15 houses and one Grand Design later, the Burkes settled in Dunmore East 

Catherine Shanahan talks to the vendors of a unique bespoke timber-frame family home on the market in Co Waterford

ANYONE whose notion of a home is a bricks and mortar build need only watch Channel 4 series Grand Designsto see just how many options are open to pioneering householders.

One particular series, called The Street, featured 10 households who undertook incredible self builds on a single street outside Oxford. The final episode was truly uplifting — after a series of seemingly insurmountable financial setbacks, an older couple succeeded in building their dream home — or at least succeeded in paying for it to be built in a factory.

It was delivered on the back of a lorry to The Street,on Bicester’s Graven Hill, where the different modules swung perilously high above the site, before being lowered into place by a crane. Two weeks later, the happy couple was fully installed in their beautifully kitted out home, not a power drill or masonry trowel in sight.

Dominic Burke, of Dunmore East, Co Waterford, saw this riveting Grand Designs episode and can wholeheartedly relate to it: the setbacks that come with a self build, the cost overruns, the thrill of seeing your home arrive on the back of a lorry — or three lorries in his case, along with three Master carpenters, who erected the basic frame in nine days.

Post and beam frame

 “We’d have been textbook examples of all the trials and tribulations you see onGrand Designs,” laughs Dominic. “We had the cost overruns, the tricky tradesmen. We ended up taking out a second mortgage and selling my wife's car. It took us 10 years to pay down the debt. Any kind of nightmare you’ve seen onGrand Designs — that was us.” 

Despite all the challenges, Dominic and his wife Bernie, who run Travel Centres,  Ireland's largest travel agency consortium, were happy to stay the course — they had waited years for the opportunity to self build and knew exactly what they wanted after living in 15 different homes, including a farmhouse in West Cork and a three-bed semi-d in Bishopstown.

“We experimented with a lot of different styles and out of that, we formed a composite in our heads of what we wanted. I’ve always had a love affair with the traditional English barn, and the American beach house, and when we saw Potton Homes, we fell in love.” UK-based Potton Homes design and build quality bespoke timber frame homes for self-builders to suit their budget and the plot. Dominic and Bernie got in contact and their home arrived by flatpack in 2005.

“The price range was good and we had found a site [in lovely Dunmore East] after looking for a while. We put the funds together over three years. The original build cost was £300,000stg and the site was €120,000, but the price we are putting it on the market for now (€749,500) is not far off what we have put into it over the years,” Dominic says.

Additional investment included €30,000 on the Belgian clay tile roof and considerable expenditure on the installation of reinforced concrete slabs to support the excavated site.

Even though the basic frame was up in no time, it took Dominic and Bernie another year and a half to get Baytree ready for habitation and another couple of years to fit it out internally to the standard they aspired to.

“For the first two years, we lived without floor coverings or carpets.  That’s what you do when you have a dream. You know what you want and you are prepared to wait,” Dominic says.

After living the dream in Baytree for 16 years — not a single day has passed when they haven’t remarked on their luck — they are now preparing to downsize from their signature Douglas fir post-and-beam home at The Fairways, Golf Links Road, and they already have their eye on properties closer to Waterford city.

They leave behind a 250 sq m home, bathed in light, thanks to 24 windows, and with little need to turn on the heating (underfloor heating downstairs) for most of the year thanks to a high degree of thermal efficiency (B3, before the installation two years ago of triple glazed windows).

“Baytree is typical of how the Scandinavians build (timber, with clapperboard exteriors) and if it’s warm enough for the Arctic Circle, it’s got to be warm enough for us,” Dominic laughs.

In going, they will also forsake a home on one-third of an acre, with a fantastic 1,200 sq ft of open plan living space downstairs, with uninterrupted sea views, a courtyard garden, and not just one, but two outdoor patio areas, as well as a purpose-built brick BBQ, five bedrooms, and, to top it all, a separate gym/office, with shower and kitchen facilities (originally a double garage, 1,000 sq ft, in the same architectural style as the house), and with potential to convert into a separate mews. 

It’s the perfect space for working from home — as per the Burkes whose successful business is home-based — helped by 5G wireless and 5-cat ethernet cabling.

Margaret Fogarty of RE/MAX is handling the sale of Baytree and says there has been “good interest” since it went on the market during the week. “We’ve had a few people who are hoping to travel to view it, a UK enquiry and some local enquiries too,” she says.

VERDICT: A truly unique, high-quality family home, with a ready-made independent home office and gym, and stunning views to boot. Ideal for laidback living.