The.Great.House.Revival.S05E02
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00:00Our past is alive in our old buildings.
00:04They speak of our history and offer solid solutions for today's housing needs.
00:11I'm following restorers as they battle through the good, the bad,
00:18and the awful challenges of rebuilding ruins to create homes fit for the future.
00:31Beyond Ballyvaughan village to the north of County Clare,
00:37I'm following the road uphill through the barren limestone landscape of The Burn on an October morning.
00:48On the highlands tipped by horses and hardy cattle,
00:52off the road in Danner Lane, I'm meeting Galway restaurateur Evan McNamara.
01:00Originally from County Donegal, Evan has hatched a plan to leave the buzz of Galway City
01:07in favour of a dilapidated herdsman's cottage, exposed to the elements in this rocky nowhere land.
01:17Hello, hello.
01:18Hello.
01:19Lovely to meet you.
01:21Are you well?
01:22Brilliant.
01:23Beautiful home.
01:24Beautiful home, well it will be beautiful.
01:26I suppose it's more about what's outside than really the home.
01:30I think the home is about what you see beyond the house in a sense.
01:34We're very isolated.
01:36Isn't it brilliant?
01:37Oh, I don't know.
01:38I love the isolation.
01:39Do you?
01:40Yes.
01:41What would you do now for a pint of milk?
01:44After working in restaurants for 30 years, Evan is looking forward to Burn whiteness.
01:51But the move will mark a significant lifestyle change for her and her teenage son.
01:57Oh, neat.
01:58So 1930s, this was built.
02:01Yeah, there was a man called Patrick living here for probably 30, 40 years.
02:06We bought the house from his sisters and he passed away.
02:08The old man's old mobile phone was there, his clothes were there, his bottle of whiskey, crockery and everything.
02:15And you keep all that?
02:16We have his mobile phone and the crockery.
02:18I let go of the suit.
02:20Yeah, maybe.
02:21Maybe best.
02:22Evan bought the place in June 2021.
02:26Covid held up her restoration plan.
02:29But last month, work began at last.
02:32Stripping off the damaged roof and unsavable windows and laying down the foundation for a new extension.
02:41So how much land is with it?
02:4332 acres and a beautiful hazel forest.
02:45And beehives.
02:46And beehive, great, love it.
02:48Evan's been growing vegetables here for her restaurant for months.
02:52She's also setting out to make her new home sustainable.
02:57So biodiversity is the key.
02:59And this will be, we hope, the most low intervention possible, an eco-architect.
03:04So the least kind of impact on the environment.
03:08And the least impact on the land.
03:11We would have loved to have had a composting toilet situation.
03:14I know.
03:17The herdsman's cottage was made up of three rooms.
03:21With a lean-to to the side and a porch to the front.
03:26Evan plans to construct a simple modern extension at the back of the old cottage
03:32to matching dimensions linked by a short glass corridor.
03:38Her bedroom will be to the right of the front door, with a bathroom to the left.
03:43The lean-to will become a utility.
03:47Her son, Oni's, bedroom will be in the mezzanine above, reached by new stairs.
03:54In the extension, a simple strip of kitchen will face towards the track
03:59through a rectangular window, with a long table alongside.
04:04A stove will warm the cosy living area at the far end.
04:10Where are you putting your bath, then?
04:13Your roll-top bath, which you saw on the way in, will go there.
04:16Which way? What way is it?
04:18It'll go this way, I think.
04:20Oh.
04:21Well, personally, I think it should go here.
04:25This cottage is surrounded by extraordinary vistas,
04:29which should be soaked up at every opportunity.
04:33So, either you enjoy that view.
04:36OK.
04:38Or you want to grab that view.
04:41Yeah.
04:42You know, if you're going to put in the roll-top bath, which is fabulous,
04:46you want to sit in it and look out.
04:49I love baths like that, because I love seaweed baths.
04:53And do you gather your own seaweed?
04:55I haven't got that far. So you should put a shower in.
04:58But then we lose more space.
04:59You don't. Look at the size of this.
05:01It looks so small to me.
05:03You could have a party in here.
05:04Oh, we hope so.
05:05Evanne's looking forward to parties in the bathroom.
05:08But for the bedroom, she's aiming for serenity.
05:12Where are you putting your bed?
05:13I'm a great one for putting a bed in a corner.
05:16Oh.
05:17To create more space.
05:19But you've got a massive bedroom.
05:21So I could put it in the middle.
05:23But I feel you lose space by putting it in the middle.
05:25Yeah, I'm just...
05:26Yeah, I know. I'm listening. I'm listening.
05:28What's my colour scheme?
05:29No more turning. It's all...
05:31Don't say it. I can feel it.
05:34What I want is...
05:36I think that we all live in a very cluttered situation.
05:39So when I want to come here, I want nothing.
05:42Nothing?
05:43So everything white, everything minimal in my bedroom.
05:47Just a very simple bed and one flower and one book.
05:51The same book or did you change the book?
05:53Possibly changed, but I think...
05:55Do you know what I mean?
05:56Like, does the book just stay there or, you know?
05:59Like, one book.
06:01So are you against the white idea?
06:03Yeah, you know me.
06:04Okay.
06:05I can see a playful creativity in Yvanne, which I'm enjoying.
06:10She studied art and from her first café to her latest venture,
06:15slow fashion company, The Tweed Project.
06:18She's had an eye for pared-back design, individuality and local crafts.
06:23So, walking in here and I have a ginormous room.
06:28I hope that her modern extension will err on the cosy side of pared-back.
06:34Lovely big room.
06:35Yeah.
06:36The size of a big one-bedroom apartment.
06:39Massive.
06:40Massive.
06:41Massive.
06:42Massive.
06:43So what's going on in this now?
06:44Beautiful window looking out.
06:47What's the finish?
06:48On the outside or the inside?
06:49Yeah, on the outside.
06:50Probably that corrugation.
06:51Like in a barn?
06:52Yeah.
06:53Okay, fine.
06:54Oh, definitely.
06:55Yeah, and what colour is it?
06:56I was hoping for the Icelandic red with the black.
06:59Lipstick red roof on a black building.
07:02Wouldn't that be lovely?
07:04Right.
07:05Okay, now, let's…
07:07And I have a big window here.
07:09Beautiful view.
07:10Okay?
07:11And I'm going to walk this…
07:13Walk this way.
07:18Here I am.
07:19Is that okay?
07:20So I'm now in the living area.
07:22And my window, my beautiful picture window, is here.
07:26Yeah.
07:27Isn't that right?
07:28Yeah.
07:29Okay, tell me what you're looking at.
07:31The next-door neighbour's house.
07:32That's good, isn't it?
07:34Maybe not.
07:35True, true.
07:36Yeah, better to look at the Hawthorn.
07:38Indeed.
07:39And it's so beautiful.
07:40And it would bring more light in.
07:42Yeah.
07:43Okay.
07:44And it's lovely.
07:45Look at it.
07:46Yeah.
07:47Jesus, you're very clever.
07:48What you should be doing is somewhere here is where your potbelly stove should go.
07:53But I don't think it's good to have a potbelly stove beside a big opening.
07:57Why?
07:59Because that needs to be a whoosh.
08:01A what?
08:02A whoosh.
08:03What's a whoosh?
08:04This kind of thing.
08:05But where am I whooshing to?
08:07Anywhere you want.
08:09No, but I'm going to whoosh over there.
08:11I know, but this expanse, darling, is blocked by the structuredness of the potbelly stove.
08:16It can easily go over here.
08:19Where to be whooshy is subjective, but the budget isn't.
08:23So you bought the property for how much?
08:25£170,000.
08:26So you got your planning, COVID came along, all that interruption, and you started your construction work.
08:33And how long is your building programme?
08:35Well, I'm hoping we'll be done by June of next year.
08:39And your budget to do this work?
08:41About £280,000.
08:43£280,000.
08:44Which sounds like a huge amount of money, but it isn't.
08:48Not in this day and age.
08:50No, so you're going to have to be very diligent about your budget and your materials and the finishes you want to use.
08:56But I like quite a simple finish anyway.
08:58You may like it simple, but you like quality.
09:01Well, I do, yes.
09:02You do like quality?
09:03I do, yes.
09:04Quality costs money.
09:06And you're very lucky, because you only have one book, so you don't need a bookcase.
09:12Do you know what I mean? You don't need frivolous things like that.
09:15No, no.
09:16Do you know what I mean?
09:17Minimalist.
09:18Minimalist.
09:19I'm a minimalist.
09:20Evanne has set herself eight months before she puts her solitary book on her minimalist bookshelf and moves in.
09:28Within a month, the project has moved forward fast, with block work laid in the new extension.
09:36Evanne's contractor, local man John Canole, is keen to get a roof on the building as soon as possible.
09:43Exposure to the elements is putting the cottage's old walls at risk.
09:49My name is John. I'm building around this area for over 40 years.
09:53I only live five miles down the road, and it's lovely to see all these places being reoccupied.
09:58It brings new life into the place and new people, and it's good for an area.
10:04There are very few of them left idle now, and that's the good of it.
10:07They're all being bought up and being refurbished, and young families are living in them.
10:13So that's great for the area.
10:15Planning is so difficult to get in the morning that any cottage that comes up for sale, and even the ones that aren't for sale, are being chased.
10:24Evanne's isolated cottage was constructed by Bally Vaughan Rural District Council,
10:30and was leased to Patrick Leary, a local herder, grandfather to the last occupant.
10:36Cottages of the same prototype dot the surrounding countryside.
10:42Funds for houses like this were made possible by the Land Commission, which allowed tenants to buy their homes.
10:51This was a revolution in home ownership and living standards.
10:57At Evanne's cottage in December, the old building is about to double in size.
11:03Our plan today is to lift in big stone walls for the gables.
11:07We'll put in the gables, and then we'll put in the ridge beam, and then we're going to cut in the rafters for the main roof structure.
11:14And that's a slow enough process because it's not that straightforward a roof to do.
11:19While the extension takes shape, I've invited Evanne to visit a cottage with me on the opposite side of the country in rural Wicklow,
11:29so I can get a stronger sense of her design plans.
11:33Yeah, I love the terracotta. Fantastic. Thank you so much for opening the door.
11:38Fabulous.
11:40Isn't this just great?
11:42Gorgeous.
11:43Lovely space, but we're going to start in the sitting room.
11:45Fabulous.
11:47So I brought you here because I love the idea that from the outside, the cottage is very much as it was,
11:54the stone and the lovely slate on the roof, but when you come inside, it's exceptionally contemporary.
12:01Yeah, it's kind of like, you know, you're challenging people. They're expecting something, and then it's something else.
12:08Evanne's planning on maintaining her cottage's original exterior design, but inside, she's aiming for minimalism.
12:17The actual colour of the floor finish is just fabulous.
12:22Yes, really lovely. And again, it sits in really well with the dark wood that's predominant everywhere, you know.
12:29We love the herringbone, and then the rug works really well with that.
12:33But you're not going for a herringbone?
12:36No, I find it too busy for me. It's really good in this space, but it's too busy for me.
12:43I'm a firm believer in plain white walls and pretty plain floors, so that you can do your pops of colour, your pieces of art,
12:51and that's where you shine. Otherwise, things just get so busy, and I don't like that.
12:56I really like the sockets, and they match the colour of the door.
13:00Again, they fit in.
13:03I was looking at red ones, Hugh.
13:05No, no, don't do red. No, please don't do that. You'll wake up one morning, and you'll just be horrified.
13:11You'll be screaming at yourself.
13:13So, let's go to the kitchen.
13:15Fantastic.
13:18Again, we've got great floor finishes in terms of texture and colour.
13:23Simple kitchen in dark tones, and the bathroom is very successful.
13:29The scale of it, the amount of light coming in.
13:32I think bathrooms are largely an afterthought for people, but they are a hugely significant room,
13:37and if they're expansive, and they have this sense of light and space, it's fantastic.
13:43And that room has it in spades.
13:45These open-plan showers are super.
13:48And is that what you're doing?
13:50I'm not doing an actual shower. I'm doing the shower over the bath.
13:55Oh, with the plastic curtain.
13:57Not plastic. Maybe linen.
14:02I'm looking forward to that.
14:04I think it'll be great. I think it'll be great.
14:06And if you desperately need an actual shower, you can have it outside, cold, beside the sauna.
14:13No problem.
14:14It's no... Oh, no, you'll have to get the heat. You'll have to get the hot tap out there.
14:18No, Jenny, it's just the cold. The hot will be in the sauna.
14:21Oh, lovely.
14:23And the plunge, rainwater, Victorian bath.
14:27So you're moving the Victorian bath, so you're going to use that as your ice bath.
14:32Ice bath, exactly.
14:33Lovely.
14:34With natural brown water.
14:36Despite my best efforts, Yvanne's grawl for hardy minimalism remains firmly unshaken.
14:44On site, New Year dawns, after a month of frost.
14:49But there's no stopping John and his team.
14:52It has been going well, but the weather has been ferociously bad.
14:56December was the worst December I ever put down, and there is no shelter here from any side.
15:00So, yeah, we're totally exposed to it.
15:03But more weather like this, it'll be fine.
15:06You won't get better than this for January, for putting on a roof, you know.
15:10No, we haven't seen Yvanne that much during after Christmas.
15:13Obviously, with her business in Galway, she's busy at that Christmas time.
15:17But she's coming on site today, so that'll be great.
15:20After a busy Christmas in the restaurant, Mother Christmas arrives, a vision in pink.
15:26Now, I have presents.
15:30It's got a nice peak in it, the ceiling, the roof.
15:34Yvanne wants the two cottage roofs to match one another, to blend the old with the new.
15:44This is lovely.
15:45Great.
15:47And we'll do a different coloured RSJ up there.
15:50But Yvanne wants to mark modernity, with a strip of colour in the new roof's steel beam.
15:57Pink?
15:58No, because the stove will be orange. We'll see.
16:03Before the orange stove can be fitted, John needs to know its location, so he can fit a flue into the roof.
16:11I need a natural position with that now.
16:13So that involves coming back on my orange stove. Can you give them a nudge?
16:19They don't nudge very well now.
16:21Oh, right. Well, I'll be going to them next Saturday, so...
16:23OK.
16:25Yvanne has a fluid creative planning process, which has served her well in her creative endeavours.
16:32But John needs decisions to progress the build.
16:35Give me a while now. I'm too cold to decide that now.
16:37You're going to need this minute.
16:39No.
16:40Before six o'clock will do me.
16:41No, no, no, no. I might need Monday morning.
16:43Yeah.
16:44Monday morning will be plenty time.
16:45Yeah, OK.
16:46But I do need it.
16:47I know, I know.
16:48I need it before I close up this roof.
16:49I know, I know, I know, I know.
16:50We'll have a battle in our hands. More changes, more changes coming. That's what clients do.
16:54It always happens. Always. I've never been on a job that clients don't come with changes like.
17:00Yeah.
17:01It's quite a simple house.
17:02It's very simple.
17:03Yeah, yeah. Uncomplicated, like myself.
17:06Sometimes they're good ideas like, you know, so we don't mind it generally like, but we have to push back.
17:11Otherwise, we'd never get a job finished.
17:13While John's team fix the roof joists in place, a van gets some head space in her upcycled glass house
17:21alongside the cottage to get inspiration for layout decisions and ponder on her priorities.
17:28Main thing is I want the orange stove, which the supplier is like, I don't think it's possible.
17:32I don't think it's possible.
17:33And I'm like, oh, black, black, black.
17:36No, I says, I want an orange stove.
17:40Okay, we'll have to find you an orange stove.
17:43So yeah, that's the attitude.
17:46At the close of the day, a decision on the layout is not the only thing John will need to wait until Monday for.
17:54And I'll pay you on Monday.
17:58Please God, I'll do a bit of busking.
18:01The winter sun sets with a van's newly extended cottages twin roofs form in place.
18:08But contractor John will need her design vision to take firm shape before he can make this exposed home
18:16the sanctuary she dreams of.
18:19Creative restaurateur Yvonne McNamara plans to relocate from the heart of Galway City
18:25to a herdsman's cottage high on a plateau in the Bern in County Clare.
18:31Initially, I wanted to buy something in the heart of the Bern and to create a retreat for me and for people to go to.
18:38Have we ordered those things?
18:41Lovely.
18:42The beauty is extraordinary.
18:45If anything, the love is growing more and more and more.
18:49While Yvonne's latest vision takes shape, in the Bern, in the February light, the new windows have arrived.
18:57Having the building sealed in marks a key step forward.
19:01The bold, lipstick-red door seals the deal.
19:05Whitspring, production for Yvonne's restaurant menu, also shoots forward.
19:11We built this glass house last October out of recycled windows and we have it south-facing
19:17so we get as much heat as we can during the day.
19:19I've sort of been working with Yvonne over the course of a year.
19:22I've been teaching her permaculture methods for organic food growing.
19:26So she wants to learn as much as possible so that she can grow organic food.
19:30While clearing back overgrowth, Yvonne's team uncovered a series of stone buildings in the valley below the house.
19:38Yvonne's meeting Claremont, oral historian.
19:41Dr Tomáš Mokonmára among the rooms.
19:46It's really wonderful to be here in this space and to be a part of it.
19:51It's a wonderful experience.
19:53Dr Tomáš Mokonmára among the rooms.
19:56It's really wonderful to be here in this space and to be a part of it.
20:01It's probably one of those places in the country that has a depth of history that is unrivaled.
20:09The local townland name, Liskugan, hints at a long history of humans making homes here.
20:16Could you break down Liskugan?
20:18Lisk or Arath will immediately tell you that there are ring forts within the area.
20:25And that again is evidence of at least a 2,000 year inhabitation of the area.
20:32Records show families living in these rooms throughout the 19th century.
20:37We know in the 1870s that the O'Leary family moved into Liskugan.
20:42The O'Leary's were the great-grandparents of Patrick O'Leary, a van's cottage's last owner.
20:48Despite living through the horror of the famine, Patrick's great-grandparents reached the grand old ages of 102 and 95.
20:58It's funny when the mortality rate was so significant at that time and so high that they were able to live so long.
21:06That's kind of unusual at that time.
21:09It's funny, it's only unusual when you start to see life being sort of channeled into forms of existence,
21:18which maybe are away from what was the natural order for centuries and centuries.
21:22Whenever land becomes more within the grip of individuals and they can decide on rents,
21:31they can decide on the expectations of the people living on that land
21:35and more pressure is put on individuals living in the place than is necessary.
21:40That's when difficulties arise.
21:43The Radical Land Acts, which led to the building of a van's cottage,
21:47allowed the O'Leary's and land workers around the country to own their own homes for the first time.
21:54So in 1912, it seems that this place was purchased by the Rural District Council.
22:01So that's the time when the family moved from this valley up to the house that you're now developing.
22:07In 1913.
22:08In 1912.
22:09The house is 20 years older than a van realised.
22:13When we think back to the original settlers, 5,800 years ago,
22:19back to the Neolithic period when farmers and families settled in the area
22:24began to work in communion with this landscape all around us,
22:27right up until the last 50 years.
22:31It was almost the same existence.
22:33I think it's wonderful what you're doing.
22:35Your vision for sustainability and slow food and all of that
22:38is connecting back to that relationship between existence here and the landscape of the barn.
22:45Yeah, I mean, I suppose. Thank you for that, darling.
22:48And I suppose I feel like for me personally, you know, I'm 50 now.
22:53I'm 50 now and so, you know, and now actually I just want to retreat back
22:58into the very simple life of milking the goats and gathering the eggs
23:03and making the nettle soup and gathering the hazelnuts, which I can see here
23:07and just pulling it right back because actually I've been there
23:11and now I can see this doesn't really give a whole lot.
23:15And actually, I want to go way further back than almost where I started.
23:20Back up the valley on a grey March day,
23:24our vans invited her architect, Mike Haslam, to meet John on site with her.
23:30How are you getting on?
23:32Grace, will you use the ramp?
23:35I thought I'd make a jump for it. The windows are in?
23:39Yes.
23:41Jesus, in here I was thinking that he was doing nothing.
23:46And he's the famous Mike here?
23:48Yes.
23:49And the doors are in and you have my door dirty already.
23:52Correct.
23:55You can pull that off if you wish.
23:57And what's it called, anthracite?
24:00Anthracite.
24:01What do you think, Mike?
24:03Yep, good. No, it's a good call.
24:05Jesus, wow.
24:07I have some kind of new ideas that are fabulous for me but annoying for them.
24:13So, I've been watching too many of these Apple TV home things, right?
24:18And I want to do, because there's so much space here,
24:21and I know you're going to kill me,
24:23but I'd love to do a little mezzanine there with architectural goals.
24:26Not much. This one over. Very, very simple.
24:31This is a whole new second mezzanine.
24:35Well, the mezzanine was certainly new.
24:37I had not heard about that before, that's for sure.
24:39I'm not surprised by that in some respects, not just because of the van,
24:42but also as people see the spaces,
24:45they haven't maybe imagined them fully before from paper.
24:48So, when they see them and they're walking in them,
24:50they're going, well, look, could we do this?
24:52Or whatever it happens to be.
24:53In this particular case, it's a potential mezzanine.
24:55You know, it's a beautiful house. It's kind of a regular house.
24:59These are the little elements that will make this a little bit more wow-y.
25:04You know, that's all.
25:06And also create a little bit more space.
25:09Oh, absolutely, you have to go over the floor,
25:11because it's their money and it's their project.
25:13If they want to, in their mind, improve it or change it,
25:15well, it's their prerogative, like.
25:17So, it gives them a lot of leeway in that, like, and you have to.
25:20But there's also a time when you have to say, stop.
25:23What about decision times on all of this?
25:26Because John will not want that.
25:30We need those decisions yesterday, last week, the week before.
25:35So, it's just a bed box here, darling.
25:38Running across.
25:39Yeah, so from the top of that.
25:41John needs a van to make decisions on more practical items.
25:46As a box. If you did it all the way up, it would become something else.
25:49It's like a suspended bed box.
25:52Suspended bed boxes aside,
25:54John needs a van to make decisions on more practical items.
25:59Well, we need the electrics.
26:01The electrics, it holds up everything.
26:03So, we really can't proceed much further without the electrics, like.
26:06Going forward, we need information for the sanitary ware, like,
26:10because that has to be chosen so we can pipe it correctly, like.
26:13And, you know, there's a stove to go in.
26:15So, we need that stove so we can do the roof.
26:17So, we're really at a standstill now until we get all those.
26:21It's always a little frustrating.
26:23It's very hard to instill in a client how important these decisions are,
26:27that they come timely.
26:28With new ideas still emerging, work continues.
26:32Corrugated roof sheeting going on,
26:34and the air-tightness membrane being fitted.
26:37I've decided to visit,
26:39to see if I can help to bridge Yvanne and John's different approaches,
26:43and come to an agreement about exterior finishes.
26:47Hello, darling.
26:48Hello, darling.
26:49And how are we?
26:51Well, how can we be on a day like today?
26:53You're looking fabulous.
26:54Oh, great to see you.
26:55Huh?
26:56Great to see you.
26:57So, you've made huge progress.
27:00Yeah, yeah.
27:01I suppose the biggest progress is the windows and doors.
27:04How do you feel about them?
27:05Well, I think it looks fabulous.
27:06Okay, yeah.
27:08The red roof, you like?
27:09Oh, at the back, fantastic.
27:11Great, great.
27:12Just wonderful.
27:13So, when do you hope to be in?
27:14June.
27:15No.
27:16Yes.
27:17June's only three months away.
27:20Well, we'll probably do the outhouses around then,
27:22but we can get in then.
27:23Isn't that fantastic?
27:24It's great, yeah.
27:25In for the summer.
27:26You get through the summer.
27:27Yeah, exactly.
27:28Wouldn't it?
27:29A very short build.
27:30Very short, but you're such a fantastic builder.
27:33And look who's arrived.
27:35The builder.
27:36John.
27:37Hugh, how are you doing?
27:38I'm fabulous.
27:39Come over here.
27:40Welcome to the barn.
27:41Come over here now, John.
27:42How are you?
27:43I'm very well.
27:44How are you?
27:45I hope now today you're not going to put any more daft ideas
27:46into this woman's head.
27:47Me?
27:48Yes.
27:49Sure, I wouldn't put a daft idea in anyone's head.
27:50She had a very big, long list after you were here the last time, Lach.
27:53So, tell us now, the outside of the house, what, lime rendered?
27:56Lime rendered.
27:57Right.
27:58And what happens to this?
27:59A dash finish.
28:00A dash lime rendered.
28:01Well, that's not confirmed, darling.
28:02It's a light dash, not a heavy.
28:03Very light.
28:04Very, very light.
28:05Yeah, do that.
28:06Very light.
28:07Okay.
28:08To be very traditional in these old houses.
28:09See, I would like it to look all the same, but the architect wants it to be looking like
28:13it was old and this is new.
28:15He's correct.
28:16Yeah, okay, okay.
28:17He's correct.
28:18And John thinks the same.
28:19Yes.
28:20Oh, God, I'm outnumbered.
28:21You are.
28:22Oh, Jesus, I love being outnumbered.
28:23Well, let's go inside now and have a look at it.
28:25Come on.
28:26John coming with us.
28:27Sure, now that we have him.
28:28Exactly.
28:34So, this is a great little area and then this is like going to capture all the sun.
28:39Yes.
28:40Pure sun trap.
28:41It's fabulous, isn't it?
28:42Yeah.
28:43What's my finish on that wall?
28:44So, that's the, yes?
28:46Smooth plaster.
28:47Oh.
28:48Smooth plaster.
28:49Ultimately, I would love a tar finish.
28:51What's going on about tar?
28:53I'll show you.
28:54I'll show you.
28:55Really what you're talking about, black corrugation.
28:58Yeah.
28:59Yes, that's what I'd love.
29:00Just call it tar, black corrugation.
29:01Oh, yeah.
29:02Yeah.
29:03Why don't you do that?
29:04Because it's another 10 grand.
29:06You might have to cook him another dinner.
29:09Yeah, yeah, exactly.
29:10She hasn't cooked me any dinner yet.
29:11Happily, happily, happily.
29:12See, that's the problem.
29:13I haven't been able to get a table in Arby.
29:17That's the problem.
29:18Would you not now give the poor man a table?
29:20We will, of course, easily.
29:22So, yeah, I think corrugation is more interesting.
29:25I think it'll be fine.
29:26Yeah.
29:27Okay, okay.
29:28Will we price that up now?
29:32It's May, and the barn's alive with light and flowers.
29:37John must have been granted a van's best restaurant table.
29:41Work's flying ahead in the cottage,
29:43with first-fix electrics complete, plumbing underway,
29:48and flooring and skirtings being fitted.
29:51A van's on-site to tend the gardens.
29:55With the summer growth, the house is taking form.
29:59Classes are starting tomorrow.
30:00Yes, wow.
30:01Outside.
30:02Outside, yeah.
30:03Outside, great.
30:04And the weather's promised good.
30:05Good, my darling.
30:07But a van always has some new ideas up her sleeve.
30:12And you know something, what I was thinking now, don't kill me.
30:15Didn't we talk about two electrical shootouts here?
30:18No.
30:19No, I know we talked about this.
30:21Okay, so that's the overriding thing, nothing here.
30:24Well, you can't have both.
30:25I know, just asking.
30:27Each one more unconventional than the next.
30:30And then it goes over there in a kind of architectural mesh in white,
30:33darling, my friend Gavin will make it,
30:35and then it'll come down here, and it'll be a metal stairs.
30:40I have a vision for the house that's in my head,
30:43and it's all coming together.
30:46But with someone like John, he wants an immediate kind of response,
30:50and I'm not interested in working like that.
30:52But I'm not rushing anything.
30:54I need to think about things properly, you know,
30:57because you're going to live with them forever, so it's very critical.
31:00Debate continues outside.
31:03Where can we put a water harvesting tank?
31:05You tell me.
31:07I thought you had this all worked out.
31:09No.
31:10Okay.
31:11We planned it originally and costed it,
31:13and it kind of blew the budget a bit.
31:15Okay.
31:16But is it something we can add later?
31:19We can add later if we make allowances for the future work now.
31:24This pair and the project itself appear to thrive on sparks.
31:29I might win.
31:31Yes.
31:33It isn't about winning and losing.
31:36It's about choices.
31:39For all the dynamic friction and fluid planning,
31:43Van has developed a strong vision for her home.
31:47Yeah, so very much inspired by Derek Jarman's prospect cottage
31:51in Dungeness in southern England.
31:53Derek Jarman was an artist and filmmaker
31:56who came to fame in the bunk era
31:59and built a house on a desolate stretch of shingle
32:02on England's south coast.
32:04So, black, I love because it's a nod to Derek Jarman's house
32:10and that location, and it sits well into the landscape,
32:14it's not jarring, and it will work with the red roof.
32:17I know you're not keen, but I don't care.
32:20But what black? Black, brown, black?
32:22Black, black, no. Black, black.
32:24Yeah, but you should introduce the black, brown, I think.
32:27I know you said that, but I'm not listening to you.
32:29I've come to love and accept that a van is unlikely to listen to me,
32:34or perhaps anyone.
32:37Three weeks after Mike the architect's visit,
32:40it's June, a van's planned deadline for moving in.
32:44I've popped out to the yet more verdant burn
32:48to see if any of our last batch of ideas came to fruition.
32:53Lots of progress?
32:55I mean, I feel there's lots of progress.
32:57Do you?
32:58Maybe you don't, but I do.
33:00They're working a lot on the exterior buildings,
33:03so the bedshed is over there.
33:05Bedshed?
33:06Yeah.
33:07Oh.
33:08A van's come up with another new plan,
33:11an added doing-up-a-shed to the list.
33:14So tell us now, the roof's not on yet?
33:16Yeah, yeah, yeah, not yet.
33:18But I think the tiles are somewhere.
33:21Somewhere, right.
33:22There.
33:23Oh, OK, yeah.
33:24So that's positive.
33:25Yeah, they were there the last time I was there.
33:28See, I work on positivity, you know.
33:31I understand that, but it would be nice to have the roof on,
33:34wouldn't it?
33:35Yeah, yeah.
33:36So, a van.
33:41Where's the progress?
33:43I know, I know, I know.
33:45See, I see the progress,
33:47but now that you're saying where's the progress,
33:49I'm a bit worried.
33:50What's happened?
33:52For three months.
33:54I've just, sorry, I've just...
33:56I don't know, I mean, I don't know.
33:59And when do you want to be in?
34:01In August.
34:02In August?
34:03So it's now mid-June.
34:04Yeah.
34:05Yeah.
34:06Eight weeks.
34:07Yeah, yeah.
34:08A finished date of August adds a two-month leap to the timeline.
34:12You're disappointed.
34:14It's OK, it's OK.
34:16No, I'm not disappointed.
34:17I know that you're a perfectionist.
34:19Yes.
34:20And that, you know,
34:22I'm sure you've said one or two small changes to the builder.
34:28I'm pushing for practical progress,
34:31but creative a van is still coming up with new ideas.
34:35How do you feel about the climbing wall?
34:39What climbing wall?
34:40What do you mean the climbing wall?
34:41Where's the climbing wall?
34:42So, I was, well, I was thinking it here,
34:45because it's the only place,
34:47and you could climb then up there.
34:50That could be doable, couldn't it?
34:53Who's climbing the wall?
34:55Oni.
34:56But it will have this lovely...
34:58Is that to get away from you?
35:00Is that to get away?
35:01So in my...
35:02Where's Oni going to be hanging up there when the guests arrive?
35:06No, it's an exercise thing.
35:08Oh, it's for exercise?
35:09Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:10You know climbing walls.
35:11Yeah, but really?
35:13Well, why not?
35:15I thought we'd either do a swing or a climbing wall,
35:19but the climbing wall would be in red, yellow, green, blue.
35:22Lovely.
35:23I know I work very differently from the builder, John Canone,
35:25who I admire very much,
35:27but he'll blame it on me being slow with decisions.
35:30Ah, we've finally found,
35:33now we've found out what the problem is.
35:35Well, it's just very important you both get on the same railway line.
35:38We are on the same railway line.
35:40I mean, we were...
35:41But you need to start going in the same direction,
35:43at the same speed.
35:45You have to go in the same speed.
35:46Different trains there for a while,
35:48but we're now in the same carriage.
35:50Oh, Jesus, wonderful.
35:53You're going to be in in August.
35:55Yeah, either in or in the camper van.
35:57In the camper van.
35:58Probably kind of finishing things off.
36:00Right, right.
36:02That's good.
36:03That's good.
36:04It'll be beautiful.
36:05It'll be fabulous.
36:06The Bahamas out here.
36:07Well, it is today.
36:08It is, it's gorgeous.
36:09Hello.
36:10Hello.
36:11Oni.
36:12Very nice to meet you.
36:13You're well?
36:14Nice to meet you.
36:15I'm very well, thank you.
36:16How are you?
36:17I'm good.
36:18And you enjoy it?
36:19I do.
36:20I love it.
36:21I'm very happy and very lucky.
36:22Yeah.
36:23Exactly.
36:24And your mother's mad as a hatter.
36:25Mad.
36:26Which helds no end.
36:28It's great to meet this cottage's other future inhabitant.
36:33But before they move in, they need to get pragmatic.
36:37Great to see progress, but in my opinion, a little slow.
36:41Yes.
36:42And if you're to achieve your desired date,
36:46you need to start talking to John and giving him firm decisions
36:51and not adding any new surprises.
36:56I hope when I next return, Oni and Ivan will be in their finished home,
37:01clambering the climbing wall.
37:04But unless Ivan can stop adding new ideas,
37:08I've a feeling I'll be joining them for a cuppa in their campervan.
37:14In the meantime, with Galway's summer tourist season at its height,
37:19Ivan's off-site.
37:21The exterior's nearing completion,
37:24and the electrics are in without the planned red sockets.
37:29To bring Ivan's bespoke vision into being,
37:32as July comes to a close,
37:34carpenter Arik Plotchiniak is at the burn.
37:38He's living in his van on-site.
37:40So that's the stirrers I have a daily like.
37:42They're a kind of very unusual shape.
37:45A metalworker will add a bespoke grill handrail
37:49as a further unique touch.
37:52With August, Ivan has decided to extend restorations to a ruined barn,
37:58which she wants to use as a jam shed.
38:02Unless she stops adding new ideas,
38:05I'm concerned that this homestead will remain deeply individual,
38:10but absolutely unfinished.
38:16High on the limestone hills of County Clare,
38:20summer has stretched itself into September.
38:23And after the bleak winter behind them,
38:26the barn flowers are out unusually late.
38:30I've hit the high road to find out whether creative Ivan
38:34has set aside her litany of new ideas
38:37and finished her hardsman's hideaway.
38:41The bedshed and jam shed's roofs are on.
38:47There's no bleak black exterior at the front,
38:51but Ivan's bright.
38:53Welcome!
38:54Hello darling! Fancy meeting you here.
38:57Great to see you as usual.
38:59You're looking super.
39:00And you.
39:01And what's on inside?
39:03Well, the house is finished.
39:05The front of the house looks plain and purposeful,
39:09but stepping inside, I'm feeling the whoosh.
39:13Here you go.
39:14Wow, look at that.
39:16Oh, isn't that super?
39:19From the front door, there's a view down the new extension and beyond.
39:24First stop on the house tour is Ivan's bedroom.
39:28With the high bed resolutely in a corner,
39:31as per Ivan's day one plan.
39:34I love this. Look at the height of the bed, Ivan.
39:37Yeah, it's even taller than I suspected.
39:41We didn't have the stairs up until last week
39:43and I thought we could do with the stairs.
39:45I think you definitely need the stairs.
39:47But one plan has changed.
39:49Now, I do see you haven't got the book yet.
39:52No, I'm working on that.
39:54I think you should work your way up to the book
39:57and make sure there's a bit of colour on the cover.
40:00Ivan has offset white walls
40:02with the pared back bonine of our curtains,
40:06with their ochre stitching,
40:08which is picked up in the colour of the side light.
40:11Coming in here, simplicity rules.
40:14I love the curtains.
40:16My beautiful seamstress did this kind of zigzagging
40:20that has this kind of 1920s kind of notion, you know.
40:25Everything is customised.
40:27This is the culmination of many people's efforts.
40:30It's not just me.
40:31Well said.
40:32And then I love the sliding doors.
40:34Yeah, isn't that great?
40:35And so when nobody's in here,
40:37then we close those and it continues,
40:40the hall continues straight to the whoosh.
40:42The whoosh?
40:43The whoosh, which is...
40:44Oh, we'll have to see the whoosh.
40:46I'm all excited about the whoosh, darling.
40:48Well, we'll continue our journey.
40:50Let's do it.
40:53The ochre pops step up to a bold yellow in the hall
40:58where mesh banisters devised by metal worker Alan Smith
41:04lead up to Oni's mezzanine.
41:07Arik built the bed here,
41:09and there's another wonderful view from the window.
41:13You know, when you're looking at a home like this,
41:16you really have squeezed every inch, haven't you?
41:19Well, I like to utilise, not to lose space, but utilise space.
41:24Architect Mike Haslam's alternate half-steps
41:28were designed to fit in where there was no room
41:31for a run-of-the-mill staircase.
41:33When I look at the staircase,
41:35I couldn't quite understand what you were trying to do.
41:38But now that I see it, I think it's fabulous.
41:40And I find this arrangement just terrific.
41:44Like, it works, doesn't it?
41:46It works.
41:47To be honest, it wasn't my idea.
41:49It was what the architect would sign off on.
41:52And in terms of the architectural mesh,
41:55I had wanted the holes to be bigger
41:58so that it would look less busy,
42:00so I was a little bit concerned about that.
42:02But it's perfect.
42:04And I love the way there's no support.
42:07Yeah, and that's kind of nice for cleaning
42:10because there's a sense of space.
42:12Yeah, but it also makes the staircase light.
42:15Yeah, yeah, beautiful, beautiful work.
42:18Light, white and yellow.
42:20The elevating brightness of the colour combination
42:24continues in the bathroom,
42:26where the square white tiles
42:28and the yellow grouting nod to the 1980s.
42:32This is a loo with a view,
42:35and a relaxing spot for clutter-free bathing.
42:39The basin stand, also by Alan Smith,
42:43references the industrial stairs outside.
42:47And so to the extension,
42:50now home to the kitchen, dining area
42:53and a sitting space around the brand-new stove.
42:57Look at the size of this room.
42:59And the height.
43:01Here, I have two magnificent views
43:04in either direction,
43:06and then I have this magnificent view.
43:09The second mezzanine and the climbing wall never happened.
43:13Anna van made changes when it came to the colour of her stove
43:17and the dramatic steel beam of her head.
43:20And I believe you were going to have a yellow beam.
43:24So I kind of sat in with the red of the table
43:27being the red that emulates out.
43:29And then it's the red of the doors now,
43:31so there's a continuity outside to inside
43:34and the colour of the roof outside.
43:36But I'll be bringing in lots more red elements.
43:39What more?
43:40So I'm going to get a floating cabinet that's in the same red,
43:44and then there'll be a pivot light in a red as well.
43:47But that's it.
43:48I just wonder, it'd be nice to introduce another primary colour.
43:52I'm not going to bring in another primary.
43:54Tweaks aside, a van remains unbendable.
43:58When you come here as you drive from Galway or Cork,
44:01you come here to declutter your mind
44:05and to relax and to connect with nature.
44:08So if you had, like, crazy wallpaper,
44:11it wouldn't really feel right.
44:13But throughout the house, although I'm no minimalist,
44:17I can see everything does indeed look right.
44:21A van's simple, carefully thought-out styling
44:24and John's skilful execution of the project
44:28has made for a home as stripped-back and contemplative as its surroundings.
44:34When I met John yourself, I was fascinated because
44:37it was sort of, you'd say, oh, I'd like this,
44:39and John'd say, well, we're doing that.
44:41And you were just going, how on earth did the two of you get on?
44:46I definitely feel he was frustrated with me initially,
44:49but I don't care.
44:50How could that be?
44:51That's not possible.
44:53How could anybody be frustrated by you in the name of goodness, girl?
44:58And I think then after a while,
45:01the grow increased and the respect increased.
45:04John and I kind of found our way.
45:07I mean, we're very different people,
45:09but I have enormous respect for him.
45:11The integrity of his work
45:13and the work of all the people that work with him is amazing.
45:18I actually like a bit of resistance.
45:20I just, you know, push through it.
45:22In my opinion, you wouldn't have this home
45:24without your relationship with John.
45:26Absolutely. Absolutely.
45:28The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,
45:32it has been said.
45:33And as I step outside into the uninterrupted Byrne views
45:38and soak in the arresting grey and red rear of the building,
45:43I'm convinced.
45:45A van was lucky to be able to find land,
45:48let alone property, in this celebrated location.
45:51You bought the property two years ago?
45:54Yeah, two years ago.
45:56For how much you pay?
45:57£170.
45:58And you've...
45:5932 acres.
46:00So you've got that lovely valley in front of you.
46:02Yeah.
46:03Great.
46:04And your initial budget was how much?
46:08I think it came in at £480 and I asked him to slice it
46:11and I think it then went to £360,
46:13but then with the outhouses it went back to £480.
46:17A van plans to transform the bedshed
46:20into a sleeping space in the months ahead.
46:24There's still the sauna to complete
46:26and who knows what new ideas lie ahead.
46:29So I suppose the key thing here
46:31is a kind of biodiversity project as well with the bees
46:35and even though the garden looks fairly small,
46:38the production is quite massive, particularly this time of year,
46:42and that's producing really beautiful vegetables
46:45for the restaurant.
46:46That's an income stream.
46:48Like those who lived and thrived in the valley before her,
46:51the land here is sustaining a van and she's enriching it.
46:56But it really is a symbiotic relationship you have
47:00with the landscape in terms of
47:02everything you're doing is sustainable.
47:05This was about you respecting the buildings,
47:09the walls, you know, the sheds, the paddock,
47:15and if you like then on top of that
47:18you've also engaged with the land
47:20because you're growing your vegetables,
47:22you have your herb garden.
47:24Absolutely, and there's so much joy in all of that.
47:26I work in slow food, slow fashion,
47:29and this represents slow living.
47:31So it's like a trilogy of the things that really matter to me.
47:35A van found this spot to get away from the world,
47:39but the stark and serene home she's created
47:42can't fail but attract people in.
47:47I'm officially sick of my own voice.
47:50Oh, thank you.
47:52To mark her project coming into flower,
47:55a van's renamed it.
47:58Going through the door,
48:00there's that whoosh that a van talks about.
48:04And the reason that it's so good
48:06is because of her adversarial relationship with John.
48:10Together they come to a compromise
48:12and because they did,
48:14that's why this restoration and extension is so successful.
48:19The van is very direct, and so am I.
48:22And I think that works.
48:24There's no point in thinking something
48:26when you're involved in something like this
48:28and not just coming out with it.
48:30You have to be honest if you're going to be successful
48:32at the end of the day.
48:34It's been a giant effort. We had a guiding hand.
48:36Cheers!
48:43There's even more interior inspiration
48:45coming our way this week,
48:47courtesy of the brand new series of Home of the Year.
48:4921 delightful dwellings
48:51will be vying for the coveted accolade.
48:53It starts Tuesday night at half eight
48:55here on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player,
48:57and there's even a new judge
48:59to give Hugh a run for his money.
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