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Irish Independent

From doer upper to dream home in Dublin 9: ‘We had to sleep in a tent in our living room for six months'

Asking price: €650,000 Agent: Movehome (01) 8844690 ​Some families like to take a week out to go camping at this time of year. But how many could live in a tent together for six months – and without ever leaving home? Electrician David Stuart and his wife, schoolteacher Rose Upton, had no choice but to camp in a tent in their own living room through the stripping-out phase during the renovation of their Drumcondra period home at No4 Glendalough Road in Dublin 9. 'With all the dust floating around, we had to sleep in it every night. It was in the depths of winter and without central heating,' says Stuart. 'Apart from the tent, all we had in that time was a double mattress, a kettle, an air fryer and a George Foreman grill.' At this point, their home was being torn asunder and becoming progressively more inhabitable. Upton adds: 'After six months of stripping the house out, the water was turned off to facilitate more work, so we couldn't stay there. We had to move back in with our parents for another six months.' The young couple from Portmarnock are proof that sometimes you have to go more than the proverbial extra mile to get your dream home. 'We actually lived with both sets of parents for years while we were saving,' says Stuart. 'When we went looking for a house, we found we were really limited by our budget to homes that needed a lot of work.' Then Covid-19 swept the country with all the restrictions it brought. 'We actually had to bid on the house before we had even viewed it,' says Stuart. 'Some estate agencies controlled the crowds by insisting on a bid being put in before viewing. ' Number 9 is a double-fronted Victorian redbrick, but when Stuart and Upton found it, the house was divided internally into two flats (above and below) and it had a bad dose of rising damp. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more It would need to be wholly stripped out, and a comprehensive damp proof course was required that would necessitate digging down a half metre below the ground floor. Replumbing, rewiring and replastering were also necessary, as well as altering the internal layout. The windows needed to be replaced, it had an unsightly aluminium and glass front door and it came with a BER of G. This was the sort of job that would send most average buyers running. Dating from 1896, No9 spans just under 1,000 sq ft, about the size of a typical, modern three-bed semi. 'There was a kitchen upstairs and a kitchen downstairs. Upstairs had this unusual configuration where there was a cooker on the landing, and the rest of the kitchen was in what originally would have been the main bedroom. There was no door to the second bedroom from the landing – we presumed it was blocked up at some point, and you had to access it through the main bedroom,' says Stuart. 'We stripped it back ourselves, living in the house during that process,' says Upton. The old lath and plaster proved extraordinarily messy to strip out with all the build-up of dust over a hundred years, and all the ceilings were cracked and had to come down. As an electrician involved in many larger commercial projects, Stuart had a big advantage through his extensive network of construction contacts. 'We were really lucky to get builder Ian Clarke, who is based in Monaghan. Ian did all the heavy ground works, the steel beam work, he changed the windows and put in the damp proof course,' says Stuart. 'He was absolutely meticulous in his work and vital to us in getting the job done.' Because the house is red brick and Victorian, there was no option to use external insulation. 'So we had to put it inside,' says Upton. 'In order to prevent damp, we had to use a very expensive lime-based plaster insulation and special paint.' Meanwhile, Stuart applied his 'sparks' skills. 'Because there were two flats, there were two different fuse boxes. It was a nightmare. We added space to the third bedroom from the bathroom, and we opened up a door for the second bedroom. We also took out one of the chimney breasts, which actually gave us a surprising amount of extra space in the kitchen downstairs and the master bedroom upstairs. 'In the early stages, with the floor already dug up, we realised we had already committed most of the cost of underfloor heating, which is cheaper than rads. So we installed underfloor with a semi-solid engineered timber floor, which would be expansion-resistant. Upstairs, we kept all the original floorboards and sanded them,' Upton adds. 'I hate white, so I wanted to make the place as colourful as possible.' She blended bold tones on both floors to achieve this. The work took most of three years, then went into overdrive when Upton got pregnant with their now 11-month-old son, Luke. But having got over the line, the couple must now sell up to move back to Portmarnock to take care of parents. Downstairs, the C BER accommodation includes an entrance hall with Victorian-style tiles; a kitchen/breakfast room with quartz countertops and an island with a boiling water tap; a dining area overlooking the rear garden; and a discreet WC. The first floor has three bedrooms with original wood flooring, original doors, traditional-style radiators with brass thermostatic valves, and fitted wardrobes. The main bathroom has a roll top bath and pump shower. The attic is insulated floored, and accessed via Stira stairs. Movehome seeks €650,000.