Room to Improve (v2)

balanced24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050501#Comment_123050501

I never said they did I provide examples of two ‘free upgrades’ that people go through it trying to get and very vulnerable people. You presumed I’m stupid. I even said the council decides on the adaptation grant and everyone knows it’s the SEAI does the home upgrades.

there’s life outside the M50 and it’s very different.

Lived experience makes me right.

Notimefarmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050520#Comment_123050520

Yeah the 'working til 70' comment came across to me like the typical pretending to scrape by one, similar to how you hear lads in the office on good money yearning for payday as if they're eating beans and rice.

fits

I’d say that house was miserable to live in before the energy upgrade. I’m sure it’s more comfortable now.

Also I’ll eat my hat if that pool table is not gone and replaced by a bed. Or some other use.

rowantree18

As regards grants "for the rich", and that the poor should be helped etc.....I work with 2 people, one is a licensed professional, the other has a training course. The difference in salaries is actually not huge. Both recently got housed in the exact same development, one on the cost rental scheme, the other as a social tenant. The slightly higher earner is paying 40% of their salary in "cost" rent for a one bed. The other is paying a very, very low rent per month for a larger place, has a car and takes frequent holidays. The "professional " has no car and can't afford holidays atm. The rent is so high, they're not sure how they'll ever save to buy somewhere. The whole set up here is nonsense.

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050002#Comment_123050002

as they had torn out the bathrooms u; and downstairs they would have to have been completed as part of main house, really annoying it wasn’t shown, or the utility. The builders link above shows more of the completed work included the upstairs bathroom

balanced24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050573#Comment_123050573

And if an unemployed disabled person got a HAP tenancy in that scheme they would be likely paying more as percentage of their incomings than the two between rent contribution and landlord top-up. The scheme is riddled with these inconsistencies and this is never discussed in the housing debates.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050524#Comment_123050524

You connect the 2 grants by saying there was no money for bathrooms yet there was money for people you feel don't deserve it which is to suggest one has an effect on the other when they don't.

There is life everywhere and you made it (intentionally) sound like the councils only did it one way when my lived experience knows it is not.

Lived experience does not make anybody right knowledge does which can be gained through experience but if you ignore information it makes you willfully ignorant.

Grants given on improvement to housing stock saves money to the government, if you think that is a bad thing I don't understand and maybe you can say why it is?

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050520#Comment_123050520

an SNA is low paid at about 32k and has to work until about 70 to get 1/2 average career salary as pension and 1.5 times salary lump sum. Hardly on the pigs back.

Baybay

There’s a lot been said in the last few posts!

Is is a dedicated pool room? It’s also got storage for all their sports equipment & will probably be where gym practice takes place, where teenagers will hang out & maybe a room to study in when it’s time for Junior & Leaving certs. It may even be dad’s office as I don’t know if he has one anymore when the upstairs wasn’t completed. All of these things are contained & not leaking into other areas of the house where other aspects of life take place.

If the kids go on to represent their clubs, counties or countries the chat will be about sacrifices made but it’ll be ok then, whatever has happened in the past because a return has been realised. If they don’t, there’ll be many others who didn’t quite make it either but someone & their children has to give it a go.

Whether the couple were likeable is irrelevant. They scrimped & saved while living in less than ideal conditions until they were able to improve their circumstances. Why should the mother give up her job? Why should they sell up & move away? I wouldn’t want to live where they do or go back to the relentless slog of getting children where they need to be when they need to be there with everything else on top.

They all have a nice comfortable home to enjoy after all their activities & which they have paid for. Grants are there for everyone who satisfies the criteria, maybe we should all see how we can improve our own homes.

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050258#Comment_123050258

I thought that too, and was interested as the flames are more realistic than I’ve seen before, but now I think it must be a real one, listed by builder as a stove and looks like this Stanley model.

https://waterfordstanley.com/ellesmere-ec4-stove

Can’t see how they could ever really use it in that house now. would have been better with a flame effect fire.

ILikeBoats

Did they confirm if the underfloor heating actually went in? I'm sure it did but don't remember seeing the decision being made.

I'm not a fan of the them dressing up the house. Did they even own that pool table?

anewme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050625#Comment_123050625

You could see the fire had a pile of the willow warm briquettes beside them. In my opinion, they dont make the place scorching. I got a 5kw inset stove in my sitting room, now my room was much bigger than that tiny room, but in the cold weather there, it certainly did not get too hot at all. As someone who got the flame effect gas fire out, stove all the way. You become an expert at managing the fire!

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050118#Comment_123050118

The misery and begrudgery is dripping off this post.

littlefeet

What I liked about that episode is it showed why someone might be wary of buying an older house in an inner suburb , the cost of refurbishment or even hidden costly issues that emerge after the purchase.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050258#Comment_123050258

Fake fire?
Go on, what do you mean?

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050696#Comment_123050696

With an SEAI grant, would it not be likely that any traditional fires would have to be removed and sealed up?

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050388#Comment_123050388

Everyone can avail of a grant. That is the point of it. The grant was not for a renovation, it was for insulating the house to a certain standard, something anyone can do.

Tbh, most of the comments here giving out about the spend is born out of nothing more than jealousy and begrudgery.
The €315k may seem excessive, but they more or less had to build a new house for that. What did they keep of the old house? Some walls and the roof…

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050283#Comment_123050283

There's some right old cranky people on here.

You'd need a very cold heart to say they were not a likeable couple

rowantree18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050589#Comment_123050589

If they're unemployed, they pay a seriously nominal rent, which they pay for out of social welfare money, not "earnings". Free money, to get a free home - those are the actual facts. However, not to go off thread, my point is hardworking people who pay for everything deserve something too.

Westernview

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050658#Comment_123050658

There was a brief shot of the floor before the screed was poured with the underfloor pipes installed.

balanced24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050594#Comment_123050594

You’re being disingenuous and I’m not arguing with a stone. You said I won’t change your mind so find someone else to troll.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050708#Comment_123050708

They did mention a B2 rating, not an A2 rating.

For a B2 you could put something like this in there, with little to no issue. They are very efficent.

A2 rating? ,no you wouldnt get away with it, that is why new builds dont have any stoves. But to renovate an older house, those stoves are the way to go.

https://woodstovesireland.com/product/charnwood-aire-3/

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050520#Comment_123050520

She is not the only one juggling career and family life: most couples nowadays seem to do that, not just in Dublin but also in other cities around the world. If you want the nice holidays and the extra activities for the kids and the second car people do that nowadays. And I would bet most couples in capital cities in the world do not have a semi-d with a decent size back garden, 2 living rooms and a dedicated pool room etc. Most people on the continent live in apartments for example.

Well that is one way to look at it.

Next time someone tells you that life is a struggle, just get on your high horse and say that there are people starving in Africa… that will put them to rights.

They are spending over 700k on their forever home: they can afford to have decent insulation anyway : it is more important than having a dedicated, stand alone pool table room as well as 2 different living room areas. The vast amount of taxpayers working hard and juggling everything and who are paying towards their €35,000 grant do not have a dedicated pool table room built in their home. I do not begrudge anyone anything if they pay for it themselves. If I see someone with a new BMW I think well done to them if they can afford it / earned it, but I would not think they should get a grant of 35,000 towards it from the taxpayer.

Just LOL

Notimefarmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050731#Comment_123050731

Only basing it off what I saw, which I know is a small snippet.

But for me, I disliked the way she was sitting there in disbelief asking if this is real when Dermot showed the plans. Their budget was 320k ffs, that builds a brand new house in the countryside.

She goes from not liking the green countertop to being in love with it afterwards.

He goes on about wanting to have a cover for the sink. 🙄

Just thought their overall attitude towards life with kids was one of pity for themselves because how hard it is. Their old living room was nearly twice the size of most peoples living rooms. When they showed the view where the goal and gym mat was, I thought that was it, but then they turn around and there's twice the space for themselves. You'd swear they were being tortured just because the other half of the living room had some stuff in it.

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050708#Comment_123050708

Seemingly not : you can keep old, inefficient fires burning fossil fuels and still get a €35,000 energy upgrade grant.

Boardnashea

I thought he mentioned an A rating at the end of the program? It also wasn't clear what the final cost worked out at?

balanced24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050733#Comment_123050733

a person on disability allowance can pay over 25% of their disability allowance towards HAP and landlord top up. If that’s in shared accommodation they don’t receive fuel allowance assistance or household benefits, their only incoming is €232 a week.

Their unemployed neighbour in a council house might only pay €35 a week, the point is not all people unemployed are paying the same weekly.

Edit: Just in case anyone is unaware, a HAP tenant pays the council to be a HAP tenant. The Council pays a set rate to the landlord, any difference the tenant pays to the landlord.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050801#Comment_123050801

This is not necessarily a bad thing, a lot of people have no power for most of last week. Some source of heat in the house independent of power is desirable.

itsacoolday

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050833#Comment_123050833

How many houses in Dublin were without power this past few decades? Besides, with underfloor heating and proper insulation if it is done right, houses with UFH are supposed to retain most of their heat through it's thermal mass is power goes for a day ?

If people get a 35,000 grant you would think people should be ditching the fossil fuel fires if the aim is to reduce the use of fossil fuel fires.

More important than a room with a pool table, or mirrors on a garden shed.

Westernview

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123050795#Comment_123050795

I think the person demonstrating self pity here is yourself, not the couple in the show. Strange that you'd develop such a dislike for a couple you don't know after only seeing them in snippets. She was entitled to be taken aback seeing the plans for her future home for the first time. Almost as if she was pinching herself to see if it was really happening. A human response that made her very likeable in my view.