Bottom's Up.

Byline: Diane Massey

LIFE below stairs can be an uplifting experience. That's what Diana Foss and Greg Allen found once they had transformed a dank Victorian basement to a swish garden flat.

It took some time and a lot of vision to deal with the problems they found 15 years ago, but their pounds 6,000 cellar near Sefton Park, Liverpool, has rocketed in value and has just sold for over pounds 100,000 Like the bottom floor of all Victorian mansions, the basement was the engine room of a massive operation with all the below-stairs apparatus which goes with it:

yards of massive old pipes, boilers and a cellar full of coal.

Greg was a surveyor and had the confidence to realise that the property was sound, although Diana had a few initial doubts.

They were living near by in inexpensive rented accommodation while building work was carried out. This included raising the height of the floor by one foot to carry out remedial work on damp floors. All the interior doorways had subsequently to be raised by one foot. Greg and Diana bought some replacement old doors in pine because the original ones were unsightly.

"When we came in here the flat had no original features, no nice fireplaces or anything like that, " recalls Diana who works as a solicitor. "There wasn't anything here that you could say, yes I'll keep that, the whole place was fairly manky."

There was no heating and the plumbing was virtually non-existent. An ancient lavatory took up space by the outside garden door. This was demolished and the outside door was moved three feet to the side to create a more central entrance while the old doorway became a window to let more natural light into the hallway.

The large lounge has walls in pale grass green. They bought the slate fireplace and the pine floorboards. None of the rooms had useable floors. "It was all either stone or tiles, " Diana remembers.

In the master bedroom an art deco theme prevails with soft browns and oranges and a semi-circular mirror, an art deco corner cabinet, and a 1930s standard lamp. A Bakelite phone is beside the bed while above gambol 1930s plaster mould figures. The curtains were hand-painted by a friend and assembled by upholsterer Barbara Sheilds who Greg and Diana used to restore all the upholstery in the house. An impressive Japanese style wardrobe with rice paper panels stores their clothes.

The guest bedroom was constructed from the old coal cellar after the coal chute was bricked up and a wall knocked down. In the spacious kitchen, which is white and royal blue, another friend created blue and mirror tile splash backs for behind the work surfaces.

Greg and Diana love their two-bedroom home, but now need more space.

After their initial investment, building work cost them pounds 12,000 and they have spent more money installing a new bathroom and decorating over the years. They sold the flat for well upwards of pounds 100,000 within three days, and on the fourth day they were offered pounds 3,000 more than the asking price.

They turned the second offer down. "We didn't want to get mixed up in gazumping" says Greg.

Now they are looking forward to the challenges presented by their new home. We wish them the best of luck.

CAPTION(S):

BASE RATE: Diane Foss and Greg Allen whose stunning cellar flat, pictured, has just sold for well over pounds 100,000. They bought it for pounds 6,000 in 1986