Meet the west Cork woman who built her own dream home 

Eve Kelliher talks to Esther Foreman to discover what it's really like to create your own residence from start to finish

Esther Foreman in the kitchen of her self-built home in Ardfield. Picture: Dermot Sullivan

The "forever home" has become part of our vocabulary. 

But Esther Foreman has no interest in the concept. “People talk about 'forever homes' all the time, but I really don’t understand what that means. A house evolves."

To Esther, homes are “a beautiful canvas for old things, a gallery for old pieces”.

More importantly, she adds: “You can save a fortune.”

A favourite spot of Esther and Damian's in their home in Ardfield. Picture: Denis Boyle

Esther is a part-time teacher and divorced mother of three from Ardfield, near Clonakilty, Co Cork. 

Just over two years ago she decided she wanted to be mortgage-free by 50.

So, she committed her entire life savings of €230,000 to building a brand-new three-bedroom home for her family — herself.

She had eyed the site adjacent to her former residence.

“I had raised my children in the house next door, a big Georgian house,” she says.

“But I was always drawn to this site, with a big barn." 

The living area. Picture: Denis Boyle

She confides that she had started sketching ideas of her dream house about 20 years ago. "And when I found these drawings, in a drawer, they were all exactly the same!" she adds.

She was juggling several jobs at the time. “I was cheffing, baking cakes for a café in town, as well as working as a preschool teacher and working in a café and shop,” she says.

“I had left the corporate world when my children were small.”

Now 25, 23 and 20, Esther’s children were raised in Ardfield.

The family arrived in Clonakilty in 2000 when Esther and her then-husband Simon decided to relocate from London. 

There, Esther had worked in market research and as a business analyst. “That’s how I met my husband. I’m from Belfast originally but I was in Ireland at every opportunity and for some reason, as I got older, I always wanted to spend more time in Cork,” she says.

The exterior of Esther and Damian's home at Ardfield. Picture: Denis Boyle

“Literally the decision was made, life got so crazy in London, Simon and I moved lock, stock and barrel to West Cork; we sold our three-bed semi there, and bought our eight-bed, five-reception room house in west Cork.

“It was a bit of a pin-in-the-map decision to move to Ardfield!”

Sounds like a dream decision?“It wasn’t the dream at the time!” says Esther. “I looked around and I thought, this is 20 years of hard work. Sweet Jesus, where do I begin?”

But all that DIY turned out to be a foundation for things to come.

“I think it’s where I cut my teeth and became used to doing things myself; that ethos was there for this project and for when it came to building my own home,” she says.

A bedroom in the self-build.

It was after they sold that house that Esther set her budget. She sectioned off the land in the site next door.

“We kept just over an acre, with the barn, and the budget left over, was all of the budget, so it was very important that it was a sustainable build,” says Esther.

“Sustainability, make do and mend — I see the value of old things. The sum of €230,000 did not seem like a lot when it came to furnishing it and everything so there was a lot of panic and wondering whether there would be enough. 

"We wanted to do as much of the labour as we could ourselves.”

Enter Harrison Gardner, master builder and building teacher.

Harrison Gardner.

Harrison was filming for a new TV show, Build Your Own Home, a four-part series following homeowners from across Ireland.

“He is an absolute natural born teacher — and I know use the word serendipity way too much, but when I saw the ad and I just threw in the application: I felt, This could be the man that helps us get it over the line,” says Esther.

“So this man sort of stepped into our lives.

“The deal was we got 10 days with him, consultancy or teaching days.” So how did that work out?

Esther and her new partner, Damian McDonald, found Harrison’s ideals perfectly aligned with theirs. “Bizarrely Harrison’s guidance was enough to build a house,” says Esther.

“He would teach us to do a bit, and we would do a bit.

“Our confidence grew and before we knew it, we found we’d actually built it bit by bit because most of it is so labour-intensive.

“We have some fantastic tradesmen, I am not in any way taking from the work tradesmen do, but we were able to do a lot of the backwork ourselves, the tedious work.”

Esther met Damian when he taught her son guitar.

Between them, Esther and Damian have a blended family that includes five grown-up children, among them musicians, a Munster rugby player, and a student of anthropology. 

Esther and Damian. Picture: Denis Boyle

“West Cork does that to children —it gives people the space to be who they want to be,” says Esther.

Likewise, with the notion of building on your own ideas, she believes.

“If anything comes out of this, I want to be able to inspire people, particularly women, not to be afraid to take this next step into your life, that you don’t have to get to this pinnacle of Insta [Instagram] perfection to build your own home,” says Esther.

“I’ve always felt that I met the right people at the right time — Damian arrived at the right stage of my life, I met Harrison at the right time.

“I felt, the universe was saying: Build it, woman! I felt blessed all the way along. I’m very close to my ex-husband and his new wife. 

"My parents provided moral support during the build and I was able to move back in with them.”

The "rave cave"-turned dream home is party central once again, she adds.  

“We are going to do it all again. They can still party, but the party's are going to be in a marquee in the garden!" says Esther.

“This was always the dream — and it’s not just a dream now!”

• Build Your Own Home will air on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player from Wednesday, October 26, at 9.35pm. The episode featuring Esther and Damian’s home will air on November 2