A man with a plan

Bernie Diedericks may be a seasoned renovator of dilapidated houses but this time he almost met his match.

- Elna van der Merwe

During his lifetime, Bernie Diedericks has built and renovated plenty of homes and he isn’t one to shy away from a challenge, but this old house in Villiersdorp in the Western Cape almost drove him over the edge.

The house, which he purchased from the bank, had stood empty for three years. “It was awful, a total nightmare,” says Bernie. “The garden was so overgrown, you couldn’t set foot in it.”

So why buy such a run-down house in the first place? “If money was no object, I would fix up all the old homes in the world. I get so frustrated when I see how places have deteriorated,” he says. “But this house... I wasn’t in my right mind! The dreamer in me failed to take into account what it would cost to rebuild it from top to bottom. But I mos have these delusions of grandeur.”

Bernie has previously built two homes from scratch: one in Riebeek-Kasteel in the Swartland, the other in the Lynedoch Eco-Village near Stellenbosch. He has renovated six houses – in Cape Town, Paarl and Greyton – as well as three units in Kylemore outside Stellenbosch.

And then came Villiersdorp. “It was as close to Cape Town as I could afford,” Bernie explains. He started the project in March 2016 and only three years later, just in time for our annual Fix it with Flair competition, was he satisfied with the end result.

The Home team was then able to photograph his latest accomplishment.

A distinctive style