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.

LOUD CRASH

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 what was needed.

I was quite wrong.

People think renovation's lovely, don't they?

HE LAUGHS

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'm still having my "pinch me" moment.

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

..we are a renovation nation.

Today in Warwickshire...

..ceilings are down and floorboards up,

as Andrew and Mandy uncover hidden treasure from the past.

SHE GASPS It's there! Look.

Uh, speechless, actually.

In New Brighton...

You're going to put your end down now.

..Sally and Steve bring the indoors outside

as they build a cosy garden room.

It's like a little house.

It's just going to look fab.

And in Truro...

It feels a bit cashmere-y,

and it throws the light back really nicely.

..Drew gets creative with textiles to create a touch of luxury

in his guest bedroom.

Every couple of centimetres, just pop your staple gun there.

In rural Warwickshire,

the Georgian grandeur of Dunsmore Hall has been part of the landscape

here for well over 200 years.

Over time, extensions and changes have seen this former farmhouse

grow into the impressive site it is today.

Childhood sweethearts Andrew and Mandy have spent the last two years

fearlessly unpicking decades of decay to restore this beauty.

So the surprises are when there's nothing... Nothing wrong. Yes.

..that needs repairing.

Nothing surprises us now,

apart from if there's nothing wrong.

Earlier this week, we saw the couple turn an old stable block

into a smart photography studio

and install a weather vane to adorn the peak of their stable's cupola.

Today, Andrew and Mandy are continuing a treasure hunt

which began two years ago,

when Andrew made a discovery underneath a bedroom floor.

So I think I've found a piece of the coving or cornice,

and I've never actually seen it,

I've just seen a shadow of it.

And...you can see the moulding there,

it's got the gold edging.

Oh, that's what I was looking for.

That is genuinely an exciting find.

These remarkable remnants of the past would have once

made up the elegant cornicing in the drawing room below.

Since that find, Andrew and Mandy have discovered damp

coming up from underneath the drawing room, from a cellar.

When we went down, it's just full of rubbish.

It's blocking up the air vents, which is encouraging the damp

to sort of come up the walls.

But as with the decorative ceiling,

further investigations took a back seat while other jobs were completed.

It's April 2023, and excitement is in the air as Andrew and Mandy

are finally ready to investigate the hidden secrets

of their drawing room.

This is our drawing room,

and last week, we were sat in it watching TV at the end of the day,

and now it's stripped, ready to be excavated down,

and also have the ceiling taken down,

so goodness knows what else we might find.

We're hoping as we take this one down,

it doesn't dislodge the ceiling above,

which would then pull the cornicing down with it.

That's my fear.

With the home scaffolding tower, ladder,

and all the safety gear they can muster...

So any...

SHE LAUGHS: I've just put my hat on, it's full of dust!

..Mandy's tasked with cutting an exploratory hole.

SAW BUZZES

And after a quick safety check for electrical wires...

So that's completely clear? Yeah.

..the first chunk of ceiling can come down.

Yeah, I did hit the joist.

Finally, two years since they first found a piece of period coving,

Andrew and Mandy can have a proper look above the suspended ceiling,

and it's certainly been worth the wait.

SHE GASPS It's there!

Look, all the way above the fireplace.

I'm sorry, I should have waited.

Wow. It's very cracked, but it's still there.

That's all I can see, that's all I'm tall enough for.

Uh, speechless, actually.

We just revealed something that's not been seen for a long time.

Right, I'll leave that there, and then you can have a look.

Wow.

It's probably one of the most exciting finds

we've found in the house. Yes. Definitely.

The excitement levels, not to mention the levels of dust and dirt,

are sure to crank up a further notch, once the entire ceiling is removed.

Who knows what they might uncover next?

130 miles away in north-west England, in the town of New Brighton,

lies Clifton, a grand Victorian villa.

An 18-room property set over three floors, it was a virtual ruin,

in need of desperate, life-saving intervention.

Luckily, it was snapped up for the bargain price of £250,000

by builder Steve and teacher Sally.

Five years into the project, Steve has already single-handedly

transformed several of the rooms since they bought the property.

I'm very much a part of Clifton now.

I've saved the house from its demise

because it was in such a terrible state everywhere.

Erm, yes, it was daunting, but we are making great progress.

That progress was evident earlier this week

when we saw Steve and Sally renovate their butler's pantry,

transforming it into a stunning, functional space,

as well as creating a downstairs shower room.

Today, Steve's next project is down the side of the house,

where he is creating a sheltered outdoor area.

We are hoping to sit under there during the summer

and it be a nice space.

We're going to try and not make it like a brand-new eyesore.

It's got to somehow fit.

So that's the challenge, and we love a challenge here.

So today, we're going to see if we can try and get an idea

of what we're about to construct here.

So we've got a nice safe scaffold here.

And if I look at the possible pitch, it's coming through here somewhere.

If I just grab one of my spirit levels,

and I'll give you some idea of the pitch.

Something like that, as an idea.

DOG BARKS

So straight away, that looks pretty good.

So I've already got a picture in my mind,

the roof is in this area,

I want to have a skylight of some sort in the centre,

and that will be nice to sit under there,

and it'll be a fabulous space.

Over the next two weeks, Steve sets to work and builds the frame.

Unlike the previous jobs in the house, when Steve has used

recycled wood from his store to keep costs low,

here he's forked out cash for new timber.

Ultimately, he's still saving a small fortune.

In today's market,

if somebody was to come in and do something bespoke like this,

I don't know, five or six grand, maybe?

I think for £1,000, we'd have done the whole thing.

And with that saving,

Steve has splashed the cash to add to his builder's tool belt.

That's my newest thing.

That is an array of different bits.

That's a brand-new purchase.

He loves his tool belt. His tool belt goes everywhere.

Even when we go out sometimes, the tool belt is still on.

But essential, absolutely essential.

Most people think it's rather strange that actually,

when we've got as many rooms as we've got,

why are we building another one outside?

But being outside, relaxing outside, is really important to us.

Right.

Steve often works solo,

but some jobs can't be done without another pair of hands.

Yeah, look, you're going to put your end down now.

This is exactly the way it's going on the roof.

Let me jump up. Right, now we're going to bring it to me.

This panel has been cut to fit on top of the newly constructed frame.

Do you want me to go up the other side?

Like yesterday? And we just both go on?

No, look, what I want to do is lift it up onto this scaffoldry. Right.

So I can lift it from here, just drop it onto there. That's it.

Right, and then we're just going to lean it against the roof.

That's all right, it won't go anywhere.

So then we're going to lift it as it is,

and it should just slide straight up. Slide.

So ready? Yeah.

Happy? Yep.

Right, start sliding.

And again. Let me just get that edge over.

Right, and slide again.

And then up goes the second piece.

Then we've just got to pick it up.

This will be lighter than the other side, because there's less of it.

Up we go.

And then carry on pushing.

Wait a minute, and then we've got to wiggle it this way.

Up...and on.

DOG BARKS

Next up, it's the frame for the roof light.

Can you go that way safely all right?

All right, so let's go up.

Ready? From the bottom. Yep.

OK, put that past the...

Let's get past there,

like that. So keep pushing.

Want to go a bit further.

Ooh, it's looking good, babe.

You think so? Yeah, yeah. It's not quite square, babe,

this bottom bit. I think I've got to go... That's it.

HE SIGHS

So that's really, really good, eh?

Oh, yeah, cool, babe.

It's like a little house.

Yeah, well, that's how I pictured it.

I pictured it as a cosy area. No, it will be.

It's working. From a distance, it works.

It's just going to look fab.

With felt to fit as well as glass for the roof light,

it won't be long until this space is ready for some alfresco entertaining.

Coming up -

in Truro, Drew finds the perfect place

for one of his oversized collectables...

The conch shell was a find from Harrods display department.

..setting the tone for his guest room.

We've gone very pearlized in here.

In Warwickshire...

I'm a little bit exhausted.

..Andrew and Mandy's cellar excavation

unearths some puzzling finds.

We've got a steering column, and now we've got a headlight.

And in New Brighton, an old dress hidden in the attic

brings out the detective in Sally.

Who knows which period of history it's come from?

But obviously somebody who lived in the house,

or maybe worked in the house.

In Cornwall, south-west England, close to the heart of Truro

lies Castle Lodge, a Grade II-listed end terrace, purchased for £450,000

by fashion and interior designer Drew and his partner Stu, a gardener.

As an interiors expert, Drew has a vast collection of decorative pieces,

some of which will furnish this new home.

Finally, I get to empty my three storage units in Marble Arch.

I'm quite a sort of collector-decorator,

if there is such a term,

but it's given us a great opportunity to bring those elements

and certain pieces into our own home,

so that's quite a fun part to carry on.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in this bedroom,

one of the four in the property.

Each bedroom has got a different language.

We've gone very pearlized, very calming bedroom space in here.

The conch shell was a find from Harrods display department.

They used to have it in the windows in the 1970s.

So where do you put it?

It's finally found its space here as a canopy for the bed.

The shell has been securely attached to the wall using hidden clamps.

With wallpapering and carpeting complete,

today former fashion designer Drew is in his element,

creating a cosy window seat.

This is really durable.

It's not a nubuck, but it is an upholstery fabric,

and I've used it on curtains before as well.

And, um, really, I mean,

it's not going to get too much wear and tear in a bedroom,

but it's a really nice finish,

it's very soft, feels a bit cashmere-y,

and it throws the light back really nicely.

So this is a good sturdy 20mm ply,

and then sponge cut, but only to here,

because this actually fits under the window there, to keep it in place.

And then this is a little wadding wrap.

All we do is staple gun.

So every couple of centimetres, just pop your staple gun there.

And really, this is so simple and straightforward,

really anybody can do it.

Even me. HE CHUCKLES

One window seat!

Let's put it in situ.

Great. There we go.

Good, we're ready for curtains.

I'm using the same fabric that's on the canopy here, which is, um...

..it's just a satinette...

..but I find the sheen on it is absolutely right

in combo with the wallpaper.

And it's just been lined with a very simple cotton lining.

OK. Now, then, how is the length?

HE WHISTLES

Not bad!

And that...

..kind of completes the window seating area.

Such nice light through the window.

If you fancy just chilling in your bedroom for a while,

taking a nice book, you've got your lamp, somewhere to put your tea.

Good.

And with avid collector Drew keen to next give the space

an accessorising flourish,

it won't be much longer before guests are able to stay.

280 miles away in Warwickshire, at the sprawling Dunsmore Hall...

I think you need to do that side as well.

..Andrew and Mandy are removing the suspended ceiling

in the drawing room.

We spent most of today up on ladders or scaffold towers,

hacking away at the ceiling, covered in dust,

and I don't think we've taken enough time

to actually stand back and really look at it.

No matter when it was done, it's very pretty. Yeah.

For Andrew and Mandy, uncovering the 250-year-old decorative coving

feels like finding hidden treasure.

LOUD CRASH

That is a good day's work.

And the coving, where it's in situ,

is way better than I thought it would be.

A week later, the drawing room is looking very different.

They've lifted floorboards to help illuminate the cellar below.

Outside...

If you're down in the cellar, it's preferable to wear a hard hat

because there's lots of joists.

Today, Mandy is briefing friends and family,

here to help excavate the mountains of rubbish

causing damp to rise into the drawing room above.

We're also trying to keep anything to one side that's interesting,

just so we can look at it later.

If you find any gold, that's our's. You can keep any bones you find.

LAUGHS: They're free.

But if there's one thing Mandy's learned during this renovation,

it's the importance of having the right labour-saving tool for the job.

Today, that's a portable conveyor belt.

Right, obviously you can't put anything too tall on it.

SHE LAUGHS

And once in place, it makes short work

of bringing out the first round of rubble.

Time to swap over. Yeah.

Today's a real family affair,

as the couple's two sons, Josh and Isaac, and Andrew's dad, Bob,

are also getting stuck in.

Yes, in my younger days, I might have been able to get down there.

THEY LAUGH

Wahey! Good effort, sir.

By tea-break, it's evident there's a lot more to shift

than everyone thought.

Filled a skip. I've now realised that there's probably,

I don't know, 20 skips-worth of rubbish down there.

Andrew's a bit under the weather, so that means I'm in charge today.

That's nothing new, though. SHE LAUGHS

As the morning ticks by,

the piles of unearthed items just keep growing...

..though some of the finds are more puzzling than others.

I'm a little bit exhausted.

Dad jokes.

Looks like a brand-new Ford part.

There's the rest of the exhaust. Maybe we can fix it.

We've almost got a complete car now.

We've got, uh, apparently we've got the manifold bit,

we have the steering,

something to do with steering column,

and now we've got a headlight,

and I think there's a number plate somewhere,

and then I'll list it on eBay if anyone's interested.

Yeah, can you stand back?

But that's not all they found under the house.

Just as Andrew is feeling better and re-joins the team,

the rubble and earth are giving way to mud and water,

the source of their damp problems.

It's not deep enough for the sump pump to work,

so we've resorted to a wet vacuum,

a vacuum that will suck up water.

And that's, uh, that's what we've got at the bottom of our cellar.

It's filling up again, is it?

After six hours, the large skip is full,

and there's almost enough to fill a second.

We were hoping for a pot of gold, and we got a vintage car.

Maybe if we get rid of all the water,

there might be some gold at the bottom.

They may not have found any treasure,

but they have got to the root of their damp problem.

And once the cellar is fully cleared and dried out,

the couple can begin to put the drawing room back together.

130 miles away in New Brighton lies Clifton,

the grand Victorian villa under renovation by Sally and Steve.

Steve is in the process of constructing a garden room

down the side of the house.

He's pleased with the progress so far.

Yeah, we're motoring along now.

We were able to finish the boarding, then I had to waterproof it.

So we got it weathered,

and then I've got to do some lead work around the skylight,

then of course a little bit of guttering.

We're getting a little patio heater,

so even in the winter, if we want to sit out here, we can.

So we know it's going to work, and we're really excited to have this.

Sally too is excited by a mysterious red dress,

which Steve found concealed in the loft space of the house.

Who knows which period of history it's come from?

But obviously somebody who lived in the house,

maybe worked in the house.

Feels strange to find something like it,

but it would be nice to kind of picture a face with it.

Sally has discovered that previous residents of Clifton in the early

20th century had a servant called Anna from Chile in South America.

With it likely a servant would have lived in an attic room,

Sally thinks this could be Anna's dress.

Sally's taking the dress to Sudley House Museum in nearby Liverpool

to see if the curator of costumes and textiles

can shed any light on its origin.

So we're really looking forward to finding a little bit

about the history of the dress,

which period of history it came from,

and maybe a little bit more facts

and see if we can link into who it would belong to.

Hi, Pauline. Hi, Sally. Hi, nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you.

Thank you so much for doing this for us today.

Oh, that's fine.

So what have you got to show me?

So this is the little dress that we found in our loft.

Oh, interesting.

Well, it's not in great condition, is it, first of all?

SALLY LAUGHS No.

Yeah, it's obviously been very moth-eaten,

but, um, it's an interesting one.

It's made of wool, first of all, you can tell that right away.

That's why it's been attacked by a moth,

because they love anything natural fibre. Yeah.

So in terms of the date of the dress,

the construction tells me a few things.

First of all, the neckline,

this kind of what you call a sweetheart neckline,

and these covered buttons, again, they're very typical of the period

between 1910 and 1920.

So you could buy ready-made clothes at this point, um,

which would be largely machined,

but this one is definitely all handmade.

And the fact that it's very patched and you can see all these, you know,

obvious patches under the arms,

it does tell you that it's probably someone

who's not got that much money,

so they're making sure that they get the maximum use out of their clothes

and keeping them going. So round about that period,

living in the house was a family, and they had a Chilean servant.

It would certainly fit in with the sort of

social, economic level of a servant... OK.

..in terms of the make of the dress, the fabric it's made from.

It's a document, isn't it? It's an object from the past,

which tells us about the people of the past.

It gives us an indication of the way people lived,

what their attitudes were, even, you know, about make do and mend,

even before that was... Yeah, definitely.

..before that was a wartime thing.

Wow, that's a lot of information to take in. It's amazing.

Absolutely amazing. Well, it's very interesting,

and thanks for showing it to me today.

It's, um, it's a historic document in its own right, isn't it, really?

Yeah, definitely.

So thank you so much. You're welcome.

Back at the house,

and Sally's keen to report back on her findings to Steve.

So...really lovely lady,

met a lovely lady... Right. ..called Pauline.

She said that it was definitely somebody from the lower classes.

It's the fabric that gives it away.

Super exciting, because it means that

we probably can say that, as best fit as possible,

that it probably belonged to the Chilean servant Anna.

Oh, fabulous. So, yeah, that's it.

Yeah, brilliant job. Yeah, it was good. Really excellent. Very good.

All right. All right, I'll carry on. See you later. See you in a bit.

All right, bye.

The joy of renovating old houses

is that sometimes you get a chance to explore the past

and imagine the lives of those who came before,

in this case, Anna with the red dress.

Coming up -

in Warwickshire, Mandy explores her empty cellar

now the junk has been dumped.

There's still a lot of mud that we need to try and scrape up

to finish getting rid of the damp.

And in New Brighton, Sally and seaside scavenger Steve

display their finds in their almost finished garden room.

If something comes floating towards me like this oar did,

straight out of the sea, I see it as a gift.

Back in Warwickshire, at Dunsmore Hall, it's now five weeks

since Andrew and Mandy excavated the rubble and rubbish

from the cellar underneath their Georgian drawing room.

With the space having had time to dry out,

Mandy is keen to explore and learn more about the history

of their 250-year-old building.

So that's the drain that we found.

It's like a silt drain.

When the water gets above the pipe, the water will go down the hole,

and then the silt should stay around the edge,

and the floor's designed to slope this way into all these channels.

If you'd never been down here,

you would have absolutely no idea of how full it once was.

We know that these walls actually went all the way up,

because the markings are there, so they were like little rooms.

In Georgian times, the cellar would have likely been used

as a cool storage for wine and food,

often behind a locked entrance to which only the owner,

or his most trusted staff, would have a key.

There's still a lot of mud that we need to try and scrape up

to finish getting rid of the damp.

Thanks to the piles of rubbish, the damp was creeping upwards

from the cellar into the living space.

Now the cellar's clear and the water's drained,

Mandy's hoping they've stopped the damp for good.

Before, you could smell the damp in the room above all the time.

Now you can't, so it's already starting to make a difference.

Four weeks later, Andrew and Mandy are back upstairs

in the drawing room...

..and have arranged a visit from Lee, a plaster moulding specialist.

They're hoping he will be able to tell them

whether the decorative cornicing they've uncovered can be restored.

Took all the plasterboard off and went, "Wow."

LEE CHUCKLES You weren't expecting to find this?

Not quite to the extent it was.

So we have a box of bits that were all along...

And that was this section? That was this section here.

Do you want to go for something new,

or you definitely want to put back kind of was there?

That's what we're asking you.

We try to retain as much of the historic...

Retain those original features? Yep. Yeah.

To work out the size of the job and the potential costs,

Lee makes a straight cut into the cornicing.

SAW BUZZES

Into the cut goes a piece of card,

onto which Lee traces the profile of the plasterwork...

Do you feel like you need to whisper?

HE LAUGHS

..giving him a shape to work with on the computer back at the office.

This is the basis for the template, so we can use these older sections,

and that then helps us bring together the full kind of

profile of the cornice.

Would there have been a particular style?

Would you, like, have chosen from a catalogue?

"I want this style." Or would it have been completely bespoke?

When you've got a bare brick wall, you could, in theory,

back in the day, have any profile that you wanted, any design. Right.

I've never seen anything painted quite like this before,

with the kind of the hand detail on that.

On that straight line is incredible, really.

OK. I'll get some initial costings and stuff together for you. Yes.

Whatever kind of works, you know, best for you.

A few more measurements to help with his sums,

and Lee can head off to formulate a plan for the damaged cornicing.

With the prospect of two options from Lee,

to save or replace the cornicing,

only a cuppa can help Andrew and Mandy think it all through.

It would be nice that there's some part of the story still there,

because if we had the whole lot took out, it would just look like

we'd gone and just put some coving up to make it look posh.

You mean like the bedroom? Like the bedroom.

130 miles away in New Brighton, at Clifton,

Steve and Sally are putting the finishing touches

to their garden room.

Can I sweep it before we do anything else?

If you give it a good old sweep.

The past few days has seen Steve put the guttering in for the roof line

and do the lead work around the skylight,

so the roof is now watertight...

Hello, it's the milkman coming. SHE LAUGHS

..which means they can now decorate the space and make it their own.

That is the bizarrest thing, isn't it? Love it.

It is, it's so quirky, though.

Everything that we are hoping to put in here has come from

little charity shops from around wherever we've been over the summer.

Yeah, interesting things. Little interesting things that...

Well, interesting to us for sure.

Steve is most pleased with the pieces he has salvaged

from the River Mersey right on their doorstep.

If something comes floating towards me, like this oar did,

straight out of the sea, I see it as a gift.

It's like, "Wow, look at this thing."

DRILL WHIRS

With just a few more adjustments...

Fiddly, fiddly.

Fiddly-foos.

..Steve and Sally's garden room is ready to be christened.

No, it does look lovely.

It's a lovely space.

It just feels so homely.

I think it looks like an outdoor room.

When they bought the house five years ago,

this space was a wild overgrown mess.

Where we're standing now, when we first bought the property,

it just had a pile of rubbish in the corner,

and all the way along here was a raised bed leading up to it,

with huge, just gnarly old bushes.

We just didn't use this area at all.

Today it's a cosy canopied retreat from the main house.

We've transformed it into a homely space where you can come outside,

because we do love outdoor living, you know, rain or shine.

It's an opportunity to get out of the house,

because obviously you're constantly looking

at what you should and could be doing. Yep.

So it's a nice place to come and move away from that. Yep.

So I think that's, you know, mindset wise,

I think it's a really important space for us.

It's a good place to hide, too. Yeah.

We can hide out here, and they'll be like, "Where's Mum and Dad?"

You're going to need a better hiding spot than this, Steve.

It's the last plate.

Well... How about this?

All right? It looks lovely.

Oh, shall we have a cheers?

Cheers. Well done, Steve. Hey. Cheers, nice job, guys.

Cheers. Well done, everyone.

Hello, puppy. Cheers. Cheers.

The last six months has seen Clifton reach renovation milestones.

We're starting to do lovely projects now,

which is no longer saving the building.

It's adding things to the building,

so this last six months certainly has been a real joy for me.

With the butler's pantry fully restored

to become a stunning, functional space...

..the downstairs bathroom finished and now a very modern wet room,

Steve has largely recycled and repurposed materials

for all his renovations and done all the work himself,

with Sally helping when not at work,

all of which means costs have been kept incredibly low.

For me, it's like that continual journey of changing a building

into a home, because every room that we finish and we complete

and you're putting your mark on it, it just makes it our home even more.

Completing the outdoor space brings to an end an important part

of Sally and Steve's renovation journey.

I've said, because of my age now, this could be the last job I ever do

throughout my 50 years of being in building.

It all feels very profound,

every section I finish, it could be the last section I do.

So that, for me, it's actually quite an emotional thing.

You know, and you're building a beautiful home for us all,

so I'm really proud of you for what you've achieved,

so really well done, babs. Beauty. Well done.

Coming up - in Warwickshire...

Hold on, I'm standing on a hole.

..demolition proves a little unpredictable for Andrew and Mandy.

LOUD CRASH

MUFFLED: That was dramatic.

And in Truro...

Oh, yay!

..friends and neighbours gather with Drew and Stu to celebrate

the end of their renovation.

Everyone's just been so welcoming and generous.

To our new friends and to the city of Truro!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Back in Warwickshire, at Dunsmore Hall...

Oh! Trapped my trousers in the... SHE LAUGHS

..in the trap door.

..Andrew and Mandy are making fabulous progress with the renovation

of their Georgian drawing room.

Can I have the crowbar-y thing as well?

Oh, that's better.

CRASH Oh!

Having removed the false ceiling above,

revealing original period cornicing,

and cleared the cellar below to resolve a damp issue,

they can finally get to work on the room itself.

Today, Andrew and Mandy are dismantling the timber frame

which supported the suspended ceiling.

I love the way you're standing directly underneath

the bit that could fall down.

Of all the places you could stand.

With a little persuasion, the first timber comes out nicely...

Hold on, I'm standing on a hole.

..but the next piece of wood isn't coming out without making a mark.

LOUD CRASH

MUFFLED: Wow.

That was dramatic.

Oh, well, can't do anything about it.

Meanwhile, Mandy begins stripping a waterproof tanking barrier

from the wall. With the cellar cleared and drained of water,

the decades-old water ingress protector

is thankfully now redundant.

It's like cardboard that's been soaked in bitumen.

Half an hour later, the first wall is cleared,

allowing the bricks to breathe for the first time in four decades.

MUFFLED: There we are.

One wall down, two to go.

I'm glad that's done, because hopefully that bodes well

for the rest coming off.

We've removed the 1980s to take it back to the 1880s.

Two weeks later, with the strip-out complete,

Andrew and Mandy can finally see the potential

of their centrepiece drawing room.

This room's once elegant original features had been hidden away

for decades. But now, with Andrew and Mandy's careful restoration

under way, a tantalising taste of the room's glorious past

is visible once more.

There may be a long way to go, but the couple's groundwork

has proven that this drawing room's golden age is yet to begin.

As much as everything else in the house,

we particularly want to be respectful of this room. Yeah.

Although it doesn't look like it...

Yes, it doesn't look like it at the moment.

It's going to take us longer than we originally estimated.

The guy that was going to restore the coving for us had to pull out.

That means that we don't have anyone to restore the coving.

The hold-up in proceedings is giving them the chance to reflect

on just how far they've come.

There you go. Lovely, thank you.

Having turned one stable into a photography studio,

and restored the roof of another,

not to mention the drawing room renovation,

progress this year has been impressive.

Yes, we've made good progress.

It's stripped out, it's dry, which was one of the main things.

It was so cold. The walls were so damp.

I'm really, really happy with what we found with the cornice.

It's a proper bit of history that's a bit more elegant

than just the other social history we've found around the house.

It will be done, it's just when it will be done.

And I'm quite excited with what we're going to end up with.

For Andrew, his abiding memory of working in this room

will be the day spent emptying the cellar,

with all the extra pairs of hands who came to help out.

And you'd got, was it 14 people?

15 people? At least that.

Friends and family to come and help us,

and I'd been hit with a migraine.

I felt rotten, not just because I was feeling ill,

but because I knew lots of people had come to help us out.

And I eventually dragged myself downstairs,

and I was almost in tears.

I said, "All these people..." I'm getting emotional now.

And she said, "But that's what friends and family are for."

VOICE CRACKS: That's what underlined that day for me.

It was a great day.

A room full of history,

in which these new custodians are already creating their own memories,

is well on the way to being everything Andrew and Mandy desired.

It would be nice if it's done properly, then hopefully

it will all still be here in another 150 years.

And it'll look fantastic. SHE LAUGHS

In your opinion. SHE LAUGHS AGAIN

You've got to dream sometimes. You've got to dream, haven't you?

Yeah.

Another pair dreaming of fantastic finishes are Drew and Stu

in their Regency villa in Truro, Cornwall, where work is

drawing to a close at their Grade II-listed Castle Lodge.

Just towards this door a little bit.

Drew has already cast his interior design wand

over much of the property...

Ta-dah!

..from the grand entrance and hall, and its dusty palazzo vibe,

to the show-stopping downstairs cloakroom...

So I've gone with tortoiseshell acrylic sheets from Italy.

It's a little bit of fun. It's a little bit of theatre.

..to an unused upstairs office,

now a twin room with a refurbished safe as a talking point,

not to mention the stunning sitting room-diner.

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

Oh, it feels amazing to be finally having our feet up

and enjoying what our achievements have been.

Today, they're inviting friends old and new

to take in the wonder of the renovation.

I want to give other people an opportunity to experience the house,

and I'd love to see what people think.

But there's one room not quite ready for the grand opening -

the guest bedroom, home to the massive conch shell,

and where Drew has created a smart window seat.

He still has some trademark "Drew" flourishes

to add before it's fully finished.

There we go. There's always a final bit of tweaking going on.

And I think this sweet little seascape suits the room.

Drawer space is always handy,

and we've got a nice little spot. Perhaps a lamp.

And I picked this up. It's a big lump of crystal,

but I love dressing the rooms at the end.

That's the best bit, isn't it?

When Drew and Stu took on this property two years ago,

their aim was to give it a personality all of its own.

And in their final room to be finished...

..they have more than delivered.

This, to me, is the more serene room,

and it was very much led by the conch shell.

The shell originally came from the Harrods display department,

where it was part of its window dressing in the 1970s.

The tones have obviously influenced the colour,

the schematic planning of this room,

and it's all in very, very soft slightly oyster colours

to work with the whole vibe of the shell.

I'd love to wake up in this room, overlooking the garden,

hearing the river running at the bottom of the garden.

It gives a real sense of, um, yeah, serenity.

And as friends and neighbours gather,

everyone is rather suitably impressed...

Ladies.

..especially Alfie, one of Drew's crack team

who helped pull off this incredible transformation.

It's been memorable, and I will... Yeah, no, I've had a lot of fun.

It's been very, very good.

What a lovely big board.

Oh, why thank you. HE CHUCKLES

I feel accomplished with what we've achieved. Good.

Drew is in his element, showing his guests around.

This is the winner.

When this comes out, those drop down either end.

It's fun, isn't it?

Come on, then, you two.

Yeah, the chap was on it for, like, three hours...

MAKES BUZZING NOISES ..with his angle grinder.

BELL RINGS

With Truro's town crier as a guest of honour,

it's only fitting he formally opens Castle Lodge.

Oyez! Oyez!

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Castle Lodge

here in the heart of the city of Truro.

This building was designed by architect Philip Sambell,

and now it's handed over to Drew and Stu.

Well done to the both of you.

Thank you, Lionel.

Thank you, Truro!

SINGS: For he's a jolly good fellow

ALL SING: For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow,

and so say all of us!

Do you know? It's so nice to have everybody here that's been

helping us, and all the new friends that we've made in Truro, huh?

Yeah, we've got a great crew behind us.

They've just brought such a great vibe with them as well.

Yeah, we love this city and the people.

I mean, everyone's just been so welcoming and generous.

To our new friends, and to the city of Truro.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

In this series, we've met the most extraordinary renovators.

Oh, look at you!

Oh, you're so proud of yourself.

Some learnt on the job...

Oh, yeah. That's a good technique, isn't it?

..but all were laser-focused...

Now we've just got to keep repeating it 130, 140 times.

..turning damp and crumbling wrecks...

I like to make an entrance.

..into beautiful and welcoming homes.

Looks absolutely amazing.

Looking good.

SHE GASPS

Oh, wow.

Even when times were tough...

I'm exhausted.

SCREAMS: This is where I want to scream!

..they kept forging forwards...

Agh!

I can't just give up at this stage.

..injecting new life...

It's just crazy, the transformation. It's lovely.

..and celebrating every finished room.

It's a little bit of fun.

It's a little bit of theatre.

Wow, this is our bathroom!

SHE GASPS Whoa!

We truly are a renovation nation.

I am the happiest man alive. Oh!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media