Room To Improve architect Dermot Bannon has defended criticism of the show’s massive budgets – saying he knows first-hand what it’s like to do up a home with little or no money.
Viewers have often expressed surprise at the hit RTE One show’s colossal budgets to renovate properties.
Read more: RTE Room To Improve viewers shocked as Dermot Bannon calls this week's budget 'tiny'
Earlier this week Majella O’Donnell said she didn’t think Dermot had a grasp of maths after he doubled their budget when he renovated her and Daniel’s home.
But Dermot said he knows what it’s like to buy a house with little or no money – saying he only had €7,000 to renovate his first home he bought with his wife, Louise.
The Dubliner added: “The first house we ever bought was in bad nick. We had no money. We had to do it ourselves. I built the kitchen, I plastered walls. The only thing we had money for was new windows.
“Louise’s family did the rewiring, friends of Louise’s dad did the replumbing. We really hauled in every favour we could. I remember we used to get the lads from the office to come out on the weekend and offer them pizza so they would dig up the garden.
“We had €7,000 to do up the house and that got new windows, but we did it.”
He said he knows what it’s like for a couple to have no money but want their dream home.
Dermot added: “I won’t say that year was enjoyable. There is a part of me that regrets it.
“We were a young couple at the time and spent every weekend doing up a house and kind of every night of the week – we didn’t enjoy life for a year.
“I remember going into a concert, I think it was Oasis or something in the RDS and we had bought the tickets months in advance, and we were really looking forward to it, but by the time the two of us got there – we were only in our 20s – the two of us were so shattered.”
Dermot told how a part of him regrets the decision to buy property back then.
He said: “We sacrificed a huge amount to do that house and we took a risk.
“We bought a house in town when nobody else was buying houses and it was an ex-corporation house. We went against the grain in everything.
“We bought this house, we spent a year of our lives every single weekend over and back. We maxed out credit cards.
“Looking back on it now, I don’t know, I was always in two minds about it because myself and Louise always talked about it. We missed out on a year of our lives.
“But we got a house in the city centre and after that house prices started to rise and people wanted houses in the city so when we bought our next house, we got money back. But we paid for it.”
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