Churchfields, Ashbourne

yannakis

First batch of new homeowners are moving in already, and Cairn are planning to build plenty more with ongoing construction for at least a couple of years.

A3 rating is becoming the standard for newbuilds, but build quality looks exceptional in this estate, floor areas are larger than average for the money, and Ashbourne looks like a nice place to live.

We put a deposit down for a C type (4 bed semi) that'll be ready for snagging in Oct. Any potential neighbours? Any suggestions for the area/town?

www.churchfields.ie
www.daft.ie/churchfields

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Odyssey 2005

Mother lives there. Has lived in ashbourne for about 40 years except for a 3 year spell elsewhere. Loves churchfields. Seems like a well run estate. Handy for the village too..

yannakis

Thank you. Interested to see if any other boardsies are moving to Ashbourne

Elrose12

yannakis wrote: »

First batch of new homeowners are moving in already, and Cairn are planning to build plenty more with ongoing construction for at least a couple of years.

A3 rating is becoming the standard for newbuilds, but build quality looks exceptional in this estate, floor areas are larger than average for the money, and Ashbourne looks like a nice place to live.

We put a deposit down for a C type (4 bed semi) that'll be ready for snagging in Oct. Any potential neighbours? Any suggestions for the area/to

Hey

We put down deposit for 3 bed semi due to go in November. However heard through the grapevine they are 2 months behind 😕 Hoping it's not true

yannakis

Elrose12 wrote: »

Hey

We put down deposit for 3 bed semi due to go in November. However heard through the grapevine they are 2 months behind 😕 Hoping it's not true

Hey future neighbour!

We were originally told snagging is estimated for end of Oct, but roof and windows are already on our property since last week. So we have a feeling that snagging might be earlier than that.

We are in the blue area below. Are you in the orange area or further west?

Elrose12

Howdy

We are in orange phase and have no idea how they are getting on.

Wish it was now 🀣

yannakis

Elrose12 wrote: »

We are in orange phase and have no idea how they are getting on.

Wish it was now 🀣

Yeah, we're the same Can't wait!

We dropped by the showhouse this weekend, and the orange ones are at the stage the blue were in the end of March. So that's putting the orange about 2 months behind the blue, therefore I believe mid-late November should be feasible for you guys!

fitzroi

thinking of buying here but have concerns re water quality, have been advised estate not serviced by the public mains but by a private well in the estate that is serviced at the minute by the developer but to be maintained by management company in the future.

anyone live there give any info on the water quality there, I have seen online ashbourne in general is not great as far as water quality goes, very hard water apparently.

yannakis

@fitzroi would be great to hear from a local. Nevertheless I was looking at a water softener (device) for the mains, and a reverse osmosis filter for drinking/cooking.

Odyssey 2005

My mother lives there and has been using the water with no problems. I lived in the Garden city estate,next to churchfields for 35 years also with no problems

Irish Steve

Ashbourne area water is indeed hard. We've been here 27 years, and initially, we had problems with lime scale, even in the cold tanks, I put a whole house softener in during 2002, and have never regretted it, the difference in usage of things like soap, shampoo, detergent and washing powder is significant, and we no longer have problems with things like taps, kettles, showers and the like scaling up.

If you're thinking of getting one in a new build, it would be worth talking to the developer now, as they may be able to make changes to pipe routings that will make fitting a whole house unit a lot simpler, as it has to have access to the incoming supply, and a drain to allow regular refreshing, the problem being that most houses the incoming main is under the kitchen sink, and that's not a good place to fit the unit, as there's not enough space in that spot, you can reckon to lose about the size of a narrow press, the ideal location is in the utility area, but that only works if the pipework is easy to access.

yannakis

Irish Steve wrote: »

If you're thinking of getting one in a new build, it would be worth talking to the developer now, as they may be able to make changes to pipe routings that will make fitting a whole house unit a lot simpler, as it has to have access to the incoming supply, and a drain to allow regular refreshing, the problem being that most houses the incoming main is under the kitchen sink, and that's not a good place to fit the unit, as there's not enough space in that spot, you can reckon to lose about the size of a narrow press, the ideal location is in the utility area, but that only works if the pipework is easy to access.

Thank you, good to know these details!

Pipes/drains are in at this stage, and the builder will not allow any changes. One of the reasons we're putting the kitchen after closing is to move the sink/dishwasher drain to the island.

The location of the incoming pipe is nicely located under the stairs together with the pressure pump, and accessible through the utility room so I believe there is enough space for the device. Not sure if there is a drain though, but if not, we'll have to take care of it after closing as well.

XelmoX

Hey everyone, my boyfriend and I have bought a 3bed semi also. Hi new neighbours!!

They seem to be flying up from what I've seen! We have walls now and two weeks ago we barely had anything!

Has anyone had any dealings with Nolans kitchens? We went out today to see about making some changes to the kitchen and we found them pretty unhelpful and very very expensive. We were thinking of going back to Cairn and asking if we would be allowed to approach someone else to do the kitchen. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Elrose12

hey neighbour 😊

Where in Churchfields have you bought ? Oh no don't say that I was planning on changing counter tops and sink 🙈 I hadnt thought about using someone else ? But iv heard before sometimes if you don't go with something you get some sort of vouchers ? Now I'm not sure how true that is but have heard it been done for other new builds.

yannakis

Welcome to the (virtual for the moment) neighbourhood @XelmoX!

We want an island in our kitchen and discussed it with them since day 1. Between some misinformation from the selling agent and some nonsense from Nolans, turns out we will have to make adjustments to the pipes and Cairn won't allow that before closing! So we decided to not install a kitchen until then, and Cairn will give us credit for Nolans, and KKS (appliances).

This gives us extra time to look around and up to this point we have only looked at IKEA. We're getting a whole new kitchen with the money Nolan's wanted just for the upgrades! If we install it ourselves, savings will be even greater. I am personally sold with the 25 years warranty (pdf) (Nolans give only 1 year!).

Elrose12

Loving the virtual 😂

Are you serious with the costs? If you don't mind me asking are the astronomical ?Only 1 year guarantee that's shocking , sure then they could be throwing any aul kitchen in the more I'm hearing the less I am liking this crowd 😞

yannakis

Not sure if I'd call it astronomical, but it felt plenty for just the upgrades. Our initial IKEA model is actually bigger and in our humble opinion also better

XelmoX

Yeah we wanted to change the doors and the countertop and just doing that was over 1k which in my opinion is crazy money. It put the actual changes we wanted to make out of budget. They quoted €280 for putting two bins under the sink.

So Yannakis, did you get in touch with Cairn and they agreed to give you a cheque to the value of the kitchen or how did that work?

The IKEA kitchens are very reliable my sister has one and she saved a load of money on it and it's really nice. The 25 year guarantee is amazing also.

yannakis

Oh god, 1k!?

Cairn won't give us a cheque as such but have confirmed our allowance/credit with both Nolans and KKS so we will have to deal directly with the shops now. We are most probably going to use KKS, so that's fine. But also hope to pass our Nolans credit on to a friend or something (not exactly sure how that would work out).

XelmoX

So you have no choice but to go with Nolan's then really? It seems a shame they wont give you a cheque to the value of the kitchen.

Not to worry. We will just have to go with them then, we will probably end up ripping the whole kitchen out after a year and starting again. A bit of a waste of money and energy but what else can we do?

yannakis

That kind of waste of energy is what we definitely want to avoid! So (worse case) we'd rather "waste" only Nolan's credit instead of time+energy at another point in time.

If you are getting the upgrades from Nolan, we can PM for more details.

Mk30

Hi all. I have also purchased in churchfields in the orange phase in the photo posted a while back! Has anyone been out to the site lately because I was there yesterday and the colour of the brick looks different to the brick used on all the other houses. I have confirmed with the foreman that the brick being used is different and apparently this was a management decision (as in Cairn homes). Has anybody else noticed this?

XelmoX

Thanks a million Yannakis but I don't think we will be doing to upgrades with Nolan's, to be honest the saleswoman's attitude made me not want to give them any of my money.

Hey MK30, I was up last week and hadn't noticed any difference in the colour of the brick being used, but I was just looking for the progress being made on them. Is it a big difference?

Mk30

Hi Xelmo.

Well tbh I feel the ones in rows 23 to 34 in the orange section are alot darker than the others in front and the show houses etc! Im not sure what part you are in but the ones with West facing gardens which is where we are and the ones to the back of us certainly look lile it's a different red colour!

yannakis

No worries @XelmoX, we had a similar feeling from the sales people in Nolans..

Mk30 wrote: »

Hi all. I have also purchased in churchfields in the orange phase in the photo posted a while back! Has anyone been out to the site lately because I was there yesterday and the colour of the brick looks different to the brick used on all the other houses. I have confirmed with the foreman that the brick being used is different and apparently this was a management decision (as in Cairn homes). Has anybody else noticed this?

Welcome to the hood @Mk30 :pac:

I noticed the bricks last Saturday, but I'd say it's only a small difference. Not sure if it will stand out more once the houses are complete though.

Mk30

Thanks @yannakis.

Yeah that's what we are worried about because we really like the bright red brick. The estate agent has emailed me to say she will find out for us with Cairn homes.

XelmoX

We are in the orange section as well. I'd be interested to hear about what Cairn reply to you with. Can you post it up here when you find out please?

Mk30

XelmoX wrote: »

We are in the orange section as well. I'd be interested to hear about what Cairn reply to you with. Can you post it up here when you find out please?

Yeah no problem i will

yannakis

Mk30 wrote: »

Yeah that's what we are worried about because we really like the bright red brick. The estate agent has emailed me to say she will find out for us with Cairn homes.

From experience, information from the sales agent has zero value. Even if it's in writing. Sales agents told us we have to speak with Nolans for the kitchen island, and we verified it with every one we bumped on. We were happy until nolans told us it was too late for the island, and we should have coordinated with the builder directly first!

Speak with Cairn directly, they'll give you a contact number/email from one of their sales people, and they will provide 100% accurate answers.

Mk30

yannakis wrote: »

From experience, information from the sales agent has zero value. Even if it's in writing. Sales agents told us we have to speak with Nolans for the kitchen island, and we verified it with every one we bumped on. We were happy until nolans told us it was too late for the island, and we should have coordinated with the builder directly first!

Speak with Cairn directly, they'll give you a contact number/email from one of their sales people, and they will provide 100% accurate answers.

Spoke with Cairn. They haven't got back to me.

Went out to site again this afternoon. Spoke with project manager. So yes the brick in orange section (except north facing) have a different brick colour. It's a darker red (same ones in Parkside near clarehall) if anybody wants to see what they look like.

The project manager said that there will be diff bricks used throughout the different phases. Next phase will have yellow brick.

XelmoX

That's mad I didn't think they could change something so obvious!

I hope you are not disappointed by the change in the bricks! Yellow brick sounds cool though.

Mk30

XelmoX wrote: »

That's mad I didn't think they could change something so obvious!

I hope you are not disappointed by the change in the bricks! Yellow brick sounds cool though.

Yeah me neither! A little disappointed but can't change it now. Ours will still be red brick so im happy with that!

23ChaChaCha

Hi everyone I am buying a house built by Cairns in the new development Shackleton Park in Lucan. Its a mid terrace house and I am wondering if any of you have any feedback about noise transfer between walls?

Thanks

AoifeMoloney

Hi all. We have also bought in Churchfields Park. We were told when we paid the booking deposit that house would be ready in June/July. Now we are being told September. We are under pressure having sold our own house. Does anyone have a factual timing from the Builder's?

yannakis

AoifeMoloney wrote: »

Hi all. We have also bought in Churchfields Park. We were told when we paid the booking deposit that house would be ready in June/July. Now we are being told September. We are under pressure having sold our own house. Does anyone have a factual timing from the Builder's?

Hi Aoife! In which part of the hood are you? We're in the Blue and have initially been told October.

yannakis wrote: »

yannakis

23ChaChaCha wrote: »

Hi everyone I am buying a house built by Cairns in the new development Shackleton Park in Lucan. Its a mid terrace house and I am wondering if any of you have any feedback about noise transfer between walls?

Thanks

Only saw your message now, sorry :rolleyes:

Parkside is also built by Cairn. There are way more occupied terraced houses at this stage, and many more active users in the thread - maybe they can help.

XelmoX

Hey Aoife!

We bought in Churchfields Close and we were told October/November.

We went up there like 2 weeks ago and the houses are really progressing. 18 - 23 Churchfields Park look like they are nearly finished, roofs are on and everything. 23-30 are not as far along but getting there.

If you are nervous, get in touch with Cairn or ask you solicitor to follow up with them to maybe get a more definite date. Who told you September? I wouldn't listen to anyone other than Cairn. The estate agents don't know anything.

Dogberto

Hey guys!

Myself and my fiancée have put the booking deposit on a house in the estate, but our solicitor has raised serious flags about the contracts.

He says that the water supply system is private and will be turned over to the owners' management company?

He said there was a few special conditions that he had been through that led him to conclude that he "wouldn't touch this with a bargepole".

Has anyone else had this experience? We were so happy with the house and are devastated.

yannakis

Hey @Dogberto! Can you specify these special conditions from your solicitor?

There is a water treatment plant at one edge of the estate, and running cost is included in the yearly maintenance fees. We've been told that once the whole estate is completed, Cairn will apply for connection to the mains which might take a long time. To be honest, as long as we have water, I don't see this being a problem

Dogberto

Hey Yannakis! I'm not fully clear on the contracts because he's only just reviewed them, but he said that he essentially wouldn't be able to sign off on us getting marketable title with the way the contracts are written.

Did you have any issues with this?

His issue is that once the management company own the water facility, if it breaks down, the residents are liable.

We're caught between trusting his opinion and being disappointed about it, if that makes sense?

yannakis

Dogberto wrote: »

Hey Yannakis! I'm not fully clear on the contracts because he's only just reviewed them, but he said that he essentially wouldn't be able to sign off on us getting marketable title with the way the contracts are written.

In my eyes, your solicitor has to interpret what's written in the contracts, relay the information to you, and give you advice. You will be the ones making the final decision with their help. So with all the respect, what you're describing doesn't sound very professional..

Meet with them and discuss all elements under question - you need to understand everything (besides the water facility).

XelmoX

Our solicitor didn't have a problem with the water supply. He said it is unusual but nothing to be worried about. The county council will take control of it eventually is what we were told but no specific dates given.

The water supply could possibly be better than than the mains supply but also could be worse. The fact that it is newly built would make me think it will be reliable. There's no way to know until you're in. There are people living there already using the water supply and i haven't heard any complaints. My main concern is the water pressure but we won't know until we move in. We signed the contracts a few months back and our solicitor had no problems with that. I trust my solicitor completely as i have used him for several thing in the past with no issues.

Chap87

Dogberto wrote: »

Hey Yannakis! I'm not fully clear on the contracts because he's only just reviewed them, but he said that he essentially wouldn't be able to sign off on us getting marketable title with the way the contracts are written.

Did you have any issues with this?

His issue is that once the management company own the water facility, if it breaks down, the residents are liable.

We're caught between trusting his opinion and being disappointed about it, if that makes sense?

Hi Dogberto

Our solicitor had a couple of queries similar sounding to what you have had.
Firstly there was a little bit of confusion as to the land itself and who currently owns it etc... this was a little complex due to the estate being effectively added on to an existing development. Ultimately he went away and did some research and spoke to a few other solicitors who had sold properties in Churchfields and was ultimately happy with everything that he found out, it just wasn't as straight forward as A transfers to B. Perhaps your solicitor may just need to do a little more digging.

For the water supply it was similar, he found it unusual but it seems that it isn't too uncommon for new developments that are on the outskirts of towns due to the current demand for housing and the rate they are being put together.
There are a few points to note.
1. The estate is going to be in development for quite a while due to the next phases ultimately stretching out the length of the GAA club and from what I recal may be up to the edge of the N2, so it could take a while before it is handed over to the owners/management comitee.
2. Our solicitor didn't have concerns over breakdown of equipment etc... but his concern was over the well drying up. Agai after looking into this a bit more, we all came to the conclusion that as this isn't just 1 or 2 houses running off the supply there are a good few hundred and if something were to happen it would be a BIG problem for the local council, they wouldn't be able to let that many households go long without water, there would be major problems.
We should also consider that the management fees that are paid should include the maintenance for the supply, so as long as it is maintained we can hope for no issues! There's always pressure that can be applied on the council further down the line where we all think they should speed up with getting us connected to the mains!

That's my feedback for you anyway, hope it helps neigbourino!

yannakis

XelmoX wrote: »

My main concern is the water pressure but we won't know until we move in. We signed the contracts a few months back and our solicitor had no problems with that. I trust my solicitor completely as i have used him for several thing in the past with no issues.

There's a pressure pump in every house - in the C type it is under the staircase (accessible from the utility room).

aburayaa

yannakis wrote: »

Hey future neighbour!

We were originally told snagging is estimated for end of Oct, but roof and windows are already on our property since last week. So we have a feeling that snagging might be earlier than that.

We are in the blue area below. Are you in the orange area or further west?

Hi!

How are you? We're also in the blue area.
As far as I am aware, first fix is complete for our house. I think the build is progressing well, (I hope so at least), I hope snagging will be as expected by October.

A couple of quick questions please:
* Do you know a good snagger that you can recommend (or even where do we look?)
* Any information when the actual Park will be ready? I heard March 2018?
* For the water softener/filter etc. any recommendations?
* Do we have UPC internet there? How's the quality/speed like?
* Is the planned Creche actually approved/confirmed? That would be handy for our daughter.

Lots of questions, sorry :-)

Dogberto

Chap87 wrote: »

Hi Dogberto

Our solicitor had a couple of queries similar sounding to what you have had.
Firstly there was a little bit of confusion as to the land itself and who currently owns it etc... this was a little complex due to the estate being effectively added on to an existing development. Ultimately he went away and did some research and spoke to a few other solicitors who had sold properties in Churchfields and was ultimately happy with everything that he found out, it just wasn't as straight forward as A transfers to B. Perhaps your solicitor may just need to do a little more digging.

For the water supply it was similar, he found it unusual but it seems that it isn't too uncommon for new developments that are on the outskirts of towns due to the current demand for housing and the rate they are being put together.
There are a few points to note.
1. The estate is going to be in development for quite a while due to the next phases ultimately stretching out the length of the GAA club and from what I recal may be up to the edge of the N2, so it could take a while before it is handed over to the owners/management comitee.
2. Our solicitor didn't have concerns over breakdown of equipment etc... but his concern was over the well drying up. Agai after looking into this a bit more, we all came to the conclusion that as this isn't just 1 or 2 houses running off the supply there are a good few hundred and if something were to happen it would be a BIG problem for the local council, they wouldn't be able to let that many households go long without water, there would be major problems.
We should also consider that the management fees that are paid should include the maintenance for the supply, so as long as it is maintained we can hope for no issues! There's always pressure that can be applied on the council further down the line where we all think they should speed up with getting us connected to the mains!

That's my feedback for you anyway, hope it helps neigbourino!

Thanks so much! We'll see about the neighbour part! I really hope we can get past this.

yannakis

aburayaa wrote: »

How are you? We're also in the blue area.
As far as I am aware, first fix is complete for our house. I think the build is progressing well, (I hope so at least), I hope snagging will be as expected by October.

A couple of quick questions please:
* Do you know a good snagger that you can recommend (or even where do we look?)
* Any information when the actual Park will be ready? I heard March 2018?
* For the water softener/filter etc. any recommendations?
* Do we have UPC internet there? How's the quality/speed like?
* Is the planned Creche actually approved/confirmed? That would be handy for our daughter.

Lots of questions, sorry :-)

Hey welcome!! Foreman told us today to expect snagging before October, so happy days :pac:

- Found a decent snagger through the forum, he already did a property in Churchfields and had good feedback about Cairn. Most probably going with him.
- Leaning towards Clack water softener but haven't decided on the particular model yet. Thinking to add reverse osmosis filter for drinking water but not very convinced yet.
- Afaik there is Virgin Media and Eir provision in all houses, but that's all I know. Would actually be interested to hear how long it takes for the initial connection.

Don't know about the park and the creche

aburayaa

yannakis@ Thank you! That was helpful

Thepeoplesarmy

Dogberto wrote: »

Hey guys!

Myself and my fiancée have put the booking deposit on a house in the estate, but our solicitor has raised serious flags about the contracts.

He says that the water supply system is private and will be turned over to the owners' management company?

He said there was a few special conditions that he had been through that led him to conclude that he "wouldn't touch this with a bargepole".

Has anyone else had this experience? We were so happy with the house and are devastated.

Churchfields is not a new estate,I bought my house here 10yrs ago,although you guys are buying into the new builds,however there's not been any issues with the water well,yes it's private and so what?.

Churchfields is a great estate and you guys are getting it for a fraction of what we paid then,you guys are definitely getting the value for the money you paying.

yannakis

New satellite imagery is available! Google has it dated 7 May but I believe it's a few weeks before that:




Visible on Google Maps on my android phone but not through browsers on my laptop https://goo.gl/maps/c8aAYKahZVP2

Visible on Google Earth desktop but not web based Google Earth https://earth.google.com/web/@53.50799129,-6.40830944,65.89549681a,433.93439914d,35y,0h,0t,0r

Lexoi

Hi guys, we signed the contracts about a month ago for a C2 type house in the area marked blue.
I've been trying to get in contact with some new buyers for ages as I had loads of questions.
We live in Ashbourne so I go by the new house almost everyday:)

The estate agent told us that the house will be ready for snagging in September but in the valuation doc it says 15th of October, they seem to be pretty fast with the building though.

We were trying to get the floor plans to include the square meters but no one could provide us with it:)). Also we we're trying to get the plan for our house as it's positioned differently from the showhouse but no luck either.

We were in contact with the developer and asked if we can get upgrades but we were told no, and that the house comes as the showhouse. We were given the website for the kitchen provider and the guys that fitted the flooring, as we were trying to get a quote for the flooring too, but we weren't given too much info on it.

Also tried to get a list with everything that will be included in the house but no luck. I was hoping that we'll have a choice in stuff like position of the wall sockets.

We were really upset when we noticed our house doesn't have the same amount of solar panels as the showhouse and we almost didn't sign the contracts due to this, the developer's explanation was quite reasonable but I still think it was due to them trying to cut out costs.

Regarding the contracts, it was a little bit of back and forth with them as our solicitors didn't accepted a few conditions but everything was fine in the end.

It says in the contracts that we won't be able to put a satellite dish on the house unless we get the approval from the management group, anyone else knows if this is true? If it's true, is there other way we can get television?

Any idea if there's a Facebook group for new residents in Churchfields as it would be easier for me to follow? Very exciting times ahead and loads of questions about flooring, furniture shops etc.