My mother, Frances Kelly, purchased a derelict lock keepers cottage in Ireland. She made trips to the cottage (with my father) in between cancer treatments and during her time of remission. It was her dream to see the Royal Canal restoration project completed and to see the boats pass by her home. She did not live long enough to see its completion.
On one of the last days of my mother’s life she asked me to continue to take care of her Irish cottage that she loved so very much. I said I would. Some time thereafter I was no longer married and finances were extremely tight. I often thought about the promise made and my inability to follow through.
Over a decade went by. Finally in 2010 the canal restoration was completed and I was able to return to Ireland with one of my sons. I knew my mother would be thrilled with the reopening of the canal.
Since then I have been able to return a few times. With it lying vacant for so long it had become badly in need of repairs. With a help of a friend we have started to do the necessary work. We began with cosmetic improvements of perennials and fruit trees. We moved on to roof tile work and the removal of chunk of a tree that was actually growing in the side of the building. It was painful, but necessary to rent a dumpster and remove most of the contents of the home since everything became moldy due to poor ventilation and also since there had been water in the basement (possibly for years). The next big project was renting a backhoe and working on drainage and the removal of a few feet of water in the basement.
Travelling folk (you might call them Tinkers or Gypsies) were allowing horses to live in our backyard. They nicely fertilized things and kept the grass mowed but I was concerned about squatter’s rights. Neighbors suggested I do something about it. After a certain number of years they could try to claim the property. YIKES. And so, the horse had to go.
Thanks to an Irish cousin, the front of the cottage got some fresh paint now and then. If you only look at it from the front it looks like a well kept home. The other three sides shows years of neglect and is on the long range list of projects. Also, once the water was drained out of the basement I noticed cracking of the bathroom floor tiles and softness in the floor. Looks like another major project there.
The structure of the building is sound. It does need to have the life brought back into it. The entire interior needs a paint job as well as a few walls need a good scraping and patching first.
It is my intention to have period furniture and décor that would have been during the period that the cottage was built. I have visited a few boot sales (flea markets) in nearby villages to obtain the rustic type furnishings that might have been in those types of cottages.
Mom never had or intended to have electric and so it will remain that way. Evenings are spent in candlelight. It is my hope to purchase a gas generator in order to be able to use some electric tools in the project. It has been too damp inside the cottage for me to start the interior painting. A small heater, in addition to the turf fire will help us prepare and to paint the walls.
Lastly, there is the question of the water source to the cottage. Though mom had a water line coming in to the house, we have since then lost the ability to have a water source. Currently we use buckets of water from the canal for washing up and flushing the toilet. Bottled water is our drinking source. The water issue is another entire story.
Please check out the Building of the month info for the Irish National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. I appreciate your interest in this ongoing project and welcome any donations of any size that would go strictly to its repairs.