Getting in the door of your own home can be a long and winding road. Instagrammer My Solo Self Build Jade Kirwan makes it look easy. Shopping local was key, she says.
Make-up artist and mother of one, Jade Kirwan, whose Insta account My Solo Self Build, has tracked her new build home progress and garnered her more than 48,000 followers, manages to make building a house look like a mere glow-up.
She’s a can-do kind of person who grew up on the family farm as one of six, in the townland of Knocklofty, about six kilometres south-west of Clonmel town in Co Tipperary, where she has her salon.
Her father, a farmer, has dry stock on lands that were once part of the Donoughmore Estate, which included a Georgian house on the banks of the river Suir.
They feature mature oak trees and beautiful pastoral views.
She had just set up her business, about 14 years ago, when she became pregnant.
She was 19 years of age.
“Motherhood makes you grow up early,” she says.
She was renting and knew she needed greater security of tenure for herself and her son, Jack.
She had started looking at the property portals and discussed the matter at home when her father volunteered a solution.
“If you can build a house, there’s a site there for you,” he said. “Just, don’t half-arse do it,” he cautioned.
Being gifted a site was a great leg-up, she concedes.
But there were many more hurdles to jump, starting with finding the money to do the build, even using the staged self-build approach.
In her naivety, she immediately approached lenders.
“I was self-employed and had a dependent. I first went into the bank nine and a half years ago. They laughed at me.”
She didn’t have the money in place and realised then that she knew it’d be three years before she would.
She knuckled down, took on every weekend wedding and special occasion going and started saving. She was living with her family at this stage.
A local architect drafted plans that she immediately downgraded to fit her budget.
“I wanted a house that had straight lines, no curves. It’s the cheapest and most affordable way to build.”
Her first planning application was refused.
The council granted permission to build a bungalow; precedence for this had already been set on the road.
She wanted a two-storey house.
There were already two-storey properties in the same field that her site occupied.
In her second meeting, she asked whether the precedence set on the road or that set in the field, where the houses were closer to her site, should be taken into consideration.
A compromise was found. Permission was granted for a one-and-a-half-storey four-bedroom plus study house in 2021, just before COVID closed all sites in the country, including hers.
There was no money for a builder - “I was the QS and project manager.”
She managed the sub-contractors, asking her clients in the salon for recommendations and then finding out who they were before committing.
“I stayed local,” she explains.
Pat Power in TJ O’Mahony’s, Cahir, was one of the many professionals who took her under their wings. She first walked in there in a pair of wellies and said, “I’m building a house. I’d like to open an account. What’s first?”
At this point, many other women who’ve tried to navigate this world of construction have come a cropper.
Instead of the everyday sexism and pink pricing many females experience, his response was simple: “You’ll need a roundsman.”
He also made sure that none of the trades could make orders on her behalf. Only she could make the orders. This gave her complete control of her materials costs.
The Suez Canal closure had shut down supply chains. Building materials costs were rising every day during that crisis.
Power flagged the fact that the insulation she wanted to order was going to increase in price the following month.
She had nowhere to store it, so, ever the businessman, he suggested that if she bought x number of sheets, he’d store them for her for two months.
Her story is full of generous tradesmen and suppliers helping her get in the front door of her 195 square metre house.
The house is A-rated. Its full cavity walls were filled with 150 ml of insulation with another 150 ml underfoot.
A further 50 ml in the cast concrete ceiling.
This amounted to more than 300 deliveries of insulation, she estimates, all of which were dragged or carried into the house by her and Jack.
“It was so labour-intensive. If you drop tile or insulation, that’s money gone.”
One day, it started raining cats and dogs, and she had to call in help.
Her glam squad friend group had to come and help carry the 90 slabs of insulation inside.
Despite the rain, she managed to take shots of her and her friend Hannah running out of the rain using a slab as coverage.
You need balls of steel to do what she’s done.
This particular ball of steel is petite and well put together, with perfectly groomed brows, polished nails, and skin ever so gently tanned.
It’s all very understated. She does not look like she has spent years of mornings, evenings and weekends in a pair of waterproof steel-toe-capped hiking boots and a big jacket managing power tools and battening RSJs.
She picked up many of these skills by watching YouTube tutorials.
She had her moments.
“My nails got destroyed during the airtight membrane stage.”
She did, however, keep certain fashion standards. There were no Snicker pants worn for the whole build, she laughs.
Her son Jack is now aged 14 and has grown up with the build.
He has also learned the value of hard work and what determination can deliver.
“I showed him how hard it can be that nothing is easy in this world, so that he’d be able to cope.”
She also shopped locally for materials and labour.
“In local business, loyalty is key. They could have made more money from me. But they didn’t.”
She had known many of her tradespeople since primary school.
The build part was finished in one year and 11 months, just under her secret goal of two years, something she had told nobody, in case she didn’t achieve it.
During her 14-hour days, her dad minded Jack.
“Before and after the salon was spent on the house and Sundays too, if the lads were local. He’s a family man. He raised six kids and would do anything for his grandkids.”
Craig Condon did the render. She plumped for a coloured render, in an off-white that would make the exterior look finished.
It was the same price as having to paint the outside.
"I’m a make-up artist. I only like white light."
Electrician David O’Mahony convinced her to add a few wall lights and pendants. Installing a switch beside her bed that illuminates the yard outside without her having to go downstairs is a simple hack that makes her feel safe.
Every home should have such a switch.
Her trades were “incredible,” she says. All of the recommendations she received were word of mouth.
Conor Davis, the man who did the gutters, is a cousin of Alan Davis, the man who laid the foundation and subfloor.
Conor’s daughter is one of Jade’s clients in the salon. She does her make-up.
A neighbour came over with a digger to help install the RSJs.
Even with all this local generosity, she admits it wasn’t easy.
“I cried 90 per cent of that build. You cry more than you smile. If I can do this, anyone can.”
It demonstrates just how far a combination of hard work and persuasive personality can get you if you’re not afraid to get dirty.
The bank came around eventually, too.
“By the end, one of the managers came in and shook my hand,” she laughs.
At what point did she really realise she’d actually done it? It was while walking down the stairs with a laundry basket under her arm and looking out the stairwell window. “Oh my god. I’ve built a house.”
She’s slowly styling the place. In the sitting room, she bought a pale, oatmeal coloured sofa from Home Suite Home in Athlone. The fabric has been treated with a stain repellent that is so successful that when she poured Coca-Cola on it, it just wiped clean off.
She estimates the 195 square metre/ 2100 square foot house cost about €102 per square foot using 2023 and 2024 prices to get it to a builder's finish.
This amounts to a figure of about €214,200. This sum excludes site costs and flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, storage, furniture and furnishings.
Jade and Jack share the house with their dogs, Chicken, the small terrier, and Doberman Pinschers, Onyx and K9, their “12-year-old pride and joy", seen in lead shot.
There is romance in the air, too. She’s just started seeing someone, but she’s keeping it quiet and off socials. Don’t expect to see him on the grid.
