A HEAVENLY RENOVATION FOR COUPLE
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IF YOU live in a semi-detached house and your attached neighbour puts their property on the market would you be tempted to buy it? That was the scenario for John and Lisa Karamouzis – and their neighbour happened to be a rundown chapel.
John said: “In 1988 we bought the chapel house which was directly connected to the chapel at the rear. It was owned by the body of the church and was called Zoar Chapel and they were using it maybe once a month for a small congregation of Welsh-speaking people in the village of Wenvoe.
“They decided it was a bit rundown and didn’t want it any longer so I put a bid in for it and was successful in buying it – it was the obvious choice for us.”
The pews were gone and all that was left was a large empty space but the creative couple, originally from Cardiff, could visualise how they could transform it into a stunning dream home.
John said: “It was a wreck: there were holes in the roof and damp throughout so it has had a really extensive overhaul.
“We wanted to put in a mezzanine floor so that we kept the height of the ceiling, creating a double-height space with the roof rafters exposed.”
But the mezzanine turned out to be the biggest and most expensive element of the property’s transformation.
The inserted floating floor not only needed huge steel girders to be added but it also needed someone with the expertise to install them.
John said: “It was a challenge finding someone who could do it because it was a tough aspect to get right because it literally floats.”
But the couple were very clear about the curved shape of the mezzanine, however challenging that made the build, as they wanted the shape to be in harmony with the original windows.
Another clever idea included in the renovation was to expand these arched windows down to the floor and then install sets of french doors out to the sun-splashed garden terrace which feels like a Mediterranean paradise.
Inside, the house offers a mix of big social spaces and smaller cosier rooms that embrace you with a more intimate ambience and the contemporary interior style is totally unique to the couple.
John is keen to advise people to be a bit bolder with their own conversion projects. He said: “Just be gutsy and not be afraid – just do it, just smash it about, don’t be afraid to express yourself. People tend to go traditional with it but we didn’t have a choice because it was all ripped out.
“We then thought: ‘Do we go back to dark woods and pews?’ but that is not our style.
“We’ve travelled a lot in life and my wife is Anglo-Indian, of Asian heritage, and I’m Greek so we just fused the both.”
One aspect of many church and chapel transformations that owners have to grapple with is that the building comes with graves in the garden or even a full graveyard.
John said: “Some people think it’s a bit eerie having the graves in the garden but they are non-consecrated so no-one visits them any longer – they are very old.
“We could get them moved but we thought: ‘Why bother?’ We have planted shrubs and trees around them and only a couple of relatives were freaked out by them but we love them.”
The chapel and chapel house, now combined into one dream home, is for sale for £875,000 with MGY, Radyr. Call 029 2084 2124 to find out more.