"When I say a doer-upper the house hadn't been touched for 20-plus years" A couple who fell in love with their "Victorian house" two years ago have transformed it into a "beautiful and characterful" home. Michael Skelly met his partner Sam five years ago through their mutual friends, and had dreamed of renovating a house together ever since - two years later they achieved their ambitious dream. Michael, who is a primary school and dance teacher, told the ECHO : "When we first met, Sam had only just bought his old home, it was his but we did it up together and we always said we would do it [a renovation] together.
It's a lovely feeling to know we have finally done it." The couple bought their house in November 2022 for £260,000 and pumped a further £80,000 into making it their dream home by restoring it to its former glory. However, Michael, 32, and Sam Robins-Wells, 41, bought the six-bedroom property in Waterloo it needed some serious TLC, in fact, it looked like it hadn't been decorated in over 20 years, Michael says.
He said: "We bought it in November 2022. The person we sold Sam's house to wanted to downsize, so we actually ended up swapping houses with them. It was a doer-upper when we bought it, when I say a doer-upper the house hadn't been touched for 20-plus years.
We redecorated it all, it needed bringing into modernisation, but in a Victorian way." The couple first fell in love with the house because of its location, but now it's everything they had ever dreamt of.