've had already.

We've already priced the guttering up and it was ten grand.

Yeah. That's part of the reason that I will be continuing to do

consultancy work to save up for the big-spend items.

Yeah, we haven't got any other money at the moment.

We've got lots of materials.

We've got the materials, we've got the know-how. Yeah.

And we've got the manpower and the woman power. Yeah.

Rosie and Antony are moving straight in

despite the limited facilities, cold running water and some electrics,

living and working in the bare and dusty rooms.

Top of the list of jobs, are making a studio space

for the couple's creative businesses

and completing a room for granddaughter Lani

when she comes to stay,

starting with moving an interior wall.

So this is going to be my granddaughter's room.

We need to take this room back to its original size,

because they've stolen some space from this room

to make the bathroom bigger.

So in here, the wall will be back in its original position across here.

It's basically putting the house back to how it was originally.

Doing that convincingly is a challenge

that we're going to set ourselves.

But, yeah, I'm really excited about getting going.

No time like the present.

You can hear the joist straight away.

You can feel it bouncing on the joist.

I haven't got the strength that Ant's got.

I'd say that looked pretty impressive, Rosie.

Trying to pull it off in one piece. OK.

Like that. Like that.

It's not that we're just chucking everything into a skip. No.

It's all about using everything we can.

So there's no sledgehammers. Yeah.

I get nervous because I don't want the original bits to be spoilt.

Trust. I know, I do trust you.

There you go. Yay!

So that's the ticket.

No messing around here, this reno is off to a flying start.

We've started on the house and that is...

Yeah. It's pretty major, isn't it? Mm.

Well, it does make me want to get back up there and crack on. Yeah.

210 miles south,

nestled in North Lincolnshire, near the Humber Estuary,

is the ancient village of Barrow-upon-Humber,

where the very symmetrical Grove House

stands out as a piece of Georgian history.

A modest but thriving farmhouse, which over the centuries doubled

to no fewer than ten bedrooms, four reception rooms,

outbuildings and nearly four acres of land.

Now a shadow of its former self, it was untouched for over 20 years

and without a buyer was left to rot and ruin.

But local drama school owner Lucy and property developer Seb,

on walking past it every day,

imagined what it would take to restore.

After a year, they put in an offer.

Shook his hand in the garden and then walked home very quietly,

holding hands, thinking, "Oh, my gosh, what have we done?"

Their dream to transform their new purchase

began two years ago.

Not afraid of hard work.

The aim, to turn it into a future family home in keeping

with its Grade II listing.

It's a legacy, isn't it, really? That's what it's about. Mm.

But turning a dream into a reality takes some heavy lifting.

Winter mud is not helpful.

With setback after setback,

the original price of £260,000 started to look less of a bargain.

Every time it used to rain,

we'd just be like dreading it, thinking, "Oh my gosh,

"it's like pouring into the house."

Me and Seb was having nightmares about it.

It's now March 2023 and Lucy and Seb have reached an important milestone.

The building is sound and weatherproof,

so they can finally start work inside.

We are now watertight, which is... Well, it feels amazing.

But then you look on the inside and you're like,

"Oh, haven't really done anything inside. Great(!)"

With the roof on and the windows in, Lucy and Seb's top priorities

are the staircase, a new en-suite bathroom,

and their main bedroom, which all need ceilings, insulating

and plastering before they can even think about the decor.

Come on. Come on, buddy.

Ch-ch-ch!

But in the main bedroom,

it appears a previous tenant is still in residence.

We were pigeon free for a while, weren't we? Yeah, we were.

And then, um, they flew back in.

Come on, pigeon! Go on, go on!

Oh!

With the last of their feathered friends off to find a new nest,

Lucy and Seb can start boarding out the ceiling.

I wish we were getting workmen in to sort it out.

Alas, we cannot afford it,

so we are doing it ourselves. Surprise, surprise.

You just have to think,

when we're finally in bed looking up at the ceiling,

we can say we built that.

Broke my back putting that up. As it collapses on us.

HE LAUGHS

In keeping with the Grade II listing, the couple plan to plaster

with traditional lime.

But Seb has sourced some breathable insulating boards from Scandinavia,

allowing them to blend old techniques with modern.

It's wood wool board, which is basically pine shaved into strands

and then is impregnated with cement, so it's quite dense.

Using your new pencil that I got you for your birthday. It's great.

You get the best presents when you're renovating!

Time for the first board to go up.

They're very heavy. Don't get cross at me.

I'm on my tiptoes. All this ballet training has come in handy.

One in, woo-hoo!

50,000 to go in the rest of the house.

But without a fixed budget in place...

Towards you. Towards you, it's not in.

...this is one reno that will require hard graft

and a firm resolve if the work is ever to be completed.

We don't have, like, a pot of money,

but everything costs what it costs, right?

So we need these boards, so whatever they cost,

we have to find the money to pay for them.

Coming up - Antony and Rosie's bedroom refurb...

Demolition's a lot more fun than construction.

...takes on a new dimension.

Oh, my God! Oh, it's huge, isn't it?

Never mind that, give me a cup of tea.

In Shropshire... Gently, gently, gently.

Needs to come over a little bit this side.

...Alan and Catherine place their bets on a Georgian townhouse.

We've got to look for what the best financial gain is for us, really?

...to deliver a cash injection for their reno.

There is method to our madness.

In the beautiful rolling countryside of the Scottish Borders,

near Hawick, at the grand old 18th century farmhouse,

creative consultant Rosie and architectural antiques dealer Antony

are back at work on their bedroom refurb.

Antony is carefully dismantling the stud wall

between the bedroom and the bathroom...

...so that he can reuse all the timber and rebuild the wall

where it previously stood,

returning the bedroom to its original dimensions.

I prefer taking things apart than putting them back together.

Bit more fun. Demolition is a lot more fun than construction.

For Antony and Rosie,

the scale of the work here is a big commitment.

Because we've been dreaming about it for so long,

it needs to sink in. It's also a bit daunting.

It's going to be a big job, but it is life-changing for us, isn't it?

It's not, bang, get it done.

We want to live here, live in it and do it up as we go along.

The floor rises up that way very slightly.

So all the uprights have to come out this way.

And then they should just wangle out. There we go.

Takes a bit longer to get them out,

but it's already pre-cut for the new wall.

As they've now moved in, a few creature comforts are a must,

and downstairs Rosie and Antony have a brand-new purchase

providing something that most of us take for granted.

This is what we call... hot water!

Woo!

Yeah! That is luxury.

So it's a really good little system that we found, actually.

It's in here.

So when we realised how powerful it was, Ant said,

"Oh, I can put a pipe along there

"to the bathroom so that we can have hot water

"in the basin in the bathroom, as well."

It comes in here. So there! There, hot water. Yeah!

Oh, it's so good.

And, look, even the toilet flushes.

TOILET FLUSHING

Rosie is working from home to bring in the pennies while Antony grafts.

Ant. She's keen to see the progress he's made.

How's it going in here, then? Oh, which side do I go in?

Whichever you want, it's open plan.

Oh, my God. Oh, it's huge, isn't it?

Never mind that, give me a cup of tea.

Wow!

Wow. That's fantastic.

Shall we just leave it like this and not put the wall back up?

So the bath's coming out, then. The bath's coming out.

And we're doing a shower, so it'll be like a double shower across.

Yeah. Full width of the room. Full width of the room.

It's all about making the most of spaces.

But what we've learned, the gap between the stone wall

and where the internal wall is, it's so big that it's actually

going to make every room larger.

As the years of alterations are revealed, it's clear this house

has more to offer than first expected.

Taking the hint from Rosie, Antony exposes even more of the stonework.

Are you trying to help, Tig? Get in there, Tig.

Tig, the demolition doggy.

Yeah, it's getting back to the bones.

It is the bones of the building.

Right, I better leave you to it and go and earn a few more pounds.

While Rosie's making pounds, Antony is saving them,

doing all this heavy labour.

That is solid. Come on.

Tig, come out.

But it's worth the effort, as the results are revealed.

We've probably got, into that window,

we've got a good foot and a half on the bathroom,

so it means now we've actually done a little extension on it

without actually extending.

As Antony gets back to the bones of the farmhouse,

the options for how to use the space are increasing.

So, as the reno itself changes, so too do the plans for each room.

The next job in here is take the floor totally out

because it's chopped up that much.

So, yeah, not a bad day.

It's nice to actually make a bit of progress on it.

And with demolition nearly done,

soon it'll be time to start putting it all back together.

210 miles south, on the border of England and Wales,

just outside the Shropshire town of Oswestry,

is the imposing Oakhurst Hall, dating from 1854.

Built by railway industrialists,

by the end of World War Two, it had become a girls' boarding school,

and by the 1980s, converted to commercial offices.

Despite the hall serving all who stayed there with good grace,

it soon fell out of favour, and this once grand dame of a building

became a shadow of her former self,

until it was bought by Alan, an exhibition graphics expert,

and Catherine, who runs the family property development business.

It was really quite derelict, a bit of a shell, really.

It was completely unloved and pretty much in uninhabitable

when we first moved in.

We know many people that have looked at it to buy it,

and they just walked away because it was too much to do. Too much.

If you see through that, you can...

But we just fell in love with it instantly.

So Catherine and Alan set to work.

While Alan demolished...

...Catherine put back together and lovingly finished off.

Oh, my God.

Despite the pressures and strains,

they found bargains like a second-hand kitchen.

It's not the easiest looking jigsaw puzzle.

The results were stunning.

Their snug, a cosy triumph.

I don't think I've really fully appreciated this room until now,

now it's finished.

And their main bedroom suite, a labour of love.

Absolutely... Beautiful.

...Just silky, gorgeous.

But this year, things have ground to a halt at Oakhurst Hall.

The financial pot is very empty.

We've got a huge amount of work to do here,

so we need more money coming in to be able to finish the renovation.

They have a plan to help fund the renovations at Oakhurst Hall,

and because they do love a renovation project,

the plan is to do up another derelict building.

Which is a beautiful Georgian house in town.

But there is method to our madness.

By doing up this property,

converting it from an old folks' home into a luxury family home,

they hope to flip it and then make enough profit

to help pay to finish the work at Oakhurst Hall.

It looks like all the trades are here. Happy days.

By selling off a property they owned in London, Alan and Catherine

were able to buy this house and pay for trades to complete the work

in record time.

But even though they've made huge progress in just eight months,

stripping out the remains of the care home and restoring period details,

all with Catherine's careful design touches, there's still a lot to do.

We've got Dave here, Danny, Jack, you, Nigel.

Whether we try and get the granite top on before Nigel goes for lunch.

The whole house is 5,000 square feet, so it's a big property.

Originally, when we bought it, it was a 16-bed care home

and we're going to turn it into a beautiful

five, maybe six-bed property.

And just like the renovation at Oakhurst Hall,

the kitchen here is another bargain,

with Catherine getting her hands on an ex-display model.

One, two, three.

Today, Catherine and Alan are mucking in.

Hang on, hang on, lift. Gently, gently, gently.

Big sigh of relief.

Ah! Now it feels like a proper kitchen.

Now it feels like a real working space.

The couple need this house finished so they can concentrate

on their DIY reno of the hall,

but some of the larger jobs on the hall

rely on them selling the townhouse for a good price,

so they can't afford to do a rush job here.

Only Catherine would try to solve the problem of one renovation

by taking on another.

If I didn't have the hall, I'd love to live here.

It's got everything I would want in my dream home, really.

We've got to look for what the best financial gain is for us,

no matter how much we fall in love with it.

But there's a kitchen to complete, wallpapering,

and a battered front door to sort

before this house is ready to go on the market.

Coming up...

In Scotland...

...Antony can't see the wood for the steam.

I'm finding I can't work with you in the room. Why?

Because I can't see a thing. I'm steamed up with that steamer.

And Lucy and Seb step up to learn a new skill...

That's a good technique, isn't it?

...with mixed results.

Oh, for...

That's probably £30-worth of lime I've just dropped on the floor.

In Humberside, at Grove House,

drama school owner Lucy and property developer Seb

have finally turned their hands to the main bedroom

of their future family home.

Oh, the glamorous life.

Yet to move in, the couple must do the work themselves,

balancing day jobs with the renovation.

Quickly. Very, very quickly.

But, together, they're finally making progress.

Is it heavy?

Yeah, it's all good. Good workout.

We have been boarding ceilings.

So we've done bedroom two.

The shared bathroom is fully boarded.

Bedroom three ceiling is fully boarded.

And then we've done a quarter of this room boarding.

Nearly the whole of the upstairs, but it's been a good four days

of, like, solid work.

We'll be doing as much as we can, but it is important to know

when you need to leave it to a professional.

And right on cue, specialist plasterer Ryan is here to teach them

some DIY Victorian style,

ably assisted by BSL interpreter Darren.

With old buildings, you need lime plaster because it's breathable.

So, for example, originally these buildings,

they would have soft red bricks in the walls

and lime mortar between.

Now those buildings, years ago, when the rain went through

that substrate, the brick, the warm air from inside

would then vaporise that air and escape through the ceiling.

Yeah. It's a little bit dry, so we'll add a bit more water.

Time for the whisk.

It's like a cake.

I might stick with a Victoria sponge.

So what we're going to do now, we're going to get the...

we're going to prep the wall, basically.

After giving the bricks a good wash and brush,

the first layer of plaster goes on to form a scratch coat.

When laying on, don't worry about...

It doesn't need to be perfectly level and flat.

You just lay it on for now.

Once it's laid on, then we get a straight edge

and use that to level out the substrate.

Making it look easy.

Over to you, Lucy. Together, one each side?

Oh, gosh. So we're competing?

Oh, gosh!

This is where we see if they were paying attention.

Oh, this way.

It's all in the wrist, apparently.

It feels a bit weird.

Oh, yeah, that's a good technique, isn't it?

Perfect, that, fantastic. Really good.

The hardest bit for me is if I put too much on, like now,

and then when I'm tipping it, I feel like it's going to slide off.

So it's like getting it on... like that.

That's probably about £30-worth of lime

I've just dropped on the floor.

You'll get the hang of it.

Oh, for... Or maybe not.

Six hours and a dozen buckets later,

the plastering duo have managed the first coat on two walls,

saving themselves a bath-full of cash.

A room this size could easily cost 6,000 to 8,000 for labour only.

The extra materials on top as well, potentially 1,500 for materials,

so could potentially be up to 9,000 for one room.

That is a saving worth all the graft.

Today went quite well, actually.

I thought we were going to be really bad at it.

But, actually, the more you do it,

the kind of more kind of skill you gain.

And Ryan's such a good teacher.

Without his help, that wouldn't have happened.

But, no, it's another skill learned, isn't it?

Another string to your bow.

When we do the next house, you know, we can pass it on.

Good one!

210 miles north in the Scottish Borders,

the renovation of Antony and Rosie's

stunning Georgian farmhouse continues.

Upstairs, they're moving an entire wall between a bedroom and a bathroom

to create a larger space for their granddaughter.

And there's rather a lot of mess,

so Antony fetches the skip with his forklift to aid the clear-out.

Easy access to dump the junk.

But some things aren't so easy.

Can you lift? Oh my goodness.

Oh, I can't lift that. No?

Crikey, that's just like...

I'll make a little ramp and see if I can get it up there.

Ever inventive, Antony.

Careful. Just pull them out.

Good job. Phew!

With the space a lot clearer, Rosie wastes no time making more mess,

peeling off the old wallpaper to see what kind of surface

they might have to deal with.

What lovely lime plaster underneath.

It's just...

...gorgeous.

While Antony removes the old soil pipe.

There we go.

Watch out below.

I'm not fussed about a few lumps and bumps in a wall.

Um, it's an old house.

You know what I'm finding? I can't work with you in the room.

Why? I can't see a thing. I'm steamed up with that steam.

I need me glasses and I can't see anything.

With the fog eventually clearing, Antony can start rebuilding

the stud wall where it would have been at the time

the house was built.

I think I need a new blade on my saw.

Because he's reusing all the timber from the old wall,

he's not having to spend a penny in the bathroom

or indeed the bedroom.

And there's another advantage to reusing timber.

If you went and bought new timber,

it would have a different moisture content,

so it's likely to shrink, twist, and all sorts of things.

So this is already conditioned for the house, this timber,

which is a plus.

Meanwhile, Rosie is uncovering secrets of the house.

There's no actual paper there, but you can still see the flower

and a vague, you know, pink and blue pattern on there,

a ghostly image of what was here before.

Don't worry, Rosie, this isn't ectoplasm

from your ghostly apparition.

A pot of glue.

It's an adhesive which reacts with the air,

expanding to fill gaps and holes.

All these boards are slightly uneven,

and we need to fill the gaps in between.

Once Antony gets into a rhythm, he quickly builds up a head of steam

until the bottom plate of the wall is solidly in place.

That all looks good.

Next are the upright timbers called studs,

locked into place with horizontal pieces called noggins.

With the new wall put back in its place, that's really rewarding.

You know, I don't need to see it finished.

We get really motivated when things go well.

And the other thing is you can see the size of the shower room as well.

It's just right, I think. Yeah.

Yeah. A corner sink there and then toilet and shower,

it's plenty big enough. It is plenty big enough.

But with the bedroom now back to its original size,

Rosie and Antony can start thinking about how best to use the space.

Back in Barrow-upon-Humber,

Lucy and Seb's main bedroom is coming on a treat

with a boarded ceiling and newly lime-plastered walls.

Today, they have decided to take a much-needed break from plastering.

Watch the door.

But at Grove House, a break means swapping one job for another.

And today, that's working on some bedside cabinets

they picked up second hand.

Just go steady, please.

All they have to do is get them up the stairs in one piece.

I love how I'm at the bottom holding all the weight!

It's just now. You just think that I'm like superwoman.

Superwoman Lucy and her sidekick Seb want to match the cabinets with a bed

that will be the centrepiece of the main bedroom.

These are a bit yellow,

so I think what we'll do is sand these down

and then put the same sort of wax on so they match.

Lime wax, sometimes called white wax,

lightens the colour of the wood and highlights its grain.

We're not really sure how much you put on or how quick,

you know, it tends to work.

So we're going to read the instructions, which I never do,

and, um, yeah, have a go.

After a thorough sanding, it's time to apply the wax.

It's just wax, but it has a white pigment in it, so it's not like lime

or, you know, I don't know where the lime comes from, but...

Quite pleased with this.

Um, the sanding part is not my favourite, but this part now

it's quite enjoyable.

Might be because I'm high off the fumes!

Time to see if the cabinets now match the bed frame.

This is the actual bed, and then you've got the posts

and the lower part, which is the end of the bed.

And I think that's a really good match, don't you? Yeah I do.

Job done.

And Seb and Lucy are one step closer

to having their bedroom dreams realised.

Yeah, yours is better than mine, for sure. Come again?

You're slower, but you're more consistent.

I am, I am very consistent.

Renovations on this scale are an investment in time,

in money and in each other,

especially for Lucy and Seb, who are doing a lot of the work

themselves around their full-time jobs.

But with their patience with the process and the ability

to celebrate each and every one of their small steps,

it's an investment with plenty of return.

Yeah, it wasn't a very good cheat, was it? No.

Yeah, look at that dry rot. Not good.

Two years ago, the once grand Grove House was on its last legs,

the roof no barrier to rain,

pigeons nesting in the rafters, demolition beckoned.

But now, with Lucy and Seb's careful and diligent graft,

Grove House is en route back to its Georgian splendour.

With a newly boarded ceiling, lime plastered walls,

and the first bits of bedroom furniture now in place,

the main bedroom is beginning to take shape.

It's the first time in a while it's been sort of empty, isn't it?

You feel like you're actually getting somewhere.

Though this first room of many is still a work in progress,

it's a chance for Lucy and Seb to take stock and for the first time,

dare to imagine the space in a finished state.

So I'm hoping that by...

like four months, we'll have this space finished.

I'll be here in bed with my cup of tea, looking out the window,

the old ponios, that's my dream, that's what I'm seeing.

Um, yeah, it's exciting.

Exciting, it may be, but there's plenty still to be done

before this room is ready for Lucy to have breakfast in bed.

Coming up...

It's all systems go with Rosie and Antony...

Just making sure we're not wasting our time.

...on a mission to install a bathroom.

We're just thinking this would be a lovely place to have a bath,

and it would save us having to go up there, the last bit!

And there's cause for celebration in Shropshire...

This paint's really old, and this is all flaking off.

It'll look lovely when it's finished.

...as Alan and Catherine's townhouse nears completion.

It's just crying out for a lovely young family to come and live here.

Near the Scottish border town of Hawick...

So we need to bring those up at some stage. Yeah.

...Antony and Rosie have made a big change to their renovation plans.

That needs a pedestal then. Yeah.

And it's got nice taps on.

They had made a start on turning two of the upstairs rooms

into a bedroom and en suite for their granddaughter, Lani.

An existing wall had been removed, wallpaper had been stripped,

and the job was moving along nicely.

But even the best-laid renovation plans can soon change.

So Lani's room now is becoming a massive bathroom with an open fire.

With 14 rooms to choose from,

it won't be hard finding another space for Lani

when she comes to stay.

It's a sensible move.

By keeping the bathrooms next door to each other,

they'll avoid having to install

plumbing and draining around original features

on the other side of the house.

We decided just to make life a bit easier for ourselves.

Being an architectural antiques dealer also comes in handy,

as Antony has plenty of fixtures and fittings to choose from.

Except getting an extra large copper bath into the farmhouse

may not be so easy.

Sat out in the garden for the last 15 years.

At a weighty 60kg, getting the bath through the door

will be the simple bit.

Now it just needs a good clean,

get the bird muck off it and then that's going to be our bath.

But if they can't get it up the stairs, it will be strictly

for the birds once again.

We'll drag it.

Just making sure we're not wasting our time.

We're just thinking this would be a lovely place to have a bath

and it would save us having to go up there, the last bit!

Might be a bit much for any visitors, though, Rosie.

We'll get it up this flight of stairs and then see.

So what we're going to have to do is put it on that end,

twizzle it round, so then you need to pull it through the doorway.

So just lift it through now.

Go on, lift it through.

All right, put it down.

I'll get hold of it.

I hope this doorway is not narrower.

No, just.

Go straight through.

It's either we go acrossways... The idea is this way, potentially.

Jump in then and see what...

Because you can still see out of the window.

And if you've got a fire going as well,

you're looking at the fire that way.

So what are we thinking taps? Sort of... I don't know.

...in the middle? Or something coming out of the ceiling.

That's the bath position, Now we need the toilet and the sink.

♪ Doo doo doo doo. ♪

Tig.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Even at this stage, it's clear this reconfiguration of rooms

will give our intrepid reno team a bathroom to die for.

Well, it's the biggest bathroom I've ever had by some chalk,

but that's what it's allowed us to do.

And it's also created a sort of bathing zone to the upstairs.

So across the hallway and it's... A bathing zone?

Yes, so this is where you bathe and...

I thought that's what the bathing zone was! ..where you get washed.

But over there are your bedrooms.

I didn't realise I was going out with somebody so posh.

Didn't you?

I like the sound of a bathing zone!

The whole room is going to be panelled in, like,

pitch pine panelling to this height all the way around.

And then wallpaper above. Yeah.

Yeah. Cheap wallpaper.

No, it's not going to be cheap wallpaper.

Oh, dear, a disagreement already.

It could be a while before this bathing zone is open for business.

200 miles south in Shropshire, exhibition graphics expert Alan

and Catherine, who runs the family's property development business,

continue to juggle two renovations.

Needs to come over a little bit this side.

One at their home, Oakhurst Hall...

We sort of pressed pause on all the renovations

at Oakhurst Hall for the spring and summer last year,

because we haven't got a huge amount of money to do anything more here.

...and the other, this Georgian building just over a mile away

in Oswestry town centre.

Built as offices for a solicitor,

most recently, the townhouse was a care home,

but Alan and Catherine are doing a top-to-toe restoration...

It's got everything I would want in my dream home, really.

...decorating the whole house and finishing the bigger jobs

like the centrepiece kitchen... This is when this doesn't fit.

...laying new porcelain tiled floors for the kitchen and bathrooms,

and the rest of the house has been carpeted throughout.

Today, Catherine is injecting extra charm and character into the house

with some new cornicing in one of the bedrooms.

It looks a million times better, so I'm really pleased with it.

Dating back to Greek and Roman times,

elaborate cornicing was all the rage in Georgian homes,

but by the 1880s, decorative wallpaper was king

and fancy cornicing became a thing of the past.

So this is the old cornice.

This is the original part of the building, like early 1800s,

and we had to get Listed Building Consent to be able to cover over it

with this gorgeous plaster cornice, which Danny's fitting beautifully.

Amazing.

Even the 22 sash windows are each being individually restored.

So, to ensure they're looking their best, Alan's outside,

removing decades of paint damaged by the elements.

This paint is really old and this is all flaking off.

It'll look lovely when it's finished.

A few weeks later, the windows are all finished, the scaffold is down,

and Catherine and Alan are almost ready to open the doors

to potential buyers.

We've been working our socks off the last few months.

And, yeah, we're now starting to go through room by room

to finish things off.

With the plastering and decorating all but complete,

just the snagging list remains.

And Catherine's goal is to ensure today's paint job makes

the perfect first impression.

And this front door, it hasn't had any love for a long time.

It needs a lot of sanding and a lot of filling,

and then a really lovely coat of black satin.

And with the whole beautiful, white porch and a black front door,

it's going to look stunning.

Two months later,

Catherine's transformation of the door is complete

and the house is looking bright and welcoming.

The couple have brought the building's listed period features

and Georgian character back to life...

...bringing light flooding into every room.

Yeah, this is transformed.

Catherine's designed an elegant en suite bathroom

for each of the five bedrooms,

and she's given the house a new beating heart,

a huge open-plan kitchen.

This is a cracking space now. Really, really lovely.

Brought it back to life,

which I think everybody's quite pleased with in the area.

I have to say this is one of my proudest moments, renovation-wise.

I really can't believe we've pulled this out of the bag

in less than a year, and turned it around into such a beauty.

Flipping this house means Alan and Catherine will be able to add

much-needed funds to the Oakhurst Hall reno coffers.

With Catherine and Alan preserving the period property

for generations to come, it can only be a matter of time

before someone chooses it as their forever home.

I'm hoping that it will be a lovely family that will really love it

and enjoy it and nurture it, because it is just crying out

for a lovely young family to come and live here. Yeah.

Alan and Catherine graft to bring the elegance back into

one of Oakhurst Hall's grandest rooms.

I'm just really looking forward to having a sitting room.

In the Scottish Borders...

major structural work gets underway...

It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.

...to turn a dusty old bedroom into a maker studio.

It's going to look great when it's done.

And in southeast London, a 1930s semi is in need

of a drastic overhaul.

It smelt of really strong damp.

And budget concerns weigh heavily.

Another thing that took me by surprise

was just how much scaffolding cost.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media