‘Live in a house before you renovate – you learn so much about how it does or doesn’t function’

Who would be the perfect couple to renovate a house? A project manager and an accountant with a flair for interior design should tick all the boxes, so step forward Laura Larkin and her husband, Brian McCaffrey. The couple renovated their home in Dundrum, Dublin, in record time, keeping within the time frame and the budget to provide a warm, inviting and bright family home for them and their two children.
The family had lived in another house around the corner for 10 years and loved the area but needed more space. “We didn’t want to leave here,” Laura says. “Especially since our son started at the local school, we have made friends and the sense of community is amazing.”
This four-bedroomed house in need of some care and attention came on the market in 2023, and was exactly what they wanted. They lived in the house for six months before renovations began in January of this year and got a sense of how the house flowed. “I do think that if you can do it, live in a house before you renovate because you learn so much about how it does or doesn’t function.”
Their priorities included an open kitchen and living area, more outdoor space and, for Laura, a red brick arch at the front door. When she moved from Galway to Dublin in 2006, she lived with her aunt in Rathmines and fell in love with the red brick arches on many of the houses in the area. They got everything on that wish list.
“We were so lucky with our builders,” she says. “OHO Building Services were phenomenal to work with, so collaborative and so hard-working. They said it would take 5½ months and we moved in just over 5½ months later. Brian works as a project manager in construction and between him knowing the lingo, and me having a very clear vision of what I wanted the house to look like, we all worked well together.”
For anyone undertaking a renovation, she says it’s essential to stay one step ahead of the builder and always know what will be required next. “Do simple things like picking tiles, sanitary ware and paint colours early on. You don’t want the builder to tell you the painter is coming tomorrow when you haven’t made any decisions. The tiles had a lead time of almost three months so if I hadn’t ordered them when I did, it would have delayed things.”
She always had a keen interest in interiors “so I was like a kid in a toy shop during the renovation, but I had to rein myself in a bit, budget wise. I’m an accountant by trade so you can imagine I had a very detailed spreadsheet that was updated constantly.
“The cost for the build was locked in – Brian took control of that – and then we had a separate budget for the fit-out. But what I did find was that the quotes we got at the start for, say, the wood floors or carpets, were just estimates, and every quote crept up a little bit when final measurements were taken. So in hindsight I should have left a contingency for the fit-out.”
When she couldn’t find furniture within her budget, she got some tips from her father, bought a sander and started upcycling. She bought the vanity unit in the downstairs toilet on adverts.ie for €70. “I sanded it back, stained it, changed the handles. Granite Tops, the company that sourced our porcelain countertop, helped us source a piece of stone for the top.”
Gaining more confidence, she found an antique chest of drawers for €200 on gaffinteriors.ie and refurbished it for the landing. And when a friend gave her an old pine bed, she used a blue chalk paint to give it a new lease of life for her son’s room. The Ikea wardrobes in her daughter’s room were upgraded with new handles and paint, and the addition of linen fabric inside the glass doors.
“While the upcycling jobs are time-consuming, they definitely gave a look and feel and finish to the rooms that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve otherwise,” she says. “And it’s quite mindful to do something with your hands and to concentrate on one thing without distraction for hours.”
She didn’t confine her bargain-hunting to Ireland. When she couldn’t find a console table within her price range, she looked at Target’s Studio McGee range in the US. Using An Post’s AddressPal service to ship the flat-pack, and after paying shipping and customs, it was still cheaper, at €380, than the ones she had looked at here. For more on how to do this, Laura has documented the project on her Instagram page @project_no.31.
But while she was happy to trust her instincts on most things, she still felt the need to call in a professional, for peace of mind. “I had no experience with open-plan living so I needed advice. I did an online design consultation with Moya Farrell of Avenue Interior Design, which was incredibly useful.” The designer suggested sizes for the main pieces of furniture and also helped with lighting. “I hadn’t given much thought to accent lighting or wall lights and she gave me lots of ideas.”
The kitchen, supplied by Mooney’s Kitchens in Meath, had been designed in her head long before they found the house. “The original kitchen was so poky and there was a separate diningroom. We love to have friends over with their kids and we wanted a space that meant we could be preparing dinner and still be with our friends and not be completely separate.”
And the pantry comes in very useful to hide away piles of cooking dishes and clutter when guests are over.
Thanks to the house’s new A2 rating, they haven’t had a chance to try out the new air to water heating system yet. It’s a far cry from the original house, which was so cold their son was going to bed in his dressing gown and they needed two duvets on their bed.
Renovation work often uncovers unwelcome surprises, but they got a very pleasant surprise when the overgrown garden was cleared. “This was one of the best things to come out of the build. Nobody, including ourselves, realised how big the site was until we cleared the overgrowth,” she says.
They had nothing left in the budget for a landscape designer, but after seeing Joe Eustace of Online Garden Designs at Bloom last year she contacted the landscape design studio. “They helped us to map out how we wanted to use the garden and create different relaxation, dining and kids’ spaces and, most crucially, helped us with the planting plan,” she says. “They sent a pdf of what specific plants you should plant where. That was money really well spent.”
Looking back now she says it was an intense and all-consuming 5½ months. “But we were lucky that it was for a short period of time. And we are definitely delighted with the outcome. It’s exactly the family home we had hoped for.”
“The light and sense of space. And there’s a great sense of achievement in what we’ve managed to do,” Laura says.
“In an ideal world if the budget had allowed, I would definitely have converted the attic. It would be nice to have an office or space for the kids when they get older. That can be the next project to aim for.”