Series overview
Room to Improve returns for its 13th season with Dermot Bannon who certainly has been very busy since the series aired last in 2019. This season feature builds of all different shapes and sizes. Dermot has designed a brand-new home for Marc and Lisa Daly in the suburb of Dublin near Stillorgan. This is a brand-new build from what was originally a plot of land on the side of Marc and Lisa’s old family home. Dermot has also completely renovated the home of Jim and Mary Moloney from Thurles. Jim and Mary’s plan of the build was to completely retrofit the home they built over 30 years ago and to reconfigure it for their next stage in life since both their children have flown the nest. Back in Dublin, Dermot has redesigned the home of Kenny and Laura Brown in Howth, who were hit by the construction closure due to the pandemic. Kenny and Laura’s dream of renovating turned into a nightmare early on in the build, but the finished property is something to behold! Finally, Hilary Fairbrother and her husband, Paul, called on Dermot’s expertise to completely renovate her childhood family home, which is overlooking the Blessington Lakes in Co Wicklow.
Episode One: Kilmacud
Marc and Lisa Daly have lived in the south County Dublin suburb of Kilmacud for a very long time, so much so, Lisa grew up in the semi-detached home that they sold to make their new home happen. In 2018, Dermot met with Marc and Lisa to understand the requirement from their brand new house that they were building on a plot of land or otherwise known as the ‘very large garden’ of their family home. It was a long process for Marc and Lisa, between selling their home in turbulent times, between Brexit, delays with selling their home and then finally the pandemic. While Marc and Lisa endured all this stress before the build even started, they were eager when their dream home started to come to fruition in September 2020.
Marc and Lisa are parents to three boys, Jake, Liam and Alex. They wanted their home to do specific jobs for all of them – individual bedrooms for all the boys and a special sensory room for their son Liam who is autistic. Lisa and Marc were building their new home by taking all of Liam’s current and future needs into account. The build started construction and then, unfortunately, was hit by the second construction lockdown in January 2021 which was particularly frustrating for the Daly family as they were living in a friends summer house in Baltray, Co Louth. So while their schools, work and lives were in Dublin they had to contend with the 120km drive every weekday for a year and a half. That meant they all had to leave the home in Baltray at 6:30 am every morning which was very exhausting for them but with their new home on the horizon, they just got on with it.
Dermot had a journey to go on with this build with Lisa and Marc, with the sensory room being a first for Dermot and Room to Improve. Dermot went on a fact-finding mission with Lisa on how to build and facilitate the room to Liam’s needs. He visited Liam’s school, The Meadow in Johnstown National school, where he met with Julie, Liam’s teacher who talked to Dermot and Lisa informing him about Liams needs. They also visited a Sensory Room product provider Brian Morgan who advised them about the latest products on the market.
Dermot took risks with the exterior of the building which paid off. Dermot always wanted the stairs in the atrium to do a certain job, sometimes Marc and Lisa did not agree with Dermot’s ideas, so he really had his work cut out for him!