Couple who bought derelict 120-year old Scots mansion by mistake restore to former glory
11.09.2022 - 07:09
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A young couple who bought a derelict mansion instead of a flat after an auction mistake have restored the 120-year-old property to its former glory.
Cal Hunter and girlfriend Claire Segeren paid £10,000 for the wrong property in Dunoon, Argyll, after a lot numbers mix-up but decided to keep it and renovate it themselves.
They are now just weeks away from completing the mammoth project and even they can’t believe what they have done in just three years.
Cal, 30, from Hull, who had to look Dunoon up on a map after he accidentally bought the house, said: “It’s all been a beautiful mistake.
When we bought the villa, it was in a state of partial collapse, it was subsiding, there were gaping holes in the roof and walls, the timbers were rotten and the land was waterlogged. Derelict was too mild a word.
“Everyone told us we would be better off demolishing it but the house had so much character we felt it would be a sin to level it and start again and we made the momentous decision to give it a go.
“We are both so glad we took the risk. It’s been a huge journey with lots of tears along the way but it has been so rewarding.
“If we can tackle this, we can tackle anything – it’s taken three long and hard years but the life skills we have learned along the way have all been worth it. It’s the best wrong turn we could have taken.”
Beautiful Jameswood Villa on the Cowal peninsula is now worth about £500,000.
A far cry from the two-bed flat in Glasgow they had originally intended to buy at auction. Cal, 30, and Claire, 28, whose story appeared in the Sunday Mail in March 2019, attracted 274,000 followers to their Instagram account – whathavewedunoon – and the project is now the focus of BBC1 Scotland documentary Accidental Renovators.
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