2 - Golcar Huddersfield

House 2 - Golcar

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bought for 61,000

Finding the right one was a journey in itself. I kept skipping past this one on rightmove whilst trawling through the web pages of potential properties.
I was too fixated in finding an old house with old interior/exterior that clearly needed renovating. This one didn't look like it needed much work doing to it and so there didn't seem to be much scope for a profit. The location was good -  in the centre of the village complete with a garden and off road parking to the front. Upon inspection it became apparent why no one had bought it yet.
The house was owned by a couple who's relationship  had broken down -  just like everything else in the place and it was now stood empty run down and un loved.
The place really was in a bad state  - no electric supply from outside (underground fault in cable), clapped out boiler halfway up the stairs hanging on to the cracked gable end wall by the pipework.
Leaking roof, damp patches here there and everywhere, mould, the smell of animal wee,  and to top it off the kitchen was a very difficult one to work out on what to do next it was just plain awkward.

The original layout of the kitchen

The original layout plan

The main problem with this kitchen was the layout - the bottom of the stairs were the first obstacle as you had to  swerve round the stairs and kitchen units, the next being having to go around the corner to the cellar door  where it was also dingy.
This was not a  functioning  kitchen space and it put a lot of people off.
Walking round it was a real head scratcher but then after looking at the plan it was simple.


New layout

 

By creating a new entrance to the kitchen from the living room there is more space and  a flow through to the cellar, open plan to the living room and the additional hall area to the bottom of the stairs from the door.
* another way would have been to knock down the entire load bearing wall and install an RSJ or similar - this would have required  a lot more work + money! + solicitors / valuers etc would have been asking questions.

This was my first real project - after my own. I put a lot into this  - time + money.  The outcome was a great job however, for all the extra work on things like restoring original features like the fireplace which  I got one or two nice compliments for, it did not put any extra value on the property.

My Mum Jen helped design the kitchen and bathroom  with my Dad - Cliff, being a plumber by trade he also did the central heating  - and did a great job of fitting the kitchen too.
 It was through one of Jayne's Dad's (Mick Lodge of Lodge Timber) associates that I acquired some of my local trades that I still use today. Frank Shaw the plasterer / renderer from Slawit, Wayne Baker from the Carpet Remnant Centre Crosland Moor Linthwaite who put me on to  Barrie Holmes Joinery,  Simon christopher did the garden  - all did a great job and continue to do so on all my other properties to this day, and likewise  Alison Withington (then of Armitage Sykes, now at Holroyd and co) for conveyancing.

The house took a bit longer than i would have liked but it was the first one and after 5 months it was finished in February. I went with a local agent - William H Brown and after a slow start with only one viewing then a price drop of 10k and some nicer spring weather  it sold for the new asking price, then it fell through because the buyer’s couldn't arrange the finance to get a mortgage, so it went on again, then same thing happened again with someone else, 3rd time lucky with 3 people all in the running. I went with the one with the biggest deposit  - A local girl who seemed very nice and really loved the place. It turned out her father  who's name is Ivan Moorhouse had other ideas though. Called himself a surveyor and tried to gazunder me claiming the house was unfit to live in  - He would come round every other day with his 2 pronged damp meter peppering every single wall, then concocted his own  report condemning the place saying it needed surveys for this surveys for that and it wanted thousands knocking off the price. I told them his report wasn’t valid as her bank had already sent a surveyor and the mortgage had been approved, and gave them an ultimatum either she buys  it or it goes back on the market. She bought it  and lived happily ever after in the house that her father said wasn't fit to live in.    

Photos after