It may look like the house from hell but newly-weds Jonathan and Susie Skipper hope to turn it into their very own des res.

The couple fell in love with the run-down Victorian terrace the moment they set eyes on it.

Oblivious to the peeling paintwork, cracked plaster and missing floorboards, they put in an offer to fulfil their dream of buying their first home together.

At £186,000, it seemed a bargain for a two-bedroom property in Brighton's sought-after Hanover area.

Their offer was accepted in August and they left their homes in London, bringing in builders to make basic renovations on the property, with the aim of moving in within a few weeks.

They planned to lovingly restore and decorate the 1860 property to its former glory.

Wanting to use as many fixtures and fittings from the period as possible, they spent weeks hunting through reclamation yards to find the perfect items, from old iron radiators to ceiling roses.

But it soon became apparent it would take more than a lick of paint and some new plaster to make the house habitable.

The house, in Coleman Street, had been neglected for years.

Rooms were used for storage, or not used at all, while window panes were left broken and the bath cracked.

Ceilings collapsed and when Jonathan, 40, started pulling up the kitchen floor, he unearthed enough rubbish to fill a skip.

The house had woodworm, rotting steel joists and an overgrown garden.

Then they discovered a crack in one of the outer walls which seemed to run from the top to the bottom of the building.

Susie, 32, said: "We had to go for a pint at that point. It was very stressful."

Three months after exchanging contracts on the property, the couple are still living in a rented flat in Kemp Town with most of their belongings in storage.

It seems unlikely they and their dog Archie will be in their new home before Christmas. And then they have months of painting and decorating ahead of them.

Jonathan said: "I'm still in love with the house but we've taken on more than we expected. I've put everything I've got, all my life savings, into the house.

"It's been a massive learning curve. But at the end of the day we bought the house to be our first home together and we still have high hopes for it."

One of the first jobs which proved more time consuming than first anticipated involved the basement.

Built on the side of a hill, the house is on three floors, with the basement leading on to the 12ft back garden.

The Skippers aimed to keep the basement as the main room in the house, an open-plan kitchen and living room.

But when Jonathan started pulling up the grey cork tiles and old floorboards, he got more than he bargained for.

In a space about 3ft deep under the dusty floorboards, he found piles of discarded goods from previous owners.

Included in the haul was a white butler sink, a rusty car exhaust, half a bed, a dozen pairs of shoes, old lemonade bottles and about 200 bricks, all of which had been hidden for decades.

All the items had to be carried up a narrow flight of stairs in buckets to get them from the basement out into the street.

Three days and three broken buckets later, Jonathan and his friend had cleared enough junk to fill a skip outside the house.

Jonathan, who is taking a break from his job as an art therapist to renovate the house, said: "I couldn't believe it when I saw what was under there."

The couple have now hired a carpenter to lay the floor.

Another problem lay in the ceiling at the top of the house.

The Skippers asked builders to take a bit of rotting plaster off the ceiling. When they tried to pull off a few pieces, the whole ceiling fell on their heads.

In the spare bedroom, slightly draughty thanks to a broken sash window, they started stripping off the wall-paper, only to find they were the first people to bother for decades.

Jonathan said: "We found about eight layers of wallpaper. It took ages to strip it off."

Then came the most recent setback. As they exposed the plaster in the room, they found a crack running down the back wall of the house. On closer examination it seemed to run from the roof to the ground.

Fearing major damage, they contacted a structural engineer and are awaiting the outcome.

Susie, who works as a crime analyst in London, still sees the terrace as their dream home. She has a wistful look in her eyes when she starts to visualise how it will look, with its original fireplaces, wooden floors, Victorian furniture and wood burning stove in the kitchen/living room.

She said: "It's got so much potential. We just fell in love with it."

Jonathan, who drives a green 1958 Morris Minor, said: "I love original and old things and I don't want to live in a new house with no character.

"We can't wait to move in and start our life together."