Portlaoise first-timer

35mm-negative

hey every1,
I'm toying with the idea of moving from the big smoke to the little smoke of portlaoise.Never been there and prob couldnt point it out on a map ! so looking for any1 who can tell me whats what, who's who and wheres good and bad ect. Eskerhills cought my eye so if any1 is living there can give me heads up on schools (prod), childcare, amenieties, nightlife and general standard of living it would be a start.Not much to be found on the web (laoise C.C included).
wise advice needed for this HUGH transition !! Please and thank you in advance

sadie9

Why don't you rent a place before buying. I wouldn't advise buying a house just because it looked nice in the Ad. Rent somewhere for about a year and then decide where to buy.

35mm-negative

good valid point sadie and thank you for your responce, i thought i'd get more than 1. I'm not intrested in renting as its a waste of effort and cash, Its purely an investment, which could see me move down there.Whats the rental like? not as close to what would be in Dublin. And as far as places go, what would you give it out of 10 ? Feelers are out and as i said before im toying with the idea

LeahBaby

35mm-negative wrote: »

good valid point sadie and thank you for your responce, i thought i'd get more than 1. I'm not intrested in renting as its a waste of effort and cash, Its purely an investment, which could see me move down there.Whats the rental like? not as close to what would be in Dublin. And as far as places go, what would you give it out of 10 ? Feelers are out and as i said before im toying with the idea

Hi 35mm.

I moved to Portlaoise about 18 months ago from sallins and I love it. I know sallins isn't a sprawling metro town or anything but I was a little shell shocked moving so far away from dublin,but it's only 1 hour down the motor way!..

Love it down here.
Esker hills is a nice estate but very very built up. must be about 500 houses in that estate. have gotten lost in there on a few occasions.Same as Kilminchy etc. If you want to pm me i'll give you some info on my estate which is newly built and great price for 3/4 beds!!

Theres lots of new shops etc after arriving and still coming. i.e homebase,argos etc. mcdonalds on the way!! we have a cinema,all the supermarkets and everything you need.

Pubs are great.Coppers late bar is my fav as it;s a disco bar and teh clubs kinda suck.!!

but in general living here is great..don't think you'll regret it. good place for kids too. with the cinema,bowling alley,parks... take a day trip down and suss it out.Promise you'll love it!

kikel

Esker hills is a nice looking estate. Personally i feel the houses are to on top of each other. They would wanna be well insulated for sound if ya don't wanna here your neighbours up to all sorts.

Another recommendation for buying any house that i'd always do is drop round on a dry night and see whats going on around. A dry night kids are out and about playing as kids do. But can really annoy some people to hear souting and screaming constantly.

Bicky

I live in esker hills and i am happy here. That said a number of houses at the back of the estate have been purchased by the council. They are currently empty but will probably be filled in the next few months.
The quality of the houses is good in my opinion. They only have a single block wall but the kingspan insulation keeps the heat well.
Owenass were very good for after sales service but they have since left go a lot of employees so things could be different.
My snag list was fairly short and they sorted it straight away. After one year in the house i have not come across any problems yet, but my house was a show house.
The area on which esker hills was built was once marsh land. I remember it when i was a child being very boggy land. When it rains now the lake at the front of the estate rises about two foot and the grass areas can become waterlogged.
The big unit at the front of the estate was supossed to be a shop but nobody has moved in yet despite the sales lady telling me spar was opening there.
All said i am happy with the house. Feel free to ask any more questions.

adser53

I moved from Dublin to Esker Hills 7 months ago and I love it!!! The houses are built very well and insulated brilliantly for heat and sound (double the regulated amount) I wouldnt worry about the drainage as mentioned above as the large green in the centre on front of my house has a massive strom water attenuation tank in it. Some of the houses in parts of the estate do seem to be on top of one another, especially at the back but if you get one overlooking one of the greens, it's lovely. Theres also a brand new leisure centre after opening beside E.H with fantastc facilities and it's very cheap compared to the privatly owned gyms/swimming pools. I don't know about schools and the like as we've no kids but I love Portlaoise at night. The added bonus is that it's only a 10-15 minute walk from my house at the end of Esker Hills to the main street! There are some really great bars there and the clubs are grand if you'r not looking for anything ridiculously fancy. As mentioned above, the new shops opening and recently opened mean the missus has no need to go up to Dublin really anymore which is dead handy for me . Truth be told we only go back to the big smoke for work and to see friends/family. As for commuting, the train is great and the motorway means you get to Newlands Cross in 40 mins, I'm sure you know town can be anything from 20 to 50 mins from there but if your working this side of the red cow Portlaoise is perfect. I also wouldnt worry bout the council buying some of the houses as they are up for affordable housing on the Laois C.C website so they proabably wont be filling them with scumbags any time soon. We put the deposit down on our house nearly 2 years ago and since then, some of our friends and even family members have moved to Esker Hills and Fairgreen Village cos they were so impressed with our house and they have no complaints either. I'd say go for it. Hope that was some help to you!

guimhne

hi all,

myself and my husband are moving from the big smoke too and have just put a deposit down on a house in esker hills. it's great to hear the good reviews. Adser53, we will be on the green too so we could be neighbours!!

shaz74

hiya....
we moved down two years ago from dublin and decided to rent to see if we settledok . which we did , we both love it ! we have three children who couldnt be happier , thew schools are fantastic, there is plenty to keep them entertained from the kids club in the cinema to the leisure center there isalso a bowling alley with a huge kids area.
i could never see purselves moving back to dublin and have just bought our own place recently.
it is only 40 mins drive from dublin.... once you leave portlaoise and get onto the motorway the first set of traffic lights you meet are at newlands cross !:)

mr. vain

35mm-negative wrote: »

hey every1,
I'm toying with the idea of moving from the big smoke to the little smoke of portlaoise.Never been there and prob couldnt point it out on a map ! so looking for any1 who can tell me whats what, who's who and wheres good and bad ect. Eskerhills cought my eye so if any1 is living there can give me heads up on schools (prod), childcare, amenieties, nightlife and general standard of living it would be a start.Not much to be found on the web (laoise C.C included).
wise advice needed for this HUGH transition !! Please and thank you in advance

I would advise you steer clear of Eskerhills. Built on very bad ground and a lot of empty units.
Clonrooke abbey is a better build for simular money. or a good second hand buy in any of the following, Dun masc, Grenville, Rockdale, Chantere gate, Cherrygarth, Kylebrook. All Quiet and very settled.

Bicky

I own a house in esker hills and i would have to agree with mr. vain.
Not that i dont like esker hills, i love living here. My house has a nice finish and it is very close to town.
However, i think the estate is too big and better value can be had in town.

Sonic_exyouth

mr. vain wrote: »

I would advise you steer clear of Eskerhills. Built on very bad ground and a lot of empty units.
Clonrooke abbey is a better build for simular money. or a good second hand buy in any of the following, Dun masc, Grenville, Rockdale, Chantere gate, Cherrygarth, Kylebrook. All Quiet and very settled.

Wow..
I'd disagree with that..

About 6 months ago the last of the residential properties was officially sold. There are now some bad debts, that is, properties sold to speculators who defaulted that are currently trying to be re-sold... not that many though.
In fact, I only know two houses on my route to and from work that are not occupied, and both of those are sold.

The main problem for me is the non-residenial properties there.
The creche and Local shop remain unsold.
That means a 10 minute trek for me to the nearest newsagent, to get a pint of milk if I run out. Not the biggest of deals, but slightly annoying.

The creche does not concern me, but there are a lot of young families in the estate that might have used it.. that being saidthere are two creches in the town that I know of, so it's really just a ten minute walk away.

As for the ground.. I've not had an issue with it.. what are you saying is wrong with it?

The houses are lovely! Fully furnished, well laid out, properly insulated, and energy efficient appliances. They are pre-wired for alarms, and are ready for Fibre optic to the node, though Magnt pulled out and only UPC digital cable (Which is still very good) is around.

Bicky

Wow..
I'd disagree with that..

About 6 months ago the last of the residential properties was officially sold. There are now some bad debts, that is, properties sold to speculators who defaulted that are currently trying to be re-sold... not that many though.
In fact, I only know two houses on my route to and from work that are not occupied, and both of those are sold.

Sonic is right about this. There are very few empty untis that i know of.

The creche does not concern me, but there are a lot of young families in the estate that might have used it.. that being saidthere are two creches in the town that I know of, so it's really just a ten minute walk away.

I live right across from the creche and it sickens me to see the little asbo's using it as a place to drink. They smashed the windows on three occassions and owenass had to board it up. It looks bad now.

On a similar note i was walking home from work at three AM last week when i was set apon by a bunch of pure scumbags. They were hiding in the dark, near the bridge, on the ridge road. They jumped out at me when i was walking past. I got home to my house and they stood outide shouting and kicking the door. Scared the **** out of me. Just a warning to be careful if walking home alone late at night.

As for the ground.. I've not had an issue with it.. what are you saying is wrong with it?

Mr vain is referring to the fact that esker hills is built on a swamp. When i was younger i walked my dog down here and the entire estate was just marshy wetland, unusable for any agricultural puropses. Next time it rains watch the level of the lake near the gate. After very heavy rain it is rises up to the top of the waterfall.

Sonic_exyouth

Bicky wrote: »

On a similar note i was walking home from work at three AM last week when i was set apon by a bunch of pure scumbags. They were hiding in the dark, near the bridge, on the ridge road. They jumped out at me when i was walking past. I got home to my house and they stood outide shouting and kicking the door. Scared the **** out of me. Just a warning to be careful if walking home alone late at night.

Wow..
thats horrible.
Thankfully thats never happened to me.. did you call the police?
Did you notice their accents (my suspicions being that these were dublin imports)

Bicky wrote: »

Mr vain is referring to the fact that esker hills is built on a swamp. When i was younger i walked my dog down here and the entire estate was just marshy wetland, unusable for any agricultural puropses. Next time it rains watch the level of the lake near the gate. After very heavy rain it is rises up to the top of the waterfall.

I've noticed the pond/lake alright, but i just assumed that was because it was a self contained pool of water..
Swamp, aye.. some of the lower ground sure does seem that way (then again, a lot of it doesn't) .. Thats good to know, thanks!

TheKid

For anyone in Esker Hills worried about crehe having a shower of brats hanging around, I heard today crehe has been taken over and will be open for September. It will open until 9 at night so hopefully will keep undesirables away.

Bicky

TheKid wrote: »

For anyone in Esker Hills worried about crehe having a shower of brats hanging around, I heard today crehe has been taken over and will be open for September. It will open until 9 at night so hopefully will keep undesirables away.

Last week there was a few guys in suits walking around examining the building. Thought nothing of it at the time. Great news anyway.

Wow..
thats horrible.
Thankfully thats never happened to me.. did you call the police?
Did you notice their accents (my suspicions being that these were dublin imports)

They were portlaoise boyeees. Well known to the gaurds too. I honestly think that a lot of the Dubs who came down here are good people looking for a better life. There are lots of scum bags in dublin,(just as in any big city) but we have plenty of home grown scum too.

bailey#

I've owned a house by the same builder as the ones in esker hills. i wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, took me a year to sell it on in the boom, all the houses are on top of each other and alot of them are rented out to forigeners who have parties till all hours. they look good for the first few years but after that they start to look shabby and the watered down paint starts to flake off the outside of the house, and the in adequet parking is another issue. take my advise and spend a little more for a lot better quality and you'll be very happy in portlaoise.

adser53

OK, I'm a "Dublin import" so just so you know Sonic, we're not all knackers that moved out of the big smoke.

I'm living in Esker hills over a year now and I love it. Yes, there are quite a lot of houses in Esker hills but I think most of them are spread out nicely. I live down the end along the big green and I think it's fantastic there.

Bailey, while you are entitled to your opinion, houses get shabby when they're not looked after. I own my house and will paint it IF it's starting to flake and get shabby. One of your "renting foreigners" won't bother their arses painting their house. That's the landlords area. While I'm on the note of foreigners and their parties, this can happen anywhere, especially with a new development that investors buy to rent and certainly isn't limited to Esker hills.

Personally I think the builders have learned alot from their previous developments- parking is much better in E.H than the likes of Fairgreen, the houses are spread out much more and theres more green areas.

As far the "swamp land" it's built on, the builders have put in a lot of effort to put in good drainage and the end of the site (under the green) has a huge water storage tank that I'm guessing feeds into the lake whenever there's heavy rain. Remember the floods last year? Well the estate was perfect and trust me, if it was gonna flood, that was the time.

Bicky, that's lousy what happened to you. I've been lucky myself never to have experienced that. I never noticed knackers drinking down at the creche myself. I walk my dog regularly by it and never copped it but obviously you know better living beside it. Do the cops not do anything when you ring?

And that's great news about the creche opening, hopefully the shop follows suit and they wont put a take away in that'll just cause dirt and and people hangning around outside it.

Ahhhhhhh rant over

Bicky

I was just walking my dog and noticed a load of cars over at the shop. One of them was the merc clk that Sean Flanigan drives(owner of owenass) and another one was a spar branded van. Six men in suits were standing just outside the door of the commercial unit. It was open and i heard them talking about the fit out of the shop. Looks promising.

adser53 wrote: »

Bicky, that's lousy what happened to you. I've been lucky myself never to have experienced that. I never noticed knackers drinking down at the creche myself. I walk my dog regularly by it and never copped it but obviously you know better living beside it. Do the cops not do anything when you ring?

I never phoned the gardai about the creche, however they were down here about it on(at least) two occassions.

Sonic_exyouth

Bicky wrote: »

I was just walking my dog and noticed a load of cars over at the shop. One of them was the merc clk that Sean Flanigan drives(owner of owenass) and another one was a spar branded van. Six men in suits were standing just outside the door of the commercial unit. It was open and i heard them talking about the fit out of the shop. Looks promising.

.. Wow.. if a Spar opened .. that would be amazingly handy!

Fingers crossed!

adser53

Ah SPAR would be excellent!!!! Here's hoping!

TheKid

Bicky wrote: »

I was just walking my dog and noticed a load of cars over at the shop. One of them was the merc clk that Sean Flanigan drives(owner of owenass) and another one was a spar branded van. Six men in suits were standing just outside the door of the commercial unit. It was open and i heard them talking about the fit out of the shop. Looks promising.


I never phoned the gardai about the creche, however they were down here about it on(at least) two occassions.

i would expect shop to open soon because I know queries where made with regards to its availability for sale/lease and were told it wasn't available and it will be opening soon.

As for Esker Hills being on swamp land, it once was but Owenass spent a fortune on drainage and trust me land there is vastly improved from what it used to be.

CCCP^

CCCP^ tables a motion for Esker Hills to be renamed Dublin 50 on account of so many people from Dublin living there now.

adser53

yeah, good one :rolleyes: