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Clodagh Brennan
Clodagh on a stepladder scraping an old wall in a terraced front room

Whole-house DIY renovator

A whole house renovated in the right order

I’m Clodagh. I renovate my Victorian terrace in Cork myself, in the evenings and at weekends, and I film every job. I sell plan PDFs, a cost tracker and two video courses.

Start here

Videos and plans

The order of the job

A whole-house renovation as one map: the checks and the strip-out first, three jobs side by side, and the order that keeps you from opening a wall twice.

  1. Hands marking a measurement on a floorboard with a pencil

    1Survey

    Walking the house with a notebook

    14:20

  2. Clodagh from behind lifting a floorboard to check pipes

    2Gate

    Damp, lead and asbestos: the checks first

    16:10

    Do this first

  3. Clodagh standing outside her terraced house with a plank on her shoulder

    3Strip-out

    Strip-out day: what goes in the skip

    18:05

    Damp and asbestos checked

  4. Plumbing

    Pipes and radiators, then the pressure test

    Branches from Strip-out day: what goes in the skip · Rejoins at Inspection before the walls close

  5. Printed renovation plans and a cost tracker on a trestle table

    4First fix

    Planning the pipes with my plumber

    15:30

    Registered trade

  6. A restored cast-iron fireplace with a vase of daffodils

    5Heating

    Radiators, and what to do with the fireplace

    12:40

    Registered trade

  7. Electrics

    Sockets, lights and cable routes

    Branches from Strip-out day: what goes in the skip · Rejoins at Inspection before the walls close

  8. Hands marking a measurement on a floorboard with a pencil

    6First fix

    Marking sockets and lights for the electrician

    11:45

    Registered trade

  9. Clodagh from behind lifting a floorboard to check pipes

    7First fix

    Cable routes: what I leave for the electrician

    13:15

    Registered trade

  10. Floors

    Boards and the fireplace while the floor is up

    Branches from Strip-out day: what goes in the skip · Rejoins at Mixing plaster and skimming a wall

  11. Close-up of old pine floorboard grain and nail head

    8Floors

    Floorboard Repair Guide

    PDF · 10 pages

  12. Still life of fireplace restoration tools on dark green

    9Fireplace

    Fireplace Restoration Guide

    PDF · 9 pages

  13. Upright binder with tabs beside a coil of copper pipe

    10Gate

    Inspection before the walls close

    PDF · 16 pages

    Inspection passed

  14. Hands mixing plaster in a bucket with a paddle

    11Plaster

    Mixing plaster and skimming a wall

    17:50

  15. Hands rolling pale sage paint onto a wall

    12Paint

    Painting the walls, ceiling first

    12:35

    Plaster fully dry

  16. A finished small kitchen with shaker cabinets and tiled floor

    13Kitchen

    Why the kitchen goes in last

    16:25

Downloads, a course and merch

Shop

Downloads arrive by email. Merch is printed to order and shipped by Printful.

Online course

My course

  • Figure from behind in a stripped Victorian front room
    Figure from behind in a stripped Victorian front room

    Video course · 9 lessons

    Renovate a Room in the Right Order

    The whole job from survey to finished floor, in the order that stops you opening a wall twice.

    • 01Walking the room and making a list10 min
    • 02Checking before you start12 min
    • 03Stripping out14 min
    • 04Who does what: your trades9 min
    • 05First fix and the inspection11 min
    • 06Insulating and closing the walls10 min
    • 07Plastering16 min
    • 08Painting13 min
    • 09Floors and finishing12 min
    $59Start the course: Renovate a Room in the Right Order

Newsletter

Order of Works

A short letter every Sunday from the house: what I did this week, what comes next and what I wish I had done sooner.

One email every Sunday. Unsubscribe any time.

A hillside row of terraced houses after rain at golden hour

About

Hello, I’m Clodagh

I bought a small Victorian terrace in Cork with a damp back room, a bare hallway and a kitchen nobody had touched for forty years. I had painted a few rooms before, and nothing more. I started with one scraped ceiling and learned the rest one job at a time, after work and on Saturdays.

What I found is that most advice is about a single job, and what goes wrong is the order. If you plaster before the pipes are tested, you open the wall again. So I film each job as I do it, and I put the jobs in the order that worked. I do the scraping, the plaster, the paint and the floors. The gas, the wiring and the pipework I book a registered electrician and plumber for, and I say so in every video.

What I sell are the plans I made for myself: a plan for each job, a spreadsheet for the costs and two video courses. The videos are free. The rest is there so your own house goes in the right order.