He's trying to bring it back to the 70's.
But I kinda want to bring it out of the 70's.
There's a difficult balance to strike.
Giving clients the new home they want without
destroying the legacy of the past.
Before I was kind of Trevor and Sally Ann's architect.
Now I feel like a caretaker of this old building.
The last thing you want to do is fail on both counts.
I think it's very much he's on his journey for our house and
I feel has hasn't taken onboard my feelings.
The house is called Glendine.
It was named by my parents.
My first memory is of coming to visit the site, it was a field,
and having a picnic here.
That was with my mum and her mother who was visiting.
She wanted to bring her out and show her where her new house was going to be.
We just loved it. It was like a huge adventure.
At that stage I wouldn't have known anything about architecture
or architects but I knew it was a fairly unusual house.
I used to wonder how my parents ended up with such a..
Non-conventional house.
Cos they were both very conservative.
I think they literally had complete faith in their architect and they
said design us a beautiful house and this is what he came up with.
My dad has told me that my mother loved it.
However modest or grand, the homes we grow up in are special places.
Familiar set pieces in the drama of family life.
4 years ago when Sally Ann O'Donnell's father put his Mullingar
home on the market, it affected her in ways she never expected.
I then had a bit of an emotional wobble.
I just thought gosh, he's finally going to get rid of it and it'll be gone.
I started thinking about..
I couldn't bear somebody else to be living in our house.
Unable to turn her back on her childhood home,
Sally Ann and her husband Trevor bought the distinctive
1970's house and moved in with their kids.
Since then, Glendine has remained virtually unchanged but
it's not for the want of motivation.
The more I got to know it inside, the more all I could see were the problems with it.
The problems heating it, the lack of ventilation.
My original thoughts about it were knock it down and start again.
But I had no attachment to it as I didn't grow up there.
My requirements would be just a warm house that's easy to heat.
If you can satisfy me to 80% of what I want, I'll be happy.
I'd say Sally Ann is about 99% so she's going to be the difficulty I think.
With a mere 1% margin of error, this will be quite the challenge for their new architect.
Wow. This doesn't look like a bungalow.
Look at that.
I was expecting a bungalow because that's what it was described as.
It's no more a bungalow.
This is a 1970's proper piece of architecture.
Fantastic roof slopes, really dynamic.
It's its into the landscape well.
It's not what I was expecting at all.
It's a real pleasant surprise.
Hello Dermot. Sally Ann.
Nice to see you. Dermot. Trevor.
Come on in. Nice to meet you.
This is some house, isn't it.
Do you like it? I love it.
Living in it is slightly different.
Is this the room that has the huge big roof window?
Yes. As you're coming up the driveway you can see a massive
window at the top of the house.
That up there which is now blocked off, is where that window is.
So it doesn't exist any more. It really doesn't exist.
It was designed as a light well but there was so much cold air
freezing out this room that it was blocked off by Sally Ann's dad.
It's an uncomfortable house.
It's so cold in the winter.
Then in the summer, if we do get a nice bit of hot weather,
you're opening doors, trying to get a draft going.
It's unbearable. Yeah.
The house itself was designed in the 1970's and that meant that
that that period of time oil was practically free.
Put in as much glass as you like and keep the heating on all the time.
You can't do that any more. It costs an absolute fortune.
Wow. This is a throwback to the 70's, isn't it.
That is the original kitchen, isn't it. That is.
The kitchen is an absolute priority.
It's a one person kitchen and you can't have any help in the kitchen.
Two hot chefs getting agitated with each other.
It just wouldn't work. Try opening the dishwasher.
And then if I open the fridge..
It's an intimate kitchen.
The house was designed in the 1970's. Life was different then.
Kitchens were just small subservient spaces but
we don't live like that any more.
Kitchens are now our gathering spaces.
This for me, I've put up with it for 4 years Dermot.
I need a better kitchen. Okay.
It's not just a case of updating this house.
It's re-inventing it to be relevant in 2014.
That's what we need to do here. To make this house current.
Bedrooms are typical early 70's.
Big master bedroom but very small rooms for the kids.
At their age at the moment, it's starting to become a problem.
There's very little space.
It's tiny. You've nowhere in the house to store anything.
No. We have no attic in the house to put suitcases,
Christmas decorations.
Storage is a problem.
As a contrast we'll have a look at the master bedroom.
This is the nicest room in the house for light, isn't it.
It is a lovely room.
I have to stop thinking about the cold.
It's a room that you sleep in, you couldn't bear to come down
and change your clothing during the day.
It's awful.
We had a bedside clock here which was also a thermometer.
In the really hard freeze there was a consistent week of
minus 12, minus 13 in Mullingar for the whole week.
This room came down to 3 degrees.
That coldness, that uncomfortableness.
That gets into your bones.
You can live in a space that's cramped.
You can live in a space that doesn't really work function wise
but you cannot live in somewhere that's cold.
I think that is colouring the whole house for them.
It dominates.
Your initial impression of the house as well, this is a lovely house.
It is and I have to step back sometimes to see why it's nice
because you just focus on the negative aspects of it.
You're surviving in it. The cold has taken over.
I think by making this a warm house, by bringing it up to current standards,
it should then slowly melt the ice over the whole house and
they'll start to fall in love with it again.
What's the brief? What do you want me to do with the house?
The kitchen. The kitchen is number one priority.
And then after that, I suppose it's the kids bedrooms.
I've asked for a bedroom for each of them but
I would love to have a spare room as well.
Six bedrooms, a study area, storage.. The list goes on.
We've stretched ourselves as much as we can.
Our budget is 250,000.
But you have to keep a little bit for the wow factor, Dermot.
The house has wow in spades.
But surely you can wow it even more.
It does look wow. They can't see that at the moment.
They don't need to re-invent it.
They don't need to plonk something big and wow onto it.
It's already there. We just need to get it working.
I don't want any more wow. I have enough wow in this house.
I want insulation and I want low heating bills.
You just want to be warm. I want to be warm.
I think if you give me a nice kitchen, I'll be wowed enough.
You'll be happy.
Given the size and complexity of the house, Dermot creates two design options.
One with a more generous kitchen and a larger extension,
confident that 250,000 euro will supply all the wow factor,
Trevor and Sally Ann can handle.
Quantity surveyor, Patricia Power, thinks otherwise.
That calculator puts the fear of God into me.
It's on fire today. And so it should.
Right. I've looked at both options and I can do one at the 250K mark.
Which option? Option two.
That's the small one. What do we do for the 250K?
Upgrade the existing house, including external works,
contingency sum, we need 225,000.
225,000 just to upgrade the existing house with no extra work? Yeah.
The size of the house. It's gigantic, it's massive.
Option one is up at 300,000 to give the bigger extension.
With the bigger kitchen. That's 300,000.
We're upgrading the house. We're solving none of the design problems
and it's still costing them 225,000.
Within work in the existing house, we are doing alteration of the layout.
The bedrooms move to this area, the bathroom is moved, the kitchen.
So it's not just upgrading. We have turned the house on its head.
So we are paying for that.
That leaves 25,000 to put towards extra area.
And so with both options costed, Dermot returns with a pitch
that he hopes will match his clients' high expectations.
First of all I want to retain.
What that means is I think the house is great.
I love the shape of it, I love the dynamic of it.
I love the angles. All of your rooms face the right way.
The only thing is the hierarchy is a bit wrong.
I want to change that.
What I've done is I've moved your kitchen and your dining space
down to this end so you're getting all that lovely south light in.
I want to flip the house on its axis to bring
sunlight into the main living spaces.
The existing master bedroom will be reconfigured to house
a kitchen and boot room, with a new extension to the front connecting
a double height dining area to the existing living room.
Relocating the entrance hall will divide the living and bedroom areas.
To the right of this hall will be a utility and an extended bedroom.
The existing kitchen block will become two bedrooms, an en-suite and a bathroom.
I plan to reposition the stairway to the upper floors,
where there'll be one large bedroom for the kids to share,
along with an existing bedroom and bathroom.
Above the kitchen area, a mezzanine level with a family hangout space
will overlook the double-height dining area and the garden.
What do you think Trevor?
He's being very quiet.
I'm thinking about it.
I kinda like this idea.
I'm not sure I like this idea.
The master bedroom.
I mean this is where we are now and I can't imagine myself
lying in bed here.
It does completely turn the house on its head.
What is broken is the kitchen and the size of the bedrooms
so I think the kitchen, for contemporary living, needs to be down here.
I really don't like the master bedroom down there Dermot.
Do you not? No.
I suppose it's hard to get used to where we called the kitchen
and that corner there as suddenly being our bedroom.
I hate when you drive up to a house and you can see into the bedroom.
There's no way I'm having my master bedroom on view as you drive up.
Yes, you will see the master bedroom from the driveway first
but you're going to have to see some room.
I think he might've been a bit disappointed.
I'm not sure was he expecting us to go wow.
Well if he was, I was never going to do that.
I was never going to straight away go yeah, I love it.
What Sally Ann wants is she wants the whole house changed and she wants
it to be a wow house but she doesn't want to move anything.
After months of discussion, Sally Ann's attachment to Glendine's
original layout put an end to Dermot's proposal to flip the kitchen and master bedroom.
On the eve of construction, Dermot invites the designer of the original
1974 layout, architect Jim Feely, for a last look at the place
he built for the princely sum of £21,000.
In the early 60's, there was a feeling in the country that things were changing.
The whole place was now beginning to move forward.
It was a young generation, it was really a young country
and we were all going to go somewhere.
Architecture just like everything else, was part and parcel of that.
Everything has to change.
And this was part of the story.
It's part of the story.
Did they try and fight the contemporary design?
It would've been very different to everything else built around.
Well, when you're young and persuasive and they were young as well..
Young people tend to get on well together and do things well together.
What would you hate to see go in the house?
I don't want to answer that question.
I think I'd rather leave you alone to do it.
Leave you all alone in peace.
And pass judgement at the end.
Well, it's your house. It's your design.
My day is done.
The only down side to all of this is I feel now, almost like a caretaker.
Before I was Trevor and Sally Ann's architect.
Now I feel like a caretaker of this old building,
that I need to make sure I don't destroy the soul.
Because definitely a huge amount of soul went into designing it.
It's taken nearly a year of revision and renegotiation
but the build is finally under way.
In May, work starts on gutting the interior.
In the end, the only way Sally Ann and Trevor could afford a home of
the ambitious scale they wanted for their increased budget of 300,000
was to take the cost cutting step of becoming the builders themselves.
As self builders, the couple are in sole charge of their budget,
doing away with the need for QS Patricia's services.
The pros and cons of a self-build scenario is you've taken the builder
out of the situation so really Sally Ann and Trevor are the builder
To do that on your own home, first time round, is a massive learning curve.
We're talking about an existing dwelling that's over 3,000 square foot
that we're really taking apart and we're refurbishing it,
we're gutting it, upgrading it and we're putting a massive
two-storey extension onto it.
This is over 300,000 of a build. This is no joke.
It really is a monster to take on. There's no doubt about it.
For now though, Trevor and Sally Ann are self build honeymooners.
Starry-eyed in the rubble of the first day's demolition.
Oh God.
Jeepers tonight. It's gone.
It's great, isn't it.
It actually looks much better now than it did when we lived in it.
Because we already had to extent our budget to get the design we wanted,
every penny counted after that.
So for us, while I would've loved to have worked with a builder,
it really was a cost issue at the end of the day.
This is where I used to stand cooking.
I had a lovely text from my sister this morning, which made me all
emotional because it was about our mum and how she'd be making
sure that the builders did a good job and that it wouldn't be raining
and it was nice and sunny this morning so it was quite emotional this morning.
But I think as I walk through now, I'm getting very excited.
Can't believe it.
You can start to see it taking shape already.
The daily project management of Sally Ann and Trevor's self build
falls to engineer, Gordon Mitchell.
Hey Gordon. Dermot, how's it going?
Good to see you again. You too.
I suppose I'm engineer, foreman and project manager all in one.
My role is to help in sourcing the labour, sourcing the materials,
doing the pricing and pulling the whole thing together.
I suppose I'm like the glue that pulls the project together.
The build is under way but there are still design elements under discussion.
Dermot's keen to prepare Gordon for whatever lies ahead.
The process up to now has been quite difficult in getting a design that
everybody's been happy with and getting different parts of it
signed off and over the line.
Sally Ann got so deep into the design that we were going around in circles.
We had to set ourselves milestones.
We needed to lodge for planning so we got it to a certain level.
We needed to get it to tender so we got it to a certain level.
But there was always this feeling in my head that the design on this house was never finished.
We've got it to a certain stage to progress it.
Almost like pushing somebody towards the school door and then
hoping that they go in.
Your biggest priorities at the moment are foundations? Yeah.
We have concrete coming in about an hour.
They are pouring the concrete on the day that I thought we could
sit down and gently go through all the drawings,
tick all the boxes and make sure that everything was okay.
But it's not. We're building it right now.
More of a domestic scale. I'm going to cry now.
This is a self build. Self.
I'm delighted with the amount of thought you're putting into it now.
I'm just sorry that it is 4 or 5 months too late.
The remodelling of Trevor and Sally Ann's 1970's designer home in Mullingar is well under way.
Internal walls have been repositioned and the concrete base of a new
extension is being poured.
But already the endless decision-making typical of
self build projects, is taking its toll.
It's been a really crazy month, between having to move out of
the house, end of school year, end of term exams and
on top of that to be trying to start a build.
We're only 2 weeks in now and so much has happened.
We're delighted with it from that end but we're exhausted.
I don't think I'll be able to sustain this for the next 18-20 weeks.
Even at this early stage of the build, Dermot's clients are
expecting a full set of design drawings for the kitchen.
I was wondering if the kitchen.. I'm in two minds.
It might be nice to hide a bit of the kitchen from the dining area.
But at the same time, depending on the kitchen layout which
I'm anxiously awaiting from you. Me too.
I feel that at this stage we should've had drawings of kitchen
layouts, windows agreed, decisions made on windows.
But everything seems to be very last minute.
You know the way you always end up more or less in one spot in the kitchen,
if it's going to be that corner then I don't like the wall there.
I don't think you'll end up in that corner.
I think it'll be more that corner over there.
To agree something like that, we'd have to se a whole layout.
With bins, dishwashers, everything into it? Exactly.
Absolutely. And draw in little children as well.
He probably has the ideas but I'd love to shake them out of him
and get them down on paper.
Unlike the option strewn minefield of kitchen design,
the prospect of choosing windows is much more straight forward.
We are replacing all the windows in this house.
What colour were they originally do you remember?
They were always white.
My thinking on the windows is that we should reverse the windows.
In other words, what was white should become black.
Black is very strong Dermot.
So you're talking about black as a window frame colour? Yes.
Then I would like to either continue the black through
to the inside or else, do it as white.
So something that will blend in with the walls.
White on the inside?
I never expected him to be thinking of white on the inside.
Oh Dermot. You don't want white on the inside.
Would you go for black on the inside? Sure I've had white.
But that's like saying I've had a black coat, I'll never buy another one again.
We're spending a lot of money on windows.
We've lived with white PVC and it's one of the things I really don't like.
Now I just feel I'm spending 35,000 for more white windows.
Let's just go and have a look at a few different window types.
Come to my van.
This is an aluclad window here.
There's black as it happens, on the outside.
Then there's a pine on the inside which could be painted.
So you were thinking painted white on the inside.
They wouldn't have left a hardwood window exposed back in the 1970's.
It would've been painted.
I was trying to bring it back to that a little bit.
He's trying to bring it back the the 70's.
But I want to bring it out of the 70's.
You're trying to go back in time. A little bit.
Not back in time. I just think a little nod to it.
He keeps really wanting to go back to that 70's look which
isn't really my favourite look.
If I'm walking through this house finished right now,
it is black on the outside, white on the inside.
As Dermot struggles to match his own design sensibility
with that of his clients, windows remain firmly in the agenda.
With the question of frame colour temporarily parked,
attention returns to the tall windows of the front bedroom.
Hi guys. Hi Dermot, how are you?
I'm alright. How are you? Nice to see you. Surprised.
Well I'm stressed. Very stressed about these windows.
Dermot is the one who has the problem with the windows that he has already designed.
This here is basically our front elevation.
It's going to be the first thing you see when you drive up to the house.
This is going to be one of the most important elevations.
I think unless we've got some kind of a big opening up here or up here..
To have a solid wall, if you want to put an opening in it has to be of
a certain size, otherwise it just won't sense.
It's just to do with proportions.
There's a point when you're drawing something that it just feels right and looks right.
It wasn't working for me.
I wasn't happy to issue drawings to a builder,
if I thought it looks ugly.
Two days before the block layers start working isn't the time to change.
He's putting windows that look nice from the outside.
But I don't think he's really giving thought to the fact that
there'll be a nice big square window but you're going to see a bed across the front of it.
We're not having a window down to the floor.
We don't like it so we're not having a window down to the floor.
The one main elevation, there's one window there that
needs to be bigger to carry that elevation.
It feels almost surreal that my opinion on that is discarded.
I'm delighted with the amount of thought you're putting into it now.
I'm just sorry that it is 4 or 5 months too late.
This is now a bedroom and I don't want glazing down to the ground.
One of the things I absolutely hate is driving up to a house
and the first thing you see is right into a bedroom.
See under the bed even.
The reasons are not wanting to see under a bed.
You can put a chair in the window.
There's other solutions to that.
But there's no other solution to this front elevation.
This needs to be a certain way to work.
I think that it needs to be that dimension.
I think the look of the front of the house when you pull up to it
is far more important than whether you can see in and under a bed.
With the clients adamant in their objection to Dermot's proposed
front elevation, work continues on the upper floor.
This will be an especially challenging aspect of the build
for Gordon and his crew.
The window manufacturers are coming early next week to measure.
But we only got the final drawings for upstairs today.
So we're going to try and get the upstairs walls built
early next week before the window people come.
6 weeks later, with the clients still undecided on Dermot's spec for
the windows, the dramatic sloped roof of the new extension and
the grand scale of the remodelled exterior, offer a tantalising glimpse of things to come.
It was as if all of a sudden it was built.
The blocks went up so quickly.
Way bigger than it ever seemed on the plans.
When you see the walls going up and up and up.
Like a handball alley maybe.
And with that, Sally Ann's focus returns to the one feature
that's remained at the top of her wish list all along.
The new kitchen.
Still to be squeezed into QS Patricia's original costing of 7,000 euro.
We've got fridge, then a length of counter here and then
we've got an island unit in the middle.
That's a 2.7 wide island unit which is huge.
The edge of the island unit will be here.
It'll come out to line up with this wall here.
So that way or this way.
The plumbers want to know where to put the sink and I don't know.
Put the sink over here, then you've got all of this as closet space.
Where's the long cupboard? I'd put it here.
I'm thinking in terms of functions and zones.
Sandwich-making for instance.
So sandwiches.
I think the problem is you have too many choices.
Whether they go here, there or on the other side, it doesn't really matter.
The whole kitchen is massive.
We've a huge amount of units.
The amount of worktop space there alone.
You could spend 5,000-6,000 on just a countertop for there.
How much have we got in the budget for the kitchen?
We. Well this wasn't my doing.
I would've put way more in the budget for the kitchen.
I cried when I was told there was 7,000 allocated for it.
I just feel now maybe he got a bit carried away with his raising the
roof and big high windows at the expense of what was most important
to us, which was the kitchen.
I am cross. I am cross.
It is the most important thing to me and now I'm being
told that I have to scrimp and put in the cheapest possible kitchen.
I'm very upset about this. But you're only upset with yourself.
It's your budget. It's your house.
You can spend the money on whatever you want.
You are in complete control of everything.
Try and steal some money from elsewhere in the budget.
You're in charge of the budget. You tell me where I can steal it.
The only people they can be upset with is themselves.
I just hope that it's not the thing that dominates at the end of the day
That I look back and say I wish I had a nicer kitchen.
A week later the massive angled roof is being retiled.
Dermot returns to site to see whether Sally Ann and Trevor are
feeling even the slightest tingle of a wow factor.
That is looking really impressive.
I did ask for a little bit of wow.
I think that ticks that box. There you go.
This is the walk-in wardrobe and the en-suite.
Every woman in the country's dream.
This is how we're going to save money for the kitchen.
We're going to leave it like this.
So no bathroom fittings but we'll have a worktop.
There's a toilet over there and a sink. What more do you want!
Then we're into the bedroom.
I love it. I love that view.
Sally Ann in her robe all day long!
Lady of leisure!
Not after this, after you've spent all our money.
I'm going back to work. Are you?
I'll have to.
As what? An architect.
I wouldn't bother!
This is amazing.
It's gorgeous. This window.
I love it.
Because we're here every day, I think I don't fully appreciate it
but when we're showing someone around, it makes me take it all in a little bit more.
Dermot does cause me to pause.
As Sally Ann, Trevor and indeed Dermot, bask in the warm, stylish
glow of what's been achieved, the more practical issue of
attic storage threatens to spoil the view.
It's not often that you walk into a room that you've designed
and think this is better than I'd imagined.
It's always roughly along the way.
But when you walk into the boys' bedroom at the end, it's just so glorious.
This is one of these spaces you just walk in and go wow,
this is really, really cool.
You almost want to not put an attic in here at all.
It's wasted space to me up there. I don't see it as wasted space.
I just see it as a really, really amazing volume.
Nice if it was our room.
Yeah. If it was, would you put in the attic or not?
I mightn't.
I think I still would.
If you have something really nice and really beautiful,
why not leave it and enjoy it, instead of having to think
can I do anything to this to make it more usable and destroy the space.
Taking a break from the build, Trevor and Sally Ann have
brought their kids, Mark, James and Emily along with their friends,
to Mullingar Sailing Club on the shore of Lough Owel.
A place where Sally Ann herself spent many childhood summers.
It's been a busy summer so normally we'd be spending
more time at the lake than we have this year.
Wouldn't we James. Yeah.
The children have been great about the fact that Mummy and Daddy
are a bit distracted and trying to do other things.
They know that it's for all of us at the end of the day.
Were you afraid? No.
Had you ever done it before? No.
That was your first time. Yeah.
I remember coming down to the diving boards when I was a child
and I was older than you.
I climbed up to that top diving board and I stood there for
it felt like 10 minutes, to jump off it and I chickened out.
I didn't do it.
When I was going down butterflies just went..
Well done.
It is lovely to see them enjoying the lake the same as we did when we were kids.
Back on site, a decision on the cavernous dimensions of the boys' bedroom has been made.
On Dermot's advice, instead of an attic the couple have gone for
the added wow factor of a mezzanine level
that will also provide storage.
I was reluctant to leave this ceiling open.
I just felt that we had so many wow factors already and
this was only a boys' bedroom.
So you were going to get rid of the wow factor 'cause you had too many?!
That's what you're saying.
This was such a nice room I couldn't bear it,
so I had to put a ceiling in to destroy it.
The boys are thrilled.
I'm jealous Dermot.
Why did you not think of putting us up here?
This is a fabulous master bedroom.
This time 2 weeks ago this was the problem bedroom.
We didn't know what to do with it and now she's annoyed
with me that I didn't make it her room.
I'm serious and I'm not serious. The kids are going to have a ball in here.
A few days later, Dermot is keen to match the wall colour with the
aspirational black window frames he's been pushing for.
I've picked a couple of render colours and the guys have
delivered them earlier. I actually haven't seen them.
I had ordered six samples. One white which was a definite white.
That's the one that I want everywhere.
Then I had five different colours of grey to go on the new part.
You're going to hate this Dermot but you know which one
I really don't like. The white.
The white!
Sally Ann says I don't think I like the white.
Hold on, that's the one that's non-negotiable.
I've never liked the black and white contrast.
And I don't think I like the black windows with it.
You're horrified.
There's two things that are not negotiable here.
The white and the black windows.
The white I'm still afraid of, with the contrast of the black windows.
I would just like to see something.
The only way I'm going to get her to like it is if she sees it.
She physically needs to see a really great house
with black windows and white render and I think she'll go for it.
I think. I'd never put my house on it but I think
that's the only thing I can do from here.
Naturally, Dermot has an ideal location in mind.
Leegon House in Galway, designed by architect Ryan Kenehan.
A contemporary rural home, crisply finished in white render with black windows.
What I want you to look at here is the palette of materials.
The roof slates, the grey ring beam and the white render
but more importantly, the black windows in between.
It's spectacular, yeah.
I like the white I have to say, with the black.
The key to this building is its simplicity, its pared back palette.
We have a building that has tonnes going on in it so
the windows needed to be something very simple and something
that drift into the background.
Black for me is the perfect colour to do that.
That's why I wanted to bring here here today, to show her.
Stand back from this building which is a crisp white building
and look at how the windows just drift into the background.
Today was the first day that she got it.
While there is a contrast, it's not the black and white contrast
that I thought I wouldn't like.
Black takes on another meaning when it's the window.
It just disappears into the background.
Okay, I think I'm convinced.
Bringing us to somewhere like her today was definitely
the right thing to do to convince us about a choice of windows.
She still hasn't said that she'll go for black windows yet but
I think it's certainly now more on the cards than before.
The colour of the frames was only one of Sally Ann's concerns.
She hasn't forgotten about the other one.
I can also see a bed. I can see under the bed.
See the way they did it at the back of the house, not the front.
Today she brought back up the fact that you can see under the beds.
I think, not this story again.
What do you keep under the beds that you're so ashamed of?
I've no problem with that here but this is the back of the house.
You can clearly see right in, you can see under the beds.
Which is exactly what I didn't like about the bedroom that he had
designed in the front of our house.
We're only seeing one bed and we've raised up the window.
But I've made my point now.
A solicitor never changes her spots, sure she doesn't.
She stores things in the back of her head.
It's almost like a court case. You feel like you're in the high court.
I rest my case. On your side, yeah.
Inside, an amicable settlement seems achievable.
Very nice. Isn't it.
Very simple materials are brought right through.
I like the kitchen. Simple.
It has been lovely to get away from the build,
even just for a day.
It's been non-stop decision after decision.
It's hard to stand back and appreciate what it is you're doing
and how it's progressing so a day like day, seeing this house,
getting quite excited really.
I can't wait to go back and have a look at it again now.
It really works. It's really nice. I love it.
Just to get them away from the site, lose the hard hats
and just experience a house and something finished.
I think this should give them the lift that they needed.
They saw things because they were looking at things differently.
They weren't looking at how much does it cost.
Just looking, enjoying, almost sight-seeing.
I think they just needed something to lift them and guide them
and show them, we're moving to the end and you can end up with something like this.
White windows on the inside. They're lovely.
They are nice and they work here but I just wanted a change from white.
We can agreed on a drop of colour for the inside, if..
It won't be a mistake. If..
We can agree on black on the outside.
Gosh. We'll see. No. We won't.
I'll keep you guessing. You won't keep me guessing.
I know she won't make up her mind until the night before
they have to be ordered. I know that for a fact.
I get to push the button on the order.
I know. That's the worrying part. You're the builder.
Whatever I decide, even if I do decide black,
I'm not going to let on 'til the very end.
I'm going to keep him guessing.
I think you want me to be underwhelmed by the kitchen.
Underwhelmed is not where I expected to be in terms of the kitchen.
A kitchen is a kitchen. It's functional.
It's where you make the dinner.
I think it's very much he's on his journey for this kitchen.
What kind of a kitchen would you have to put in there for it to jump out?
I'd be frightened to see what it would look like.
8 weeks into the remodelling of Sally Ann and Trevor's Mullingar home,
the contentious black-framed windows have arrived on site.
Given the scale of this build, the 35,000 euro consignment is predictably huge.
47 triple-glazed windows and doors with a total of 60 individual glass panels.
Unloading the truck is an awkward logistical challenge in itself.
Because of the size and volume of the windows,
we've had to organise a teleporter today to life up the high windows.
With the triple-glazing they're just too heavy to man handle.
It's going to be a fairly mammoth task to man handle
them up onto the roof. I'm just glad I'm not doing it.
They could end up on the ground.
We're hoping to get all the windows installed tomorrow or
by the end of the week at the latest.
And so begins the marathon task of glazing the two-storey house.
In the end, it takes the crew two full days to make
the entire structure weather tight.
It's all been a bit much for Sally Ann.
Sally Ann was so nervous about the windows going in.
Whether she'd like them, whether she wouldn't like them.
Whether she'd made the right decision.
She couldn't bring herself to come here until all the windows were in.
I think when she sees this she won't need much convincing.
I think it looks great.
So she has kept herself away from site for the last 2 days,
which I think is phenomenal. I wouldn't have been able to.
We're over here with Dermot, ready to look at the windows.
Do you want to call over?
See you then.
Oh my.
Yeah, I like the ones up on the top.
I really like them.
Are you happy? I am.
Like they're windows. I'm not..
You don't want me to do a dance.
Oh my God. How long did they take to pick?
I want to see the inside.
This is the colour that you chose.
Oh I like them.
I love the colour.
It's beautiful. Beautiful actually.
So you're happy there? Now I'll do a little dance!
I'm thrilled with the inside colour.
The outside colour, it doesn't blow me away.
I'm not disappointed and I don't hate them but
they're not exciting to me.
I love the inside. That's enough for me.
I'll be inside looking out more than I will be outside looking in.
And so with one milestone reached, it's back to the increasingly
fraught issue of Sally Ann's kitchen.
In a bid to resolve the impasse and move things along, Dermot takes
his clients to see two contrasting designs by DMVF Architects.
The first at Dartry in South Dublin.
I know some of the kitchens that you were looking at and some of the
conversations we had had in frame and a little bit of detail.
I think we need to do something ultra contemporary.
It's a very contemporary shaped room.
There's nothing in your house that harks back to an older period.
Well it's a beautiful kitchen.
It's so far from what I ever envisaged.
Sally Ann over the last couple of months, every time she shows me
an image of a kitchen, it's kind of like a country kitchen.
I know that's her dream kitchen in the magazines but
that doesn't work for her house.
She has got this really cool, contemporary 1970's house
that we are bringing slap bang into the 21st Century.
The kitchen needs to be the same.
While I love the shaker style and I have reservations about them
as to whether they work in the space we're trying to put them in.
That's why I think I'm so up in a heap over what
type of kitchen to go for.
What do you want in the kitchen?
I'm completely in a flap over the kitchen because
I don't really know what I want.
What I do like is the use of wood.
I have to have some kind of wood to warm it up.
I wanted to just love the kitchen and it's just not happening for me.
The next kitchen at a house in Dunshaughlin, County Meath,
is similarly devoid of country cottage styling.
This is by the same architects as the previous kitchen.
So there's a lot of similarities in the design.
It's just using different colours.
I would prefer to introduce a darker colour.
My preference is for the other one.
Well you were going to pack that up and bring it home with you.
If they'd sold it to me I would've taken it there and then.
I liked the splash of wood.
I find this kitchen starker.
The overall sense in that room was warmer than this.
So you like warmth. Absolutely. I've always said that to you.
I think I've specified that from the very beginning.
I'm feeling like he hasn't really been listening to me.
I think you want me to be underwhelmed with the kitchen.
She accused me of trying to underwhelm her.
It's a weird accusation but.. I suppose I am.
Underwhelmed is not where I expected to be in terms of the kitchen.
A kitchen is a kitchen. It's functional.
It's where you make the dinner.
I think it's very much he's on his journey for this kitchen
and I feel he hasn't taken onboard my feelings.
I don't want the kitchen to be the main focus of the room.
I think then it becomes almost alien to the room.
Imagine that big cathedral tall space and trying to battle with that.
What kind of a kitchen would you have to put in there?
I'd be frightened to see what it would look like.
Back home in Mullingar, the painters are applying the first of two
contrasting shades of render to the vast expanse of the new walls.
This is the moment of truth as to whether Dermot's colour choices work out.
The beauty of the render is you have the colour as well.
You don't have the paint the house afterwards.
The windows staying covered. I can't wait for them to be uncovered.
We'll start uncovering them tomorrow.
I think Sally Ann and Dermot are under a bit more pressure
than me because it's a crucial time for them.
Picking colours, tiles, all of that.
It's starting to look fantastic.
I think it's going to be very busy here right up until the grand reveal.
After a year of negotiation, 25 challenging weeks of construction
and a price tag of 315,00 euro, an architectural gem of the
20th Century has been reborn as a 21st Century classic.
Retaining all the character of its original design,
Glendine has been transformed into a spacious home,
equally suited to its new family and its old surroundings.
The front of the house is the original shape,
connecting to the hill that goes down to the road.
The back of the house now connects up to the top of the trees,
which were never there originally.
So it's the same concept.
Using the landscape around and connecting the edges of the building
to the lines of the existing landscape.
It still feels like the original house.
It sits exactly the same on the site.
I didn't want to mess with that.
It always looked like a big grand house from the outside.
It was but they were never living in that part.
So now the house projects itself, the grandeur of it, the space,
the feeling of vast space is now here and they're now
living in it and it's now part of their everyday lives.
This room was always here and we haven't done a huge amount to it but..
It's transformed all the same.
But the big thing here was we re-opened the clear storey.
For me, it was the symbol of the house. It was the house.
I'm really that I opened it back up again 'cause Jim designed this in.
I know it didn't work but.. It was just a heating issue really.
I was very nervous but excited to see it and I love it.
Even though I knew the house and a lot of it has been kept and
respected and enhanced, I can't believe what it's turned out like.
I couldn't see it.
It has exceeded my expectations.
I had totally fallen out of love with it, there's no doubt about it
but to complete the journey and make it into something that
I definitely am falling in love with it again.
So the kitchen was probably one of the biggest items on your wish list.
Absolutely. It was everything to me.
You were in a tiny galley before and you wanted the dream kitchen.
I did ask Dermot for a bit of wow and for me, the kitchen is it.
It's wow.
The kitchen is a great space. The kitchen is a very sociable space.
It's big and we had an incredible journey in trying to get something
to suit that space within a very limited budget but I think it works.
I would have to hand it to Dermot and say that I love the architecture
of the whole room and how it does work together.
It really does feel like I've got my cake and I'm eating it too.
I love it. I absolutely love it.
I suppose that is one of the reasons that we wanted you onboard.
To open up new ideas to us.
We mightn't have been always the most receptive.
It was always an interesting debate. It was.
Well it's scary Dermot.
You're spending a lot of money and this is it.
This is the rest of your life. It's not going to be done again.
The only feasible way to get the building built and to do all of
the renovations and the extension was to do a self build.
That was a huge undertaking on a house of this scale.
The process was a challenge and yes, it did make me cross at times.
I even got angry at times but it has all come together and
every day I think it's dawning on me just a little bit more
how magnificent it is.
And it is truly amazing.
This is magical because you're raised up so high with this window and
you're right out into the canopy of the trees.
I absolutely love it.
I told the boys they had to tidy their own room but I think secretly,
I'll be coming up here to tidy the room just to look at it.
If you've been waiting for a long time, practically all her life
to do this build, it's a lot of pressure and a lot of stress
to choose something that you are actually going to be staying in
for the rest of your life.
You have to make sure you're 100% happy with it.
That was incredibly stressful.
I don't think I realise how lucky we are just yet.
It's still sinking in.
Yeah. I think we were so consumed with the stress and the problems
and the things that had happened in the past.
We hadn't taken any time to stand back and look at what we have.
That's really only starting to dawn on us now at this stage.
I think this another room that has been brought back to life.
Having Dermot onboard meant we could focus all our frustration
and annoyance on him rather than on each other.
That was one good thing, yeah.
We could blame him for everything.
Exactly and we did.
You hated it. I hated it. It was freezing.
Now it seems much brighter and the big thing is you can get
it warm and it's easy to heat.
For all of our battles and debates, looking back on it now,
I really enjoyed the project.
I enjoyed the fight. Like a boxer.
When you come out of the ring and say I enjoyed that fight.
It's very difficult to understand. I kinda get it now.
This is probably one of the most nerve-wracking moments for me
because the original architect has come back to the house that you've refurbished.
That very rarely happens, that you can talk to the original architect.
That was brilliant for me. They're always dead!
It's true.
Just before we came down here I was thinking of the normal
situation which is people fixing up a Georgian house.
A house that's 200 years old and it's got a bit dilapidated
but the framework and the character is always there.
I think this job is much trickier altogether.
Georgian houses have a form and a pattern which everybody knows and recognises.
But a modern house like this which changes and moves as you go around,
that's a trickier job altogether.
I must say I think you've done a terrific job.
Much better than what we originally started with.
I wouldn't say that. It's just improvement all along the line.
Thank you very much. That means a lot to a fellow architect.
My room.
Well it's got a very high ceiling and we also have a mezzanine so
you can go up the ladder and you can some bean bags and toys up there.
If you're kinda said you can go up there and hide.
I love my room and I love the kitchen.
When I wake up in the morning it's really warm.
Cos usually it would be really cold in the house.
It's nice for Sally Ann's kids to grow up in the house
that she grew up in and has so many happy memories.
That's nice. I think it's the personal side of it that makes it.
That's what makes a house a home.
The main thing from my point of view is it preserves a lot of
the original shape and size of it.
You guys should be incredibly proud of all the work that you've done.
It's amazing.
Thank you very much Dermot.
Shall we pop the champagne?
I'd like to say we couldn't have done it without you.
Well, thank you!
It was an incredible privilege to get to work on a house like this
and to become part of its story.
It's not often that happens.
This house could so easily have been dismissed or demolished
and it's really nice to get the opportunity to breathe new life
back into it and create a family home.
Somewhere that I hope Trevor and Sally Ann will spend the
next 40 years with their kids and really enjoy living here.
I didn't think it was that bad until you came in here.
It's pretty bad.
Thank God for naivety!
It's all more money, more money, more money.
We don't have the money.
Are you saying I tampered with the evidence?
At this stage as well, we're so tired it's like..
Just do what you gotta do.
: Tracey Carr, RTE 2015.