See inside Ciara Kelly’s 1880s period home after giving ‘fixer upper’ a makeover

Ciara Kelly opened up her beautiful home in Greystones, Wicklow, for the latest issue of RSVP Magazine.

The Newstalk broadcaster lives in an 1880s period home, which is the fourth fixer upper she’s purchased, and explains why she is very proficient at DIY.

Speaking to RSVP, Ciara explained that she purchased her first home in 1999 and sold it for three times the price just four years later.

“I bought my first house in 1999, I was in my 20s, working as a junior doctor – but bear in mind we were paid actual buttons at the time. Our starting annual salary as an intern was £15,625. Which was not big money even then. Things have changed now but they paid us so badly.

“The Celtic Tiger hadn’t kicked off yet but house prices were starting to go up. I initially started looking on my own, I was going out with my then boyfriend, now husband, and he wasn’t too keen. I think he thought he was too young but I was in my 20s and he was in his 30s so he definitely wasn’t too young! [Laughs].

“I was sensible enough and said I’d rather pay a mortgage than pay rent. In the end we bought together, it was a little house in Oscar square in The Tenters in Dublin 8. A little pebble dash, end terrace house, it was in a heap, it was really ugly but I had such fun doing that house up. I am quite handy so I did a lot of the work myself.

“We bought it for €130,000. We borrowed money from our families, took out the biggest mortgage we could. We sold it for €380,000 four years later. The Celtic Tiger had hit in those four years”.

Ciara shares the Greystones home with her husband of almost 25 years, Eoin O’Mahony, and three of their children Ella, 22, Milo, 18 and Blaise, 15. Their eldest child, Oisín, 24, is living in Australia.

You can read Ciara’s interview in full in the new issue of RSVP Magazine, on shelves everywhere now