Room to Improve: Back to the future at childhood home

Hilary Fairbrother tells us how a call from Dermot Bannon's 'Room to Improve' team was life-changing

Mon, 23 Jan, 2023 - 12:10

Eve Kelliher

Hilary Fairbrother always had a dream of moving back to her childhood home with her husband Paul and their children — and renovating it.

So did her parents, Carmel and Hugh O’Neill.

Eager to downsize, Carmel and Hugh did not want to leave Blessington, Co Wicklow, an area they were so connected to.

“My mum is a big gardener and is really heavily involved in the community and it would have broken her heart to have left the community, the garden, and the site,” says Hilary.

“I thought if our home left our family we’d never get anything like it again.

Hilary and Paul Fairbrother with Dermot Bannon. Pictures: Ruth Maria Photography

“We looked into moving down here and a co-living situation — Mum and Dad on one level, and we on another.”

Hilary and Paul had been renting a two-bedroom apartment in Castleknock for several years, after moving back east from Killarney, Co Kerry, where they had lived for several years after college.

Their thoughts began to turn towards buying a house rather than renovating.

“Then we were watching Room to Improve,” says Hilary. “I remember the evening. Because we had been chatting about it a lot, myself and Paul and my parents.

“We were renting in the apartment at the time and we had been thinking about our long-term goal — before baby number two arrived, we were thinking of possibly buying in the short-term and putting the renovation on the long finger for five or so years.”

That was Christmas 2019.

Little did they know that two years later, they would be putting up the festive
decorations in their dream home.

“After watching that episode, I put in an application that week, and didn’t think anything of it,” says Hilary.

“We started house shopping soon after.

“My parents were really upset when we began doing that — I think they worried if we started sowing seeds in Dublin, we might not move back to Blessington.”

But six months later, the programme’s production team got in touch with the couple.

“That sort of turned us back in the direction of renovation — and we’ve such a gorgeous house now,” she says. “And a beautiful way of life.”

The couple bought the property from Hilary’s parents, and modernising the 1970s-built Blessington family home meant being clever with the budget — and we’ll have to watch Sunday night’s episode to see just how architect Dermot Bannon and quantity surveyor Claire Irwin managed it all.

Because this was a house that required massive renovation.

It needed to be retrofitted, and Dermot also had the task of capturing the stunning views of the Blessington Lakes that the house overlooks.

Hilary and Paul are also building a new home for Carmel and Hugh, so they will be able to stay on the four-and-a-half-acre site they love.

Hilary, a speech therapist, and Paul, a teacher, now share their finished home with Finn, three, Evie, 20 months, and Mia, almost two weeks.

At the moment, Carmel and Hugh are also in situ, as they await the completion of their brand-new home “in the garden”, as Hilary describes it.

“It’s a great place to raise kids,” she says. “And we’re here to support my parents — that’s such a huge thing; they really would have struggled.” Both the retrofitted house and the new build-to-come have high energy ratings, she adds.

“My dad has medical issues,” says Hilary. “It was getting to be on the cusp of unmanageable. We got in before it became really unmanageable.”

And of course, the support works both ways, she adds. “They are able to support us with the kids! Intergenerational living — I think it’s become a lot more popular. I definitely know of friends who live in proximity with grandparents for that very reason,” she says.

Carmel and Hugh’s new build will feature in the next season of Room to Improve, reveals Hilary.

“The dream has become a reality,” she says.