Steve and Tracey Jones Britain's Empty Homes

Across the United Kingdom, there are nearly a million homes

lying unloved and unlived in, ready for someone to come along and give them a bright new future.

So whether it's a tired semi or a rambling mansion,

we're on a mission to rescue Britain's empty homes.

Empty properties come in all sorts of shapes and sizes,

but the one thing they all have in common is the potential

to inspire creatively minded buyers,

people who can see through dilapidation to create their own dream home...

Hi, Steve! '..which is just what happened to today's couple,

'who fell so in love with an old Lincolnshire barn they leapt at the chance to buy it.

'With a big project ahead of them, I'm going to give them the benefit of my renovation experience

'to advise them as they consider the initial plans for their dream home.'

I mean, to many people, this is a classic black hole.

'I'll also be introducing them to other people

'who've taken on ambitious rebuilds to hear what they've learnt.'

The biggest thing we've learnt is to count to ten before you lose it.

And we'll be joining an empty-property officer,

whose job is to save vacant buildings and get them occupied again.

Good grief!

What a mess!

Sometimes an empty property can just tug at your heartstrings

and refuses to let you ignore its plight,

even though the task of rescuing it would mean

taking a leap into the complete unknown.

And that's exactly what former car salesman Steve Jones,

wife Tracey and son Luke have done,

staking everything they own on a derelict barn in rural Lincolnshire.

When we first saw the barns, it was just literally, "Wow!"

It was love at first sight. I had to have it.

The reason we bought the barn was a complete lifestyle change -

more peaceful, just the semi-rural quietness.

It's just a nicer environment to bring our son up in.

They bought the property for £145,000.

It stands in a two-acre plot and comes with full planning permission

to turn it and the outbuildings into a five-bedroom house.

And from the bedroom, glass balcony.

There are also some old plans for conversion,

which Steve and Tracey are using as a template for their own ideas.

-But this is all uncharted territory.

-We've got no experience in this.

We've got project managers to help us,

but a lot of the work's going to have to be done ourselves,

because of budget constraints.

I've given up my job for hopefully about six months.

My plans are to be there every day labouring

and helping out where I can and doing what I can.

Taking on this project is not only a huge financial commitment for the family,

it also means they have to live in a caravan for as long as it takes.

-Are you going to choose your bedroom?

-'I am terrified.'

-I mean, nothing's going to go smoothly.

-It scares me to death.

But if I don't do it... It's an opportunity.

In ten years' time, I'll look back and think I should have done it.

A project like this is a major challenge for a professional developer,

let alone a couple with limited experience and a modest budget of £110,000,

so I want them to be sure they're making the right decisions from the very start.

-Hi, Steve!

-Hi, Jules!

-Nice to see you.

-Tracey, nice to meet you!

-You too.

Well, this is quite something!

-You've jumped in with both feet here.

-Haven't we just!

Haven't you just! How long were you looking at this place before you bought it?

Honestly? Once.

JULES LAUGHS

-Is this a moment of madness, Tracey?

-It certainly is, yeah.

Now you've got the fun bit of trying to figure out

how you're going to turn this into your dream home.

-Absolutely.

-Yes.

-So, you've never done it before?

I've done slight renovations - nothing to this scale,

but I've done a couple of little things up in the past.

But what can you do?

-Are you a plasterer, a bricklayer, a plumber, an electrician?

-No.

We've got family. Family and friends.

I mean, to many people, this is a classic black hole.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

If you're not careful on how you budget and plan this,

you could find yourselves in a world of trouble.

Yeah.

I'm concerned the conversion could quickly overwhelm them, so I'm eager

to help them spot potential pitfalls and avoid any costly mistakes.

They plan to spend 90,000 of their budget on stage one of the build.

-Here you go! So, this is the main entrance.

-Oh, my goodness!

-So this is phase one, then?

-This is going to be home for phase one, yes.

The original idea is all the ground will be open-plan,

we'll have the kitchen over the back,

a dining area looking out through the views.

-And you're going to keep it vaulted like that?

-Yes.

That's part of the character of the building.

-You know, you do need to see it.

-Yes, it's going to be very bright.

We're going to have lovely white walls, a lovely big wood burner.

-What are you going to do with the floors? Wooden floors?

-Yes.

-Good. So, this is phase one.

-Let's have a look at phases two and possibly three.

-Yeah, sure.

-After you, mate.

-Thank you.

-I love it.

This is a lot of work, though.

Steve and Tracey then plan to live in the completed barn

and remortgage it to finance stage two,

which is to convert the courtyard of animal shelters into more living accommodation.

But I think there's a more viable way of doing this from the start.

You're right to stage it.

But actually, your £90,000, which is cash, effectively,

isn't it, at this stage?

I would stretch that out around as much of the building

as possible while still getting it habitable.

-Right.

-There are key points to any staging.

The first one is to make it dry and waterproof, so it's the roofs

that need sorting out.

The next thing is going to be damp and floors.

So we're talking damp courses, concrete, membranes, all that kind of stuff.

Once you've got to there, you're almost in business.

And actually, if you are talking about something that's going to

get remortgaged, there's more to remortgage.

It's more viable. Can you sort of take it all in?

-It's quite a thing, isn't it?

-Yes, it is, but it makes sense.

'Now, whichever way you look at it, this is a big project.

'But for Steve and Tracey.'

who've never taken on anything at this scale before...

Well, to be honest, it's monumental.

But they are sort of at the fun stage, the inventive stage,

but also the most crucial, because this is the planning stage.

Getting that right is absolutely essential to making this project come together.

As this could easily get the better of them,

I want them to be aware just how quickly that can happen.

So I'm going to introduce Steve and Tracey to some other

gung-ho renovators who are grappling with a similar scale of build.

Taking on a complete wreck is a major lifestyle decision,

so you have to be prepared to be in it for the long haul,

which is just what Carol and Brian Reece-Dylan braced themselves for

when they spotted this traditional Snowdonian cottage back in 2008.

When we saw this place, it was obvious it was what we wanted.

It was a little bit of seclusion, a view of the mountains

and a house that really hadn't been touched and hadn't been renovated,

and all the things that were here originally

were nearly all still here. We didn't notice the bad things.

It's only by looking at the photographs that we took

after we'd gone home we realised what a bad state it was in, really,

and the fact that it's surrounded by reeds meant that it was sopping wet.

Fifty years of abandonment meant that while the cottage had retained

its charm and original features, it was in desperate need of rescue.

In parts of the house there was gypsum plasterboard, which clearly

had just soaked up the damp, and it was just falling off the walls.

One of the first jobs we had to do was to take out

all of the cement, render and pointing from outside

and replace that with lime render and lime pointing.

I love windows, and I hate bad, awful PVC windows,

so that was my project with the house, really,

was trying to get the windows that would suit the house.

That was a big journey, and eventually we decided

what we wanted, and we had a joinery company make the windows for us.

We have had to replace wood panelling because it was rotten,

and we've painted the new wood, but we've left the old wood intact,

as it was, with the original paintwork on it.

I didn't want a new, shiny house, really.

I quite like the fact that it looks at least a little bit as it was.

A clever mix of traditional

and modern renovation has retained the integrity of the cottage

while giving Carol and Brian a very modern home.

It is a very cosy place to be on a cold, wet winter's day.

Now, if you want to report a property that you think has been abandoned,

contact your local empty-property officer.

Across the country, these committed teams are on a mission

to get dilapidated buildings back into use.

In Cardiff, waging war on its estimated 3,000 vacant homes

is empty-property officer Steve Reid.

He's on the front line, dealing with around 1,200 active cases at any one time.

He's on his way to a house that's been empty for a year

following the death of its owner, whose attempts to rebuild and remodel the house

over time have left it structurally unsound and in a terrible mess.

With family members unable to take the house on in this condition,

the council have taken responsibility for it

and now plan to sell it at auction on the family's behalf.

Today, they have to go in and clear it, and they have a big job on their hands.

He started at the back, working towards the front,

got halfway through and just left it, basically.

He seems to have sort of built the new house around the old house.

Once he'd finished a bit, he'd take the original wall away.

At the front of the house, he's taken away most of the side walls

and just replaced them with timber hoarding.

The front door is still there,

but he's bricked up with new brick around it.

Right, so that's one room cleared.

Still a long way to go.

This back bit of the house is obviously the bit

that he's actually built himself,

and he was working his way forward.

Everything's mouldy and damp.

It's all going to have to just go straight in the skip.

Steve is on hand to make sure nothing important is thrown away,

but it's a heartbreaking process.

We try and keep as much of this as we think is relevant.

It's quite sad, really, because, you know, this is someone's life, really.

With the house now up for auction, Steve's hoping it'll sell to

a developer who can turn it into someone's home again.

There's that little glimmer of hope there now for us as the council

and for the neighbours that within a year there could be someone

actually living in there

and the blight on the neighbourhood will be gone.

Often, buying an empty property is a bit like unwrapping a gift.

You're never quite sure what you're going to get.

Any renovation can reveal a whole host of surprises,

so it's as well to get as much advice and support as you can before you start.

Now, key to it is a good and reliable builder.

Often, the best way to find them is word of mouth,

but you can also check with trade bodies, like the Federation of Master Builders.

And if in doubt, ask around and get some references.

Steve and Tracey Jones are on the verge of taking on

one of the biggest challenges of their lives.

On the spur of the moment,

they bought a dilapidated barn in Lincolnshire

-and staked their all on turning it into a dream home.

-Cow sheds!

With a hands-on approach but little renovation experience

and a tight budget, they need to know their limitations

and learn how to proceed with caution.

So I'm going to introduce them to a couple of novice home restorers

who, like them, have jumped in at the deep end

and have found themselves up to their necks in bricks and rubble.

Right, guys. Well, now we are going to show you a renovation that is very much in progress

and I think has some real parallels to what you are letting yourselves in for.

When Carolyn and her partner Pete first saw their 150-year-old farmhouse,

it was in a bad state, having been empty for two years.

When we looked inside we were a bit horrified at

how bad it actually was, but it had potential, so it was...

Even if the floors had collapsed.

They bought the building for £120,000,

planning to do all the work themselves.

We saw the potential to make something

that looked really quite nasty and uncared-for quite fabulous.

Pete and Carolyn had never done a renovation before,

and soon discovered that it's not until work starts on a house

that it can reveal its not-so-welcome structural secrets.

Since we started the project about two months ago, everything seems to have been a disaster.

We were quite close to...

-Giving up.

-That's about the closest we have ever come to splitting up, isn't it?

Right, come and meet the two people at the centre of this chaos.

-Hi. Hi, I'm Tracey.

-Hello, Pete, I'm Steve. Hi, Carolyn.

So, what do you think, then?

This is a building site. This is great.

You've clearly knocked something down here, what was here before?

Some old outbuildings here, which all the floors had subsided, so we had to knock them all down.

I think what's interesting about this build is it's structurally

very similar in some respects to what these guys are looking at.

-And what experience have you got at doing this?

-None.

You see, you're in very good company here, Steve.

That's why we brought you here.

And into the dining room.

This is the dining room, or will be the dining room.

You've gone down to the bones. You have dug up all the floors here.

I mean, you've got a long way to go, damp course has got to go in, concrete.

There was an original wooden floor in here, but all the joists had collapsed.

And when we took it up there was a four-foot gap underneath here.

Were you aware of any structural issues when you bought it?

We knew there'd be some problems with it, just through the age of the building,

but we didn't expect quite as many sort of problems once we started taking plaster off.

It has been very stressful.

I think the biggest thing we've learned is to count to ten before you lose it.

OK. So this going to be your main living area?

This is going to be the lounge. It's not too bad.

A few little problems with damp on the inner walls and another one of the fireplaces

which actually all collapsed when we took the old one out.

There must be some moments when you just thought, "Why did we bother?"

Yeah, but I think we go back to our initial vision of what we can achieve,

what the end result is, what the end goal is.

-What are you thinking?

-I'm just thinking...

-Are you feeling daunted?

-I am, extremely, yeah.

-But it's not putting you off, but it's perhaps, maybe, bringing it home a bit?

-Yes. Yeah.

'To show Steve and Tracey how a caravan on a building site can be made cosy,

'they get a quick tour of the place Pete and Carolyn currently call home.'

And here's the mini palace.

Oh, wow! This is lovely.

You know, we often say that renovation is not for the faint-hearted,

and this one is an absolute classic.

Pete and Carolyn are living on site, surrounded, as you can see,

by rubble and mess, but they are determined to see it through

despite the fact that almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

But their vision and, importantly, their sense of humour remains intact.

This is a perfect project for Steve and Tracey to have a good look at,

and I'm pretty sure it's opened their eyes even wider.

In a moment I'll be introducing them to some really experienced renovators,

who successfully project-managed the extraordinary rebuilding of their home.

But first, back in Cardiff, Empty Property Officer Steve Reid

is responding to a call from a neighbour who is concerned

that there may be rats in the empty house next door.

With lots of the empty properties that we go and visit, you get problems with pests.

Normally the house gets left with food still left in it,

and obviously that can attract rats.

This is the actual property, behind the rather large hedge.

If we can get in...

Oh. Right, it's a little overgrown at the front.

Just to make sure there's no-one in before we go mucking around.

It's a bit of a mess in there, actually.

Letters, bags full of rubbish.

It's definitely... Definitely vacant.

So I'll call on the neighbour now and see if we can get a bit more information.

Hi, there, Miss Andrews. Steve Reid here from Cardiff County Council.

Lovely, yes.

-About the problems with next door?

-Right, OK.

I've had a little look out the front, any chance I can come out the back

-and have a little look at that?

-Yeah, sure, come and have a look.

-Thanks very much.

Right. Let's have a look, then.

-So does anyone come back and forward to the property at all?

-Nobody.

-Nothing at all?

-No, no.

-All right to go on the wall?

-Yeah. Watch you don't fall.

-Try not to.

It's really overgrown, isn't it? The shed as well.

The shed is hanging, isn't it?

We'll have to is get pest control in to put some test bait down

-to see whether any of it's taken.

-Uh-huh.

Steve, is it? Hi. Pleased to meet you.

What we can do is test bait along the actual fence line here.

The bait is simply oatmeal, used to lure vermin,

whose bite marks are then left on the bag.

Kevin will come back in a week, have a look, and he will let me know

whether it's positive or not, and then if it is, we'll come along, we'll serve a notice on the owner.

If they get it cleared, great, if they don't, we'll get contractors in and clear it on their behalf

-and then send them the bill.

-OK, that's lovely.

-And sort it out.

Next it's back to the office, check the Land Registry,

check the council tax, track down the owner,

find out exactly what they want to do with the property

and get somebody back in there.

Tracey and Steve Jones have bought an old barn in Lincolnshire,

and despite no experience, plan to live on site

and renovate it mostly by themselves,

drawing on additional help from family and friends.

For a taste of things to come, I introduced them to

a couple of fellow renovation novices who had just launched themselves into the great unknown.

While Steve and Tracey plan to tackle much of their renovation themselves,

they'll also need to employ professional help,

so I want them to meet another pair of homeowners who did just that

when they transformed a virtual ruin into a stunning home.

-There you are.

-Wow.

-Have a look at that.

-That is fabulous.

-Superb.

This is what the owners found at the back.

-Oh, my God!

-Oh, no!

-Oh, dear!

-Good grief!

Yeah. It just goes to show what you can do.

When Richard and Janine Johnson first saw what remained of

this former 22-room Georgian country house,

they knew even though it was on the brink of collapse

that it was destined to be their next home.

This house represents everything I've ever wanted in a house.

When I first saw the house I just knew that Richard would be able to turn it into something beautiful.

In the early 1800s they really did get their proportions absolutely spot on, in my opinion.

And so restoring something like that is a dream for me.

Empty since the 1960s and then slowly dismantled,

it was stripped of bricks for use on the estate farm.

Richard and Janine were able to buy what was left of it

for £220,000 back in 2002.

And it's come a long way since then.

-Hi, Richard!

-Hi.

-Nice to see you, how are you?

-Nice to see you.

-Hi, Janine. Let me introduce you to Steve and Tracey.

-Hello. Pleased to meet you.

-Hi.

-Hi, Richard, nice to meet you.

We've just been marvelling at the extraordinary transformation that this building has undergone.

I mean, this place looks amazing,

it just shows if you can put your heart and soul into it,

look at what you can have.

Wow! This is beautiful!

This is stunning.

-This is a hallway with a real statement about it.

-It is, yeah.

-What do you think of that, Tracey?

-Isn't that beautiful?

-Yeah?

-Love the colours.

-Again, when we first looked through the front door, this...

There wasn't a floorboard and all you could see was down into the cellar.

The story goes that in the '50s it was used as a motorcycle repair shop, this side of the house.

-Can you imagine this?

-Can we continue through here?

Is this... I'm going to say, I don't know, a snug? What would you call it?

It's a snug in the winter time and sometimes we use it as a dining room.

I really like not just that it is high-ceilinged,

but that you have been able to retain these huge doors, which make a massive difference.

I mean, if I were going to take one thing away from this for your build,

I would think about, you know, making the doors that bit bigger

-to allow things to flow between it.

-Sure.

As they set about the restoration, Richard and Janine knew that

what was left of the original building was listed,

so they had to preserve what they could.

With no record to draw on as to how the interior of the house would have looked originally,

they relied on historical research and have imaginatively recreated it as it might have looked.

One of my primary concerns is I'm going to be doing a lot of the work myself.

Well, I'm somebody who gets his hands dirty, but I recognise that I have limitations.

And my view is that if I can employ somebody who will do it better than I can, then I will employ them.

And we found an enormously beneficial group of people who really worked together well.

If they know each other, they won't let each other down,

and that is how it works best, from my point of view.

They spent £750,000 on careful reconstruction,

and the property now has an estimated value of £1.4 million.

-Oh, this is lovely.

-This is stunning, absolutely beautiful.

Now, on the picture that we saw of this place

before you had so lovingly restored it, this is just an empty space.

We just basically took the perimeter wall and rebuilt it,

but we didn't mimic the internal structure,

because we felt that seven or eight little rooms was not what we wanted,

so we just made it an open... an open canvas, really.

We often sit out there, pinch ourselves and wonder how the heck we managed to do it.

And it can be tough, but there are some fun times in it as well.

And you have proved admirably that it can be done.

Congratulations, guys. Well done.

And although this is certainly a more expensive project

than the one that Steve and Tracey are about to take on,

the principles involved are exactly the same.

-It's been a great day, we have really enjoyed it.

-We really have.

And it's given us some good pointers on what we need to focus on and what's really important.

Now having seen our two projects today, Steve, you are very keen,

I know, to do pretty much all of it. Has that changed your thoughts?

Yes. I mean, I think I've got to be realistic in what I'm physically capable of.

Again, it's going to be a learning curve along the way,

and I may not be good at plastering when I start,

but I think by the end of it I'll be able to plaster quite well.

Well, you never know. You chucked in your job to do this build,

you could come out of this with a whole new career ahead of you,

you could become a master builder yourself!

Um, that's probably not one of my great plans...

-But you never know.

-You don't, no.

Now, Tracey, when we first met, for all the excitement that this new project offers you,

I did sense a certain anxiety about what the future may hold.

Now you've met our two couples today, do you feel a bit more confident?

-I do, yes, definitely, yes.

-One of my work colleagues

did tell me, he said, "Look, just go for it, you know?

"Everybody else is telling you you're mad, but you know you can do it, you know? You will do it."

-So, yeah.

-Just be very careful about how you go forward

in spending the money you do have,

and just, you know, take your time and really think about it.

Well, I have to say that I have absolutely no doubt

that Steve and Tracey are going to make a fantastic job of that glorious old barn complex.

But what about the other couples we've met today?

Pete and Carolyn still up to their necks in their renovation,

Richard and Janine enjoying the sunlight at the end of the tunnel.

But if there is one message that I really want Steve and Tracey to take away from today,

it's this - don't rush it. It's a renovation, not a race.

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