So I watched season 1 and there were 2 houses I would not have torn down and started from scratch. Now I must admit I am an American and we do not have very old structures and we do tend to rip down and rebuild more often than not. So that is going to be my instinct. Apparently the Irish can see past all the mold, foundation cracking, roofing/guttering leaking and see potential. More power to them. If they can save the old stone houses and live comfortably in them with the old heating, cooling, plumbing and insulation (or not) - God bless them. They are really cool older buildings that I'm glad they are redoing and not me. It would be nice to see a few after restoration so I can get an idea of what can be accomplished. I did notice in the first episode of season 2, they included a side story house that showed the final product after restoration and it was lovely. So that will be a good addition to this series if they continue that.
Update: in season two they do show complete renovations. So they show one side house every episode with pictures of how it started and how the owners finished it. Made the show much more enjoyable so I increase my rating from 6 to 8.