HOUSE ABOUT THAT
Home renovator adds £25,000 to the value of a home by totally transforming the kitchen in 10 days
HOME renovator-turned YouTuber Nick Morris added £25,000 to the value of a home in just 10 DAYS with a stunning kitchen transformation.
Nick, 33, spent £7,000 ripping apart a drab and dreary kitchen of a client's home and turning it into a light and spacious room with all modern appliances.
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The two-bed, ground-floor Victorian flat, located in Bromely, Greater London, was originally worth £315,000 but its value climbed up to £340,000 by the time Nick and his crew were finished.
The homeowner got in contact with Nick after seeing his YouTube channel, .
Fed up with his stressful job as a partner for a busy solicitor, the property owner planned on selling his home and quitting his job so he could move to Norway with his wife.
Nick, who lives in Brixton and started off his career as an electrician, said he was given a tight 14-day deadline to completely transform the kitchen.
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How Nick renovated the kitchen
HERE'S how each day panned out when Nick and his team tore apart the old kitchen.
Day 1 - Remove the kitchen: Nick ended up selling the old kitchen on eBay so the owner made £150 on this toward the cost of the new room.
Redo the electrics: Technically part of Nick's project management fee but would usually cost between £500 and £750.
Day 2 - Plastering: A whole day job and cost around £350.
Day 3 - Sunday, so no work.
Day 4 - Plumbing: A whole day job and cost around £250.
Day 5 - Kitchen and appliances delivered: This would take up the main bulk of the job.
Days 6, 7 and 8 - Kitchen Fitter: The cost of someone fitting all the appliances and new kitchen surfaces came to around £940.
Days 9 and 10 - Painting: Whole room came to around £650
Flooring: Free because the team used leftover laminate used in other rooms of the flat.
Costs:
Kitchen from DIY Kitchens - £2,438 (units only - Luca Grey Gloss Handleless)
Worktops, upstand and splashbacks from Howdens - £700
Appliances from Appliances Direct (fridge, freezer, oven, hob, extractor fan, microwave and dishwasher) - £1,749
Along with four other men - including a carpenter, painter, plumber and plasterer - the project took just 10 days to complete and cost the homeowner £7,000, plus a 10 per cent project management fee of £700 for Nick.
This means in total the owner has added £17,300 on to his home's value.
The £7,000 sum included paying the other men for their time as well as all appliances and parts bought in.
Nick described the old kitchen as "really out-dated" and said the owner hadn't done anything to spruce it up in several years.
It featured black worktops and pale blue walls which made the room appear dark and less spacious than it actually is.
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Nick spent the next few days turning it into a modern area with the end result showing new appliances and crisp, cream coloured walls for a bright space.
As well as a fresh lick of paint, the team installed new cupboards, new worktops, completely redid the electrics and water works and replastered the entire area.
Nick told The Sun: “It was a really old-fashioned kitchen but actually it was still quite attractive.
“The owner just wanted something a bit more modern because he was trying to sell the flat at that point."
He explained how he clawed back some money during the project by selling the old kitchen parts on eBay for £150.
This saved him a whole day's labour and the hassle of having the take the unwanted bits to the dump.
Nick said: “I originally put it on eBay for 99p and said if anyone wanted it, they’d have to come and take it apart."
How you can transform your kitchen for less
NICK is an expert on redesigning homes and here he reveals how you can change your property without spending a fortune.
- Try and sell your unwanted items on eBay if you can. Nick ended up selling an old kitchen for £150 and it saved him a day’s labour of removing it and taking it to the tip.
- Buy directly from the manufacturer if you can. You don’t have to pay high street prices but you do have to measure them yourself. Nick can spend around £3,000 on kitchen units that would cost £6,000 from a big retailer.
- Spray the kitchen or paint it. It's a great way to completely change the feel and colour of your kitchen without costing a bomb.
- Change the handles on the units. So easy and cheap to do and most people underestimate what an impact it can have.
- Sand and varnish the floors if you’ve got original floorboards. There's no need to leave old floors looking drab.
But like most DIY projects, it wasn't all smooth sailing.
Nick added: “There was a fridge in the corner that he didn’t want anymore and when we removed that, we found a lot of damp.
“We took off the plastering, back to the original brickwork, but the damp came back again so we had to call in a specialist.
“Fortunately he came out for free as the idea is you pay them to fix it, but it was the drainpipe on the outside that had broken so we fixed that ourselves.
“It was just an old metal drainpipe that had rusted away so luckily it took us about 10 minutes to fix.”
After the work was complete, a change in work circumstances meant the owner decided to stay put in the property.
The flat, which boasts tall Victorian ceilings, is located down a quiet road and has its own private garden.
Nick said the rest of the property could use a fresh coat of paint and guesses the last major work was almost 10 years ago when the owner had the bathroom done up.
We spoke to JDM Estate Agents who confirmed the work done by Nick increased the property value by £20,000 to £25,000.
MORE ON MONEY
Interested in more property news? The Sun has a My First Home series dedicated to first-time buyers and how they got on the property ladder.
Meanwhile, Yorkshire Building Society has become the second lender to offer 15-year fixed rate mortgages.
Earlier this month, Tipton and Coseley Building Society launched a new top-paying 2.6 per cent Help to Buy Isa.
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