Original subtitles

Here in the UK,

we do love a period property.

I never dreamt I would own a castle.

For me, it looks like a typical doll's house.

From countryside houses...

It was everything you could dream of.

It was a palace.

..to timeless terraces.

I turned up and I thought, "Whoa, this is pretty cute."

But beneath the grand facades...

Hopefully, the house won't fall down. We'll see, won't we?

..these historical homes are falling to bits.

Everyone told us to tear this building down.

All over the country, an army of renovators

are snapping them up at knock-down prices...

I think we should leave it like this. It looks old-timely.

..then facing challenges of epic proportions.

I said all along to get a new build.

This series, we meet the brave new renovators...

We were looking for a bungalow with a shed.

..and return to our familiar band of determined dreamers.

Who else has got a chapel in their house?

..all risking everything.

I thought I had a good idea of what was needed.

I was quite wrong.

People think renovation is lovely, don't they?

Oh, God. I'm trembling.

..to create the forever home of their dreams...

Oh, my God! It's so nice!

..brick by brick...

Whoa! This is amazing.

..room by room.

I still have my "pinch me" moment.

We're nowhere near finished, but it feels like a house now.

We are a renovation nation.

Today...

It's something that we've been looking forward to for a long time.

..history is uncovered...

This is our fun discovery.

..and fears faced...

That was terrifying!

..at a farmhouse in Warwickshire.

Dun, du-du-dun-du-dun!

OK, got him!

Unusual objects are repurposed...

This is security chain, found on most car parking spaces.

..in a Regency villa in Cornwall.

This is very exciting.

And in Kent...

God, it's really heavy.

..there's money to be made...

I'd use the money that we could sell these items

and pay for the renovation.

..for a Victorian rectory.

High five.

Standing proud in the Warwickshire countryside,

Dunsmore Hall has been here since the 1770s.

From the original two-storey farmhouse

to the sprawling mansion it became,

Dunsmore retains its commanding presence in the landscape.

But decades of neglect

left the building at risk of dereliction

until three years ago,

when Andrew and Mandy decided to take it on

and create their ideal home.

Earlier this week, we saw Andrew and Mandy turn their attention

to saving the two stable blocks from collapse,

transforming one of the two derelict buildings

into a photographic studio and office.

That staying on the wall? Ish.

Today, their mission to save the stables continues,

and their focus has turned to the second of the two buildings,

which they call "the big stables"

with its crumbling decorative cupola,

something they had planned to leave well alone

until work on the house was finished.

These are our big stables

that we're currently having roof work on and

work done on the cupola.

That sounds very odd, doesn't it?

These are our BIG stables...

..as opposed to the little stables over that side.

Cupolas first appeared in Asia around the eighth century,

as a way to add light and ventilation to buildings,

perfect for stables filled with working horses

to keep them and their hay dry.

Last year we looked at it and thought,

it looks like it's moving and it's getting worse.

We don't really want to convert it to anything.

We just want to preserve it

because we think they were built around 1830,1840.

But the crowning glory is in dire need of repair.

On the outside, it's very rotten

so that there's a lot of bits on the bottom that need replacement

and then it'll all need a good fill-in and paint.

These stables are providing much-needed storage for materials,

and just as Andrew and Mandy have found in the main house,

Dunsmore Hall is the gift that keeps on giving.

So, this is our

fun discovery.

Nothing that we, we'd expected to find at all.

This, we assume,

is the weather vane that would have been on top of the cupola.

It was a very exciting find.

Ever-curious Andrew has even investigated

how it would be fixed inside the cupola.

Since we've had the scaffolding, I've been around the top of it

and there is a hole in the top and I've been inside it,

and there are loops inside to obviously support a weather vane.

So, if this piece of Dunsmore Hall's history can be restored,

it can be reinstated where it was some 200 years ago.

Early weather vanes would have been made of copper,

but from Georgian times,

hardy wrought iron became the material of choice.

By the mid-19th century,

the designs were ornate and eye-catching,

just like this one.

So, we've got south,

there's north,

west has lost a bit,

east has lost a bit

and as far as we can tell, the actual vane bit at the top

which still rotates,

has, has lost something above here,

but we're not sure exactly what the shape is.

So, part of our saving the stables,

we thought we would get this restored as well.

Three weeks later,

the process to restore the Victorian weather vane has begun

with the help of traditional blacksmith, Ollie.

He's already blasted the old paint and rust away.

His next job is to recreate some of its broken parts.

I've traced the shape of the letters

and taken accurate measurements.

So then, when I'm reproducing the steelwork,

it'll actually tie in and match

and everything should look as one by the end of it.

With the repairs well underway

and the weather vane starting to take shape,

Andrew and Mandy can look forward to this piece of history

being back in pole position very soon.

In Cornwall, in the cathedral city of Truro, is Castle Lodge.

An end terrace, Grade II-listed Regency villa with 12 rooms

built in the 1820s.

Up until a few years ago, it was a bar and bistro,

but when the business folded, it fell into disrepair

until it was snapped up in 2021 by Drew,

a fashion and interior designer,

and Stu, a gardener,

the perfect duo to restore this four-bed beauty

back to its original splendour.

Because of Covid, Drew wasn't able to view the property in person,

but he loved what he saw online and went for it,

securing the place with a £450,000 bid.

I wasn't surprised that Drew hadn't seen the property.

Um, I've got total faith in him.

It was just a winner.

Great town, great city, great place to be.

With a plan to live in the house for part of the year

and rent it out to visitors in high season,

Drew and Stu have big plans to bring a touch of luxury

back to this Georgian beauty,

but it won't be easy.

When we first got the keys,

the building was in a worse condition than we had imagined.

One of the ceilings had, basically, come down.

It was leaking like a, like a sieve.

As if that wasn't bad enough...

Unfortunately, the building was laced with asbestos

and all the asbestos was, was stripped out professionally.

There were showers in the garden.

It was like CSI Truro. The whole thing was tented up.

It was quite something.

CSI Truro.

I'd watch that, Drew!

Drew's planning to use his years of experience in fashion and interiors

to create something truly unique here,

but he's not flying solo.

I've got, literally, the best team in Cornwall.

Alfie is currently creating a sample board.

We're gonna try this on the main walls

in one of the spaces on the ground floor.

This is George, hiding away in the laundry room,

just fixing her up for the linen shelves.

12 months into the renovation,

Drew and his team have already transformed several of the rooms upstairs,

including the main bedroom and bathroom.

But with three of the bedrooms still work-in-progress

and the entire ground floor still to do,

the team have their work cut out.

Today, it's all about the open-plan sitting room and dining room,

which is packed with original features.

This was, at one point, the main cocktail bar.

One of the principal reasons for buying the building

was the beautiful Georgian coving and plasterwork

that runs throughout the building.

The rooms are split down the middle by its original partitioning.

The dividing doors were found in the cellars downstairs.

They're partially restored at the moment.

There's a little bit of, um, tidying to do.

With plans to bring a touch of Hollywood glamour to this room,

Drew has already added a few showstopping pieces.

There were no fireplaces in the building whatsoever.

I put the design together using elements, um, from the period

of the 1820s, both in Italy and in this country also.

We've mixed Georgian-Aegean art

with Egyptian Revival pyramids,

which, again, is a reference to the 1820s.

I'm going to have to take your word for that, Drew.

Having installed the fireplaces,

that, together with the bronze uplights

and a 19th century tapestry,

um, these three key elements

help to, sort of, orchestrate how the rest of the room will feel.

The next job in the dining room

is to hang a centrepiece light fitting.

Drew's already added a new ceiling rose.

They weigh an absolute ton. So, we had to strengthen the beams.

But now, he's going to test the strength of those beams even more

with a decorative object, concealed within this mysterious crate.

If you wanna come around.

Dun, du-dun, du-dun-dun!

There we go. OK. Got him.

Stop. All right, boys.

Whatever it is, it must be very heavy.

Here they are.

The big reveal.

This is very exciting. All the way from Cairo.

So, clearly, they've mummified it for transport and shipping.

Urrh! Oh, fabulous. Look at this.

It's an Egyptian alabaster ceiling bowl.

Alabaster is a fine-grained mineral,

traditionally carved and polished for statues and ornaments,

or even light shades.

We have this amazing grain running through

which the light will reveal

when it's hung from the ceiling.

That's one big lampshade.

It's a good job he's already strengthened those ceiling beams.

Coming up...

I'll just take the excess off,

like that.

..Iain and Miranda get plastering.

But now, you can really see the mould coming out.

..and have designs on their dining room.

Not too over the top, but not too understated.

..while Drew and Stu...

Good. That should do the job.

..upon reflection...

I'm gonna disguise it using panels of mirror.

..turn the lights up in their sitting and dining room.

Hit it, Callum!

In the Kent countryside, bordering the North Downs,

lies this Victorian rectory.

Slipping into decline,

having laid empty for ten years,

it was snapped up by Sydney entrepreneurs, Iain and Miranda,

for a relative bargain of just over £1 million,

a price that reflected the renovation work needed.

Two years in, and having done much of the hard graft themselves,

their renovation is taking shape.

Their current mission,

to create family rooms to relax and entertain in,

started earlier this week with an attic cinema room

with a starlight ceiling.

Today, their attention is focussed

on one of the biggest downstairs rooms,

their dining room.

Of all the rooms that we've had inside the, the house here,

it's actually one of the best, to be honest.

It's, um... I mean, at the moment, it looks terrible.

Well, yeah, the wallpaper's a bit naff, but you know,

like, from a perspective of it not being fallen down and uninhabitable,

it was actually pretty good.

It's such a grand space. The ceilings are really high

and then, just looks straight out the windows...

..to the garden. Yeah, it's really lovely. Mm.

It's a lovely aspect.

With dated decor and crumbling windows,

Ian and Miranda plan to transform the dining room

into a glamorous room to entertain in.

I don't think it's meant to come apart.

That's the, that's the point. Right. OK.

And work starts with the removal of an unusual piece of history,

a cast-iron Dutch oven...

So, I think if we can... ..we can lift this one up?

..a type of antique wood-burning stove designed to heat the room.

But the surface can get very hot.

Ready? Yeah. This is real.

So, with young kids in the house, it had to go.

Fortunately, for our cost-conscious pair,

there's a few bob to be made online with Dutch ovens.

Dutch oven is about £1,500.

So, we could do quite well out of this.

So, I could use the money that we could sell these items

and pay for the, for the renovation.

No, I like the fact that you do all this research.

I don't really like the fact that I'm doing all the work

while you're just sitting there on your phone, like, just...

..researching. Like a.. Oh, look! ..a 12-year-old.

Ready. One, two, three, four. God, it's really heavy.

OK. Straight down. Oh! That's not light, is it? No!

Two weeks later,

Iain and Miranda have stripped back the dated wallpaper

and the walls have had a fresh coat of plaster.

Miranda is keen for the expanse of blank ceiling to be decorated

with Victorian-style plaster mouldings.

I've been looking at different ideas

to try and think of doing something exciting on the ceiling. Yeah.

If this was the ceiling rose,

I'd have another one that would go around... Uh-hm.

..to frame the ceiling rose. Yeah.

The one that would come down

and around.

I'm trying to find a sort of pattern that would...

..not be too over the top

but not too understated.

Period-style mouldings can be expensive to buy.

So, always keen to learn a new skill,

Iain and Miranda have asked local plasterer, Steve,

to teach them how to make their own plaster mouldings.

Like you would do with fish. Like, batter the fish.

Oh, that. Yeah?

I'll just take the excess off

like that.

And then, this goes on the bench.

Ah!

And then,

put a lath in, timber lath.

Then, push that down.

And then...

Ah!

You're, like, layering it up. Layering it up.

And this is the mould shape... That's it. ..cut out.

And then, you, sort of, apply pressure to the bench.

This traditional method of decorative plaster making,

which Iain and Miranda are attempting,

first became popular with wealthy British homeowners

in the 17th and 18th centuries.

But now, you can really see the mould coming out.

And these little bits there, you just go and fill those in, do you?

Yeah, like that. See?

How long a length can you make at any one time?

Three, four metres.

I think we need to get about 45m worth

for the ceiling.

I'm really pleased with this.

Yeah, really good. You've done well. Really good.

There we go. Perfect.

High five.

But with 45m of moulding still to create,

window frames to restore

and wallpaper to hang,

Iain and Miranda's dining room has a long way to go.

In Truro, Cornwall,

Drew and Stu's mission to transform their 200-year-old Regency villa

from a restaurant and bar

back to a stunning four-bed home,

is moving at a pace.

Drew, a fashion and interior designer, and Stu, a gardener,

are focussing on their elegant sitting room-dining room area,

which will eventually become the heart of their home.

They've already installed fireplaces and fitted a ceiling rose

to fit with the period plasterwork.

Let's shift this in the other room.

And today,

the mission is to safely hang a showstopping alabaster light fitting

which has travelled all the way from Egypt,

that Drew has found a novel way to secure.

This, believe it or not,

is security chain found on most car parking spaces.

Inventive as always, Drew.

I've sprayed this in a bronze-gold. Hopefully,

it's strong enough to, um, support the kilos of the alabaster bowl.

Four lengths...

..all ready for you.

While George grinds, Callum, the electrician,

fits an LED strip around the edge of the bowl

to further illuminate its natural design.

Nice. Thank you.

Let's lift the alabaster.

Easy as you go, fellas.

Cairo is a long way to go to get a replacement if you drop it.

Higher, higher, higher. Yeah.

Keep holding it till all four are secure.

Oh, higher.

Drop it a little bit? Yeah.

You've got to keep the, um, keep the tension.

Lift your edge up, just a touch. OK.

Yeah. Right. Now, just.. Let it go slowly.

There you go. Are we good? Yeah.

Brilliant.

Love it. Thank you.

We are ready for illumination.

Hit it, Callum!

ALL: Whoa!

Well done, guys.

I feel the building

retains its echo.

So, when work is carried out and if the team is right,

it will be filled with joy when the project is complete.

With Drew spending big on fireplaces and Egyptian ceiling bowls,

he needs to save money elsewhere.

Thankfully, with his career in interior design,

he's bursting with money-saving ideas.

We've got a cabinet that is gonna house the television gubbins

and amps for the music system, sound system throughout the house.

So, I'm gonna disguise it using panels of mirror.

You can use the panels to obscure the cuts in the doors.

It's important for Drew that the styling in this property

fits with existing period detail.

He bought these cheap, mirrored squares online

and is using a clever trick to make them look old to fit in.

I'm giving them an aged effect

by melting away the back covering,

just using a very simple limescale remover and a caustic soda.

And if you scatter the crystals into the corners and on the edges,

then that will degrade, which is, you know,

traditionally where mirrors do age

rather than a great big plate mirror.

Because they could only make small pieces of glass,

it was very traditional to have small mirrors.

Leaving the chemicals to do their thing,

a couple of hours later, Drew rinses the residue off

before moving on to stage two of the process.

Now, we're just gonna fill the parts that are burnt.

I'm gonna apply a little bit of gold, first of all,

just because it adds to that aged effect.

Then, a final layer of black paint to finish off.

That should do the job.

Time to make Drew's cabinet invisible.

So, I'm gonna use a mirror adhesive

to make sure these stick.

It's quite dramatic.

It's almost like 1900s glass.

So, these are lining up very nicely now

and disguising the fact

that this is a cupboard door.

Coming up...

Did you feel it? Yeah.

..Andrew and Mandy put another iron in the fire...

It's starting to stay cherry red longer, isn't it?

..and like any artist...

This was actually a bit of a dilemma.

..Drew and Stu are torn between stage...

It just adds a little bit of theatre and discovery.

..and screen.

We have this beautiful golden screen.

..while Iain and Miranda...

Hit a bit of a jackpot here.

..get treasure at trash prices.

We might be net zero.

Net zero.

Back in Warwickshire,

Andrew and Mandy's mission to save their 200-year-old stables continues.

Mandy is heading up to clean the outside shutters

on both ends of the stables

after years of neglect.

It's a bit windy up here.

Casey, a carpenter by trade and roofer, Dom,

are still tiling the old stable's roof

and with the cupola needing more tile cuts to fit its unusual shape,

it's a tricky task.

Well, the cupola takes ages cos how many cuts are there on that?

I lost count. Yeah.

There's a lot.

Although decorative, cupolas are also practical.

They knew how to build things.

The fact that they've got this great ventilation system inbuilt

is the reason that the whole thing hasn't collapsed on the floor with rot,

cos even though there were massive holes in the roof,

it dries out so quickly with the, with the airflow through it.

The shutters are part of the air vent system,

but with a fear of heights, Mandy dares not look down.

No, I don't feel like I belong up here at all.

Way out of my comfort zone, this is.

A few days later and back on firmer ground,

Andrew and Mandy are visiting blacksmith, Ollie...

Hi, Ollie. Oh, hi, guys.

..as he repairs the 200-year-old cast-iron weather vane.

It was broken there and through here... Yeah.

..and I used my artistic license a little bit.

..which they hope will, eventually, take pride of place

on top of the cupola.

You can see it looks a bit different to the last time you saw it. Yeah.

We've had all the paint removed as sensitively as we can.

You can actually see it's,

it's taken it back to the original surface.

So, what's it made from?

Uh, this this, is cast iron. OK.

And it's actually made in a few different pieces. OK.

Always willing to try their hand,

Andrew is going to help Ollie using oxy-propane gas,

which can reach temperatures of 1,800 degrees Celsius.

We need to extract this damaged pin out of the bottom.

The pin is used to hold the weather vane in place

on top of the stables.

So, it needs replacing before the vane can be reinstalled.

What we're gonna do is heat up this big bit of cast iron... OK.

..and hopefully, that's gonna loosen and expand,

uh, allowing us to get this, this piece out.

Starting to say cherry red longer, isn't it?

Anywhere there. That would be, that'll be enough.

That's looking about right to me.

It's hot enough to, uh, loosen it all up.

Mandy's not about to be left behind, either.

She's ready to take her turn.

Her task now is to unscrew the seal

for what could be the first time in 200 years.

That should just go. Oh, yes.

Did you feel it crack? Yeah.

There you go. Excellent.

You can see the original thread and how much damage there's been.

The new pin is a threaded, solid-steel rod,

which is harder-wearing than the iron it's replacing.

So, I still put it in hot and then let it cool down and...

It should grip it nice and tightly.

That's it. You got it.

A final tighten with a wrench ensures that,

as the iron cools around the new steel, it'll form a seal

that should last for the next 200 years

at least.

Yeah. So, that's, that's it in. All right. Right.

So, that should hold really well.

Back in Truro,

Drew and his partner, Stu, have picked up the pace

on the transformation of their sitting and dining room renovation

at Castle Lodge.

With Drew's mirrored panels now complete,

the walls painted,

wall lights fitted,

today's job is to come up with a way to conceal a television

above the ornate marble fireplace...

Yeah, yeah. Super happy. Great.

..in a way that will complement the room's period detailing.

He's sketching a cabinet design

which George, the joiner, will build in wood.

I'm gonna do two sliding doors

and then, these columns,

which was actually, um,

a standard lamp.

We took the legs off, sawed it in half

and now we have a pair of pilasters

and it just adds a little bit of theatre and discovery

to the building as well.

With Drew's design plans committed to paper,

George, the joiner, begins to realise Drew's vision for the TV cabinet.

Oh, I like it. I like it.

Meanwhile, in the dining side of this open-plan space,

Drew has splashed the cash for some antique gold bling.

The golden screen.

Now, this was, actually, a bit of a dilemma.

I had a budget for the wallpaper in the dining space,

but it really is such a gorgeous piece

that I don't mind sacrificing the wallpaper budget,

um, for something like this.

So, the walls are painted.

There's no wallpaper in the dining room,

and instead, we have this beautiful golden screen.

But while the dining side of the room is going wallpaper-free,

on the sitting room side of the double doors,

Drew's sticking with his wallpaper plan.

I sourced this wallpaper

and, um, it works with that message

of, um, a dusty old, sort of, dusty old palazzo.

That's the vibe of the house.

It has a very, very slight, subtle metallic to it. Um,

so yeah, I think this fits the bill really well and the great thing is,

it looks brilliant with one of my prized pieces,

which is the, um, pedestal and plinth there

and it works brilliantly with the wallpaper.

I'd settle for a coffee table.

Drew's now using the small offcuts of the wallpaper

to fill the narrow gap between the door frame and the cornicing.

It's very easy to get somebody in to do everything,

but I've wallpapered a lot.

So yeah, it's easy on the budget. But not only that,

it, it means a lot when you put some love into a place yourself, you know?

You're not having a trade doing absolutely everything.

It's looking great. Hello!

What do you think? Smashing!

With the wallpaper to finish off,

curtains to hang and a settee to be delivered,

Drew and Stu's glamorous open-plan room

is almost ready for its grand debut.

350 miles away at the old rectory in Kent,

Iain and Miranda have been making their own plaster mouldings for the dining room.

It's ready!

Today, the final piece is to be fitted to the ceiling.

I think the ceiling looks really good.

Using traditional techniques,

they've brought Miranda's original sketch design to life

on the dining room ceiling.

I think it was worth the time and effort.

I think working from something from scratch,

where it's just a blank canvas,

lifts the room. It gives it a bit more status and interest.

So, I think next we need to consider the design aesthetics. Yes.

So, what kind of wall finish and floor finish. Yeah.

It's still just gonna... It's your department, right?

I don't decide the colours. I just do the work.

But before any paint or wallpaper can go up,

there's another major job to tackle, which is very much Iain's department.

He is restoring the sash windows,

which he stripped and removed himself

after they were sent off to have newly-cut glass made.

You need to strip the frames, then sand the frames,

and then, replace any bits of timber that need fixing on the windows

or even on the frames.

Iain then rebated the frames around

to hold the glass in place when fitting them.

It's just extremely time-consuming cos there are six panels of frames

that have got to be, like, sanded down.

Then you've got, like, the three frames.

While Iain tackles the windows, Miranda is yet to make a decision.

Which antique chandelier will light up the dining room?

I've got these lights from a hotel that closed down in Ireland,

and there was an auction.

I bought about ten lights cos the rooms are, you know, 3m to 4m tall.

You really do need quite a large light to fill that space.

And, um, yeah, I sort of think I hit a bit of a jackpot here.

I'll be able to get a really nice light coverage

cos it's a really dark room, the dining room.

So, I needed something that was gonna be quite powerful,

but not overwhelming.

Meanwhile, back downstairs, Iain's window restoration is ongoing,

but Miranda has received an exciting package...

SINGING: Wallpaper delivery!

..a botanical-themed mural style wallpaper.

Miranda is keen to see the full effect.

Really nice. It's all hand-drawn, hand-painted.

It's just like art for your walls, really, isn't it?

There's a lot of detail, isn't there?

I think this is quite nice because it brings the outside inside.

I think we're, we're in the middle of the countryside

and so, it's quite nice to have that reflected within the home.

Greens are our main, sort of, themed colour that run through the house.

So, this just, sort of, blends in

with all the different types of greens that we've got going on.

With the mural wallpaper to hang,

Iain's windows to paint and refit,

and Miranda's statement lighting to install

the dining room renovation is within touching distance.

Just a week later, the couple have been working around the clock

and it's time to take stock of the incredible transformation.

Ta-da!

Six months ago, the dining room was stuck in a very distant past.

Retro,

but certainly not cool.

But now, with Miranda's vision,

this pair have grafted to deliver a dining room

fit for the grandest of banquets.

From the ceiling decorated with handmade plasterwork

to the freshly wallpapered walls and the restored windows,

this room is warm and inviting.

Once all the decor was in,

Miranda was able to make her chandelier choice from her collection,

French crystal from the 19th century.

I think this was a real little treasure that we found. Yeah.

It's super heavy but, but it, but it really has come to life.

You just need to get some bulbs.

I need more bulbs. More bulbs.

Best of all, the furniture was all inherited with the house.

So, it hasn't cost them a penny to fill what is a very big space.

I think the journey that this room has been on

um, is a huge transformation.

It feels like there's life in here.

I think it's the wallpaper brings the life.

I think the mouldings on the ceiling give the room

a huge amount of grandeur.

The wallpaper's a really bold choice

and it does jump out at you, first of all.

I think, also, because we had all this very heavy,

old-fashioned brown furniture,

because of this type of wallpaper with the colour in it...

It works amazingly, doesn't it? It's like we did it on purpose.

Yeah, it all fits in.

This, essentially, just needs some carpet, right?

Yeah, a nice rug. You know what I mean?

And then it's like, and then it's, like... Boom!

Boom, indeed.

And an extra bonus,

their purse strings haven't been stretched to breaking point.

This room came in well under budget.

You did all the refurb on the windows.

We did the ceiling.

There really wasn't any major giant outgoings.

The Dutch oven's still there, isn't it?

Unfortunately, I have not had the time to list it.

If you sell the Dutch oven, I think this room will...

Yeah, we might be net zero. Net zero.

Look at that! Thrifty.

Yeah. There we go.

Coming up...

Ta-da!

Drew and Stu's dining and sitting room...

Now, I wanna see you do that waiter trick.

..still has a few tricks up its sleeves...

I'm really happy.

..before they can enjoy the show.

Come and have a look. Oh, what?

There. What do you think? Oh, wow!

And the excitement is mounting...

It's something that we've been looking forward to for a long time.

..as Andrew and Mandy plant their flag at Dunsmore Hall.

Do you know which way you want it facing?

Back in Truro, Cornwall,

at the renovation of the Grade II-listed Regency villa.

With Drew having completed the wallpapering in the sitting room,

the open-plan, two-room space is nearly finished.

Over his 20 years as a fashion and interior designer,

Drew has amassed quite the collection.

So, it's finally time to fill the house with his favourite things.

Uh, you might need a puck to, um, adjust the legs.

The dining room table is going in today.

This is a 1920s Epstein Art Deco table.

Fine. We can leave it there. Let's get the glass top on it.

Epstein's were a family firm of London furniture makers

producing high-end Art Deco pieces until the 1950s.

OK. Now, I wanna see you do that waiter trick. Yeah, literally.

Hold on. It's quite super-fragile.

Got it?

Push.

Beautiful!

I sourced this in, uh, northern Italy.

For a piece of this quality and age,

it's not in bad condition.

Glass top always helps, obviously.

It's now just a matter of Drew adding a few of his signature dramatic touches

and the room will be complete.

Six months ago,

Drew and Stu's sitting and dining room was an empty shell

waiting to be brought back to life.

Bringing together signature clever design touches

and his unique sense of style,

the room is now an opulent palace

with Drew's handmade Italian fireplaces

bookending each room.

I like to use it on Sundays with the papers

and maybe lounge around by the window.

And with Drew's artefacts and collectables,

there's a talking point in every corner.

It's very much that, sort of, 1930s, you know,

the start of that Hollywood cinematic era

and I've, kind of, gone with that theme

as the period of the refurb.

So, once you've finished your little dinner party or socialising here,

you can swing through and relax in the sitting room,

which would be a nice change, wouldn't it, Stu?

It's been a tough journey, hasn't it, getting here.

It feels amazing to be finally having our feet up and enjoying

what our achievements have been.

One achievement Stu had his hand in

was choosing the stunning 19th-century Italian tapestry,

lit from above as a work of art.

He's chosen a really great, great, great wall covering,

which I think just emphasises that, sort of,

dusty old palazzo vibe that we're going for.

Its bronze-gold accent is reflected in the chains

that hang the alabaster lights

and the mirrors Drew aged himself,

tying the room together.

The sitting room is all about liveable luxury.

I mean, this is not a Regency Georgian sofa.

So, you have to adapt slightly.

Nobody really wants to sit on a little Georgian sofa

like this all night, watching TV.

You've got to sprawl today.

And above the fireplace, something to sprawl in front of,

a cleverly hidden TV screen

built inside a period-style sliding cabinet.

Ta-da!

It's super easy to use.

I'm really happy.

We kind of want to come here and chill now.

I think we deserve it, don't you?

Definitely.

And the boys will be able to enjoy it

just as soon as they finish the hallway and upstairs bedrooms,

which we'll follow the progress of

later on this week.

Back to Warwickshire

and the forecast for the Dunsmore Hall weather vane

has greatly improved with bright and sunny direction markers.

Most people would think of a weather vane being black,

but our weather vane already had cream paint on it.

Because that was the colour before, we decided we'd go with, with cream.

Mandy's job this afternoon is to gold leaf the compass point lettering.

Over the yellow basecoat, she applies a special glue called size.

This becomes tacky after an hour

and Mandy can start the tricky job of applying the gold-leaf sheets.

So then, apparently, I just

put it on and press it.

Just brush it.

She's a natural.

Looks like Mandy just acquired yet another new skill.

Well, it's certainly very blingy

and I can see why people say it takes a long time.

How's it going? Come and have a look.

Oh, what?

There. What do you think? Oh, wow!

That actually looks a whole lot better than I was expecting.

It's good, isn't it? It looks like that's how it's supposed to be.

This is one weather vane that's definitely

heading in the right direction.

One week later,

it's a banner day for Andrew and Mandy.

The old stable's roof is now watertight and finished off

with two-holed clay-crested ridged tiles along the peak.

But best of all is the cupola,

once rotten and in danger of collapse,

now returned to its former glory.

All that's left is the weather vane to go on top.

This, kind of, was like a visible symbol

of all the work that everybody, including us,

have done to try and help, um, restore the building,

save it from falling to pieces.

It's something that we've been looking forward to for a long time.

It's, it's a nice little topping-out ceremony,

200-almost years after it would have probably had its first ceremony.

Andrew is going up in the cherry picker with roofer, Dom, to put the weather vane in.

So, he needs to be fitted with a safety harness.

It's very tight.

Sorry.

Maybe I shouldn't have pulled. LAUGHING: Sorry about that!

Once we've got it there,

Casey's gonna be inside the cupola,

and is gonna start drilling the mounting bits.

So, we wanted, we need to make sure it's set to true north

before he drills the hole.

Casey and Dom spent six weeks

on the old stable's roof, repairing the cupola,

which Casey's now positioned inside.

Cos it was so far gone,

hit or miss, whether to restore it or replace it completely,

but to, to even get up there to replace all the joists,

strip from the joists, built this platform here

just to make sure we could repair it

and uh, yeah, it was, it was borderline, but we got there.

All right. You ready? Yep.

Andrew and Dom need to make sure

the weather vane is pointing to the correct cardinal point.

so it actually does what it's supposed to,

measure the direction from which the wind is blowing.

I've known about this for a long time,

but I forgot to unpack my compass, which is in a box somewhere.

So, I have a nice orienteering compass somewhere.

Unfortunately, I'm gonna rely on, uh, rely on a phone today.

You OK.. Yeah. ..from there?

Over this way.

Yeah.

Oh, we're wrong way around.

180 degrees. There we go.

So, that's probably... Spin a little bit, I would guess.

About there, wasn't it? Yeah.

Have you got that, Casey?

Casey can now screw the internal sleeve into the cupola rafters

to hold the weather vane in place.

Casey, inside the cupola now, is putting the pin in

to lock it into place

and then putting some strapping around to keep it secure.

DOM: You get any tighter?

So, we just have the flag to put on the top and uh,

back down, and then we'll try that.

With the flag,

the final piece of the weather vane to be fitted,

Mandy has decided to fight her fear of heights and attach it herself.

And I just shut my eyes for the whole thing.

It's more the anticipation, eh?

Just keep talking to her, Dom. Keep talking to her.

You'll be all right, honestly. - I've got my eyes shut.

Well, you think our prayers are gonna be with you when you...

I'm not, definitely not gonna look down, though.

Considering Mandy couldn't even bear to stand on a chair previously,

it's a brave move.

Just, just, just keep it not moving for a second.

DOM: You'll be all right.

Like I said, you just keep your eyes up.

Yeah.

Which way up does this go? That way.

I'm assuming. Yeah. Like that.

Do you know which way you want it facing?

Stand by, just in case.

Woohoo!

Now, we got it.

All good. That was the easy bit. That was terrifying!

Mandy has overcome one of her biggest fears

and with the weather vane standing atop the cupola,

it's a moment of triumph for Andrew and Mandy...

What did you think?

My hand's a bit shaky.

..showing all who can see it

that Dunsmore Hall is returning to its former glory.

We're back with Drew in Cornwall

as he's going for gold

in his hallway renovation.

This will be quite a dark space.

So, we're gonna try and brighten it a little bit

with some gold leaf.

It's very time-consuming. So, be prepared

to have a good weekend in.

We meet Steve and Sally at their coastal renov

where it's sun, sea

and lots of sanding.

It's not supposed to be a brand-new door again.

It's a period door

that's been sanded within an inch of its life.

It's a lot thinner.

And we rejoin Andrew and Mandy

as their green fingers attempt to uncover

a Victorian sunken garden.

Oh, there's an edging stone here.

Glad I wasn't under that when that fell down.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media