After a change in design ideas, Jo and Chrisfinally found the perfect layout for their home, and made it their own with clever DIYs, bargain buys and a few investment pieces
Feature Lisa Moses Photography Katie Jane Watson
DRAB TO FAB UPGRADE
My story
‘When we first viewed this place, it was the ugliest house on the street, but we really enjoyed doing up our last home and were ready for a new project. We also wanted a garden for our two dogs, Olive and Lola. It took seven months to move in because of Covid, so we thought we were ready to hit the ground running when we finally got the keys, but our original plans changed fairly swiftly.
We initially planned to open up the ground floor, which had been divided into three living areas, to create one large room, but after moving in and living with the space we did a U-turn. Creating zones to include a formal living room at the front and a sun room at the back, separated by a bespoke kitchen in the middle, made much more sense and saved a fortune in new flooring and installing massive steels. It also meant we could convert the room that used to be the kitchen into a laundry room.
The main bulk of the renovations were done during the first lockdown, when the cost of materials kept going up and we couldn’t get trades in. At one point, the whole downstairs was back to brick, some areas had no floors, and there was no running water or electricity, so it was a rough six months. But, although it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears – especially as we did most of the work ourselves – we adore the unique home we’ve created.’
Welcome to my home
A BIT ABOUT ME
I’m Jo Lemos (@two.men.and.a.semi), a training and development coach, and I live with my husband, Chris Gilheaney, and our two dogs, Olive and Lola.
WHERE I LIVE
Our home is a three-bedroom 1930s semi in Prestwich, Manchester and we moved here in November 2019.
WHAT I WANTED TO CHANGE
It was a pretty sad house as it hadn’t been updated for decades. The decor was stuck in the 80s, with carpet in every room, walls covered in woodchip wallpaper, and Artex on all the ceilings. There was also a gaping hole in the ceiling of the spare bedroom.
