Making A Silk Purse Out Of A Sow's Ear?

Please forgive the "local" nature of today's post. I understand that it will have little interest to anyone not living in the village, but I wanted to chronicle a bit of Trelawnyd news.
I was making dumplings this morning when animal helper Pat called a hello over the garden wall.
she told me that she had just walked through the village and had noticed that workmen had been hard at work clearing the jungle of trees and bushes around two derelict houses in the centre of the village.
The houses have been an eyesore for decades, and their presence has given that part of Trelawnyd an unfortunte air of decay which has coloured what visitors to the area think of us,so the news of the renovation was very welcome indeed.
I mixed my dumplings, made a banana loaf (remember the Great British Bake Off was on last night) then took the dogs up to London Road to see the changes for myself.
We joined a small crowd.
Well , when I say " small Crowd" I actually joined Gay Gordon who was pearched on his invalid trolley and Mrs Trellis who were watching a mini digger ripping away tons of undergrowth with some interest

before the work you couldnt see the village hall at all from the road

" Hello Flower!" Gordon Bellowed when I arrived " what do you think of all this? "
" Good news eh?"
I nodded... it was VERY good news for the village, I agreed
Two renovated family sized houses for Trelawnyd,
and a clearing of delerect properties and opressive overgrown gardens
Rural regeneration? lets hope so

The old photo  below shows clearly how the original houses looked