A woman has turned an abandoned Italian "one euro" house into a £384k dream home - with a spa, outdoor kitchen and wine cellar. Meredith Tabbone, 45, decided to bid on a one euro house on a "whim" after her friend sent her an article on the scheme. Several small Italian towns have hit the headlines for selling off vacant houses for €1 a pop in the past couple of years.
The municipalities are offering homes for the symbolic price of €1. They say having these homes improved and occupied in the next few years is worth more to the towns than selling them off at full price. Meredith threw in a random offer of £4,400 - for a 1600s disused building in Sambuca di Sicilia in Sicily, Italy .
The building had no electricity or running water, and the roof was thick with asbestos. Meredith bought the home next door for £27,000 and knocked through to create a four bedroom, five bathroom property. She spent £384k and five years creating her dream vacation house fit with an outdoor kitchen, spa and an outdoor party room.
Meredith, a financial adviser, from Chicago, Illinois, US, said: “The house was in very bad condition - but in many ways, it was everything I expected it to be and more. "It had so much charm. “It had such interesting architectural detail - you could really see the history coming through the walls.
But it was a fixer-upper, to say the least. "It was worth it. It turned out well.
"It's modern but in keeping. It's a vacation home." Meredith began researching how to.