Old Cork school house set to feature on Home of the Year

FOR a decade, the Irish obsession with property has been perfectly captured by Home Of The Year.

The ratings winner is back for a tenth series on RTÉ1 on Tuesday at 8.30pm - and a Cork house is among the first batch of properties on show.

Once again, judges Hugh Wallace, Amanda Bone and Sara Cosgrove nose around a series of wonderful homes, deliberating, arguing, and finally choosing a winner in each episode which will go through to the grand final.

In the first episode, an old school house in Cork is featured, belonging to Ian Humphreys and his partner Sarah MacCarthy, who live in the 1900s-built property with their son.

When they bought it in 2019, they had a number of internal renovations to complete, such as removing plaster to expose the original brick work and levelling the floor in the great room. Their aim was to bring out the character of building and restore it back to its former glory.

They couple wanted the original features and the character of the building to do the talking.

They describe their home as creative with a brilliant atmosphere and say it’s a great place for parties, entertaining and playing music.

Sarah and Ian feel like they are caretakers of the home and love when people drop by to share their own memories of the school.

The Cork property is up against two other houses, including an eco-minded self-build in Clare owned by John and Kasha Connolly.

In 2021, they started their journey of building their contemporary house. They were conscious of the environment when building the home and wanted a grass roof as a place for wildlife and bees to live.

Their property has a natural cooling breezeway designed for the summer months that brings the outside in, and, after working with the Jon Eliason Studio in Sweden to draft the concept of the living space and kitchen of their house, they decided on a 20ft-high ceiling in the main room to allow the spectacular scenery to be a part of the space.

John and Kasha love the sense of detail and functionality they’ve achieved throughout the home.

The final property is a 1960s Dublin house, where Aoife Keogh and Tim Sparsis live with their three children and four dogs.

The couple fell in love with the three-bed semi-and knew they could create their dream home.

They gutted the whole house and gardens and designed a layout that works best for their family, creating a five-bed and five-bath energy-efficient home.

Though it was a labour of love, they are delighted with what they have been able to achieve and how the home feels bright and airy while still feeling warm and cosy.