Evicted from their accommodation in Co Galway, and struggling to find somewhere in the rental market, Aiva Tuohy (24) and her partner Dylan Tone (27) are now building a log cabin in his parents’ garden.
The couple are for now living in Tone’s parents house, near Mullingar, Co Westmeath, while they await planning permission for the garden cabin.
Tuohy works in e-commerce in Athlone and is studying online part-time for a business degree. Tone works full-time in construction in Dublin, while studying civil engineering on the side.
The couple had been renting a house in a small village in east Galway, where Tuohy is from, before the landlord informed them last February she intended to sell up.
RM Block
“We did have a couple of months’ notice about it, but it was instant panic. You’re frightened. You’re very anxious. We had sleepless nights thinking about where we were going to live; were we going to be homeless?” Tuohy says.
At the time going back to either of their parents’ houses wasn’t an option due to a lack of space.
They immediately started trawling on rental websites and set their catchment area as wide as possible, looking not just in Galway, but in Roscommon, Longford and surrounding counties.
“We weren’t fussy, we were looking at anything at all that was within our budget and within our means. We just wanted a roof over our heads,” she says.
“We applied for so many houses and apartments through the likes of Daft.ie and different agencies. We emailed so many people, and we even got in contact with local councillors to see if there was something they could do to help us, because essentially, in our mindframe, we were going to be homeless,” she says.
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They stretched their budget to €1,600 per month, which would have had a serious impact on their cost of living. They both pay for college without grants, fund car travel and feel “crippled” with taxes and tolls.
“Sometimes I don’t understand why we’re still here because of how bad it is,” Tuohy says.
The couple secured just one viewing out of more than 40 applications to various different houses and apartments. The landlord chose a different tenant.
After that, they decided they could not continue with their plan to rent.
“One evening, I just had a chat with Dylan, and I said: ‘Look, we can’t keep doing this. We’re not sleeping. We’re trying our best. We’re trying to work and better ourselves with college. We’re just trying to just survive at this stage’,” Tuohy says.
They asked Tone’s parents about the possibility of building a cabin in their garden. His parents agreed and were happy for the pair to move back in with them while they got on with the build.
We’re more hopeful going down the route of a log cabin than we are of actually finding and renting a house within our means
— Aiva Tuohy
The Government is finalising proposals that would allow people to build these modular-style homes, up to 45sq m (484sq ft) in size, at the back of homes without having to secure planning permission.
Officials in the Department of Housing believe the planning reforms will help tackle Ireland’s housing crisis by allowing “intergenerational movement” between the main house and the smaller home. Many housing experts and Opposition politicians have been critical of the move, saying it is not a silver bullet and could end up increasing the cost of homes on the second-hand market.
One Irish supplier, Loghouse.ie, says on its website that the popularity of garden rooms is “skyrocketing” across Ireland, but there is no official data telling how many are being built each year.
For Tuohy and Tone, it felt like their only option.
“We’re more hopeful going down the route of a log cabin than we are of actually finding and renting a house within our means,” Tuohy says.
They estimate they may have to live in this log cabin for the next decade. Tuohy says it will not be “our forever home, but it’s going to be a long term home”.
The couple have picked out a two-bed unit with a kitchen and bathroom.
They are waiting for an answer on their planning application before work can commence. While this marks progress for them, there is no certainty around planning permission. This adds to Tuohy’s sense that “you’re not in control of anything” in the current housing market.
“The housing crisis does not seem to be getting any better. It’s probably going to get way worse,” she says.
Asked if she feels forgotten by this Government, she says “100 per cent”.
“You feel like you don’t matter, and you feel like you’re not being listened to. It just feels like the Government doesn’t care what happens to us or how we live.”
Tomorrow: ‘It’s super stressful’: Couple see renovation costs spiral despite Government grant
