Couple hit the jackpot while renovating first home: 'Literally gasped'
Neha and Charlie fell in love with the idyllic 1950s house at first sight. But they couldn't believe their eyes once they took a closer look.
It was love at first sight.
As soon as Neha and Charlie clapped their eyes on the idyllic 1950s London home up for sale earlier this year, the young couple knew it had to be theirs.
“We loved the style of the property including all of its original features,” the pair told Yahoo News Australia. “We loved that fact that we would be the second owners as only one lady had it between [the] 1950s and now.”
After picking up the keys to their first house, Neha and Charlie, who are both aged 30, felt like they had already struck gold.
But the new venture just kept getting better.
A few weeks later the couple, who have been documenting their renovation journey on TikTok, peeled back the corner of the vintage green carpet in their living room to find wooden ‘herringbone parquet’ flooring in “superb condition”.
“We were so shocked. We love original features and this one’s the best of all,” they told Yahoo. And they’re not alone.
Video footage of the moment the pair discovered the intricate pattern has racked up more than six million views since it was posted online just days ago.
“I literally gasped,” one person wrote. “This would be my absolute dream,” another said. Numerous others questioned why the parquet floor — which has come in and out of style over the years — would ever be covered in the first place.
Previous owner sealed parquet floor decades ago
Neha and Charlie said they’ve since learned the feature, which extends all throughout the downstairs except for the kitchen, was sanded, sealed and covered in carpet by the 96-year-old prior owner in the 1980s or 1990s.
They assume she did so due to warmth, change of style, or to possibly to prevent slips.
“She mainly lived in the home by herself — hence why the floor is in such good condition,” said the couple, who are “still working away”. “We’re renovating most of the house ourselves so it will take a while!”
While the pair said they are unsure of the value of their parquet flooring, they do believe they likely wouldn’t have been able to buy the property if the sought-after characteristic hadn’t been hidden.
In August, another London couple went viral after they discovered wooden ‘diamond parquet’ flooring in impressively good condition tucked under layers of dirty, old carpet. Josh and Emily said they believed the feature — which a specialist estimated to be worth between A$38,000 and A$48,000 — had been sealed for about 30 years.
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