Buyers determined to 'bring back' burnt-out house

Debbie and Mick Worboys bought the house to restore and create a dream home, but the couple admit an element of buyers' remorse

A couple admitted feeling buyer's remorse after completing a deal to buy a burnt-out farmhouse.

Gables Farm, in Martham near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, was devastated by fire in April 2021, with 65 firefighters called to tackle the blaze.

The house was not repaired by the owner and on 1 March it was sold to Debbie and Mick Worboys.

Mrs Worboys said: "When we picked up the keys, we walked in and had a walk around - we were reeling. We thought 'What have we done?'"

The couple said interior walls, ceilings and floors were covered in smoke residue, mould and algae. Rot had set into the chipboard flooring, and the plasterboard ceilings had fallen down.

Before the fire, the Grade II-listed home on Hemsby Road was rented to tourists, but the pair plan to repair the house for themselves.

"We didn't realise how bad it got with the rain through the roof - it was like a waterfall coming down the stairs," Mr Worboys said.

"You can see marks where [firefighters] had been running up and down the stairs. The ceiling has come down; the water actually poured through.

"The [floorboards] are so soft when you walk on them, it's like walking on a sponge."

However, the house, while badly damaged, was not totally destroyed.

It had already suffered a devastating fire in 1990 and was rebuilt with cement board fireproofing between the thatch and roof beams.

Mrs Worboys added: "I think we must be in our dotage, or something. We like a project, but this is the biggest by far.

"We did a big villa in Spain and, before tha,t a house in Suffolk, so we've done a couple and before [we met] I did a Grade II-listed property in Suffolk; it took 13 years, though.

"I don't even want to think [about the cost] because every time we talk to somebody... you just add a zero on to everything you do.

"But we want to live in it, and bring it back to the way it should be."