RTE Home Rescue was back on screens tonight for it’s seventh season.
This season, design guru Dee Coleman, builder Peter Finn and their hard working clutter buster team will be transforming six ordinary disorderly homes in just five days.
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Tonight the crew were in Co Kildare in a small cottage with school teacher Shonagh and her four kids.
With Shonagh busy at school and the kids involved in a variety of activities she began to get overwhelmed with the rising tide of clutter in their home.
The house was filled with rubbish, toys and dishes.
In Shonagh’s “least favourite room”, the kitchen, there was just one drawer for storage, no dishwasher and no space for a bin.
Shonagh and her ex-partner Alex bought the house 6 years ago as first-time buyers.
However, Alex and Shonagh split over a year ago and they now co-parent between two homes.
The pair now run two households on the same salary they had when they shared one home, and Shonagh highlighted that it’s been “very difficult financially.”
The mum broke down on screen while saying: “I just want the kids to have a great Christmas and I don’t want to feel like I failed them.”
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Shonagh’s brother Kieran took the initiative to sign his sister up for the show after she had “a difficult few years”.
6 years ago, when Shonagh was 7 months pregnant her mum passed away “out of the blue”.
On the morning of the funeral, Shonagh’s dad also suffered a stroke and her “priority” immediately became her dad – meaning she missed her own mothers funeral.
She then gave birth to two more babies and separated with her partner a few years later.
The mum-of-four also suffers with ADHD and has admitted that the clutter in her home is product of her condition.
Shonagh opened up about her dream to have a place where she could invite her girlfriends around for tea.
Dee first began by completely de-cluttering the home and then began to plan the build.
She wanted to expand the kitchen so that there was plenty of more space for storage and a “tea room”.
Dee wanted to create an open space that Shonagh could show off to her friends.
Dee then met with Peter and told him he would need to knock a wall and sort out the heating as a radiator would need to be taken out.
The builder and his construction team got stuck in to transforming the home.
However, not everything went according to plan Pete after discovered that they could not expand the kitchen and dining room as “it would not work with the constructural integrity of the building”.
While sorting through Shonagh’s stuff, Dee decided she would restore and old dresser to give it some more life in the home.
Shonagh, her brother Kieran and her dad were there to support her when they went through her storage.
Shonagh was quick to get emotional when Dee told her that she simply could not fix her home without getting rid of some of the “sentimental” furniture.
However, with her dad and brother by her side Shonagh was able to give away some of the furniture to them.
After an incredible amount of hard work from Dee, the builders and painters, the home was finally ready.
As Shonagh returned to her home, she couldn’t believe her eyes and immediately burst into tears.
She said: “I can’t believe this is the same space. It’s just so perfect you got it spot on. I would literally pick this home out of a magazine.”
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