Architect Dermot Bannon is back with a new series of Ireland’s favourite home improvement show, Room To Improve which will feature a couple from Westport.
Peter Jordan and Anne Kerrigan along with their two young daughters have long since outgrown the tiny cottage in Killawalla outside Westport which Peter bought as a single man four years ago.
Desperate for more space, the couple engage Dermot, who much to Anne’s consternation – suggests a separate extension finished in agricultural cladding to match the local rural landscape. Even as construction gets under way, Dermot’s vision of the ‘shed’ – something Anne fears will end up looking like a farm building – remains almost impossible to sell to his clients.
As an old lean-to structure is cleared, a miscalculation involving the slope of the site leaves the new extension nearly a metre below the original cottage, adding thousands of euro in remediation costs to an already tight budget.
And the unforeseen costs of this 18-week build do not end there. An extensively damaged roof and a unilateral decision by the builders to add an unsightly ridge to Dermot’s carefully designed extension bring further delays and architectural headaches to this scenic corner of Mayo – none of which makes an extended stay at the in-laws any easier (or shorter ) for Anne, Peter, and the girls.
Watch this episode of Room to Improve on December 8 at 9.30pm on RTE One.
