GROOM TO IMPROVE
■ Marriage plans became I Do-er Upper ■ Happy couple laugh off ‘TV Gate’ jibe
HOME of The Year winners Shane Murray and Marty Campbell have revealed they used the money they were supposed to spend on a wedding to renovate their Dublin home.
The couple were crowned this year’s winner by judges Hugh Wallace, Amanda Bone and Sara Cosgrove for their stunning home, dubbed ‘The Boutique Abode’ on the final of the series.
Opening up about the win, Marty revealed the couple were due to get married in 2020 but postponed the wedding because of Covid and decided to buy and renovate their home instead.
He said: “We were we were meant to get married back in 2020 but COVID happened, obviously.
“So we postponed the wedding to 2021 and then obviously still COVID. So we actually used the money that we had saved for the wedding on the home.
“We’re going to plan the wedding again.
“I think this took a couple of years out of us getting this home designed so I think yeah, I think for us it is just saving again.”
The couple declined to say how much they spent on renovating their stunning home but Shane said he called in favours from family members to help.
He revealed: “We didn’t really have it wasn’t that we had a strict budget though.
“We had money to kind of start it and then from and then we just kind of went and did it bit by bit as we had the money.
“I suppose, having my dad and having access to people to help with things is a huge reduction in costs.
“Like we didn’t have somebody come in with a contract or come in with a price and we have to have that money.”
Time
Marty revealed: “I suppose we didn’t go over budget because we didn’t really have a budget. We kind of just took it one thing at a time.
“And if we couldn’t afford to do something that month or that we just waited until we could have or yeah so that wasn’t something talked about at all in the show.”
Renovating the home was a big project which involved upgrading the heating system, replacing windows and knocking down a wall.
They also repositioned the kitchen, gutted the home and even changed the front garden layout to allow for an electric charging station for a car.
Shane and Marty’s style was inspired by their passion for hotels and travel, and they love how their home represents their personalities and their lives together.
But Marty said big purchases took a huge chunk of their savings.
He explained: “We did do big purchases, like putting in new windows and things like that, you know, that would have taken a big, big chunk of our budget.
“But as Shane said, you k n o w , a lot of work was done by ourselves and our family members so obviously that meant you know, we were really able to kind of economically you know, manage there as well.”
Shane revealed it was his idea to apply for Home of the Year after being a fan of the show for years.
He knew that once they got a house they would apply for Home of the Year. Shane explained: “Now I probably didn’t think it was going to be this year. I didn’t think it was going to happen so fast. I suppose it just kind of snowballed.”
Marty added: “We’re both big fans of the show so we watch it religiously every year it comes out.
Dream
“When we bought the home, it was Shane’s wildest dreams that you know, as we got further with the house renovations, why not see if we can actually get on the show.
“And it kind of snowballed from there.”
Speaking about the judge’s criticism on ‘TV gate’, the pair weren’t offended by the comments but took on board their suggestions.
Marty said: “We knew what we were signing up for, we knew that the judges would have their own opinions and their own personal tastes and preferences.
“We thought the feedback was fair and we actually took the points on board.”
Judges Hugh Wallace, Amanda Bone and Sara Cosgrove were full of praise of the winners.
Hugh said: “Our winner is special because of the attention to detail, bold colour schemes and really every single inch was used in this home.”
Sara added: “This winner is exceptional.”