The Not-Very-Comprehensive Guide to Renovating Your House | A Guest Post by Kirstie McDermott

Kirstie McDermott is a senior content manager and former journalist – possibly best-known for her role as co-founder of Ireland’s first beauty blog, Beaut.ie, but also as one-time beauty editor at large at IMAGE magazine, and editor of both STELLAR magazine and House and Home magazine (not, crucially, all at the same time). She’s also, for the sake of full disclosure, a good friend of mine – a friendship that was truly built while she was my boss (I was deputy editor at STELLAR during some of Kirstie’s tenure there), an experience not all friendships would survive (and ours thrived!).

When I was thinking of guest content ideas for the time I’m at home gazing lovingly (and also weeping) over my baby, I thought about Kirstie’s recent home renovation, which has resulted in – in my opinion, but also objectively, and if you disagree you’re wrong – one of the coolest, most stylish houses I’ve ever seen. A mutual friend of ours went to see her house once it was done, and told me, “Afterwards, me and [name redacted] went outside and sat in the car and just… said nothing. We were both so horrified, it was so nice, we felt like we may as well just give up on our own house altogether, because no matter what we do, it’ll never be as cool as Kirstie’s.”

Follow Kirstie on Instagram – although be warned, it’s mostly cats – here.

I’m a recent renovator. And extender, restorer and putter-backer of original features, energy upgrader — and probably a few more bits. Here’s a non-linear, non-comprehensive guide to some of the things you should know if you’re thinking of doing up your gaff.

Context: This is what we did

We took an 1862 Victorian villa in Phibsboro, Dublin, which was in bits, to almost twice its original size and got it from a G BER rating to an A.

Villas are interesting houses; you find them in and around the circulars in the city and they appear to be one-storey, but are split-level with two storeys at the back.

That construction makes them incredibly renovatable. You have large, unused attics, for example, that can be built into, and most have a decent-sized garden for extensions.