Dermot Bannon has explained why he went way over budget on Daniel O’Donnell’s renovation.
The architect set out to modernise Daniel and Majella’s Donegal home on an episode of Room to Improve last week.
The couple was aiming for a budget of around €200,000 to brighten up and revitalise their mansion.
After several changes were made and more ensuites were added in, the cost ended up at a hefty €395,000.
Daniel was visibly unimpressed, along with some viewers who felt it was an extortionate amount.
Dermot took the opportunity to clear up the high cost when chatty to Nicky Byrne and Jenny Green this week.
“This is my opportunity to clear it all up,” he said.
“People come to me with a budget and they always lie at the very beginning and they give you a wish list and you design up something and then they say ‘what about if we add this in and what about if we add this in?’
“And that’s what happened when I went to Daniel and Majella – they had a wish list and they got it under budget and that is evidenced on the show. And then they added loads into it.”
He added that Daniel’s insistence on adding more bathroom’s also brought up the cost.
“We ended up with six toilets in that house,” he said.
“That extra one had to be shoe horned in, it wasn’t that easy so the budget escalated and escalated so then when we sat down with them and said ‘right, we’re going to have to make some decisions here, what’s going? we’re way over budget’ – then they got really annoyed.
“But we got there in the end!” he said.
Watch the full interview below:
Our Sunday night fave @DermotBannon (soz Nicky) is here to chat all things #RoomToImprove & Daniel & @Majodonnell of course https://t.co/b8U8zPs8oV
— RTÉ 2FM (@RTE2fm) February 23, 2018
