Operation renovation: ‘The builders were in and out in three weeks — but it took us seven years to finish’

When Denise Sinnott tells me it took three weeks to renovate her home in the Bandon hinterland in Co Cork, I think I’ve misheard her. Surely not. “The builders were in and out in three weeks,” she confirms, although a lot happened after they left, much of it at the hands of Denise, a part-time nurse and interior designer and her DIY-enthusiast husband Fiachra.

“We’re finally finished — and it only took seven years,” she laughs..