For Claire, the person holding the purse strings on RTE's Room To Improve, that cut-off date is November 26th, just before the broadcast of the Late Late Toy Show. She's looking forward to gathering with her family around a small screen to enjoy the special edition. But first, she has a list of chores to do.
There’s nothing like Christmas to highlight all the jobs that you have to do, says budget meister, Claire Irwin, the bad cop quantity surveyor to Dermot Bannon’s good cop on the hit renovation show Room To Improve. “Visitors coming to stay brings another level of hysteria.”
With her two kids, Liam, aged three, and Dara, aged five, talking about Santa the whole time, about toys and trees and all the shops fully decorated, she’s feeling the pressure.
“I would have been organised about Christmas, but normally the second week of December was when the tree went up." With her whole family sitting down together to watch the Late Late Toy Show, “this year I will have it up by then”.
The idea is to help make the night festive, she explains.
Is she a real tree or a fake tree fan? “I was a real tree fan, but as anyone with underfloor heating will know, real trees become very sad in a very short time. The branches droop. We moved in 2019 and tried unsuccessfully for a few years before I reluctantly bought fake.”
She has high ceilings in her kitchen so there’s room to accommodate a 12-foot tree. “I was looking for one with lights on it. Lights are the bane of my life, taking them out, unravelling them.”
By the end of dressing the tree, she is “ready to throw tree and lights out”. She’s currently exploring pre-lit options but says that some don’t have enough lights.
She’s fronting a campaign for Chadwicks that lists 12 jobs homeowners should do before December 25th.
The firm’s research showed that almost half (47 per cent) of those surveyed had contacted a tradesperson to start a home improvement project because someone was coming home or visiting for Christmas, only to discover that they’d left it too late.
Making a list of jobs to do is the easy part, though. Finding a tradesperson to do it this side of the holidays is anything but.
Claire is luckier than most of us in this regard. She has a little black book of reliable subcontractors that she can call on. “I have a sister coming home from Australia so I’m painting the sitting room and her bedroom and have the painter lined up.”
If you’re handy or have someone in the family who is, then go for it, she says. “Painting a bedroom or sitting room is doable, so is tightening up hinges and doors. If you want to put down new laminate flooring, you may have to DIY it."
She’s planning to invest in some storage too, so the toys can be put away. Her boys currently play in the kitchen. “I’m getting a bit of storage and some shelves. I’m hoping to declutter some too so there’s space for the ones Santa brings.”
Life is busy, she says. “Work commitments are flat out. Everybody wants all jobs finished. That includes the niggly jobs about the house. Leave the big jobs until after Christmas but start calling the tradespeople now.”
Put on your sensible hat and be realistic, she counsels. “Getting materials for your job won’t be a problem. Finding the right people for the job six weeks before Christmas will be something even Santa can’t fix.”
If you need help compiling a list and checking it twice, take inspiration from Chadwick’s 12 jobs of Christmas. Claire Irwin can be contacted through Irwin Consulting.
