A woman who bought an abandoned house in Italy for just £4,400 has transformed it into a dream home - and it's now worth £250,000. Meredith Tabbone, 43, bought the run-down property on a whim after hearing councils in rural Sicily were auctioning off derelict houses with a one euro starting bid to help regenerate the village.
Meredith, who is from Chicago in the US, snapped up the 1600s building, which had no electricity or running water, after throwing in an offer of £4,400 - and found out she was the successful buyer months later.
The house is set in the Italian village of Sambuca di Sicilia where her grandparents grew up, and it was initially just 'one big room' over a basement. After buying it, Meredith discovered the roof was thick with asbestos and it cost her £661 to hire a team to remove the roof in an environmentally-safe way.
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Meredith then bought the empty home next door for £27,000 - and spent 46 months and £210,000 knocking them together to build a 3,000sqft four-bed home.
Since then, she has bought two guest houses in the same village for £28,000 in total, and a disused building for £58,000, which she's turning into a gallery and café.
She estimates her £230,000 investment in the original one euro house will be worth around £400,000 when all the work is completed in autumn 2023.
Meredith plans to stay in the house part-time - and calls it her "extended vacation home".
“The house was in very bad condition - but in many ways, it was everything I expected it to be and more. It had so much charm," said Meredith.
“It had such interesting architectural detail - you could really see the history coming through the walls. But it was a fixer-upper, to say the least.
“When we first saw the house - it was 750 square feet, it had no electricity, running water or windows - and it was thick with asbestos.
“At first, the plan was just to turn it into a small getaway house - but now we’ve turned it into a dream home.
“It’s very large and intricate - there are four beds, four baths, an outdoor kitchen, a living and a dining area.
“We’ve also installed an upper terrace, lower terrace, spa and wine cellar - as well as a fireplace and a pizza oven.”
Meredith Tabbone knew her dad Michael's side of the family came from Sicily, but didn't know any more until she began researching how to get an Italian citizenship in 2016.
She discovered his great-grandfather, Fillippo Tabbone, came from Sambuca di Sicilia, a small village in Sicily.
In January 2019 - one year into applying for her Italian citizenship - Meredith read an article about people bidding on one-euro houses in Italy.
On a “whim”, she placed a bid on a “run-down fixer-upper” in Sambuca.
She found out she had won it in May 2019 and started work a month later. In August 2020, she bought the home next door via a private sale.
With the help of an architect Meredith converted the one-room building into a four-bedroom holiday home.
They installed doors, windows and walls - as well as burying electrical wires - to turn the building into a home.
She bought two guest houses nearby in March 2022 and another empty building in March 2021, and work is currently underway, due to be complete in late 2024.
Meredith's top tips for renovating abroad:
1. Be patient, the process will take time
2. Learn the local language if you can
3. Have fun with it
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