Only because our friend Johnny knows some people with fabulous houses in a neighbouring county that he said we should go and have a look at. He said this because I told him "we" intend to build a new house.

That's how things run around here. Life becomes too settled and my husband starts to look happy and relaxed so I decide to embroil us both in some timeconsuming, expensive and ultimately pointless escapade.

We have a house. A nice house which we like very much indeed.

We don't need another one. My husband will go along with the "we" thing for a while but eventually he will bring me back into line. But not before we had seen a few extraordinary domestic builds that would almost turn his head to the idea. (Cunning and clever). The whole driving thing was a bit tense . . . what with me wanting to stop at every garage for a pee and Johnny being cast in the rather unfortunate role of our teenage son (he is 40-plus) who couldn't quite remember where his friend's house was.

Then suddenly we were in front of a mirrored box in a field in Leitrim that was nothing short of astonishing. Perched above a scooped out chunk of field it looked like it was floating in mid air . . . a tardis. The bedrooms were built into the ground beneath . . . it was a piece of breathing, living art. We then saw a work in progress by the same architect, Dominic Stephens, an old stone cottage with a huge, cathedral-like extension. Friends of ours have a house also designed by Stephens . . . boxy bedrooms cozy beneath the ground, a round kitchen at its heart with living spaces allocated on podiums and balconies, rounded white walls to show stunning views whether you are looking out the windows or inside the house.

With brutal honesty, I am simply jealous of their new home which is where the whole "we should build our own house" thing comes from. I felt uplifted, inspired by these beautiful buildings . . . and then sad that my beautiful corner of rural Ireland doesn't contain more of them. Mayo is gorgeous. It deserves gorgeous houses.

It is profoundly depressing seeing all these soulless, characterless estates going up. Then you have the big brutal five-bedroomed dormers of the people who can afford architects but think they're a waste of money. This is based on the very understandable belief that we all know how we want to live and so can design our own houses.

Through seeing these amazing living spaces I have come to believe that, actually, this isn't true. Rather like clothes, most of us know what we like but few of us would not benefit from the help of a professional stylist in telling us what suits us. The same can be said of where we live. If you asked me if I would like to live in a suspended mirrored box with basement bedrooms I would have said "no".

But now that I've seen one . . . I'd live there in the morning.

I would have said I need a dining room and a drawing room and five en-suites and a downstairs shower off my utility but in actual fact, on reflection, I don't need any of those things. What I know I need, is a cost-efficient sustainable home that is practical now and which I can afford to grow old in.

Now all I have to do is persuade my husband he "needs" it too!