The Great House Revival

I think Hugh said the ground floor was the same size as a 3 bed bungalow. I don't recall the actual square footage in the end being mentioned.

I'm such a messy creature I'd be living in the mezzanine or even on the third floor away from guests eyes.

A 3 bed bungalow would be around about 100-120sqm so they basically have the space of three regular houses. If anything they would have been better off shaving off the top floor and and just going with about 240sqm over two floors which is still a very big house. Though Id guess if it was a listed building they had to keep it at three floors to get planning permission.

I know the trend in Ireland is that our houses are getting bigger than what they were in the past, they are heading toward American sizes rather than European ones. Things like home offices, walk in wardrobes, utility rooms and more en suites all add on to make new houses about twice the soze of a regular 3 bed semi or bungalow that a lot of people grew up in. New builds in the range of 200-240sqm are common enough these days but what they built last night is twice that size. It would be like living in a small hotel or guesthouse. Some people would love that but it just wouldnt be for me, I think there is such a thing as having too much space that the place feels almost cavernous when there in only a small family living there.

Fair play to them for taking on an old mill. If this was in the UK they would have all kinds of heritage bodies giving advice. The old saying " The time to buy it is when you see it " applies here. If this is their forever home then they were right to do the third floor and get the place watertight. My only suggestion would be to put in a lift and futureproof the building for 'old age.'

It was nice to see the building rescued, the granite looked spectacular when it was cleaned up. It was essentially a new build inside the old structure which is why there was no stonework visible internally, I expect there is a ventilated void between the old and new for insulation and to prevent damp / mold.

I'm guessing there it was not a listed building so no conservation issues, the outside was maintained anyway.

They would have certainly needed planning though, I would have thought that there would have been planning constraints on the windows and natural slate on the roof etc.

I don't think the planners would be too bothered about changes made inside. I'd like to know more about the fire protection in the 3 story stairwell though.

True, and I saw an article in the Examiner, I think, where An Taisce (or some similar conservation body) were tearing strips off the programme for not maintaining integrity and involving conservation architects and planners - and Hugh made the same point - basically, do you let it fall down, or do it up to suit modern tastes/requirements?

There is definitely a middle ground.

Lots of comments on Twitter about the suspiciously fantastically finished state of the house, when Kelly was reduced to painting it herself (allegedly) and they were all out of money (allegedly) - talk of lots of furniture being loaned for the big reveal, and the sponsors being Dulux heritage paints.....

The same is obvious with Room To Improve - and I really wish they'd be more honest with the final upshot - these series always seem to start off with the best of intentions, and then veer quickly in to the realm of fantasy and fiction.

Yeah, that struck me too. I remember a Grand Designs where a couple did up an old mill building, the council wouldn't let them attach an enclosed staircase to the outside of the building as it was listed, and they had to completely enclose the stairs built inside for fire safety. It resulted in smaller rooms, and the stonework which they kept could no longer be seen on one side of the house

If you look at the picture posted here earlier today, there are some windows on the top floor of the old building. They were the type of window I thought of when I saw the old mill - Georgian type small panes.

No chance they'll ever go into nitty gritty boring detail like that.

It's all the fairytale stuff.

Very frustrating.

I'm not too sure that first picture is the same mill....it looks in too good condition to what was shown with the ivy covering it etc.

I honestly don't know.

Thanks for that - I missed the start of the programme, didn't know the parents lived in a mill as well.

Ya that's the kind of money I'm talking about. But €50k is quickly swallowed up when you're decking out a house. They had say €400k of a mortgage. I'm guessing it took €550k to finish the house to what we saw at the end of the episode.

The pannelling alone in that corridor was €2k. You're talking about flooring for a huge area. Even if you go cheap it still costs a bomb. I think they said there was 38 windows. Huge costs involved. €50k ain't much like.

Windows €50k, roof including removing the old and scaffolding about €100k.

Keep going and going after that.

Wasn't a shortage of money when they can splash €2k on panelling near the end either.

I'm pretty certain she said it would be nice for the lil one to grow up where her granddad lived...so I think in the family for generations.