Couple buy run down 'crack den' stately home for 225K and spend £2million doing it up
- last year
A couple who bought a rundown 'crack den' stately home for just 225K spent £2million and ten years restoring it to its former glory.
Reg and Elizabeth Price made a 'daft' offer for 200-year-old Roswarne House - which had fallen into disrepair and taken over by squatters.
But they were amazed when the bid was accepted in 2013 and they set about renovating the depilated graffiti covered home in Camborne, Cornwall.
The stunning Regency Grade-II* listed 29-room home was built between 1810-1815 - but had been abandoned for six years and was being used by drug addicts.
The Greek-revival style stately home on six acres of land was so bad that when retired Reg and Elizabeth bought it it was literally collapsing.
Every window was smashed, doors kicked in, historic features destroyed, the roof caved in, and all electrics and lead stolen.
The couple from Waterloo, London, restore abandoned or derelict homes into stunning flats and properties.
They then spent then years and about £2m restoring Roswarne - renovating every room, roof, cellar, garden, staircase - and even the ballroom.
Former conservation officer Elizabeth, 72, had heard about the house from a friend and 'fell in love' the place.
Elizabeth said: "We came up here one day, there's six acres of grounds and all the flowers were out. It was just so beautiful so we fell in love with it.
"The former owners originally wanted 750k, but it was in such a derelict state, it was clear a lot of work would be needed to restore it.
"We made a daft offer of £175,000, and amazingly after some negotiation we got it for £225,000.
"Nobody had lived here for around six years, and it was full of rough sleepers and naughty boys doing drugs and stealing everything.
"Everything had been stolen, including all of the fireplaces except one and most of the window's glass.
''We spent months picking up needles in the garden and the house too.
"The roof had totally failed, and so when I came in the entrance hall one august afternoon not long after we had bought it, the whole ceiling had gone.
"Rainwater had just flooded all the way through the house and destroyed much of it, I remember just bursting into tears at the sight of it.
''Squatters had lit a fire in the middle of one of the rooms. We had to board the place up and hire security at £70,000 a year.
"Repairing it was a whole-family job, and the dry rot in some parts of it will never dry out, but it's looking fantastic now.
''Though there is a lot of steel in there now to hold it all together.
''Though living there as a couple would be a bit daft, it is so large - we spend most of our time at our seaside cottage."
Elizabeth has re-furnished the house almost entirely with era-appropriate furniture bought off Facebook Marketplace and eBay.
Work on the house was largely funded by the sale of another renovated derelict property in Waterloo, London.
Reg and Elizabeth Price made a 'daft' offer for 200-year-old Roswarne House - which had fallen into disrepair and taken over by squatters.
But they were amazed when the bid was accepted in 2013 and they set about renovating the depilated graffiti covered home in Camborne, Cornwall.
The stunning Regency Grade-II* listed 29-room home was built between 1810-1815 - but had been abandoned for six years and was being used by drug addicts.
The Greek-revival style stately home on six acres of land was so bad that when retired Reg and Elizabeth bought it it was literally collapsing.
Every window was smashed, doors kicked in, historic features destroyed, the roof caved in, and all electrics and lead stolen.
The couple from Waterloo, London, restore abandoned or derelict homes into stunning flats and properties.
They then spent then years and about £2m restoring Roswarne - renovating every room, roof, cellar, garden, staircase - and even the ballroom.
Former conservation officer Elizabeth, 72, had heard about the house from a friend and 'fell in love' the place.
Elizabeth said: "We came up here one day, there's six acres of grounds and all the flowers were out. It was just so beautiful so we fell in love with it.
"The former owners originally wanted 750k, but it was in such a derelict state, it was clear a lot of work would be needed to restore it.
"We made a daft offer of £175,000, and amazingly after some negotiation we got it for £225,000.
"Nobody had lived here for around six years, and it was full of rough sleepers and naughty boys doing drugs and stealing everything.
"Everything had been stolen, including all of the fireplaces except one and most of the window's glass.
''We spent months picking up needles in the garden and the house too.
"The roof had totally failed, and so when I came in the entrance hall one august afternoon not long after we had bought it, the whole ceiling had gone.
"Rainwater had just flooded all the way through the house and destroyed much of it, I remember just bursting into tears at the sight of it.
''Squatters had lit a fire in the middle of one of the rooms. We had to board the place up and hire security at £70,000 a year.
"Repairing it was a whole-family job, and the dry rot in some parts of it will never dry out, but it's looking fantastic now.
''Though there is a lot of steel in there now to hold it all together.
''Though living there as a couple would be a bit daft, it is so large - we spend most of our time at our seaside cottage."
Elizabeth has re-furnished the house almost entirely with era-appropriate furniture bought off Facebook Marketplace and eBay.
Work on the house was largely funded by the sale of another renovated derelict property in Waterloo, London.