There are many losers as Ireland’s housing crisis spirals towards some inevitable yet unimaginable endgame. Those hoping to gain a place on the property ladder. Renters, whose disposable income is vanishing faster than free drinks at a works event. But what about our national broadcaster, which, amid the ongoing accommodation Sturm und Drang, is finding it harder and harder to churn out feel-good property porn. Won’t somebody think of the commissioning editors?
Its latest attempt at plastering over the problem is Build Your Own Home. The series is billed as “following the trials and tribulations of homeowners from across Ireland, as they take on the mammoth challenge of building their own home”. However, as with the plumber who promises he’ll be there at 9am and doesn’t turn up until after lunch, the broadcaster is stretching the truth slightly.
Or at least that’s the case with the first episode. Here, a Dublin-based couple refurbishes a former council house and outfits it with a new extension. What they don’t do is “build their own home” from scratch. So it’s Build Your Own Home — But Not Really, And Only A Bit.
Still, the show (RTÉ One, Wednesday, 9.35pm) successfully conveys the sheer slog of doing it all yourself. Grace and Robbie have lucked out in buying a two-bedroom terrace in Crumlin, Dublin on the private market (a colleague of Robbie’s put him in touch with the vendor). It’s an epic “fixer upper”, requiring a ceiling-to-floor refit and a big kitchen add-on.
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“When you can’t afford to have that many people working on your little house all these jobs become yours,” says Grace. “This is the reality of what we can afford to do.”
The couple has €75,000 with which to fund the extension. Or at least they think they do. Alas, the bank pulls the plug upon hearing that, rather than hire tradespeople, they’re attempting the job themselves (Robbie was once an apprentice bricklayer).
“It feels a little bit impossible right now. I’m just tired,” says Grace, fighting tears.
This isn’t the end of the world, says mentor Harrison Gardner. He advises that they proceed with what they can for now and then finish their dream home brick by brick as their savings accumulate over the longer term.
Happily, a dire situation takes a turn for the positive when a credit union comes through with a €35,000 loan. It isn’t the budget they anticipated but is a lot better than the €15,000 they’d scraped together in savings.
Grace and Robbie persevere — though only following the additional drama of an asbestos situation in the kitchen. Finally, after more than a year of knocking through walls and putting up a new roof, this empty shell is transformed into a brand new home.
Bravo to the couple — and to Gardner, who walks the tightrope between being helpful without condescending to his clients.
It’s a little disappointing that episode one of Build Your Own Home features a refurbishment rather than an original ground-up construction. The series passes the time and there is a feel-good ending, but it’s no new dawn for Irish property TV.
