“Our window cleaner fell straight through the decking outside, and there were some areas where there were just bare cables hanging out of walls. Then we discovered somebody had drilled holes through the window frame and down into the fittings, so every time it rained, the water came straight through and ran inside,” says Mulhall.
“There were beautiful oak doors that didn’t close, and the barn needed to be fully rewired, too. We also discovered a wall inside the garage that stopped you actually putting a car in there. We knocked that down and discovered a toilet hidden behind it.”
Mulhall felt confident he could turn his hand to most things. DIY ran in his veins, sparked by his father, who as an engineer turned paint store owner, passed his skills down to a young Mulhall, who was also a natural in the school woodworking class.
While DIY efforts on previous homes may have been motivated by money, this time around Mulhall has been energised by the creative fulfilment of working with his hands, after spending most of his working life at a desk. He was previously chief operating officer at Hornby Hobbies, the model railway maker, and is now the boss of fancy dress company Rubies.
“DIY gives me the satisfaction that I can go to bed thinking I’ve actually physically achieved something,” says Mulhall. “In a desk job, it’s all about meetings and reports and there was never anything satisfying, so I would go home and do DIY.”
Completing these tasks taps into his competitive nature, too. “A lot of my motivation comes from seeing how much better the house is than it was before, or thinking how much further ahead I was than 12 months ago. I’ll rate myself on how I’m performing on things like staying on top of mowing the lawns.
“I’m very competitive within myself and set high standards….In those psychometric tests you do for work, I’ve come out as a ‘Completer/Finisher’. I might botch things, but I’ve always ended up finishing what I set out to do.”
Natalie Ryan also inherited her love of DIY from her dad, taking on her first project at the age of 15, repainting her bedroom.
“I had an attic room, and I just really wanted it half blue and half yellow. My dad took me to B&Q. I chose the colours, and he gave me all the stuff and let me crack on. I really enjoyed it,” says Ryan.
“Being 15, I used to get lost in music, and now, I delve into a lot of podcasts and get carried away. It’s quite therapeutic, thinking about stuff and processing things.”
