Advertisement
SHOP IT:

Lululemon just dropped its 2024 Team Canada collection — and we predict it will sell out

Shop belt bags, jackets and more, starting at $38.

Woman's renovated cottage 'unsellable' because of the eccentric decor

Joe Gamp
·Contributor, Yahoo News UK
Updated ·2 min read
PIC BY MERCURY PRESS (PICTURED Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61 has made her £500,000 home unsellable with her eccentric, colourful decor) A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says her colourful decoration has made the house - which should be worth upwards of half a million pounds - unsellable. Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61, has been painting the beautiful country cottage in leafy Lydney, Gloucs in her electric style by hand since 1987, when she bought the former squatter’s house for just £30,000. After 27 years in the house, she put it on the market in 2014, where estate agents said the property should have been expected to fetch at least £500,000. But despite hoping to sell the property to open a B&B nearby, estate agents could only persuade one person to view the house - leaving the family stuck there. SEE MERCURY COPY
A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says the property is now unsellable. (Mercury Press)

An artist who spent three decades decorating her rundown country cottage says it is now “unsellable” after turning it into a “life size dolls house”.

Mary Rose Young, 61, bought her countryside cottage in Lydney, Gloucester, for just £30,000 in 1987.

The property – consisting of two separate cottages – was occupied by squatters before she decided to take on the project of renovating the dilapidated home.

Young has spent the last 30 years decorating her home, which she lives in with her musician husband Phil Butcher, in vibrant colours, loud patterns and playful trinkets.

PIC BY MERCURY PRESS (PICTURED Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61 has made her £500,000 home unsellable with her eccentric, colourful decor) A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says her colourful decoration has made the house - which should be worth upwards of half a million pounds - unsellable. Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61, has been painting the beautiful country cottage in leafy Lydney, Gloucs in her electric style by hand since 1987, when she bought the former squatter’s house for just £30,000. After 27 years in the house, she put it on the market in 2014, where estate agents said the property should have been expected to fetch at least £500,000. But despite hoping to sell the property to open a B&B nearby, estate agents could only persuade one person to view the house - leaving the family stuck there. SEE MERCURY COPY
Potter Mary Rose Young has been painting the cottage in her eclectic style by hand since 1987. (Mercury Press)
PIC BY MERCURY PRESS (PICTURED Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61 has made her £500,000 home unsellable with her eccentric, colourful decor) A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says her colourful decoration has made the house - which should be worth upwards of half a million pounds - unsellable. Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61, has been painting the beautiful country cottage in leafy Lydney, Gloucs in her electric style by hand since 1987, when she bought the former squatter’s house for just £30,000. After 27 years in the house, she put it on the market in 2014, where estate agents said the property should have been expected to fetch at least £500,000. But despite hoping to sell the property to open a B&B nearby, estate agents could only persuade one person to view the house - leaving the family stuck there. SEE MERCURY COPY
The loud, colourful decoration has made the house, which has been on the market since 2014, unsellable. (Mercury Press)

Among the home’s many features are striking yellow and green walls, black and white tiled floors, a zebra-patterned toilet seat and bright pink furnishings.

Read more: Couple's TV house transformation into 'B&Q warehouse' shocks viewers

The ceramic artist put the cottage on the market in 2014, after estate agents said the property could sell for £500,000.

But so far, the “playhouse for adults” has failed to drum up any serious interest.

PIC BY MERCURY PRESS (PICTURED Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61 has made her £500,000 home unsellable with her eccentric, colourful decor) A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says her colourful decoration has made the house - which should be worth upwards of half a million pounds - unsellable. Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61, has been painting the beautiful country cottage in leafy Lydney, Gloucs in her electric style by hand since 1987, when she bought the former squatter’s house for just £30,000. After 27 years in the house, she put it on the market in 2014, where estate agents said the property should have been expected to fetch at least £500,000. But despite hoping to sell the property to open a B&B nearby, estate agents could only persuade one person to view the house - leaving the family stuck there. SEE MERCURY COPY
The home features a zebra print toilet, green and yellow striped walls and floral painted tiles. (Mercury Press)
PIC BY MERCURY PRESS (PICTURED Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61 has made her £500,000 home unsellable with her eccentric, colourful decor) A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says her colourful decoration has made the house - which should be worth upwards of half a million pounds - unsellable. Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61, has been painting the beautiful country cottage in leafy Lydney, Gloucs in her electric style by hand since 1987, when she bought the former squatter’s house for just £30,000. After 27 years in the house, she put it on the market in 2014, where estate agents said the property should have been expected to fetch at least £500,000. But despite hoping to sell the property to open a B&B nearby, estate agents could only persuade one person to view the house - leaving the family stuck there. SEE MERCURY COPY
Mary Rose Young bought the house in 1987 for £30,000. (Mercury Press)

Agents have only been able to secure one viewing in six years due to her eccentric style, with the potential buyer choosing not to proceed.

Read more: Inside half-finished Grand Designs house that lost owner £5m and wrecked marriage

Despite the troubles in selling her kaleidoscopic home, Young refuses to paint over the decor - which she describes as “a playhouse for adults”.

Young said: “I love my house and the house really works for me. I’m a colourful person and I even have pink hair. I like it more and more as I get older.

PIC BY MERCURY PRESS (PICTURED Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61 has made her £500,000 home unsellable with her eccentric, colourful decor) A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says her colourful decoration has made the house - which should be worth upwards of half a million pounds - unsellable. Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61, has been painting the beautiful country cottage in leafy Lydney, Gloucs in her electric style by hand since 1987, when she bought the former squatter’s house for just £30,000. After 27 years in the house, she put it on the market in 2014, where estate agents said the property should have been expected to fetch at least £500,000. But despite hoping to sell the property to open a B&B nearby, estate agents could only persuade one person to view the house - leaving the family stuck there. SEE MERCURY COPY
Estate agents said the kaleidoscopic property should have been expected to fetch at £500,000 but added that only one person has viewed the house. (Mercury Press)
PIC BY MERCURY PRESS (PICTURED Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61 has made her £500,000 home unsellable with her eccentric, colourful decor) A woman who spent more than 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house says her colourful decoration has made the house - which should be worth upwards of half a million pounds - unsellable. Potter, Mary Rose Young, 61, has been painting the beautiful country cottage in leafy Lydney, Gloucs in her electric style by hand since 1987, when she bought the former squatter’s house for just £30,000. After 27 years in the house, she put it on the market in 2014, where estate agents said the property should have been expected to fetch at least £500,000. But despite hoping to sell the property to open a B&B nearby, estate agents could only persuade one person to view the house - leaving the family stuck there. SEE MERCURY COPY
The ceramic artists spent over 30 years turning her rundown cottage into a life-size doll house. (Mercury Press)

“I made this house around my own life and I wasn’t thinking about it being sellable.

Read more: Disgruntled painter owed money daubs message on the side of pub he worked on

“We’re living like two children in a doll’s house and in retrospect why would anybody else want to buy it?

“I just thought it might go to a mad collector of my work who might want to buy it, but no one was interested."

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo News UK