With the final episode of Room to Improve airing on RTÉ One tonight at 9:30pm, we spoke with Quantity Surveyor Claire Irwin about getting the latest season over the line.
"It's been a lot of work," Claire says of the programme. "We have such a short time period, really. It's only a year since the last series aired, so it's a big push to get four episodes and four homes completed and ready for January."
When we speak, we are about a week away from the 17th season finishing up, but Irwin is already getting calls from homeowners hoping to make it onto 2027's show.
"If we have a year, we'd be delighted, but we don't always have that luxury," she says of her jam-packed schedule. "If we don't have planning permission to apply for, it's normally 9-12 months. If we have to get planning permission, it will certainly be the 12 months."
While the pace of the industry remains unrelenting, the cost-of-living crisis and skyrocketing costs have forced the team to make every cent stretch.
"Budgets have all been really tight this year," says the Donegal woman. "The budgets have all been healthy sums of money, but the cost of construction is just making it so much more difficult. It was a hard year to get all the jobs done on budget and to get everything that's on the clients' wish lists."
"It was probably the hardest year yet, to be honest," she adds, noting that the rise of inflation from her time meeting the homeowners to getting on site made things particularly tricky.
"But we managed to get it, and that's what makes it so enjoyable," she smiles. "Cutting and nipping and changing things around to get on budget, we managed to get there."
Over the years, Room to Improve has undeniably evolved, from the style of architecture to the tone of the episodes, the series has had to move with the times.
Although many will still picture glass boxes that go over budget, Irwin insists that presenter and architect Dermot Bannon has been mindful of the current climate.
"Dermot is not blind or oblivious to things that are going on, nationally and around us," she states. "He appreciates that the cost of construction is just spiralling through the roof. We all just have to work together to get the projects done.
"He's definitely changed over the past few years," she adds. "The finances aren't as disposable as what they might have been a few years ago, when things were a bit cheaper. You would have got a bit more bang for your buck a few years ago."
Another issue with renovations today is that we all seem to expect houses to be ready for a photoshoot at the drop of a hat. Whether it's the pressure of seeing beautifully decorated homes on social media, or the most incredible interior design on platforms like Architectural Digest, the pressure for everything to be done is evident.
"Now, when we renovate homes, people want every room finished," Claire explains. "Twenty years ago, you would have built the house, and done it up room by room as you could afford it."
With this in mind, she advises homeowners to take the pressure off making things picture perfect and focus on more realistic goals: "You just have to cut your cloth to suit your budget," she says simply.
"Sometimes it's good to live in a house and suss things out and see what would suit," she adds, noting that rushing into design choices can lead to expensive mistakes. "It's good to get a feel for the house before you invest too heavily."
When it comes to getting started, though, the Buncrana woman insists that you can't go wrong if you focus on getting the bones of the property right.
"Get it warm, get it air tight, get it comfortable," she insists. "Get the existing fabric sealed and properly ventilated. Get proper insulation, proper windows, proper doors. Insulate the fabric of the building, then consider what change you have left to do the extension or whatever else."
As the owner of an old house herself, Irwin says that raising a home's energy rating through environmentally-friendly features is the thing she is most proud of in her work.
To her, a heat pump, insulated walls, new windows, and solar panels are "life-changing" upgrades that can be made to a home.
"You're doing your wee bit for the environment, and you're saving the homeowners thousands and thousands of euros."
Watch Room to Improve at 9:30pm tonight on RTÉ One. Catch up on RTÉ Player now.
