Episode 23 - Live at the Ideal Home Show

For this special live episode, Kate and Jenny are interviewed by the fabulous Jo Linehan from GAFF Interiors live onstage at the ideal home show in Dublin in October, 2024.

There is a little bit of background noise, but if you weren't able to make it in person then we hope you enjoy this live recording! Special shout out to Rowan for making it possible.

Chapters

• 0:00 Live at the Ideal Home Show
• 0:33 Episode Intro
• 25:21 Outro

Transcript

Jen: [00:00:00] You are listening to rip it up the renovations podcast. 

Kate: hi, I'm Kate. I run the Instagram page, @victorianrathmines

Jen: And I'm Jenny. I run the Instagram account @workerscottage

Kate: This podcast is all about renovation and interiors from the renovator's perspective. We've been through it a few times between us and it hasn't scared us off. In fact 

Jen: we loved it so if you are planning to do up your own home you can expect to hear lots of advice from our own experience along with plenty of tips and inspiration.

For this special live episode, Kate and I are interviewed by the fabulous Jo Linehan live onstage at the ideal home show in Dublin in October, 2024.

There is a little bit of background noise, but if you weren't able to make it in person, and then we hope you enjoy this live recording. Especially shout out to Rowan for making it possible.

Jo: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the DFS Interiors Theatre. My name is Jo Linehan and I'm the host here for the weekend. [00:01:00] And you are so welcome to the first day of the show. I cannot tell you how excited I am for the show this year. I think it's the biggest and best yet. And we're starting here on the stage.

in the same fashion. I'm so excited to welcome the Rip It Up girls. If you haven't been listening to the podcast after this chat, I'm sure you will. It's so informative. It's so fun. It's so honest. I can't wait to quiz you guys both. Um, we'll be talking for about 20 minutes. This conversation is going to be recorded for the podcast, which is very exciting.

So they feel like a special guest. So just so you're aware, if you ask a question during the Q& A, it might appear on the podcast. So that's just a quick PSA. Please don't be shy. The girls are experts at what they do, and this is such a great opportunity to chat to them. So we'll do that at the end. But for now, a big warm welcome, please, to the Rip It Up Girls.

Jen: Morning, guys. How are you? Good morning. We're delighted to be here. Lovely crowd [00:02:00] for early on a Friday morning. Fair play, everyone, for getting up and coming out. Lovely to see you all. This is the hardcore 

Jo: people who, like, have their list of what they want to do. They're queuing at the door. They're, like, ready to get their information.

Hit all the spots. Exactly. So you guys are the perfect people to have to kick off the show. I'm so delighted to have you here. Like I said, I've been listening to the podcast out on my walks, and I I can't wait to talk to you about it. But before maybe we get into the podcast, I'd love to ask you both about your own renovation journeys, because obviously that's what inspired you to start your very helpful conversations.

So can you maybe tell me each about your own individual experience, where it started and why you got into, into renovation? 

Jen: Yeah. Um, so we've done a few between us. Um, mine started, my major one started in 2019 was, which is when I got the keys of my first house, a very, very tiny house in Dublin, which was the only thing I could afford.

Um, and, It needed a [00:03:00] very extensive renovation. I remember my dad coming with me to have a look at it. And he was like, what are you after doing? Like, this is a, a dump. Like it was a disaster. There was no hot water, there was no central heating. It was single glazed. There was a bit of damp. Like it, it needed a lot of work.

A bit of time? A bit of time. It was soaking wet is the way to put it. Um, but I kinda, I had a vision for it and I really love very, very small houses, very small spaces. I think, um, there's a, when there's constraints put on design, it actually helps. A little bit because if I think if I had a really big house and lots of options, I think I might have struggled more to, to get as much out of it.

So I found that a bit easier maybe. Um, and I think, so yeah, work started just before COVID January, 2020, very extensive renovation. Um, and then obviously the big C hit and, uh, down tools and everything like that. But I got so lucky and I think it's something that we talk about on the podcast as well. I got so lucky with the team.

I did an amazing contractor, a shout out to Jason and Demi construction. Um, [00:04:00] and a fabulous architect, and it all just makes such a huge difference, I think. Good communication and working with good people, it's like any job, it's just what it's all about, really, at the end of it. 

Jo: What about you, Kate? I know you're, you've just moved out because you're doing, uh, round two, but what, what was round three, actually?

Round three, sorry! Yeah, I'm a bit of a 

Kate: serial renovator, so my background is actually design, that's what I would have done in college, um, and it was kind of an outlet, because my job wasn't at all creative, I guess. It wasn't, kind of, design led, so, We started kind of doing up houses and I wouldn't say flipping them because they were always our, our home.

But we just kind of loved it so much and then we'd use it as a stepping stone to maybe get a better house or a bigger house or an area we wanted. So we moved from Galway from our first house which was a, a kind of new build that we took from kind of second fix all the way through to finish. We sold that, we moved to Dublin.

Thankfully, that kind of flip, I suppose, gave us our deposit coming up here because that was terrifying when we saw prices up here. And to buy where we wanted to buy, we had no choice but to buy a wreck. So we lived in, [00:05:00] when I mean a wreck, like, some of our friends called it a crack den. It was so bad. We had no children at the time.

We had no children at the time. You could not bring children into this house. We had no kitchen. We had a, a little, um, flat pack stainless steel kind of IKEA kitchenette. We had no furniture, we were living, we were on, um, garden furniture for a while. So like we, we kind of went through that, we did a lot of the work ourselves, and we're very kind of hands on, so we do the DIY side, and we just got so addicted to it, so we did it again.

We did that house and now we're doing it a third time. 

Jo: I have to ask, something that you both mentioned there is how awful the properties that you bought were. So I think what separates you guys from maybe other people is either having a vision or courage or something that allows you to see past the seeping damp or the you know, no kitchen.

So what is it about a property that draws you in and makes you think, I can do something really special with this when it's in that bad of a [00:06:00] repair? 

Kate: Oh, we go through this in the podcast so much, don't we? Like how, how you use the space. And if whatever the space is, isn't conducive to how you're going to live your life, no matter how you make it look nice on the inside, it's never going to work for you, right?

So you have to consider things like, you know, how you're going to use spaces, whether it's for family or for you and storage and light. We talk about light all the time. We don't get enough of it in Ireland. So like buying a house that has good light and has good light in the spaces that you're going to spend a lot of your time in.

Those are the key things to look for, for me anyway, when I'm looking at writing. 

Jen: And I think a lot of it is money, right? So I'd probably buy a nicer house that was done if I could afford it, but I couldn't, so like the Wreck was what I could afford, but also I think looking beyond the Wreck towards, just as Kate said, is it in a good location?

Is it where you want to live? Does it have the foundations of what you need? So, for example, a large enough garden or the right commute to work or, um, you know, light coming in the right direction, whatever it might be. If that's there, you [00:07:00] can work around a lot of the rest of it to get what you want. I think so, yeah.

Kate: And deliver was actually a big thing for me. Whenever I viewed a house, I said, what's the deliver options in this area? That was a big drive for food. I would be the exact same. That would be a key, key, uh, part of it. But you can't move the house, right? So area is so, so important. So, 

Jo: You both went through these amazing renovations.

What inspired the podcast then? How did you guys connect and decide, okay, we actually need to bring our insight and our experience to an audience? 

Jen: Yeah, we loved talking about it, like we, I'd say the basis of our friendship is probably talking about renovations and home and interiors and design, and we talk about it all the time and we kind of played around with the idea of recording it, but we were out for dinner, it was around this time last year for my birthday, we were out for dinner and one of our other friends, Kate, was just starting her own renovation and our conversation over dinner was, you know, full of advice and what can we do here and what about conservation there and what would you say, [00:08:00] um, And we just thought we should be, we should record this like this is really helpful for someone to come and refer back to and actually it's a piece of feedback that we've gotten from listeners in the past is that they're taking notes or they're saving episodes for later when they know that they, you know, need to think about flooring or need to think about windows and it kind of acts as a guide.

I think we just thought as well like we would have loved that. Like it's just really helpful listening to things and having somebody tell you what to do. 

Kate: Funny what Jen said, like it is the basis of our friendship. We kind of knew each other through other friends, so we hadn't been friends for a very long time, I wouldn't say we hadn't been close friends for a very long time.

And then we were both at home at the year at the same time, completely by chance, we didn't even know till the very end. And then I suppose we were just kind of a bit of a sounding board for each other because we were going through those renovations at exactly the same time. So where are you getting tiles?

Where are you getting your kitchen? And we actually have so many of the same suppliers in our house. Because we went through it at the same time, I think, yeah. 

Jo: Well, listening to the podcast, there's so [00:09:00] much to say about it. First of all, it's like a therapy session because you guys are so calm and methodical.

But one of the things that really struck me listening to it is you're so honest. Like you give the numbers, you were talking the last episode that I listened to about the spreadsheets that you guys put together. Like, it's no holds barred. So is that something that you consciously thought about when you were creating it?

You want to give. Really the honest insights, you know, I mean, there are other platforms out there that will give you tips, but like you guys lay it all bare, the good, the bad and the ugly. 

Kate: That's what people want, right? If you haven't been through this before, how much you learn in that first renovation, it is a an absolute baptism of fire.

And I think having that at your disposal or having a couple of people that have been through it a couple of times between them and having kind of those tips and tricks that would take you months to go and research and figure out and finding it in 20 or 30 minutes of a podcast was invaluable to listeners.

And that was the feedback we got. So we said, [00:10:00] well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let's keep this, you podcast like that. 

Jen: It's also questions we get a lot on our, on our Instagrams, like how much do this cost? Or where do you get, like really just the basic, honest, like, how do I do this ?

Jo: Speaking of listeners, I feel like your listeners are so dialed in. And so, like you said, they're taking notes. So what are some of the best questions or pieces of feedback that they have given to you guys? 

Kate: I think the notes thing that Jen mentioned is one of my favorite. The people said they're taking notes and they're saving episodes.

So if an episode is very technical, like we did one on lighting and how to do a lighting plan. How many lights and what type of lights and the warmth and all that kind of stuff and people saving that and using it as a guide and a go to like I, I loved that feedback. I just thought it was really what we were hoping for out of the podcast.

I think 

Jen: I also love when people just ask questions like somebody recently was like, Oh, I'd love to hear about how how to choose curtains and window dressings like we always want those suggestions. It's really good to hear from people what you'd love to hear next. [00:11:00] Um, because we want to tell you, you know what's most useful to you.

Okay. One of 

Jo: my personal favorite episodes was the thrifting episode, because I found so many places from it, and I felt like you were giving away insider secrets, which I really appreciated. But for those who haven't listened to it, what are some of your favorite thrifting spots that you still go to? 

Kate: I'm obsessed.

I'm like, I'm obsessed with buying secondhand. I always have been. And I just think it's such a way to get value and quality at a low price. So my kind of go to would be kind of adverts. Or, you know, Facebook marketplace, but it's all about patience and not having something too specific in mind and then knowing kind of when you're buying qualities of quality, like solid wood, that, you know, you can stand back if there's marks on it.

I mean, buying secondhand, a flat pack is. generally not a very good idea because it's shipboard. It'll probably fall apart when you disassemble it and all that kind of stuff. So I always look for like decent materials and decent quality. Some of them might have brands in them. Like, you know, if it's a mid century piece, it might have a specific [00:12:00] furniture brand on it.

So I kind of watch out for those things. And then I just troll. It's like my nightly troll. I just set it to nearby on the app and I just troll and see if there's anything good. 

Jo: So instead of TikTok, you're an advert stroller. She actually is, I think. What about you, Jenny? 

Jen: I like it in person. There's a place down the Midlands called Kilkenny Architectural Salvage, and I just, I'm obsessed.

Like, I've an aunt and uncle in Kilkenny, and I go down visiting them quite a bit, and I'm like, I'm actually just going to take off for the afternoon. I'll be home later for dinner. And the, it's a treasure trove. I mean, you just find things that you would, I don't think I'd think to put in as a search term on, but You know, on adverts or something like that.

So you'd find like old school lockers or like these unbelievable bathtubs that I never fit in my house, but they're so interesting to look at. And you get such inspiration because it's not just homes that have been cleared out. It's also potentially hotels or commercial properties. So you can get some incredible finds in there as well.

It's really worth it. 

Kate: You really hit the nail on the head there though. The term, the [00:13:00] terminology used, when you start to learn that, when you start to look at stuff that's second hand, you say, Oh, I was looking for a dressing table. It's actually a wash stand. You know, and when you get that terminology right there and you open up like all the other stuff you can find when you're searching.

So I think by looking at like sites like architectural salvage and they do their store walk and all that, and they, they name things and start to learn, you know, Oh, that's what it's called. Now I have way more options. 

Jo: So it's almost a good idea to go to a physical place, get your inspiration, get your terminology.

And then if you need to look for something specific, take it online. And then you have word searches and, and you have a little bit of insider information on what you're looking for more specifically. 

Jen: Totally. I think ask as well. Anytime you go to like a second hand shop or a salvage yard or an antique store, generally the people that are working there love their job.

Like it's kind of a pretty passion driven job, I would say. And they know their stuff. They've seen things coming through for years. Like they know what's good. They know what to look for. They know the brands that really hold up very well. [00:14:00] They know the materials that will last, so I think talk to them and learn from them and then you can start looking online once you've built up your, your lexicon.

Kate: I think if you're willing to do a tiny bit of work yourself, like a sanding or re oiling, you'll get way better bargains than buying them perfectly, you know, restored. 

Jo: I think you should offer this as like another service where you just go with someone, like a personal thrifting support, go with people. I know that was my favorite podcast ever, so what has been your favorites to record?

Or maybe the favorite one that you got feedback on. 

Kate: I loved our friends behind us here, Farrelly and Co. Paints. Oh, that's a really good one. I loved it because I'm a big DIYer and having Alan hit there, who is a painter by trade and he's a master at his craft. I learned so much from that episode, yeah. 

Jen: I loved, I loved them all.

I loved our kitchen ones. I think we could do about 20 on kitchens, but we did one recently. We, we just started talking, we were doing gadgets and I was like, yeah, I [00:15:00] don't really know that much about gadgets. I'm not huge into them. I don't have a much smart home stuff. Oh my God. I was talking for about an hour and a half.

I was like, I don't know how to cut this down. This is way too 

Kate: much for one episode. When I mentioned anything to do with smart home, because my husband's quite a techie, right? So we have a lot of smart home, even though he even knows how. And I started talking about smart homes and Jenny was like, Kate, that's for another day.

Let's cut it there. Like it's too much. For gadgets. Yeah. Gadgets is great. 

Jen: Just handy. Cause I think I, my mindset had gone straight to like smart homes and I don't mind smart homes, but I don't find light switches very difficult. So I just think there's not that useful to Harvey, but I just, all these like kitchen things that I gathered, like this little knickknack that I picked up that reseals bags that you can just put in the freezer.

So you don't need bag clips. I was like, this has changed my life. And I forgot about it. So yeah, I got really excited about Gadget. There's just so many cool things out there. Okay. And you should listen to that 

Jo: one and find out what the 

Jen: gadgets are. And also go straight to the Gadget Hall over there by the Dunn Stores stage.

I bought like [00:16:00] vegetable choppers and all sorts of things over there in the past few years. 

Jo: I would love to know in terms of budgeting, which is obviously such a massive part of starting into a renovation project. And like you guys again have amazing podcast about this, but like, what are your top line?

Budgeting tips, like how do you start, especially if you buy somewhere where you just think like, I don't know how much this, the roof is going to take or I don't know how much it's going to cost to insulate. How should people approach that and maybe just, especially if somebody maybe hasn't considered a renovation before and that's what's maybe stopping them?

What's the best way to start approaching it? 

Jen: I think be painstaking about it, right? So, like, I don't know, I, everybody else has probably watched, like, Grand Designs and at the end of the episode they're like, okay, we'll Like where is this money tree that I definitely didn't have that at all. So I had to be really, really painstaking.

So what I did is I put together a spreadsheet that, that literally, when I [00:17:00] say I had everything itemized, like I had the toilet roll holder in my bathroom itemized, like everything. And then for big things, I got a great tip from Kate, which was get three quotes. So for flooring, for kitchens, for all the kind of bigger things, don't drive yourself nuts, but get three quotes.

And then at least. At least you'll have a ballpark as to where you're roughly gonna be. So like a roof is a good idea, or if you're a contractor, just, just get three and at least you know where you are then. And then I literally listed absolutely everything. And what I did was, I put, I got a quote or an estimate for the most expensive thing that I wanted.

So my solid wood flooring was in there, or these tiles that I really wanted, that was in there. And then I put a quote or an estimate in the next column over for the cheapest alternative that I would settle for. If, if Came to it and I wasn't able to buy the thing that I wanted on. Then, as I was going through and I was doing my house and, you know, things, something was more expensive than I thought or something was cheaper than I thought, which actually did happen once or twice.

I knew then what else I'd be able [00:18:00] to afford kind of on my prioritized list. So what I have to go for the cheaper option for my kitchen countertops or would I be able to splash out on the ports? And it was, it's a lot of work up front and then it just makes everything so much easier as you're going through the renovation.

Jo: Really smart to have the high low and then try and figure it out there. Go ahead. 

Kate: No, I agree. Same thing. The more organized you are up front, the easier it will become through your renovation or through your build. And no going into it. What are your absolute non negotiables? For some people, like Jenny, that's really nice tiles.

For me, it was the wood flooring or, you know, my kitchen cabinetry or something like that. So I knew exactly where I wanted to put my money and I knew the ones that were negotiable. And like Jenny said, like as you go through, some stuff will get knocked off, some stuff will bump up the list, but be organized and have a good idea of the kind of main big kind of PC sums or preliminary sums before you start your work.

Jen: And I think the little stuff adds up as well, like, don't forget, don't forget your curtains, don't forget your, like, [00:19:00] your cutlery or the crockery that you, like, things really, really add up. So do list every small item in your spreadsheet. 

Jo: Brilliant idea with just, I guess, thinking, you know, broadly, what will I not, what are my non negotiables?

Because there's some things like, for some people, the kitchen is it, and they just want to splash out. For other people, that might not be a priority. So I love that tip. Which brings me on to suppliers, because it sounds like you both have now found people who you love to work with, who you really trust.

But when it's your first project, how did you go about figuring out supplier areas and who to go for? Was it a gut? Was it looking at their work? Because that's often something that people are worried about as well. I got a lot of mine from you. 

Kate: Yeah, no, I think you have to get a good sense and a good feel from them.

Like, so you have your initial meetings or meetups or if it's a kitchen, uh, place, maybe the kitchen designer and see if you kind of hit it off. Like, cause like Jenny has said in the podcast before, it's a working [00:20:00] relationship. You're going to be working with these people for maybe a long time through the renovation.

So it's really important that you get on with them first and foremost. I took some advice from my architect who had some suppliers, um, and then a lot of it was cost driven, if I'm 100 percent honest. You know, we shopped around for cost and stuff that I was buying, and I, it was pre, kind of all the Brexit stuff, so I was shipping it from the UK in a pallet and I saved money that way.

It was just where I needed to save money versus where I was kind of, like we said before, what were the non negotiables that I wanted a, a supplier close by that I could manage. And now we're lucky because we can just 

Jo: listen to you and steal all of your suppliers. Thanks for that. I'm going to show it off.

When it comes to renovation highs, because I'm sure there's so many lows, so many surprises along the way, setbacks, all of that. What have been some of the pinching moments during any of your projects where you've just thought, okay, this is why I'm addicted to renovating? 

Jen: Winning over the year. Best day ever.

Nice to 

Jo: [00:21:00] see you, 

Kate: dear. Nice to see you. I did, I did. I think for me, The one that sticks in my head in the room that I loved the most from my, my last renovation was my bathroom. So we did micro cement on all the walls, we did a really minimal kind of shower area, I did an antique wash stand that we got for 150 euros on adverts.

And it all just came together better than I even had in my head or on a mood board. And I remember being like, I can't believe this is my bathroom. It was just the one room that I was like, this is why I love it, this is why I do it. 

Jen: For me, this is such a random high, but it's when the plastering gets done.

I don't know what it is, but I find plastering to be absolute magic. Like, it's like a genie comes in and just fixes your entire house. And everything from there on just looks livable or something. I just remember walking in and it had been wires and, you know, bare bones of walls and insulation sticking out.

And then suddenly you have a house with walls. I just found that. Kind of mesmerizing. for [00:22:00] your contribution and hard 

Jo: work. for your contribution and hard work. Um, Where do you guys find the inspiration? Like, you mentioned the bathroom there. Like, you obviously found different items that you pulled together.

Like, where, what's the starting point? Especially if you come into, like, a freshly plastered house and it's a blank canvas. How do you make sure that the rooms that you're approaching are going to look good together, that the items that you're finding on adverts will actually suit the room. Like, do you have a process?

Do you just find inspiration online? 

Kate: Kind of everywhere. Pinterest would be my kind of go to first. Then I narrow things down, I start pulling them together on boards. So Pinterest and then Instagram, I'd follow some big interior designers that I really love. And then I suppose I just keep narrowing it down and keep seeing a pattern from the stuff I'm pinning.

I'm pinning the same things. I'm pinning the same things. So, oh, there's something in this that I really like. And there's a theme. A theme comes out of it. It falls out of it. But it takes, again, a lot of trawling, a lot of pinning, a lot of just narrowing down the searches, I think. 

Jen: [00:23:00] Yeah, and I'm very visual as well, so I need to see everything together before I make a decision on it.

And I really try not to impulse buy anything. Like, I'll sleep on it a few times, and if I still want it, and it still works with everything, then Then I'll get it, but I'm a slow shopper, I would say. It needs to all look good together. 

Jo: I love that too. Lots of thought and preparation. Do you find that you have a personal style, or does the renovation project also drive it?

Like, does the house talk to you and say, like, I need the kitchen to be like this, or I need the living room, or is it very much driven from your vision of what the house should be? 

Jen: I think the house talks to you. Definitely. Like, I think you need to stay true to your own style. And you know your style.

Like, look in your wardrobe. You'll see colours or, you know, you'll see patterns repeating themselves. Like, you will find your own style. But I think you have to stay true to the house. Otherwise it just looks jarring and not right, yeah. It 

Kate: never looks right, I think. It'll never sit right. And my first house was a new build in Galway.

So it was hard to get a bit of character into that, and I think my style was quite [00:24:00] kind of scandy, and maybe kind of minimal enough, very grey at the time, because everything was grey at the time, I think. But then, like, my next two houses have been period properties, so, like, you have to lean into that, you can't ignore that.

I mean, you can obviously completely gut these houses, but when they're listed buildings, you have to keep all that plasterwork and everything, and you wouldn't want to get rid of it anyway, so. I think making features of that and kind of really, you know, showcasing why you bought the house because it's a beautiful old house.

Yeah. 

Jo: So what are you guys working on at the moment? I know you have a renovation on Tuesday. Just literally 

Kate: breaking ground on a renovation at the moment, so.

Yeah, going through the chaos again. With two toddlers in tow this time, so I'm not sure how easy it's going to be. 

Jo: You must have amazing energy to keep it up. Um, 

Jen: I never stop talking about it because it's my favorite topic. So I write for the examiner every week. I'm on news talk every Thursday and the podcast is out every two weeks.

So it's my favorite topic and I'm delighted people like to listen and read about it. 

Jo: So if people want to send [00:25:00] in questions or maybe connect with you guys, what's the best way to do it? So they get in touch with a podcast email, message you guys on Instagram. By the way, we need to share both your Instagrams, which are amazing.

So yeah, 

Jen: Instagram is probably best. It's @workerscottage is my Instagram, but I'm @victorianrathmines. 

Jo: Girls. Thank you so much for joining us. I can't wait for the next episode and we'll be following everything so closely, thanks for joining us.

We hope you enjoyed that live recording from the ideal home show in Dublin. And if you were there and you thought in person, then thank you so much for coming.

Go and check out all of our other episodes. And if you find them useful, please do us a huge favor by giving us a like, and a few stars on, especially click that subscribe button. 

Thank you.