A renovation project where everyone is in perfect harmony, and the builder doesn’t fall out with the client? Fiction surely. Not so, say the Dublin 6 couple who turned a three-bedroom semi into a luxurious space for two.
Pics: damienkellyphotography.com
Ciara and Margaret bought their 1930s bay-fronted semi in Dublin 6 in late 2022, having spent about a year looking.
It was the only house they bid on and paid €970,000 for what was listed as three bedroom plus study, two-bathroom property with a garage.
It needed modernisation.
The property measured about 130 square metres, including the garage and had interconnecting reception rooms running the depth of the property.
The living room was to the front, where it enjoyed a south-facing aspect.
Pocket sliding doors lead through to the formal dining room, where French doors open out to the large garden bounded by mature trees.
Off the dining room was a breakfast room that overlooked the garden, and this led through to a galley-style kitchen built to the rear of the garage.
Upstairs, there were two very roomy double bedrooms, a single bedroom, and a small space better described as an office.
It had good ceiling heights, and the rooms were washed in light.
Both women worked in IT. and had amassed considerable savings during their decade together.
They had been looking at homes in the Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 areas and were living in Ciara’s apartment in Ringsend.
Those they saw were either huge and astronomically priced or small cottages, they said of the housing stock for sale.
“We weren’t planning on buying a doer-upper,” Ciara says.
“We saw many houses that were already extended, but what was done didn’t work for us. We wanted an office and a utility, spaces that would make our life more comfortable.”
They found the footprint of many of the properties for sale to be long rather than wide, which they preferred.
“There’s just the two of us. We wanted a home that felt like the open plan living of an apartment,” Ciara explains.
They had no previous renovation experience and no family in the building trade, but they say they landed on their feet with their architect and builder.
They first met Sean of Sean Galligan Construction when the architect recommended him to them.
The kitchen was easy to design, Ciara recalls.
“My brother has a very similar one in his home in Harold’s Cross. Every time we visited, I brought a measuring tape to check dimensions and locations of essentials, where the bins would go in relation to the dishwasher, for example, and which side of the sink the grooves in the drying rack were.
"We can now empty it without taking a step.”
However, the installation date had to be pushed out by several weeks as the floor screed took longer to dry than anticipated. Customtone Kitchens were really flexible, Ciara recalls.
“When that floor is down,” they said, “we will be there within 48 hours.”
The countertops were supplied by Egan Stone.
In total, they added about 17 square metres tothe size of the house.
Luke Kuchta of Joe Fallon Design suggested brick, zinc and cedar as materials to use in the extension, the brick to echo the redbrick and render front on the house and its gate pillars.
He rejigged the existing floor plans to open up the back.
Using the garage footprint, they now have downstairs storage, a guest bathroom, a utility and a home office that overlooks the garden, as well as their big open plan kitchen.
The extension is extremely considered-looking.
As a cost-cutting measure, Ciara had originally vetoed the brick and zinc design.
This is where there is now a reading nook that also acts as a porch, shielding you from rain when you open the doors.
It also frames the view beyond. As well as looking good, it knits the interior and exterior together and is one of the property’s stand-out features.
They hired Diana Molohan of My Kind of Design to help with the interior. She suggested the Eturia by Little Greene, a muted blue, for the living room. The designer wanted them to go even darker.
“We wouldn’t have had the guts,” Margaret admits
The kitchen island and units are picked out in Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue with Ammonite on the back wall units. The injection of colour brings the home to life, decisions the couple felt they wouldn’t have been able to make without Molohan’s expertise.
“It didn’t play to our strengths,” says Ciara, who describes herself as being “dyslexic with colour, adding that instead, they were "both mathematical.
Upstairs, the tiled fireplaces that were original to the house have been removed to free up floor space.
The principal bedroom is to the front and opens into the adjoining single bedroom, which they use as a walk-in wardrobe.
This can easily be returned to its original use.
An ensuite bathroom has been installed in the guest bedroom.
In total, it cost about €408,930. This included architect fees of €13,000; monies for a QS amounting to €3,130, engineer’s fees, €2,700, builder’s cost of €320,000, which included €16,750 for bathrooms, €25,000 for the electrics and the windows and rooflights to the rear and external doors, €17,000.
The plumbing was also included in the builder’s costs. The kitchen cost €16,800, and the appliances a further €7,800, while the utility cost €2,000.
The flooring added €6,700 to the bill, the joinery a further €8,500, painting and wallpaper cost €6,300, while the garden by Greenseed Landscaping cost €22,000.
House of Fabric supplied the blinds and curtains, and Lucretia Tiles supplied all the tiles.
Having a quantity surveyor, Barry McMenamin of Errigal Construction Consultants and an engineer, Richard Cullen of Once Consultant Engineers, meant the job stayed on budget and that they now have all the necessary paperwork to demonstrate all works are executed to standards.
From purchase to moving in post-renovation took about a year, which is fast-paced.
The pair seem to have made friends with all their suppliers, something that is also rare.
Were there ever any wobbly moments between them during the construction?
Of the pair, Ciara is the one who looked at the place when it was stripped back to bare walls and called it “fantastic progress,” Margaret adds, while her first thoughts were, “My god, what have we done?
Save for that moment, the couple were fully aligned, Margaret says.
“We feel so lucky,” they say. “We can hear birds in the garden and seethe sky overhead.”
Ciara and Margaret are just one of many homeowners who revealed their journey to Selfbuild magazine. Anyone looking to undertake a renovation or a new build and wants to hear real-life facts and figures should attend Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Live Leinster, which takes place on Saurday February 7th and Sunday, February 8th, from 10 am to 6 pm at the National Show Centre, Cloughran, Swords, K67 VF43, which is accessed via Stockhole Lane.
