WOMAN'S OWN reader Mrs. Ethel Young, from Rushden, Northants, set out to prove just how well modernisation of an ordinary terraced house can be carried out, for a small outlay, on the do-it-yourself principle.
The startling 'before' and 'after' pictures here show you how a cramped 79-year-old house, still with its original gas lighting, suddenly became young again. Today, No. 9 Grove Road is a charming modern home, and Charles and Ann Eidel, the young couple who live there, love it.
The red-brick house was built around 1880, and has three rooms up, and two down, and a long back extension including the old scullery with copper, the 'shop' where housewives did outside work for local factories, the coal 'barn' and outside lavatory.
PROBLEM: Houses like these will last many years yet and the problem is how to bring them up to date. Most are occupied by tenants, some by owner-occupiers and sometimes one comes up for sale and can be bought for quite a small sum.
COST: Mrs. Young bought No. 9 for about £380 and spent about £100 on materials for conversiontimber, hardboard, laminated plastic surfacing, glass, paint, etc. Skilled labour is required for knocking down walls, but the rest can be done by a home handyman to save labour costs.
DOING-IT-YOURSELF: Much of the renovation consists simply in resurfacing and putting in cupboards and shelvesand these ideas can be adapted to any house or flat.
CONVERSION: The first step was to make use of every available inch of space. Instead of two small rooms opening off the hall, Mrs. Young made one big room by knocking out most of the wall between them. Upstairs, the tiny third room, over the scullery, was converted into a bathroom. To make room for a modern kitchen and dining alcove, out came the copper and half the wall between scullery and 'shop'. The coal 'barn' became a back entry, with a door into the yard, and an inner door into the new kitchen.