If you didn’t read the headline on this week’s front cover, it would be easy to assume that Irish Country Living was running an impressive interiors feature.

With vaulted ceilings, a showpiece island and beautiful wooden floors, Nicola Baldrick’s kitchen looks like a dream home. But the real story, written by Jacqueline Hogge on page 10, reveals the nightmare she and her family went through when the cracks started to show and they discovered their house had been built with defective blocks – and it needed to be knocked and rebuilt.

Reports of Irish houses built with defective blocks affected by mica and pyrite – and the consequential structural issues associated with them – have been covered by the media since the crisis first began in 2011.

Government figures estimate that as many as 10,000 homes are affected, mostly in the northwest of the country. But campaigners say the real figure is closer to 30,000 and the radius keeps spreading wider.

What is arguably underreported however, is the absolute devastation, heartbreak and stress this is causing families – which is covered in this two-week report. A house is not just walls and a roof, it is a home and that safe space is fundamental for our mental health, where we feel secure and nurtured. It is a place of belonging.

Pull that rug out from underneath people’s feet and the blocks really start to fall.

The Government’s Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme is in place to provide financial support to help affected families rebuild their houses but many believe it is not fit for purpose and improvements need to be made. Before you can even apply for the scheme, people are being faced with serious upfront costs.

Government figures estimate that as many as 10,000 homes are affected, mostly in the northwest of the country. But campaigners say the real figure is closer to 30,000 and the radius keeps spreading wider

The engineer’s report alone – just to confirm the presence of defective blocks – costs €7,000. And the additional costs keep coming. In week two of this report, Jacqueline outlines that the gap between the grants being offered in the scheme and the rebuild costs of affected houses just keeps getting wider.

For those that can avail of the scheme, it is a period of real uncertainty – dealing with the administrative headaches, the stress of removing every item from your home and finding a place to rent and store your contents, the emotional impact of seeing your house demolished and then the pressure to drive on a rebuild so you can get back home.

Families are also worried about how this upheaval, both emotionally and physically will impact their children in the long-term.

Many families who have to rebuild their homes due to these structural issues feel like they aren’t living, but surviving. However, as outlined by Roisin Gallagher in the report, requests for emotional and financial guidance from counsellors and financial advisers have not been approved under the Government scheme.

Every person that buys or builds a new home does so with the best of intentions and a trust that it was built with quality materials. When that dream starts to crumble around them, they need support – not to be left in the dark. This is an issue in rural Ireland that we will continue to cover.