How Courier journalist who ‘couldn’t put a shelf up straight’ renovated an Auchmithie holiday cottage

Features writer Jack McKeown transformed a derelict coastal cottage in the Angus village into a thriving holiday home.

By Jack McKeown

November 15 2024, 6:00am

Clifftop Cottage after the renovation was completed. Image: Kris Miller.

When I’m not working hard(ish) in my day job as a journalist I moonlight as a property developer.

I’ve been doing it for around 10 years now and have completed roughly 15 projects, including an attic extension on my own house.

I am not handy. At all. I couldn’t even put a shelf up straight. So how have I done it?

I started by selling my four-bedroom house in Dundee and downsizing to a rundown garden flat in the West End. That freed up enough money to put a deposit down on four flats and I’ve built it up from there.

The cottage had been empty for several years. Image: Kris Miller.

I did up the garden flat, sold it for a profit, and upgraded back to another house. It was a couple of years of hassle and hard work but hopefully it will enable me to retire earlier and more comfortably.

One of my favourite projects is an old fisherman’s cottage on the Angus coastline.

Auchmithie cottage

Auchmithie is a charming little village perched on the cliffs a few miles north of Arbroath.

I viewed the cottage in between lockdowns and had an offer accepted towards the end of 2020.

We got the keys just before Christmas.

The cottage was stripped back to its bare walls. Image: Jack McKeown.

The cottage had lain empty for nearly three years and was in a poor condition inside. We paid a labourer to completely strip it out.

After a couple of weeks we were left with the bare stone walls and interior timber framing. A blank canvas.

The first order of business was to insulate the cottage so it will cost less to heat.

Insulation was fitted in all of the external walls. Image: Jack McKeown.

It was a piece of time consuming low-skilled work that we could save money on by doing ourselves. My partner Eilidh and I spent half a dozen weekends and a lot of evenings at the cottage, measuring, cutting and fitting sheets of rigid insulation.

I also spent a couple of itchy and uncomfortable afternoons rolling out layers of rockwool insulation in the attic.

The renovation was time consuming but rewarding. Image: Jack McKeown.

We did all the painting ourselves and filled several skips with waste material. I also did all the running around ordering and buying materials for the workmen.

Terrific team of trades

We used a superb team of joiners, Easthaven-based JGPS Property, to do all the skilled work, and sparky Rob Henry did the electrics.

The biggest change we made to the cottage was removing the dividing wall between the living room and kitchen, turning them from two pokey little spaces into a spacious open plan living area.

There is an open plan living area now. Image: Kris Miller.

Both rooms had a window facing the street and a skylight window on the roof. We opened up the ceiling to full roof height between the skylights, making a nice feature out of the exposed beams.

The semi-vaulted roof under construction. Image: Jack McKeown.

We bought the cottage for £70,000 and spent £43,000 renovating it. I estimate we saved around £10,000 with the work we did ourselves. It should now be worth around £150,000 so we’ve got a bit of equity in it if we ever decide to sell it.

Holiday rental

Since we finished what we’ve renamed Clifftop Cottage we’ve operated it as a holiday let. It just about covers its costs through the winter months and makes a nice little profit during the summer.