BUNGALOW BLITZ

Interview with Paul & Rose Byrne, Upper Carrick, 2001 by Joanne Lacey.

Joanne: So you built the house?

Paul: Yeah

Joanne: The house was already being built before you met, he met you?

Rose: Yeah.

Paul: That’s why she married me, laughs. My brother actually started the site. And the rock breaker… my father, and they paid for the blasting when all the rock was here. But at the first day we came down here, we couldn’t go through at one process and we actually came out through the old house. We came to the threat where they brought to the old house first and then they changed their mind where they build the one next door. My brother then he headed off to America. He stayed there for 18 months and then he came back, was back here for a couple of months and then he went to England. And he met up with his wife there and he wasn’t really wasn’t really interested in coming back, so my father said to me why don’t you jusdt take the site over and build on it… So I actually built the site and the foundations and all that for 800 Sterling… So then I got a contractor to build the house.

Joanne: So this site has been in the family ?

Paul: Yeah the land was, yeah. My uncle actually bought it for his father, that was my grand father. For the first couple of month wages, he bought it. They actually had no money …they came in from Glencolmkiln. And they were living in an old house just down here and my uncle bought the place and… and as they left it to my father, so…

Joanne: How much land is with this house?

Paul: It’s about a half acre, a half acre here, just that’s all.

Joanne: So there’s never been a house on this land?

Paul: Well, you mean where the house is situated now?

Joanne: Just the plot has there ever been a house on it?

Paul: Nor there never been a house on this actual plot here. There has been one just over there, just across the way from here.

Joanne: So the track that you found was for a house that was going to be built?

Paul: Yeah. They actually were going to build a house down here first OK, The home house, and what happened, nobody, I wasn’t talking to xxxxxxxx removed for privacy xxxx. Where we live just out the back there we… but it wasn’t a good site like you know because there was a lot of rock. It was all by hand you know, 60 years ago.

Joanne: So you built this 11 years ago.

Paul: Yeah something like, it started 1989, finished 1990…

Joanne: Did you built it yourself, the actual work on it?

Paul: No, it got done by a contractor.

Joanne: Right.

Paul: We actually put in the foundations ourselves, me and my brother. But then we got a contractor too, a local contractor

Joanne: How did you plan it, where did you get the plans?

Paul: Well the plans were actually done, my brother had the plans done, when he, you know, he had to have the plans done when… and he had to submit the plans to the planning authority. And he would then, well I would actually would have to stick to them or else… stuck to it but they actually put that extension on then.

Joanne: when was that done then?

Paul: Six years ago last April.

Joanne: Just the dining room?

Paul: No there is another room as well at the back… extension.

Joanne: Was this a Bungalow Bliss plan?

Paul: Yeah this was a bungalow… it had two gables. And this gable here then we built the extension on, on that gable there. So… Well the gables actually we didn’t take all the gables, the gables don’t…

Joanne: So did you change where this was situated in relation to the road and stuff or is that where the original plan?

Paul: Everything was as it was given permission… We actually waited… the road wouldn’t be as good. We actually took away 6/7 foot of the road. We widened the road about 6/7 foot.

Joanne: So were you living in it, was Paul living in it when you met him?

Rose: No it wasn’t even built then, it was only the foundations.

Paul: We were just building it, just the shell. We just finished off after we were married. Christmas 1990. The day before Christmas eve we moved in.

Joanne: And was the decoration in place then?

Rose: It was 11 years ago today.

Paul: That’s right, 11 years today.

Joanne: Did you remember that ?

Paul: We’ll see…

Joanne: Did you decorate it before you moved in or was it quite…

Rose: No, we didn’t.

Paul: Well it was all painted then. There was furniture. There was beds, the beds were here as well then. Just a few little things, the kitchen was in, the oil heating, the central heating was in you know, just a few little bits and pieces you know.

Joanne: Did you change much on the inside since you’ve been here?

Rose: ...

Paul: We haven’t changed it really, everything is the same. We changed a couple of bits of carpets and we have, what else?

Rose: That’s about it.

Paul: Yeah that’s it everything is the same. Its due well.

Rose: Nothing’s changed… I’m wiser.

Paul: Rose, claims to feel the change.

Joanne: Oh you feel the change coming on… you want to change?

Paul: She likes, she wants to put in Goergian windows, she wants to put in wooden floors, she wants to put in pine…

Rose: [laughs]

Joanne: …Will you get your way?

Rose: I think I might!...

Paul: The only thing that… Georgian windows go in and out of fashion, the same with pine. Pine was about 60/70 years ago. Garden, wooden floors… are coming back. For the real wooden floor you can’t do it unless you raise your… The whole floor level and… spoil that if you can get the small wooden floor there. Every body has different tastes…

Joanne: But you seem really to be proud of it.

Rose: We are.

Paul: Well there wasn’t a lot of money spent. The house was only you know, the house was the easiest part. There is nothing to building the house but it’s the inside work that’s hard.

Rose: Yeah the furniture.

Paul: Furniture you know everybody got different tastes. I probably got different tastes to Rose there. It doesn’t bother me really, I wouldn’t be conscious of it like you know but I would have me own taste in every little thing. I would make everything to coordinate I would pick everything to coordinate with the next thing like. But with everything with the grounds, like there was a lot of work with the grounds. There was a lot of money spend with the grounds like. I actually done all that myself.

Joanne: Was it very rocky here, you obviously had to get rid of all the rocks.

Paul: All the roads you see there that’s all a fellow did come in and blasted it out. This was all rock, this would have been a rock. Only the back wall, all the house was built to the rock apart from the very back wall. The back wall of the house there was about, I’d say a 10 foot long foundation. You know about 10 foot deep and there was about 1000 blocks sprayed underneath against the… You had the rock and then you had a soft spot, you know that happens a lot around here.

Joanne: Where all the foundations around here blasted out?

Paul: Well this would be one of the first sites around here I would say that was build that were blasted, it was the rock around here. I remember most places down here that were blasted. You know the place down this half, that was blasted, blasted twice in fact. I remember standing in front I felt the shock, whilst they blasted, we felt the earth moving you know. Yeah that was a long time ago, that was about 25 years ago.

Joanne: So you are thinking seriously of selling it, or are you not?

Paul: Well if could replace this house.

Joanne: Where would you go.

Paul: Well I’d like to start over again… I would have a lot more ideas now, but its very very hard. I know people that move 5 or 6 times. It’s very, very hard knowing where to go, it’s very hard to get the right place. I have an idea.

Joanne: _Where would you go.

Paul: I wouldn’t go away far but you know like, I have me eye on a couple of places… [removed for privacy]

Joanne: There is a lot of planning restrictions and planning restrictions have changed a lot, what you can build and what you can’t build.

Paul: Well, we wanted, when we build this place here, we build mock dormers, but they wasn’t really dormers they were just a little bit of imitations. Just decorated above the window you know. Just a dormer above the window and that wasn’t allowed, we didn’t tell them about it you know but the planning here is an absolute joke… There are houses, you see some houses now and they’re like you see some people, families they have children, they will be trying to build on their home land because they can’t afford to buy anywhere else and they’re being turned down. And yet we have northern Ireland people can come in here and no matter what they’re building they can get planning permission. I know this is a fact you know, some people work upon dormers they are not allowed. Others… but maybe they’re not suitable. You know if you’re building close to a turn, you know if you want to build close, a house that is close to a bad bend, you wont get it. Others they didn’t get it.

Joanne: Because obviously you know the McDevitt’s house, they’re building on that junction. I don’t know the rules around here so I can’t you know.

Paul: I don’t know, that’s Paddies family?

Joanne: And just were they build their house on the road to Kilkar, above the church just there. There is a house going up just opposite there, right on the bend of the road.

Paul: I can’t understand, normally I can’t understand how they were building there.

Joanne: And that’s, it blocked out all their view…

Paul: And that’s like if you’re a contractor and you get planning permission and after a month you have problems. Very few people have an easy time with the planning. You know these people they just don’t know. These people have nothing to do with this part of Donegal… they don’t know what’s important. You know they’re using it. Have you seen that new house that’s being build opposite Kitty Kelly’s? That’s an absolute disgrace. I know another site there now that I can buy for £7,000, just around the corner there up at… I don’t know why the other man could get it and I couldn’t.

Joanne: So who is building around here now, who is building the new houses is it a lot of Northern Irish people?

Paul: Well you have a lot of Northern Irish people they are buying a lot of houses built by contractors. You see I have a cousin as well and he owns the land from Carrick up the other road from Killybegs from Carick. Near the main road, he owns that land almost half the way up the road up there and the land’s worth almost half million OK. And he sold one side of it and he wanted to sell it to a contractor. He’ll get a lot of money for it, maybe 250,000. But they won’t give him planning permission and there is, there are no explanations, what he was told was that they wanted to preserve the bog. OK now, there is about I don’t know how many square miles of bog this area alone. A couple of meters outside the village, it’s that stupid. You know it’s an ideal location for houses, you know. There are a few houses already up the road. There is you know a fine housing estate, it’s a good, safe place away from the road there, it would be a fabulos place, 4 houses. But you see he was told that if he sold that to a contractor, there is a contractor trying to buy it off him, normally if a …buying a piece of land they want planning permission, though he doesn’t want planning permission. He said that if he …planning permission they’d rejected the whole thing. They said if he’d wanted planning permission, he’d have to… [removed for privacy]

Joanne: Is that what it is, is it corruption?

Paul: Yeah it is, well it is corruption. Three is, you have no proof. I don’t think there is any proof but there is corruption. There has to be because where they are putting the new road, from Killybegs coming in this way round, years ago, about 20 years ago that were the plan. In come this company… and they build out straight in the middle of the main road, the proposed road and down here you can see that. And there kick up that time out… And there was a contractor now trying to build for a man, a business man there… [removed for privacy]... and he is actually thinking of putting a housing estate over there. And everybody is against him. Local man trying to make a pound for himself and everyone is against him. The ones over there now, somebody from anywhere else, they put up their hands and knees to help. Well it has been proved that there is, it has been proved that there is a feller from Northern Ireland there and that… He caused a lot of problems. And there was a big thing here like, about a year ago now, there is a local girl here went to the TD about planning permission, and TD was supposed to have told her to go to a certain person, with a brown envelope and… she said that on the radio… the girl actually had a witness with her, and she pulled out of it. She actually… and went public with it but… She got an earful like that to stay out of it.

Joanne: Because its part of the culture here isn’t it building your own house on your land.

Paul: Oh yeah well, some people can do it. You know some people will do it here now I would know and they wouldn’t have like, especially in this part of Donegal, they definitely need 2 working to get a mortgage. You understand, so I know people that have gone to Dublin and they have gone and worked in Dublin, one of them had gone to Dublin to work, so that you know they had two jobs to have the income coming in that would help the mortgage like. You know you would probably have about £300 – 400 a week you’d probably get a mortgage, how much like?... And I was very lucky like you know I had an accident and you know the compensation I got, with it I build this house… At that time it only cost me £xxxxxx to build the house and now I would say you’d probably need double you know.

Joanne: Have you got photographs, any photographs at all of the house as it was being built, of the land anything like that?

Paul: No. [...]

Joanne: You did photograph it as it was being built?

Paul: No but I have a photograph just as it was built. There is a photograph somewhere with all the blocks on the foundation, wherever that is I don’t know. But I have photographs of the lawns being done. They actually look well.

Joanne: Could I borrow that?

Paul: You can do yeah, if I can find them. But you mightn’t be able to get them today. I don’t know where they are… half of the house.

Joanne: Did you advertise for your B+B?

Rose: No…

Paul: See Rose… There is one there, as it’s been done.

Joanne: Is this the front, is that where the front is?

Paul: Side. Gorgeous day.

Joanne: Did your family build their own house?

Rose: Yeah.

Joanne: Because in England, most people don’t do they really? It’s a really, really big deal.

Paul: When do you go away?

Joanne: Saturday. Tomorrow morning.

Paul: I’ll find them for you.

Joanne: Oh that’ll be brilliant.

Paul: … that’s the four, that’s four of them. Now they’re dead on the last two years.

Rose: 4 months.

Paul: Yeah 4 months. I actually have a great aunt you know, she’s 102

Joanne: But she must remember. Fantastic houses.

Paul: …..My father and his uncle, when they moved down here first, when they moved down from Glencolmkiln to here first, they were actually sleeping they were all sleeping in a shed just down the way out. …

Joanne: Because XXXXX showed me a photograph of their thatched house in the 80s.

Paul: XXXXXX was a big man, he would have built his own house. But my grandfather you know there’d probably be another house here, like from my grandfather. My grandfather was a weaver and he actually, where the whole house over there now, right the way on down to the other houses to spinning from the new house. And they had to make a road down to these old houses here, just to right away, but they were making a road there, ...there the council came out and they’d say they put it down in front of my grandfather’s house and he wouldn’t agree to it. And they said oh, you have to. You know and he wouldn’t. They even had to get hold of … and they told him that he wouldn’t cooperate with the County Council. ... And he never gave in. So they did the road just along the farms, you know just the boundary of the farms the whole way down. So nobody lost any land, which is a very good idea. But that is the way you know what type he is. They were very intimidated that time, what they threatened him with…

Joanne: There must have been just a lot of old tracks around here.

Paul: Oh yeah, just tracks to …the pictures. That’s my father there at the hay there but 4 years ago.

Joanne: So where is this house?

Paul: That’s the house next door. That house is about the same age as ours but that house would be more modern than the houses was back in that day… They would get things done. ...had two sons.

Joanne: Is he still alive your dad?

Paul: No he passed away a year and a half ago. At the time we were building the house as well you know. There was a lot of things. I honestly think a good idea for a young couple would be to learn from another house before they build a house because the woman of the house would probably know anyway what she wants. You know she’d be in the house, she’d make… have an idea.

Rose: It gives you an idea.

Paul: It gives you an idea of how things could be, they won’t build the house in a day. ...You know like I worked, laboured, I worked… you know I would definitely do things differently. I’d have bigger rooms, 15×10 at least… You know you can put on bathrooms or something like that, you know the rooms they are small like, we are talking about… an en suite bathroom… that’s still small.

Rose: Five by seven is it?

Paul: five by nine.

Joanne: In the Bungalow Bliss plans the rooms were quite small when they were…

Paul: The rooms would be somewhere between 10×9…

Joanne: The newer houses are two storey, aren’t they now?...

Paul: You see they’re making space. As they’re making far more space, they’re using all the space to combine an area. You know they’re getting on the height. We used to have a lot less. It’s a big, big help like. It’s a big help if you could have 3 bedrooms… that means you have the rest of the house down to the ground floor wherever you want to be. We put on, you know if we raised our roof… you could make 2 bedrooms, you could make a big difference to this house. You could make your roof bigger, you could knock that wall in there and just… a room like that. I like a big room now. I actually think the ceiling should be at least 10 foot high. Then you could have your Chandeliers or whatever, and not bang your head.

Joanne: Well thanks very, very, very much for talking to me. If you dig some photos up that be great.

Rose: Can we listen back to that now?

Joanne: I can play you back the last bit if you like. Its always a bit weird hearing yourself on tape though.

TAPE OFF

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