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Where: Blarney, Co Cork
When was it built: New build in 2016
How many bedrooms and bathrooms? 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms
When did you move in: 2016
Name: Ruth Frost
Age: 35
Occupation: Sales operations manager and co-founder of Cado
Others in household: Husband and two-year-old son Harry
What made you choose this house over others?
My husband and I both grew up on housing estates in England and we had similar experiences of living in them. We had big groups of friends, we played outside everyday, and we felt safe. We wanted that for our future family.
This is a very family-friendly estate and it’s not very densely packed at all. It felt really safe and good for kids, so that’s why we picked it. That and the space – we lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Cork and when we worked it out, this huge house in the country was going to cost a little less than a two-bed flat in the city.
Which place in your home do you love the most (and why)?
I love my living room the most, and it used to be my least favourite space. It was a dark teal colour when we first moved in and it felt like the walls were collapsing in on me. It was really horrible in there.
I decided I wanted to get something to brighten the room up and I wanted proper storage, so we had a carpenter build us built-ins. I went away and designed them and he built it to my spec. In fact, I wanted the room to look like it was finished when I knew we couldn’t afford to finish it – so I also had the carpenter build a replica of the marble fireplace I want. It’ll do for the next few years!
The room has these incredibly comfortable couches. They’re nice to look at, but they’re not elegant. They’re the couches you want to lie down on to read a book with your baby and snuggle.
Which place in your home do you love the least (and why)?
Our playroom is horrific. It’s the sunroom, and we still haven’t found curtains or blinds to put in. We painted it yellow, which seemed like a great idea at the time until you realise there’s very little yellow goes with! There are toys everywhere. We have a couple of the cheapest flatpacks and coffee tables. We have an Ikea pull-out couch we had five years ago. There’s nothing done to it.
Take us through a day, in your house, room by room.
Morning: Typically in the morning my husband wakes up before I do. He goes in to get our son up and to get him ready for the childminder’s. We change him and get him ready in the sunroom.
We go downstairs and we eat breakfast in the kitchen as a family nearly every day. Our son wakes up long before he needs to so typically we’ll then go into the sitting room and read a book. At the moment, we’re also watching a lot of documentaries about elephants and baby animals.
Then I walk Harry down to his childminder’s who lives a few doors away. I go back to the house to load the dishwasher and washing machine. Then I go off to work.
5pm: Once I come home from work, I start cooking in the kitchen. Harry will be playing with his toys in the playroom or inside reading a book. His Dad will come home and they might go into the ‘man cave’. My husband has a couple of guitars there so they’ll sit down and bang on the guitars. We have a bay window in the ‘man cave’ and Harry likes to go behind the curtains to surprise us.
Then we go into the kitchen to eat dinner. After that, it’s back out to the sunroom to get Harry changed into his pyjamas. We go into the living room to sit down and read books with him before bedtime. He’ll have his bottle and we’ll all have a snuggle and it’s very nice.
8pm: When Harry goes to bed, I start doing the rest of my work. I am able to drop Harry off, pick him up and cook dinner, and that’s because I work another hour or two every evening. It suits me because it allows me to spend time with Harry when he’s awake.
I do my work in the ‘man cave,’ which is also an office. We had a worktop installed instead of two desks so it runs all the way along the length of the room. We have two ultra wide monitors so I will sit there and do my work. If I’m not on a conference call, my husband will probably be in there gaming.
If it’s a night when I’m not working in there, I could be upstairs in my craft room. I run a company with my sister called Cado.ie and we make personalised gifts. I could be up there making papercuts and baubles and all sorts of different things. Or I might be downstairs on the couch watching Netflix and working on our website. I don’t do downtime.
Is there anything you’d do differently if you were doing it again?
We didn’t put our foot down all the time because we just wanted the house so badly. Don’t get me wrong, we love our house and we think our builders did a fantastic job. But we could have been more picky about things like the positioning of lights or the finish on joinery. We didn’t do enough nagging and that’s on us.
Apparently this guy had been watched 24/7 since 2016. They spent all this time, money and resources on a guy who wasn’t even a New Zealander and this still happens. Why wasn’t he just deported?
@Colleen: Because you can’t arrest people for crimes they are yet to commit.
@Niamh Hayes: you can if you can prove conspiracy
@Michael Burke: They obviously couldn’t prove conspiracy then.
@Colleen: he would face “torture and violence” if he was deported, his lawyers said
@Niamh Hayes: yes you can.. I saw it on a documentary called “minority report”
@Niamh Hayes: look up the difference between deported and arrested.
@Colleen: NZ has a varefullg-crafted superiority complex to consider.
@Niamh Hayes:
You’re right but he was arrested previously for planning an attack but it was ruled by a judge that planning an attack is not illegal. Maybe it should be.
@Paul O Connor: that’s outrageous if true. Planning mass murder isn’t a crime?
@Niamh Hayes: crazy law
If he was known to be a violent extremist since 2016 why wasn’t he deported.
@Philip Kedney: because they are too soft. Now they are paying the price.
@Philip Kedney: because of barbaric principles like “innocent until proven guilty”?
Its only a matter of time before something like this happens in Dublin, plenty of extremists here under investigation; Sure didn’t one of the attackers in England have an Irish ID card a few years back and a Dublin address
@David Lee: got married in Ireland ya. Was staying out in Santry for a bit too, you are correct. Ireland, albeit an enemy to the Islamic State, is less likely to be attacked due to our strategic benefit to IS. Our security is incredibly lax and we share an unmanned border with the UK who would be a much bigger target in their eyes. They use Ireland as a gateway and therefore would not like to draw attention or give cause for increased security and scrutiny to their activities in Ireland by launching an attack here. Of course that is a large co-ordinated attack. We would very much be at risk from the lone wolf nut-jobs alright who are inspired by IS twisted ideology.
in ireland he would have got a good slap on the hand and a strongly worded letter
Was wondering how far down the page we’d make it before the obligatory inane ‘comparison’ comment.
Terrible thing to happen. Please God, all the victims will make a full recovery.
Great to see we have so many security and anti-terrorism experts, all putting their skills to their best use writing comments on thejournal.ie.
So they lied when they originally said it was “random”? Or are they just that incompetent?
@Thomas Smyth: It’s sounding as if he was copying IS attacks but not in a cell of terrorists conspiring to plan an attack? It’s that odd difference again between a gang with a religious or political motive and a wanna be serial killer, I suppose.
Unclear at this point whether or not suspect was NZ citizen / if he was might help explain why he wasn’t deported.
What was a Sri Lankan doing in NZ for 10 years? Was he legally resident,with status? Why wasnt he deported for his known extremist views?
‘Under surveillance’ resulting what the authorities suspected would happen is laughable. Same with the London Bridge attack…..’under surveillance’ before the guy had even left prison.
Going after New Zealand no country is safe from terrorism.
@andrew: no country is safe from a lunatic. ‘Terrorism’ is a handy tag.
@Alan McArdle: Some countries are more susceptible than others particularly in the era were living in.
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