A mid-terrace family home near Swansea going to auction with a guide price of just £85,000 captivated the presenter of BBC's popular daytime property programme Homes Under The Hammer, Martin Roberts.
From the street, without even looking inside, Martin likes the three-bed home, seeing lots of space to work with and potential to optimise and increase value, saying "it's expansive but not expensive".
Wandering into the two reception rooms he is definitely advocating for there to be at least a portion of the wall knocked down between them to create a connection. He also fancies taking out the sledgehammer again and creating French doors out to the garden from the dining room.
Until you get out into the garden and then Martin's mood changes drastically when he sees the ground sinking in the garden next to the single-storey rear extension and he is worried - could it be subsidence? The evidence of the cracks in the pebbledash render certainly appear to suggest it.
Martin says: "Out through the back door and straight away I'm noticing something that's concerning me a lot. The ground here has actually sunk quite considerably and it's no coincidence that it's right by this drain.
"My fear is that basically that the drain under ground has somehow failed and water's seeping into the ground here and it's causing this [the ground] to sink but more importantly is the need to check it's not affecting the foundations of the house."
That changes everything and even the kitchen and bathroom downstairs and the three bedrooms and shower room on the first floor don't take Martin's mind off the potential 'red flag' in the garden.
The mid-terrace goes to online auction with a guide price of just £85,000 but is snapped up by local couple Rob and Kelly as their family home with son Aaron for £112,000.
Even with all the work to do, the pair are optimistic that they can revive the tired terrace for between £25,000 and £30,000 and within a timescale of around three months.
The programme returns seven months later and moves straight to the rear of the property and the renovation is still a work in progress. Out here is where the main drama has unfolded; a big chunk of the house has ended up in the skip - the whole of the single-storey extension has been demolished.
There was a burst water pipe underneath which meant subsidence which resulted in the old extension's expensive demise. The new extension is not yet complete but when it is it will be home to a ground floor bathroom and bonus utility room.
Kelly says: "One of our biggest problems to overcome was the council, because we turned it into a flat roof and not an apex roof, there were lots of building regulations and hoops to jump through, and other hoops that we are still jumping through now."
The rest of the house has been given lots of attention too, with new fascias, windows and doors, bathroom and kitchen and Martin is happy to see the two reception rooms connected via the removal of part of the dividing wall.
Martin's suggestion of a glass door out to the garden at the end of the dining room has been actioned too, allowing light to flood in from both ends of the joined reception spaces.
There's now a new, sleek, contemporary kitchen with Kelly's choice of purple metro splashbacks a visual feature The couple have thought about heating bills too and have solar panels fitted on the roof.
Rob is waiting for a knee operation so couldn't do much work himself, but the couple were grateful to have amazing family and friends to help with the renovation, but even with that assistance the project costs have soared to £55k, and there's still some work to complete.
With a combined buying and project spend of £167,000, the estate agent values the house at £170k to £175k, so a £3k to £8k potential pre-tax profit if they walk away now. There's still work to do so the house might even, in the current property climate, make a loss.
But the couple are so happy with their new family home, they have no intention of listing it, they are too busy loving it. This story appeared in series 25, episode 64 of Homes Under The Hammer and is currently available to view on iPlayer.
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