Couple accidentally buy 120-year-old mansion instead of flat

A young couple have ended up with the mother of all DIY projects after mistakenly buying a 120-year-old derelict mansion at auction.

Cal Hunter, 26, accidentally bid £30,000 on the wrong property while girlfriend Claire Segeran, 25, was in Canada.

To make matters worse, they were looking for a two-bedroom flat in Glasgow but their new home is 35 miles away in Dunoon, Scotland.

But rather than being horrified at their new purchase, they have dubbed it a ‘beautiful mistake’ and say they have fallen in love with Jameswood Villa.

Despite being advised by an expert to tear the whole thing down and start again, they have plans to renovate the whole building.

Claire, from Toronto, Canada, said: ‘Discovering we had bought a massive derelict house that had been abandoned for 20 years and not a two-bedroom apartment did come as a bit of a shock.

‘It was in a state of partial collapse, it was subsiding, there were gaping holes in the roof and walls, the timbers were rotten and the land was waterlogged. Derelict was too mild a word.’

But despite their reservations, they decided to take it on and have now moved into a caravan in the garden while they clear out the debris from their future home.

They want to turn it into three flats and sell two off to pay off their existing debt, according to the Daily Record.

Claire had planned to study medicine at Glasgow University but could not afford the increased fees for international students so she and Cal, from Hull, decided to buy a property to do up and sell.

Now, she works on the house full-time while Cal works as a carpenter and spends his spare time working on the house.

Since starting work in November the couple have had assistance from friends, but realise some of the jobs are just too big.

Cal said: ‘Finding a new problem seems to be a daily occurrence here at Jameswood. It has taken us until now to find the electricity cable that will allow us to connect to the mains.

‘Our van was getting stuck in the mud so we put down a driveway which we had to dig up a week later to find the elusive water supply.

‘The house needs a new roof but a civil engineer has told us the walls probably won’t be strong enough to hold it up so we will have to fix them first and risk the rain coming through the roof ruining them.’

Despite the challenges they both remain positive, and say the renovation is the perfect way to test their relationship.

And if they pull it off, they will be mortgage free in their twenties, something which they say would be a ‘great achievement’.

To follow their adventures as they do up the home, follow their blog ‘What have we Dunoon?’