About Me
Originally from Kildare, I moved to Donegal in 2007 (it was very hard to take my Donegal man away from his Mammy). We got married in 2010, welcomed our first child in 2011 and the very same month we broke ground on our first self-build. We lived in a mobile home for four years, while we saved hard for our build, having our end goal that we’d be mortgage free. I suppose at that time we never had any intention of rebuilding again. It was going to be our family home and we worked extremely hard to complete the build in just a little over two years. We had family and friends all roped in to help at different stages. Joseph and I even went on a tiling course in 2013, when I was seven months pregnant with our second child and we tiled the entire house ourselves. I really enjoyed getting stuck in on site.
I suppose it’s always the dream to build your own house, and we were just blessed that we got to do this twice. It was in 2018 that we bit the bullet and decided to build again. It was our dream site, a site we talked about a million times over. It had an old dwelling on it which was my mother-in-law’s old family home. We decided just to go for it – design, plan and submit and then decide what we were going to do. Once planning was approved in 2019, everything went very fast. We put a “For Sale” sign in our front garden, had a viewing the same evening, sold the house and moved into a house next to our new site 5 weeks later.
Our blockwork began in January 2020 and so did my Instagram journey. A friend in school suggested setting up an Instagram so I could keep track of our build journey and as I have family in Kildare and abroad, I thought this was a great idea. I’m not the type of person to wait around, so I set it up straight away, learning as I went along and chatting to different people daily about all types of things. We moved into our dream home in November 2020 and even today I still pinch myself when I look at where we are.
My Instagram and blog gives me a space to share all the things I love- from self-building and renovations, to interiors, cleaning tips, lifestyle and travel. I am constantly thinking, creating, planning and working. Those who know me well, know I am always up to something, working on something, juggling ten things at once. I have also met some fantastic friends through Instagram, have set up businesses @donegalluxurypods, @dreamhomesandlifestyle and @getawayangels. My most recent business venture I am super excited about. As a family we love to go on holidays, creating memories, so when I was presented with an opportunity to book and earn commission on my own travels I decided it was something I could not pass on. I am now a home based Indepentant Travel Agent and Travel Mentor. I bring other agents on to my travel team, mentor them and help them travel smarter and save on their getaways. Check out my travel Q&A on my website if you’d like to know more. I love what I do and have been so fortunate to work with a variety of businesses, hotels and stores e.g. HomeStore and More, EZLiving Furniture, Castle Davitt Furniture Store in Sligo/Mayo, Currys Ireland, Fleetwood Paints, Cherrymore Kitchens & Wardrobes, The Radisson Hotel Letterkenny, The Shandon Hotel & Spa, Hodson Bay Hotel Athlone, Sheraton Hotel Athlone, Galway Bay Hotel, Trinity City Hotel Dublin, Redcastle Hotel & Spa Donegal, Spratts Fireplaces and Stove Centre Letterkenny, Nicola Ross Ladies Boutique, Get That Trend Clothing Shop and lots more.
I would love for you to join me on my journey over on my Instagram @emilyindonegal. I love to help others starting out, mentoring new agents on my travel team, sharing information and things to consider, tips and tricks about the house, cleaning tips, storage/organisation hacks, interiors and all things me (and my wonderful family).