THE ULTIMATE LOCKDOWN PROJECT Words: Kate Thompson
W
hile many of us took to baking bread or painting with watercolour during the lockdown, Amanda Percival breathed life into a Southsea property that had lain empty for four years. When they viewed it prior to successfully bidding for it in an online auction, Amanda and husband Trevor were instantly attracted by the house, which sits in a Conservation Area.
Amanda recalled: “It was our first experience of buying through an online auction – it was exciting but also very daunting as you only have so many days to come up with the money. “But in the end we were really happy with the property we bought even though it was a bit of a mess as you can imagine.
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“Despite the fact it had been empty for four years, it still had a really lovely feel to it - it’s a very solid house,” she said. It took a year to renovate the Victorian town house, working with local builders and transforming it from a 2.5 bed property, to one with 4 good size bedrooms (and an area that can be used for extra sleeping space). “We worked with the builder on the basement which had been completely unusable. We thought about moving the kitchen down there but decided it would be a bit dark and so we made it into a bedroom with an additional sleeping area,” she said. An old lean-to conservatory was transformed into a dining area leading off the kitchen, and the traditional small parlour or front room is on the same level.
