Karen lives in a four-bedroom house in Kent, along with husband Mark, youngest son Zenan, and their cat, Puffle (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Even once you’ve saved up the deposit and sorted a mortgage, getting your dream home is a lot of work.

That’s something Karen, 46, knows firsthand.

Karen, the owner of a bespoke furniture and joinery company, moved into a four-bedroom house in Kent back in February 2016, along with her husband Mark, their youngest son Zenan, 19, and their cat Puffle.

The next four years were spent ‘living on a building site’ as Karen and Mark turned a house ‘in very bad condition’ into a home they can be proud of. Karen now shares photos of the house, called Cherry Oak Manor, on Instagram.




In this week’s What I Own, a weekly series looking into the reality of homeownership, Karen gives us a tour around the house and opens up about all the behind the scenes work that went into its stunning interiors.

Karen owns a bespoke furniture company (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Hey, Karen! Let’s talk money. How much does this place cost?

We paid £371,000 for the house. The deposit was £75,000, which came from the equity when we sold our previous property. We kept some of the funds from the sale to enable us to extend and renovate the house as it was in a very bad condition.

Mortgage outstanding is around £240,000 and costs us £1,400 per month. Other utilities and council tax are approximately £700 per month.

We recently had a valuation on the property done and it is now valued at between £700,000-750,000.

What are you getting for what you paid?

We now have 13 rooms which are lounge/diner, kitchen, home office, gym, cloakroom, four bedrooms, a walk-in wardrobe, our son’s gaming room and two bathrooms.

When we moved in the house had a lounge, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms and one bathroom.

How did you find the house?

We looked on RightMove. We wanted a renovation property and always loved the road the house was on. We never dreamed we would be able to afford a house on this road or of this size.

We knew within seconds of walking into the house that it was the one for us. We could see straight past the hideous carpets, non-existent kitchen and damp, and could visualise how it would look with some TLC.

She designed and renovated major parts of the home (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Do you feel like you have enough space?

Yes! In fact, we have more space than we need now there are only three of us at home.

It is nice to have the guest bedrooms for when family and friends come to stay. I would however like to build another smaller extension in the future to have a utility room and hot tub room – this will not happen anytime soon as we don’t have the funds available.

Can you talk us through some of the DIY projects you’ve done?

All of our home is a DIY project. I project managed the build of our extension, we took on a bricklayer, electrician and plumber but the rest we either did ourselves.



I’m not a skilled person but was I useful as a labourer, I suppose. I did my fair share or loading skips, stripping the dreaded woodchip wallpaper of the ceilings and walls, ripping up carpet, painting, etc.

My husband did the more skilled parts such as fitting floor joists, ceilings, walls, architraves, doors. Some of our friends/staff have also helped along the way.

All of our fitted furniture such as the tv wall unit, kitchen & walk-in wardrobe are bespoke and made by my company, BDI Furniture Limited.

And you made your son an amazing gaming room, called Cherry Oak Tavern! Tell us about that.

Our son is into Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer so wanted a medieval-themed gaming room, which he requested as a Christmas present one week before the big day.

Luckily I have a husband who can come up with designs and make the furniture, wall panels, and ceiling beams. A couple of my staff gave up a few days of their Christmas break to help manufacture the bar and wall panels.

My brother helped by ripping out the cabinets and carpet in the room and hanging the wallpaper.

One of the coolest DIY projects in the house is the Cherry Oak Tavern, a gaming room for Zenan themed around a medieval pub (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Zenan asked for the room as a Christmas gift… a week before Christmas (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

The process was very quick we sat down on a Sunday evening with our son and designed the furniture side of the room.

Hubby drew up the designs and a cutting list so I could order in materials the next day. He then commenced cutting and manufacturing.

I spent a few hours online souring themed lights, decorations and accessories.


To be honest I was dreading the theme when I first suggested it but I loved planning the look and sourcing the bits.

How else have you made the house feel like home?

We have designed each room to have its own theme and character. Each room has the stamp of hubby’s, son;s or my ideas.

It is important to us to have the home how we want it and not as to what is on trend.

Having nice accessories such as flowers, plants and soft furnishings in the home are important to me as they do make it feel more homely.

As we have designed the extension and renovated the whole house, it feels like it was never owned by someone else and every part of the house has our stamp on it.

Karen says she’d rather choose things she likes than try to follow trends (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Your house is so clean and tidy despite being, well, massive. How do you manage that?

Working long hours I don’t have time to clean all day, so my mum comes in once a week and does a proper clean. I clean surfaces daily when I have finished cooking and generally just tidy up as I go.

I do all of my laundry at the weekend so it can be washed, dried and put away.

I try not to have too much clutter on the sides, although I do have some accessories I do find sometimes less can be so much more.

I am lucky to have lots of storage which also helps to keep the house tidy and clutter-free.


You have a home office, too. What’s it like to work from home?

I don’t work from home that much, I mainly continue working from home in the evenings and at the weekends.

I have been a business owner for 20 years now (I had a previous business which was children’s entertainment before moving across to the furniture industry six years ago), so I have either worked from home or had to take work home with me. It’s just the norm.

The only time I can switch off from work is when I go on holiday.

Karen’s home office, where she often works in the evenings (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

What are your housing plans for the future?

I would like to say this is our forever home. My husband may have other ideas.

It is a home we could only ever have dreamt of owning, we would never have been able to afford it if we had purchased one of this size full refurbished.

It has been very hard work the past four years – two to three of those were spent pretty much living in a building site.

At one stage when it was time to knock through from the old to new house I ended up bathing in an open hallway. This was a little challenging as it meant hanging sheets up so as not to embarrass a teenage son, and timing baths and showers around builders being on site.

I would like to get the house completely finished and enjoy it for a number of years before even thinking about moving. When asked will I do another renovation I usually reply not yet but will never say never.

Fair. Shall we have a look around?

The living room (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Look at that fireplace! (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Here’s the kitchen (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

A very jazzy fruit bowl (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Nice, right? (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

The dining area (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

One of the guest rooms (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

And another (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

The master bedroom (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

(Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Karen’s massive walk-in wardrobe (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

(Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

That’s a lot of shoes (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Finally, the master bathroom (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

Wait, you don’t store your toothbrushes next to a Buddha statue? (Picture: Andrew Hasson/Metro.co.uk)

How to get involved in What I Own What I Own is a Metro.co.uk series that takes you inside people's properties, to take an honest look at what it's like to buy a home in the UK. If you own your home and would be up for sharing your story, please email whatirent@metro.co.uk. You'll need to have pictures taken of your kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, plus a few photos of you in your room. Make sure you get permission for your housemates! You'll also need to be okay with sharing how much you've paid to live there and how you afforded the deposit, as that's pretty important. If you're renting, you can take part too! What I Own runs alongside What I Rent, which is the same series but all about renting. Again, if you'd like to get involved just email whatirent@metro.co.uk.

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