Episode 4 House of the Year

It's time once more to find Northern Ireland's House of the Year.

We've got a wonderfully wide variety of houses,

each with something special, something unique to offer.

But who's going to be making those all-important decisions?

Time to meet the judges.

Returning once again, head judge,

award-winning residential architect, Des Ewing.

International interior designer, Suzanne Garuda.

And they're joined by Manhattan-based interior and product designer, Michael Tavano.

The best part of being a judge for House Of The Year is that

I get to in indulge my inner voyeurism and see how people live and see these wonderful homes.

What I would like people to take away from the third series of House Of The Year

is that they can dream like the dreamers we have on this show

to create something new, something a little bit better.

Every house has been so unique and I'd really like people

to celebrate the great wealth of architects, tradesmen,

craftsmen, designers that we have in Northern Ireland.

So, there we are, three super-stylish judges,

12 absolutely stunning properties

but only one winner.

So, let the games begin.

As we move seamlessly towards fulfilling our quest to find a winner,

prepare yourselves to meet our last super-stylish contenders,

any one of which could be House Of The Year.

We're off to the north-west to a country barn conversion

which is full of charm, personality and most importantly, fun.

Or could the winning house be in Omagh?

A modern, friendly, down-to-earth family house with a touch of the 1930s.

Or will it be our first house, here on the north coast?

Wonderful sea views, romantic, rugged walks by the beach

and easy-going access to the golf course.

Sounds like the perfect place to build a holiday home

but when our homeowners saw what they'd created,

they decided to move here full time because it was so good, and retire.

This six-bedroom seaside retreat is home to Myrtle and Leslie Millar.

It's a multi-generational house,

with guest rooms for the grandchildren and their parents.

They've also cleverly and very thoughtfully included a lift

directly into one of the bedrooms for Myrtle's mum.

Colours and the interior design were all chosen by Myrtle herself

and Leslie designed and made the steel and marble staircase.

This impressive couple have been really hands-on

in creating the home of their dreams.

So, this actually started as a holiday home, didn't it?

But you saw what you'd done and decided you were going to move there permanently.

We wanted a home that was going to be for us

as well as for my mother, who is 90.

She comes to stay now and again.

Also for our children and our grandchildren.

So, putting that all together was a starting block.

So, thinking of all the uses and ways round that.

You've made something really very elegant, very sophisticated.

Was that a real joy, to be able to express your personalities?

For me, it was.

The bathrooms, I think, were the part that I really liked best.

What's lovely, it's a modern house, but it's not that modern cliche

of everything being white and everything being plain.

You've got some wonderful colours and patterns in each room.

Turquoise is my favourite colour, that's the one I've used the most.

-You've red in here and lots of colour in the bedrooms.

-Leslie chose the colour in here.

Well, downstairs, we'd gone for cream

and were heading that direction again.

I always loved a really nice, strong red suite,

so it got the thumbs up.

-What, from the boss?

-Yes!

LAUGHTER

I always think that in America, this is the kind of decorating

that puts the bella into Bel-Air.

In fact, it's more like some kind of glossy soap opera.

There you are - Krystle Carrington, but from Northern Ireland.

-Looking very glamorous and glossy in here.

-It is absolutely fabulous.

It is just so sophisticated - the colour, the detail.

It could be a show home, but it's not. I love that.

I love the fact that you've got these very personal paintings and artefacts and antiques.

There's obviously personality going on, but the engineering is amazing.

Absolutely. And I think because Leslie's an engineer, he's understood

that design and construction all work together hand in hand

and that's why this place is not superficial.

It's been beautifully designed with a lot of practicality

as well as fantastic finishes, amazing colours.

Exquisite. This sort of turquoise-y, peacock-y...

Teal. Teal, darling.

..really lifts everything and stops it being a kind of

smudgy mush of oatmeal, which is very important.

What's lovely about this house is it looks quite cream but actually, it's shaded.

We've got at least eight shades of cream going on here, which works really well.

Myrtle is as obsessed by the finishing and colour

as Lesley is by the engineering and the design detail.

Perfect couple. Then we've got this almost traditional snug, with the wood burner.

The fire, I think, is absolutely beautiful. It's perfect in this space.

Again, beautifully engineered with the curve that suits the table,

which suits the chairs.

Incidentally, the chairs were bought first, kitchen designed around them. I like that.

Of course having said that Suzanne looked like Krystle from Dynasty,

I should have said she looked like someone from Dallas because we've got a Ewing!

Not Bobby, but Des.

Now, there's a lot that I see inside that reminds me

of those very, very glamorous, very glitzy American soap operas.

-What about the outside?

-The thing about the exterior is that first impressions

are the most important thing in a house.

You make your mind up within a few seconds and, unfortunately,

it doesn't look that impressive from the outside.

I think the thing that makes the outside interesting is the fact

that you see so much of the inside but not really the architecture.

No, this house is not about the architecture,

it's about the way that it's organised on the site.

It's got six bedrooms. The decision to reduce the level by 1.5 metres

means they can add an extra floor in

and it also means you're not going up quite as high to get into the house at start of it.

Those elements are worked out extremely well.

They've created a lot of space, but they use every inch of it.

That's what's good about it, there is no wasted space.

I keep going back to how clever the plan is.

I am more than a little in love

with this curved glass screen on the staircase and its relationship to the chandelier,

because that kind of detail is incredibly difficult to pull off because it's so sophisticated.

Sophisticated is a very good word here.

Oh, you can colour me surprised.

-What, with felt-tips?

-When we drove up here, I did NOT expect this.

-I had to take the elevator up.

-You see, that's very, very glamour-puss, isn't it?

Ah! The sleeping stairwell, the way it goes up to the third floor

and the colourful bedrooms - the pink girl's bedroom up there, so whimsical.

This must be an antidote to your homesickness as it feels very American.

-Is this where I'm staying?

-Yes, if only!

Well, the use of colour in here, this aubergine,

she's done this in each room, she's picked a colour.

I've never seen a night stand upholstered.

-They've got little crystal handles.

-Bling!

They've got bling.

If I was shown this, I'd assume it was a professional job,

I'd assume it was a decorator, an architect, it was an engineer.

Actually, it's a couple creating their own home. It's a masterpiece.

It is a masterpiece. The base of the home is beige.

Many different colours of beige, but then she's used colour properly in the pops of it.

They don't only use it, they live in it.

An astonishing start to today's programme.

Let's check out house number two.

Even when it's just a couple of houses down the street,

moving house can be traumatic.

So, imagine installing yourself in a disused barn

in the middle of a field?

Could have been a nightmare scenario for our next homeowners

but I'm pleased to report a fairy-tale ending

because this is their dream home.

This barn conversion in Claudy is home to Lesley and Craig Jefferson.

Craig not only helped design the project,

he also built it and he incorporated many of the barn's original features

as well as adding a few interesting,

rather quirky details to this fun family home.

The round tower houses a spiral staircase,

which leads down to the ground floor of the old barn

and to the bedroom accommodation.

Craig originally bought the tumbledown barn

with the intention of restoring it and then selling it on.

But as work progressed, he fell in love with its country charm.

Lesley, on the other hand, took a lot more convincing.

You come tripping down this muddy drive in your Jimmy Choos

and you see this big, old, wrecked, old, stony, old barn.

-You must have been delighted.

-No. I wasn't moving to it.

I didn't want to move to the country at that time, no.

-We put her on the kitchen, says, "Do the kitchen, now."

-Mmm.

And when she started the kitchen she got bitten a bit, then, so.

What's the thing that really sets this place apart for you?

For me, I love watching the birds and the wee squirrels

It's amazing sitting watching them and hearing them in the mornings.

And if it's a good day or a good night, we would sit out and...

And we'd have a wee card school for the doghouse nights. Poker classics.

And so what kind of style do you think sums you up?

Um...plain and simple?

-Really?

-Mmm. Yeah.

-I... You don't think there's something a bit more,

-sort of, shiny and a bit more glamorous to it?

-Well, maybe.

But I don't like a lot of fuss.

Yeah. So, you like elegant? Let's go for that.

Yes. Different, wee, quirky things, wee different things.

Everywhere you look, it's about, really,

-100% having a good time.

-Yeah.

How would you describe your style? Don't say plain and simple.

I'm not going to buy it from you, either.

Ah, I love the old stuff, I think a lot of the old buildings

around the country that are lost, they're tumbled,

they can be used, you know.

Our architect was actually very good on it, along with us, you know.

Between the two of us, it was a joint venture with us.

When I seen it at the start, that's what I pictured, to be honest.

There's obviously a real advantage

to having all the living area up here because the views are amazing.

Straight the way across the valley.

The views are so, you know, lovely and green out there

and then you come in here and it's just incredibly vibrant.

-It's all black and red.

-Yeah.

-I mean, that's the surprise.

Even the AGA's black. Now, that's a new one on me.

But it is a real contrast of materials.

Yes, you have the very contemporary. The black gloss, the black AGA.

This incredible bar, but then you've got all the timber and the rustic elements.

And, indeed, the slogans.

I don't think I've ever seen quite so many slogans in one space.

I find this so energetic, this space. You know, there's so much going on.

I think it's very chatty, it's very gregarious,

you get a feeling that they do party hard.

Yep. There's lots of really interesting elements in it, though.

You know, the beams, that wheel that's been converted into a light,

they do work very well, somehow.

But what about...? Now, this is, obviously a massive contrast

to the fact that we're in a reclaimed agricultural space

and we've got these big red sofas, these, sort of, poppy motifs.

There's something quite 1970s' rock and roll about it.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that they, you know,

-they'd done a bit of rock and roll in their time.

-Yeah.

I think, again, this is a reflection of their personality, absolutely.

This is a real fun house, and that, it really suits that, you know?

Right. Very energetic upstairs,

Michael is downstairs looking at the sleeping accommodation.

Come join me on the spiral staircase.

This turret does, in fact, have quite a modern fairytale feel to it,

and they've used it to display all these mementos.

From their round-the-world trips and somehow that seems very right,

-you coming down out of the castle.

-Am I Prince Charming?

-You are charming.

-There we are.

-So, we're in the hallway now,

which is up to the master bedroom

-and the bedrooms which were the stables.

-So, this is the old bit.

This is, this is, and we have The Piggery which we just went past

and now we're going into The Shed.

There's a deliberately comedic thing here. This is so not a shed.

-Look at it.

-No, it's not a shed.

-It's a boudoir.

It is a boudoir and a very feminine boudoir.

Well, now, this is something I struggle with slightly,

because Craig is obviously a man's man, he's a constructor,

he's a builder. How comfortable can he be amongst all that fluffy...?

Well, we all have a feminine side to us, I think that's it.

-That's what it's about?

-Yeah, we all do.

I think he's comfortable in here because it's a comfortable room,

the view is spectacular. It's almost like a pastoral oil painting,

which is really my favourite thing about the room.

They did have a bit of fun with the chandelier

with the fairies hanging on it, so...

I would think there's a very high fairy dust hazard in here.

-But what about handbag trees, are they going to catch on?

-I...

-Well, these are yours, aren't they?

-They so aren't.

I would worry if I had that many handbags.

-Come on, I would carry that. Wouldn't you carry that?

-No.

-It's quite lovely.

-For a start, it would clash with my face.

So, Des, as an architectural statement, how do you feel this kind of conversion works?

Well, the important thing about this is the fact that it is a conversion,

that it's not just a house built in the corner of a field

and it's how it fits in to the surroundings that's important.

I love the fact that it connects with the house across the road.

The road runs between the two, the old farms used to straddle the road,

and it's great to keep that sort of stuff in this country.

What about the turret? That's the most eye-catching feature.

Do you think that it works with the rest of the building?

The part I couldn't understand is,

the planners had been very particular

about what can be done with the existing building.

They won't allow window sizes to be changed, but they allow this turret,

which is a major feature, to be put on to it.

The turret works very well in terms of circulation,

cos it means the staircase does not have to be within the building,

where space is tight, so, practically it works well.

I think, maybe, it's a bit too strong for the house.

It takes away from the simplicity of the barn.

The outside seems a bit grown-up, compared to what goes on inside.

Yeah, it is grown-up, you know, the zinc roofs and all this funky stuff

-and then you go in and it's...

-And it's all, kind of, jazz hands.

I like it. I must say, I prefer the funky bit

-that they have inside. I think it works better.

-Excellent.

So there we are, house number two, good taste on the outside,

good fun on the inside, an exuberant conversion.

On to house number three.

Our third and final property is set in the leafy lanes of Omagh,

surrounded by traditional houses

built in the time-honoured traditional style.

But this house is a bit of a newcomer.

When Eamonn McMullen was looking for a dream home with his wife, Louise,

his search took him back to the street where he was born.

Their 1930s'-inspired new-build sits on a long, narrow site

and has been cleverly landscaped to produce a multi-level garden.

Everything has been designed with practical family living in mind.

And a large open-plan room incorporates the kitchen,

dining and sitting areas, as well as a children's' play space.

This, to me, is the ideal family home,

and, in fact, weirdly, it IS your family home, isn't it?

-But it's not this house.

-It was next door.

-Next door.

I was born and brought up there.

So, you're having a look at hubby's childhood home and you think,

"What an absolutely fabulous place to bring up children,"

and lo and behold there's a house for sale next door.

-Mmm-hmm.

-What was it like?

-It was an old 1930s'-style house

with a lovely big, long back garden

that appealed to me because of having the three girls.

Initially, we thought we would buy it

and knew that it would need some renovation and possibly an extension,

but when our architect looked at it,

he advised us that we would have been better to contemplate

knocking the original house down and starting again.

So many people would love to be able to start from scratch

and make a family home completely designed around

what everybody in the family expects to have from their home.

We wanted a space where everybody could be,

a large kitchen where children tend to want to play,

and for us to have friends round, and one of the other things

was not to have too many rooms, rooms that aren't used.

-There you are with three lovely daughters.

-Yes.

-Where's all the pink?

-Pink's up the stairs.

-Is it?

-You'll see a lot of pink.

-You see? They've got taste.

They've got very good taste.

When they built family houses back in the '30s,

they often were terribly generous with the plot,

and this is a really magnificent amount of green space, isn't it?

It's great, yeah, but the problem is it's a higher level than the house.

-Well, yeah, yeah. This is it, isn't it?

-Garden's here,

house down there. This is why this works so well.

It's how you deal with the change of level. There has been terraces,

there's been a lot of planting in it.

It's been broken up and then the path leads you up to it very softly.

So, that makes it all tie together well with the house.

It's a polite house, I think.

It is, it's great to have something that's unrestrained

and not trying to be the biggest show in town.

The windows are important because they continue

that unusual horizontal fenestration, but also the colour of them.

It gives... Usually houses in this area

can be a little bit bland, where there's so many greys in it,

this introduces a little bit of colour to it

and brightens the whole thing up along with the texture of the walls.

Basically, this is arts and crafts architecture, isn't it?

This is a style that started in the 1860s, 1870s

and it's still going strong. People still like it.

There's something very homely about it,

something very friendly and understated and relaxed,

and that's why it keeps coming up, it keeps coming back.

Obviously, Louise and Eamonn have built this from scratch,

but they've left walls as if there's almost been

a series of knock-throughs, and I really like that

because it does create these different areas, doesn't it?

-These different zones?

-It does.

This house is made for living for a family.

A "great room", we'd call it.

It's funny, about kitchen design, and I think it comes from America,

is you get these very eye-catching island units

which I think people have taken from cookery shows.

They want to stand there, address the family

-and tell everybody how the chopping's going.

-It's convenient,

and she has all the conveniences, you know, the drawers that pull out

which are really great for storing and easy to get to.

She has the pantry cabinets, just perfect,

and the American-style refrigerator.

They have the counter for the kids to dine at.

She does cook a lot, so, you know, the stove is perfect for her,

she has the great little details where...

For the plugs.

-That's very Thunderbirds.

-Isn't that great?

What about colour? What about decoration?

She's done a great job with colour.

She's not afraid of it, she's been using it.

This room itself is more browns and, you know, very, very liveable.

Cos with three girls running around the house, you know, it's...

You're going to get messy. So it really doesn't show dirt as much.

But upstairs she's done some great colours. Great, great colours.

Well, definitely there's a real sense of,

sort of, comfy, cosy family-orientated fun here.

Bit of a thumbs up from Michael,

let's catch up with Suzanna upstairs and look at some of those colours.

Course, when you build and design your own home,

you can have whatever you want.

I really like this corridor as a space,

but I particularly like the fact that Louise has obviously said,

"Maximise the storage.

"Let's keep the pink tide at bay behind cupboard doors."

It's nice, though, that she's used mirror to make those cupboards

look as if they're additional windows.

This feels very different in here, Suzanna.

This is a very different character.

Yeah, well, the bedroom is the escape, isn't it?

Especially when you have small children,

you want it to seem airy, bright.

You want to colours to be restful and relaxing,

and there is that real sense of space.

I know Louise wanted this room to feel

as if it was part of the greenery and shrubbery outside,

and she's succeeded in that.

I mean, it has worked, very, very well. It's very calming.

But there is a bit of glam,

we've got the feature wall with the wallpaper,

we've got the bed linen and co-ordinating curtains,

so, it's not plain by any means, is it?

No, it's not plain, but I think

Louise probably could have pushed it a little bit further

with a little bit more contrast

and, again, you've got this idea of things being standard, you know,

standard-sized poles, standard height...

That's something I wish we could change, cos, to me,

the joy is you hang curtains the full height of a wall

and you get that drama, you get that vertical detail.

We're all different heights, different sizes, we're, you know...

We do it with our clothes, why don't we do it with our curtains?

Don't you think that this year, we are definitely seeing more pattern?

You are rubbing off on the planet, I can tell you now.

-People are being more brave.

-I don't use that much pattern,

but used in the right way, tone, texture, colour, all those things,

they add interest, and I think people should be brave about it.

Right, so that was the last of our three houses for today's programme,

but the question on everyone's lips is

will one of them be House Of The Year?

Well, there we are, the last three houses in this year's series,

and weren't they astonishing?

Before we let the judges do what they do best, which is to judge,

let's have a quick recap.

Could our winner be house number one?

The stunning seaside home in Portstewart

with views over the golf course.

Or perhaps house number two, a fun-filled and charming

country barn conversion in the northwest.

Or the last of our houses, house number three,

a family house set in the leafy lanes of Omagh.

It's time to find out what our judges think.

So, let's take a look at the last of our finalists.

Our first house is the stunning seaside home in Portstewart.

-Suzanne? Did you like it?

-I was so impressed.

I would never have put that house with that couple,

but it was glamorous, it was really chic, it was colourful.

He's got the engineering background, knows how everything works,

and she's put a lot of time, research and personality into the design.

Is that the sort of house you'd expect to see by the coast?

Well, not by the coast. To me, this house was like a quartz rock.

You'd see the, kind of, the dull rock

and then you'd break it open and it's the jewels inside.

She made a decision of how she wanted to do the house and she stuck to it.

They have a six-bedroom house there

that has got every piece of accommodation you could require.

It's got a nice private back garden, sheltered from the sun and it's got sea views. On a very tight plot.

It is very cleverly produced.

These houses are difficult to design because all you want at the front

is glass and sometimes it's difficult to fenestrate that.

But if they'd softened the landscape, perhaps, that's something that could have helped.

But apart from that, very successful. Very successful.

So, the second house is a real fun house,

a country barn conversion in Claudy and this is Leslie and Craig.

Right, to me this was the opposite.

The outside was pretty spectacular, then when I went inside -

fairies and... It was very sweet, it really reflected them,

because love the countryside...

Suzanne, do you see it?

Yeah, I mean, again, what really impressed me about it

was it was an old barn and Craig is a real craftsman,

he's a joiner, he's third-generation builder.

He saw that building, fell in love with it

and between them as a couple they've really breathed new life into that

and an enormous amount of playfulness and fun.

That big bar down the centre, It's definitely a party house.

-It is a party house.

-And it is exuberant.

They've done very well with their planning

because it's the sort of building, first of all, that should be used

and it's difficult to use because it's so close to the road.

We can't underestimate the constraints they had to work with

and they've ended up with something that is

not for everybody but has got a certain flamboyance.

It's special, it really is special.

Next we have, this is our very last house,

it's a modern, family-focused home in Omagh, this is Louise and Eamonn.

Suzanne, you had a good look round that one.

In terms of the architecture and the interior design,

I think it was very safe.

I think maybe they played, maybe, a little too safe,

but I'd say that was to do, maybe, with the location

-and just their lifestyle.

-The one point about that is,

every house in the street cannot be the feature.

I thought the layout was great. The layout was really great inside.

I loved the way the rooms flowed, it did have a really nice flow to it

and structurally, it had great integrity.

I agree that it had really good balance to it and good form.

-It's a good, honest family property.

-It really is

and that's a great way of saying it, it really is.

And they've done it themselves.

It's comfortable, practical, the colours are good.

She did a good job with the colours.

Those girls' bedrooms were adorable in pink.

-And their master bedroom was nice.

-And the garden and the connection.

That garden, that was a big garden.

But such a homely home a very practical family home,

-and really conveyed a real sense of warmth.

-It really was warm.

That's it, I mean, there has been so many great examples

of a really high standard of houses this year,

it's going to be an absolutely great final.

Well, wow, what an extraordinary series,

and we've now seen all 12 of this year's entries

any one of which could be named as House Of The Year 2012.

Join us next week when our judges have the unenviable task

of deciding which one of those fabulous properties

will be named as House Of The Year.

We'll be in Belfast for our grand final so join us then.

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