Family relocation: From city terraced house to spacious rural new-built home

Moving house is undeniably stressful and moving county is more-so but add to that the pressure of building your own home while expecting a baby, and you'll understand the challenges and excitement faced by Kiara Daly and Gregg Barry who moved from Dublin to Cork in August 2020.

Barry is originally from Kinsale and Daly spent a lot of time there growing up, so after making the decision to leave the capital, the picturesque Cork town was the obvious choice.

“Given the pressures in the housing market, we had been looking at options around Dublin, but it would have meant a significant commute and we felt further isolated from our families who we wanted to be a big part of our kids’ lives,” says Barry who works as a dentist.

Barry and Daly, who now have two small children, had been living in a 1940s two-bedroomed mid-terrace house in Ringsend and were fortunate to have the opportunity to build their own property on family land in Cork.

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“The project was a greenfield site on a disused part of my parents’ farm and at the outset, we wanted a home which could accommodate our family, while also delivering a modern architectural design which worked with the rural location,” says Barry.

The couple engaged NODE Architects, a firm which had previously worked on the design of Barry's dental clinics.

“They immediately understood this brief and began to seek inspiration from barn structures that dot the landscape and surrounds. The honesty of the design was something we talked about at great length with the intention to remain true to modern lines and design features, while focus was never lost on the idea that it had to be a modern, functioning farmhouse for a young family,” says Barry.

Looking back, I now understand that she [the designer] was solving problems for us before we realised there was an issue

“The design process was an education for both myself and Kiara and we began to see a clear and coherent identity emerge to our home from the myriad of Pinterest pages and home magazines. Thankfully, we both found that we had many of the same design preferences and the architects carefully curated our over-ambition and stretching of the budget, while assessing the importance of some design features which may have come close to the scrap heap in a panicked effort to curtail costs.”

Once the structure had been erected and their new home began to take shape, the couple enlisted the help of interior designer Liz Moloney of Amber Design Group, who is based in the UK but is originally from Waterford and had worked with Barry in the past.

“Gregg had previously found Liz’s advice and guidance in respect of the redesign of his clinics to be excellent,” says Daly, who is a partner in a recruitment firm. She describes the designers input as invaluable and says the benefits of bringing her into the project were seen and felt everywhere and she helped them understand and articulate what they did and didn’t like.

“We have lots more to do in terms of soft furnishings, but we love everything we have chosen so far with her help. And while I still love a good shop around, Liz has reduced my browsing time, she is very cost-conscious and will always recommend well-priced suppliers, while pointing out the high-end supplier too so I can compare.

I took a lot of inspiration from Scandinavian design, including retaining ample natural light, using lots of natural materials and finishes

“We never felt stressed or bamboozled by decisions and questions put to us by the contractors because she had already made us think about them. So she kept us sane and definitely saved us from making costly mistakes.”

“Looking back, I now understand that she was solving problems for us before we realised there was an issue,” adds Barry. “She could look at the project, timelines and finishes and would have us deciding details well in advance of them being sought by a contractor. The beauty of this was realised towards the end when all finishes, fixtures and materials were detailed down to the last millimetre and we were never under pressure.”

According to the designer, this is down to working with the client at all times and taking a holistic approach to the project.

“I came on board at the design development stage, once the overall external design had been agreed and we worked together from that point on,” says Moloney. “The design is very much open plan living and the overall look is what I would consider a modern living space so the key to the interiors was maintaining a modern feel while also creating a warm inviting family space.

“I loved the external mixture of finishes of black brick, warm wood details, limestone and dark render surrounded by the wonderful farmland, so the key was to bring these elements internally while also retaining a focus on the surrounding landscape. I took a lot of inspiration from Scandinavian design, including retaining ample natural light, using lots of natural materials and finishes and of course unfussy but high-quality joinery and details.”

Apart from some final touches to the furnishings, the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house has been finished and the family have been living in their new space for a year – and so far, they are enjoying every minute.

“We love our home, and although it took a while to feel like it belonged to us, we have settled in,” says Gregg. “We welcomed our daughter the same week we moved into the house in the middle of a surging pandemic, so the first few months were fraught as I had to frequently travel up and down to Dublin (for work). It took a few months for us both to process that experience but over the summer, it began to feel like we had settled.

For anyone considering relocating their lives or building a home, I would just say that it's an endurance exercise

“We both love wandering around and having our gaze caught by a different design feature as the house works so differently in night and day. We appreciate the work that went into the build and design and are really thankful for everyone who got us here.”

The finished project came in at 1 per cent under budget, though he doesn’t wish to be drawn on the figures, and despite the upheaval of moving across the country during a pandemic just before their second baby arrived, the couple are thrilled with their new home and would advise anyone else who is planning something similar to take things one day at a time and not get overwhelmed by the overall picture.

“I joked with Kiara on day one that at the end of everything, we would probably collapse into a house we were sick of and couldn’t afford to finish it, only looking back fondly a few years later when we had forgotten the pain,” says Gregg. “Thankfully this wasn’t our experience and although there were stressful times and hard moments, I’m already looking back with appreciation and pride for how we successfully navigated a process which seemed impossibly daunting at the outset.

“For anyone considering relocating their lives or building a home, I would just say that it’s an endurance exercise. But all you have to do is move it forwards a little bit every day and time will take care of everything else.”