‘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