A COUPLE who bought the oldest house on their street six years ago have told of how they transformed it – and added more than £200,000 to its value.
Ella Moore, 38, and her now-husband nabbed their “eyesore” home for £277,000 in 2017.
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The couple lived in the Manchester house, which dates back to the 1800s, for a year before they got to work.
But now, they live in their dream home – which they think is worth about £460,000.
Ella said they first started looking for a bigger place with a bit of character – and began browsing outside of Altrincham.
It was then that they found an 1800s property in Northenden.
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The interior designer told the Manchester Evening News: “This was almost the same price as what we sold our house for, but it was much bigger and had a lot more potential.
“The house needed a lot of work but it was a good price and it ticked all of our boxes, so we just went for it.”
Ella said the home wasn’t awfully “desirable” when they first bought it, adding: “It was a bit of a mess and the front was an eyesore, it was like an old dentist surgery.
“We very much knew it was a doer-upper and it had so much potential.”
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The pair lived in the home for a year before getting to work – and by then they had a plan, and a budget of £90,000.
However, Ella explained, they “definitely” went over that.
She said: “The living room downstairs didn’t need any building work so we started with that, we put a nice log burner in and sanded the floors and repainted all the walls.”
They’ve now transformed basically every room, built an extension on the house and completely changed the layout of downstairs to make it open plan.
The couple also put plenty of work in upstairs – moving the bathroom, adding a fourth bedroom and putting in en suites.
Ella says the home is now worth between £420,000 and £460,000.
She added: “We haven’t had it valued properly but from looking around, it should be around £450,000 now.
“It’s hard to say because house prices have changed but I think that’s accurate for what we’ve done and comparing it to selling prices in our area.”
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