There's a new patron saint of unloved homes. She is renovating properties in Waterford and the south-east and sharing the costs to give buyers transparency.
Address: 46 Barrack Street, Waterford City, Co. Waterford, X91DD7H
Asking price €235,000
Agent: Griffin Auctioneers
Earlier this year, Rachel Ui Bhaoill of Spreag managed to buy a three-bedroom, one-bathroom terraced house that had been asking €140,000 for €10,000 less than its asking price.
Four builders had already viewed it and walked out the door in front of her.
She bought 46 Barrack Street, a three-bedroom terraced house of 59 square metres, in Waterford city for €130,000 last February.
This is listed on the property price register, but she has already volunteered this information on her social channels. She wants to be utterly transparent about pricing and costs.
She already has almost 7,000 followers on her Instagram handle, The Turret House, and is growing her audience on Spreag, which features financially-focused renovations.
She believes good design means nothing if it blows the budget or drags on for months.
Rachel maps the money first, designs smartly around it, and delivers to deadline.
The mother of four has fully renovated about six houses and partially renovated another four.
She calls it a hobby. Some might call her the patron saint of hopeless cases.
“I tend to buy houses that nobody wants. I like the lost causes,” she says.
She likes the challenge but understands the need to stick to a budget.
She’s a certified financial planner and worked in Life Assurance at AIB, working 70 and 80-hour weeks.
She says there are a lot of similarities.
“A big part of it was adding value. If you could save a customer money, you could put that money into their pension. It taught me to be clever with money.”
She spent 10 years working as a financial advisor, but worked all hours.
A health issue prompted her to rethink her life, and she decided to take a different approach. She bought her first property in 2011, a time when prices and renovation costs were low.
This combination of money smarts, access to a full team of subcontractors whose work she trusts, and the renovating learnings she’s picked up along the way, puts her in a really strong position to be able to offer others real-life lived experience advice.
It’s what prompted her to set up Spreag. The Irish word has many meanings, but she likes to use it to encourage.
It’s what she feels she is doing. She regularly gives masterclasses on the subject and will be a speaker at the Home Renovation Shows next February.
A big part of her success lies in the team of subcontractors she’s gathered around her.
“When you have good lads you can rely on,” is how she puts it.
She can’t recall what the Ber was before the renovation, but the property has been externally insulated and has new uPVC windows.
The major change she made was to replace the existing stairs with a new set that conformed to building regulations and allowed for a better flow through the ground floor.
“While this costs in the region of €5,000, it makes a massive difference to the flow of the house,” she explains.
She also removed internal doors from the ground floor to allow light to shine through the property.
The house remains the same size. It still opens into a small lobby with the sitting room to the right.
The stairs descend into this room, and she’s turned the space under them into a home office.
There is a sitting area, set around a three-sided stove and a simple mantle. There’s room too for a dining area at the foot of the stairs, big enough to accommodate a table for four.
The kitchen is in the return and has new teal blue units, timber countertops, and a Belfast-style sink as well as shelving made from old railway sleepers.
She repositioned the sink, moving it from underneath the large window to the boundary wall, as anyone standing at the sink blocked light from the small space.
It’s a smart move that needs to be planned for early in the renovation.
The property’s only bathroom is at this level. It now features a smart, black-framed shower and periwinkle blue subway tiles.
There is a tiny yard outside, big enough to fit a bistro set, she says.
Upstairs, to create a decent-sized landing, she had to steal floor space from the third bedroom.
It remains a three-bedroom house, but now two are doubles and one is a single.
The works cost her €57,500, which means the project cost her €187,500. Now, a C2 Ber-rated property is back on the market, asking €235,000.
As with all her properties, a structural engineer signs off on all the work.
Rachel runs online renovation financial masterclasses through Spreag.ie. The next class, which costs €100, takes place on Tuesday, January 27th 2026. Click here to book.
