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00:00Our past is alive in our old buildings.
00:04They speak of our history
00:06and offer solid solutions for today's needs.
00:11I'm following restorers
00:13as they battle through the good, the bad
00:19and the awful challenges of rebuilding ruins
00:23alive.
00:25What an extraordinary building.
00:27It's only a bit of timber and a couple of wires.
00:30To create homes fit for the future.
00:40Facing out over the silver waters of Loxwelly
00:43near Ireland's most northerly tip
00:46the neat Victorian houses of Seaview Terrace
00:50in the Donegal village of Rathmullan
00:53exude an air of calm restraint.
00:57It's a soggy March day in 2023
01:00and I'm here to meet one man and his dog.
01:04Eoin O'Rean, a senior construction asset manager
01:08has recently returned to his home county
01:11after years of working in distant lands.
01:17Good morning.
01:19Look at you.
01:20That's Charlie.
01:21Very nice to meet you Eoin.
01:22Lovely soft day isn't it?
01:24I know, it's a typical day here in Donegal.
01:26So Eoin, we have lovely glass screen.
01:29Yeah, lovely glass screen.
01:31Love it.
01:32I learned that before you arrived.
01:33Isn't it fabulous?
01:35And the great thing about now living up here
01:37is you leave the whole door open
01:44and close the screen, let all the light in.
01:47Yeah, I see that.
01:48But what if it heats you?
01:49That'd be grand.
01:50Maybe you're right, maybe you're right.
01:52So, sort of all still intact isn't it?
01:55Yeah, most of it's still intact.
01:57Original features.
01:59You're going to keep all the magnolia I hope?
02:01I'm going to get rid of as much magnolia as I possibly can.
02:05And you've got a lovely staircase.
02:07Love the little timber panel doors under the stairs.
02:10Yeah, the staircase.
02:11Probably my favourite feature of the whole house.
02:13This 1870s former guesthouse is in livable condition
02:18but needs fixing up throughout.
02:21Eoin has been living here since he bought it five months ago
02:24but he's planning a complete restoration and extension.
02:28So, hopefully not too much to do.
02:31Hopefully not too much to do.
02:33You have your lovely bathroom door, I hope you're keeping that.
02:36A lovely stained glass door into the toilet.
02:38Not sure how I'm going to hold on to it though.
02:40Oh, we'll have to convince you, Eoin.
02:42You just need to change the pane in the middle to blue.
02:46I think that might be a bit too quirky for me.
02:48I think there's enough blue on the house as it is.
02:50So, tell us now, you're from Donegal?
02:52From Donegal, from about 15 minutes down the road.
02:55I spent my childhood on the beach here.
02:58Always loved it.
02:59Always had an idea in my head I wanted to be in Rathmallen.
03:03I got the opportunity to come back and moved back here about two years ago.
03:07Where were you living?
03:08I was in Dublin for about six years.
03:10I was overseas before then.
03:12Like generations of Donegal natives before him, Eoin left in his late teens.
03:18He now hopes to reverse the emigration trend and create a work-from-home base here.
03:25You're going to live here permanently, isn't that right?
03:27Yeah, before this, the house was used as a holiday home,
03:31but it wasn't really lived in permanently.
03:33So, my goal is to restore it, fully restore it, and to live here permanently.
03:39Let's go down and have a look.
03:40Yeah, come on ahead.
03:48What's amazing is the size of this kitchen, it's tiny.
03:51I know all the rooms are pretty well proportioned,
03:53but I would say the kitchen probably needs a bit more space.
03:56I don't know how anyone cooks here.
03:58This neat and functional kitchen once catered for a B&B's worth of holiday breakfasts,
04:04but Eoin plans to upgrade to a more modern, spacious, open-plan version.
04:10Eoin, what's happening now here?
04:12This downstairs kitchen will become the bathroom.
04:16Where you are at the moment will be the larger utility room.
04:19So, everything here gets demolished.
04:21So, all this all goes, all that goes.
04:24All this goes.
04:25So, the kitchen goes, the bathroom upstairs goes, this area here and the outhouse all goes.
04:30Okay.
04:31Eoin, I have a lovely turquoise door.
04:33Yeah.
04:34It's great.
04:35Do you like that color?
04:36Not particularly, Hugh.
04:38I think that'll go.
04:39Oh, God.
04:40Look at the roller.
04:42You know, you have to keep that.
04:43That's fabulous.
04:44You like the roller?
04:45Yeah, I remember the roller.
04:47They're the elements that you just need to keep.
04:50You have the timber ceiling.
04:52Yeah, yeah.
04:53You're keeping that.
04:54The plan is to get rid of the timber ceiling as well.
04:57God, you're not keeping much, are you?
04:59No, I don't know if we're going to get along.
05:01We don't agree on saving quirky fittings, but as we move upstairs,
05:05there is no denying that repairs are needed throughout.
05:09There are four bedrooms, an office, and a box room,
05:13which Eoin plans to turn into a bathroom.
05:16In terms of your building, do you have any idea how long that's all going to take?
05:20I expect to get going in June, and I'm thinking five months,
05:24so November to have the Christmas.
05:27Christmas?
05:28I'll be in for Christmas.
05:29I'll have you in here for Christmas.
05:31I'll be well in by then.
05:33Okay, so things are never quite as you'd think, you know,
05:37particularly on an old house.
05:39You're living in the house.
05:40So I'm living in the house.
05:41I've been here three, four months.
05:43Right.
05:44So the plan is to live in the house while building is ongoing.
05:47Obviously, downstairs, ground floor will be out of action,
05:51so I'm hoping to move up here.
05:53It'll be a challenge, but there's plenty of space if I get my services.
05:57I don't see an issue with me being able to live up here
06:00and the guys working downstairs.
06:02Dust. Oh, tons of dust.
06:06That's why I have that vacuum there behind you.
06:08It's just as well.
06:09I really just need a sink, a fridge, a toilet.
06:12Shower would be helpful.
06:14That's all right. The sink will cover me.
06:17We head down and out to the back of the house,
06:20where Eoghan's keen to tell me about his plans for the new extension.
06:25Adding a modern extension to a period home requires a delicate balance,
06:31and I hope he doesn't plan to detract from this house's quaint frugality
06:36and light and bright feel with a whopping new build.
06:43Where we're standing here is going to be your dining area.
06:48The reality is that room's going to be dark,
06:52even with a large roof light here.
06:56For me, what I'd be trying to do is achieve an internal courtyard
07:00in this area.
07:02I didn't expect so much change.
07:04Hugh, I thought you were going to suggest bright colours,
07:08and I thought that would be the level of your feedback.
07:10I wasn't expecting...
07:12You're only getting one bite of the cherry here,
07:15so you can't go, oh, if only.
07:18This is a major piece of work on this house, and you have to get it right.
07:22Yeah.
07:23I'll definitely not dismiss the courtyard straight away.
07:27He's left me a lot to think about,
07:29because I'm probably taking ownership of the design as is now.
07:32I just have to consider it.
07:36I hope Eoghan will reconsider his proposed layout.
07:40He bought in this amazing bright location,
07:43but he's at risk of replacing an old darkroom with a new darkroom.
07:53Eoghan plans to demolish the porch at the back of his house
07:57and an old shed in the garden to build a long extension.
08:01It will include an open-plan kitchen-living dining room
08:05with a larder and utility alongside.
08:09I believe this area enclosed between the garden walls will be too dark
08:14and should include a courtyard to let in natural light.
08:21Upstairs, the original house's layout of two bedrooms and an office
08:26will remain in place, with the current chilly bathroom demolished and remodelled.
08:32On the second floor there are three more bedrooms,
08:36one of which Eoghan plans to turn into a shower room alongside a temporary kitchen
08:41so that he has a base while he lives and works on site.
08:49Lovely terrace of four houses, and you're the lucky owner of this one.
08:54Yeah, very fortunate.
08:56So how much did that cost you?
08:58It cost me £340k.
09:00A lot of money.
09:01Yeah, a lot of money.
09:02I didn't think I would be lucky enough to get a house so close to the sea with views of the sea.
09:07So, you know, I was happy enough at that price.
09:10What's your budget to refurbish and extend the house?
09:13I'm hoping to refurb, extend the house for £160,000.
09:17£160,000. So it's not tonnes of money.
09:20No.
09:21In terms of what you're anticipating on doing.
09:23Yeah, and particularly what I would have got for it maybe three or four years ago.
09:27It's much less, I suppose, comparatively with construction costs and whatnot at the moment.
09:32Having looked at what you're doing, you're probably going to be a bit tight in terms of your finishes.
09:41Eoghan is very lucky to have acquired such an amazing property in this perfect location.
09:48His relationship with the house is interesting because in one way, he wants to keep important elements, such as the staircase.
09:57However, for me, there are other elements that are of equal importance, which would appear at the moment to be going in the bin.
10:07So I have my work cut out to convince him otherwise.
10:12And while I'm at it, I'm not giving up on persuading him to let the lovely swilly light into his new extension via a courtyard.
10:26Three months later, Eoghan is emerging from a hectic work period in his desk job and from searching for an affordable contractor.
10:36He's already three months into his short nine-month timeline, and work has yet to begin.
10:42To move the project along and save on budget, he has decided to take on as much of the work on the old house as possible.
10:51Today, I'm tearing down ceilings in my office space and in the spare room.
10:56There was a leak a number of years ago that did a lot of damage to the ceiling plasterboards.
11:02The water-damaged ceilings must go.
11:04The electricity is off, and Eoghan's not afraid to get busy with the hammer and crowbar.
11:11The idea is cut around the edge, drill a few little holes, put a bigger crowbar in and pull it all down.
11:17I usually think everything's going to be easy until it's not easy and then I have to call for help.
11:22Never done it before, but I've seen it done before. It doesn't look that hard, so I think I'm OK.
11:29Eoghan's a novice at this line of work, and he has no choice but to learn on the job.
11:35But DIYing will save him €1,000.
11:40So I'll just get this finished and then close this door out. Get the dust out.
11:47Good call on the hard hat.
11:53One ceiling down, one to go.
11:55Budget is precarious at the moment because I'm getting costs back from contractors and they're way over what I budgeted.
12:05The costs that have come back from contractors are between £2.15 and £2.25 at the moment.
12:13So it looks like I'm going to go ahead myself, go direct labour and appoint subcontractors.
12:19So a lot more involvement, apparently a lot more stress.
12:22The dust is still settling on his new cost-saving plan and on every surface in the house.
12:30There's dust everywhere and I have to pull these two ceilings down.
12:33It's definitely the first taste of living and working in a construction site.
12:39There's no turning back. The ceilings are down.
12:42Eoghan's now project manager and his neat little home has been binned.
12:50He's at one with his new life of dust and demolition because he's devoted to making a home here.
12:57My mum worked nearby so we'd have spent loads of summers here in Rathmoulin.
13:02I worked overseas for years and in Dublin for years.
13:06When I saw this house in proximity to the sea and the beach, it was perfect.
13:13I never thought I'd be lucky enough to buy one in Rathmoulin.
13:17Eoghan's mother Roshine and her friend Breed swim here every day.
13:23Like the rest of the community, they are happy to witness the younger generation returning to these shores.
13:31When they were children, we'd head down for the day when the sun was shining.
13:35And I used to fill a suitcase with a picnic because I didn't have a basket.
13:40After years of working away, Eoghan was able to move home with his work after the pandemic.
13:47Covid was a very difficult and challenging time but it has brought endless possibilities.
13:53And it has allowed Eoghan to live in this beautiful place.
13:58And it's allowed a lot of people to be able to afford to buy a home.
14:02Because it's very difficult to buy a home in Dublin.
14:05And come home, home home, to buy their home.
14:09But the village needs permanent residents to keep it alive.
14:13There is still a huge difference between the numbers that are about in summer and winter.
14:18But whatever the weather, Eoghan's committed to staying.
14:22I don't think there's any benefit in a city environment.
14:25I was going to say, I was going to say other than my, other than Tinder.
14:29But no, I don't miss the big city environments.
14:35It's August. Rathmullan's busy summer season is at its height.
14:40And Eoghan and Charlie's beautiful, mature garden is in full bloom.
14:46But not for long. Only four months before Eoghan's deadline.
14:50The project is about to take a big step forward.
14:54Today, the stone outhouse and garden walls are coming down to the site.
15:00Today, the stone outhouse and garden walls are coming down to make room for the extension.
15:06Today, I have the digger knocking the back wall.
15:09And we're going to get rid of this garage.
15:12It's nerve-wracking because there's no way of going back now.
15:15We're taking the two walls, either side of the site, down, partially.
15:19The digger will come and pull the section of the wall that we want to get rid of.
15:23Which is the plan, anyway. Hopefully that comes to pass.
15:27Now that the demolition has started, work speeds ahead beyond Eoghan's expectations.
15:34I didn't think we'd get rid of the kitchen or the bathroom.
15:37I thought it would just really be the shed and removing the topsoil.
15:40The site's more or less clear and we're good for the foundations.
15:44As well as the outhouse, the team removes the entire old extension,
15:49which made up the leaky bathroom and back porch.
15:53Eoghan has to make a speedy decision about the stained glass door.
15:57The door of the bathroom, I think it's something that I'll want to keep.
16:01I didn't really think I'd want to keep it until I seen how much Hugh appreciated it.
16:06So the lads have taken it off to protect it for the rest of the job.
16:10And hopefully we'll be able to reinstall it when the new bathroom comes.
16:15I'm so glad that Eoghan has taken my advice about the stained glass.
16:19But I also want to find out whether he intends to listen to me
16:23about the layout of his potentially dark new extension.
16:27Good day. Beautiful day in Rathmullan.
16:30Yeah, lovely day.
16:32Coming in.
16:33Great.
16:34Come on.
16:37So Eoghan, let's see what you've been up to.
16:41Lots of block work.
16:44This is obviously where my courtyard's going to be.
16:47No courtyard. You're standing in the dining area now, Hugh.
16:50OK, so the courtyard went.
16:52The courtyard went.
16:53Did consider it, but we thought we'd have to put the footprint of the building
16:57out too far into the garden and maybe compromise too much of the garden.
17:02I'm going to put roof lights above.
17:04How many roof lights are you putting in?
17:06Four, equally spaced.
17:08I'm still concerned that light will be an issue at this end of the extension.
17:13I don't think you need roof lights funny enough in that room.
17:16OK.
17:17But here is where you need your roof lights.
17:20Just concentrate them all here.
17:22When I look at plans, I think it looks a bit funny if I don't equally space them.
17:28It's more important to get maximum light going in there and where we are.
17:32I see where he's coming from, but at the same time,
17:35I just don't know how it'll look in the living area, dining area,
17:38when the roof lights won't be symmetrical.
17:40I'm not sure if my OCD can handle that.
17:44Definitely going to struggle most with light.
17:47That's where the courtyard came in.
17:50Yeah.
17:51It's kind of marrying knowing what I like, knowing what I want,
17:54with any kind of new suggestions that come along and being open to that.
17:58And that's why, you know, Q coming along today, he's able to challenge me.
18:02He's able to, you know, ask questions and I have to take it away and consider it.
18:06What am I doing with my heating now?
18:08Radiators.
18:09Radiators?
18:10Radiators.
18:11In here.
18:12What you should do here now, put in your underfloor heating on a circuit.
18:16You can never go back and put in underfloor heating.
18:19OK, OK, yeah, I'll give that thought, yeah.
18:21You have £160,000, which won't go far.
18:24How much of that have you spent?
18:25Not that much so far.
18:27I'm about £45,000 to £50,000 in now.
18:30Eoghan has saved money by doing work himself,
18:33but it's costing him in terms of time and energy.
18:38He's extremely organised and has realised
18:41that his talents are better used in planning than labouring.
18:45Yeah, so as time went on and I was thinking about the time it took me
18:48to do certain elements, so I took the ceiling down in the office and this bedroom.
18:53It took me a week off of work.
18:56It took me a half stone of weight and, you know, it was eight to ten hours a day.
19:03I then had two brothers that helped me with the journey throughout
19:08and I think they had done the same work by lunchtime in one day.
19:12So there's a bit of recalibrating in terms of where I'm best placed
19:16and I am best placed looking ahead in terms of the detail and planning the next trade.
19:23The extension is speeding along at a remarkable pace.
19:27But there's a long way to go.
19:29As well as meticulously planning the practicalities of the new build,
19:34I want Eoghan to engage creatively with plans for the restoration of the old house.
19:40Time for a bit of inspirational nature bathing.
19:50I consider you a perfectionist.
19:53Well, having got to know you, I think you're very much about things being perfect,
19:58the detail, and I think you really think a lot about how things meet and join.
20:07Light and landscape meet perfectly here.
20:11Look at this landscape.
20:13It's just breathtaking to wake up in the morning and you've got that view in front of you.
20:21On a day like this, it must be mind-blowing.
20:23Oh yeah, it's really special on a day like today.
20:25Yeah, it never gets old. I really love it.
20:27Probably the most surprising colours are, you know, deep purples and greens that I see in the water.
20:32And I see that in my mum and my grandmother's paintings as well.
20:36They painted?
20:37Yeah, my mum paints a lot.
20:39We've salvaged one or two paintings of my grandmother's.
20:42So your family are from this area?
20:45My grandmother ran a B&B in Bunkrana.
20:48My granny and granddad's house, it was kind of similar architecture in that it was a period house.
20:53It had Victorian porch tiles, stained glass.
20:57Growing up in that house, I think that's probably heavily influenced what I like in terms of the house itself,
21:03and will probably influence the interiors as well.
21:07I hope Owen will challenge his inner artist and bring the delicious tones of the Donegal mountains into his design.
21:15But for now, his focus remains practical.
21:19He's fully immersed in his role as project manager.
21:24Since Hugh came, we have the roof on.
21:27We have the outline of the first floor bathroom.
21:30We're currently in the kitchen, which is like a temporary canteen at the moment.
21:34Speaking to Hugh last week when he was over, I decided to do the underfloor heating system.
21:40So we're going to tango the concrete floor down to the same level as the dining room living area is at the moment,
21:47and then build it up with the underfloor heating and insulation.
21:51Hugh's main reason for the underfloor heating, rather than radiators, were radiators really,
21:56and where to put them and how to space them and how they affect the interior once it's complete.
22:00It was going to interfere with a lot of plans that I had in terms of the stove, stone plinth.
22:05It's definitely a better move to go with underfloor heating, I think.
22:07He may not have taken my advice on more life for the extension, but the old house is getting new roof lights aplenty.
22:16I love seeing the windows going. That was just tile before, the one on the left.
22:19It looks great. I'm excited to see the Velux in and see the difference in terms of light.
22:23But as light floods in from above, there's a sudden danger that it may also flood through the wall.
22:30Owen has just discovered that knocking through from the freshly built new extension
22:36has undermined the entire back wall of the old house and it may fall onto the new build.
22:44When Hugh was last here, we were kind of out of the ground. The walls were up at this stage.
22:49The last item that was unknown and carried the most risk was going through the wall.
22:55What areas of the wall are going to be held up? What areas mightn't be held up?
22:59The first piece was taken out the window itself, and that holds a lot of structural integrity.
23:04Slowly, as we took away the stones, the house did start to move.
23:08It was pretty nerve-wracking.
23:11There's a lot of cracks showing, particularly into the first floor bathroom.
23:14It's a bit scary seeing the cracks get wider.
23:17For now, the entire back wall is supported by acro-props and stacks of concrete blocks.
23:25I think it was to be expected that we'd get some cracking, but probably not as significant as we can see.
23:30As summer turns to autumn on this super speedy project, the house's future hangs in the balance.
23:37It's definitely in your head all the time, waking up thinking about it.
23:40You'd be dreaming about it when you're asleep.
23:4534-year-old asset manager Owen O'Rean has returned from years working away to his home county of Donegal
23:54and is restoring an 1870s seafront former guesthouse as his work-from-home base.
24:02Opening the building up to a vast new extension put the old house at danger of falling into the new structure.
24:12Now Owen has to introduce new steel supports.
24:16I just wanted to get the steel in and landed.
24:19As the cracks settle, the floor has been levelled and work is underway removing the rubble.
24:26He's been lucky the house didn't fall.
24:29But now I'm keen to take Owen's mind away from on-site dramas to focus on the finished look.
24:37Owen's told me he's afraid of quirky things, so I've brought him to Dublin's Chapel Lizard
24:43to immerse him in a house-load of glorious eccentricity.
24:50Look at this for a magnificent salon.
24:53It's just wonderful. I love the colours, the broodiness.
24:57And the reason I brought you to this home is to sort of inspire you about your existing house.
25:04And I think that's very important that you're doing all this work, if you like, on the extension to the rear
25:12and you're adding on your extension, your new kitchen, but do remember the old house.
25:17Make the existing house as part of your journey to your new extension,
25:22which is very much, I think, what they've done in this home.
25:25I just think this is fantastic.
25:27And the other thing you see is you'd be amazed what you can do with furniture.
25:31They can put the springs back in, do everything, refurbish them, bring them back to life.
25:35So it's like, I bet you your granny or your mum has old furniture.
25:40Yes.
25:41And you should think about that, get it recovered, because they're wonderful pieces.
25:47Yeah, I might give that some thought.
25:49I pulled out a few of the chairs that are similar to this, of the house,
25:52and not all of it made the skip, so maybe...
25:56Not all of it?
25:57A lot of it did.
25:59That's dreadful.
26:00Time to skip on to my favourite topic, colour.
26:05When I walk into your hall, tell me, what's the colour?
26:10I don't know, Hugh.
26:12I spend most of my time now thinking about the builds and what's next,
26:16so I haven't given as much thought to colour.
26:19The way to get colours are to find things you like to wear.
26:23They're the colours you like.
26:24I wear a lot of beige and grey, Hugh.
26:26Right, OK.
26:28Well, don't do that.
26:30I'd like you to think about using dark colours, funnily enough, in the original house.
26:35If you run your flooring throughout, that'll unify the ground floor,
26:40and then you can start to bring these dark colours into the hall,
26:45if you have a little bit of wainscoting,
26:47or you might consider actually painting the staircase itself a dark colour.
26:53I don't know if you've thought about any.
26:55No, I've just been so caught up with the builds and with the extension
26:59and choices that I have to make in that regard,
27:01so I might have let it slip for a while.
27:06Upstairs, this house holds more broody delights,
27:09like the delicate but high panelling in the main bedroom.
27:15Wow.
27:16Owen, you're going to be blown away by yummy colour.
27:22Isn't it wonderful?
27:23It's lovely, yeah. It looks great.
27:26Colours like these change with the time of day.
27:31During the daytime, this'll be really light,
27:34but at night time, the whole mood changes.
27:39This room, if it was all painted an off-white,
27:43wouldn't have the same impact as it does.
27:47In contrast, the bright, bold, playful extension brings the garden inside.
27:56Now, Owen, an inner courtyard.
27:59Very nice.
28:00Very nice, but not for you?
28:02Not for me.
28:03What colour scheme are you going now in your kitchen?
28:05The cabinetry is a cream,
28:07and I have a Calcutta Florence countertop.
28:13You need to do your walls in a pale colour,
28:16but you can be really brave and go jet black on the ceiling.
28:22Definitely not for me, Hugh.
28:23I don't think I'd be brave enough for a black ceiling.
28:25Come on, you can do it!
28:27I was thinking about white.
28:29My head has been in the new part of the house, the extension.
28:33I haven't given it that much thought in terms of the existing house
28:36and what that needs.
28:37I think the stage of the build I'm at now,
28:39I have to start thinking about colours and interiors,
28:42and this visit's definitely broadened my horizons.
28:44I hope Owen can really express himself
28:47and let his ideas flow creatively,
28:50but for now, he must stay practical.
28:53It's September 2023,
28:56and today marks a significant step forward.
29:00Windows arriving this morning, I'm a bit nervous.
29:03I'm always hoping that what we've prepped works and everything fits.
29:08Windows going in is a massive milestone
29:11because everything is going to start getting dry on the inside.
29:14So there was three or four trades I had to line up
29:17just over the last three or four days
29:19ahead of the guys coming to fit the windows.
29:22Just hoping that I haven't missed anything.
29:25I'd rather not be here for it.
29:27A lot of the time I might go to the office when something big's happened
29:30because I just can't cope.
29:32I'm kind of waiting for a disaster. I'm always waiting for a disaster.
29:34And disaster's not far off.
29:37The enormous sliding door which makes up
29:40the entire far end of Owen's extension
29:44may be too large for the opening.
29:48It takes a combination of careful coaxing and brute force
29:53to manoeuvre the door into place.
30:13Yeah, that's brilliant.
30:18So I had about eight and a half grand for the budget for this,
30:21but I managed to get it all for seven grand.
30:24And now I have another grand and a half
30:27to plug somewhere where I'm getting an overspend.
30:31But overspending doesn't turn out to be the issue of the day.
30:35Within an hour of the windows going in,
30:38plugs are needed as the weather on the wild Swilly
30:42takes a turn for the ferocious.
30:45As rain begins to pour,
30:47what initially seemed like a leak
30:50fast becomes a waterfall.
30:53Where the extension meets the existing house,
30:56there's no lead flashing that's coming from the existing house
31:00over the upstands, so that's creating a gap
31:03and that's where the water's getting in.
31:05It's only September,
31:07but this downpour gives a taste of the bad weather ahead.
31:11Over the last week or two weeks, it's just completely turned.
31:14Temperature's gone down.
31:16It's rained nearly every day.
31:19The electrician's coming on Wednesday,
31:23so this has to stop before the electrician comes,
31:27otherwise he won't do his install.
31:30If the damp takes hold,
31:32this could delay not only the electrics being fitted,
31:36but also the insulation and plasterwork.
31:39With winter on the way,
31:41Owen is stepping away from the stress of the site
31:45to talk to historian Donegal woman Angela Byrne,
31:49who specialises in the field of Irish migration.
31:52Owen will be working from home here,
31:55virtually linking up to the wider world.
31:58But Angela has discovered that he's not the first resident
32:02with far-reaching international connections.
32:05We often think of places like North Donegal as being really remote
32:10and kind of trade on that in some way,
32:13but the reality is that kind of in the pre-industrial age
32:17and before steam-powered engines and so on,
32:20coastal areas were actually very well connected
32:23by the maritime highways,
32:25so the oceans were so important to keeping people globally connected.
32:29So that global connectedness that the Irish are so famous for
32:33is actually encapsulated in the history of your house,
32:36number 4 as well.
32:37Is that right?
32:39Yeah, so in the 1880s, the people who built your home,
32:42the Tendersons, they emigrated to British Columbia, Canada.
32:45Then in the 1900s, Charles Hart, who had been living here,
32:49he was retired from the Royal Navy,
32:51he emigrated to New Jersey following his children
32:54who had emigrated there before him.
32:56That's fascinating.
32:58And then in the 1940s, Proctor, a steamship captain,
33:01was living in your house and he emigrated to Australia
33:05and made a new life for himself there.
33:08Even before his house was built,
33:11Rathmullin's history of international connections
33:14goes back over many centuries.
33:17A really big thing that happened that tells that story, of course,
33:20is the flight of the Earls that happened from this very strand
33:24on 14 September 1607.
33:26It's really one of the most seminal events in Irish history.
33:29The flight of the Earls saw the clan leaders
33:32of the Old Gaelic Order leave Ireland
33:35to seek support from the European connections
33:38during the plantation of Ulster.
33:41Their families and followers sailed out of this exact place
33:44and we can't know what they were thinking as they sailed up the Swilly,
33:48but I like to think of them, the adrenaline maybe is still pumping
33:51because some of them had gone on horseback,
33:54literally just caught the boat in time,
33:57and maybe as they looked back at Rathmullin here
34:00and maybe some of them knew it would be the last time
34:03that one of them would ever see Ireland.
34:06So people left your lovely home and went and found new lives
34:09all over the world, different continents.
34:12You've done the emigration and come back
34:15and that's such a big part of Irish history and Donegal history as well.
34:18Yeah, lucky enough to come back. Everything's circular, isn't it?
34:21Winter is now fully here.
34:24It's been a battle to get the flashing fixed
34:27to prevent further leaks and dry the building out.
34:32The electrician will start now early next week.
34:35I'm not allowing that much time for drying out, so conscious of that.
34:38So I'll leave the windows open.
34:41Somehow, despite the chill, Owen gets inspired
34:44to create something truly transformative for the house.
34:50The porch screen, that just had regular glass on it.
34:54That's been removed and I'm putting a stained glass feature in that now.
34:58So I met a guy in Portadown, putting a drawing together now
35:02and sending it across to him.
35:05The creation of stained glass dates back to classical times,
35:09but craftsperson Michael Guy is keeping it alive with projects
35:13from the residential to the ecclesiastic.
35:19We're officially endangered, so there's very few people
35:22taking on the art of stained glass making,
35:26which is a shame, an awful shame, you know.
35:29The vestibule door, especially if they open that front door
35:32when the weather's nice and they let the light flood in through that,
35:36as the light changes outside, the whole mood of the stained glass
35:39constantly changes with it.
35:41You get that beautiful wall of colour coming out.
35:44Owen once thought plain panes of coloured glass were too quirky for him,
35:48but now he's going the whole hog with an elaborate combination
35:53of Donegal-inspired tones.
35:56But the stained glass has a wow factor.
35:58You'll come down those stairs, you'll see the light and you'll go,
36:01oh, that's nice.
36:06He sent me a picture through, but at one glance of it,
36:09you kind of knew there was a whole maritime history to this particular house.
36:13You just got that feel, this was a merchant's house.
36:15A lot of those old period houses along the front were owned by merchants
36:19where they liked to see their boats and their wares coming in
36:21and keep an eye on them.
36:23I think by the look of that, that house was originally set up
36:26to have stained glass.
36:28A house of that style and that standard would have had
36:31the stained glass panels put into them.
36:33You walk in there and it's missing from them.
36:35So we're doing now what probably should have been done
36:39when that house was first built.
36:41It'll be nice for us to complete the journey.
36:43It really is going to finish the front of that house for him.
36:50Back in Rathmullin, it's December, the decorations are up,
36:54and although his Christmas deadline is now impossible to achieve,
36:59Owen's feeling optimistic and has taken my advice about underfloor heating.
37:05Today we're doing the excrete in my extension kitchen
37:08and first floor bathroom.
37:10It feels like a big step forward because it's the last of the mucky work.
37:15At the front of the house, Michael Guy has travelled all the way
37:19across the country to begin the careful job of installing
37:23his hand-crafted porch screen creation.
37:28It cost Owen €4,000 and it's nerve-wracking work
37:32to put it in place on a still active site.
37:35Owen's mother, Roisin, supports his brave investment.
37:40He's created some beautiful things in the house.
37:43At times he's very stressed, but, you know,
37:46Owen is learning on the job as he goes.
37:50His dad, Ger, knows what drives Owen's hard work.
37:54There's certainly massive pressures coming with it.
37:57That's really feed zone.
38:00But I know as well that he's just steeped with the people around him,
38:03and even people who are not involved in the build,
38:05people like his neighbours there, that have gone above and beyond.
38:08The level of support from people in Rathmullin that I know he's getting,
38:11he's here for the long haul.
38:13He wants to be a Rathmullin man.
38:16With the stained glass, Owen has brought his creative self to play.
38:21But just how brave will he allow himself to be in the rest of the house?
38:27It's May 2024 and Owen's family is assembling for his moving-in party.
38:33As well as revealing his finished house,
38:36Owen is about to spring a big surprise about his ex-pat sister on his parents.
38:52Sister Maeve has a severe case of Rathmullin Phoma
38:56and is flying back all the way from Australia to join the housewarming.
39:02It's me, isn't it?
39:0414 months since my first visit, I wasn't sure what to expect
39:08when Owen invited me to his moving-in party this evening.
39:14Good morning.
39:16Thank you. How are you?
39:17Fabulous. How are you?
39:18Good. Come on in.
39:19But stepping in the door, I know it wasn't this.
39:22There's colour everywhere.
39:25My goodness.
39:27Owen walking in here, it's just fantastic.
39:30The colour scheme is tour de force.
39:33It's really amazing.
39:35And when I look into that room, I've got bold, dark greens.
39:40And the big change here is this amazing stained glass window you put in.
39:46It's like seashells.
39:48If I leave that front door open, I just get a cascade of light through the hallway.
39:52So it looks fab.
39:53And it reminds me of my granny's house growing up.
39:56Very similar pattern, stained glass in her house as well.
40:00So, yeah, it brings back a lot of fond memories.
40:02You must be so proud to have that home.
40:04Oh, I am, yeah.
40:05So I remember my first visit here, and it was sort of,
40:09by the sounds of you, everything was going in the bin.
40:12And I was saying, please don't do that, and I see you haven't.
40:15So you have the original staircase, all refurbished,
40:20and you've even kept the door at the top of the stairs into the bathroom.
40:23Yeah, even kept the door at the top of the stairs.
40:25Refurbished the staircase.
40:27All the doors remained.
40:29Some of the fixings were too far gone.
40:31But on the whole, we tried to keep as much as we could.
40:34Owen really has succeeded in bringing the landscape in,
40:38and it's a family affair.
40:40Are your fabulous paintings?
40:42Yeah, I've been really fortunate to have a few paintings of my mum's.
40:46So I thought they were ideal in here.
40:49Oh, Roisin.
40:50Yeah, that's her.
40:51That's great.
40:52And it's, look, 2024.
40:55I know, that's her most recent, actually.
40:58It's probably still drying off.
41:01I've got my grandmother's painting as well,
41:03so I've got that all cleaned up, fixed up in frames.
41:06Isn't that great?
41:07Yeah, yeah, we have it in the front room.
41:09The brooding tones of Owen's grandmother's swilly view
41:13are the perfect match for this sophisticated sitting room,
41:17and its high panelling reminiscent of our visit to the Chapel Lizard Salon.
41:23Well, will we go upstairs and explore?
41:25Yeah, let's go.
41:26Come on ahead.
41:34My goodness, Owen.
41:36You've been brave in the bathroom, haven't you, with your colours?
41:39It's fabulous, isn't it?
41:41The bathroom evokes the dark greens of the surrounding mountains.
41:48When you look at this house, the original house,
41:52it's actually quite generous.
41:54There are now two delightfully bright bedrooms on the first floor.
41:59You must have been torn about having this as your bedroom or upstairs.
42:03Yeah, yeah, I was thinking perhaps I want to go upstairs,
42:06but I think I'll keep this one, and between my nephews and my mum,
42:09they want the upstairs one.
42:11And you put in a new roof light over your stairs?
42:14Yes, we got rid of the window that was at the end of the stairs
42:18and put a roof light in instead.
42:20Which brings in loads of natural light.
42:22And what's fabulous about standing here
42:25is actually the view out through that window.
42:28Isn't that wonderful?
42:30Yeah, yeah, it's a great view.
42:32Owen's work-from-home office could not have a more serene backdrop.
42:37It's interesting now when we arrive up here on the first floor landing,
42:41because there's much more of the original house and its features.
42:46You have the original floorboards?
42:48Yep, all original, yeah.
42:50And you've kept the woodworm?
42:52Kept the woodworm, yeah, new pets.
42:54What I love, you see, is I've got perfection on one side,
42:57and if you like, I have the nutty imperfection of the original.
43:02Any arch shape that we could keep, we kept,
43:04and we didn't go doing any heavy sanding.
43:07In doing that, you're actually keeping the heritage of the home.
43:11And elements like that just get chucked in the bin, and it's a shame.
43:17But you've kept those elements.
43:19So what you've done is you've preserved this house.
43:22So you're leaving a legacy in the village.
43:25Yeah, I'd like to think so.
43:27You are, yeah.
43:29Now I can't wait to unveil Owen's brand-new legacy,
43:33the kitchen and dining room extension.
43:38MUSIC
43:43Oh, my goodness, Owen.
43:48It's a knockout.
43:50Look at the size of this room.
43:54When you talked to me about this extension,
43:57I was very concerned that the old house would sort of be forgotten about.
44:02But it's actually the opposite.
44:04The old house is a triumph, but so is this new addition.
44:09I was concerned about this room being too big, but it's anything but,
44:12because if you like, I'm down the country, everybody come in the back door,
44:16and this will be a hive of activity.
44:19It'll be all your family, your cousins and everything.
44:23It just reminds me of a big farmhouse kitchen.
44:28So I can understand why this room will work in the future,
44:32because it is about everybody mucking in,
44:35coming in the back door, going out the front door,
44:38coming in the front door and going out the back door.
44:41Well done, Owen.
44:43Thanks, Hugh.
44:44The family are ever-present.
44:46My friends are always coming in and out, so it's still a busy house,
44:49and this is the kind of room where it's centred around.
44:53This family hub has a real warmth to it.
44:56And do you have underfloor heating on the whole of the ground floor or just here?
45:01So I have a hole in the ground floor and into the ground floor toilet,
45:05and then it goes to the radiators take over from the landing upwards.
45:09He took on my underfloor heating suggestion,
45:12but Owen remained boss of the roof lights.
45:15And Hugh, I know you suggested moving the roof lights closer towards the kitchen,
45:19where I'd probably struggle the most for light,
45:21but my OCD wouldn't allow for that, so I needed them all to be equidistant.
45:25I think you're still struggling in the kitchen,
45:27but I think that can be overcome, funny enough,
45:30by putting lighting on top of that unit,
45:33shining up into the ceiling,
45:35and it'll just give this subtle glow,
45:38which is really all that's missing.
45:40Yeah.
45:41I'm delighted you've expressed yourself.
45:44And your furniture, if you like,
45:46has reinforced that expression of pushing the boat in,
45:51and I just think it's great.
45:52Yeah, yeah, I've enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.
45:56The total transformation of this house took Owen just over a year.
46:01Hoping to be in by Christmas.
46:03Hoping to be in by Christmas.
46:04But here we are four months later.
46:06Yeah.
46:07Which happens on a build, doesn't it?
46:09Yeah, yeah, it does.
46:10Yeah, I was probably overly ambitious trying to get in for Christmas,
46:13but I suppose I wanted to keep to a milestone,
46:17and in the end there was just too many trades coming in and out of the house,
46:21and everything got a bit elongated.
46:23I was really blessed with the tradesmen and women that worked on the house.
46:27He was a dynamic project manager with a great team behind him,
46:32but what did it cost him?
46:34You'd acquired the house for?
46:36340.
46:37340.
46:38A lot of money, but it's about location,
46:40and on top of that you were spending how much?
46:43So my initial budget was 165.
46:46And I spent 205,000 euro.
46:49And that allowed me to finish the house to a higher spec than I originally anticipated.
46:54If you like, you've only moved back in here,
46:58and I think that over a very short period of time
47:02you'll have added even more of your stamp to this fantastic home.
47:05Thanks, Hugh. Thanks a million.
47:07You know, I just think it's a smashing home.
47:11I've been very lucky to have followed Owen on his journey home,
47:17but also in his journey in creativity and colour.
47:24His passion for perfection is evident everywhere.
47:29Owen's been on a journey travelling around the world,
47:32learning things and seeing things,
47:35and I think what he's created here is his home.
47:40Stepping through the stained glass door just brings you back in time,
47:44but it also brings you into Owen's new house,
47:48which, if you like, will be now the centre of the extended family.
47:53And this home will now be echoing to dinner parties, friends, family,
47:59everybody coming in the back door and going out the front door.
48:04Inspired by Owen, Sister Deryn has moved back to Donegal from Dublin with her kids.
48:10It's almost like walking into Granny's house, I have to say.
48:13I think it's gone way beyond what he ever thought he would achieve with the house.
48:16You know, it's really amazing.
48:19Owen's sister Maeve is fresh off her flight from Australia.
48:23It's worth it because it's so great to see it.
48:26The photos and the videos don't quite capture it.
48:29Being here and seeing it for myself is so special.
48:32I'm so immensely proud of him.
48:34Rathmullan means a lot to our family.
48:36We really wanted to, you know, anchor ourselves in this village.
48:39The people here are just beautiful.
48:41And yeah, hopefully that will go on for generations.
48:45Owen's brought the family together here and his character-packed home
48:49is going to be the centre of parties and fun for years to come.
49:11Owen and Maeve have been married for over 20 years.
49:14They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:17They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:20They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:23They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:26They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:29They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:32They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:35They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:38They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:40They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:42They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:44They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:46They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:48They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:50They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:52They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:54They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:56They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
49:58They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
50:00They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
50:02They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
50:04They have a son, Owen, and a daughter, Maeve.
50:06For more UN videos visit www.un.org