I Bought This 1970’s House That Nobody Wanted And its a Mess - The Renovation EP01 

Hope you guys like episode 1! The scene is set and there’s loads to come in episode 2!

I'd say the house isn't really a 'mess' as such, far from it actually. Just old decor wise due to being lived in by an older person with a few things to be rectified leak wise etc. Good luck with it, I'm sure you'll transform it into a great modern home :)

As a heating engineer of twenty years, heres my opinion for what its worth. On the whole combis arent that great for homes with multiple bathrooms. Youd be far better off with an unvented cylinder which will future proof your install for when you have your extension built. Also you cant just decide on a combi installl without other checks and a proper site survey. Combis use a lot more gas than the heat only you already have. So you will almost certainly need a renewed gas run unless you can site the boiler very close to the meter. Have you checked the incoming water pressure and flow rate? You need to know these before deciding on a combi. If you have a cylinder fitted instead then you could also have solar fitted in the future and then have free hot water for a good few months of the year. You could also have a twin coil cylinder fitted and heat it from the wood burner. You cant do either of these with a combi. Dont just jump into a combi install. On a personal note i wouldnt touch a Worcester with a barge pole. Bang average boilers backed up with a world class marketing team. Plastic pigs. As someone who has serviced and repaired probably 10K+ boilers in my career, IMHO get a either a Vailant or and Ideal Vogue with a cylinder. Hope this gives you a bit of useful guidance. All the best. Should have added. That if your current heat only boiler is actually in good condition. Then why not relocate it and use it to heat an unvented cylinder. That way you save on the cost of a boiler and are only paying out for the cylinder. Plus it’s less waste and better for the environment to not be scrapping a perfectly good boiler.

I'm not sure why that house stood empty so long. I find it quite lovely, minus the operational issues. I love the stair rails, and the beautiful wood surround on the interior walk thru. The kitchen has a great layout. If the cabinets are in good shape, maybe a new stain or paint would spruce them up. I also like the fanlights above the doors to allow the house to have some great natural light throughout. My favorite is the garden. I would spend a lot of time out there. We have different tastes but it is your home and I am looking forward to seeing how you make it fit your family.

I've never understood why people are anxious to get rid of fanlight windows above internal doors. Their purpoe is to throw daylight in to a generally dark landing. I alo found when my kids were small the fanlights meant that we could turn their bedroom light off completely, and they got residual light from the landing until we went to bed (by which time they were asleep) and didn't need night lights in their rooms. I look forward to seeing your renovations here.

I love the light fitting in the lounge! I personally like the retro vibe - sick of the predictable white/clinical/high gloss/grey identikit interiors that everyone does now. Some more sympathetic carpet, make a feature of some of the retro details mixed with updated wiring and services.

Loving that mirror on the bathroom wall, angled down , so you can watch yourself whilst sat on the toilet!

This house is a time capsule of my 1960-70’s childhood. My mother would have loved the carpet in the lounge. Single sockets in each room was normal. An electric kettle, radio, tv, razor and hair dryer were the main things you would have plugged in back in the day. Looking forward to your renovation. Have fun. 🏡👏🏼🇦🇺

Aw I would keep some of the 70’s features, the brick hearth, the archway to the diner, the windows at the top of the doors… really quaint and add a bit of something not many houses have any more. Can make them look pretty nice too with the right decor. Good luck with the project

When you remove the plants you don't want, you may be able to sell them. Lots of people want mature plantings. Same with the units in the utility room and kitchen. The better ones can be repurposed for your workshop. It's a nice house all in all. I'm surprised it was on the market for so long.

The kitchen is definitely a 1980s replacement - the style of the wooden cabinets, the cooker built in across the corner with the built in oven under the hob and of course the extractor hood - that style was very popular in the 1980s. The units in the utility room would be original to the house and indeed might have been the original kitchen units at one time.

I like the slats on the staircase as those are popular right now. If it had an extra slat added to make it safe it would be fine!

The idea of having the ceiling lights near the window was to give privacy as you wouldn’t be silhouetted in front of the light and visible from outside.

What a bloody lovely house! Can see masses of potential and what a great plot! Looking forward to seeing the progress on this :)

We have a similar aged house (1968) and also renovated whilst living here. We are not DIY experts, so we had professional help. The carpet and fireplace were similar to yours, but ours was gas. One socket per room, terrible central heating... One thing we did and I can highly recommend is put in Underfloor Heating. We used a system by Wunda, where we laid styrofoam panels with grooves in them, which we then 'walked' the pipes into. It was easy to lay (we did this bit ourselves) straight over the cement underfloor and meant we didn't need any radiators on the wall, which makes a surprising difference. We just lost about an inch in height, as that is how much the floor came up. The heating is also lovely and even throughout each room and controllable by room. I think this was one of the best decisions we made :)

Nooo don’t get rid of the niche by the wardrobe in the master bedroom!! Use it for a few pretty, modern, thick wooden open shelves, deep ones. The wood adds warmth, the depth adds spatial interest and Positive/negative to what otherwise is a box with straight walls and above all they’re useful for putting the odd plant on or some interesting books, etc. Adds character, warmth, interest. Have the wooden shelves end a few inches before the wardrobe so they aren’t level with it - will look much better/ more pleasing to the eye. Generally awesome though - you’re doing a great job! 😊

Wow this house gives me nostalgia for my childhood. The carpets and the brick fireplace are beautiful and the kitchen so homely. I prefer this look to the modern minimalist drab grey I see everywhere now.

I would consider extending the built in wardrobe into the alcove. Looks great.

Be wary of putting in a wood burner in, especially with a baby in the house. Do some research on indoor air quality especially PM2.5 particles. Wood burners are not good for air quality. The main bedroom has MFI bedroom furniture, can't remember the name of it, but remember selling it in the early 90s. 15mm pipework will work with modern ASHP, have a look at a Vaillant AroTHERM for example. They are super quiet too, quieter than a gas boiler. ASHPs have moved on leaps and bounds in a very short space of time, worth revisiting what it currently on the market.

I love a good reno DIY and yours seems like it will be a nice one. I have read many of the existing comments, and I agree with those who say that all the "tearing out" and "throwing in the skip" isn't necessary. This house simply needs updating. If you can rethink some of your destruction then you won't be having to put so much in the landfill. The last I heard, England wasn't getting any bigger!

This is a lovely house . I particularly like the carpet in the dining room. A real treasure from the 1970's when proper patterns and wool carpets were bought to last, non of this grey plastic stuff you get today. The wood is also great and definitely a 1980's kitchen from when the sheds in the town were a new idea. Yes sheds! Do not destroy your sheds Reuse them. You are handy with tools remake them into something new for the children to play in! Remember old is not all bad & think before you throw because you will have better quality than your mates and different. "Do different" like a Norfolk boy would!

Keep the Alcove unit, put a massive CRT telly in it. 😂 The bedroom lights, was probably built with the one nearest the window so that shadows weren’t projected on the curtains when getting dressed etc, the other potentially a later add on to create more light. I have a 70s house and all the luminaries are by the windows in the bedrooms.

Just stumbled upon this and looking forward to watching. Looks like a great house, loads of potential and I can already see how great a wrap-around kitchen / diner extension would look.

7:23 flourescent lights 😍😍😍😍😍 especially that small one! What a beauty!

Such a lovely home hard to believe no one wants it because id certainly like it

That house has got massive potential, even if you’re not a competent diyer. I’m surprised it been on the market that long! Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Excited to see how this goes. For the alcove in the bedroom, I would expand the wardrobe and make it a walk in one.

I was born in the early 50's, I'd say the gold/orange carpet is from the 70's not 80's. What a great project!

I grew up in a house built in 1973 in the states. We had some lovely plaid carpet along with different colored carpet in all the bedrooms, bathrooms and dining room (thankfully not the kitchen like our neighbors had). The entire house also a various wallpapers...just the closets were painted. We also had an avocado green stove and the phone in the kitchen with a cord that probably stretched 100 feet. Certainly not the style now but it does bring back some fun memories.

This is going to be fab! We moved in January and have exactly the same style and layout for modernisation. Really looking forward to watching and learning from your progress as you work through. Fantastic!!!!

Seems like a very nice house in good order considering it has been empty for a while. All the quirks in the original house is common to a property of its age, ie lack of sockets, glass panel above doors etc. A perfect house for you to renovate. Probably built considerably better than modern builds. Was there no immersion heater fitted to supply a bit of hot water. I’m sure you are aware textured ceiling coatings could contain asbestos. Good luck with the project.

My son and his wife would love a 70's looking house.

I LOVE the cover built around the extraction in the kitchen, we had the same style in the house I grew up in, absolutely beautiful with the shape and tiles, definitely a feature id want to add into a house.

Hey. Great video. An idea for the bedroom alcove… the fitted wardrobe could be widened into the alcove space, and then the (bigger) wardrobe front could be flush with the wall to the left. The whole place looks like a fantastic project. Good luck with it all 👍🏻

That's a really nice house, incredible how it went unsold for so long, round here they'd rip your arm for something like that! I do think the boiler is quite expensive. It's fairly easy to take an old tank out and prepare everything ready for a plumber to come in and fir the boiler. That's what I did and it came in around £2k all in (although that was about seven years ago).

It looks like a house with great potential and although dated it’s liveable. We are renovating our house and everything was like this. Done most of it over the last 18 months but have just started knocking through the kitchen and dining room and putting in a downstairs loo. Great channel for lots of how-to guides and general knowledge, thank you.

I like the 70s house including the carpet.

Looking forward to this, especially having lived through all these 'trends' which were so popular in their time. We are just coming to the end of renovating the 1960 house that we moved into 11 months ago. I think the best thing about older houses is that they had so much space compared with modern ones but of course, there is always a lot of renovation work to do.

Great house, can't wait to see what you do with the place.

Great video and looking forward to the next one. We live in a 1970's Semi Detached so good to see what can be done.

The conifer hedge behind you has recently been cut back,,someone did a good job on that,,neat,tidy,tight..💯👍

Really looking forward to this series. Question: why are you going with a combi rather than an unvented system? I believe the unvented system is better for larger properties, and since you are planning a future extension that might be a better bet.

That's a great looking property you've got there Cameron, I think your going to provide a lot of useful information info and help, as well as inspiration throughout your journey. Best of luck as you uncover all the hidden horrors. 👍 👍

Me too, really looking forward to this. Congratulations to you both, and thanks for bringing us all on your journey. 😊

I can't wait for the next episode and all the others to come! What a great house -good bones and am sure you will make a lovely job. Very inspiring and informative. Thank you for sharing.

To be honest the property doesn’t look too bad at all. I live in a 70s property so can relate to some of the nuances that may annoy you. We’re also in the process of buying a 70s bungalow which is in a far worse state than this house. I think you’ve done well to pick this up. There will be challenges, but you’ll get it to how you want it. Without knowing how much it was or what your refurb budget is, someone could have missed out on what could be a nice house. Their loss is your gain.

Really looking forward to this one Cameron,as a diyer myself you can't beat a good house renovation that covers all aspects of home improvement,

I’ve just bought a 1930’s semi, I’m renovating the majority myself, the main issue I’ve found so far is damp coming through the chimney breast, I took the wallpaper off and the plaster just fell off (saved me a job 😂), there was tinfoil behind the paper so the previous owner was clearly trying to expel it. A few surrounding joists are also rotten 😫

Great video. It reminded me of when we moved into our home in 2009. It had been empty for about 3 years and was very much stuck in the 80. The first thing British gas did was to condem the boiler(with red and white warning tape).it took me about 10 years to get the place fully updated and how we wanted.looking forward to watching your journey.

it's a nice house actually !

Congratulations! That house got loads of potential! Looking forward to see the final result! Loads of amazing content coming!

18:57 Diverter valve/Zone Valve. I have one of those next to my boiler, and apparently the quite prone to breaking, depending on how much constant use they get. Enjoying the video.

We moved into a very similar house in 1988/89. Had same pretty much everything that’s in yours. It was built in 1970. Leaks from pipes, damp areas, lovely Artex ceilings 😳 crumbling sheds, falling down extension. Then after about a month I came downstairs and stepped into ankle deep water (from rad pipes covering all the downstairs area and it ruined the 1970’s carpet 😣😂 This took me right back. Once you’ve updated it’ll look fantastic!!! They’re well built houses! 👍🏻

I think this place will be spot on when you’ve finished! And what a great way to bring some good content to your channel. 🎉

One of the best RU-vidrs with a proper exciting series. Can't wait to see how this pans out, you've helped me with so much so wish you all the best 👍

the kitchen is a 90's kitchen (not sure if its howdens or magnet), the utility room has the original 70's units.

The previous owner left their dog 😂

Wow! That carpet is pure 1970s! We also had one of those awful brick fireplaces, with all the wee nooks and inlays, also 1970s. The kitchen is 1980s, that style of cooker hood was very popular although totally naff. Looking forward to watching the rest of your series. Best of luck.

Great video and looking forward to the series. Moved recently and nearly took on something similar to this but having done the maths and soul searching I/we (the wife) decide we were not up for the challenge both financially and mentally and we ended up with a ……. new build. I agree new build are not everyone’s cup of tea but we love it and with not much to do it gives me lots of time to watch YT channels like yours and get all those hints and tips for jobs that can eventually be done. In fact I’ve just watched this one sitting on my new patio rather than having to lay it first !

What a gem of a house! Has sooo much potential. I hope you are able to keep one or two part(s) of the original of the house that are appealing just for memories. All the best for the renovation!

Love this project. I am fond of 70ties buildings.

Brilliant looking project, and can't wait to see how it develops! That alcove looks like it'd make a really good wardrobe unit if you extended what's already there across the whole wall? Worth warning people to get a professional asbestos check before touching older artex ceilings.

Hi, I will certainly be watching this that is the type of house I have always wanted ( on the outside) I reckon when it's renovated that would be my favourite type of house. Xx

My wife and I bought an incredibly similar house 4 years ago. 1982 so slightly newer but I resonated with about 90% of the things you pointed out! Even had the same Drayton system and dodgy plaster skimming lol. The one thing we had that you don’t was 4 layers of wallpaper in all the downstairs rooms! We completely gutted the place and modernised it over winter 2020. Best of luck with the project mate.

The original look of the house is quite good to me😂

Love this type of content . I currently started doing DIY/ Maintenance but late in the game at 32 but I like your videos because your for the everyday people and not cocky would love to work with some one like you 12-18 months the skills you would learn would be crazy. I would love to have 10% of your knowledge and skill. Keep it up 👍🏻.

Very inspiring! I'm taking in a old pit house that was built in the 50s and had the same owners till they passed a few years ago. Hopefully going to take on some of the work myself and leave the structrual/electrical work to the experts

bought my house in November and since moving in we've done next to nothing - loads of it needs modernising and don't know where to start! same as you we've got an old style boiler and rewireable fuses so i'm looking forward to following you on your journey!

What an amazing house, amazing garden!! Looking forward to next episodes. What are you doing now is what one day, hopefully, I will do. Very inspiring!

It gives good ideas and what to look for when buying older property The master bedroom built in wardrobe etc takes over the room .plenty of storage space but it will be very interesting to see what you do with this room,and the updates videos

Great house with so much potential. Looking forward to following your journey 👍

I really like this house for what you have planned for it... it will be stunning.

The bosch boiler is the one I have and it's a powerhouse. Nice and quiet if you get their control with it you can use it with your phone. Had mine 2 years now. Make sure to keep up the servicing as its part of the warranty. Nice project will look forward to the series

About the ugly bathroom window install, I’ve found retro fitted new windows and frame often don’t line up with the old original frame outline, installers like hiding this gap with a pvc decor trim, solution is when redecorating remove the bodged pvc trim and re-tile or re skim up to the frame, the wall or reveal then looks like a nice original normal wall finish.

I also recently purchased a house in a similar condition, so I will be following along for advice, tips, and ideas. Thankfully it's just myself and Marlowe, my dog, so it's a bit easier to shift stuff around.

For the bedroom wardrobe/alcove area, I’d take everything out, wardrobe & adjacent, check the full space created and design a new floor to ceiling wardrobe interior, put new sets of modern doors on with mirror on a door interior, plus interior lights and sockets inside wardrobe for a hairdryer/tv/shaver/charging, reinstate full width coving & decorate.

Look forward to seeing your creative and hard work, no doubt ! ❤

Great video from a great DIY guy, keep them coming 🙏👍

With the many additions to the house square footage makes it a large house. The rear garden is quite large as well. With modernization of the electrical, plumbing and heating I think you found a great house. From Toronto Canada good luck with the renovations.

Quite the Project! Looks Fun!

that house is in pretty good shape. except for wiring and some water damage.

Timely. I've just bought a 1982 house, one previous owner smoked 60 a day and barely updated anything. So far.. carpets and ceilings out, total new heating system being installed this week. Every time you look you find something else that needs doing. Need to get it liveable ASAP! Look forward to seeing how yours develops.

Some really great historical MFI fitted furniture there, classic pieces! Amazing how that exterior pipe had disintegrated with UV damage, but oh, you left the barcode sticker on the new elbow joint, one of my pet peeves, I always take them off. Good luck with this great new project, be interesting to see it develop

Been there done it I take my hat off to you. Ive sold my house and went for a Hassel free new built without the stress from working and family but I will be looking forward in sitting back and watching your project. Thanks

Looking forward to watching you modernise your new house. Looks a great house. I have the boiler your buying and its been faultless in last 2 years. Its so quite that when i turn the heating on, i sometimes have to check its fired up, which it always does. Great videos. Look forward to learning more diy tips.

For the bedroom alcove you could create a fitted vanity station with mirror and maybe planting above. All cabling for hair dryers and stuff could be in the vanity drawer so it's all neat and tidy

Looks good and great bones on which to “build” As a priority to get the shower sorted I would replace the cartridge. At a glance it looked like a Mira, slightly fiddly job but straight forward, all accessible through the front without disturbing the tiles 👍

Congrats on the house Cameron, it's going to be a lovely family home when you're finished (do renovations ever finish?!) This is going to be a great series, especially as we continue to fully renovate our 1930s home.

Great intro. Looking forward to the updates. All the best.

Brilliant video, great knowledge and experience. Subscribed.

I'm really excited to see how you manage the replacement of the electrics and plumbing and gas. Whilst living in the house. Best wishes with the project.

I would love that house as is and wouldn't change anything

I'm just done doing an occupied renovation, so good luck. In the long run, you will probably be better off rewiring the complete property. Any decent sparkie will be able to do the rewire in stages for not a lot more, then tie everything in properly to a new board at the end. All I need to do now is replace the back door, and fit a new kitchen. Our current kitchen is pretty much like yours, so we just upgraded doors etc. until we decide what we want to do with it. Check your cabinets though. They look very like some of the Moben units I fitted back in the day. Those were originally ply rather than particle board. We also installed a wood stove. We bought a Contura inset stove which fits straight into the builders opening. No need for register plate etc. Our installer also filled between the stainless liner and the fireclay one with waterproof vermiculite. Looking forward to the fun beginning.

The timing of this is perfect! Literally about to start the exact same type of work after buying a 1960s house. How are you planning the build order/priorities? We're looking to sort out the bathroom first then move in and do the rest of the rooms while living in the place.

Good luck with it cannot wait to see the end

Absolutely fantastic sized house. This will be a lovely family home eventually

Oh shit, my heart sank for you when you said the fam will be living in the house while the renovation happens. I’ve just been through two years of this and it’s so much harder living it. Best of luck buddy, hope everything goes smoothly with few surprises along the way.

Looking forward to watching your journey on this renovation. Hopefully there will be jobs for all the family, thus giving everyone some self satisfaction and confidence. Good Luck. 👍

A very interesting and informative vlog. Thank you. 😊. Will be fabulous when complete 😊👍👍👍👍👍

Great video, looking forward to following the full renovation.