After more than 18 months of hard work on his dream home, Drew Pritchard is in a frantic dash to the finish line before he can move into his new home.
The clock is ticking down to mere days, and he has to add the final flourishes to the top levels of his majestic Grade I-listed Georgian townhouse in Bath, Somerset.
The journey here hasn't been smooth sailing, though. It has been a bumpy ride filled with pain and hefty costs, turning his dream at times into an outright nightmare. Having offloaded his beloved 1820s cottage in Conwy, north Wales, to cover the unforeseen restoration bills, the reality of his situation is hitting home for the Salvage Hunter star.
"This is a big step for me," he confessed in the final episode of the Salvage Hunter special series, Georgian House Restoration. "I'm moving to a different country, England. I've never lived in a city, and I'm going to be living in this enormous house on my own.
"To get to this point with this house, I've wheeled and dealed more than I've ever done in my entire life. Bought, sold, swapped, you name it, I've done it. This house has brought me literally to the edge. It's been such a big job, financially, mentally, physically, all of it. It's been really difficult this one, really difficult."
Drew has invested heavily in this venture, pouring £1.5m into the purchase of the five-storey gem and another £200,000 into its revival. He's gutted the place, ripped out five poorly constructed flats, replaced the property's Eryri slate roof, and refurbished 28 sash windows, reports North Wales Live.
Now, as the top two floors near completion, he's gearing up for what he calls the "most exciting bit" – decking out the rooms.
Drew, a self-proclaimed "magpie," is determined to maintain the authenticity of his 1893-built property, going to great lengths to source period-appropriate door handles and knobs. However, he can't resist throwing in a few surprises.
He has been dubbed a "junkyard genius" for his ability to find treasure in other people's trash. His goal has always been to infuse his new home with Georgian authenticity.
Drew made an unexpected choice when he splashed out on a brutalist 1970s bed frame by Italian designer Luciano Frigerio. He plans to place it prominently in the master bedroom of his Bath abode.
"I'd planned for your classic four-poster English country house 18th-century bed," he shared. "And then I saw this and I was like, 'Man, that's it'. It is not what you'd expect to have in here. It's cool in this room."
On the hunt for perfect door furniture, he hit up a Norfolk salvage yard's "knob shed," where he chanced upon a weathered sandstone threshold step, which now serves as a base for his French slipper bath.
Describing his idyllic bath time, Drew paints the picture: "So imagine bath night. It's full of water bubbling away, lovely fire on. I wanted it to look like it's always been there."
He then ticked a few choice items off his wishlist during his jaunt to the sprawling Shepton flea market, an event that beckons hundreds of dealers and which sits tantalisingly close to Drew's new pad, a mere stone's throw at less than 25 miles away.
In the thick of the treasure hunt, Drew's gaze fell upon a set of Drexel Captiva Hollywood bedside tables from the 1980s, setting his antique-loving heart aflutter.
"£450? I really like them," he enthused, with a pragmatic nod to necessity: "Bedside tables, everybody needs them. It's really tricky to find good ones that are just right."
Bargaining like the pro he is, Drew proposed: "There's one problem with them – too much money. To take them away now, £300?" The seller, unfazed, agreed to the cut-price deal with a shake.
Accompanying Drew on this antiquing adventure in Shepton Mallet was Bath architect Rhys Brookes, who's been lending his expertise to Drew's restoration project. Despite being wide-eyed with amazement, Rhys confesses to learning a truckload about sourcing quality antiques and haggling thanks to Drew's savvy eye.
"To be honest, he's seen something [with the bedside tables] that I just did not see in them," he sighed.
But the true gem of Drew's day was acquiring an authentic art deco desk lamp by Eileen Grey, which, at £ 250, he believed to be an absolute steal.
"Happy days!" he chuckled after swiftly nabbing the piece, which regularly commands a price two to four times higher.
He figured an extra £100 for refurbishing would still make it a bargain buy, saying: "That's a lot of cool for £350."
For Drew, striking lighting plays second fiddle only to paint or wallpaper in setting a home's atmosphere.
After a gruelling 18 months filled with stress and moments of terror, he is finally ready to settle into the top two floors of his new home.
"It's starting to feel like home," he admitted. "Very soon, it's going to be home, as I've got nowhere else to go!"
Rhys, who has been instrumental in preserving the project's heritage aspects, believes Drew has struck gold with his property choice.
"I've looked at lots of buildings in Bath, and this is probably one of the nicest ones I've ever seen," he remarks.
"I wouldn't say he's lucked out because he's obviously thought about it quite carefully, but he's got probably the best house – the best location in Bath."
Watch episode five of Salvage Hunters: Georgian House Restoration at 8pm, on March 8, on Quest TV. Stream the entire series on Discovery+.
