1 - Starting Out - Appleby

House 1 - Appleby 

My name's Robin Curley,  I come from Appleby, Cumbria where I lived and worked as a self employed electrician - under the name  Appleby Electrical -  still operating today  under the same company name - only now living in Holmfirth West Yorkshire.
   I started doing up houses in 2012 with my own first house in Appleby -  House 1. The plan was to fix it up and sell it, pay off the mortgage, then move down to Holmfirth to live with my partner Jayne and buy another house to renovate and sell down there,  giving me a second source of income whilst my electrical business became established - an exciting new venture.
I'd been living in  house 1 for nearly 10 years  and there had been a few comments about the state of the place  - with chases up and down the walls, a large hole in the kitchen ceiling, amongst other things - notably the bathroom - a right bodge job by the previous owner, but none of which really bothered me as I'd had the place re wired and  central heating installed just not cosmetically finished. It was always my intention to change the bathroom when i had the funds. The existing fitted kitchen was OK  so all that was really needed was a new bathroom, plastering here and there, re decorating and some new floor coverings. For the plastering I used local builder Stephen Closs, for the plumbing J. Ford and for the flooring Craig Sowerby, I also roped in my friend Dave Longrigg for some pointing in payment for a surfboard. It only took 4 or 5 weeks to get the house into a good condition then I put it on the market with Cumbrian Properties. No viewings for about 2 months then just one and luckily for me it was the right person that  wanted it at the right time and so I got a good price for it.
  I bought the house for  69,950  back in 2003 and in 2012 sold it for 120,000, paid off the mortgage and after the solicitors, estate agents  fees was left with 60,000.  This was just enough to get me started on the new venture.