Turn on and tune in to charms of the White House

The former TV3 guru, Ben Frow, is selling his Durrus home, now that he’s moved to Channel 5. Tommy Barker reports

Ben Frow, the man behind this top-end makeover of a modest West Cork home, (immodestly known as the White House), certainly knows his stuff. He learned it first hand, off the telly.

Mr Frow, the man who elected to do up Durrus’ White House, has worked on the making of both Grand Designs, and Property Ladder, as well as certain cookery programmes, so you can say he’s pretty much steeped in the genre, and fully prepared to put his money where his media mouthpieces are.

The 50-something came to live in Ireland when he took up the role of Director of Programming at TV3 in Dublin in 2007, but he departed that job late last year, returning to Channel 5 in Britain after budget cuts made his TV3 job more difficult. However, he left a legacy of original, Irish-made TV3 programming behind him , as well as adaptations of successful formats from the UK like The Apprentice and Come Dine with Me, for Irish audiences.

Quite unusually in Irish media circles, when Ben Frow announced he was leaving TV3 because of ads income and lack of funding, fulsome tributes to him were paid by the likes of his RTÉ counterpart/ rival Steve Carson, and by Gay Byrne.

Whatever about budget cuts at TV3, Frow doesn’t seem to have spared the budget when it came to doing up this traditional 1930s West Cork farm house, at Maulinward, inland of Durrus and near popular holiday spots like Bantry, Ballydehob and Schull.

It’s also within 80-90 minutes of Cork airport, and that was handy during the lengthy period, (two years, on and off thanks to the weather vagaries), Mr Frow had his builders on site here at this hideaway heaven.

Although he’d holidayed previously in Irish beauty spots like Connemara and Kerry, he readily admits he had never previously been to Bantry, until he came across photos of the total-doer up home.

He hopped on a plane from London to Bantry, hired a car, viewed the house, and bought it pretty much as-seen —he didn’t even haggle on the price, despite any experience he might have gained from Property Ladder. It was, Ben admits, “a full, non-recessionary price,” but it became a place he got to savour almost every weekend when he travelled south-westwards from Dublin.

Now, with a career back in train in the UK, and less time to enjoy his finished work in West Cork, (as well as having a dog to take to and fro), the White House reluctantly comes up for sale this month as a finished labour of love with Maeve McCarthy of Charles P McCarthy auctioneers in Skibbereen. She’s guiding the immaculately finished property on three-quarters of an acre at €350,000.

“I want it to be lived in, and loved and taken care of. I used to drive across from Dublin nearly every weekend just to spend time in it. I found it so revitalising and restful, and healing,” says Frow, adding: “there’s something very special about this part of Ireland!.”

Although a bit off the beaten track, it’s not remote, and there are good neighbours within 100 yards. And, whatever charm it exerted back in the mid 2000s in its raw state, it’s a heck of different proposition now, a shoe-in, walk-in job, (just take off the wellies).

“From the moment I saw it, it felt like a really happy home. There was a great feeling of safely about it and, although fairly isolated, I never felt alone or nervous, just cosy.

“And even in the stormiest weather, because it’s fairly sheltered, it feels safe and secure,” says its departing owner.

Despite not being reared in the Irish Catholic tradition, he kept faith with the house’s roots, putting a framed blessing certificate from its ‘30s origins in pride of place on one of the fairly image-crowed walls.

From the outside, looking in or up and even through it’s the simplest of shapes, the pretty-as-a-picture White House is one of those ‘best goods in small parcels’ properties; it’s all been done with style, elan, good building practice — and with a garden every bit as engaging and as good as its interior....roll on spring.

That garden is now graced with productive raised beds sheltered inside the old stone walls of former outbuildings, there are fruit trees, ramblers, climbers and a bit of mini, formal fledgling parterre planting in serried stone-fringed ranks.

There are also other stone outbuildings which Mr Frow didn’t get around to converting, although fully finished is a picturesque timber garden summer house (bought on line)

as well as a potting shed.

The White House now runs to about 1,000 sq ft, and that’s about 200 sq ft larger than the original block, and so as not to hem in his home with small rooms, Frow opted instead for a more open plan, and consequently more spacious feel.

Thus, the ground floor is 30’ by 13’ with kitchen at one end, and at the other, is the original exposed stone gable wall with stove, painted white to match the other walls.

Architect Peter Mabey was the advisor, and builder was Peter Gallagher from Durrus, who cut and hacked back to basics, dug out the floors, widened some windows, and grafted on the modest two-storey, rear extension, now home to a 10’ by 10’ ground level utility. Overhead is a similar sized luxury bathroom with double ended roll top, cast iron bath.

Effectively, a new timber framed house was built within the original stone walls, with damp-proofing/ drylining and insulation all unobtrusively fitted in, and then everything within that frame is pretty much new. Not shiny new, mind you, rather it’s spit and polish fresh and spick and span in its presentation.

Auctioneer Maeve McCarthy enthuses about the property’s “exceptionally high standard,” and comments: “Great care and attention was paid to all elements of the build and design. There’s an authenticity to this property which is incredibly rare and one has just to step into this cottage to fall in love with it.”

Decor-wise, the place is modelled on a grander type of home, with much of the furniture (more mahogany than pine) having travelled over from London — but it doesn’t have to a be a return journey, as Mr Frow says the White House can be bought with most of the furniture in situ, if that’s what a new owner wants and fancies.

There’s a low key use of wallpaper, painted timber floors and ceilings, mostly white for light, and with wainscoted walls throughout most of the rooms of the property — which gives it a warm feel and character all of its own.

The kitchen, with metro tile splash-back, has light painted units with beech worktop, a six-ring range cooker in a set-back with over mantle displaying goodies and dry foods in glass storage jars; white painted floor and a trio of white, ‘rise and fall’ ceramic light shades over the long pine dining table and dresser. Both the kitchen and utility have deep Belfast ceramic sinks.

The opposite end of this long room has a solid fuel stove by the gnarly stone-faced gable wall. “I kept one of the stone walls as a feature wall and painted it cream — which everyone thought very daring, but I love it,!” says Ben of what can be a hard trick to pull off in many old stone houses, as the paint tends to yellow from damp.

Colours generally are from a simple, limited palette, mostly whites and putties, with good joinery work in evidence.

Windows are modern sashes, tall and slender as the frame cases are quite substantial, and plasterwork around the opes is rounded, in keeping with the old render look of the place.

Floors mostly are painted timber, and upstairs both bedrooms have south-facing front windows, and, along with the bathroom, (roll-top bath, separate shower, bidet, etc), have vaulted, timber-sheeted ceilings.

Outside, there’s been lots of labour and quality stone-masonry lavished on the three-quarter acre roadside grounds, with attractive rolling rural views from many sitting spots and a sun-terrace - beats Tenerife on a sunny day, says a smitten Ben Frow, clearly reluctant to leave, but he says it’s a shame to have done all the work on the house and gardens — and not have them used. “I am broken hearted to be leaving it, better that it is lived in than left to get damp and sad and faded.”

“I always dreamed of having a walled vegetable/ fruit garden so I was thrilled to get that finished. It has nectarine and greengage (like plums) trees, blackcurrant bushes, rhubarb and a host of vegetables depending on the season.

“The orchard has apples (cooking and eating) pears and plum trees. And, of course the whole place is surrounded by blackberry bushes. I can’t tell you how much jam I’ve made!”

VERDICT: Done with style, and the open plan ground floor marks it out from the usual run of West Cork conversions.