Some 101 days after "Helen"' rang Liveline "in pure desperation", her house is now built. And yesterday some 100 neighbours, friends, family, builders and the President, Mrs McAleese, called to see the work in Co Wicklow.
Catherine Doyle used the pseudonym "Helen" when she called the RTE programme in January to tell of the builder who left her in the lurch. Not just in the lurch but without a kitchen, with a barely started extension and with over £20,000 in debt.
She told presenter Joe Duffy that she and her husband, Alan Cleary, had employed a builder to build an extension to their home in Wicklow town. Parents of autistic twins Rebecca and Anne (6), and a son, James (3), they wanted to extend the cottage.
The builder was engaged last October, £25,000 was handed over and he began the work. However, though the block work was done, roof joists put in place and felt was put on the joists, the builder didn't come back after Christmas.
"It's just a nightmare," she told Joe in January. The family was living in one room and cooking in the garage.
Joe immediately put out a call for help and the next day he led a small band of helpers to see the house. Over the following 100 days, their ranks swelled as carpenters, finishers, painters, labourers and architects volunteered themselves and materials.
Yesterday, as the extension gleamed new and complete, the Liveline programme was broadcast from "Helen's house".
The two-storey addition comprises a new downstairs bathroom, a sunny kitchen and upstairs a bedroom for each of the girls, as well as their own bathroom. The rooms have been specially adapted for the girls.
Before handing over a Tipperary Crystal "key of the door" to Catherine and Alan, the President said the house was "a monument to goodness, a monument to community". Catherine said she didn't know what to say to thank everyone.
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