Tommy and Ann Breen built number 42 Ralahine in 1971 and raised six children in this semi-detached house in south Dublin. In fact, many of the houses on the street were built by their owners, who had formed a homebuyers’ group and struck a deal with local authorities to build on the site. The Breens lived happily here for nearly 40 years, but after the children had grown up and left home, Tommy’s health problems meant he needed a wheelchair, so they had to adapt the property to meet his requirements.
Enter architect Dermot Bannon and an RTÉ camera crew to do a complete renovation of the house and create wheelchair-friendly spaces where before there were narrow corridors and doorways. The whole job is captured in series three, episode three of Room to Improve, aired back in 2009, entitled The House that Tommy Built. You can watch it on the RTÉ Player, and see Bannon showing his flair for creating space and light out of the darkest, pokiest places.
A kitchen extension was added to the side of the house which opened up the lobby area, with wide front doors and a ramp to allow Tommy to easily get in and out of the house. The living room was converted into a large downstairs bedroom, adding a sizeable en suite wetroom, so Tommy no longer had to use a chairlift to get up and down the stairs. Three upstairs bedrooms were reserved as guest bedrooms for the children and grandchildren.
The new kitchen extension meant the staircase was now in the middle of the house, with the open-plan kitchen/living/dining area wrapping around it, so Bannon put storage cupboards under and behind the stairs, taking out the need for overhead storage.
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Rooflights were installed on the sloped roof of the extension, bringing in lots of light, as were eye-level windows with a view out to the Dublin and Wicklow mountains. Decking was put into the narrow backyard space so the couple could sit outside and enjoy the evening sun.
Tommy and Ann were delighted with the results, and so were their children and grandchildren. Tommy died in 2014, and the house, measuring 118sq m (1,270sq ft) with an E1 Ber, is now for sale through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, seeking €495,000. It would be an ideal home for a wheelchair user or an older person who wants to enjoy their retirement without any worries about accessibility. It would also fit the busy everyday lives of a family, and it is close to schools such as St Laurence College and sports facilities in Kilbogget Park, including Cabinteely FC.
