During a walk along the Barmouth seafront, Elaine and Alan Taylor would spot a building that would change the course of their lives forever.
Thee building in question was a humble unused toilet block, but Elain and Alan saw its potential, spending 10 years transforming the abandoned bog into their dream beachside home.
Elaine told Wales Online: “We have a love of Wales, a love of Barmouth and a love of the ocean. We were on holiday in Barmouth and the council had put a for sale sign up on the building. We thought that it would amazing because of its proximity to the sand dunes and the sea, and what an opportunity to renovate something and improve the area, take something that’s unloved, unused and make it into something really nice.”
And so, for the next few months, the couple kept an eye on the council’s website, waiting for the beautifully situated loo to be released for bidding to buy to begin. When the time came, they weren’t quite sure what kind of offer to make, and, in 2015, they put forward £33,000 in a blind bidding process. Their offer was accepted but friends certainly had a few questions at the time…
According to Elaine: “A lot of people told us ‘that’s an interesting choice!’ and I think you hear about things like this a bit more now but when we bought it I think it was quite unusual and people kept asking if we were keeping them as toilets!”
This wasn’t on the agenda – there was already a perfectly servicable public toilet block on the beach. Instead, Elane and Alan had a far more creative idea in mind. Elaine, 53, revealed: “We had always thought about buying a property by the seaside but we’d always resisted because I understand why it’s not a good thing for the local economy, not good for young people in the area, and pushes the house prices up.
“So part of the reason we bought and transformed the empty toilet block was because we felt like we weren’t taking housing stock away and we were just improving the area by reviving an abandoned building.
“It has been shut for years and inside it was awful, it has been essentially boarded up for years and everything was still there, all the toilets and everything, it was very sandy as it had managed to get into the building from the beach and it was very smelly is how I remember it!”
However, this was no quick process and delays meant this was a project ten years in the making. Although planning was approved in autumn 2016, one of the conditions stipulated that, because the toilet was next to a school, they wouldn’t be able to make a start until the summer holidays 2017. And things only got more stressful from there.
Elaine, from Greater Manchester, shared: “As the toilet block is located by the beach the planners wanted us to consult with Natural Resources Wales. “Our vision all along was we would renovate the toilet block including the slate roof but NRW wanted us to raise the floor level by about a metre for flood mitigation. So when the floor level was raised, the roof level would have to be raised.
“And that’s when it all changed completely because at that point we had to put in completely different plans, the vision changed completely, and when we discussed it with the planners they said if we couldn’t retain the features of the building then they wanted it to be a brand new, quite modern looking building, they didn’t think we could replicate the old.”
They experienced further delays and costs when it came to the classification of the building, which had gone through the planning process as a renovation, not a new build, despite everything being new. Elaine remembered: “We had to retain the foundations, which meant the building had to be taken down by hand so as not to damage the foundations.”
Bidding blind also resulted in some additional frustrating hurdles. Elaine said: “When it was up for sale we couldn’t go into the property and so it was a blind bid so we assumed it would have electric because it has been a toilet block and water too.
“After we bought it, we discovered that the electrics were hooked up to the street lamps, and unfortunately, with the water, once the pipes had gone past a certain age, you have to replace them. So the pavement had to be dug up to install electricity and replace all the plumbing, so the project just grew and grew.”
Elaine estimates that, the total costs oft creating their unique one-bed home added up £260,000, on top of their initial £30,000 purchase price. This was despite painter and decorator Alan, aged 63, taking care of all the interior décor.
The couple was impressed with their builders, G & W Wiggleswort,h from Talsarnau. They stated that all the contractors they chose from the local area, apart from the specialist roof company, had done an amazing job, allowing them to bring their unusual dream to life.
Although the local community was slightly bemused by the intriguing project, Elaine says they’ve also been completely supportive.
She recalled: “When we were there working, a lot of the locals would pass and stop and ask us questions because I don’t think people realised it was going to be transformed into a home. We were very open to the local interest. We’d say, ‘Come inside and have a look!’
“What we really learnt about Barmouth is that the community there all talk, a rumour went round that we went bankrupt and everyone who passed when we were working on it said, ‘oh, we’d heard you’d gone bankrupt!’ No-one has come up to us with any objections or criticisms, the local community have been wonderful, really supportive.”
The couple’s circumstances have since changed, given that Elaine no longer works a significant amount of time in Wales. Going forward, they’re keen for the property to be used and loved once more, and so have made a tough decision.
Elaine continued: “It’s been a real labour of love really, it’s been a long journey. But I think it is so important that people now find buildings that are unused and unloved and make them into something wonderful, to give them a purpose again. We kept joking that if it could go wrong it did go wrong but we wanted to see it through even though there were a few times we thought about packing it in.”
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