DREAM HOME WIN JUST THE TICKET
AMANCHESTER family have won a luxury Snowdonia cottage from a £5 raffle ticket. Janet Shepherd, 40, is now the new owner of a fully-furnished twobedroom cottage in Criccieth after its owners decide to raffle away their home to raise money for charity.
Back in 2018 Ryan Mclean and Katherine Jablonowska bought Cwellyn Cottage for £150,000 after falling in love with North Wales.
And after completely renovating the house by themselves they have practically given it away – raising £66,000 in the process for charity the Children’s Society.
Janet, who was on her lunch break at her role in the civil service when she received the news, said: “I was just in shock really. I had entered the competition at the beginning of lockdown and I’d kind of forgotten about it I think.
“I just thought the chances of winning it are pretty slim, but the money goes to charity which is why I did it in the first place.
“I’d forgotten about it when I got the phone call at lunch – it was out of the blue.”
For Janet, husband Neil and sons Harry and Callum the prize is especially welcome, considering they have never been to Snowdonia before.
They plan to use their new home as an escape away from the city on school holidays and weekends.
The family-of-four plan to travel across to Wales today to see the cottage in person for the very first time.
Janet said: “We’re about a two hours’ drive, but it’s not an area we have explored so it will be all new for us and our extended family.
“It will be really exciting to venture somewhere new. It’s ideal for our boys with the beach and mountains to do some exploring. The plan is to have it as a second home, somewhere we can escape to on weekends or school holidays.”
Talking about her family’s reaction, she added: “I think their reaction as well as my husband’s was ‘how long have we got it for?’ like it was a week away or a holiday.”
With its quaint stone walls, bespoke kitchen, two double bedrooms and modern bathroom with a claw-foot bathtub, the stunning cottage is now worth around £290,000.
Dating back to the 1800s and tucked away on the outskirts of the Snowdonia National Park, it also boasts a double inglenook fireplace and original exposed beams.
According to Ryan, while the idea of raffling away a house may sound like a fun idea, the complex process required them to sell at least 80,000 tickets in four months to make the competition viable.
In the end they sold just under 90,000 – raising almost £66,000 for charity in the process as well as leaving them with roughly the same amount as market value once costs such as stamp duty and admin is accounted for.
Ryan, who is also a trained carpenter, said: “Hopefully they’ll be just as happy when they see it.
“We went into it knowing we were going to raffle it off, it was always a prize, so we had to keep in mind that it was someone else’s house. After two years and all the work it will be difficult to say goodbye, but I’m happy for us to know we have actually changed someone’s life.”
A world away from the North Wales countryside, Ryan was a chef and Katherine a hospitality manager before they both gave up their jobs to concentrate fully on the cottage. Wasting no time, the husband and wife team have already set their sights on their next project now the raffle is finished.
Given their success, they want to do the same thing all over again by setting up a business to support others to raffle off their homes – naming it Cwellyn Dream after the cottage.
Ryan said: “We have fallen in love with Wales, there’s no doubt about it. We will need to relocate temporarily but we will be returning as soon as we can. Everyone has been caught off guard with Covid.
“Most people who know us knew we were planning to open a restaurant. Those plans have to be put off indefinitely, so we decided to shift gear and get into raffle management.
“It’s very easy to not do enough research, people fall into that trap about not doing all the research they need and they need to get proper legal representation.
“It’s like running a business, that’s how my wife and I approached it from the beginning. If we were going to do it we were going to do it properly, we were vetted by the UK Gambling commission. People don’t realise how much day-to-day work it can be to do, it’s like a full-time job.
“So many people are in a bad situation in the housing market, I can’t remember the last time it was good to be honest. If we are able to help someone sell their home, get the price they want and give a home to someone who needs it and at the same time raise thousands of pounds, it’s a win win. Our aim is to make a really viable alternative to selling on the traditional market.”