Room to improve
June 23, 2009
We had a visit today from Dermot Bannon of RTEs’ ‘Room to improve’. He was inspired by our double height living room and wanted to include it in his research for the show. Watch out for it in July. Dermots’ successful show is making Contemporary House Architecture much more accessible to the irish public and shows that hiring an architect is a very worthwhile excercise. We like that! You can still see it online on http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1052243.
The Build
June 23, 2009
July 2003
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
May 2005
June 2005
December 2005
June 2006
August 2007
Today, June 2009
Iroko and light
June 20, 2009
Nuns Walk
June 15, 2009
My first memory of our site includes this amazing tree lined lane called Nuns’ Walk. Apparently the Nuns’ walked from the convent to the Abbey down this lane. Fred our neighbour described seeing them walking the lane in their black and white habits.
Delight the light
June 15, 2009
Raindrops on the skylights – the light is ever changing in this house – beautiful
80 years young
June 14, 2009
We hosted an 80th birthday party for Donals Dad, John last month. We had a lovely mass to start with. It was a privilige to have Fr.Tony Byrne bless the house. He is an amazing man who was involved (as he says himself) in smuggling food into Biafra to save the lives of a million children. He spoke about the difficult times for the priesthood at the moment and I felt for him because he had done so much good while back at home such cruelty was happening.
Anyway Donal and his two brothers cooked up a fab meal and delicious birthday cake. After some touching speeches and lots of Gerry Murphys Ballyhoura Apple Juice (Donals cousin) we retired to the garden and enjoyed a beautiful evening.
Flashback to design stage
June 13, 2009
Donal came home from the pub shortly after we bought the site. He had a sketch on a paper napkin with the basis of the house design! It actually did’nt change very much from that initial concept. Beacuse of our agreement to buy the site based on getting planning permission we had 6 months to get planning approval. The planning drawings took 6 weeks which was really quick when you consider that the design had to be exactly right as there was no going back on the design once it was submitted – we would be living with this so it had to be right.
We got the planning approval first time around in August 2000 and the planner actually said it was a clever design. We were delighted as the design was so contemporary and nothing like it had been built in the area. It was to be our dream home, a great place to work, and a comfortable environment to raise a family. We hoped when planning the design that we would have kids and guess what the next year was to be the start of our family as Saoirse was born the following July.
Check out Image Interiors summer issue 2009 out now. 1 Nuns’ Lane is featured. We are delighted to get the op to be in it as it has a great circulation and is one of Irelands best Interiors mag. We filled the bath and put petals in it…looked lovely but the water was cold!!
busy busy
June 13, 2009
I love this bench Donal designed as a long seat. It has turned out to be invaluable for the kids to play on. For Orla who is 3 its the perfect height. Actually it has a dual purpose, it hides a slot window built into the back of it which allows light into the basement bedroom and bathroom.
our Veg Garden
June 13, 2009
We are delighted with our veg patch. This year with the help of my dad (the Bonsai Guru) we have a thriving salad bowl. The kids sowed seeds back in March , rocket, 5 different lettuces , american cress, radishes and strawberries. We had collected seed packets some from magazines and some from the Garden Centre and finally got around to it. Dad transplanted them for us and they are thriving.
The planter is great as it is at arm height so its easy to weed, maintain and harvest. The other advantage of its height is that we have had no snails…….we waited for them with our beer to clear them but they never came. When Saoirses’ friends were over last week they all cut a few leaves to bring home – amazing how eager they were, it’s great. The rocket and american cress are really tasty and add spice and peppery taste to the salad bowl.
Had some help today!
1 Nuns Lane 