OF COURSE WE WENT OVER OUR BUDGET!
What really happened when Majella and Daniel O’Donnell let Dermot Bannon into their home?
OVERSPENDING, rows and a redesign from the floorboards up is what viewers have come to expect from celebrity architect Dermot Bannon and his hit show Room To Improve. But Sunday night’s episode will see a celebrity clash like no other as Dermot takes on the might of Daniel and Majella O’Donnell in his first star-studded makeover.
The couple live in a large four-bed detached home in Kincasslagh, west Donegal, that Majella felt was in need of an update. Daniel, however, was less than enthused. The end result is TV gold.
And while you would be forgiven for thinking that this one-off special is the fruit of months of the architect begging to get access to the couple’s home, Majella admits it came about on the back of a chance meeting at the Ideal Home Exhibition last year.
‘I went to the RDS with my daughter — she had just bought a house and we went to get ideas for her,’ Majella says.
‘I didn’t really have any intention of doing anything up here. The only thing in our heads really was painting the kitchen because it was timber and we thought we might do something with that.
‘We also had a sun room we didn’t really use and we had talked about maybe changing the sitting room upstairs that we never used to make it into a bedroom some day. But they were all long-term plans.’
However, as she wandered around the RDS, Majella happened upon Dermot weaving his architectural magic in front of an adoring crowd and was captivated almost immediately.
‘Dermot was giving a talk — he was explaining about light and space and I thought it was great so I went up to him after,’ she says.
‘He was surrounded and mobbed, as you would imagine. So I put the phone up — I had his number and I asked him if it was still his number. And he said it was and I asked him if I could call him about coming up to Donegal.
‘He smiled and asked if we would do the show. I just stopped in my tracks and said I would talk to him and ran off. That was it. So he called, and came up to have a look.’
As often tends to happen when Dermot Bannon gets involved, a simple renovation turned into a complete overhaul of the property.
Although before she could even attempt to deal with the rocketing builders’ costs, both Majella and Daniel had to make their peace with showcasing their private dwelling on national TV.
‘We ended up with a whole new house,’ she says with a laugh. ‘We did everything — and I mean everything. The floors came up and we put in new underfloor heating, every wall was plastered and dry lined. It was very different.
‘We have always been private people and yes, people are going to see the house on TV but it is not like they are coming into the house. It is not like they are going to traipse through it. They will see it on the show but then it is gone and done and I don’t mind that.
‘Sure it is absolutely gorgeous and we were very lucky that we were able to do it.’
There has always been huge interest in the O’Donnells and getting a look at where they live is every fan’s dream. A clip of the episode where Daniel appears less than happy with Dermot’s assessment of their marital bedroom has already gone viral online.
When it comes to the master bedroom, Daniel’s view is: ‘And there’s not a thing wrong with it, before you start and we’re not changing it. I mean you can’t change this.’ But Majella says it didn’t take long for her husband to cave to Dermot’s demands. ‘Daniel is one of those people — my father was exactly the same — who thought it was grand as it was and why would you be changing it? I didn’t think he was going to change our bedroom,’ says Majella.
‘I had no problem with it, we had a couple more bedrooms that were fine, they weren’t out of this world or anything but they were grand. And Daniel didn’t want to change them.
‘But it is not until you see the concept of what Dermot has in mind that you realise how much better it could be.’
However, the extensive building work meant Daniel and Majella were also forced to have an unexpected change of scene too.
‘Oh we were out of the house for five months,’ Majella admits. ‘We have been out since September. I don’t think Daniel realised when we started how much change was coming. Because the house as it was before was perfect. The cupboards we had — we have had them for ten years — were perfect. The carpets were perfect because there were only the two of us in the house. So there was nothing wrong with the house but now that he sees what it has become, he is ecstatic. He had to go away on tour two days after we moved in and he is distraught because he just wants to stay at home.
‘Daniel was away for an awful lot of it, he was on tour and he wasn’t that put out. I had to go and stay with my mum and my daughter. He wasn’t affected by the process that badly.’
On Sunday night, in the first episode of Room To Improve’s new series, Dermot tells the couple of his plans to unify three ground-floor rooms to create a huge open-plan kitchen and living area, overlooked by a mezzanine library.
To introduce light and views of the spectacular Donegal landscape, Dermot sells his clients the idea of an enlarged, double-height south-facing window, but they’re not so taken with his vision of wooden floors and a huge exterior floating deck.
And Majella believes Dermot does understand how much the existing houses mean to the clients he’s trying to persuade.
‘He is making a TV programme but he was very conscious that this is our home’, Majella says. ‘That is the way he feels about all the properties he does. I don’t think we were any different to any other programme that he does. Just because it was us, it didn’t make a huge difference.
‘I just got the feeling from him from the start that he always wanted the house to be very comfortable and to be what you really like it to be. Or even what you didn’t realise you wanted it to be. That is his job, if you like. That’s what gives him a kick and he enjoys that. I wasn’t shy telling him what I like or, more importantly, what I didn’t like.’
Often on screen Dermot’s visions can lead to clashes with the homeowners but Majella says she’s a good woman to dig her heels in as well.
‘People say that Dermot always gets his way in the end — well, he did on a couple of things but so did I,’ Majella says.
‘We are both as stubborn as each other. You can see a clip on one of the promos of me throwing wood into he skip. That was him trying to convince
Even the floorboards came up — we did everything Daniel got a little bit irate when he saw the builders’ tenders
me to get wood in the house. I told him 20 times that I definitely didn’t want wood. The house was full of it before the job.
‘But he wanted a wooden floor and I didn’t and when he came up with the samples, I just took them off him and threw them into the skip. I mean, how many times do you have to tell someone you don’t want something?’
One of the biggest criticisms often lobbed at the Clontarf-based architect is his tendency to run dramatically over budget. So did Dermot manage to balance the books for Daniel and Majella? Of course not. And the extravagance was enough to see the normally mild-mannered Daniel get a bit hot under the collar.
‘He went well over budget,’ Majella says. ‘Well over budget, the same as everyone else. That was partly us as well, if I am honest. We went for a more efficient system.
‘We got this air to water system, and we had an oil tank before so we decided this was the time to do it. That pushed up the budget. Also we had all the rooms dry lined and re-plastered for heat efficiency and that was our decision and that added to it. But yes, it was over budget. It was over budget the day he (Dermot) came back with the tenders from the builders.
‘It was the time that Daniel got a little bit, irate, maybe. When he saw how much the builders were quoting he wasn’t happy.
‘We gave Dermot our budget. He came back with this white cut out from a 3D printer with his plans that he does for everybody. And he put it out to tender. And what he had done for us was coming in as twice what the budget was.
‘So initially he’d told us he could do this for our money and then two weeks later it was a case of “Sorry. We can’t”. Daniel was getting a bit annoyed at that stage.’
Despite the doubling of the cost and the overhaul of the entire property, Majella insists the process was relatively stress-free. The most important thing for her was that they created a home suitable for a couple of their size and means where the emphasis was on comfort over fancy décor.
‘It was quite easy in hindsight, I have to say,’ she admits. ‘The builders were fantastic and I kind of let them deal with Dermot. He just asked me what I liked and what I didn’t and I just left it to them to get on with it.
‘I wasn’t down at the house all the time, poking my nose in. That’s not the kind of person I am. I was told this was what it was going to look like and I let them away with it. You have to trust him in that situation. It was very stress-free for me. The most stressful thing was moving out and moving back in again. But the outcome was the big payoff.’
The results, viewers will see on Sunday, are stunning, as Majella will testify,
‘I absolutely love it,’ she admits. ‘It is not a big house. Ours is very modest.. Of course it is a lot of money but people may be expecting that the O’Donnells will have something really lavish. It is a very normal home which is very important to me.
‘We had a house before which was palatial with eight bedrooms and nice bathrooms and huge staircases — we had all that and I never felt comfortable in it. This is cosy, modern and bright.
‘Everywhere you look there are the most fantastic views. They were always there but I never noticed them. Now everywhere you sit in the room, you can see them. I am sitting here now on the sofa, watching waves crashing off the rocks. It is just beautiful.’
The transformation has been a closely-guarded secret, only to be unveiled on the show. Even the O’Donnells have not seen the finished episode and Majella is planning a private soiree on Sunday night with her daughter in their new pile.
Unfortunately Daniel won’t be there as he is on tour, but Majella is confident that both of them will be ‘edited well’.
‘My daughter and her family are coming up for the weekend and we are going to watch it with them,’ she says with a tinge of excitement in her voice. ‘I am really looking forward to it because I haven’t seen it and we have been filming since September last year.’
‘I have every confidence that it will be edited in a good way and hopefully in the fashion of the B&B Road Trip.
‘You are seeing the bit of craic and there was a lot of fun. Daniel is very witty and has a very dry wit. I hope that comes across.’
Room To Improve starts on Sunday at 9.30pm on RTÉ One.
The views were always there but I didn’t notice them before