The Great House Revival: Inside Cork newlyweds’ ‘mind-blowing’ revamped home
The kitchen in the transformed County Cork property. Pictures: RTÉ
Our past is alive in our old buildings, says architect Hugh Wallace as he presents the new series of .
Mary-Claire Waters and Sean Sully Sullivan have bought a north Cork property dating from the 1830s. “These structures tell of our past and offer sustainable solutions for today’s housing needs,” says Hugh as the fourth series starts on RTÉ One.
Just blink and somehow this pair of nonchalant newlyweds have morphed into a two-person construction dream team.
First off, they have a budget of €130,000 and a timeline of one year to dig in and turn the building, locally known as The Parson’s House, into their forever home.
The four-bedroom Georgian cut-stone property, whose façade is protected, is a “delightful but demanding building”, as Hugh says.
The property requires new windows, new floors, new plaster, new ceilings, new plasterwork, new electrics and a major fix-up of the rickety stairs, the latter being a major selling point for Mary-Claire.
While Sully is a carpenter by trade, he and Mary-Claire, a mental health nurse, are first-time buyers with no previous experience of renovation.
Parson’s House is located at the central crossroads of Churchtown, the village conveniently halfway between their two home places.
When they looked around The Parson’s House it had been empty for a decade and from a distance looks “like a set from something from a period drama, as Hugh says, but on closer inspection, is “less than idyllic”.
It didn’t matter, they were smitten. “It was a bit like shopping for a wedding dress — you think you’re looking for one thing and then you fall in love with something different,” she muses.
Hugh too is a fan, but looks a bit concerned. There’s lots going on in a tiny space upstairs, a need to change floor levels and to raise ceilings, rotten stairs and other elements “beyond saving”.
“This is more than a fixer-upper — professional work is needed to make it habitable,” he says.
“Who did you bring to the building to advise you on the structure? Did you have no engineer to look at it?” he asks.
Mary-Claire is not too worried. “We actually said we didn’t care if an engineer comes out, and if the house is made of lollipop sticks, we’re going to buy it anyway — so we didn’t actually get one [an engineer],” she says.
“Look, it’s here 200 years it hasn’t fallen down yet.”
This unflappable attitude wins the day.
There are the usual little delays with any build, including waits for a grant and other setbacks, such as Sully’s van being broken into and his power tools stolen.
But the pair themselves power on, completely unfazed.
Family and friends, including Mary-Claire’s parents Augusta and Eamon, help out but Mary-Claire and Sully do much of the graft themselves.
They also become a demolition duo to be reckoned with.
“It was like a fever that took over us, we wanted to take down every wall we saw,” says Mary-Claire gleefully.
They are also creative when making savings.
They have a lucky find when they strip back the kitchen to find an opening which means they don’t have to knock down one wall as planned saving them around €4,000. “I think it was the original back door of the house,” says Mary-Claire.
Because having money is “the name of the game around here”, she adds.
“Everything is borrowed; we haven’t rented or bought anything,” says Mary-Claire of machinery.
“My dad has shown [himself] to be some kind of gangster or something — he literally has a man for every job. I told my dad we needed to hire a mini digger and that it would cost us €280 for the day and he showed up with one.” And not long after the couple bought their house The Government announced the vacant homes grant.
They are thrilled with the finished result, as is Hugh.
“The change is mind-blowing,” says Sully.
Downstairs is an open-plan kitchen-living area with high vaulted ceilings.
“I think it’s amazing that those timbers, they’ve been there for 200 years — there were a few spots where my brother hit them with the mini-digger but it’s all character, like,” says Mary-Claire.
In their snug living area with its fireplace they “begrudgingly” dropped the wall-mounted television by nine inches on Hugh’s advice says Sully.
“No telly would have been even better,” says Hugh.
“Says the television presenter!” says Mary-Claire.
The snug on the other side of the living room is, as Hugh describes it “a tranquil gem”, featuring Mary-Claire’s mother Augusta’s wallpaper mural.
Upstairs are three bedrooms and a bathroom off a cosy corridor, upstairs, just one bedroom to finish.
They still have one bedroom to finish.
Exposed stone is a feature of the interiors throughout.
Sully has replaced the staircase but has worked in the original handrail with its elegant curve.
In addition, his kitchen has saved them thousands of euro.
Mary-Claire had the vision for a glazed view from the utility through bifold doors, a previously unlit area, and crucially it is she who keeps tabs on the budget.
Answering Hugh’s enquiry as to the final tally, she jokes to Sully:
“You’re probably interested to know as well! At the moment we’re about €40,000 under budget. The figure all in, is €225,000, including buying the house.”
Hugh is impressed, particularly as the couple clearly started with no definite plans. “They sort of played it by ear, listened to the house. Listening to the two of them today you’d sort of think it was a walk in the park but it was anything but,” he says.
“They didn’t get flustered by the fences on their journey to make this the most amazing home.”
- The Great House Revival airs on Sundays on RTÉ One at 9.30pm
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