Room to Improve (v2)

He is a nutritionist, he needs to post videos of him making food, giving tips, plans etc his social stuff is very focussed on instagram. I get what he is doing. I just don't think the entire design of most of the key areas of an expensive house refurb should be based on him taking videos, what his wife needed or wanted didnt really seem to come into it to much of a degree, despite her being the main bread winner.

That is my point.

What is the estate name?

The roles are reversed quite often and not much is ever really made of the wife having biggest say in the design.

I also think she seemed happy with the design in the end.

Wasn't a fan of him at all but can't see an issue in him pushing for what he wanted.

I do agree with what you are saying. However usually the wife is steering the design for the "greater good" of the whole family. Making it a nice space for everyone.

However I think in this case we have the person making the most money in a fairly stressful job consigned to a makeshift desk in the playroom, guaranteed with kids at her feet.

Then you have him, who has given up his job to follow his dreams , getting a fancy office and steering the whole design for his new "career". It's alot of money being spent on something that may fold within a year. Yeah they'll still have a nice kitchen at the end of it regardless. It was very much his vision.

Guaranteed those kids will be in creche 5 days a week while he's making "content" too.

House turned out lovely in the end, that husband was an awful dose though, I’d say Dermot was glad to see the back of him.

I don’t think he mentioned enough about his food business….

I'd agree. At the end of the day, there was far too much focus on that angle. He needed a kitchen with a bit of light - ultimately they were recording on on iphone with no additional production gear in Donal Skeehans gaff. Didn't really make a whole pile of difference about lighting/counter tops/presses etc.

Twas absolute nonsense.

I know the guy has a "real" job as well and is by all accounts good at it, so the focus on the social media side really was just for self promotion - which is fine as well in general, just not when you are dealing with the design of what has to be a functional family kitchen ultimately.

Thats all well and good but his job/business didnt need to feature so much in the programme. The emphasis on how he needed the kitchen a certain way was selfish on his family. Also he did mention his wife was the main earner so his business may be just a little more bit more than a hobby. Its hard to make good money doing what he is doing. My husband has one of his books and knows him but says alot of what he does doesnt actually generate money!

I think they were always going to go for the slightly unusual aspect of the needs of this couple.

It had glitz (Donal What's his Name?) and wasn't your run of the mill kitchen requirement.

Emphasis was always going to be on him, not a solicitor needing a routine desk and computer.

Well he does talks for free for sports clubs (that my husband is involved in) in the hope he will get some business out of it and spends his time doing videos which is vanity basically rather than good business. He admitted on TV that the wife is the earner. Im not saying he is bad at what he does but it doesnt pay the bills.

Well I had never heard of him....not that that means anything.

He said himself he was walking away from his career and venturing out by himself.

He said himself the wife earns more.

That venture seemed to go as far as the kitchen ....I'm surprised they didn't go for a more professional style kitchen rather than "let's put a coffee machine on the counter (which let's face it the majority of us have) and say we're styling the kitchen on a cafe"

The light issue could easily be solved by daylight lamps when filming.

I'm not saying he doesn't have the skills to back it up, but it is a gamble.

I'm not sure if he walked in to the bank looking for a business loan, with that as a business plan how far he'd get.

From what was shown on tv , for someone who knows nothing about him, it came across a fairly Mickey mouse operation.

think she only works 3 days a week , so probably coming out with about €60

For a series "all about grants" (Dermot's words) and seeing as they availed of the energy grant (worth thirty something thousand afaik ) , there was not much detail.

They very clearly said the whole house would be retrofitted and that the upstairs layout would remain the same.

Not sure what else there is to say. A few action shots of lads laying insulation in the attic isn't exactly riveting TV.