15 June 2023 , 12:45
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A mum spent three years and £250,000 turning a 'drab' 1930s property into her dream five-bedroom family home - and it's unrecognisable now.
Katy Wilson purchased the detached home in Derby for £300,000 back in 2015, which featured two main bedrooms and a smaller box room.
The software sales assistant had been struggling to find a home which matched her expectations within budget, and decided to instead create it herself.
Shortly after moving in, the 36-year-old put another £250,000 into the project to completely overhaul the 80-year-old home inside and out.
It's now significantly bigger (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)
Katy is now launching a website to help others with similar projects (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)The exterior has been completely transformed thanks to a four-room extension at the back of the house and a decision to remove the existing roof to create another attic bedroom.
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The work has doubled the number of bedrooms and overall square footage of the floor plan - and Katy said she's "easily made her money back" as it has now been valued at £800,000.
A huge glass wall was added to open up the space (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)The mum-of-one, who says she's always had a keen interest in interior design, added two extra bedrooms with en-suites, an office, roof terrace, 'snug', and a playroom for her four-year-old daughter Lila Smith.
The wooden staircase and hallway floors were stripped back and replaced with grey carpeted stairs, and a black and white tiles.
The small, dark kitchen was given a significant extension to create a granite island in the middle, complete with plush bar stools.
The house now has an Instagram page with 47,000 followers (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)
The original wooden stairs and flooring was given a makeover (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)At the back, the garden was re-landscaped and now features a patio area with wooden panelling to match the house exterior and outdoor seating.
The project took Katy more than three years from the application for planning permission in mid 2016 to the building work being completed in November 2019 - a year after first breaking ground.
Katy now shares the home with her partner Paul Smith and their daughter Lila - and the experience has inspired the mum to start her own design website.
The interior is incredible (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)
Katy lives in the home with her partner Paul and daughter Lila (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)She will offer her services to people looking to undertake similar projects, helping them find the right materials and tradespeople to get the job done.
Katy said: "This has been a really good segue for me into pursuing interior design, which is something I've always been really into.
"If I could go back in time, I think I would have done some proper qualifications to do with that.
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"The main thing is just to go into it with your eyes open - and make sure to over-budget, as there are always going to be costs you can't forecast.
Katy says it's been valued at £800,000 (Katy Wilson / SWNS.com)"Our builders told us we'd only need five skips when we started - but we ended up using 22 skips, at about £300 a skip. It feels a bit like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
"But I would also encourage people not to be afraid of going down the route of having bespoke joinery or furniture made, as sometimes that can actually save you money.
"It's all about finding good tradespeople. We ended up with a really good little pool of people - but we were let down by a few tradespeople along the way."
She added: "We had an idea of what we wanted our home to look like, but all the houses that fit the bill were way above our budget.
"We had our house valued since the building work finished, and it's been valued at over £800k - so we've easily made our money back.
"It's not entirely in keeping with the rest of the street that we live on, which is all 1930s houses.
"But we have heard that since we got planning permission on ours, a couple of other young families on the street have also put in for planning permission.
"That's one of the main things that I'm taking away from this - that it has encouraged other young families in the area to also try and modernise.
"I think that the street will evolve now, in time."
Katy has her own Instagram account to show the transformation of her home, which boasts almost 88,000 followers, and can be found at @placefortyeight.