A PAINTER and decorator from St Helens transformed a rundown house into the perfect family home on Channel 4's The Great House Giveaway.

The trials and tribulations of property renovation return to TV screens as a new series of the BAFTA award-winning launches this month.

The show challenges two strangers, who are not homeowners, to renovate a property bought at auction within a set budget and in just six months - if the project is successful, they both get to share the profits, or the house goes back to auction.

Presenter Simon O’Brien gave Sami and Lennon, who met just hours before the renovation, three houses to choose from before they went ahead and put a bid on the three-bedroom end of terraced property.

The house in St Helens bought by Sami, who is a painter and decorator, and her teammate Lennon needed a lot of work, but Sami said she felt excited by the mammoth project.

“I wasn't scared of anything," she said. 

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"You know, obviously we knew we had the budget and I knew that things were going to get done. There wasn't anything when I walked in that scared me. It was more excitement to be honest.

“I had a vision straight away when I walked in, like the kitchen wall, I knew that had to come down. I really wanted to tear walls down and things like that. There was some damp issues in the property that we dealt with and again, it was like, we've got people into the locker system. They told us it wasn't anything major and we dealt with it.”

Through Sami’s experience as a painter and decorator, she was able to transform the rundown house into the perfect family home. And thanks to her time on the show, Sami says she has managed to improve her skills and grow her confidence to offer new products to her customers.

She said: “Since doing the show, I’ve actually put myself onto a plastering course. I bought myself new up to date tools. I'm more confident now to do that kind of thing if I need to. I've done whole walls, I've done some patch plastering.

“It's all stuff that I felt like I needed to bring someone else in to do when I’ve been working, but now if there is a bit of a wall that needs skimming or patching before I can paint I can offer to do that myself and do the whole job in one go. I’m not waiting around and I'm earning a little bit more now on top.”

Sami says since being on the show, her skills and confidence have grown massively, and since learning how to tile thanks to her brother in law, she has gone on to offer tiling jobs as part of her skillset.

The painter and decorator says she’s now looking for the perfect house to do up after catching the renovation bug. During the show, Sami and her partner did as much of the work themselves as possible, only getting experts when they really needed to.

During the renovations, Sami and Lennon completely gutted the property, fitting a new kitchen and bathroom, as well as landscaping the ‘jungle’ of a garden. Sami says that their project completed in one of the fastest times ever seen on the show, even breaking some records.

She said: “I’m really proud of all we’ve been able to do to the property. Even though I’m in business, I’ve never ever done anything on this scale before and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

The pair, who got on ‘really well’ transformed the house from a run-down end of terrace house in to a modern family home.

But did they have a buyer and walk away with a profit?

See how Sami and Lennon get on in The Great House Giveaway on Channel 4.