The Maison Gent

The Maison Gent Phil Harker…🎬 Actor turned Property Developer
💷 Helping investors earn secured fixed returns
🏠 Property | Design | Investment

25/09/2026

DAY 5 — THE FULL HOUSE 🏠

This is the big one.

Over the last four days I’ve shown you the outside, the ground floor, the first floor and the attic potential.

Now you’ve seen the whole thing.

It’s a two-bed terrace in Gosforth, and before we commit to a layout or start ripping anything out, I want to hear what you would actually do with it.

I’ve read every comment so far and replied to everyone who’s got involved — and some of the suggestions have genuinely changed how I’m looking at the project.

So throw everything at me.

Move walls?
Move the staircase?
Go into the attic?
Keep it as a two-bed?
Create a three-bed?
Extend?
Don’t extend?
Something I haven’t even considered?

This is the point where we pull all the ideas together and work out how to deliver the best possible version of this house.

You decide. 👇

24/09/2026

YOU DECIDE 👇

Now we’re looking at the attic — and this could completely change the layout of the house.

There are a couple of options:

Do we move/reconfigure the existing staircase to create space for another bedroom?

Or do we introduce a new staircase from the first floor and go all the way up into the attic, creating a proper second-floor conversion?

The attic has loads of potential, but the staircase position is going to dictate how the whole thing works.

What would you do?

A — Rework the existing staircase and maximise the first floor
B — Add a staircase up and convert the attic

Drop A or B below — we’re genuinely using your ideas while we work up the plans. 👇

23/09/2026

You decide what happens with this house 👀

Here’s the outside — front of the house and the rear garden.

Before we draw up any plans or start work, we’re collating all your ideas.

What would you change, keep or add outside?

Drop your thoughts below 👇

22/09/2026

Day 2 of showing you around the house before we touch a thing.

Today: the first floor.

If this were your renovation, what would you keep, what would you change, and would you move any walls?

We’re shaping this one together, so tell me what you’d do 👇

21/09/2026

Day one.

Before we start knocking walls down, I want to know what you’d do with this ground floor.

Keep the layout? Open it up? Move the kitchen? Knock through somewhere completely different?

We’ve got our own ideas… but I want to see what everyone else spots first.

If this was your house, what would you change? 👇

Best idea might actually make it into the renovation

18/09/2026

I’m not building this on my own.

Property development is ultimately a team sport — good builders, good professionals, good agents and, increasingly, good people who want to be involved financially too.

I started this page simply to document the projects properly: what I’m buying, what we’re changing, what goes wrong and what I learn along the way.

But one unexpected consequence of showing the working has been people getting in touch asking about future projects, joint ventures and investing alongside me.

And I’m open to those conversations.

I’m still very selective about what I buy and who I work with, and I’d much rather do the right project with the right people than force something for the sake of doing another deal.

So if you’re a builder, property professional, investor or someone interested in partnering on a future project, feel free to send me a message.

Otherwise, just follow along.

There should be plenty more mistakes to watch from a safe distance.

17/09/2026

If you’re new here, hello. I’m Phil.

I’m based in Newcastle upon Tyne and I spend an unreasonable amount of time looking at houses and thinking, “there’s definitely something we can do with that.”

This page is basically the running diary of what happens next.

I buy properties with potential, renovate them, improve layouts, add space where I can, and then work out whether the best move is to sell, refinance, rent or go again.

Some projects are straightforward. Others involve planning, structural work, builders, architects, surveyors and about 400 decisions nobody warned you about.

I’m not pretending I’ve cracked some secret formula. I’m learning as I go, and I’ll show you the plans, the numbers, the design decisions, the things that go wrong and hopefully the finished result at the end.

Away from property, I’m a husband, dad, former actor and former business owner who somehow became increasingly obsessed with buildings, design and development.

So if you like renovations, property development, before & afters and watching someone try to make slightly better decisions each time…

follow along.

I’ll show you what works, what doesn’t, and what I’d do differently next time.

Mistakes included.

16/09/2026

This is basically the point of this page.

I buy houses that need a bit of work, come up with a plan… and then regularly question half of it.

So rather than only showing you the polished before-and-after at the end, I want to bring you into the renovation while the decisions are actually being made.

Layouts, kitchens, bathrooms, colours, finishes, questionable ideas — all of it.

Comment what you’d do. Tell me when I’m getting it wrong. Occasionally, I might even listen.

And if enough people like an idea, there’s every chance it ends up in the finished house.

So if you want to get involved in the renovations rather than just see the end result, follow along — the next one is about to start

10/09/2026

One of the hardest parts of a project is knowing when to stop trying to control it.

You can make the decisions, do the work, obsess over the details… but eventually, you have to hand it over and trust someone else to do their bit.

Not my strongest skill, admittedly.

Sometimes the job isn’t to do more. It’s to know when you’ve done enough

09/09/2026

If you’ve ever wanted to get involved in a renovation, this is your chance.

I want to do this project a little differently. Before we start designing anything, I’m going to show you exactly what we’re working with — and I want your ideas.

What would you keep? What would you change? And what would you do completely differently?

Photos and videos coming next week. Keep an eye out — and then tell me what you’d do before I tell you what I’m thinking

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