COUPLE BUY OLD 'TIRED' COTTAGE IN CHESHIRE AND CONVERT IT INTO STYLISH 'FOREVER HOME'

Climbing up the property ladder is a life goal for many people who have hopes of one day owning their dream home. The process involves buying, renovating and selling homes over a period of time in order to take the next step.

People spend years working their way up the ladder, from buying their first starter home to finding their 'forever home' - the place where you'll spend the majority of your years, and where you'll eventually grow old and retire.

When it came to finding their lifelong home, Helen Pexton, 56, and her husband wanted a renovation project that they could really 'get their teeth into' - as well as somewhere close to family and friends, local amenities and the countryside. The couple ended up buying what was once an old, tired cottage in Wilmslow - and converted it into a stylish abode.

READ MORE: 'Our 1930s property was like a dust pit - nine years on we've created our dream family home'

READ MORE: Read more stories from our Where I Live series here

Helen spoke to the Manchester Evening News as part of our Where I Live series, where each week we chat to a different homeowner about their buying and renovation journey; whilst looking at how they've transformed their house from start to finish.

Helen, who is from Cheshire, has owned five properties whilst working her way up the ladder. After meeting her now-husband, the pair moved to Lancashire, but with Helen struggling to settle due to missing her family and friends, the couple decided to move back to her home county in 2021.

The pair then began the search to find their 'forever home'. “We wanted something that was in a convenient location for shops and walks, something that was near to a town but where we could also get to the countryside easily because we like walks out in the country with our dog. Wilmslow fitted the bill perfectly," Helen told the Manchester Evening News.

“Ultimately we were looking for a project. We viewed quite a few different properties, but some of them were too expensive and needed too much work doing to them. We wanted to buy something that we could afford to do up. We didn’t want to stretch ourselves too far with the initial purchase. We just wanted something we could really get our teeth into."

Helen and her husband eventually stumbled across a three-bed cottage in the market town, which was built around 1890. "It was smaller than we wanted, it needed lots of love and attention, but I could see its potential," Helen said. "I loved the location and the fact it had very high, Victorian-style vaulted ceilings. I loved the airy feel that it had, and that sold it to me."

Describing its original state, Helen said: "When we looked round initially we thought it looked quite nice, but then when we looked closer, it was all very tired - it needed a big overhaul. For example the kitchen was an old 1980’s pine kitchen which the previous owners had painted all grey, but all the paint was chipping off."

The couple bought the cottage and moved into their new home in February 2021, but lived in it for a year before they began any renovation work. "We lived in it as it was as it took a while to get planning permission and to find a builder," Helen said. "Luckily we found quite a good builder who understood me and everything I wanted to do.

"We also needed that time after we first moved in. I think you need to live somewhere and get a real feel for the place first before you know what you want to do with it. I designed it with an architect myself, I told him exactly what I wanted and then he drew up some plans and we tweaked them a bit to make it perfect."

The building work began in January 2022, involving an extension, remodel and full renovation. "It took nearly a year to do," Helen explained. "The first job the builders did was take the garage down at the side of the house. They dug all the foundations and then they started building the extension on the side.

"We then did a full renovation throughout, nearly every wall has been moved inside the house and we’ve completely changed the layout and everything so it’s nothing like it was before. It was a big job and that’s why it took so long."

The pair lived in the house whilst all of the building work was ongoing, which Helen said was a 'bad idea'. "It was a nightmare. We were crammed into one little room at the back and there were boxes and dust everywhere, I’d never do it again."

Explaining the results of the transformation, Helen said: "We created a nice wide hallway because the house didn’t have one before, and that was one of my favourite transformations. We’ve extended the house all along the side, we’ve created a boot room in, we've got a new bespoke kitchen, a bespoke utility room, we’ve created a new dining room, a bigger bedroom and put another bathroom in upstairs so that we have an en-suite and a main bathroom now."

With the building being old, Helen wanted to fuse elements of the old property with the new features. "When we moved in, the lounge had a low ceiling and I couldn’t understand why when all the other ceilings were very tall," she said. "When we had the build done, the builders knocked this suspended ceiling out and underneath was a very high ceiling with all the old cornice. It was so badly damaged that we couldn't use it, but I replicated it so it's the same."

Helen added: "My interior style is a mixture of old and new. I get lots of inspiration from Instagram and Pinterest, but I have a lot of my own ideas too. I like things to be quite light and airy, I don’t like a lot of dark colours. I think a lot of people follow trends, but they might not necessarily like them. I think you can easily tire of trends and then you're stuck with it, and you can’t keep replacing things all the time as it’s expensive. If you stick with something you truly like then it won’t ever date."

Fast forward to this year and the internal renovation is now fully complete. "Next we need to do the driveway, paths and the back patio, but the house inside is now done. It’s so nice for it to be finished because it was a nightmare living in it at the time. Now it's so lovely and warm, it’s made a massive difference to our lives and the way we live. It’s exactly what I envisioned from our initial plans."

Giving a tour around her home, Helen described: “You come through the front door and into the new hallway. Off the hallway on the right hand side is the front living room, and then behind the living room is the ‘bootility room' as I call it, that's a bit of an Instagram word."

"Then you continue walking down the hallway and into the kitchen, which opens out onto the dining room and a living space at the back as well with a log burner," Helen said. "Upstairs there are three bedrooms, two with vaulted ceilings, a main bathroom and an ensuite bathroom."

Helen has documented her home renovation journey on her dedicated Instagram account @myconvertedcottage, which has more than 68,500 followers. She set up her account back in October 2019 to document her previous home renovation, but has always had a passion for interiors ever since studying interior design at college.

"I used to live in a converted schoolhouse so that's how I started it," she said. "My followers have just been a steady growth over time. I just love interior design, and I wanted to document my house transformation. As it grew from a few hundred followers to thousands I thought ‘oh my goodness’, but I enjoy it, and I think if I didn’t then I couldn't do it because it’s quite hard work to maintain."

Speaking about her plans for the future, Helen said: "This is our forever home now. I think if I told my husband I wanted to move again he’d go crazy. I can’t see us ever wanting to move. This house has everything we'd ever need.”

2023-10-15T02:40:46Z dg43tfdfdgfd