New Development Royal Canal Park D15

ITT-Pat

Could some people living in an Ash please post up what length their couches are in the main living room?

engineer0

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a snagger who had looked into Herons or Ashes before ? I just checked the site yesterday and the first 6 Ashes' lights were all on, which makes me think it's about time we get a call. (Hopefully)

Thank you !

Graham

Mod Note

Recommendations by PM please

ITT-Pat

Can someone PM me with snagger recommendations too please?

tradesman

ek wrote: »

Pest control reckon they got in through the cable boxes outside the front door. Apparently very common and makes sense as the lids always blow off. Otherwise he found no other entry points as the house was so well built. Coming back again next week. Three caught in traps so far.

I recently carried out a snag inspection for a client & came across this! 20181119_140616.jpgI wonder is this where a mouse could get into this well built house?

Forumsie

Hi guys,

I'm looking for some inspiration for the attic and hotpress in the Heron. Both are great spaces but currently all our stuff (which is growing since we can't be bothered unpacking/throwing away) is in plastic boxes and even bin liners (classy!). It's an obstacle course when I go in there and I always whack my head. Do I just need to get the finger out and tidy up so it's a bit more ordered or have people got other storage ideas (not too expensive). For the hotpress I was going to get a carpenter to put in shelves but I'm not even sure what way to put them in or how much they'll cost.

Any ideas welcome! Thanks

engineer0

Hi all,

For those who already closed, can you tell how long it takes from getting the call for snagging, to getting the keys/closing ? We're trying to understand if we can close before Christmas, if we get a call next week.

Thank you in advance.

Bandana boy

engineer0 wrote: »

Hi all,

For those who already closed, can you tell how long it takes from getting the call for snagging, to getting the keys/closing ? We're trying to understand if we can close before Christmas, if we get a call next week.

Thank you in advance.

We had first snag on 21-Sep
we took keys on Oct 12th
We had a guy in doing floors and moved in on the 28th

johnny66179

Bandana boy wrote: »

We had first snag on 21-Sep
we took keys on Oct 12th
We had a guy in doing floors and moved in on the 28th

About four weeks between notification of first snag and getting keys with a second snag, drawing down etc in between. Moved in about a week after that once we got the floors installed etc. We weren't in a big rush though.

Forumsie

johnny66179 wrote: »

About four weeks between notification of first snag and getting keys with a second snag, drawing down etc in between. Moved in about a week after that once we got the floors installed etc. We weren't in a big rush though.

Ours was 6 or 7 weeks but granted the builders holidays started the day we got snagging notice and then there were further delays, I'm not sure of. We didn't really start pushing til the end. I reckon getting in before Christmas is ambitious though

RomeluFellaini

Hi all,

I bought an Ash in the Camden development last February and have been reading this thread a fair bit over the past couple of months. Thank you to all who have contributed information and tips, it has been a great help. If possible could someone PM me with recommendations for a snagger that they have used?

Also, could someone who has already moved into an Ash please share the size of the sofas that have in their sitting rooms?

Lastly, could anyone else who purchased an Ash on Rathborne Walk in the February phase advise if Ballymore have given an indication of when they would be invited for snagging?

Thanks

ITT-Pat

Regarding home insurance - I'm trying to get quotes but it's asking for a policy start date and we obviously don't know when the sale would be complete, and as far as I know we need to have the policy in place before we can close. What were people's experiences with this?

engineer0

ITT-Pat wrote: »

Regarding home insurance - I'm trying to get quotes but it's asking for a policy start date and we obviously don't know when the sale would be complete, and as far as I know we need to have the policy in place before we can close. What were people's experiences with this?

Unfortunately websites with automated premium calculation forms are not good for our case. What we found best was just dropping by an insurance branch (axa blanchardstown for our case) . They sort out everything.

engineer0

Hi all,
We finally heard from Ballymore that snagging starts on Monday 10th, I believe they're doing all the Ashes at one go ?  We also saw that all the lights were on in all of Ashes, and the fence was removed. 
Things were looking good, but I have noticed one big difference between Camden and Rathborne Park, the curb on one side of the road (Rathborne Park) was smooth and was lowered to accommodate for driveways, where the curb on Camden Side was quite high with no ramps. It was bumpy driving into the driveway.
Do you know if Ballymore fixes this afterwards ? Can they grind down the concrete to make a ramp for driveways ?

PhoenixParker

For us the discrepancy was fixed when they finished the road. The final layer of tarmac went on about 6 months after we moved in when all construction work was complete.

Given your road is shared castlethorn/ballymore it's definitely something to ask about.

Forumsie

Forumsie wrote: »

Ah insurance, so many hazards....!

I found it difficult too - we had no Eircode when I started ringing around so Zurich were pretty much the only one who would quote us. Same price for us and they won't give us flood cover as we're in a flood zone apparently. Now canals don't flood and I hope the tolka river is never going to rise about 20 feet and Ashtown as a whole is considered low risk for flooding but it was a case of computer says no! I will appeal that next year when we're renewing as I'd like some cover for in case pipes burst in our house or on the street or something but at the time I just needed to get insurance in place to close the sale. Oh actually FBD quoted me too - took about 3 days to get a quote and then it came back at a ridiculous cost of around 900 euro.

In terms of timing, Zurich told us they couldn't give us cover until the day we were closing. And we couldn't pay in advance and get the documents which need to be sent onto the bank and be updated in their system to get the money released. Our solicitor told us this was rubbish and to tell them the closing date was a Friday when we were closing the following wednesday. Therefore we had time to get the documents and AIB to update their systems. Not that I'm condoning misleading an insurance company but you're actually over insuring yourself slightly. Also you have to tell the insurance company that you're moving in immediately after closing otherwise they'll only give you partial insurance as the building is unoccupied. We only got our alarm after we moved in so we couldn't get a discount for that but maybe next year it'll be slightly cheaper.

Also - make sure the rebuild amount you give the insurance company exactly matches the rebuild figure on the valuation that the bank does. If it doesn't there is a problem. So get your valuation done during snagging and then go back to your insurance company to get it settled.

Speaking of insurance - I had to change the address on my car insurance. €50 euro extra for being a northsider!!! I like to think it's not really that but more the fact that my car is now in the driveway rather than a locked garage.

Finally, mortgage protection insurance is what nearly got us. Everyone told us to get it in place early. So we did, got it organised in April and our snagging didn't start til end of July. However, mortgage protection insurance is reducing balance, so when we went to draw down the money we realised that the the balance of the insurance had dipped slightly below the mortgage amount. We offered to pay the difference. But the bank wouldn't accept that, said we'd have to reapply and it would have to go to the underwriters again etc. We didn't have time for that. Long story short, we got letters from insurance company and various assurances and they let us away with it. But if you're setting up mortgage protection insurance early make sure the reducing balance at your expected time of closing will cover the mortgage amount

Best of luck!

For the person looking for info on house insurance - here you go. Let us know if you find someone who will give you flood cover

Forumsie

Folks,

I just wanted to know if anyone else is getting teh AH-00 error (tank disinfection not completed) on their unit in the utility room. We've had someone reset the unit twice and it works til the next time. We actually had Jason and the Daikin guys around the last time and they rewired the switch on the wall. But again a few days later the error message came back. They explained to my partner that it doesn't really matter, that there's no real chance of getting legionaires disease (!) and it was just a regulatory thing that they had to include this disinfection but really the water is changing every day so it's fine.

Ballymore are well sick of me at this stage but I was just curious if my unit is the only one that persists with this error message? On the plus side, I'm loving the air to water system, the place is so cosy and my electricity bill was very reasonable (although it was for a short period and wasn't as cold then so it'll be interesting to see what it is in January)

Also, has anyone in the new phase had any joy getting a phone line/broadband? My neighbour got Cablewatch and is happy enough but we're already in a contract for our completely rubbish Eir mobile dongle (average speed 0.5mbps, sigh) so I want to stay with them so I can upgrade to fibre when/if it comes. And get Sky TV (rather than the basic Cablewatch TV package) but even the phone coverage seems to be getting worse so I may have to bite the bullet in January. Even though Eir mobile clearly doesn't work, I know they won't let me out of the contract easily and the customer service is so woeful you can be hours waiting just to be hung up on.

Finally, for those doing snagging, I recommend you check your fences, half of them aren't reinforced into the concrete pillars and have really been clattering the last few windy nights. I would imagine that over time they would get damaged more quickly than if they were properly attached onto the pillars. Ballymore fixed ours for us when we noticed.

Hopefully those of you waiting will get keys before Christmas!

TheConnoisseur

Forumsie wrote: »

Folks,

I just wanted to know if anyone else is getting teh AH-00 error (tank disinfection not completed) on their unit in the utility room. We've had someone reset the unit twice and it works til the next time. We actually had Jason and the Daikin guys around the last time and they rewired the switch on the wall. But again a few days later the error message came back. They explained to my partner that it doesn't really matter, that there's no real chance of getting legionaires disease (!) and it was just a regulatory thing that they had to include this disinfection but really the water is changing every day so it's fine.

Ballymore are well sick of me at this stage but I was just curious if my unit is the only one that persists with this error message? On the plus side, I'm loving the air to water system, the place is so cosy and my electricity bill was very reasonable (although it was for a short period and wasn't as cold then so it'll be interesting to see what it is in January)

Also, has anyone in the new phase had any joy getting a phone line/broadband? My neighbour got Cablewatch and is happy enough but we're already in a contract for our completely rubbish Eir mobile dongle (average speed 0.5mbps, sigh) so I want to stay with them so I can upgrade to fibre when/if it comes. And get Sky TV (rather than the basic Cablewatch TV package) but even the phone coverage seems to be getting worse so I may have to bite the bullet in January. Even though Eir mobile clearly doesn't work, I know they won't let me out of the contract easily and the customer service is so woeful you can be hours waiting just to be hung up on.

Finally, for those doing snagging, I recommend you check your fences, half of them aren't reinforced into the concrete pillars and have really been clattering the last few windy nights. I would imagine that over time they would get damaged more quickly than if they were properly attached onto the pillars. Ballymore fixed ours for us when we noticed.

Hopefully those of you waiting will get keys before Christmas!

We are moved in since mid November and haven't had a single issue with the heating system, it's working perfectly. If I were you I would insist with Ballymore to get that fixed, I don't think their guess that you won't be having problems with bacteria in the pipes even makes any sense. It's a poor excuse for not knowing what the problem is. What if you are away for half a year with everything completely switched off and bacteria accumulates?

On the broadband topic we have no TV, only been watching Netflix for the moment. While waiting for the cables to be laid down we got mobile broadband from 3. The signal is not the best but can still get around 5Mbps. We are on a 30day contract and got our own LTE modem so can quit at any time after January.

pgav19

Hi All,

We are moving to one of the new houses in RCP. Move in date is scheduled for between July and Sep next year. We are really looking forward to the move and finding the boards pages really helpful as we try to get everything ready.

Apologies if this has been asked before but just wondering what people have done in terms of painting the interior of the house? We have been told that it will be delivered all painted white. Firstly, is it possible to change this to a different colour? Have people been in contact with Ballymore and got them to do this?

Secondly, what are people's thoughts on painting it themselves straight after moving? I think I read here that it takes the house a while to settle so we might be better off to wait a while before starting to paint.

Thanks!

Bruncvik

We had our house painted a day after receiving the keys, before even putting flooring in. Over the past two years, the house settled, but the cracks are minimal, not even needing a touch-up. The only visible cracks are actually along the skirting boards and windowsills, and those are causing the caulk to peel off, not any damage the new paint. (Also, we used the same gray as in the show houses, and it's a very good color for minor touch-ups; it blends very well.)

slayerking

pgav19 wrote: »

Secondly, what are people's thoughts on painting it themselves straight after moving? I think I read here that it takes the house a while to settle so we might be better off to wait a while before starting to paint.
Thanks!

We painted a few rooms ourselves within the first year, no issues at all. The good thing about painting yourself is that you will have paint left over so if any settling in cracks appear you can fill and touch up yourself if need be.

cronos

Bruncvik wrote: »

We had our house painted a day after receiving the keys, before even putting flooring in. Over the past two years, the house settled, but the cracks are minimal, not even needing a touch-up. The only visible cracks are actually along the skirting boards and windowsills, and those are causing the caulk to peel off, not any damage the new paint. (Also, we used the same gray as in the show houses, and it's a very good color for minor touch-ups; it blends very well.)

Are you sure it was exactly the same paint? I might need to do some touch ups and my house was painted gray by ballymore luckily before they stopped offering to do that.

ek

Christmas wreath stolen last night!

Bruncvik

cronos wrote: »

Are you sure it was exactly the same paint? I might need to do some touch ups and my house was painted gray by ballymore luckily before they stopped offering to do that.

We actually hired a Ballymore contractor; he knew the exact paint and bought it for us. It looks the same as in the show house for me, but I didn't try to retouch paint in a house that came in gray, so I can't confirm it's the same color.

engineer0

We finally did snagging and we're quite happy with what we saw. Majority of the issues were decorative. Though there was a lot of debris left underneath/behind things, good to check and ask Ballymore to clean construction debris.
BTW I always had the impression that the new place comes with washer/dryer but they were not included, was this the case for you as well ? SF had told us the appliances would be included.

cronos

engineer0 wrote: »

We finally did snagging and we're quite happy with what we saw. Majority of the issues were decorative. Though there was a lot of debris left underneath/behind things, good to check and ask Ballymore to clean construction debris.
BTW I always had the impression that the new place comes with washer/dryer but they were not included, was this the case for you as well ? SF had told us the appliances would be included.

Don't think any houses ever came with washer and dryer. They come with dishwasher, fridge, oven hob, oven and microwave. At least the herons do.

Bandana boy

ek wrote: »

Christmas wreath stolen last night!

are you sure it did not just blow away ?

cronos

ek wrote: »

Christmas wreath stolen last night!

Security in the management office might be willing to skim through the cameras for last night.

ek

Bandana boy wrote: »

are you sure it did not just blow away ?

It never moved the past two Christmas periods through much worse weather! No big deal, maybe don’t bother buying one if you haven’t already.

ITT-Pat

Does anyone know where I can check if the BCAR certificates have been uploaded yet?