Inside Matt's Budget Renovation of His Victorian Terrace in North London

Comments · 172

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  @1960gal · 2 months ago

  I watch vids such as this with a half smile and a bit of a heavy heart. &nbsp;I think its because I&apos;m pining for our old homes. <br>Moved 150miles out of our London 11yrs ago to retire. Born and bred there. After 55yrs we needed a quieter life!<br>We had a Mortgage at 21. By the time we bought my husband&apos;s Grandparents home, &nbsp;that rose to... £24k😊 That was a big 3-bed Victorian Terrace. <br>No heating. Damp. Old draughty 60s replacement wooden-framed windows. A &apos;Shower Room&apos; at the end of the kitchen (= the outside loo turned inside with a shower cubicle! So cold we got 1/2&quot; ice in the toilet pan that 1st Winter!😱). <br>New kitchen. Upstairs bathroom. DPC on lower floor. Re-plastered. Cental Heating. New electrics. New windows...the lot! Roof was surprisingly good. <br>My husband had lived there as a kid in the 60s. He used to remember &nbsp;having a bath in a tin bath in front of an open fire - honestly! In the 60s!!<br>Fortunately, Grandad had only 70s-ised things by covering them over. So we still had original fireplaces all over the place; the original banister and spindles; a beautiful big half-glass front door; coving and ceiling roses; deep pine skirting boards &amp; floorboards. Underneath thin plywood, all the original big pine internal doors and door furniture were in pristone condition. &nbsp;We keep everything. <br>We had our son the next year. The room that became his Nursery bedroom was the room my husband was born in!❤❤ &nbsp; We loved that house. <br>We moved when our son was 2.5yrs old to a big 5-bed Victorian farm house (yes, it really had been a farm house!). It was built 😂in 1840. &nbsp;It was just a few miles away, very tip of SE London...in the &apos;posher part&apos; as we knew it as kids (l was a guttersnipe: &nbsp;came from a big Council Estate a few miles away!😂).<br>Because of its origins it wasn&apos;t a typically ostentatious Victorian property: &nbsp;it was very functional. But all the beautiful origin features had been kept. I even got a bit of the Minton tiling l craved! The roof was original Welsh Slate. <br>True to our luck, 3mths after moving in, our house became part of a Conservation Area. When we could afford to replace the roof, it had to be like-for-like, to stay in keeping with the property aesthetics = mega bucks!!! Apparently it was made up of 11 parts. It had pretty ornate scalloped wooden... (oh l can&apos;t remember what its called!! 😠) at the edges of the roof. Looked so lovely. <br>We were lucky Planners agreed for us to use a Slate alternative (Eternit) to help with the cost. A mate did a wonderful job at Mate&apos;s Rates - back in the day that still existed!<br>We lived there, very happily, for 23yrs. We raised our boy there. Then his baby boy stayed with us there. &nbsp;It held so many wonderful family memories for us. <br>All sounds so great, so affluent. But what you need to remember is back in the day no-one wanted these Victorian properties. They were always damp, basic, in poor condition, needing full renovation and not always in the best areas. &nbsp;Unlike now, where even the &nbsp;scabbiest parts on London have &nbsp;now been gentrified and these type of houses are both highly sought after and ridiculously expensive. <br>We both miss those houses so much. We&apos;re of an age now that our next move (within 2yrs) will be...to a bungalow! <br>So tell me: why does my husband sit trawling through Zoopla, showing me these majestic, enormous Victorian properties...that are a fraction of the price here where we now live, compared to our own old properties in London?!! &nbsp;Think on ol&apos; boy. Too big for us. Too many floors now 😔 <br>If someone had told me as a kid that l&apos;d one day mourn bricks and mortar, l&apos;d have thought they were nuts. But we do, and you can. <br>Enjoy your home. If you&apos;re as lucky as us you&apos;ll make lovely memories there to look back on.<br>Sorry to have made this into &apos;Some Ol&apos; Codger&apos;s Trip down Memory Lane&apos;. But thanks for the opportunity ❤ 🏠 ❤

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• CA

  @carloslx · 2 months ago

  Great job, Matt. This is a very liveable home with respectfully added architectural features.

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• CU

  @curtiscreations2024 · 2 months ago

  you have done a fantastic job, its nice to see a ‘house for everyone’ instead of the ott houses that look like no one lives there!

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• MA

  @margaretmurphy9795 · 2 months ago

  Great renovation. Thinking outside the box and implementing DIY creations make your home stand out. Love the tile work and the green painted brick.

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• AG

  @agnespm4181 · 2 months ago

  A really good renovation. It just proves that living in the space and getting to know it creates opportunites for individual design choices.

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• MG

  @mgp1203 · 2 months ago (edited)

  I would be happy to live here as a single, and I especially love the colour of the kitchen cabinets. and I LOVE that he was honest about the costs involved.

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• JC

  @jcs3330 · 2 months ago (edited)

  I know how hard it is to renovate your home (myself and my late dog lived in it while it was in progress!) from personal experience. But you have done a wonderful job. I always think that the next generation will have wonderful homes to live in.

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• CO

  @colortura · 2 months ago

  Matt you did a wonderful job renovating your home. I love the colors you chose for your 2 bedrooms.

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• 40

  @40davegardner · 3 weeks ago

  I think Matt has done a very good job, it does not look like a &quot;budget&quot; renovation. He&apos;s used every inch of space thoughtfully, decorated it very tastefully, but also rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in himself. Job well done 💙.

• TO

  @toml2951 · 2 months ago

  Well done Matt. Lovely home. You’ve done yourself proud!

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• CH

  @charliesandoval9277 · 2 months ago

  Matt - you did an incredible job to totally convert this vintage terrace house! Thank you for the tour!

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• LO

  @Lomie32 · 1 month ago

  Gorgeous well thought out house. It’s nice to see a London house that hasn’t been over extended or developed too.

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