This Damp and Dark Basement Flat Was the "Worst House on a Nice Street" - Now It's a Peaceful (and Dry!) Sanctuary

"When the couple bought this basement flat in 2019, it hadn't been lived in for several years. Ru and Holland described it as "pretty wrecked" and a "very damp and dark basement that hadn't been properly dealt with since the 1980s." "It was the cheapest place on a super nice street in Seven Dials, Brighton," Holland continues. "We lived in it, with the rats under the clattered floorboards and decaying, mouldy walls for five years until we were able to remortgage and redesign our home."

""House maintenance in this city has been slack and piecemeal for decades, so we demanded from ourselves to have the place totally renovated from the earth up to deal with the real problems and to future-proof it as a home for ourselves and future owners," Holland explains. The couple fully renovated the space in 2024. The original house price in 2019 was £235k (around $316k)."

The main building dates to 1897 with the cellar converted into living space in the 1970s. The basement flat purchased in 2019 had been uninhabited for years and suffered damp, mould and pest problems. The homeowners lived with those conditions for five years while they remortgaged and planned a full renovation. Planning took over a year and the build nine months, with renovation costs between £150k and £160k and an original purchase price of £235k. The homeowners designed the space themselves, completed the painting, and intended the renovation to future-proof the home for themselves and future owners.

Read at Apartment Therapy