If you're having trouble finding a home with character and a unique history, or your budget is tighter than the average house price in the location where you desperately want to live, then maybe thinking outside the property box is the answer.
In Channel 4's popular television series, George Clarke's Remarkable Renovations, the architect and presenter meets people who have been brave enough to embark on a project that involves a building that is not necessarily an obvious home.
An old railway goods shed, a former bakery, an office and an old barber's shop have all featured in the third series as incredible and inspiring transformations from a property with a former commercial use to a stunning residential dwelling. Try WalesOnline Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features
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Created by Amazing Productions, the programme is a lesson to everyone not to judge a property by its façade and history because every building has potential to be a home, if you can get planning consent and have the vision.
George travela to Monmouth to meet Kirsti, an illustrator and interior designer, and army officer Tim, who snapped up an old shop for £360,000. It gave the couple the chance to create more space for their family life, including the five bedrooms they desperately needed. But it was listed, was in a conservation area and had a quirky layout - it was not going to be a smooth renovation ride.
Kirsti says: "At the moment we've got three boys sharing one room which they're not very happy about. To get a place with enough bedrooms, we realised that we had to compromise so much. The possibilities of a commercial building in the centre of town opens everything up a bit, you get more space for your money and that was the absolute key thing." The renovation budget to create their new, sprawling family home was £140,000.
The building, constructed in 1725, was Grade II listed by Cadw in 2005 for its 'special architectural interest as one of an early 18th century pair of houses of definite character which is part of the important group of historic buildings near St. Mary's Church'.
The property began life as a family home until, in the 1870s, William Card bought it as a place to run his tax business, while after World War I it became a high-end women's clothing shop opened by Miss Lugg and Miss Russell, and then by Miss Fisher into the 1960s.
Over the last few decades it's had a number of functions, including a book shop, a wine bar and finally the office for an accountancy firm. When the company moved away from the High Street to new premises, the building was empty for two years before Kirsti and Tim bought it. George is instantly captivated by the shop front. He says: "It's really beautiful, it's got some really nice details to it, the leaded windows above, it's really smart."
Inside the building the shop area was massive, flowing from front to back but also carved up to create a number of extra, odd shaped rooms; an office, a small kitchen, and a wooden lean-to and a cloakroom, plus a side corridor to the upper floors and a door to the generous basement.
The ground floor proposal was to demolish the modern, small additions allowing for an extension to rehome the kitchen from the first floor so there could be seamless movement and views into the garden. The shop area was going to be a dedicated teenage zone, the first floor was to be reception spaces, the second floor three bedrooms, a bathroom and a principal with ensuite, and then a further two bedrooms in the loft.
The biggest design challenge was the shop front - to make it private but not to lose any light it provided. and another aspect of the transformation that needed thought was the rear extension. George suggests angling the new extension so that the sight line from front to back of the ground floor led to a view of the widest part of the garden and not a brick wall, plus building the corner completely in glass to optimise light and views.
Work began on the upper floors so the family could at least move in while the couple decided on what to do on the ground floor. After three months the family moved into the top three floors with a makeshift kitchen and lounge, but the couple had only just submitted planning to move the cellar steps and construct the new extension.
They decided to opt for French doors and wrap around windows as a safer option than a complete wall of glass, to secure the vital planning permission, which took 28 weeks to come.
As well as the planning, the history of Monmouth itself added another dimension to the project. The property sits on the site of an ancient Roman settlement which meant any excavation had to be done with archaeologists watching, in case digging the foundations revealed something of historic significance. A few hours into the dig sections of clay pipe were found and recovered but that was all.
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By then the couple, although always optimistic, felt the pressure. George says: "Even I didn't think it would take this long but my biggest worry is that they've spent half of their budget and on the ground floor there's still a massive amount of work to do."
Add in the wonderful wet Welsh weather and, although the builders were so dedicated they were sleeping on site, it's 18 months before George can come back to visit for the 'grand reveal'. George says: "In so many ways this project sums up just how difficult it is to do a conversion project as well as a restoration job. I first came here a year and a half ago and it's been very stop start, stop start for so many different reasons."
The shop front had been restored by local craftsman Nick, the façade was a deep, inky blue green that George had previously agreed would look amazing and the couple, in homage to the building's shop history, had added a bright red, a new awning.
George is amazed. He says: "It's gone from drab, dreary and desolate but now it's a striking and show-stopping home; a brand new chapter in its 300-year-old history. I love the colour, it looks rich, it looks vibrant, it looks really classy I have to say and the red awning is fantastic."
Where the old office and shop once stood is now an open-plan studio for illustrator Kirsti and a motorbike workshop area for Tim, making the most of the light provided by the former shop front whilst still being private thanks to a frosted film on the lower half of the windows.
Double doors then flow into a snug area for the teenagers, and George's suggestion of a site line through to the garden is in place too. Then the extension kitchen diner truly impresses George, with the couple's love for colour and vintage a memorable combination within this new space.
George says: "What's fabulous is that after being quite a benign, boring commercial space, it's now very much a space that reflects both of you, it's not a highly polished, minimal, slick design and that is a massive complement." Tim jokes: "I'm flattered, but I didn't realise it would be so expensive to look this cheap!", as he revealed that the project went £50,000 over-budget to land at a total of £190,000."
George says: "It is absolutely spectacular, it is so you two! I don't think anyone else in the world could design a kitchen like this, you don't do fitted kitchens, you do beautiful, free-standing, wonderful things, it might be on a budget but it's brilliant. You've taken on a very risky project, a conversion project, in a listed building and never really done anything like this together before and you're bringing two families under one roof."
Tim says: "This house is 300-years-old so we're just custodians for a while, it will never be finished - we've done this to it, someone else will do something else in years to come. It was a really big risk, we did upstairs before we had any permission to do anything downstairs and if that had all fallen through then we'd have ended up with a flat above the shop."
Kirsti could not be happier, she adds: "What this has given us is for everyone to happily do their own thing in different parts of the house, and we've got the space to breathe and all be individuals."
George says: "Against a ton of odds, they have given this historic shop a new life when it needed it, both downstairs in the extension and upstairs where they have sensitively and uniquely renovated the rooms to accommodate their family of six. What they have achieved here is a renovation spectacle. Because of its listed status and conservation area it was a difficult road to navigate but, my word, it's been worth it; bold, eccentric and staggeringly unique and that's what I love about it."
This story was episode six of series three of George Clarke's Remarkable Renovations and is currently available to view on Channel 4's free catch-up service. For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here and join the Amazing Welsh Homes property Facebook group here. For the latest TV and showbiz news sign up to our newsletter here.
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