Ever fancied turning an abandoned seaside public toilet or a peculiar building up for sale into a dream property?

Take heed from Elaine and Alan Taylor's tale before splashing your cash. The pair's leisurely walk in Barmouth led them down a costly path, one that soaked up a decade of stress and approximately £290,000, but finally culminated in an impressive transformation.

Elaine shares: "We have a love of Wales, a love of Barmouth and a love of the ocean. We were on holiday in Barmouth and the council had put a for sale sign up on the building. We thought that it would amazing because of its proximity to the sand dunes and the sea, and what an opportunity to renovate something and improve the area, take something that's unloved, unused and make it into something really nice."

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The Taylors kept a vigilant watch over the council's website, anxiously awaiting the release of the beachside lavatory for bids. When the moment arrived, determining the right offer to clinch the deal proved a conundrum.

They ended up securing the purchase in a blind bidding process with an offer of £33,000, which was accepted back in 2015. Elaine recalled: "A lot of people told us 'that's an interesting choice!' and I think you hear about things like this a bit more now but when we bought it I think it was quite unusual and people kept asking if we were keeping them as toilets!"

However, Elaine clarified that they had no intention of doing so, especially since the town already had well-established public toilets near the beach.

Instead, they were driven by a personal dream. Elaine explained: "We had always thought about buying a property by the seaside but we'd always resisted because I understand why it's not a good thing for the local economy, not good for young people in the area, and pushes the house prices up.

"So part of the reason we bought and transformed the empty toilet block was because we felt like we weren't taking housing stock away and we were just improving the area by reviving an abandoned building."

The toilet block had been shut for years and was in a terrible state, with everything still intact, including the toilets, and a strong smell permeating the air due to sand entering the building from the beach.

However, their excitement about transforming the old toilet block into something amazing would have to sustain them for almost a decade, as delays began to occur almost immediately. Elaine revealed how a coastal toilet block renovation turned into a planning and construction nightmare.

Initially approved in autumn 2016, the condition to delay construction until the school summer holidays in 2017 was not the most taxing challenge they faced. Elaine explains: "As the toilet block is located by the beach the planners wanted us to consult with Natural Resources Wales."

Their plan to revamp the block, preserving its slate roof, hit a wall when NRW insisted on raising the floor by a metre to mitigate flooding, necessitating a roof height adjustment as well.

"And that's when it all changed completely because at that point we had to put in completely different plans, the vision changed completely, and when we discussed it with the planners they said if we couldn't retain the features of the building then they wanted it to be a brand new, quite modern looking building, they didn't think we could replicate the old."

Further delays and costs surfaced as although the project was passed as a renovation – meaning it's technically all new bar the foundations – regulations required painstaking manual deconstruction to preserve those very foundations.

The couple estimate that the total build cost to create their unique one-bed beachfront home with stunning sea, sand and sky views was around £260,000, in addition to their initial £30,000 purchase price.

Elaine, a 53 year old from Greater Manchester, and her partner Alan, a 63 year old painter and decorator originally from Aberdeenshire, faced numerous challenges after blindly bidding on a toilet block.

Elaine explained: "When it was up for sale we couldn't go into the property and so it was a blind bid so we assumed it would have electric because it has been a toilet block and water too. After we bought it we discovered that the electrics were hooked up to the street lamps and unfortunately with the water once the pipes had gone past a certain age you have to replace them. So the pavement had to be dug up to install electric and replace all the plumbing so the project just grew and grew."

Despite the challenges, Elaine praised their builders, G and W Wigglesworth from Talsarnau, and all the local contractors they hired, excluding the specialist roof company, stating they could not have created this truly unique Welsh home without them.

The local community was both curious and supportive of the transformation, says Elaine. She reveals: "When we were there working a lot of the locals would pass and stop and ask us questions because I don't think people realised it was going to be transformed into a home. We were very open to the local interest, we'd say 'come inside and have a look!'"

She adds with amusement, "What we really learnt about Barmouth is that the community there all talk, a rumour went round that we went bankrupt and everyone who passed when we were working on it said, 'oh, we'd heard you'd gone bankrupt!' No-one has come up to us with any objections or criticisms, the local community have been wonderful, really supportive."

Now, as Elaine no longer spends much time in Wales, she wants the property, born of a decade of effort and sleepless nights, to continue being cherished, noting, "It's been tough to decide to let go."

Elaine reflects on the process: "It's been a real labour of love really, it's been a long journey. But I think it is so important that people now find buildings that are unused and unloved and make them into something wonderful, to give them a purpose again. We kept joking that if it could go wrong it did go wrong but we wanted to see it through even though there were a few times we thought about packing it in."

The couple's friends got creative with suggestions for the name of this seafront property, Elaine revealed: "Because of Alan's name the winning pitch was 'Ur in Al's' (urinals) but we didn't go with that! The new home is called Hafan Y Traeth and for us it was the perfect place to be but now we have to let it go to someone who can live there and get the benefit of it because it is such an amazing place."

If you're interested in this coastal gem, Hafan Y Traeth will soon hit the market via Fine and Country West Wales. For more information or to inquire about the asking price, you can ring 01974 299055.