A Liverpool mum has shared her rollercoaster renovation journey, after national lockdowns and a major flood threatened to throw her off course.
Angela had her eye on her Mossley Hill house "for years", she told the ECHO: "I used to park down the road when I dropped my son at nursery and always knew it was my dream house - I’d even toyed with the idea of putting a letter through the door saying I would be interested if they ever wanted to sell!
"The amount of work never put me off. I knew we’d be able to make it into our perfect family home and right from the start I knew what every room would be."
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The house is named Astolat, with four properties on the road sharing their names with towns included in Arthurian legends. Angela said: "Ours was the home of Elaine, the Lily maid of Astolat. Elaine died a tragic death from her unrequited love of Lancelot. We’re hoping to include a little symbolism of this in our stained glass for the front door when it’s restored."
Astolat was built in 1890 and has a colourful history. It was first home to a banker's family, became a nursing home in the 1950s and was also a Japanese embassy at one point. The building was reverted back into a family home in the late 1970s.
Angela said she and her partner Mark gave themselves three years for the overhaul, but didn't see almost two years of lockdowns coming: "Just getting trades in the house felt really tricky for a while, and costs just spiralled. Everyone just seemed to be doing work on their houses and it was difficult to even find decent trades with availability. But we’ve got some real good teams of people that we trust now.
"It’s been a messy and hugely time consuming job, throwing us curve balls like asbestos and lead pipes at every turn. So far we are four and half years in. It’s been hard work, we’re probably 90% there now, with one more room on the ground floor to start, along with the basement renovations still to complete and some outside work."
Her proudest renovation achievement so far is the kitchen. The family knocked three rooms into one to create a massive living space.
The kitchen really tells of Angela's interior inspiration too, which she describes as a "mix of modern and traditional styles" with a "splash of strong colour". She's certainly not shy when it comes to colour elsewhere in the house, with a brooding moss green living room and a gorgeous yellow lounge nook bringing the sunshine inside.
However, it's the entrance hall that really set the tone for the hard work the couple have done; the once dated, dark space is unrecognisable, with monochrome tiling, modern lighting and a lovingly restored staircase.
Speaking of the kitchen, Angela said: "It brought so much light into the house, which previously seemed quite dark in spite of its south facing aspect," she said. "I love the dark blue kitchen with it’s huge island and herringbone floor, and it was nice to get it done so early on in the project so we could shut ourselves away from the renovation ongoing elsewhere."
The family, which includes three boys under the age of six, lived in the house when the work was going on: "Our youngest was only six months old when we moved in," Angela added. "The boys have grown up with it and have a real love for the house and the work we’re doing. It’s a joy to watch it being restored to some of its former glory and turned into our forever family home."
The biggest task so far has been the basement, with a major flood during lockdown creating problems. Work has been going on since November 2021, but Angela said they're "making good progress".
"It’s pretty big down there so we have room for a decent home gym which is almost complete, loads of storage - great, as we don’t have a garage - a boot room, which is essential with four men in the house, a boiler and plant room and hopefully even a sauna."
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