‘Looks unrecognisable!’ Couple’s ‘unlivable’ flat transformed with IKEA buys & YouTube videos, saving themselves £9k
A COUPLE who bought an ‘unliveable’ flat to get on the housing ladder have shared how they’ve already transformed the grotty and mouldy home.
Rochelle Taylor-Butcher, 29, and her partner, Angus Ord, 30, a data scientist, had no clue how to flip the one-bed flat, but soon figured it out with some YouTube videos.
The couple say the flat in Kingston, South London, was in ‘disarray’ with peeling wallpaper, mould on the walls and a musty carpet – all for the price of £260,000.
The money-saving pair turned to YouTube to learn how to do their own plumbing, install their own kitchen and sand their own floorboards.
Rochelle and Angus say they have already saved nearly £9k doing the work themselves, instead of employing tradespeople, and using free and recycled materials wherever possible.
Nothing could be salvaged from it.
Rochelle Taylor-Butcher
Despite still being in the process of doing it up, they’ve already added an impressive £20k to the price tag of the property.
Although the property was so rundown, Rochelle was ecstatic to finally have a house she owned, which the couple moved into in March 2023.
Rochelle said: “The only way I can describe it is complete disarray, it was completely unliveable.
“The whole flat had a lived-in, musty aroma. I think the carpet absorbed it, it was as if no air had been let in.
“I never thought I would own a property… I grew up in South London and always lived in Housing Association property.”
“Blood, sweat and tears have gone into the floorboards and the walls, we are now part of the flat,” she said.
Rochelle said that the kitchen had uneaten cornflakes behind the dishwasher and old 1970s cabinets.
“Nothing could be salvaged from it,” Rochelle said. “There were stains, rust, crumbling tiles.”
The couple have spent all of their free time working on the house, or watching hours of YouTube tutorials to learn how to do the plumbing, cutting in and tiling, and install their IKEA kitchen doors and cabinets.
The IKEA kitchen which they installed themselves only cost them £5k – which nearly halved the price compared to installing it with an organisation like Howdens.
The couple were able to save money through lots of hacks – including getting family members to rewire the property.
“We paid for the materials at cost price and all the labour was free of charge. So that really saved a massive dent,” Rochelle said.
“We’ve tried to think of ways that we can achieve what we want but with cheating the process.”
Rochelle used paint on sale or leftover paint from her employer to decorate and revealed that you don’t need the best quality to get the best look.
“You don’t need to have incredible polished wood for your skirting board, it could just be a bit of MDF,” Rochelle said.
Another of her suggestions is for anyone starting out on their own housing renovation is to turn to YouTube and “take one thing at a time”.
“You could probably build a house just by watching YouTube,” Rochelle said.
“There’s so much information out there you just have to look for it.”
They saved £3k on installing the kitchen, including plumbing, £700 by sanding the floors themselves, £3k by getting their family to do the electrical rewire, £300 removing the old bathroom themselves and £900 decorating the kitchen and living room themselves.
They spent £5k on kitchen units and appliances, £3.8k on bathroom fittings, including tiling, £2.8k on double glazing the windows, £900 rewiring the materials, £80 on paint and £200 buying tools including an orbital sander.