“Window cleaner had dripped through the deck outside and in some places there were just bare cables hanging from the wall. We then found out someone had drilled holes into the window frames down to the hardware, so every time it rained water was coming straight in and running inside,” Mulhall said.
“Beautiful oak doors would no longer close, the barn needed a complete re-wiring, and we also discovered a wall that prevented us from getting our car into the garage. When we knocked that down we discovered a toilet hidden behind it.”
Mulhall was confident he could do most things himself; DIY was in his blood, thanks to his father, an engineer-turned-paint-store owner, who passed those skills on to the young Mulhall, who also showed a natural talent for woodworking in school.
While money may have motivated his previous residential DIY endeavors, Mulhall is now energized by the creative fulfillment of working with his hands after spending most of his working life at a desk. He was previously chief operating officer of Hornby Hobbies, a model train manufacturer, and is now president of costume company Luby's.
“DIY gives me the satisfaction of going to bed knowing I've actually accomplished something,” Mulhall says. “My desk job is full of meetings and reports and it's just not very satisfying, so I'd come home and do DIY.”
Completing these tasks also stimulates his competitive spirit: “A lot of my motivation comes from seeing how much better the house is than it was before, or how much progress I've made since 12 months ago. I judge my performance on tasks like keeping the lawn mowed.”
“I'm very competitive and have high standards. I took a psychology test for work and it said I'm a completer. I may fail, but I always see things through to the end if I set my mind to it.”
Natalie Ryan also inherited her love of DIY from her father, and her first project was repainting her bedroom at the age of 15.
“I had an attic and I wanted it to be half blue and half yellow, so my dad took me to B&Q. I picked out the colours, he gave me everything I needed and we got started straight away. It was really fun,” says Ryan.
“When I was 15 I was obsessed with music, but now I'm obsessed with listening to a lot of podcasts. It's very therapeutic to think about things and sort things out.”