We recently visited one of our new home-owners in Dublin who moved from a "C" rated, cold, dark house with an overgrown garden to a brand new Lioncor home. After moving out of her house, renting an apartment with her husband and three children during a series of lockdowns and waiting for her new house to be finished, was it all worth it?
Today, sitting in the surroundings of her beautifully appointed home, with the evening sun beaming through the window, her smile tells me it was. The house already feels like it’s been lived in for years even though they only moved a few months ago. A lot of thanks goes to her trusty and skilled interior designer, Lisa O’Neill and her own decisiveness when choosing interior pieces. Her sleek new kitchen is now orientated to the front of the house and gets the afternoon sun, which she so missed in her previous home. Her gardens both front and back are paved requiring no maintenance and the house is lovely and cosy and retains all its energy efficient heat.
The family have a son with special needs and as part of the design of their new home came a completely self-contained apartment for their much-loved carer. As well as this, there is a bespoke spacious fit for purpose study on the top floor which enables both husband & wife to work effectively from home. There is space for the children to play, the adults to work and the carer to live, all under one roof.
For many the current lockdown has shown the inadequacies of our homes as spaces for both living and working. Most Irish homes fall way short of the current demands on them because they simply haven’t been designed for this “new normal”.
For our family, their move into a newly built larger home has given them well-designed segregated and functional spaces, light, maintenance free gardens, energy efficient heating and most importantly options for the future.
Having a child with special needs means you’re never quite sure what the future holds but having a large modern home along with an interconnected apartment means at least now there are choices.
