Grandma accidentally turns husband into global 'thirst trap' with viral DIY video

Grandma accidentally turns husband into global 'thirst trap' with viral DIY video EXCLUSIVE A grandmother with over one million followers has made her husband an accidental sex symbol online after her videos of him doing DIY in the garden went viral on her page Grandmother Janice Bristow unwittingly turned her husband into a sex symbol with a huge following of American women after posting a video of him doing DIY. Janice, 62, from Lancashire, shared footage of her husband Steve, 61, ripping down their garden shed and building a pergola in their garden and set it to Salt-N-Pepa’s hit song, "Whatta Man". But the mum-of-two, who became an accidental influencer at the age of 57, with a million followers on Instagram after sharing photos of her garden, was shocked when it went viral - fuelled by US women thirsting after her handy hubby. "That video's had five million views and practically every comment is asking where they can get a man like that," says Janice, who charts her home and garden improvements at @ourhomeonthefold. "Steve doesn't usually let me post pictures or videos of him at all. I've actually got loads of footage of him because he doesn't know I'm often filming." In fact, they've got such a fan base now that the couple were approached by US followers during a midnight walk in Rome where they'd gone for Janice's birthday. "I don't really know how it happened, if I'm honest, it was all a complete surprise," she says. "Steve took me to Italy for my 60th birthday and at midnight I was doing a live video when four Americans came up to me. They recognised me and said they followed the account and loved it. Steve and I just looked at each other like, 'what's just happened here?'" Thanks to Steve's building and DIY skills that the couple - who bought their three-bed house 29 years ago for £112,000 - have transformed it into a four-bedroom worth between £500,000 and £550,000. "Steve does everything himself," says Janice, who's a company director of the window installation company they run together. "He's installed windows all his life, but he can put his hand to anything. He built the extension of our house himself eight years ago just by following YouTube videos. "It took him six months, start to finish, mainly on the weekends. He did an amazing job." Janice keeps an eagle eye on their budget and added: "We buy everything as cheap as we can and work it out from there. If I've got a specific piece in mind, like a lamp or new rug, I'll go on uFurnish.com to see what's out there and compare prices so I can keep my costs down." When the Bristows first moved into their home they changed things bit by bit as they juggled caring for their two young children. "We're not cash rich so we've done it on a DIY budget as we've gone along - we've never been extravagant. "I remember viewing the house, and the previous owner had a certificate in her conservatory for 'best kept garden', and I thought, 'I'll never be able to do this.' Within five years it had gone to rack and ruin and we hadn't done anything with it. We weren't gardeners, but we evolved it for our needs - my husband built a play area for the kids, a climbing frame and a little patio area. "It wasn't until we did the extension eight years ago that the whole garden was completely demolished and became a blank canvas, because we had diggers in." Today Janice's page has a huge US following, with 20 percent of her followers being American. The mum-of-two first turned to social media to chart the transformation of their home and said: "That's the reason I started the account, because he built our first pergola right at the beginning, about five years ago, and I wanted somewhere to gloat about it rather than my own Facebook page. "It was actually my sister in Australia who said, 'You need to set up a home decor account,' and I thought that sounded silly, but that's how it started. My account is famous for that pergola - that's really where it all began. "When I first started the account it was completely private, I didn't tell anyone other than my daughter and close family. Then my daughter posted a video on her Facebook because she was proud and it went everywhere. "At first I asked her to take it down, because I didn't share anything about it personally, and she did but by then a neighbour had already seen it, word got around, and there wasn't much point trying to contain it. I'm much more relaxed about it now. My neighbours are really supportive - they see me out filming and just get it, they understand what I do. "It's strange - I'll be walking through Tesco and bump into someone I haven't seen in a while, and they'll mention loving a recent video, and I'll think, ‘do you follow me?’ But what started as a total experiment has since grown into a career for Janice, who's hoping it can be her post-retirement plan. "I'd like to make something more of it in future for me and my husband, since he's still out working on building sites. "I see other people making an absolute fortune from it and feel a bit like a dinosaur, fumbling my way through, not entirely sure how to approach it properly." Janice designed her latest upgrade using AI and quickly roped Steve in to building the perfect hot tub enclosure using salvaged wood and decorative screens that he found on a building site five years ago. "I did an AI mock-up of how I thought it could look and within an hour he was completely on board and excited." Now they are looking forward to enjoying it in the winter, and Janice said she will even be in it on Christmas Day. "A lot of people look at that pergola and assume it cost an absolute fortune, but it hasn't because my husband did all the labour himself. From pulling down the shed to the finished result, it took Steve three weeks, working in the evenings after his day job."