Plot twist! A call from Andy Moore - kind man and estate agent - ups the mood and transforms my destiny - I am sale-agreed on 42 Douglas Street! Aoife and I are Irish twins (almost), it’s not going to be very long until I’m 50. I have become full-time terrorised that I’m going to end up homeless. My studio is being sold and I’m renting from a kind landlady who may want her home back. I am single and so vulnerable in the housing market. If I have no studio, I can’t work and I need somewhere to live. I’m FAWKED! I LOVE a good magazine but can’t even read House & Home now because it triggers me and gets between me and my sleep. I’ve gone sale-agreed before in Youghal - I thought it was my only hope and assured myself I would adapt and make a new community - but an engineers report puts paid to that. Later, my would-be seaside neighbour is arrested in connection with his wife’s disappearance. The universe has 100% got my back. But I’m listening to The Undertones' It’s Going to Happen on repeat, just in case. I’ve got the key. Deep joy! Andy Moore has retired - I think I broke him. It’s been a long slog to homeownership. Did you know that artists in Ireland can earn €50k tax-free EVERY year? The banks do and they don’t care! I’ve levelled up my income in recent years. Covid was kind and I began selling limited-edition prints of my work - my income is up and steady. The bank still doesn’t care. A kind, retiring bank manager tells me my chances are slim and none BUT advises I’ve a good chance at a Covid recovery loan for my business. So I do that - interest rates subsequently soar from 2 to 8%, and the bank inadvertently overcharges me €1,300+. I’ll never understand how government money gets so inflated but... I have the key. August 2022 Hugh Wallace and crew roll into Douglas Street. I previously hung some art in lovely Rob’s home over in Passage when he was featured in The Great House Revival. An artwork was accidentally damaged during filming and Maya, the director, has been on to me to sort it out. Discussion ensues, and before I know it, I’m going to be on the telly! I make peace with the idea, I’ll be watching it from my couch in Douglas St. Plus it will keep me and a builder accountable, and I’ll 100% lose two stone! September 2022 I assemble a crew of comrades on Zoom to figure out how the fawk I am going to make money fast. Clare Mulvany, Creative Coach & Guru (to me!), Alan O’Meara (Web Designer & Good Egg), Brenda O’Loughlinn (Cousin, Creative, Graphic Artist and no BS Merchant) & Celeste (Brilliant Burdon! Lovely loyal sidekick and Studio Manager) indulge my ramblings about possible crowd funding etc for approximately 5 mins, before Clare says ‘You’ve been wanting to make large paintings for as long as I know you, why don’t you just do that?’ November 2022 ‘Threshold’, an exhibition of 10 extra large (5ft square) paintings, opens at 42 Douglas Street. ‘It’s always impossible until it’s done’, Nelson Mandela’s mantra, guides the lunacy that is the transformation of an unsafe building to host an exhibition. Clare suggests the title for the show taking inspiration from John O’Donoghue’s book of blessings. I read his Blessing for a New Home the night before I completed the house purchase and the words, “May you have eyes to see that everyone who enters brings a gift and leaves with a blessing” strike a chord. It is a sentiment that guides and underpins the work to follow. I’m hoping to sell the paintings to pay off my bank loan and use as a deposit for a mortgage. Friends come from Dublin, Kerry and Carlow to get the house show-ready — I will never forget their kindness. In the meantime, I feel like I’m bleeding money just getting the house ready to exhibit. How on earth am I going to afford to renovate? I have a memorable meeting onsite with the builder and engineer. Hugh Wallace has kindly joined (outside the filming schedule) to steer. It’s a rotten rainy Friday — pathetic fallacy at its best. Hugh advises repeatedly ‘Cora has no money’ encouraging the assembled to think creatively and cheaply. He’s not wrong! I wonder, privately in panic, while taking the last flight of stairs - if in fact, I am having some kind of bi-polar episode. I feel like I’m test-driving a Tesla while writing a cheque for chips! I have NO money! December 2022 The exhibition is a great success — thank feck. As a product of self-employed parents, I am reasonably comfortable with risk but this venture has felt like I’m putting it ALL on black. I continue the exhibition until Christmas. It is a truly magical time. When else would you have time to sit and chat to your neighbours all weekend? One Sunday morning, I am greeted by an elderly man in tears on the threshold. His mother and father raised him and his two brothers through their early years in my living room. I am floored by the kindness of my new neighbours and their big, open hearts. One mentions she got her mortgage against all odds with the local Credit Union. February 2023 Spring has sprung and a feeling of abundance abounds. The government (God bless them!) have extended the Vacant/Derelict Property Grant to cities. I am the very first applicant to Cork City Council. Later in the Budget, the Government increase the grant to €50k for vacant and €70k for derelict. Hallelujah. It turns out First South Credit Union - who began business right here on Douglas St, are willing to back brave. I need to get my ducks in a row and get that grant. I have Jerry from Kerry's (the Builder) head wrecked asking him what I can do in advance of their arrival. 'Take down a ceiling, a wall maybe?'. I strip the walls of LOTS of wallpaper but am assured my job is to make the money. He’s not lying (he never does!). Turns out I’m not handy. The first semblance of work begins at no. 42 with the felling of three trees. They are dangerous. It’s costly (and not budgeted for) but I figure if I have to pay for roof repairs, I’d rather it was for my roof and not my neighbours. I do due diligence getting three vastly varying quotes. I learn the price is usually in direct correlation to my attire. I attend one on-site quotation meeting on a Saturday dressed for dinner and wearing a diamond ring gifted from my mother. Future meetings are all conducted in my studio duds! I have mine and everybody else’s hearts broken trying to get the money sorted to build. My sleep is shocking and I am stressed and sad because my lovely Mama is very sick. I’m on notice over in my Henry St studio. It’s a shit show — I’m calling the council constantly and emailing them every Friday morning to alert them to the fact another week has passed without word of the grant. I eventually get approved for the Vacant grant but am sure it’s derelict so I appeal. €20,000 is a huge deal to me. I’m still trying to get the money in order. In the interim, I set up a temporary studio in the house, it’s a pure pleasure to paint in the garden in advance of a show over the wall in the Good Day Deli. A little robin often sits on my canvas as I paint — in the absence of any factual information, I KNOW this train is bound for glory. A Prime Time Investigates programme on the grant lights fires in city hall. My full Derelict Property grant is approved the next day. September 2023 Building begins! Or rather a giant destruction starts. The crew land and strip the house like locusts — thank heavens I’ve put up lots of ‘Please Keep’ labels. Where possible, I want to reuse doors, old windows, sinks, shelves, knobs and knockers. Existing structures are flimsy, and other than an ancient piece of railway supporting a rear extension, there is no steel to be found. October 2023 The pace of work onsite is phenomenal. It’s a tricky site - everything has to go in (or out!) the front door. Douglas St is notorious for traffic and parking, but good humour prevails and neighbours are kind. I’m Duracell Bunny-excited, and wide open to all opinions. There is no end to the stuff I don’t know so I’m highly suggestible. I’m fairly sure John (Site Manager) wants to head-butt me occasionally. Well-intentioned advisers tell me I haven’t picked the cheapest builder in the city but I’m fairly sure I chose the best! As an artist I can get away with a bit of ‘woo woo’ and ‘the universe’, so when I say I felt ‘guided’ in my choice of contractor, I truly did — but, it was off the back of five separate people recommending Jerry Galvin (Damp Rite) in a fortnight. The first day I met Jerry, I’d come from a make-up trial - he either thought I was bonkers or very glam. It turns out Jerry has eleven sisters so I couldn’t phase him. I knew instantly he was ‘The One’. Jerry is a busy guy — but he never makes me feel anything other than a priority. Renovating a 120-year-old, three-storey building is sensitive work. You need to know what you’re doing. I do not! But Jerry and his team do and never takes advantage of my deficiency. November 2023 It’s a tough time. My mother is very unwell but the show must go on. The site has reopened following asbestos removal (a surprise, not budgeted for). I’m delighted to see the light through the roof where asbestos was removed, but less cheered to know work now necessitates a whole new roof (we had hoped to repair). I make the necessary HUGE decisions before turning off my phone and driving to Carlow to be with my mother as she dies. December 2023 It means the world to me, that Jerry is there with arms wide for a discreet hug when I return to site. I am grateful to be busy, and to have something so stimulating to occupy my mind. I feel I am in a huge mental growth spurt — learning lots as the building progresses. My friends host an ‘interfrention’ to help me avoid an enormous window error. I feel I must honour the age of the house through my colour choice, but my Kerry girls know me better and remind me I am not a cream window person. I feel immediately better and then agonise for ages, losing a load of sleep about having differing colours front and back. January 2024 New year, new floor. The lads do Trojan work onsite digging 400mm down to facilitate insulation and damp proofing. Brendan (O’Keeffe - brilliant plumber) throws in the underfloor heating while they’re at it. The house feels like a shell. The new roof has made it toasty but we are otherwise back to the bones. Jerome, the engineer, has correctly flagged some issues that necessitate additional structural support. The wall to the rear of the garden is now dangerous and needs to be taken down (and carted out through the front door). Hugh does me a solid and comes from Dublin to help (again, off-camera). It’s dark, freezing and there’s no stairs, so I push him up a ladder with a torch. He saves the day and magics me a studio loo under the stairs. Everyone on site thinks it’s impossibly tight, but he knows better. I’ve been agonising over the shape of the ground floor. We need to fit a small showroom, an office, storage and my studio. I don’t have enough space. I dig deep, refinance and decide to rebuild into the space that was the original kitchen extension. It’s the right decision. The week after Olive (my Mama) died, I find myself in Marie and Pat Hally’s Synk Concrete showroom in the middle of Tipperary. I have a notion I want some concrete in my bathroom and it is a brain-balm to chat with them. I clock a green terrazzo sink that turns out to be made from Connemara marble offcuts. I’m WEAK and exhilarated — I really, truly feel guided here. It makes SO much sense to me. I need to start making decisions on finishes and I’ve been struggling to find — not so much a theme or style — more my metric — like, a feeling that will run throughout the house and tie the three floors together. Talking with Marie and Pat, I immediately think ‘elemental’! I am giddy. It’s exactly what I’ve been searching for. Everything in my home should feel an elemental tie to nature - so natural fibres, stone, wool, paper etc. Relief — it feels like a big box ticked. Pat is going to make me a sink and shower tray from Connemara offcuts. I’m thrilled, and SURE I will be a better painter if I start my day standing on Connemara marble. The TV crew return to a hive of activity — first fix electrics and plumbing, and I’m even beginning to make decisions about finishes. Anna (from Maison Anna B) has recently started her own micro-cement company and she’s going to do my bathroom. It’s another big decision and a significant investment but worth it as I will never again have to clean shower doors and grout! One of my top 5 (see my tips for more) priorities for the house was it should feel like a house, rather than an apartment over ‘the shop’. Where possible I want to expose brick in place of plaster. As three of the houses’ rear walls are external, it’s a tense negotiation as the walls need to be insulated. For luck, my neighbours up in Annmount have just had their home externally insulated which leads me to SE Systems and a brilliant SEAI grant. The walls to the back of the house have 100mm of insulation added on the outside before a magnificent pink render is applied (I hope my neighbours like it and don’t get migraines!). Windows are installed, as is my (Forever) Olive green front door. If possible, it makes me love my home even more. The paint arrives. God Bless Dulux Heritage for sponsoring the TV show. If not for them, I’d happily look at ‘setting plaster’ courtesy of Christy and Redmond for years to come. There is NO painting budget – not to mention F&B. My buddy Barbara drives from Mayo with long ladders and boundless enthusiasm, camping her van in a carpark to paint my ceilings. I am increasingly aware of the hundreds of hands who have helped me and this old house become a home. Justine from Cork Flower Studio does a magical garden re-design, sources plants and turns almost all the soil in the garden with her own fair hands before replanting. A team of friends help and we are regularly in the garden until after 9pm. It is entirely energising. I’m clueless but Justine is a gifted gardener and the kindest friend. The Flower Girls have been incredible neighbours, putting me up over their shop since March when I had to finally vacate my Henry St Studio. August 2024 It’s really cooking now. Celeste, my beloved colleague, is flat out helping with each and every decision. Friends and family wade in to help. Ina and Benny - my sister and brother-in-law, drive from Carlow every Sunday morning for a 9am start to help do EVERYTHING and anything. Scaffolding goes up to paint the front a delightful ‘Inishboffin Gold’. The kitchen goes in AND on the last day of August – the lights are finally ON and there is champagne in the fridge. September 2024 The scaffolding comes down just in time for Autumn Fest. This wonderful, free festival is an absolute celebration of the local community. The street is filled with smiling kids and adults, culminating in a conga and a big ol’ dance off. I am beyond exhausted, but I can’t stop smiling. It’s been a slog but I feel I’ve never had to do anything alone – people – literally hundreds of hands, have helped me every step of the way in all kinds of ways. It takes five men to get my mother’s couch up the side of back of the building and down a flight of stairs. Once the architraves are off, she pops into her final resting place in the living room. I think they understand (eventually!). My limited budget only served to make people more brilliant — Genie Griffin, the genius who laid my floor boards sourced some boards in a skip before ‘robbing’ Rob (my ol' bud whose Glenbrook home was featured previously on the show) who kindly donated boards from his top floor to bridge the gap. My buddies Lorraine and Joy make bespoke glass pieces, Laura makes lampshades — Irish design is everywhere. There is starting to be a great glow about the place. October 2024 Home at last! It’s a scramble to the finish. Thank heavens The Great House Revival crew extended my ‘final reveal’ deadline – but Aoife and her buddy Karen are still on their hands and knees painting skirting boards at midnight the night before they land. Hugh loves it – so do I. Maya discreetly puts tissues to one side for my final piece to camera — I don’t need them, I have nothing to cry about. I am beyond blessed and will forever be grateful. The new season of The Great House Revival is on every Sunday at 9.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Cora's episode airs this Sunday March 2. Find out more about Cora and her art at www.coramurphy.com Cora’s Top Tips for your renovation Make a Wish List to guide your priorities This was the BEST thing I did. My priority list was enormously helpful when I got stuck and/or decision fatigue. My No 1 priority was ‘LOADS of light’, so when I got stuck in the weeds around the functionality of the teeny re-build at the back of the house, revisiting the list reminded me of my No 1. I scrapped notions about a loo and shower, made the wall half-height and put in a window, Velux and glass door all to throw light downstairs. The area has become the hardest working ‘room’ in the house, a utility, storage and paw-washing station. Get yourself a community Either online (Instagram is FULL of home renovators) or in the real world, get to know and become an active member of a community of renovators/restorers or neighbours. I’ve been fortunate to have both. People truly are lovely and happy to help. I got to know Siobhan O’Mahony (fellow Great House Revival participant of Butlerstown House) via the 'Gram. It was Siobhan who put me onto the Credit Union as a mortgage provider. I dread to think what would have happened if we hadn’t met. Be realistic but think expansively Everyone will tell you ‘just do the basics’ to get in. But the basics are roof, walls (insulation) plumbing and electrics – which is kind-of everything! You must be guided by your budget but do think outside the box about how you can possibly trade, or do things differently. Don’t forget to enjoy it I figured I may never do this again, so I decided early on I was going to enjoy the process. That’s not to say I wasn’t stressed out of my mind betimes, but remembering how much I was learning helped me to recalibrate into growth mode. Be not meek! I’m a fairly ‘able dealer’ and not in the first flush of youth, but I did find myself hesitant initially to challenge building decisions. I was very aware of my knowledge and skills deficit, and felt enormously grateful to everyone on site, but things move quickly so putting your hand up early and often is a good practice. I didn’t understand much of the lingo so my builders would take out a pencil and draw things for me. Find another way Get used to being told ‘no’, taking a pause and revisiting the idea. I feel my mind is often like a vending machine. I need to process the job in hand while percolating ideas up top. Many trades work well this way too. Don’t interrupt the job in hand but giving them a non-urgent task to ponder on the way home to Kerry can prove fruitful. Catherine Troy, a gifted interior designer, likens it to throwing out seeds. Don’t be surprised if ideas are later presented to you, but not as yours.