With rising damp, leaking chimneys, no working electrics, rotten walls, and pigeon droppings splattered all over a sprawling derelict farmhouse in Monmouthshire, it’s probably the last place you would expect an ex-Great British triple jumper and former Welsh and Swansea International Rugby Union player to want to buy.
But as soon as Michelle Griffith-Robinson – who represented Great Britain in the 1996 Olympic Games as well as three Commonwealth Games – and her rugby husband of 17 years, Matt Robinson, set eyes on the Grade 2 listed six-bedroom home, they fell in love with it.
Last September after a lot of haggling over the price, the former sporting couple picked up the keys for the Welsh farmhouse that also had two outdoor barns and had lay vacant for four years for £537,000, determined to transform it into their dream family home.
“It was such a mash up and everything was wrong with it,” Michelle says. “There was damp, pigeon s**t everywhere, and we knew we would have to render all the walls.
“But we loved it and we knew we wanted to buy it even though we knew a lot of work was involved.”
Now 12 months on and knee deep into the renovation work, Michelle, 51, and Matt, 49, are one of several couples who have been charting their DIY progress on Channel 4 ’s new TV property daytime series, Renovation Nation.
As well as digging around the exterior of the farmhouse, the couple – who are project managing the process and employing a team of experts to carry out the repairs - have had to do major external work, including fixing the walls, damp plus leaky chimneys, as well as ripping the kitchen out. They’ve estimated it will cost around £250k in total to make the property habitable but the reality is they will have to do the transformations stage by stage.
Michelle says: “Matt and I are both from working class families. We don’t have £2million in the bank to instantly turn it into a perfect home. But we are determined, however long it takes us, bit by bit that we will turn it into our family home.”
A good sense of humour, Michelle says grinning as she does, is most definitely needed to undertake such a massive project.
The couple live two hours away on site at West Buckland school in Devon, where Matt now works as head of boarding, and so this has meant countless visits to Wales at weekends and in the school holidays with their three children, Reese, 19, Eden, 15 and Elijah, nine, in toe.
“Doing a renovation with kids is like having five more kids!” says Michelle, still laughing. “It’s been mayhem, confusion and dust on top of what it is like juggling kids anyway!
“We’ve been staying at the house (once it was deemed fit) but when I found dust in my knickers, I was like ‘no, those days in a sand pit when I was a triple jumper are done’! So now I stay in a hotel nearby!”
Despite the upheaval, Michelle jokes the couple have, however, managed to stay talking.
“Matt loves the renovation work and he is overseeing it all,” says Michelle. It’s a haven for him and I am very happy to let him be in control of it all!
“At the end of the day, no renovation is worth the stress of making you ill. I would advise anyone to ask themselves if it all goes belly up, what would you be left with? It is simply not working splitting up from your partner!”
Michelle is hopeful they may be able to spend Christmas in the farmhouse, albeit downstairs. “I am very happy to close off rooms and wait until the money comes in,” she says. “We have to prioritise but what has helped is the fact we aren’t moving again!”
Since retiring from sport, Michelle has been working as a life coach and motivational speaker. Meanwhile, Matt gave up a lucrative career in sport science post rugby in 2009 to work first as a PE teacher and then latterly as head of boarding in Devon. “Matt gave up a very good job but he loves what he does now,” says Michelle proudly. “He feels he is having an impact on children of the future.
“I really enjoy what I do too but I am most proud of our three children and our successful marriage.”
So is there an end date in sight? “Matt is hopeful we might have our farmhouse ready by 2024,” she replies. “But it’s one step at a time. This is our legacy we want to leave to our children and I am so proud of us for doing it.”
*Renovation Nation is on Channel 4 on weekdays at 4pm, and available on for catch up on All4.
