ROOM TO IMPROVE SERIES 10
Series Overview:
The nation’s favourite architect is back with a brand new series of Room To Improve. Dermot Bannon returns with seven exciting new projects. His challenge will be to deliver dream homes with maximum “Wow” at minimum cost: from suburban semi-ds in Templeogue to bungalow bliss in Moate and Sutton.
As he endeavours to match his vision to their ambitons, Dermot’s clients include a couple who’ve ploughed over 20 years of savings into a dilapidated cottage in Malahide; a fiesty sprout farmer taking on a self build at the seaside village of Rush and a young couple keen to rescue the legacy of an old farmhouse in rural Kildalkey, Co. Meath.
With hopes and dreams to fulfil for home-owners who know exactly what they want from their architect, Dermot and his designs are under more pressure than ever: second-guessed by clients, ambushed by unforseen problems on site and forced to re-design as his grand vision outstrips the budget.
A diverse range of hopeful clients with high expectations and a new right hand woman. As long time Room To Improve quantity surveyor Patricia Power moves on to pastures new, the woman responsible for keeping budgets in check and balancing Dermot’s designerly ambitions is no-nonsense QS Lisa O’Brien.
Along with a range of local contractors and crews, the series features self builders and have-a-go clients, keen to save money by bringing Dermot’s designs to life all by themselves.
Expect last minute changes, construction dilemmas, frayed tempers, cunning plans, last minute rescues and impressive reveals.
Seven challenging projects – one headstrong architect.
EPISODE 1 – Sunday January 29th 2017 at 9.30pm on RTÉ One
Robbie and Julie from Darndale in North Dublin have saved for over 20 years to buy the house of their dreams – a 1940s cottage in the picturesque north Dublin suburb of Malahide.
With a budget of 180K, Dermot’s clients plan to gut the cottage, doubling its size with a spacious new two-storey extension to the rear, but the remediation costs are so high, Dermot can only deliver a single storey.
With help from Room To Improve’s new QS Lisa O’Brien, Dermot redesigns a two storey extension, reducing its cost to a 30K overrun, which window cleaner and steel fabricator Robbie will make up by completing all the demolition and steel work himself.
Soon, disaster strikes as Robbie breaks his leg, leaving contractor Cormac Sugrue limited to building half a house and searching desperately for drains buried during the demolition.
As delays mount up, tempers fray as the cottage remains structurally unsound and Dermot struggles to sell a kitchen design that his clients just aren’t buying.
Soon, it becomes clear that despite his best efforts, Dermot just has to accept that Robbie and Julie want things their way.
Can Dermot create the home his client’s have dreamed of, or will this build descend into a nightmare?
Watch this episode of Room to Improve on Sunday January 29th at 9.30pm on RTÉ One.