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# how we live
'It was a granny's house, full of old decor': Inside this revamped end-of-terrace in Ballyfermot
Restaurant manager Alex Reis takes us through a day behind his front door.
About the home
Where? Ballyfermot
What type of house? End of terrace
How many bedrooms and bathrooms: 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom
When did you move in? June of 2015, almost four years ago now
About you
Name: Alex Reis
Age: 36
Occupation: Restaurant manager/ part-time macrame artist at The Macrame Man
Who else lives there? My husband, Dean, and my doggy, Pepi
1. What made you choose this home over others?
To be honest, we didn’t have a choice in relation to this house. Dean’s grandmother lived in this house and it was in the family for years. She died a couple years ago and Dean’s father sold the house to him for a very good price. It was an excellent investment that he couldn’t resist.
However, it was a granny’s house, full of old decor with some character. It had old wallpaper, carpets and floors. But it is a great house for a small family and has a good back garden with a big corner garden in the front.
Of course, the location is also great. It’s not in town, but it’s cycling distance to it. You can find everything you need nearby and Phoenix Park is just a 15 minute walk away. We LOVE this house.
2. Which place in your home do you love the most and why?
The living room has always been my favourite place in the house. It’s bright and cosy. We have our big sofa, where it fits the three of us together (me, Dean, and Pepi). The living room is where I keep most of my plants (I love house plants) and some of my macrame work. In the living room is where we hang out, eat, take a nap and watch movies. It is the happy place.
3. Which place in your home do you love the least (and why)?
The kitchen and the backyard are the places I love the least in the house. We have loads space in the back garden but we don’t make the most of it. In the future it would be great if we could add an extension, making a bigger kitchen/dining room and a patio area, so we could have more space to hang out with friends and family.
4. Take us through a day in your house, room by room
7am: Dean wakes up around 7am because he works during the day.
We have different working hours which is great sometimes. (He hates me for saying that.)
9am: My day doesn’t start until 9 or 10 am. Because I work in the restaurant until late in the evenings, I end up taking a longer sleep in the morning.
10am: During the day I dedicate some of my time to macrame and Pepi.
When I wake up, I get some breakfast in the kitchen then I walk with Pepi to Phoenix Park. This takes me about two hours.
Sometimes I have to choose between having long walks with Pepi, working with macrame in the house, looking after my plants, or doing some house work. It isn’t a big house but the house work never ends and my OCD kicks in a bit.
12pm: I do my macramé work in the second bedroom during the day.
And I have plants everywhere in the house, in every room, so my time during the day goes to my plants, too.
5pm: I start getting ready for work at 5pm. This is my routine, five days a week. I then work in the restaurant until late.
5. Is there anything you’d do differently if you were doing it again?
We still have loads of things that we would like to change in the house, but patience is the key. Getting an extension is a must if we decide to stay in this house for many more years, but over all, our home speaks to our likes and needs, so and it works for us and our family.
More: ‘I love that everything in the house reflects our taste’: Inside a 1970s fixer-upper bungalow in Clare>
