A COUPLE renovated a stinky abandoned loo into their dream seaside home – but only after a decade long struggle.
Elaine and Alan Taylor spotted the unused toilet block alongside the coastal town of Barmouth in north-west Wales and had an immediate brainwave.
The duo, from Greater Manchester, pulled their wallets out and forked out £33,000 for the derelict building in 2015.
“We have a love of Wales, a love of Barmouth and a love of the ocean,” Elaine, 53, told Wales Online.
“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.
“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, Elaine and Alan soon ran into obstacles before they could roll their sleeves up.
The couple could only start reinventing the gaff during the summer of 2017 as the toilet was located next to a school.
Elaine continued: “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.”
The two were hampered by further delays and mounting costs when it came to the classification of the building.
She added: “We had to retain the foundations, which meant the building had to be taken down by hand so as not to damage the foundations.”
“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.”
It is estimated the couple have been set back £260,000 on their fresh one-bedroom home excluding the £33,000 they paid for the property.
But despite the setbacks, Elaine said locals were always supportive of their plans.
“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,” she recalled.
“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.”
