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00:01From coast to coast of Ireland, our old buildings are calling out to be loved and lived in.
00:10But restoration is no easy task.
00:15Who dares take on the challenge of reclaiming our ruins as homes fit for the future?
00:31It's the end of November 2024, and the medieval city of Kilkenny is crowned with frost.
00:40Hugh's destination today is best known for its pubs and nightlife, but right now, John Street is just waking up.
00:48Hugh is visiting number 37, a 130-year-old former corporation house, to meet Sean Hickey.
00:56Good morning, Hugh.
00:58A 37-year-old teacher who has just bought it as his first home.
01:04Why did you buy this property?
01:05Once I came in the door, saw the proportions and the style and the old features, I just fell in
01:10love with it straight away.
01:11And when I went out the back and saw the garden, that was it.
01:14I was ready to buy. I had a few bob saved from working hard over the years and that kind
01:18of thing.
01:18And I was kind of at an age where I needed to get out of home.
01:21Are you still living at home?
01:22Still living at home, yes.
01:24I won't complain.
01:25No, no, so there you go. So you have all your laundry done for you.
01:29Yeah, dinner's on the table.
01:31Oh, my God, Sean.
01:32So how much did you pay for the house?
01:34220,000.
01:35When did you actually get the property?
01:36So I have the keys nearly a year now. I want to get cracking on doing a bit of work
01:39on the house.
01:41Sean's new home is a modest and purposeful two-up, two-down urban workers' house, with a sitting room at
01:48the front, a kitchen to the back, and a larder under the stairs.
01:53At some point over the last century, a small extension was added to house a kitchen and bathroom.
02:00Sean intends to knock this down and build a new version to house an upcycled kitchen.
02:06He will knock through part of the back room to make a larger bathroom, and on the return, Sean will
02:13lower the floor to transform a low-ceiling cupboard into a second bathroom.
02:19The three bedrooms and landing will be restored and redecorated.
02:24The house has had very little intervention in the last 130 years, and I want to keep that kind of
02:29same model.
02:30The only plumbing in the house is actually in the bathroom and the kitchen sink.
02:34Sean's taking preservation to a Puritan extreme.
02:38He won't plumb beyond the new extension, and he wants to limit changes to the old walls, floors, and ceilings
02:46through his choice of heating.
02:48What heating are you putting in?
02:50I don't want to start ripping up the old timber floors or that kind of thing.
02:53I'm going to go all electric.
02:55There's a company in Northern Ireland, and they produce these new cast-iron radiators, which, obviously, the cast-iron has
03:01been keeping with the style of the house.
03:02How much are they each?
03:05€600, €700, €800 each.
03:06Right.
03:07They're expensive, but, again, hopefully they'll be worth the investment.
03:10How are you insulating the house?
03:11That's another question, so I'm not sure if I'm going to bother insulating the house.
03:16So you won't be able to afford to run the electric heat?
03:19Will I not?
03:20No.
03:21OK.
03:22It's one thing to avoid interfering with the heritage walls and floors, but a cold house and soaring bills is
03:29too punitive an approach.
03:31So let's have a look out the back.
03:33Perfect.
03:34It's a great garden, isn't it?
03:36Yeah.
03:37Now, you have a right old mess at the back of the house.
03:40Yeah, it's kind of bits of everything.
03:42And you have dodgy chimneys.
03:44Yeah, two dodgy chimneys.
03:45If I was to do things right, I would love to rebuild them in the red brick.
03:48Well, you're going to have to.
03:49That one's split.
03:50Yeah, yeah.
03:51And that one's no better.
03:52No.
03:53Hugh is fast adding to Sean's list of costs.
03:56You have the oldest, best of slates, but you'll find they're getting to their sell-by date.
04:01Are you serious?
04:02Yeah.
04:02And if you were to re-roof that, what would you...
04:04If you could, bang it, slate.
04:07Go back to the bangers.
04:08Yeah.
04:09Heritage Bluebanger slates would cost €2,000 and a further €2,000 to have them fitted.
04:15So, you just have to work a bit harder.
04:17I haven't...
04:18There's not enough time in the day, Hugh.
04:19For goodness sake, she's got the whole summer off to do nothing.
04:22Yeah, for sure.
04:23So, you can get on.
04:24You'll be able to put the roof on.
04:25That'll be nothing for you.
04:27I would chance a lot of things now.
04:28I don't think I'll chance roofing, but I have plenty of friends, hopefully, that might give me a handout.
04:32Hopefully, it'll be all done by this time next year.
04:34Well, here, let's go in and go upstairs.
04:36Have a look upstairs.
04:36Go on.
04:36Perfect.
04:43I just think this house is charming.
04:46I think it's a charming house.
04:48All the features are still here, from the fireplaces, the timber floors, the architraves, the shutters downstairs.
04:53It's just for me now to preserve those, but also to allow the house to work, to be livable, to
05:00be practical.
05:02Let's get on now to your budget.
05:05Okay.
05:06So, initially, I hope to invest €50,000 in this part of the house.
05:10In which part?
05:12The three bedrooms, the sitting room, and creating the bathroom.
05:15Oh, I thought it was €50,000 up here.
05:16Oh, well, look, €50,000 is my max for the moment, anyway.
05:21For what?
05:21For the old house?
05:22For the old house.
05:23So, we'll see what we can get done.
05:24And then I will try and draw down the vacant homes grant at that point, because the house will be
05:31habitable.
05:31The vacant property refurbishment grant works on a reimbursement basis, and is paid out once there's a functional kitchen, bathroom,
05:40and bedroom.
05:41Then, when that €50,000 is drawn down, I will reinvest that, then, in the extension.
05:45That's the plan.
05:45Okay.
05:46Whether it works or doesn't.
05:47Okay.
05:48I'm hoping it will.
05:49All right.
05:50Sean's €50,000 plus the €50,000 for the grant will make his total budget €100,000.
05:57So, this house, where we're standing, excluding anything outside, you won't see change out of €120,000.
06:07Okay.
06:08If you put an extension on, a quarter of a million to do your actual total ambition is.
06:15It's a harsh reality check.
06:17I do think you have to sort out how you're going to insulate the home.
06:21Okay.
06:21That would be my big project.
06:23Well, no, your big project will also be to sort your chimneys out.
06:27Yes.
06:28I don't want a chimney crashing through a roof or falling down onto the street, so.
06:32They're ten grand.
06:34And I was hoping just to have to repaint them.
06:37To do the chimney, you'll have to put up scaffolding.
06:40Sorry about all this.
06:41No, but sure, it's the reality, so.
06:43So, when you put the scaffolding up, that's the time to do your roof.
06:48Yes.
06:48Because you can't do the roof if you haven't got scaffolding.
06:52Just, that's life.
06:54So, and to do the scaffolding, that's another five grand.
07:01Wow.
07:01How am I doing?
07:03You're adding it up there fairly quick.
07:04Well, hasn't Sean bought a great city pad?
07:09But unfortunately, having had a look at the house, there's an awful lot of work under the surface.
07:18He needs to re-roof, sort out the chimneys, do the windows, rewire, put in heating, take out the floor,
07:25put on an extension, put in a kitchen, put in two bathrooms.
07:29And there we go.
07:31With his budget of £100,000, in my opinion, he'll be lucky to actually be able to move into the
07:38house in any stage.
07:42After studying for the priesthood, and then working as a gardener, Sean returned home to teach at a school in
07:49his local community.
07:50Okay, I'm in here now because of these cars.
07:52Right, we'll stop now.
07:54He'll need to balance his DIY efforts at the house with the energy he throws into passing on his enthusiasm
08:01for Kilkenny and its history to his pupils.
08:06Stop bouncing the ball, I'm actually going to get crossed.
08:09How often do I get crossed, lads?
08:11Every day.
08:12Every day, do I get really crossed though?
08:14No.
08:14No, I never get crossed.
08:15Then you start laughing.
08:16Yeah, exactly, but I'm going to get crossed now and not start laughing.
08:20Does anybody know what year the castle was built?
08:22No.
08:23When do you think, Aidan?
08:25The 1200s, really close, yes.
08:27The Normans came to Ireland in the 1100s, around 1170.
08:31And the first Norman to come to Ireland was a man called Strongbow.
08:36And he built a wooden castle here on a big mound called the Mott and Bailey Castle.
08:41Back on John Street, the Christmas season has begun.
08:44But the school holidays are still weeks away.
08:48Sean comes straight to the house each day after class.
08:51Work clothes in hand.
08:54The chimney breast here will have to come down at some point.
08:56So I think that's a good starting point because it's kind of a dirty, dusty job.
09:00And my parents are going to come as well to give me a hand.
09:03Dad, Canis, is helping Sean take out a 1930s fireplace and chimney breast in what will become the downstairs bathroom.
09:12Hugh was saying to hold on to that fireplace so I can tell him now that he can keep that
09:16himself.
09:17I might sell it to him.
09:19I wonder would he give me a 50 over for it.
09:21Behind the fireplace, Sean's uncovering an older arch where the original kitchen's range would have been.
09:27So I really haven't done much building work before.
09:30I would have undertaken some hard landscaping jobs through my gardening business over the years.
09:35I'm hoping that that kind of work will stand to me.
09:39Mum, Maura, agrees.
09:41He's a good worker.
09:42He'll take on a project and he's into conservation and preservation.
09:46So it'll be down his alleyway.
09:49Unfortunately, Maura knows that her son's dedication to conservation can have a negative impact on her own home and garden.
09:58Why are you saving the brick?
10:00I could use it again.
10:01I could use it to build a wall out the back or something.
10:03Waste not, want not.
10:04Waste not, want not.
10:05As long as you don't bring it home with you again.
10:07But Sean and Canis won't be bringing anything home tonight.
10:11They had hoped to strip the entire arch away, but it turns out to be a trickier job than they
10:17anticipated.
10:19I'm not for finding two steel beams.
10:21I kind of knew they were there, but I was hoping that both of them were actually just holding up
10:24the very top of the chimney breast itself.
10:26But it actually seems that the innermost one is probably holding up the wall as well, above a hurdle I
10:33wasn't expecting.
10:37The following evening, Sean and his parents are back at John Street to get stuck into the next item on
10:43the list, stripping away the old wallpaper in the front room.
10:48Here, come back here and do here, look.
10:51You don't find missing half of it.
10:52I would have always seen them at home doing work themselves on the house, and I always remember them wallpapering
10:57and painting, so they really instilled in me a sense of value of work.
11:01Whoever did this did a good job on it.
11:04Yeah, the vinyl papers are a devil.
11:07As well as a sense of the value of work, Sean has a strong sense of his own mind.
11:12You had suggested that I would insulate the walls.
11:15I'm probably going to go against them on that now.
11:16They're two foot thick, solid limestone, and I don't think insulation would be of any benefit because of the thickness.
11:22And I would be afraid that I would create more problems putting insulation on them where there is no problems
11:27as there is.
11:28But the walls may not be as dry as he hopes.
11:32I might have to insulate that wall.
11:34He, uh, seems to be coming off a bit too easily.
11:38There's a whole house to be stripped back, but normal life must go on.
11:42I have to go because the dinner is going to be burned if I don't get home soon.
11:46Okay, sure, I'll have it.
11:47Will you keep mine for me?
11:48I will, don't I always?
11:49Thank you, bye.
11:50Oh, no, sure, he's not too far at all from home now.
11:53He's going to be maybe a five-minute walk from the house.
11:56Well, he'll probably still come up for his dinners, but he'll miss his mummy doing his washing and ironing.
12:01I'll make sure he has a washing machine in the new extension.
12:05Sean's path to independence will demand submitting his every free moment to working here.
12:11I hope to invest a lot of my time now over the next three, four months in the house and
12:15to try and get those kind of jobs done.
12:17You know, like, stripping wallpaper, digging up the floors, sanding floorboards, all that kind of thing.
12:22Be busy for the next couple of months.
12:28Although he is taking on so much of this project himself, Sean's life experience leaves him undaunted by the many
12:36tasks ahead.
12:37I have considered to myself to have been lucky to have so many friends that have been older than me.
12:42All of those people have taught me different things, so they probably contributed as well to my mindset.
12:49He began working in landscape gardening as a teenager when self-sufficient Kilkenny resident Joan Roberts brought him on as
12:57a helper.
12:59Joan, look at the amount of pairs on the end of this.
13:01I know, I know. Can't wait.
13:02There's nearly 100 pairs, I'd say, on that, just while you're alone.
13:05Don't be afraid to give out to me now, Joan, if I'm taking that and you want to keep it.
13:08When have I ever given out to you?
13:10That's true.
13:10It's hard to describe the benefits he's put into my life.
13:15It's just magic, having him there, and if it's an emergency, I know I can pick up the phone, and
13:21it could be over anything, and Sean will be there.
13:23He's just one of those decent people, and it's just a joy to know him.
13:27I'm embarrassing you.
13:28Why don't I?
13:30You've been more than good to me too, so.
13:32And look how much I've learned as well.
13:34So I hope to take a lot of what I've learned from you and bring it into my home in
13:37John Street, do you know?
13:38Well, let's be honest, Sean, we're both mad.
13:41I'm old and mad, you're young and mad.
13:46As soon as the Christmas holidays start, Sean spends every day at the house, finishing up the wallpaper stripping and
13:56tearing away an old hot press and the timber wall closing in the staircase.
14:01They've got advice to keep that steel lintel in place, and now they can strip away the more modern brick,
14:08revealing the original kitchen fireplace.
14:14Sean saves every item he takes out of the house for potential reuse later in the project.
14:21The back garden's filling up fast, and back at his parents' house, he's commandeered his granddad's old shed to store
14:29the ever-growing stash of old furniture and materials he's been collecting since childhood.
14:35It's pretty full, but it makes a massive difference to have somewhere like this that you can gather bits and
14:39keep bits that you might intend to use as you go forward.
14:41So, these plates here beside me, they came from a house up at the top of the lane here.
14:45They came to knock the house, so I saw an opportunity then to salvage them.
14:49So I asked the builder at the time, and he said, no problem.
14:51So I actually went up myself, and I busted me fist out through one of them from the attic and
14:56took them all off.
14:57We managed to get 700 of them anyway.
14:59Perhaps sometime if I'm never re-roofing my house in John Street, I will use them at that point.
15:02Growing up, I was always gathering bits and pieces, and I always saw the value in things that could be
15:07used at some point, like I have stuff for 20, 25 years.
15:10This is my treasure trove.
15:11They're all going to find their home now in John Street.
15:16Back at the house, before he can bring anything in, he has to take things out.
15:24It's the start of February 2025.
15:27Sean and his dad, Canis, have already knocked out the floor of an old press.
15:32And lowered it to house the upstairs bathroom.
15:35But today, Sean's challenge is to remove the wall between the original kitchen and the extension bathroom.
15:42I'm knocking through here to make an archway, and that would be into my shower area.
15:46And I'm going to have, hopefully, a 2x1 litre skylight above that, so I'd be having a shower kind of
15:51heavily open.
15:52Sean's no building expert, but his gardening work gives him the confidence to take on a solid wall.
15:58I'm just going to have to be careful there that I take out stone by stone, and try and work
16:03my way down the middle first, before I maybe undermine the other side.
16:07I'll probably reuse as many of these as I can.
16:09I'll definitely reuse the stone anyway.
16:11The wall offers up further benefits.
16:13Oh, my God, I'm in so much luck.
16:15This whole column here is brick, so that means I can't undermine the structure above me.
16:23So this whole pillar here is all red brick, and it's actually supporting the rest of the house above.
16:28So this is just infill under the window.
16:29But in old buildings, fortunes can be fast-changing.
16:35OK, so I think I was a bit too excited a few minutes ago, after coming into these two big
16:41stones.
16:41I had a feeling there'd be something tying this into the rest of the walls.
16:46It might be likely that I'd get them out today.
16:49The fates seem to be against Sean today.
17:08Sean has no choice but to continue to take the wall out by hand.
17:19By the end of February, Sean has deconstructed that tricky wall,
17:24and Hugh's back at John Street to see what's next on his long to-do list.
17:29Hello, Sean. How are you?
17:31Hello, Hugh. How are you?
17:32Lovely to see you. You're well.
17:33I am very well. Welcome back to John Street.
17:36And you're keeping your fireplace?
17:37No, that's gone, unfortunately.
17:39Why?
17:39Like, I love it.
17:40What's the why?
17:41Wait till I tell you. It's here since the house was built.
17:43Yeah, but...
17:45I have a black marble fireplace at home in storage,
17:47and it's a Kilkenny fireplace, and there's lovely fossils.
17:50Oh, well, that makes all the difference.
17:51Black, lovely shell in the centre.
17:52Great.
17:53I think it'll be lovely here.
17:54Great.
17:54So it'll probably come out maybe three, four inches either side of this one.
17:58Right.
17:58Amazing.
17:59Yeah.
17:59I think your other fireplace would be too big for the room.
18:02Do you?
18:03Yeah.
18:04This neat little house's proportions are no match for imposing marble.
18:09From the cast iron fireplace to the shutter boxes, every detail is elegantly paired back and simple.
18:17And what are you going to do now with the windows?
18:19I want to be authentic in reinserting as much as possible the originals.
18:23So this window will cost you two and a half to three grand to be done absolutely as if it
18:31was the day it was put in.
18:33Oh, wow.
18:34And do you think that's worth the investment?
18:36Yeah.
18:36And they'd be single pane over single pane?
18:39No.
18:39I'm going, they were originally two over two.
18:41There is a terrace of houses down the road here on Johns Quay, so it faces onto the River Noor.
18:46Yeah.
18:46The majority of those who were built in 1888, this one was 1891, and they had two over two.
18:52And the interesting thing is, most of them, hang on one second, most of them still had those windows up
18:56until 20 years ago.
18:57Yeah.
18:57So it's a pity they're gone, but there you are.
19:01Oh, yeah, you're right.
19:02They are, they're, they're nice, they are nice.
19:05That's good.
19:05For the sake of an extra couple of hundred euro per window in the long run over my lifetime for,
19:10hopefully, I've been there for 40 years.
19:11So it's 3,200 per window.
19:14We're getting cheaper.
19:15Someone will do it.
19:16Absolutely.
19:16And the fireplace is perfect where it is.
19:19You're having your way on that fireplace.
19:20I'm definitely having my way.
19:22I just love the fireplace.
19:23Okay.
19:24But you won't do it.
19:24I know about you.
19:26I just know about you.
19:28It's just difficult.
19:30You're obstinate, Sean.
19:32His determination to celebrate Kilkenny marble and window design may impact his budget.
19:38So, Sean, how much have you spent today?
19:41I'd say I've handed over maybe 500 euro so far.
19:46But look, I do have to give money to the plumber and the carpenter and stuff like that.
19:50But I haven't spent as much yet as I thought I would.
19:52So I'm lucky.
19:53So you spent a tiny amount today.
19:57Sean planned to focus on the old house with his €50,000 savings, draw down the €50,000
20:03grant as reimbursement, and then use that money to build his extension.
20:09He needs to spend on the house to release more funds.
20:13It'll come in a couple of weeks' time.
20:14I'll be probably handing out money hand over fist.
20:16When you talk about the €100,000, is that really it?
20:19That's really it, yeah.
20:21Come on, Sean.
20:21You have your communion money.
20:23I had it for a long time.
20:24No, come on, open up the communion money.
20:26Come on, it's there.
20:27That's there for my pension, Hugh.
20:28No, I'm telling you now.
20:30Joking aside, there is still no list of spends for this project.
20:35Have you costed out all your materials for your floors?
20:38No.
20:39How much would the floors cost me for this part of the house?
20:42Oh, here?
20:42Yeah, between the tiles and the limestone.
20:44Oh, sure, that'll be 100 quid a square foot.
20:47Square foot?
20:48Yeah, laid.
20:49And what's here, sure, there's 40 square foot, is there?
20:52That's €4,000.
20:53Yes, it's going to cost you €4,000 to do this.
20:56For the floor alone?
20:57Yeah.
20:58Okay, I need to get my sums in order.
21:01I'd just question if you can afford an extension.
21:04Hmm.
21:06Or, I'd actually refurbish what you have out there, that existing kitchen, temporarily, until you've built your funds up again.
21:13I suppose listening to Hugh today kind of made me feel a bit disheartened, in a sense that, look, I
21:21might be able to achieve as much as I had set out to achieve.
21:24As Sean gets down to his maths, totting up the real cost of his plans, let's hope he'll consider living
21:31with his old kitchen until he can build up funds.
21:34If not, he could end up with his homework unfinished.
21:43Fuelled by coffee and a passion for his hometown, teacher Sean Hickey is restoring a former corporation house on Kilkenny's
21:52bustling John Street, using his €50,000 savings and a vacant properties grant.
21:59It's March 2025. Hugh advised him to hold on to his old kitchen extension to make his budget work. But
22:07there's no telling Sean.
22:12Today, we're hoping to get the extensions knocked. It's all hands on deck.
22:15Keith, I'm going to be shouting around at you now.
22:18Sean's friends and family have assembled to pull down the kitchen and the back wall of the old bathroom. Cousin
22:25Stephen's happy to help.
22:27Yeah, today's payback for all the things he helped me out.
22:30Stephen knows all about Sean's keenness to keep absolutely everything.
22:35Give me a grand comb for his hair.
22:38There, Sean. There you go. Keep that for your head.
22:41I was wondering where I left that.
22:44Friend Connor sees the importance of Sean battling to create a home on a budget.
22:49Anytime you can help out somebody with a bit of labour and that, you know, it's a reward.
22:53And when it's for a friend, you do anything really.
22:57Kilkenny hurler Paddy Deegan's taken time out to join Sean's demo team.
23:02Yeah, no, he owes me big time now.
23:03So in a few years when I'm buying my own house, he'll have a lot of jobs to do.
23:07I hadn't intended to do this until I had the old part of the house done.
23:11And then I kind of, you know, what's the point in having the cosmetic done?
23:14And then you're bringing dirt and dust back through the house.
23:16So it'll be great to have it gone.
23:17Let's hope he has the funds to close in this side of the house again.
23:22How the hell did we get that down the hallway?
23:25Oh, come down.
23:26There's one go.
23:27Oh, Connor, bye.
23:30He knows everyone in Kilkenny.
23:32He's involved in so many different things.
23:34Heavily involved in the church, giving out communion at mass.
23:38He's teaching up his local community.
23:39Everyone's guarding around Kilkenny as well.
23:41So he's built up a network over the years.
23:42So plenty of hands to give him a dig out with the project.
23:45So it's brilliant.
23:47He's lucky.
23:47But that's Sean in a nutshell.
23:49As I said, 10 or 12 people could rock in here any day.
24:06By April, Sean's mood is still flying high and work on the house is surging forward.
24:12At the moment, I have a kind of a bold sense of hope that everything is going so well.
24:16Plumber was here in the last week or two and has all the first week's plumbing on end,
24:20which is brilliant.
24:20And myself, my cousin Martin and my father had all the floors dug in.
24:25My cousin Stephen gave me a hand as well.
24:26Digging out the floor was a huge job alone.
24:30And then the carpenter, Michael, came the last couple of evenings
24:32and has managed to get in the new floor upstairs for the upstairs bathroom.
24:36All the joists are in on the floor and the covering is in.
24:39And the new stud perditions are gone in.
24:40So, like, we're getting there.
24:42We're plowing into the work.
24:44Oh, like a glove.
24:45That'll do.
24:46Okay.
24:47That's perfect now.
24:49While Hugh comes to terms with Sean's decision to build an extension without any funds,
24:56he's brought Sean to Dublin's Ranala to have a snoop around a house of similar dimensions to his own.
25:02Sean, this is an interesting house.
25:05It's actually Regency.
25:06This house was built in 1782.
25:09So, this terrace was here before Stephen's Green would have been built.
25:15So, the purpose of this house would have been for families with estates down the country
25:21and wanted a little townhouse.
25:23Or for if you're having an affair.
25:26So, you'd move the lover in here and not tell the wife.
25:30So, it's perfect.
25:31The interesting thing that I like about this home is they made a virtue out of the distress nature of
25:38the home.
25:39Mm-hmm.
25:40I can appreciate how those imperfections actually lend to the beauty of this home.
25:45So, Sean, you've seen the staircase.
25:47I love the way it's been stripped.
25:49Yes, yes.
25:49So, it's not perfect.
25:51And if anything, it looks like an art installation.
25:54Yeah.
25:54And again, you could do that in your home.
25:56The other thing I like about this house is the palette of colours.
26:00And then you just have this lovely collection of old furniture.
26:06Have you thought about the decoration?
26:07Yeah, and this is funny because this would be very, very much my taste.
26:12And I suppose, again, for me, it goes to show you don't need that colour to give the house a
26:17character.
26:17It's the architectural details, the small things like the architrave and the harnessing and the fireplace and the earthy floorboards.
26:24Do you like the tone of it?
26:26Yeah, I love it.
26:26Yeah, it's really me.
26:27I saw you as wallpaper.
26:29No, just...
26:30I saw you as garish wallpaper.
26:32No, no, no, no.
26:33This would be typically me, just simple plain wall and plain colour.
26:36The extension here is the original scullery, remodelled with sympathetic windows.
26:43Into the gorgeous lawn garden, a hint of what Sean's could become.
26:49You're going to put brick up.
26:50Yes.
26:51And then at the moment, you're going to have a roof sloping away.
26:55Yes.
26:56In slate.
26:57In rubber or zinc.
26:59So it's very modern.
27:00Very modern.
27:01Or you could do a hip troop like this one.
27:04Would I?
27:04Could I get away with that?
27:05You could, yeah, I think you could.
27:07And it might be more appropriate for your home.
27:09But I also think then it means inside, you could expose the shape of the roof.
27:14Yes.
27:15And then you have some old roof lights, don't you?
27:17We're old roof lights.
27:18I have old slates.
27:19And I would love to utilise those old slates.
27:22They're kind of sentimental.
27:23In so far, a slates can be sentimental.
27:25A kind of a hip troop with a pitch like this would be absolutely fantastic on the back of the
27:29house.
27:29It would.
27:30It would just give that extra bit of an architectural lift to the kind of vista looking back up the
27:34garden.
27:35Hugh's pleased that Sean has taken on one of his ideas at last.
27:41It's June and Ireland is basking beneath its hottest summer on record.
27:47It's not slowing speedy Sean, though.
27:50The good weather has moved his focus outside and brought about another change of plans.
27:57I moved from the inside out, so we had a lovely month in May of 25 degrees sunshine.
28:03So I decided that I would move out and get the foundations ready and the floor ready for the extension.
28:07Sweating buckets and getting a sun tan, a farmer's tan.
28:10Yeah, it was tougher.
28:11There was evenings there where by 9 or 10 o'clock I was fairly bit and having to go to
28:14school then the next day.
28:16I suppose I was getting to a point where I was becoming burnt out.
28:20I'm kind of, I'm exhausted.
28:22Look, it'll be worth it in the end again.
28:24I've saved probably a good few bob there.
28:26I'd be kind of thinking maybe 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 euro.
28:29Although he's added a DIY extension to his plans, Sean's still sticking to his original planned move-in date.
28:38I want to be in, kind of starting into the new term in school.
28:43As soon as the summer holidays kick in in July, to super speed progress, Sean brings in his friend, carpenter
28:50Michael, to begin the build on the extension.
28:54The Ranala house he visited has influenced his design plans.
28:58Following the inspo day, I had seen the hip roof on that house and I kind of, you know, fell
29:04in love with it really.
29:06Inspiration aside, to keep his funds flowing, Sean needs to draw down his grant.
29:12And to do that, he must have key elements of the original house finished.
29:17I'm behind on the old part of the house.
29:19And I know Hugh had said originally not to go near the extension until 4 or 5 years time when
29:24I had saved up an extra few bob.
29:26But I kind of just said, look, put in the hard work now myself and try and get it done
29:30as cheap as possible.
29:33While he's minimising costs on his extension, he's invested in the restoration of the Kilkenny Marble Fireplace, which a friend
29:42gifted him.
29:44Stonemason Donal MacDonald has brought it to his workshop for polishing.
29:49Well, this fireplace that we're doing up for Sean Hickey here came from the Black Party.
29:53And this particular material here is called Kilkenny Bird's Eye.
29:55So this is what that made Kilkenny famous when they came to the Marble City, I suppose.
30:00And there's a piece that I polished already.
30:03You can see there's lots of fossils, little bits of ferns and little bits of fishes and things in this.
30:07And this is formed in shallow seas on Ireland, which was one side of the equator.
30:11It's 230 million years old.
30:13Kilkenny Marble is a fine-grained carboniferous limestone found in the area.
30:19It was quarried since the 17th century, and the footpaths of the city were paved with polished Kilkenny Marble flagstones.
30:28If you actually look at some of the old buildings in Kilkenny, you can see the fossils into it.
30:32Kilkenny Marble is a sort of only limestone, but isn't it a fantastic limestone?
30:36I mean, everybody's a bit limestone like it, only in Kilkenny, you know?
30:40Sean has always been passionate about protecting Kilkenny's heritage.
30:44In the early 2000s, he campaigned to stop construction of a new bridge, which he believed would cut across the
30:53historic cityscape.
30:55Today, Sean's back on the river to meet his near neighbour, local history expert Paddy Neary.
31:03Now, Sean, approaching John's Bridge, which separates Rosin Street from John Street.
31:09I think that John Street people had their own community spirit.
31:12John Street linked the town with the countryside, and its trade was dependent on passing farmers.
31:20Well, John Street really came to the fore in the early 1860s, when the corporation proposed a new market area.
31:27The location of the market would divert passing trade away from John Street via a new bridge.
31:34The men of John Street, as they call themselves, started a campaign.
31:38It went on for about two years, particularly in John Street, would have lost out on trade.
31:42The John Street community were determined to battle against the new bridge.
31:48Well, Sean, this is your bridge coming up here.
31:50It's so fancy.
31:51Don't mention the war, Paddy.
31:53Sean's campaign didn't stop construction of the new bridge.
31:57It's amazing, then.
31:58You have 100 or 150 years later, you have a similar campaign, then.
32:02It's kind of history repeating itself again.
32:04After years of campaigning, the traders of John Street were victorious.
32:09There would be no new bridge, and the market would be positioned elsewhere.
32:13Of course, the show, Paddy, if I was around then, I probably would have been involved with the John Street.
32:17Of course, surely.
32:17The sense of community on the street is still as strong today as it was in the 1860s.
32:24I'm not even moved in yet, and I just feel part of that community.
32:27It's good now to see them moving back in.
32:28The house has been idle for a long time, so at least it's bringing a bit more life back into
32:33the street and making more of a community again.
32:35Hopefully, it'll encourage other people to start moving into houses on the streets like that.
32:39Because definitely, a street is the people that live in it.
32:42It's only buildings other than that.
32:48Back at the house, Sean's preparing for the grand Kilkenny marble fireplace he's invested in restoring.
32:55Because the Castellan fireplace is one of the original features of the house, I didn't want to take it out.
33:00But look, if I have a black marble Kilkenny one, I can't not use that.
33:03So the plan is to take it out and to reuse that then in the kitchen.
33:07You can see how black all the bricks are from 135 years of keeping people warm.
33:14And then the chimney look at this stage.
33:16I'm trying to get the chimney rebuilt, but I'm finding it difficult to try and get it done.
33:20And obviously, it's a big job that Scaffler would have to go up.
33:22So chimneys are on the long finger, but as well as sprucing up the interiors, hopefully, there'll be practical work
33:30done, securing and insulating Sean's house.
33:35At John Street in August, Hugh and Sean head straight outside to see Sean's work on the frame for the
33:42replacement kitchen extension.
33:43So what you have now at the moment is you have your timber frame.
33:46Yep.
33:47Big window out to that fabulous garden and a door.
33:50Door on the side, yeah.
33:51Okay.
33:52Have you had an engineer look at this?
33:53No, not yet, no.
34:00Okay, so Sean, you must get an engineer here.
34:03Okay.
34:04Yeah, no, I'll engage an engineer then just to come in and see the standard and does it meet the
34:09criteria and that kind of thing.
34:11Important task set.
34:12It's time to head indoors.
34:15The house is still stripped back, but Sean has insulated the floors.
34:20So there's 130 or 40 mil of glass insulation gone into the floor.
34:23Right.
34:24And then 100 mil of lime brick gone in.
34:26Any surface you put on that has to be breathable.
34:29Yes, so I was thinking using the limestone slabs the whole way through.
34:33Kilkenny limestone.
34:34Kilkenny limestone, yeah.
34:35But that'd be a huge cost, Sean.
34:37It's more expensive, I suppose, than other products.
34:40But again, look, it'll be there forever.
34:41It's a big area, isn't it?
34:42It is a big.
34:42Between outside and all through the house.
34:44Yeah, yeah.
34:45How much?
34:46Oh, I haven't costed for the overall area, but I have a budget of about 5,000.
34:52OK, so you need three times that amount.
34:55OK.
34:55We'll see what happens.
34:56How much have you spent today?
34:58I've spent about 15,000 euros so far, but I haven't gone into the big costs of the windows,
35:03the plumbing, the heating, any of that stuff yet.
35:05So that won't be long about coming around, and in the next two or three weeks, I'd say,
35:09the bank account will start...
35:11To disappear.
35:12Yeah, plummeting.
35:13Plummeting.
35:15Hugh's concerned about his budget.
35:17But by September, Sean's necessary big spends have begun.
35:22With Donal's polished Kilkenny marble fireplace, and the heritage-style two-over-two windows
35:29from a local joinery arriving on site.
35:32The windows are class, aren't they?
35:34Like, even look at the glazing bars, like, everything is, the arms, everything is just
35:38perfect.
35:39And to see the craftsmanship that has gone into the windows, it's just, it's amazing.
35:43That has just changed the whole appearance of the front of the house.
35:46Sean had hoped to be in before school resumed, but by mid-September, work on the house is
35:53busier than ever.
35:55There's actually been a massive amount done this week, like the electrician, plumber,
35:58plasterer, carpenters were all in.
36:01During the summer, I kind of wanted to get to the end of the heavy work, the dirty work,
36:06the dusty kind of big heavy stuff before I went back to school.
36:10And last week, being back to school, it was more of a kind of a change of routine.
36:13Coming back here at half three every day, just getting stuck in again and staying here
36:18till 10 or 11 o'clock at night.
36:20Ten months into his project, there's no let-up on Sean's punitive task list.
36:26Upstairs and downstairs, from the big to the small.
36:30So, what I'm trying to do is take the remainder of the lime plaster off the stall and the brick
36:36work here in the bathroom.
36:37I was going to get it sandblasted, but just the dust would be crazy.
36:41His weekend jobs are apparently endless.
36:45When you get to that point, you have clay floors downstairs and you have wind blowing
36:49through windows that are non-existent.
36:51You're worrying every night if someone's going to come through that window.
36:54At that point, you hit a wall and you say, oh no, why am I after one doing this much?
37:02It's almost a year to the day since Hugh first visited Kilkenny's John Street.
37:08Back then, 37-year-old teacher Sean Hickey was setting out on a singular mission.
37:15To forge himself a first home by faithfully restoring and extending a modest Victorian city
37:22house using up-cycled materials and a yet more modest budget.
37:28He's moving in today, and since he still had a long to-do list only two months ago, let's
37:35hope it's to a finished building.
37:38Good morning.
37:39Fancy meeting you here.
37:40How are you?
37:41You're well.
37:41Welcome back.
37:42Thank you very much.
37:43The Kitsch 60s overdue glass has been replaced with plain, throwing light into a transformed
37:51hallway.
37:52The green and greeny cream dado effect immediately suggests a pared-backed heritage charm, which
37:59flows into the understated grace of the sitting room.
38:03Sean, that's great.
38:05Isn't it?
38:05And my fireplace has been replaced.
38:08Upgraded.
38:09Upgraded.
38:09You did the right thing.
38:11Yeah.
38:11Isn't it fabulous?
38:12Isn't it amazing?
38:13Yeah.
38:14The Kilkenny limestone tiles are in, and lead us into the new central hallway, decked out
38:21in Sean's finest collected delights.
38:24It connects both the raw triumph of a bathroom and the kitchen extension, which has yet to
38:30be fully finished.
38:33Well, are you moving in?
38:34Yes, I cannot wait.
38:36But you haven't got the oven in yet?
38:37I've done my the oven.
38:38Well, no.
38:38Your mother can still feed you, can't she?
38:40Oh, sure she will, but sure.
38:41And plenty of other people as well, so I'll never starve.
38:44Is she going to do your washing and ironing stuff?
38:46No, I'd better do that myself.
38:48Or I'd be down the road to the laundrette one or the other.
38:50I have a washing machine, but we'll see.
38:52We may connect it up.
38:52Sean's been working night and day to get in before his 38th birthday, and within a
38:59year of starting.
39:00He's exhausted, but rightly proud.
39:04Well, no, I tell you what I think is fascinating, is you've got the biggest bathroom in Kilkenny.
39:09Yeah.
39:10Do you know, like, the sheer scale and size of that bathroom is wonderful.
39:15The different elements just work together, I think, for me.
39:17The bath, the stone, the arch, the brick, the matamaya, the colouring blends perfectly
39:22with the tone of the red brick that was there originally.
39:24The panelled bathroom wall was made from the timber, which once closed in the stairs.
39:30Inside, the stone walls which Sean and his dad scrubbed lead to the micro-cemented shower,
39:36where Sean knocked through the wall last winter.
39:39I think it's hilarious, actually, to come into the house.
39:42Okay, how are you?
39:43Because it's like stepping back in time.
39:45You've no skirtings.
39:47I love the fact of the walls are a bit bockery, as are the ceilings.
39:52Yeah.
39:53Instead of knocking the original lath and plaster walls and ceilings, Sean was determined to save
39:59as much of the fabric of the house as he could, patching up where needed.
40:04You were very economical in the work you carried out.
40:09I had to pick and choose what I was able to afford to do.
40:13He also had to pick and choose his individual Kilkenny limestone tiles, opting for seconds to
40:19make them affordable. He has been thrifty throughout.
40:23I have the whole house furnished for €2,000. I couldn't have done it any other way.
40:27Every single piece in this house, including the structure, the bricks, the stone, the tables,
40:33the pictures, the paintings, the mirrors, the clocks, they all came from somebody or somewhere
40:37that has particular meaning in my life.
40:39He saved the clock from a skip when his own primary school was being modernised.
40:44I was here last night and I put the clock ticking. I swung the pension and I wound it
40:48and I put it on and it chimed. I said, now there's life in the house.
40:55Isn't that wonderful?
40:56Yeah.
40:57Let's go out the stairs, Sean. Come on.
40:59Come on, let's show you.
41:00Time to take in the stripped back stairs, which nod to the inspo house he visited with Hugh.
41:07Retaining the original panelling and plasterwork in the high-ceilinged hallway and bedrooms
41:12brings the gorgeous paint tones to life with texture and authenticity.
41:18So few of these houses are retained in this condition.
41:25So much of the original detail is still intact.
41:27Did you take any of the plaster down off the walls up here?
41:30No.
41:31And my electrician was fit to kill me because the walls are all the old Latin plaster.
41:36And of course, me being me, I was like, no way, we're not going, Jason.
41:40So we had to think outside the box.
41:41So all the wires ran under the floorboards.
41:43But within the Latin plaster, I didn't want to break the ceilings to put in ceiling hanging lights.
41:48So we got hours and hours trying to get wires through places that you wouldn't get wires through.
41:54And in fairness to them, we just, we got there.
41:57Sean's faithful attention to heritage detail is no doubt frustrating to work around.
42:02But it has paid off in this uniquely preserved home.
42:06To come up here and to see the different bedrooms, there's a real sense of fun.
42:12Yeah.
42:13As a friend of mine said to me a couple of weeks ago, he said, I'm glad you picked all
42:16those colours and all those features in each room.
42:18Each bedroom tells a different story about each part of your personality.
42:22The many fascinating facets to Sean's personality play out in imposing antique pieces,
42:29sometimes pensive, sometimes exuberant tones, functional fittings and Baroque headboards.
42:36And I think your collection of beds is just wonderful.
42:41That's obviously my room.
42:44I love the yellow in there and the work you've done to expose the original walls.
42:53It's just divine.
42:54I wanted to retain a raw effect somewhere in the house.
42:58When you were walking into the room, that's all you can see.
43:01And then you arrive and it's just this beautiful sunshine yellow.
43:05And it just lifts your spirits straight away.
43:07Can't wait to sleep in that bed tonight.
43:09That's my bedroom.
43:10No, you can go back to Dublin where you came from.
43:15Hugh's being banished.
43:16So it's off to the garden to take in the extension, which, against all budget odds, Sean has managed to
43:24pull off.
43:25Sean, I was saying to you to keep the original extension.
43:28But hey-ho, it's gone.
43:31Gone.
43:32I think it's amazing.
43:33When I look at that, it looks really crisp, fresh and modern.
43:37And yet everything there has been salvaged.
43:41Construction and demolition is Ireland's largest area of waste.
43:45But here, Sean has prioritised the reuse and repurposing of materials
43:50and demonstrated just how cost-effective and stunning that good practice can be.
43:56I couldn't have done it without collecting all these pieces.
43:59And they've all come together now to create something that's beautiful in itself and in its own right.
44:03Well, I think what's great, Sean, is the scale and the size of the window
44:06and the simplicity and the fact you didn't put in sliding doors, bifold doors, nothing.
44:12Just a big piece of glass, so it lets all the light in and frames your garden.
44:20Hugh's impressed by Sean's eye for design, by his hard work and his devotion to heritage and sustainability.
44:28But just how comfortable will his new home be?
44:32You didn't insulate the original house?
44:34No, I chose not to insulate the walls because the walls are two foot thick.
44:38Look, in the future, if I do think that I have too much heat lost through the walls,
44:42I can come and put in an insulated slab on the walls or a breathable insulation system.
44:47But look, I'll live through it this winter, see how I get on.
44:50He's a hardy chap, able for monastic conditions.
44:54Let's see how his more relaxed approach to tracking costs paid off.
44:59So you bought the house for £220,000.
45:02Yeah.
45:02And your budget to do the work was what?
45:04£100,000.
45:05Did that include the vacant property grant?
45:08Yes.
45:09And how much was that?
45:10That was £50,000.
45:11Without the grant, I wouldn't have been able to achieve what I've achieved at all.
45:14I wouldn't have been able to win these beautiful windows and do all the lovely work that I've done.
45:17So it just meant that if I hadn't the grant, I probably would have had to move in the way
45:21the house was.
45:21How much have you actually spent?
45:24So I've spent €80,000 so far.
45:27You must be joking.
45:28Yeah.
45:29Is that all?
45:30Yeah, which look, I suppose, again, I had to be shrewd in how I spent the money, like with the
45:35bricks and the slates and stuff like that.
45:36I'd save so much money by having those things that it meant that I probably reduced my cost by £20
45:42,000 or £30,000, I'd say.
45:44Oh, and more.
45:44And more.
45:45Sean is a poster boy for the monetary benefits of reusing and recycling.
45:51How much do you think it'll cost you now to finish?
45:53So I'm hoping I'll get the rest of it finished for the extra £20 that I can afford.
45:56Wow.
45:58While Sean's managed to do so much on an €80,000 shoestring, there are significant items yet to be tackled.
46:06The roof, I said.
46:08The roof will have to settle down the line.
46:10But look, I'll look at that in the next year or two, hopefully, and see.
46:13Look, there's a few bits I still need to do.
46:15The bathroom upstairs, I have to get the chimney rebuilt, things like that, and finish the extension, the last few
46:21bits.
46:21And I'm hoping that when I get the grant in now that that will finish the rest of the bits
46:25that I have to do.
46:26So it'll have cost you £300,000?
46:27£300,000, £320,000, yeah.
46:29So if you look around at house prices in Kilkenny City, you wouldn't get a home for £400,000?
46:35No, no, exactly.
46:36I think that's amazing.
46:37Like, I just think what you've done here is quite extraordinary.
46:41And that's because you and your friends and your family, like, you've done an awful lot of the grafting.
46:48Yeah, we've all worked together as a team.
46:50Like, I never expected so many people to come and help out.
46:54The relationships I have forged over the last 12 months have been amazing.
46:58But ultimately, for me, the most important thing that came to the floor in the last couple of weeks was
47:03that sense of community and that sense of support.
47:06It's been overwhelming, it's been exciting, and it has been, yeah, very, very rewarding.
47:11Sean, thank you so much.
47:12Thank you, Hugh.
47:13Come here, lots of this.
47:14Brilliant, and thanks for the journey.
47:15And now, on Sean's first night in a home of his own, his community of friends, neighbours, and family are
47:24gathering to celebrate.
47:27You know, it's funny how your friends and family, those relationships become so much stronger in a project like this.
47:34I'd be forever grateful to all those that had a part in it.
47:36Sean's 37, he bought number 37, and he spent the whole year refurbishing this house.
47:44And what he's achieved here is just extraordinary.
47:48The respect he has for this home and its architectural heritage is exemplary.
47:54And he's now moved in to the community on John Street in Kilkenny.
47:59And for me, that is so important, that young people come back into our towns and cities and make them
48:07vibrant and livable, and those communities grow again.
48:13And here they are.
48:14All these people are so excited to see Sean's success.
48:19And most of them have been involved in one way or the other in the restoration of this home.
48:56All these people are so excited to see Sean's success.
49:08We'll see you next time.
49:38Bye.
49:40Bye.
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