A lot of first-time buyers want an easy life, a starter home they can move straight into without having to worry about damp proofing and failing windows.
But Alastair Jones and his wife Marta PuchaÅa-Jones were willing to roll up their sleeves and take on a project, despite having no previous building experience.
Work on their two-bedroom house in Forest Gate was completed in October – which was lucky because three days later Marta gave birth to their first child, Maya, who is now almost one year old.
“It has been a pretty crazy few months,” said Alastair.
The couple, both 37, had been paying £1,400pcm to rent a two-bedroom flat in Walthamstow but, priced out of the hipster hotspot, decided to house hunt four miles south east, in a location which has been growing in popularity since the arrival of Crossrail.
In January 2020 Marta, a graphic designer, and Alastair, a digital product designer, paid £450,000 for the Edwardian terrace; they raised the deposit with savings plus parental help.
The house was in sound, albeit dated, condition but the couple moved in and started working with an architect on plans to upgrade it.
Eventually they concluded that doing a rear side return extension would be too expensive, and that they would have to work with what they had.
In July, by which point Marta was expecting Maya, work began on a full refurbishment of the house, charting their progress on Twitter (@forest.gate.house).
The couple moved in with Alastair’s parents in Essex and over the next three months the wall between the kitchen and living room was removed to create an open plan living space, a new kitchen and bathroom were installed, the shaky 1970s rear extension was rebuilt, and the house was redecorated from top to bottom.
The couple pitched in where they could, but the project cost around £90,000.
“We really had no idea how to do things because we had always rented so we’d never had a chance to do any work before or even see a builder working,” said Alastair.
They did, however, work out what the ceiling price for a similar property would be in the area to make sure they didn’t overspend. “I’m confident that if we had to sell it tomorrow we wouldn’t lose money,” he said.
“There is still plenty to do in the house to get it exactly how we want it but we do at least have all the basics in place.”
