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how we live
Inside this redbrick near the Wicklow seaside: 'We recently got a wood burning stove and it's amazing'
Woodworker Terry Cullen takes us through a day behind his front door.
About the home
Where? Greystones , Co Wicklow
What type of house? Redbrick three-bed semi-detached
How many bedrooms and bathrooms? 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
When did you move in? 2009
About you
Name: Terry Cullen
Age: 43
Occupation: Woodworker at Two Wooden Horses
Who else lives there? My wife Jo Murphy, 11-year-old Oscar, 7-year-old Freya, and our dogs, Bear and Roxy
1. What made you choose this home over others?
Location! This isn’t our dream house, but at the time we wanted to get out of the rental market and we like the location and how close we were to the sea and the village. We can be be standing on the beach in a ten-minute walk from the front door. We are pretty outdoorsy people.
2. Which place in your home do you love the most and why?
I love the back garden, the project this year is to grow some vegetables with the kids. We recently got a wood burning stove in our sitting room and it’s amazing! Sitting on the couch with Bear at the end of a long day with the stove burning is the business.
3. Which place in your home do you love the least (and why)?
The bathroom! It’s the one room we haven’t done anything to yet. There has been so much to do to the house over the years – replacing windows, adding a new kitchen – that it has slipped down the list. It’s next on the list now… after an extension!
I particularly hate the white floor.
4. Take us through a day in your house, room by room
4:50am: Four mornings a week Oscar swims at 5.30am with Titans Swimming Club, so the alarm goes off at 4.50am and we leave the house by 5.15. If it’s bright enough I’ll take the dogs and or go for a run, or else I am swimming myself.
7:30am: We’re home by 7.30 and then it’s breakfast time and getting Freya up. We’re big fans of breakfast so it can take a while!
9am: The kids are off to school. Myself and my wife, photographer Joanne Murphy, share a workspace/studio five minutes from our house. Jo is usually there a few days a week. She is an early riser too, so she normally leaves about 8.30am. No week is the same so depending what we have on, I head up to the workshop once the kids are in school. We also have horses so they have to be factored in, usually on the way.
3pm: School collections are at 3pm, then its home for lunch and homework and after school activities, usually including athletics, horses or gymnastics.
6pm: We sit at the kitchen table for dinner, chat to the kids about their day. Then we argue over what to watch on the telly for an hour before the kids get ready for bed. Some nights I am training but more often I’m asleep by 9pm!
5. Is there anything you’d do differently if you were doing it again?
Living here has made us realise what kind of space we need as a family. We have a good size kitchen but the layout is not great. At the moment we are planning an extension to give us a better family space downstairs, as we are rapidly outgrowing the house! The dream is to build our own house, hopefully we will get there one day.
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