Episode 5
This week the judges are off to three very different homes, to a renovated cottage in County Sligo, to a self build Cob house and finally to a thatched cottage in Galway.
Feile Butler and Colin Ritchie live in a cob-and-timber-frame home in Co. Sligo
After taking a mud building course in 2005 Feile and Colin set about designing and building their own cob and timber frame home. Feile is an architect and Colin a carpenter so they were able to do the vast majority of the work themselves. The house, completed in 2011, was built from soil excavated on site and over 80% of the other building materials were salvaged.
Myles Lamberth and Jane Chambers run the Cafe Shells and live in a renovated cottage in Co. Sligo
Myles and Jane had to basically start from scratch with the cottage). Although they wanted to be sympathetic to the original home this meant that they could design a space for how they live. They have an open plan design in their cottage. The living space spanning from the front to the back of the house is brought together by the impressive polished cement floors, a strong feature of the industrial look the couple favour in terms of style.
Karen O’Connor lives in a thatched cottage in Furbo Co. Galway
Karen is a speech therapist and lives with her dog Mozart in Furbo Co. Galway. Karen’s home is an original thatch Irish cottage and was built over 200 years ago. She has been living there since 2003. The cottage has been a home a garage and now a home again. Within the house she has the original walls of the cottage, a homely open stove in the original fireplace.