Bryan and Mari-Ann Kaushiva Britain's Empty Homes

Across the country, empty properties that could be homes

are waiting to be brought back into use.

I'll be finding out why

and what you need to do to rescue a house for yourself

Along the way, I'll do some digging of my own to find out more

about our housing stock, our heritage, and why we should be both

reinventing and preserving Britain's empty homes.

Buying and renovating a derelict property is no mean feat.

It has the potential to be stressful and expensive,

especially if you haven't done it before.

But for those with a vision who are prepared to put in the hard work

the results can be spectacular.

'On today's show, I'll be meeting a brave pair of renovators

'who have taken on an extraordinary challenge.'

This is a big job.

'I'll be finding out about a historical building

'rescued from demolition.'

-So that was you very much taking a stand?

-Yes.

'And we'll join an empty property officer

'on a mission to save derelict homes from falling into disrepair.'

One window goes, two windows go, a third window goes.

It becomes a target, doesn't it?

Brian and Marianne, who live in Yorkshire,

are about to embark on an ambitious project

to turn a dilapidated stone property

into a modern, open-plan home for their young family.

The family were living in America but Marianne is a Yorkshire lass

and, as her young family expanded, she felt the pull of home.

We moved into Walton, which was a rural type of village

on Brian's request, cos he likes village scenes, being from America.

It was in this picturesque Yorkshire village that they spotted a property

which completely changed their lives.

I were pushing Ana Maria back and forth on a swing.

Just behind the swings,

you end up looking at this very big, austere-looking stone property.

It was love at first sight, and although neither of them

had much renovation experience, they decided to go for it.

A big part of it was the potential that we saw in it.

We could buy a very ordinary house with a postage-stamp sized garden,

or, for a similar type of investment, but a lot more risk,

we could have a great property.

With two young children and full-time jobs to juggle,

Brian and Marianne have a lot on their plate.

I'm meeting up with them to find out more about their plans.

Later, I'll be introducing them to a couple who did a similar renovation

and are now reaping the benefits.

-Hello, you must be Marianne?

-It is. That's right.

-And Brian.

-Nice to meet you.

-Hello.

-Tell me about this. This is yours, isn't it?

-This is our new house. Absolutely.

What a building and what do you know about it?

-It's been there since 1867.

-Wow.

It was built to be a training school, a launderette and cookery school for local girls.

This really impressive lady called Mary Pilkington had it purpose-built,

hence all the chimney pots on top of it, to be able to run the school.

Wow. Mary Pilkington's cooking and laundry school.

-I'm itching to look inside. Can we?

-Of course.

-Brilliant. Lead the way.

'The house has been empty since 1975 when its last occupants moved out.

'Brian and Marianne are still in the process of deciding exactly

'what they want to do with what is effectively a blank canvas.'

Wow! To state the obvious, guys, there's not a lot here, is there?

This is a big job.

So this building has been empty for 35 years.

Your neighbours, the local community, must be so happy

that someone has been brave enough to take this on.

They're behind us every step of the way which is lovely.

Deep down, they all want to own it.

A lot of people have said, "I'm really envious of you."

Not the hard work, but actually owning it.

So that's exciting for us.

This is a landmark building.

One of the earliest examples of a cooking and laundry school I know.

Some in the 1880s and 1890s but this is an early one.

Then it becomes a landmark for the wrong reasons.

Empty for 35 years,

but now you want to change that and bring it to life once more.

If you go to the library and pull out the book, The History Of Walton,

they describe the three historic structures of this part of Walton,

and this is one of them.

The author very dejectedly describes this half of the building

saying, after all these years of vandalism and theft,

it's probably beyond all recovery.

-Makes us more determined.

-Does it?

-Very motivating.

When you first looked in, did you maybe agree with them a little bit

and think maybe it is a bit beyond repair?

It's the outer limits of what we would ever take on.

-It's a big risk and it's a stretch.

-Right.

But because the shell is so good, we thought maybe it's worth it.

-Shall we have a bit of a tour? Let's have a look round.

-Sure.

-Sure.

'Brian and Marianne hope to turn the downstairs space

'into two main areas.

'A living room and an open-plan family kitchen.'

This will be the kitchen.

It has everything, including the kitchen sink.

Exactly, just about, anyway.

-I can see upstairs. Can we get up there? Is that possible?

-We can do.

Back that way, up the ladder, yes.

'Upstairs, they are planning two children's bedrooms, a guest room

'and a bright, airy master bedroom.'

It's nice to be here with light coming in.

You have the chimneys to work with everywhere in this house.

The fireplaces are all different

every time you get back to the original brickwork.

So, this one, you can see had just the Yorkshire block

and probably had a very simple coal burning thing in front of it.

Yeah, very narrow.

Whereas, the brickwork on that one has the arch and was a more decorative piece.

'The couple spent £300,000 on the property

'and with a modest budget of between £50,000-£80,000 for renovation,

'they have an almighty challenge ahead of them.

'Brian is going to have to do the gutting and the groundwork himself

'before he even starts to think about employing tradesmen.

'On this budget, they can't afford to make any mistakes.

'At the back of the property is half an acre of garden with orchard.

'The couple plan a children's tree house and vegetable plot.'

It's big, isn't it? This could be a great garden.

It was prickles and brambles up to here, initially,

so Brian dug out all the nettles but it's absolutely full of weeds again

so it's going to be a complete ongoing battle with it.

'Later I'll be showing Brian and Marianne

'a former farmhouse that just 18 months ago,

'was in the same derelict state as theirs

'in the hope they will pick up some useful tips and inspiration

'from the owners.'

But it isn't just historical buildings in need of salvation.

Up and down the country, it's the job of empty property officers

to try to revive the fortunes of Britain's forgotten homes.

Mike Thompson is empty property officer for Thanet in Kent.

He's a man on a mission to save this coastal region's forgotten homes.

The government sets targets of building thousands of new homes.

There's these properties laying empty wanting to be brought back to use.

I retire in just under 12 months

and it's my mission to leave a legacy of my work behind me.

Working as a one-man band,

Mike's responsible for 3,000 empty buildings across the Kent coast.

Behind every empty property is a story.

A story I like to get a handle on and get to know.

The growth of package holidays in the 1980s left its mark

on our seaside towns.

As more Brits decided to holiday abroad,

once splendid hotels were left empty.

Today Mike's in Margate to check out the progress on his latest project.

I'm on my way now to the former Warren Court Hotel

where we have a radical solution to save the beautiful frontages.

I'm here today to meet the architect and the developer

to see the sort of progress they are making.

Mike's current concern is this beautiful double-fronted

period property which was previously a school

before being turned into the Warren Court Hotel

at the height of Margate's tourism boom.

The hotel closed down nine years ago and has been vacant ever since.

A magnet for vandals and drug users, and subjected to two arson attacks,

this vermin-infested property became a health hazard to its neighbours.

Mike and the Kent Council made a compulsory purchase of the property

and are working with a local developer

to turn the hotel into quality social housing.

This is an ambitious project, as all that remains is the facade.

-What have we got here, Tanya?

-This is the proposed plan for the site.

Inside there will be a total of 20 new residences -

12 new houses and eight flats.

We have two semi-detached units there.

We obviously have the front terrace

and then we've got the terrace of three units

and rear garden to the dwellings.

A hi-tech scaffold structure has been erected to prop up the facade,

preserving the Georgian portico, bay windows and front steps

while the work commences on the flank and rear walls.

But working in a conservation area has given the developers

some serious design challenges.

It was important for the buildings to relate to the surrounding site

and, obviously, the buildings are very tall.

We raised the building by a metre

and also the floor-to-ceiling heights are very generous compared to modern standards.

Those things together worked to get as grand and tall a building as possible.

And the retention of things like balconies and canopies is fantastic, isn't it?

Picking that architectural detail.

-It finishes off the square.

-Indeed.

To get your hands on the project of this magnitude and bring something of real benefit to the community,

providing 20 family homes, is really exciting and something

I am really proud to have hung my hat on.

It is the icing on the cake for me.

Empty property officers aren't the only individuals

who can spot potential in old and empty buildings.

That said, it does take a certain type of person to see past the dirt, dust and dilapidation.

But, with vision, backbone and bags of patience,

you too could find your ideal abode in an empty home.

In July 2008, Gary and Colette Dudley bought a Victorian chapel

by the sea in Gwynedd, North Wales.

Built in the 1880s and with 80% of the original stained glass still in place,

it was an empty shell with heaps of potential,

and the couple couldn't resist paying the £190,000 price tag.

When I walked into this building first,

the feeling I got was of being protected,

like my heart was in its hands, if I can say that.

It sounds crazy but it was like a love affair with the building.

It wasn't at all austere.

It was just a lovely, warm feeling when you walked in.

That's how I felt when I saw it.

And I thought, whoopee! Another 12 months of hard work!

Long days, long nights, more bumps and bangs, but...

the location, the position and everything about the place is a fantastic place to live.

Closed in the late 1950s, it has been empty on and off for the last 60 years.

There was nothing in here. There was no kitchen, nothing.

It was like posh camping.

Virtually camping out in an old church hall.

We did have a few interesting interruptions

where people still thought it was a chapel and it was open.

We'd have the general public just walking through the door to see what was going on.

A builder by trade, Gary did all the work himself,

taking just under a year to complete the renovations.

I prefer to use old materials. I like things to look quirky

and I want everything to suit

and fit into the building.

The open, airy spaces are the perfect place to showcase their eclectic taste.

People shouldn't be frightened by buying chapels.

They were built to last.

These walls are two-and-a-half feet thick.

Whether you cut them in half or make them boxes inside,

or whether you go with the whole space,

they are fantastic places to live.

-We love living here, don't we?

-We love it.

Back in Yorkshire, Brian and Marianne are renovating a 19th century schoolhouse.

Later, I'll take them to visit a fabulous converted Georgian property.

First, I'm keen to find out more about their new home.

Marianne and Brian have clearly got a real piece of history

and, although not everyone is lucky enough to own a property with such a rich and tangible past,

every building has a story

and it may often be more intriguing than you'd think.

Dr Libby Scott has been living in the adjoining house since 1982.

Over the years, she has collected old photographs,

postcards and press cuttings

relating to the house and the local area.

This was part of a very established estate, wasn't it?

Yes. The Pilkington family were landowners and owned part of the village.

Mary Pilkington was the village benefactress.

Boys had jobs. They could be apprentices, they could work on the fields.

But girls didn't have much chance for education or a trade,

so she set up this building as a laundry school.

-You have also got some photos of how it used to be, is that right?

-Yes, this is well over 100 years ago.

A little boy, I think he is wearing knickerbockers, standing outside.

There is a photograph here that was taken some time in the 1920s.

Wow! It's very bold, isn't it? A lovely picture.

Despite its rich historical past,

the ex-laundry school was nearly knocked down in 1992

when developers planned to create an access road

for 150 new-build houses.

There was a notice pinned on the front door

saying the developers were going to knock it down within a fortnight.

So I decided to launch a campaign.

-That was you very much taking a stand and leading from the front.

-Yes.

Libby's campaign paid off and the building was saved,

in the name of historical interest.

It is an amazing building

and now there is a couple who want to return it to its former glory.

I'm really pleased that, at last, we have neighbours.

It will make quite a difference to our property when we have people living next door.

Yeah. Thank goodness it's still standing!

There are many ways to find out more about the previous life of your property.

If it's of historical interest, your council will have an officer

who can tell you more about the building.

Census information or electoral registers mean you can find out more about the previous owners

and, as we've seen, it's important to ask around.

Members of the local community can often be

the most valuable source of information.

Luckily for Brian and Marianne they had vigilant and proactive neighbours

who helped save their future home.

But that was just the beginning. There's a long, long way to go.

I think you need such unrelenting confidence for a project this big and this daunting.

They haven't decided on style or layout and exactly where everything will go,

but I will try and inspire them with a vision of how the property could be.

Guys, glance this way.

This is what I brought you to see. First impressions?

-Wow!

-Stunning. That's a gorgeous property.

A year ago, this was in a very similar state

to how your property is now.

That is hard to believe.

This was a farmhouse from about 1769, I believe,

so about 100 years before yours,

and it was used as a farmhouse right up until the 1980s.

-It fell into disrepair and it has just been brought back to life.

-Wow!

-It is immaculate. It's beautiful.

-A lot of hard work gone in there!

-Are we ready to have a look inside?

-That would be great.

-OK.

When John and Pen bought this detached Grade 2 listed farmhouse in Shropshire,

it had been standing empty for four years.

We fell in love with the area and when we drove around the corner

into the most amazing village and saw the house it was like, oh my God!

Both of us grabbed each other.

We're not too sure what it was about the house but it appealed to us.

Despite its dilapidated condition,

John and Pen could spot its enormous charm and potential.

It was a mess but it had a nice feel to it.

It's about whether you feel you can fit into that property and live in it.

The farmhouse had been divided in two

and they spent the last 11 months making it whole again

and fully renovating the entire building.

You're sort of restoring part of Britain's heritage. You can take great pride in that.

Right, so Pen and John,

tell Brian and Marianne what it has been like.

You have just been through this renovation. How tough has it been?

It has been hard work. It has been 11 months of really hard graft.

But, as you can see, the results have made it well worth it.

I think what you have to realise is, it might look really dreadful to start with,

but there is light at the end of the tunnel and you will end up with a fantastic home.

How bad was it?

These guys are dealing with a shell. How basic was it for you?

As an example, behind you, under that dining room table,

we basically had to completely remove all of the floor joists because they were rotten

and you could see from the bedroom above,

all the way down to the cellars.

At that point, your heart sinks and you think, is this ever going to end?

-How much worse can it get?

-Where did you live while this was happening?

We actually lived in the house.

So we moved around the house as the work was done.

-We had four temporary kitchens.

-It was in here for about three months.

If you're thinking about living through the build, it is very hard both emotionally and physically.

If you've got young children, I would seriously consider renting somewhere,

rather than living through it.

When you started out, did you have a timeline in mind?

When we bought the house, it was, right, this will be a 12-month project.

It is very important to have a plan and know what goals you're aiming for

because if you don't have that, it will never happen.

Guys, we'd love to look around the rest of the house so lead the way.

Downstairs, John and Pen have created three reception rooms,

a dining room with adjoining drinks room and a spacious kitchen diner.

Upstairs, there are six stunning bedrooms and five bathrooms.

-So, you've exposed some bricks in the corner?

-We have.

-A chimney?

Yes, that's a chimney.

This was a loo.

When we came in, this was small, narrow, dark, horrid.

So we took it out, exposed the brickwork

and created a much more characterful room, we think.

-It's great, isn't it?

-After you.

John and Pen have made design features out of the many stone chimneys in their farmhouse -

a trick which Brian and Marianne could usefully employ in their conversion.

Guys, this is a stunning kitchen. What do you make of it?

Really impressive.

One of the key parallels between your two properties is just chimneys everywhere.

-Were they structurally sound?

-No.

We knew they were a mess when we came in.

You could see there was water dripping down the outsides.

What paint there was had bubbled and cracked, so we knew that we had big issues.

If a chimney falls, it's extremely dangerous - it could take out half your house or even kill someone.

How did you make them safe?

We got the scaffolding straight up and got it all stabilised.

That's one of the first things.

Does this help? You have chimneys at each end of your kitchen.

Seeing something opened up, is it something you'd consider?

Yes, and looking at the photos of what it used to be like

and that is pretty much our place - how this used to be.

This is very effectively what we are looking for.

Even though this house is bigger,

you'll still have the same number of decisions to make.

You'll have the same number of paint choices to make,

structural decisions to make that we had here.

-I'm looking forward to just having to choose paint!

-Can you imagine!

Thank you so much. It has been such a privilege looking round

and I really hope it's given you a bit of inspiration

and encouragement as well that you can get to this stage.

It has given us some really nice insight into how homely

you can make a complete wreck.

-Pen and John, thank you so much.

-Nice to meet you.

I'll be catching up with Brian and Marianne later to find out their thoughts on Pen and John's home

and to see whether they can take away any useful tips

to employ on their own building.

Back in Margate, empty property officer Mike Thomson

has been called in to investigate a bit of a mystery.

A deserted mid-terraced house may be causing its neighbours distress.

Water has been pouring into the communal hallway

of the house next door, leaving extensive damage.

Mike's visiting the scene with his trainee, Andy,

to work out if the property is indeed the root of the problem.

-I don't think that was broken last time I came, do you?

-No.

That's the trouble, isn't it? Long-term empty,

one window goes, two windows go,

third window goes and it's progressive.

-It becomes a target.

-It does.

-I'm amazed people can afford to have something like this sitting here doing nothing.

-Yes.

-Why should it look like that in the street scene?

-Exactly.

At first sight, Mike things the leak may be the result of blocked gutters on the empty building.

-What do you reckon about the gutters?

-It's blocked across both properties.

-Absolutely.

Weeds growing out of it. It is chock-a-block with rubbish.

Then we've got problems with the roof. A lot of slates off. You can see them on the gable.

Yes, big holes right the way through.

They hope the managing agent of the neighbouring property will be able to shed some light on the mystery.

This is the problem just here.

-Let us put the damp meter on and see what we get.

-OK.

If Mike finds the damp problem is being caused by the empty property,

he can track down the owners and force them to have it fixed.

Not necessarily what you'd expect because it's not in an area

-which we would tie in with anything we thought.

-Not on the externals.

But the managing agent thinks he may have worked out the problem.

The property next door was broken into

and they stole the copper pipes with the water on

-and I think that is what has caused the dampness to come through.

-Yep.

Not only are empty properties

a magnet for damp, vermin and anti-social behaviour,

they are increasingly being targeted by copper thieves,

as scrap metal prices soar on the black market.

This can result in leaks and other costly problems.

We've got to get to the office, urgent communications with the owners next door,

make sure we can get inside, have a look at the way the water has been cut off

and make sure it has been done properly.

We'll probably take the opportunity to engage with them about the condition of next door anyway.

That's super. Thank you very much.

A pleasure. Another successful day at the office!

It certainly is, Mike.

Mike has now got hold of the owner

who is taking steps to resolve the problem.

Back in Shropshire, Brian and Marianne have been visiting

a high-end renovation of a Georgian farmhouse

to glean some practical advice on how to renovate their own home.

I think they've been suitably inspired.

-Having been here and seen this, how do you feel about it?

-We'll take it!

It gives us some real inspiration that someone can do such a great job.

I'm aware they've had a lot of subcontractors working on the project

and perhaps ours will take a bit longer.

It's encouraging that someone has dealt with the same structural problems we're dealing with,

-and yet they got through it in a short amount of time.

-Yes.

So that's really helpful.

This is a really top-end scale

but it's inspiring and it gives us something to aim for.

It takes real vision to see the potential in what is effectively a wreck.

Clearly, Brian and Marianne have the passion and, hopefully,

today they picked up some useful tips to help them on their way.

It is definitely going to be challenging for them,

but turning a piece of history into a family home

is what it's all about.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 2012

E-mail [email protected]