Killarney woman reveals what it’s like to have Dermot Bannon transform her home

Go on, admit it. Who hasn’t imagined the scenario — Dermot Bannon arrives at the front door, camera crew in tow, ready to reinvent your home?

Kerry woman Norita O’Donoghue (née Casey) and her husband Meath native Louis O’Donoghue were longtime fans of RTÉ One’s Room to Improve. 

They moved into their property in Raheny, Dublin, in 2017 with their three daughters, Joanie, Bessie and Jimi — more recently joined by their collie-spaniel cross, rescue pooch Murph. “We had been talking about doing a project on the house for the last eight years,” Norita tells Home. “We’re always glued to ‘Room to Improve’ when it’s on television every January.

“At the end of the show, there’s a message asking if you’d like to take part. My husband always talked about applying. I would never have applied myself — I don’t know why! — but I told him to go for it.”

But as soon as the application was dispatched, Norita discovered she wanted it to succeed: “I was fixated on getting it! You find your head is in that space.”

Homeowners Norita and Louis O’Donoghue.

Norita, a primary school teacher, and Louis, who works for Dublin City Council’s planning department, were relaxing during midterm last February when the eagerly anticipated news arrived.

They were in Kerry, visiting Norita’s mum and dad, Joan and Jim, at their home in Inchicullane, Kilcummin, when they discovered they had been selected for the series. “We actually did the Zoom call, with the producers, from my parents’ living room,” says Norita.

Television viewers get to see what happened next in episode two of the TV series this Sunday night at 9.30pm as Norita and Louis prepare to transform their much-loved Raheny home with an ambitious renovation.

The couple are ready to future-proof the property through a full retrofit of their living space. Enter the celebrated architect who plans to modernise the house with the couple’s budget of €275,000. “When Dermot came around, he grilled us!” says Norita. “He’s brilliant — great fun, very personable. But — the casting phase? It was really tough!”

Architect Dermot Bannon.

What does the seasoned TV host himself have to say about this? “When I meet homeowners first, I’m trying to establish what I need to do — if clients come into the office and they give me a wish list, or a brief, it’s a different process, but when you’re on television, you need to be able to tell the story quickly,” he says.

“I’m trying to get an architectural storyline: Is there enough meat in this for it to be exciting for an hour-long show? I need people to tell me what the problem is in three minutes. If they can’t do that, it’s going to be difficult to explain it to an audience in three minutes.”

Norita and Louis visited Four Winds, by Brennan Furlong Architects, during ‘Room to Improve’. Pictures: Ruth Maria Murphy

Many issues Norita and Louis faced were “invisible”, says Dermot. “It’s kind of obvious if the place is a vacant or derelict property,” adds the architect. “They had a really good sense of style — they’d peppered all the walls with pictures and painted their home, and this was good in a way because I could get to know who they were, but it also papered over the cracks. The house was mouldy, it was damp. That wasn’t apparent when you first saw it, but I needed them to be able to tell me [what the problems were].”

Norita agrees: “We loved our house, but it was never comfortable. Our house was well built — but really cold. The one thing we did do when we moved in was replace the windows. But we knew we would be doing a bigger project.”

Two decades ago, if someone had €200,000 to lavish on a property, the entire sum might be spent “on a huge extension”, adds Dermot. 

“Now, all of that might go into ‘invisible’ work, to bring it to an A-rating. There are grants, because not everyone can retrofit. There’s no point in having really cool rooms if you’re sitting shivering in them. I’d much rather live in a tiny house that’s warm and cosy and energy-efficient than a big house that’s draughty and freezing.”

Norita and Louis visited Four Winds, by Brennan Furlong Architects, during ‘Room to Improve’. Pictures: Ruth Maria Murphy

Norita is a keen gardener, and the entire family adore the outdoors and their sun-trap south-facing room outside, so the O’Donoghues were embarking on a build and design journey that also brings the outdoors in.

To better connect with the garden, Dermot thinks in terms of a pavilion-style extension. “Gardening is Norita’s passion in life. She wanted a pavilion. The quintessential glass box. I’m always accused of glass boxes, but I’ve never actually done one — this is my first one,” he says.

“There’s no patio outside the back door, but it’s all about the plants. The house is up at a fairly high level, you couldn’t see the garden from anywhere, and they had brought pot plants into the house to counteract this. I suppose a lot of people walk out into the garden and want a connection to the garden, but Norita wanted to be submerged in the garden.”

Homeowners Norita and Louis O’Donoghue with their daughters Joanie, Bessie, and Jimi.

Even though they’d long been fans of the series, being at the other side of the lens delivered “unexpected layers” to the endeavour, the couple discovered. “As well as filming, you are going to other places for inspiration,” says Norita. “We were both working and juggling that with three kids and the project. Finding time to film and getting the kids minded — we called in huge favours from friends!”

The family dog Murph.

And of course, life rolled on, delivering highs and lows throughout the build. “We had an awful lot going on during the year. Louis’ dad passed away, and in many ways, returning to the project was a good distraction for Louis,” says Norita.

Architect Dermot Bannon and quantity surveyor Claire Irwin.

Both appreciated the role that Dermot, quantity surveyor Claire Irwin, the production team, and the construction crew played in their day-to-day routine, as well as the revamp. “We were very lucky — they were massively respectful and hugely professional, and the amount of hard work and dedication was phenomenal,” she says.

“We got on very well with the builder also, and we were lucky that in our approach to the build, we knew what we wanted and what we didn’t want.”

Norita and Louis visited Four Winds, by Brennan Furlong Architects, during ‘Room to Improve’. Pictures: Ruth Maria Murphy

The couple, who didn’t require planning for their renovation, lived in Clontarf, in Louis’ father’s house, while the project was being completed. “This [the Raheny property] was the only home that we’ve had together as a family,” says Norita. “Coming back [to their renovated Raheny home] made us realise how much we love the area and how much the children love the area, walking to school with their buddies — and we had missed that sense of community.”

• Room to Improve airs on Sundays at 9.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player