UK woman takes home from dump to dream starting with just £1
A UK woman has shown how she took a derelict property from a dump to a dream address, having paid just £1 ($AU 1.75).
Maxine Sharples was still a university student when she successfully bid for a ramshackle Victorian terrace in Liverpool under the council-run Homes for Pound Scheme.
The scheme allowed residents to pay just £1 for a derelict home on the condition that they would renovate it, per The Mirror, and was so popular that 2500 people applied for just 106 houses.
But, when Ms Sharples was handed the keys to her new home four years later, she admitted she was worried about how she would fund the work, particularly given that new owners had just 12 months to renovate according to The Liverpool Echo.
Ms Sharples was able to take longer due to Covid restrictions, telling local news she spent £60,000 ($AUD 104,000) to bring the home up to a livable standard and transform it into a sweet first home.
She now has about £10,000 ($AU 17,400) left to spend to enhance the property further.
Maxine Sharple, a 35-year-old yoga teacher, bought her first home for just £1, but had to put in plenty of work to get it up to scratch.
“Although initially I didn’t have the funds, I applied anyway and thought, ‘I’ll cross that bridge’ if I was shortlisted. In 2019, four years later, I got a phone call to ask if I was still interested in a home for a pound,” Ms Sharples told the Echo.
Though she has walked away with the deal of a lifetime, it was a difficult journey to get her home to where it is now.
Ms Sharples lived in a caravan during the renovations and had to do plenty of work herself.
“It has taken me 27 arduous months to get it signed off. It was gruelling, I couldn't have been more naive about the process,” she said.
“As a yoga teacher I couldn’t have been less experienced in construction management.
“With tradespeople in short supply, I took to a lot of labouring myself.”
Going beyond just updating the interior and façade, Ms Sharples changed the layout to make the home lighter and more airy.
“I began the rip out by myself. It took me nine months to get the house back to brick with a rotary hammer and borrowed electricity from my neighbours,” she said.
“A hole in the roof meant a tree had taken root, water ingress, asbestos, rat infestations, you name it, it had it all.”
Images: The Liverpool Echo