‘My £148,000 Greater Manchester house is like a catfish… people don’t expect what is inside’

Taking on a renovation project is one of the best ways that you can put your own stamp on a property. Many homeowners will buy a house that they see potential in, and then spend time stripping it back to basics before making it their own.

By doing this, you can often turn what looks like an ordinary house into your dream home. And Shannon and her partner Jordan have transformed their £148,000 semi-detached home in Aspull, Wigan, so it’s now completely unrecognisable from how it looked before they bought it. After adding an extension, renovating each room and giving their garden a luxury makeover, it is now estimated to be worth more than double what they bought it for.

Shannon, 29, spoke to the Manchester Evening News as part of our Where I Live series. Each week we speak to a different homeowner or renter who lives in Greater Manchester to hear about their buying, renting or renovation journey – whilst taking a look inside their home.

READ MORE: ‘I spent £15k renovating a rundown Greater Manchester house – and sold it for £92k more than I bought it’

Parents-to-be Shannon and Jordan bought their first house when they were 21 – a small terrace in Wigan which they renovated and sold – with the money they made from it setting them up to buy a bigger second house.

“We bought this house during lockdown around three years ago,” Shannon told the Manchester Evening News. “I initially wanted a new build because of the stress of renovating our first house. I didn’t want to do it all again because it was too much. But when we went looking at new builds they all seemed so small, so we decided to look at older properties.”

The couple wanted to live in a similar area, and ended up coming across a house nearby that was being sold off market. “It was about a five minute drive away from where we were previously living. Jordan’s dad is in the property business and someone rang him to say that this woman was selling her home, it hadn’t been advertised online and she wanted a quick sale,” Shannon explained.

“We went and had a look around. It had just had a brand new kitchen put in which wasn’t even 12 months old but it just wasn’t to our taste. The house wasn’t in a bad condition but it just needed modernising. It had two garages on the side of the house so we thought we could knock those down and build an extension.

“We knew exactly what we wanted to do with it and that we could put our own stamp on it. We didn’t view any other houses after that. We were happy with it so we gave her an offer and she accepted it.”

Shannon and Jordan moved into their new home in 2021 and began working on it right away. “When we moved in, we ripped the front room out and put a media wall in. We also painted it, got new carpets and renovated the bathroom upstairs,” she said.

“But because we knew we were going to do an extension, we didn’t want to do anything major to it until it was complete because we knew there would be a lot of mess and dust which could ruin it.

“At first we didn’t know whether to put the extension on the back – because the garden’s really big – or on the side, but because there was so much space on the side where the two garages were, we just decided to keep the garden space and extend on the side instead of the back.”

The couple began their extension in 2022 and initially planned to live in the house during it, but it became unfeasible. “When we started knocking walls down it was just too much. So we ended up moving back in with Jordan’s mum and dad,” Shannon said.

“We only thought we were going to be there for about three or four weeks but it was so hard trying to get builders to come and finish the jobs with the weather and things like that, so we ended up living with them for about four or five months instead of four weeks.”

The extension was completed in August 2023, ending up taking around 12 months in total. Shannon said: “I was desperate to move back in as we were so used to having our own space. But there was still things left to do at that point.

“We had the garden done in October 2023, and then we finished all the rooms upstairs. At the moment we are doing up the baby’s nursery which was a spare bedroom. We have also got two other bedrooms that still need finishing off so we’re just in the middle of renovating them, then after that every room will have been transformed.”

Speaking about the interior style of her home, Shannon said: “At first I was going for a more modern look but recently I’ve gone for a bit more modern country style. I started off with blacks, creams and golds but then as soon as we did the extension, I ended up going all grey. My house is mainly monochrome and neutral colours.”

After going over budget on their extension and garden, the pair have done bits of DIY throughout the house to cut costs. “I’ve done my own panelling in our en-suite bathroom and I did some panelling downstairs in the kitchen,” Shannon said. “Jordan and my dad are really handy so they’ve done bits of plastering and putting up studied walls.

“We had a budget for the extension but it was way more than we expected it to be so we have had to get some tools out and do some jobs ourselves, and that’s why it has taken a lot longer than we thought as well.”

After transforming the inside of her home, Shannon hopes to renovate the outside in the future as she said her house is like a ‘catfish’. “Because we were way over budget on the extension and garden, we haven’t touched the outside. The front of the house desperately needs doing, but with the baby coming we can’t afford that at the minute so it’s going to have to wait.

“It’s like a catfish because you look at the front of the house and think ‘oh god’ and then you walk inside and see the garden and it’s completely different. People don’t expect it.”

After buying her new house, Shannon set up her home Instagram account @the_crawfordreno which has since amassed more than 22,600 followers with a few videos going viral.

“I set it up in 2021 and to be honest I just started by taking pictures of ornaments and items that I had bought. The house wasn’t done and we hadn’t even started the extension at this point, so I was just posting snippets of rooms and bits of DIY,” she said.

“Once the bathroom was done, I then started creating content from that. Over the years my account has grown gradually bit by bit but these last couple of months I’ve just had a spike in followers. One of my reels of my garden has had nearly two million views and I don’t know how. It was just potluck. I didn’t do anything differently to what I usually do.”

Looking back on her renovation, Shannon said: “The biggest thing I’ve learnt whilst renovating is that you can set a budget but you never really stick to it. Always budget higher than you think because everything is so expensive these days so it ends up being a lot more than what you expect.

“With your interior style, just go for what you like. Everything comes in and out of fashion so quickly. I’ve redecorated our front living room four times since we moved in, Jordan’s sick of me.

“I think with Instagram you’re always comparing your home to others and can get influenced on how your home needs to look, but I think you just need to enjoy your house how you like it rather than wanting what someone else has got on Instagram.”

Shannon and Jordan’s house was valued at £260,000 after the extension, but they expect it to be valued higher now the garden has been completed – which will hopefully help them to move further up the ladder.

“We’ve had it valued but the garden wasn’t done at the time. Once it is valued with the garden and the front of the house done too then it will be even higher than that,” Shannon said. “We don’t plan to stay here forever but we will be here for a while and then I’m hoping that our next property is a detached house.

“We started off with a terrace, now we’re in a semi so I’d like to think that with the money we make from this we can buy a detached. We’re hoping that the money we’ve spent on this we’ll get back once we sell it.”