Welcome to Castlequarter House
Our hope is that by sharing this side of our story — the setbacks, the leap into DIY, the resilience we can offer encouragement to anyone building, renovating or simply chasing their dream home.
📍 Key Original Details
The build started 8 Nov 2019 with a contractor.
Applied for first drawdown of €45,000 in January 2020
First Drawdown released after 14 weeks of waiting just around when Covid hit.
Builders got go-ahead to return on site 18 May 2020.
Applied for second drawdown of €80,000 in April 2020
On 7 July 2020 we were told the second drawdown wouldn’t be given.
The bank eventually released €57,000 of the €80,000 second drawdown in September 2020.
We do owe the bank €102,000 under original terms and in September 2025 we moved to another lender.
The Mortgage being pulled story
November 2019 – September 2020.
We broke ground on our new home in Athlone on 8th November 2019, full of excitement and big plans. We had hired a contractor to come and do the build for us to a cost of €305,000 to a builders finish. This was regular pricing for the time, we had got 3 other contractor rates and they were all similar. After nearly a year of back and forth we secured our mortgage of €305,000 with Bank of Ireland.
The build took off at lightening speed and within a couple of weeks the house was up to window level with the septic tank already installed. By Christmas the house was up to window cill level and we were thrilled.
In January 2020 we applied for the first drawdown. It took 14 weeks for that drawdown of €45,000 to be released. It was released right around the time covid hit. With the first drawdown taking so long we applied for the second drawdown of €80,000 straight away. Covid lockdown hit, the builders were off site and it all came to a stop.
We were not getting any responce from the banks but we werent very worried about this as during covid there was no one working anywhere so nothing peaked our interest.
When the builders got the go ahead to be able to come back onsite on 18th May 2020 thats when we started to worry as the builders needed the next drawdown to keep going onsite.
My Solicitor is one of my best friends, thankfully or we couldnt have afforded all the work she did over the next few months. She started to contact the under writers daily and they started looking for information on my bank statements, my business liquidity, we completed a 3 year liquidity proof, sent bank statement – everything they wanted. Each time they came back looking for something else.
The mortgage broker and my solicitor worked tirelessly trying to get an answer or any update from BOI.
Eventually on the 7th of July while standing in the pouring rain after my car brokedown in Limerick and had to be towed away we got the call from the Mortgage broker “They are not going to give you the second drawdown”
What did we do? We laughed, things couldnt have been any worse at that moment. With Ciaran being sick (covered in another blog) covid, the car, the build being stopped this was just the cherry on top.
We went through every emotion possible over the next few days. My solicitor and morgage broker did everything in their power to get a reason from them – to this day there has never been a proper reason provided for their decision. We had never missed a payment, we were not on covid payments etc etc etc They “were just being cautious”.
So what we had to face was at that stage The Bank owned €45,000 of the building, the builder was owed €80,000 for the work completed after that and we owned the site.
My solicotir contacted everyone they know and it even went as far as the top dogs In Ireland and still there was no reasoning behind it, It left everyone in a lose lose situation.
The builders were off site and the whole lot had come to a stop.
Fast forward to September 2020 we finally got word from our solicitor that they decided to release €57,000 of the €80,000 that we need to pay the builder for the second stage of the build as they could see we had €23,000 in our account which we were going to use to furnish the house before we knew the mortgage was being pulled.
So that we it we paid off the builder the second drawdown and we were left with walls of a house a septic tank.
Just for closure on this part of the story we do owe the bank back the €102,000 over a 25 year mortgage which were the original terms and in September 2025 when our fixed term was out we moved to MoCo and said Good Bye to Bank of Ireland.
What we did once the morgage was pulled
September 2020 – December 2020.
By the time we got the bit of the second drawdown that we did get and we paid off the builder we honestly felt so much better. I cannot explain the relief – it was over – at least we had the builder off our backs and we and the bank owned what was there as if it was to have continued the builder would have taken us to court to get their money and where would that have left us? Honestly it is not worth thinking about.
I know it sounds mad but we were full of hope – we had spent weeks wishing and hoping to get out passed all that and we were out the other side. Over the space of about 24 hours we decided we would start doing it ourselves.
The first part was to get the house airtight.
What the bank did not know was that we had paid the builder a retainer of €45,000 at the start of the build (I know now that I shouldnt have done that and it is actually illegal for them to ask that of us – but it is what it is now.) So we got that back once they had their 2nd part paid off so we could use that to get the roof on and windows in.
At this stage we asked our previous contractors to do a price for us for windows, doors, roof tusses, slates and plaster the outside of the house so we could waterproof the house. They gave us a quote of €70,000 so armed with our €45,000 – some more money we had built up in the time being (we were not spending any wages as it was during covid) and a small loan from Ciarans parents we decided to go with that and get it sealed. That way we could walk away and the house would be fine for years to come and we could tip away at it over the years.
So, back came the builders and with it a heap of trouble.
We put a post on Instagram stating we were going self build once it was sealed and if people could let us know oif any plumbers etc that they would reccommend that would be great. Little did we know that Declan from Rationel Athlone would be watching and reach out to us with an amazing offer for our windows and doors . One we absolutely could not refuse, we were aboslutely thrilled we were going to get our dream windows for an amazing price. I went back to the builder and told him we didnt need the windows he had ordered and to take the €18,000 he had in for those off the rate – to which I was told “you are eating into my profit”. Its beggers belief that you can fathom that someone could see people go through what we did, we knew they had already profited alot from the first part of the build but that was just the icing on the cake.
Fast forward to December the builder wanted to be paid in full before the work was completed. We did understand that they might be dubious after all that had happened so we agreed on the Thursday to get the final €20,000 transferred. It went completely out of my head and on the Monday morning I got a call to say the builders were not going to the site that day. I knew something was suspicuous so I treaded further and low and behold it turned out he had sent the builders to a site in Dublin “Theres no more profit left in your job” I need to go where I can get paid” I was dumbfounded, They pulled off site with the felt on the roof and no slates or plastering done. They refused to come back as ” The money is in Jobs in Dublin”. Off they popped with approx €35k for a roof truss and felt.
Sick is not the word for it. We never documented any of that part on Instagram as at that stage I honestly thought people would assume we were the problem.
We made a few calls and got friends of friends to come and help us get the slates on and the outside plastered before the builders came and took their scaffolding.
18th December 2020 we had managed to get the roof slated, the outside plastered the windows and doors in and apart from around the kitchen where the builders were due to give us 2 pieces of steel we had ordered through them before they scarpered.
We were on our own and honestly we were thrilled – filled with a sense of We can do anything we put our minds to and if it kills us we will do this ourselves we closed off what could definitely be the most turbulent year of our lives with a near air tight house and a not sick Ciaran and a stronger relationship than we could have imagined at the beginning of the year.