- 7/3/2025
The Great House Revival episode 7 2025
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:01Our past is alive in our old buildings.
00:05They speak of our history and offer solid solutions for today's housing needs.
00:12I'm following restorers as they battle through the good, the bad,
00:19and the awful challenges of rebuilding ruins to create homes fit for the future.
00:30At the southernmost tip of Cante Carlo, on the high slopes of the valley of the River Barrow,
00:41a collection of ivy-infested walls on either side of a field marks the last trace of a long-abandoned farmstead.
00:51He grew up just next door, but now graphic design lecturer Tommy MacDonald,
00:56his partner, primary school teacher Emily Lewis, and their dog Logan are renting nearby.
01:04They have a big dream.
01:07With no building experience whatsoever, they want to DIY fix up these roofless ruins as their home.
01:15I do have an emotional attachment to the buildings. We grew up here as kids, and we would have been playing all the buildings,
01:22and my uncles would have farmed the land here, and we would have been in and out driving sheep and cattle with them.
01:28It's nice to try to build back up the land that I would have grown up on.
01:30When I first met Tommy, he told me about this place. It's always been on his cards, and I loved it as well.
01:38I'm from Wales originally. My parents came to visit it, and they said,
01:44this is exactly like home. I'm from a house with beautiful stonework, so that's one thing I wanted for my home.
01:51It's March 2023, and Emily and Tommy are meeting me to share their plans.
01:58They've cleared away decades of briars, but for now, their future home is just a field with a few extra walls.
02:07You're going to make this into your delicious home. Yeah.
02:14It hasn't been lived in in over 100 years anyway, as you can see.
02:20So you grew up here, played here, you have the orchard to nick the apples.
02:26How much did you pay for the property? 45 for the site.
02:29Right, and a bit of land, so a couple of acres.
02:31So it's 0.7 of an acre for the whole thing, yeah.
02:33Great. And you're in the process of planning?
02:35We've got planning. Oh, you've got planning?
02:37We're through planning, yeah.
02:38Well done. That's a great start.
02:40So when I walk up here, what am I going to be met with?
02:46We've met with a very modern, new build that's going to be really white and clean.
02:51What colour?
02:52White.
02:53Yeah, we'll discuss that.
02:55We chose Stimmer Frame because it's something I'd probably be able to do and save a bit of money on.
03:01So you're a bit of a carpenter?
03:03Try to.
03:04Watch a few YouTube clips and then you manage it.
03:07I'll figure it out.
03:09As well as restoring the ruins, without any relevant experience, Tommy and Emily planned to construct a large, modern timber frame building linking them.
03:20What size is the house when it's finished?
03:222,000 square feet.
03:24Big house?
03:25Yeah, fairly big house.
03:26And the great big question. What's the budget?
03:313,20 including the price of the site.
03:35But we don't want to spend them.
03:36I don't know.
03:37The site cost €45,000, which they bought with savings, leaving €275,000 of a mortgage to spend.
03:48But they aim to finish for less.
03:49OK, so you're going to have to phase it.
03:50OK, so you're going to have to phase it.
03:52This is a half a million on a good day.
03:56Plus, 2,000 square feet is a half a million euros today.
04:02I think the price he said of my cost did kind of shock us a bit, but not too much because we know that we were really scraping what we had already.
04:16Tommy and Emily are hoping to spend just €275,000 on their 185 square metre future home.
04:25But as well as restoring and re-roofing the six crumbling structures, they aim to construct a whole new wing linking them.
04:37An entrance hall near the old gate will open onto a generous kitchen living area with a large window framing the valley views.
04:47A utility plant room and spare room will also be new built.
04:51As well as a corridor linking a wardrobe, ensuite and main bedroom within the old walls.
04:58The original buildings which skirt the lane will house a bathroom, sitting room, another bedroom and an office.
05:07I'm concerned their budget will barely cover the cost of the new build, let alone restoring structures which have been exposed to the elements for decades.
05:17So the lime has gone, as you can see, the rain and water has actually been seeping in through the wall.
05:28So how do you keep the walls?
05:32So far we've been thinking of lime render on hemp.
05:34You have a dilemma here, that the cost associated with lime mortaring these walls is going to be very expensive.
05:46And the reason it's expensive is because it's all labour.
05:50We have to labour ourselves?
05:51You'll be able to lime mortar that wall, but you won't be able to point it.
05:54And that will reduce your cost.
05:56Taking on the lime rendering work themselves will be crucial, but the extent of the work here is not to be underestimated.
06:05The mortar between every stone in each of the six existing buildings will need to be scraped out by them, and then replaced by a professional.
06:16I believe they need to scale back their plans.
06:19You have to save money. It's as simple as that.
06:23Yeah.
06:25Now, in my opinion, based on your budget, you will only be able to afford to do your extension and that portion of your building.
06:37You're going to have to think about this. So you're going to have a fabulous home. That work can take place another day.
06:47I know that we are trying to do an awful lot with the budget we have.
06:52Huge.
06:54But I'm so bullheaded that I try my best everywhere I could to make it.
06:58When Hugh says about not doing this side, I don't know. I kind of want to do that side as well as the new build, just because our bedroom is going to be there.
07:10So, yeah, we have a lot, a lot to think about again, even though we've thought a lot anyway, but no, yeah, we're back kind of to the drawing board now again.
07:18So, what's your timeframe?
07:21We're in no hurry to move from where we are renting, but we obviously want to free up that rent money to spend it on this.
07:30So we were thinking of maybe getting a mobile home in.
07:34As well as reducing their living costs by decamping to a mobile home, they plan to supplement their budget with the vacant property refurbishment grant for empty or derelict buildings.
07:47We've applied for the derelict building grant as well.
07:49Oh, I think you're in with a chance.
07:51So hopefully we should get that.
07:53What do you think?
07:55And have you set out your budget? Item by item?
07:59No.
08:00Okay, so you have to get your Excel sheet?
08:03Yeah.
08:04And put stuff down?
08:06Honestly, because you can't go into this in a wing and a prayer.
08:11No, that's...
08:13That's usually what we do do.
08:14Yeah, that's what we usually do.
08:15It's too much money.
08:16You do need to put some manners on it, otherwise it'll become overwhelming.
08:23Okay.
08:24This is something we can't wing, really, is it?
08:26No.
08:27I don't want to chip this big, dreaming couple's wings.
08:31But this field of ruins presents one of the most challenging projects I've encountered.
08:38My concern is actually the size and scale of the project, and I believe that the budget isn't there.
08:44I'm concerned that each one of these old structures needs careful restoration, which will take time and require professional skills.
08:54They're going to have to trim their sails and focus on which elements of this project they can deliver within their constraints.
09:06Emily and Tommy's daunting restoration plans are driven by the need for a permanent home.
09:11They're renting part of a barn a short walk away from the site.
09:16At the moment we're living in a converted barn.
09:20It's very small.
09:21I think we've outgrown it now with a dog and a cat and all our things.
09:26We just don't have much storage.
09:28It's a long time renting.
09:30We're just excited to get our own place and see what we can do with it, put our own stamp on it.
09:36To date, Emily and Tommy have chalked up restoration practice by doing up their camper van and souping up their compact living space.
09:46I put in a new kitchen unit, so countertop presses, put in a few shelves, and then we put in a breakfast bar then, as well, lately.
09:54I'm tired of renting. Everyone's tired of renting.
09:56You know, you're going to put money into something that's not yours and you have to ask permission about doing things.
10:01I just can't wait to do that with our own.
10:04Yeah, so working on the kitchen of the place we're renting at the moment and the camper van has given us a taste of this big project.
10:11And I think we can do it.
10:13It does give me confidence in what I can do on the house itself.
10:17Yeah, our friends always say that we're just crazy and why are we doing this?
10:22But at the end of the day, it's just who we are. We just love hardship, I guess.
10:29Three weeks after my visit, as March comes to an end, the project is springing into action.
10:36Graphic designer Tommy's donning his hard hat to knock ruined walls at the edge of the site for access.
10:43Oh, it's exciting and it's kind of freeing as well. I've just drove in a digger and started digging up my own site.
10:50Tommy's looking for fast progress.
10:54Once that's down, we can actually start putting in the new pieces then and start digging out for the foundation.
10:58I'm ready to get digging.
11:00But almost straight away, the building puts the brakes on.
11:04I had to stop digging because we found these old carved stones and we need stones to stay at the other building.
11:12If Tommy's not careful today though, the fragile walls of their future bathroom and bedroom could also crumble.
11:20Today's job could go wrong if I start moving those blocks that the main building that we want to keep might fall down.
11:26I'm going to do the rest by hand. It's a little bit too delicate to put for the digger now but seeing how easy that came down, the rest of it mightn't be able to be saved.
11:35Tommy cares about protecting these walls because they've always been part of his life.
11:42His parents Joan and PJ live alongside the site.
11:47So we built here and the lads played down there the whole time, in and out through the ruins and Tommy just always loved it.
11:52But there's a photograph of Tommy standing very pensive with a small Thai tractor and he's about three standing down there.
11:58He amazes me like that he can do a lot of stuff himself.
12:06The scale of this project requires superhuman optimism. Even clearing the site is a tall order.
12:13Back on ground level, the walls of the buildings need careful tending and support if they are to stand a chance of being saved.
12:24Emily now spends her evenings after school scraping out the dead mortar so that new pointing can begin.
12:31I'm just trying to get all the lime out of the stonework so we can repoint or the builder can repoint it. That's one job I'm not going to do.
12:43The more Emily scrapes away, the more apparent it is just how much work the walls need.
12:50The worry I have is when you can see through to the other side, that's never a good sign because that might mean that the wall is quite unstable.
13:01And so we'll see what the builder says about that.
13:06We're no experts in this. We're basically winging this as we go along.
13:10And most of the reason is we do love hardship and we love a challenge.
13:16Despite Emily's enthusiasm, for now they have to put some breaks on progress.
13:22We're applying for, it's called a vacant home grant and we're applying for that.
13:26The worry with the grant is that it'll slow us down.
13:29We can't touch the old buildings as in moving forward and building them back up until the grant is approved.
13:34So we're kind of stuck to just clean up around them for the moment.
13:37While they wait for a sign-off on the grant, they can't work on the buildings.
13:43But Tommy and Emily keep busy on an entirely separate project, laying out a festival-style chill area.
13:52By mid-June, they've also made room for a significant new arrival, their mobile home.
14:00So we bought the mobile home for seven and a half thousand, a little bit more.
14:04And it works out as the same as our rent for the year.
14:08So we still have a good kind of lifestyle as well as being here and working quicker on the site.
14:20She's in.
14:23A month later, in advance of their vacant property grant being signed off,
14:27the council have now viewed the site so work can start.
14:32They've installed their well and roped in Tommy's dad, PJ.
14:37So today we've rented a mini digger and a little dumper, so we're going to go inside the buildings and start clearing out the floors of the house.
14:44Yeah, myself and my dad were racing as we came down.
14:50Do you want to be in a hurry? Is there a second gear on that?
14:53I help Tommy out when I get a chance, you know, when I'm able to.
14:57He's the boss. I just do what I'm told.
15:00School's out for summer, so teacher Emily's able to spend more time on site.
15:05Yeah, I am impressed with how we're getting on. We're learning something every day.
15:10Our career has nothing to do with this, but we're loving it.
15:14Today's about finding the depth of how far the walls go down so we can find where we can start pouring our floors.
15:20The deeper the better for us so we can get a bit more headroom inside here.
15:24Unfortunately, it's not a happy finding.
15:28I was hoping the wall would be deeper than this, like at least one more block.
15:31It would have given us a bit more headroom.
15:36It's a risky business.
15:38Yeah, there's always the worry of messing with the integrity of the walls.
15:41If we dig too much or we grab a stone that's holding the walls, they could fall down.
15:45And even spinning around with this, if you touched one of the walls, you could put a crack in them and stuff.
15:51And after doing it in one shed.
15:53But with their love for the old stones and passion for developing the garden around the site,
15:58distractions slow progress.
16:02We keep trying to find flat rocks for the garden piece.
16:06I'm like, oh, that's a nice rock.
16:11I'm mad how building a house makes you a weirdo.
16:15A month and a half later, as August and the school holidays come to a close,
16:20I've come to visit, but I'm not seeing significant progress.
16:25Morning.
16:26How are we?
16:28Good.
16:29Beautiful sunny day, look.
16:31I hear there's news about the grant.
16:33So we were conditionally approved of 70,000.
16:36But that gives you a year?
16:38A year to 13 months, I think is the time.
16:39Yeah, basically a year.
16:41So that puts you under time pressure?
16:42It does and it will, but I think we need it.
16:45Because so far I've been doing an awful lot of work myself.
16:48I think we're going to need to start pushing on with it a bit quicker now.
16:51Let's go over there now, come on.
16:54I agree with Tommy that they need to push on in order to be in within a year.
17:00So you have 320,000.
17:02How is that funded?
17:04Hopefully within a month or less we should have a mortgage.
17:07We did get a small home renovation loan on the buildings we have here.
17:13And that's what's been keeping us moving.
17:15Funding.
17:16Funding us.
17:18The bank won't sign off their mortgage until the grant is approved.
17:22But at some point you'll run out.
17:24Yeah, I'd say within the next month and a half we'll probably run out.
17:29So that mortgage is really critical.
17:31Yeah.
17:33If they don't give us approval we'll figure out something else.
17:37Love that, love that comment.
17:39I hope they have a more solid plan for hitting the grant's one year deadline.
17:45So, what's your timeline?
17:49That's a worrying silence.
17:52Not a clue yet.
17:54Your guess is as good as...
17:55Yeah, yeah.
17:56So now a couple of things you need to bear in mind.
17:58The winter's going to come and the rain's going to come.
18:01And it will actually get in to the walls.
18:06And if you have frost...
18:08It'll crack it.
18:09It'll crack it.
18:11Ideally where you want to be is to have the roofs on those buildings by October.
18:16And that means that you can work inside.
18:18I believe roofing the building is an urgent priority.
18:22It's tough love time.
18:24Okay.
18:28Okay?
18:30Honestly Tommy, come on now.
18:32None of that now giggling.
18:34If you do that you can spend the winter in there.
18:37Yeah.
18:38At the moment you can't do any work over the winter.
18:41No, no.
18:42So you're told of the steel and the timber and everything?
18:44Yeah.
18:45You're going to put the timber on there?
18:46No.
18:48It will be.
18:50But so far everything we've gone to do has just cruised through it.
18:55Well now can I give you a bit of advice?
18:57Yeah.
18:58It won't.
18:59Okay.
19:01Don't burst our bubble.
19:02I'm not, I'm just...
19:03You need to do out a building programme.
19:08Because some things take ages to order.
19:10Windows take ages.
19:12You're looking at 12, 14 weeks delivery of things like that.
19:17Yeah.
19:18But there'll be other items that have long lead times.
19:21And you need to be aware of them.
19:23Okay.
19:24So I doubt you'll get your roof.
19:28Because you haven't ordered.
19:31But you have to get out of the floors and really engage with
19:35how you're going to build the building.
19:36It's just very important because otherwise you are overwhelmed.
19:41Yeah.
19:42No, we do get overwhelmed.
19:45Now we're even more overwhelmed.
19:47Thanks.
19:48That's cool.
19:50Emily and Tommy have a hard deadline of a year to finish this ambitious project.
19:56They need to make a solid plan and spring straight into dynamic action.
20:02Or I believe they'll lose their grant and this project will remain unfinished.
20:08It's November, two months into the countdown and after a slow start, they've brought in builder and Tommy's school friend, Keane Doyle.
20:21We're going to hop on the digger soon, get the wall down for the utility room.
20:25And when that's done, we're hopping on the scaffold behind me here and we're going to start stripping the gable right down to the ground.
20:33Keane believes the walls are in a worse state than they first appeared.
20:38When it was completely in ivy, everything looked hunky-dory, you know, it just looked proper, like a standard wall.
20:44But like I say, when Tommy stripped it back for us, as you can see, it's just in terrible condition.
20:48It's horrendous, it's crumbling like hell. The lime is completely dead.
20:53Without lime to hold them in place, the stones are potentially dangerous.
20:58We have to, like, really be careful in what we do here today.
21:01Concentration is a must. The stability of the wall will be the major issue when we're up there,
21:05because if you put a hand wrong or a foot on the wall, like I say, it could press it the wrong direction on you.
21:10And if one of us are on one side and someone's on the other, that's when catastrophic things can happen.
21:15Oh!
21:20That was...that was safe.
21:23The whole wall is supposed to come down, but I wasn't expecting to come down that quick or easy.
21:28It's progress, but there are still no firm plans in place.
21:33Since Hugh's been here, he kind of made us think that we need to plan ahead a bit more,
21:38because we're a bit like, oh yeah, we'll just do that, but we don't think ahead.
21:41So, talking to the builder and seeing what the next steps are, not just doing what needs to be done now.
21:48So, we did do that. We had a big chat with Keane, and he's told us exactly what the steps are.
21:54So, we've done that, and we haven't done an Excel sheet like he recommended, but it's on the list, the never-ending list.
22:02For this live-in-the-moment couple, add men is not popular.
22:07Listen, the mortgage has been the most stressful part of the build.
22:11It's still kind of ongoing to get the first draw down.
22:14Paperwork has taken over a lot of our time, and mentally, it's been so draining.
22:19That doesn't suit me and Tommy at all. We'd rather just be hands-on and just see the progress.
22:25So, most of my evenings now, with me and Tommy just sitting down and going through paperworks,
22:30that's been our life for the last few weeks.
22:36To give them a break from sight, I've organised for them to find out more about their building's history.
22:42Tommy's dad's cousin inherited them when he married into the family living there.
22:48There are no precise records of when their buildings were constructed, but they are first officially recorded in 1850,
22:56as part of the townland of Bahanna, on land owned by the Kavanagh family, who were based at Boris House.
23:05Tommy and Emily are meeting Boris' resident and academic, Edmund Joyce,
23:09who is an in-depth knowledge of the Kavanagh's family records.
23:15So, it's known that your house appears on the First to West map, which was surveyed in 1838,
23:20and we have earlier records of the townland of Bahanna.
23:23There's around there, isn't there?
23:25And this is like the old rooms that we go down through the forest to the river.
23:29Yeah, we walk down here.
23:31The maps were commissioned by Lady Harriet Kavanagh, who ran the estate after her husband's death.
23:36So, in 1831, Lady Harriet birthed her fourth child, Arthur, and he was born without arms or legs.
23:43She was determined that he would lead a normal life, so she brought him on her travels.
23:48Young Arthur let nothing stop him.
23:50As well as mastering horse riding using a specially adapted saddle, which still sits on his children's rocking horse.
23:59He embarked on epic travel adventures, but had to return to Boris when his three elder brothers died.
24:07The estates then passed to Arthur.
24:10That's actually amazing that he outlived everyone, considering that he was born with the most challenges.
24:15The most challenges.
24:16Exactly, yes.
24:17Despite his extreme physical challenges, Arthur and his mother proved to have a flair for dynamic leadership.
24:25So, both Lady Harriet and Arthur were extraordinary in terms of landlords at the time.
24:30Like his mother, Arthur was committed to supporting industry and rights for his tenants.
24:35He built the local railway, which ran near to Tommy and Emily's cottages, including an impressive viaduct.
24:45Arthur also proposed a fund for tenant farmers to purchase their property.
24:51So, in the 1860s, Arthur became an MP, and he was an MP initially for Wexford and then for Carla.
24:57Kavanagh is still celebrated as the first quadriplegic Westminster MP.
25:04He was unstoppable in his ambition for himself and his tenants.
25:09And he strived for tenants' rights, and although he wasn't actually still in politics when the Land Act was implemented,
25:15it was actually based on the suggestions that he had made.
25:19And it's probably during that point that your land transferred into the ownership of your family.
25:24Yeah, it's very exciting.
25:25Thanks to Arthur, in 1915, Mary Murphy, great-grandmother of the last tenant, was able to purchase her home,
25:35Tommy and Emily's cottages, eventually bringing their ownership into Tommy's family.
25:44Back in the 21st century, with the new year, they finally get sign-off and are able to draw down on their mortgage.
25:51This allows builder Keane to begin constructing block walls for the new build.
25:58And with help from Tommy, to jigsaw together stones, constructing an exterior which matches the old buildings.
26:05Meanwhile, Emily is just back from Wales with big news.
26:09I went home for two weeks for Christmas, which was lovely. And this year was extra special because we had some exciting news to tell our parents.
26:19So in June, we're expecting a little baby. So that's really exciting.
26:26I think there's going to be more emphasis on trying to get it finished.
26:28We know we're going to still be in the mobile till partly the end of the summer, but maybe even until Christmas.
26:34But there'll be more of a push on it to get it done, where if it was just the two of us, we were a bit more relaxed.
26:39We don't mind being in the mobile, but I think another person in there and buggies and everything else is going to get tight.
26:45But three months of bad weather later, there's little progress on site. There are still no roofs on any buildings.
26:55Since we started here, we've only literally worked one whole week proper, you know. It's all been two, three days.
27:03Today, Tommy and Keane have decided to brave the rain. The end gable of their planned bedroom has become dangerously unstable.
27:11The roof was off it too long. Even a strong wind or gust, that wall was so poorly structural that anything would have blown it down.
27:19With no protection from the elements, this gable was not the first to go.
27:24The number of original walls is decreasing rapidly.
27:29During the week, we were working on the digger back there, and the bucket just happened to touch the wall,
27:32and it was like a wave crashing in the sea. So we just decided that it had to come down, structurally unsound.
27:37On the other side of the yard, another gable has also fallen.
27:44Johnny and Keane were starting to put in the new doorway for the bedroom,
27:47and they moved one stone, and the whole thing just sagged down on top of itself.
27:52So we're kind of left with half a gable in there at the moment.
27:56So it's going to be half stone, half block with a nice, I don't know, skim blender on it.
28:00I think if we lose any more walls, we're not going to have much of the old buildings left.
28:06But it's important to me to keep these old buildings here.
28:09It would be amazing to see it all brought back to life.
28:13While the rest of the project stalls and fails, Tommy's sped ahead with bringing life back to an old shed.
28:20We prioritised the sheds because first we needed storage for any of the stuff we had.
28:26The other thing was that I'm hoping to do most of the work myself on the house, roof-wise,
28:30and so the shed was going to be practised.
28:32So I put the roof on the shed and put the windows on the shed,
28:35and I don't know if you can see it, but as it went along it got better and better.
28:39The first window is actually sideways, so.
28:41Taking on Boone the Roof myself is kind of a bit mad to think that I could do it,
28:46but financially it's the way we have to go in it, so hopefully I won't make mistakes on it.
28:54May comes with improved weather.
28:56Foundations are laid, but plans are not.
29:01So Hugh told us that we should get ahead on ourselves and start ordering windows and stuff.
29:06We still haven't done that, and we're still on the same approach here,
29:09or just taking things as they appear to us.
29:11But the pipes need to start going in, you need to start making decisions
29:15on where taps and sinks and everything, toilets and everything are going.
29:18So I think we have to lose that approach fairly soon and really change our attitude.
29:26Emily, however, is in full planning and nesting mode.
29:30So the baby's due in two and a half weeks, so not long to go now.
29:35So the last week I've been back in Wales to see my family and friends, which was really nice.
29:40A lot of baby prep.
29:41My mum washing the clothes and just making sure I have everything.
29:46This looks like something out of Star Trek or something.
29:51It's all a bit daunting.
29:53What?
29:54Just come home from the hospital and they have to look after another little human being.
29:58We can barely look after ourselves, girl.
30:01Yeah.
30:02It's all baby stuff in the house now.
30:03It's kind of overwhelming, really, to see it all, but it's also exciting because,
30:08oh, there's going to be a little kid in this now in the next two or three weeks.
30:13Yeah, I'm really excited about the baby coming.
30:16Yeah, Tommy's saying that we'll be in by Christmas and I keep asking him Christmas for what year.
30:23I'm not sure whether we'll be in for this Christmas, but if we are, I'm so excited.
30:28With the baby on the way, the couple are pushing themselves to make decisions.
30:32Door into the bathroom, door into the kitchen.
30:36Do we need to figure out what we need to do in there?
30:39I think the bathroom looks tiny.
30:42It's not. It's massive.
30:44I can't picture where everything will go because it just looks so small.
30:48But you're thinking of the shower like the little, bloody, plastic-y floor things.
30:53It's not going to be that.
30:55No, I know.
30:56It's going to be one of these open kind of wet room ones that you could, like,
31:01have a glass piece coming out of here and now it's that long.
31:07But it's really narrow, isn't it?
31:09You're not sure how big are you?
31:11I'm quite big now.
31:13I'll try.
31:18Like, it's just too small.
31:20Not much we can do about it now, is it?
31:22There's plenty of room.
31:23We'll wait till the walls go.
31:24You'll be happy out.
31:26But the arrival of the baby is focusing Emily's mind
31:29and she's keen to reduce the scale of the plan.
31:33At present, against my advice,
31:35they're still working on the old buildings on either side of the site.
31:40So we'll have to focus on this bit and that bit
31:44because the grant is, like, they want us, they want it to be livable in five months.
31:52And it doesn't, you know, we can't focus on the rest of it
31:57because we won't have time or the money.
31:59Yeah.
32:01We're under pressure.
32:02Yeah.
32:03Five months to get this done.
32:04And then financially we don't know if we have to build the whole thing.
32:07No.
32:08And we really need that grant to be able to get it done.
32:13I don't know.
32:15There is an awful lot of pressure, especially when you're kind of guessing what you're doing as you go along.
32:21The end of May brings joyful new beginnings with the arrival of baby Alice.
32:29A few weeks and no rest later, I'm calling by to meet the brand new Baba.
32:36How are you?
32:37Good, thank you.
32:38Congratulations.
32:39Thank you very much.
32:40Are you all excited?
32:41Yeah.
32:42I'm going to check in on progress.
32:43They've raised the wall levels, but there's been no progress on roofing the buildings.
32:49And the plants are having a field day on the walls Emily spent so much time on.
32:55While Alice takes a nap, I've asked Tommy to update me on plans.
33:00So how do you roof this?
33:02I'm still trying to figure that out.
33:04Thankfully, there's some good news.
33:06And the grant is up in October, but we just got clarification that we have an extension on it.
33:12Which is great.
33:13Yeah.
33:15Their grant deadline has been extended by six months to April 2025.
33:20But with so little done, that still presents a significant challenge.
33:25You're gassed, Tommy. You're chilled out.
33:28You have to be when you're doing something like this or you'll go mad.
33:31So I think we should put pen to paper and see what a program looks like and also what money looks like.
33:40Yeah.
33:41Will we do that?
33:42I'm all for that, yeah.
33:43Right.
33:44The time has come to make firm plans.
33:46Emily and Ellis are joining us under the finished roof of the shed.
33:52Budget.
33:53Yeah.
33:55So what is the budget?
33:57200,000.
34:00Their planned budget has now dropped from 275,000 to 200,000 to reduce what they have to pay back in the years ahead.
34:13And I've spent how much today?
34:1570.
34:16That's doable.
34:18Sorry?
34:19That's doable.
34:20In my opinion, it's not.
34:25They need to itemise specific costs.
34:28So how much is the floor?
34:34I said 3,000 for the floor.
34:36Right. Block work?
34:37Yeah, that's a lot.
34:39The labour's a lot, so...
34:45It's going to be expensive to do the block work.
34:48That's good. That's a good answer, isn't it?
34:50So how much is the roof?
34:52Don't tell me. It's going to take a lot.
34:55Don't know.
34:57Good night, lads.
34:59No, I'd say if we go down...
35:01But you might, you'll have to get to know.
35:04We're doing fairly well already, though.
35:06Well, you aren't, actually, but go on.
35:07Sleep will go on.
35:08Now, on to the programme of works.
35:11So, how long will the roof take?
35:14I can't touch this till the block work's done, so that'll be August...
35:17Yeah, end of September.
35:19Yeah.
35:20Yeah, how long?
35:22It's all getting quicker at.
35:24Don't underestimate it.
35:27Don't underestimate it.
35:30You underestimate a needle.
35:32Well, I don't, Tommy, but I do think you have to be realistic.
35:36Realistic. We are trying to be realistic, and we know that it's very expensive to do everything we're doing.
35:40So, I understand that that one is not realistic, but if I stick to it as far as I can, throw everything at it now...
35:48No, I know that, but, Tommy, that might be costing you money.
35:51In what way?
35:53Well, you see, you haven't worked out the roof details.
35:58At this point, the non-planned, learning-on-the-job approach is blocking getting roofs on, which could mean further damage to the ever-diminishing old walls.
36:10And, ultimately, money wasted repairing, or worse, replacing them.
36:15So, we have 10k left.
36:18I'm not worried.
36:19I know you're not, Tommy, but I'm just saying to you, you know, you're a year at this already.
36:27And things haven't moved along, as you'd hoped.
36:31But what you don't want is to actually get to February or March, have a fabulous shell finished, but you're not in there.
36:41And you lose the 70 grand.
36:42A year and a half of bad weather and delays since I first visited Tommy MacDonald and Emily Lewis's ambitious restoration of ruined farm buildings.
36:59Builder Keane and his team are at last able to move block work on fast.
37:05I'm keen to see Emily and Tommy again as soon as I can to ensure that they are now planning in advance with the roofing and re-inspire them to push to reach the finish line.
37:16I brought you here today to Longford because I just think this is an amazing collection of buildings which now form a quadrangle.
37:24And you've got the mix of the old and the new, which is what you're going to have.
37:30Yeah.
37:32I want Tommy and Emily to see that an apparent small difference in the window height can make a big difference to the way a house feels.
37:40Well, what are your first impressions?
37:44No, I like it. I like the windows, the height of it.
37:49Yeah, it's a good size. It's nice.
37:52Now, you need to reflect on this.
37:56Is ours the same height now?
37:58You see the shelving unit?
37:59Yeah.
38:00It's actually at that height.
38:01So all of a sudden this room will be lower.
38:04Yeah.
38:06But the reason the room works is a couple of reasons.
38:09It's a lovely proportion.
38:10The height of the ceiling, the fact that the doors go right up to the ceiling.
38:16So a standard door is 2.1, which is the height of the door behind you.
38:23Yeah.
38:24So if you could imagine that door being there, it changes the whole proportion of the room.
38:33And all of a sudden all the canopy of the trees would be gone.
38:37Yeah, you're losing a lot of light as well.
38:41Huge amount of light.
38:42It's kind of dark enough in here is all I think.
38:45Well, Tom, wash your mouth out. My goodness.
38:51As well as window height, I want them to pin down their design plans for how their house will meet the garden.
38:58Isn't this great?
38:59Lovely.
39:00Yeah.
39:01So what's interesting about this overhang is you're proposing an overhang.
39:11And that's actually why I'm delighted to have brought you here.
39:15They need to think about and finalise every part of their plans.
39:20So you need to know how you achieve that threshold either.
39:25So you don't have a step.
39:28Yeah, these are things that we would never think of.
39:32Yeah, but by not having a step, all of a sudden this is all one room.
39:39And particularly with the overhang.
39:41Yeah.
39:42And imagine your view.
39:44Yeah.
39:45Yeah.
39:46And the sunlight coming in here in the evening.
39:50Yeah.
39:51It'll be just magnificent.
39:54Looking out from the mobile home and it's still not there.
39:59How do you feel about them?
40:01That is daunting sometimes, especially with the weather and, you know, it's hard.
40:08And it's hard to kind of still have the love for the build.
40:14But today has definitely helped.
40:18But help can only go so far.
40:21Months pass with painstaking progress on what has become a taller roof than planned.
40:27Finally in November, with only three months to the end of their extended grant deadline,
40:33Tommy and Emily shell out for a roofer to tackle the complicated flat area of the new build central section.
40:43With December comes a significant step forward.
40:46Windows at last.
40:48This is huge progress now for us.
40:51We can't believe that this day is here.
40:54Based on our trip to Longford, they chose a ceiling to floor sliding door for their kitchen living area.
41:01To make the most of their phenomenal views over the Barrow Valley.
41:06However, the house is still far from liveable.
41:10And their grant deadline hits in just four months.
41:14Yeah, so the hardest part of this project is that it is never ending.
41:18So you get to a point in a job that you have to get it done.
41:21And next minute there's a hundred more things after it that has to be getting done.
41:25You feel like you're never going to get to the end of it.
41:28Like, the windows was an amazing part to get in.
41:31But then it was like, oh, now it's dry and we have to get everything that's inside the house started.
41:36And then it starts, oh, the expense of that and the amount of work you have ahead of you.
41:40So it just feels overwhelming sometimes.
41:45And it's good to get away from it when you can.
41:48Yeah, we are a little bit disappointed that we're not in by Christmas.
41:51But I don't even know what we were thinking.
41:55It's not even close to being it.
41:57But we're all going back to Wales for Christmas.
42:00So that'll be exciting.
42:02And his first Christmas will be back home.
42:05A cosy Christmas within secure walls is in order.
42:10However, before December's out, Tommy and Emily face an unwelcomed shock
42:15when Storm Dara hurls a tree onto the mobile.
42:20A new year dawns.
42:22Emily's dad, Keith, and nephew, Josh, lend a hand with the roof.
42:28In the middle of January, I'm returning to St Mullins for my final visit.
42:33The roadside buildings are beautifully pointed,
42:36but that's as far as the finished work goes.
42:39Hello!
42:40Hiya!
42:41How are you?
42:42How are you?
42:43Emily, come here.
42:44Lovely to see you.
42:45Nice to see you.
42:46What?
42:47Nice to see you.
42:48Lovely to see you.
42:49Lovely to see you.
42:50It's great arriving up here.
42:52Not quite finished.
42:53Oh, no.
42:54This will be my last visit.
42:57This home is not complete two years in.
43:01But I am moved by its scale and promise.
43:04Well, we have a look at the inside.
43:06Come on, Tommy.
43:07It's like the colour of the door.
43:09I love it.
43:10This pair took on a huge challenge.
43:13They've saved tumbling rooms and constructed a gigantic new build.
43:19But DIYing on a budget with limited support means there is no certainty as to when they will complete.
43:27Look at the size of this.
43:29You can get your caravan in here, can't you?
43:31You actually could, yeah.
43:32It's just fabulous.
43:33Yeah.
43:34Even when it's unfinished.
43:36After two years of work, they need and deserve praise for the scale and imagination behind this as yet unfinished grand plan.
43:46Even at this rough stage, the old walls within new walls approach is fresh and effective.
43:53Who else will ever have a gem of a wall like that?
43:58I just love the window, the cut stone.
44:01Like, look at the granite.
44:03Yeah, we like that it's internal as well.
44:06You can see it throughout the house.
44:09I wonder whether, if they had followed a more structured plan, they'd be in by now.
44:14You've done a huge amount of work.
44:16Would you have done it differently?
44:18No.
44:19No, I think we still would have done it the same way.
44:22Maybe a bit more planning ahead.
44:24Ooh.
44:25Ooh, a novelty.
44:27But then, if that plan doesn't work out, then you're disappointed.
44:30I just don't see the point in planning ahead.
44:33We've done it, and we've done it our way, and it's worked, so.
44:36Yeah.
44:37I appreciate that not everyone's in a rush.
44:40However, to get their derelict homes grant, this place must be livable by April.
44:46When do you see this room that you can get out of your mobile home, come in here, have your bathroom and your bedroom and all done?
44:54June.
44:55Yeah, June.
44:56Yeah, June.
44:57If you're finished in June, how are you going to get the grant?
45:01They said they'd probably give us another little bit of an extension if needed.
45:05They'll come back and assess where we're at.
45:07While we're on the subject, how much have you spent today?
45:10A hundred and eighty?
45:12A thousand.
45:13Yeah.
45:14But now you're into the expensive bit. Is that fair?
45:17Yeah.
45:18It is.
45:19Yeah, there's a lot of expense all at once now.
45:22And how much have you left?
45:25Fifty.
45:26Fifty left.
45:27So I think that will be a challenge.
45:29Mm.
45:30Mm.
45:31Yeah, we know.
45:32Well, you got this far.
45:33Yeah.
45:34Let's have a look around now at the rest of the house. Come on.
45:36beyond what will become the new utility, the last remains of the buildings on the far side
45:45of their land are now protected by a high A-framed roof, which will house their wardrobe and ensuite.
45:54So your bedroom has turned out to be just fabulous size and your view is spectacular, isn't it?
46:01Yeah, straight up on the membrane in there.
46:03So would it be fair to say you underestimated the scale of the project?
46:08Oh, a hundred percent.
46:09Yeah.
46:10And I'm sure it wasn't that easy to get here.
46:13There was days that you're like, will we ever finish?
46:16Before Christmas, I fell out of love and I was just, because I was just here every day.
46:20A project on this scale needs people power.
46:23But there have been some advantages to the slow and steady approach.
46:27I think because of the way you've gone about the building, interestingly, there are other opportunities arriving.
46:34Yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:36Because the old gable crumbled, their bedroom will be much larger than first planned.
46:41And the view is just smashing.
46:44Yeah, that's what we realised as well. As we're doing it, we can see more options.
46:49We were meant to be in a stone building here, but it was too deteriorated to keep.
46:53And it would have been a lot smaller, an awful lot smaller than this room would have been.
46:56Yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:57But no, we like the fact now that the building is actually inside.
47:00Yeah.
47:01Like, you're going to end up with the most spectacular home.
47:05Aren't we?
47:06Yeah.
47:07Yeah, it's very exciting.
47:08Tommy and Emily have been on a very individual journey in terms of how they've managed this project.
47:15I'd have to tell you, I was very concerned if they'd ever get the roof on this project.
47:21But they have.
47:22And in fact, as I look at it now, their home has much greater promise than I first imagined.
47:29The stonework is just exemplary. They have a genuine eye for detail.
47:35Which Emily's mum, Brenda, is taking in for the first time as they visit.
47:40Oh, it's huge.
47:41It's so different.
47:43I worried they would lose the essence of the site.
47:50But they've actually enhanced and celebrated it for Ellis and for generations to come.
47:58I hoped they would be in and finish sooner, but ultimately they did it their way.
48:04I think they rather enjoy their festival-chic life in their mobile and campervan.
48:11I'm quite sure that Tommy and Emily are going to deliver their dream home, but in their timeline.
48:20See, it's definitely a special lesson but not forever.
48:27Butwing rhythm
48:33It has been an easy time for me to go.
48:38Be good about желing to get found a solid space.
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