In this first episode, Julia visits Portugal, where her internet searches have led her to two possible houses. Her first stop is the Algarve, but she soon finds that the further north you travel, the cheaper properties are.
In the second episode, having put an offer in on the Little Blue House in a village in Northern Portugal, Julia now has an anxious wait while she pays to have all the necessary legal checks carried out. When she returns to sign on the dotted line, she meets the cottage's previous owner as they must exchange contracts in person.
Julia Bradbury receives the keys to her cottage and starts to realise what a tough task she has to get all the work done on budget, with no water or electricity, and work needed to fix the roof. She also wants to put in a new staircase and knock down some walls, and calls her friend, designer and salvage expert Max McMurdo, for help. Back in the UK, Max's challenge to build a holiday home on wheels for under £5,000 is under way.
Julia's cottage in Northern Portugal still has no water and no electricity and now, no stairs or internal walls either. If she's to stand any chance of achieving her 10,000 pound holiday home, she must get stuck into the DIY. The house was last decorated in 1964 and hasn't been lived in since the 1980s, so Julia and Max have their work cut out.
In the fifth episode, Julia is reaching the final strait of her Portuguese project but her budget takes a hit when she is informed that the Little Blue House must be rewired.Designer Max heads to Portugal to design and build a new staircase for the home but when he arrives the workmen have some bad news – the property has not been connected to the mains sewerage and they have uncovered 30 years' worth of excrement in a pit underneath the property. Max and the workmen need to deal with this smelly problem before calling in an emergency plumber to install new pipes.Julia travels to Hungary's Lake Balaton to meet Jon from Ipswich who bought a three-bed cottage with garden and adjoining fields for £5,700. As a builder, Jon was able to do all the work himself with help from his partner and they completed the renovation in just over three weeks for a total of £6,540.Back in the UK, Max has also been busy building his own mobile holiday home. The quirky retro design includes an outdoor shower made out of a watering can and a fridge made out of a terracotta pot. The home on wheels even has a woodburning stove. Max gives Julia a guided tour of his project - but has he come in on budget?
Julia has the end in sight, but has she managed to make her dream of a 10,000-pound holiday home into a reality? Has she come in on budget, and what will the locals think?
