After 17 years of renting in his native Dublin and LA, and four house moves in three years with two small kids, TV chef Donal Skehan and his wife Sofie have finally bought their first home.

“We are thrilled, it has taken a while and I have to say it has been a slightly bumpy road getting there,” said Skehan of his new Dublin home.

After renting in Sutton and close to Howth where he grew up, Skehan said they are “staying in the area” and the couple hope to move in with their young sons, Noah and Oliver, by the summer.

“When we came home from LA at the start of the pandemic, we got a rude awakening. It is difficult because on one side you have a rental market that is incredibly tumultuous, there is very little there and it tends to be in a price range,” he said.

“We had a bad run of it because in the first place, we had to move out after four months and the next place got sold underneath us. It’s the peril of anyone who rents, you always have that fear that you might get moved on.

“Sofie would have come from the Scandinavian mindset where you can rent for life, it doesn’t have to be a thing that you have to buy, that’s a very Irish thing.”

The chef concedes the opportunity to jump to where the work was, whether in the US or UK, “always prevented me from really wanting to buy a place, and I think the kids arriving have certainly grounded us to put roots down”.

Reflecting on the last 17 years, he said: “If you have been renting, and you are hoping to find a house yourself, it can be hard to watch someone announce their news about buying a house and I would be very mindful of that, having gone through it.”

After going after two houses, and being outbid on one, clinching this one came with the help of some “manifesting”.

“The house is beautiful but tiny, but we are absolutely head over heels in love with it and I think that’s the way you have to be in order to invest the rest of your life into it.

“Most people get a chance to do this possibly once in their lives and I am happy that we feel the emotional attachments to it in so many ways.

“In a moment where we felt like we might have lost it, I fought for it and I’m not talking from a money point of view. I wrote them [the owners] a personal letter and told them about my family. You hear those stories and think people don’t take them into account but they absolutely do and thankfully there’s people with a heart out there.

“This house, I literally walked down to it every single day and manifested. I’d stand outside it. The neighbours must think there’s a nutcase moving in because I literally stalked the house. I was so obsessed, but you have to be,” said Skehan.

It was in their first ever rental, an apartment in Clare Hall, that Skehan started on his culinary career, writing his Good Mood Food blog. 

“I was cooking for ourselves to save money. It all happened from that one apartment and that is where the evolution of what I do today began.”