Inside Cork couple’s dream house in former ‘rave cave’
Living space at Esther Foreman and Damian McDonald's home at Ardfield, Co Cork. Picture: RTE
Just over two years ago, west Cork woman Esther Foreman 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 barn, she adds, was where her children and their friends once partied. “We used to call it the rave cave,” says Esther.
She’s just transformed the "rave cave" into the home of her dreams.
Now 25, 23 and 20, Esther’s children are still welcome to dance the night away there, she says, but the “the parties are going to be in a marquee in the garden".
A year and a half after he started working with the self-taught west Cork home-builder, master craftsman and builder Harrison Gardner returns to survey the result.
Speaking to camera at the end of this week’s episode of RTÉ One’s Build Your Own Home, he says: “I’ve no doubt that the changes that happened up there are going to be huge.”
And he’s correct: Esther and her partner Damian McDonald have created what Harrison describes as an “inspirational” house in the site at Ardfield, near Clonakilty.
“The kitchen is such a triumph; I’ve always wanted granite worktops — and then to get the whole thing for €900,” says Esther.
Because saving money and sustainability are foundation stones both for Esther — and for her mentor, Harrison.
Esther had started sketching ideas for this house about 20 years ago — and stashed them in a cutlery drawer.
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.
The family arrived in Clonakilty in 2000 when Belfast native Esther and her then-husband Simon decided to relocate from London.
“It was a bit of a pin-in-the-map decision to move to Ardfield!” Renovating her original Georgian house next door was the 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.
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.”
Esther spotted an ad that master builder and teacher Harrison Gardner was filming for a new TV show, Build Your Own Home, a four-part series following homeowners from across Ireland.
“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.
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.”
As for Harrison’s verdict on Esther and Damian’s work?
“I just think they’re really inspiring, for someone who has never built a structure before, for this to be their first undertaking is wild,” he says.
“Esther and Damian and I were all on the same page, building what you need with what you have.”
He adds: “I don’t think anyone could have built your house for you; it wouldn’t have worked.”
The bathtub featuring in the master bedroom as well as the balcony outside the house are design favourites of Esther’s.
For Damian, this is a project that "will never be finished, it was such a great joy to do it".
- The four-part Build Your Own Home series airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Wednesdays, at 9.35pm
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