TWO DAYS AGO Gary Guilfoyle posted images online of an old Irish cottage he and his wife are renovating to turn into a home.
He shared the pictures of the ongoing work on the image sharing site Imgur, not expecting much of a response, and they were then shared on the Reddit DIY subsection.
The cottage, in Aghnananagh, Co Offaly, was left to his wife by an aunt, and is 214 years old.
Imagine the stories these walls could tell…
Gary said that despite recommendations from friends and acquaintances – and even strangers who would call onto the site – to bulldoze the structure and start again:
This house had stood for over 200 years, longer than anyone around now, we were the latest guardians, who were we to knock it?
He also shared images of work beginning on the cottage’s thatched roof:
Before long it was one of the most viral set of images on imgur, taking the second position at one point. More than 600,000 people had viewed the pictures, and thousands left comments.
Gary has told DailyEdge.ie that he and his wife are flabbergasted at the massive response to their project, which they’re managing themselves.
They have employed the skills of professionals for work like the thatching, but otherwise are doing whatever they can themselves in the evenings and on weekends.
The house is a protected structure. We intend to restore it as best we can using traditional building techniques. We intend to learn traditional skills such as lime plastering and stone wall building in order to complete the project.
The Guilfoyles have called the project a “labour of love”, which they’ve been working on for four years so far “through planning, remedial work etc. Hopefully the next 8 months will finish it”.
The cottage is a protected structure but Gary says:
Even if it wasn’t we would have maintained it as is.
He has promised to share more images and updates as the work progresses.
