Chapter 1 - Renovation/2012

“It was a dark and stormy night and the boatswain said, captain tell us a tale”... ... no, actually that's just for flavour, it wasn't a dark and stormy night - it was The Great Depression otherwise known as the credit crunch of 2008, but you could say it was a metaphorical stormy night rather than an actual one that sets off this story…

So let's cast our mind back to 2012 when our director Mark had just purchased an "exciting" property. It was a dark & cold February, roughly around the 20th of the month, and it was a colder winter than usual. The property he had purchased could be generously described as a concrete shell.

It was a repossession, the bailiffs had been in and decommissioned the boiler (which certainly looked unsafe), drained down the water tank, and effectively the property was uninhabitable (barely mortgageable). To most people this would be hell, but for Mark this was glamping! It was just perfect, he was just coming out of a second tranche of architectural university studies and was running a parallel career on the contractor side of the table, so to take this opportunity to be both architect and contractor was something that he grabbed with both hands.

His bed was a mattress on pallets, 20-50 mice ran a mock every night for what felt like a year. Elaborate mouse traps were set up to no avail, and his food which couldn't be kept in a fridge (because there wasn't one) was regularly eaten at 3:00 AM by "The Horde" .

As we mentioned - the property was perfect.

There was no heating (no boiler), it was a cold February, only about 2 sockets worked, lighting in half the flat was disconnected on day one to demolish a wall, and the shower ran cold... so very cold... (we've done blogs and videos on the mental strength that cold showers build!).

So, motivated by mice, fuelled by black coffee and consoled with Stella 4% (the grey one, not the white can!), Mark got his teeth stuck in to reconfiguring the layout:

• building a large walk-in wardrobe using reclaimed pallet wood,

• removing a huge old water tank and cupboard which took up valuable space,

• building a completely handmade kitchen (again from pallet wood).

All of this took place after under floor heating and grey marble floors (all two tons of it) had been installed. Throughout the 50m2 top floor flat renovation various people came to help out - one of these was Lisa (who is now the Marketing Manager at UIL!) we knocked down some walls casually while drinking cider from a jar - we werent trying to be hipster, glasses and cups were all in storage. Listening to heavy drum and bass seemed to be the status quo.

About one month into the renovation (still with no washing machine, cooker, or fridge) Mark met his wife-to-be Carla (who is now also employed at UIL!) she soon got her teeth into the renovation and conveniently she owned a washing machine! Fast forward one year and the property was warm, 99% completed, and a haven away from the hustle and bustle of central London.

Get in Touch

We provide a full renovation service (mice omitted this time) so for design with detail and Architecture that we assure you will love please do get in touch -

🌐 https://www.upcycleinteriors.co.uk/contact 📞 01305 584459

📍 Based in Weymouth 🌍Also covering Portland and Dorchester, including DT1, DT2 (part), DT3, DT4, DT5, DT6 (part). Please do get in touch here if your area is not on the list