LEAVING the city behind for the countryside is a dream many of us have, as we spend hours watching property programmes.
One couple have risked it all for a life in the country, with them giving up their 3-bed semi and renovate a 2 bed cottage - with a major mould problem.
Though it might look picture perfect from the outside, renovating this home has been a labour of love for Andy and Becky Flood.
Having spent years dreaming of their forever home, the couple found the ramshackled cottage close to Everton, Bedfordshire in 2022.
The historic home had fallen into disrepair with rot throughout, and it urgently needed a new roof, kitchen and heating installed.
It also came with a 30m long greenhouse as well as four sheds and garages, which couldn’t be accessed because the garden was so overgrown.
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Despite this, the couple leapt at the chance to renovate the 17th century cottage for their family.
After selling their three-bedroom ex-housing association property for £400,000, they then bought their new home for £280,000 last summer.
With an extra £100,000 to renovate the home, they quickly set to work and moved their family-of-four on to the site to begin the restoration.
The couple are currently living in a caravan and have converted one of the property’s four outbuildings into temporary accommodation for their two kids, Ben, 16, and Phoebe, 13, who are often drafted in to help with the renovation.
“We’re comfortable but it’s nothing fancy – it’s a tiny little caravan, but it’s warm and dry,” Andy said, as he described family life in their temporary home.
As they transform their historic house, the hands-on-family have been sharing their progress on Tiktok - with Andy’s first video receiving nearly three million views.
Work on the thatched cottage has been far from smooth though, with the family having to an extension to house two extra bedrooms.
This is made all the more complicated as the property was built on a medieval settlement, meaning the family have had to have an expensive survey on their home.
“One of the biggest challenges when you buy a cottage like this is having an archaeological survey,” revealed the doting dad.
He added: “If they find anything and we have to dig it up, that’s not cheap, we’re talking at least £5,000.”
Though they’ve yet to find any buried treasure, the family have found odd historical items – including part of an old pen knife, vintage wallpaper and even old bottles with their name on.
After the property was left untouched for decades, Andy was surprised that they bottled survived, saying: “We found some curious looking bottles, which I think are old medicine bottles.'
“So there was an old pharmacist in Bedford and one of them was named Flood...I couldn’t believe it.”
With work still ongoing at the property, the 41 year-old now hopes to complete the project in time for his and Becky’s 20th wedding anniversary – on July 10th.
“We would like it to be done by then, but we’ll see how things go,” he joked.
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It will be well worth the wait, as he estimates that the property will double once the work is complete.
“We bought it for £280,000 and I think we’ll double that,” he stated, adding: “But we’re not investors who are doing this for money, we just want to have a lovely family home.”
