Would you be well?
Room To Improve viewers were not impressed after this week’s episode when Dermot Bannon made a comment about budgets on screen.
Heading to Thurles in Tipperary for this week’s show, the architect met with Jim and Mary Moloney for their home renovation.
Chatting to Dermot about their dream home of connecting their kitchen with the outdoor space and garden, they planned to bring their bungalow into the modern age.
Giving Dermot their budget of a max spend of between €140,00 to €150,000, viewers were left in shock when Dermot said that the “tiny” budget wouldn’t be enough to cover their demands.
The couple were quoted €130,000 for the basic upgrading of the house and were told they would need a lot more money to create the open plan living area that they hoped for.
€140k 😱 think I spent that on petrol today! #RoomToImprove
— Richard (@abitrich89) March 13, 2022
Instead of #RoomToImprove could we have a programme that builds an extension from say 20k to 50k that us mere hardworking mortals could afford 🤔 200k budget is insane 🙄
— Rachel O'Connor (@racheloc) March 13, 2022
After listening to Dermot’s advice, they increased their budget to €210,000.
Viewers couldn’t get over the comment Dermot made, and were even more shocked that €150,000 wasn’t enough to cover it considering there was no extension needed.
One person wrote on Twitter: “Kinda mind-blowing that €150k is considered a tiny budget.”
Another said: “Tiny?? €140k?? Jaysus Dermot. I’d love to upgrade my old stone cottage. Budget: €15k. THAT’S a tiny budget.”
A third said: “It’s very ignorant and condescending for Dermot to say ‘tiny budget’. They probably worked extremely hard for years to save that money.”
A fourth added: “€140k think I spent that on petrol today! #RoomToImprove.”
By the end of the show, and thanks to QS Clare Jim and Mary managed to stay under their second budget and spend €200,000 on the upgrade to their new home, and ended up qualifying for a grant which covered the cost of the retrofit.
Room To Improve continues next week on RTE One at 9.30pm on Sunday night.
