Room to Improve (v2)

freshpopcorn

Hatshepsut wrote: »

Considering the tit Dermot made of himself tonight and on last week's show, can anyone really be that surprised that Louise, his wife, made the decision not to be shown on camera???
She has my full sympathies anyway, being married to him.

A woman being married to a fairly successful architect who can deliver a home like Dermot deviled tonight has your sympathies! I'm a tad lost to be honest.

sideswipe

I enjoyed the show and liked the end result. I like him and respect the wife decision not to go on camera.

Millionaire only not

MintyMagnum wrote: »

Did Patricia change teeth since last episode?

I actually wudnt mind a closer look ! I think she’s very attractive and sexy !

sideswipe

sideswipe wrote: »

I enjoyed the show and liked the end result. I like him and respect the wife decision not to go on camera.

Same here, I like him too. So much begrudgery on this thread, same every single episode . What people forget is this is a TV show , with a celebrity architect, edited and presented to be entertaining. Whether it is or not is a different story . Take it for what it is , enjoy it or don’t watch it .

Hatshepsut

freshpopcorn wrote: »

A woman being married to a fairly successful architect who can deliver a home like Dermot deviled tonight has your sympathies! I'm a tad lost to be honest.

It's not his bank balance, success or architectural skills. I'd say he'd drive you doolally being married to him - never on time, can't make a decision to save his life, can't stick to his decisions, Walter Mitty type ideas.

MintyMagnum

Neighbours must have no sun til evening with the size of that extension

splinter65

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Same here, I like him too. So much begrudgery on this thread, same every single episode . What people forget is this is a TV show , with a celebrity architect, edited and presented to be entertaining. Whether it is or not is a different story . Take it for what it is , enjoy it or don’t watch it .

“enjoy it or don’t watch it”.
Sorry sweetmaggie I didn’t realise you didn’t allow any critiscm of Room To Improve here on the Room to Improve discussion thread that you own.
I won’t post again. Sorry.

iano.p

He did in my eye get all that for 530k I was expecting more. It's nice but for me it wasn't wow.

Addle

Finished job is fab.
I loved the lighting, and the way they painted the ceilings the same colour as the walls in the kids rooms.

The garden is just fantastic. I’d love it. I’ve had crazy quotes for a much more modest garden, so am not as surprised at the figures mentioned.

But the best was the kitchen they visited.
I’m going to remember that (for when I win the lotto).

Elmer Blooker

sideswipe wrote: »

I enjoyed the show and liked the end result. I like him and respect the wife decision not to go on camera.

I certainly wouldn't like him if I lived next door in the shade of that rear extension. Surely his neighbour's house has been devalued with that huge extension blocking out the sunlight.

KevRossi

I think he didn't finish the garden the way it was supposed to be done. The grass is clearly carpet, so probably just laid for the filming. The box plants can be removed afterwards. If that is the finished article then why did he employ Diarmud Gavin as it clearly is not Gavin's work. I would think they are mates and DB gave him a bit of exposure. I did like the steps at the start, that looks good and i like the idea of listening to rain on a tin roof, a sound I loved from my childhood.

Having said that I loved Gavin's garden, I prefer that to an over-manicured strip of lawn.

On Dermots house I don't think it looks like €530K. The sitting room floor is nice, but it isn't striking. The kitchen island is way too big, would be better served with a large kitchen table in the middle that they could sit around. Also, the cooking smells go straight upstairs, which is not nice (had it in a previous house, the bedclothes pick up any cooking odours).

I noticed he had no sunken sitting room that he puts in every other house to break up a large room, in some builds he actually pushed it on people who were unsure about it. Most of the rest of the house is fine. Doubt the neighbours are too happy with his 12 month build, big lump of a window box and people cruising past the house to get a look at it from now on.

I think the programme tried to be 3 things in one and succeded at none of them;
1. A journey for Dermot to see architects and designs that influenced him (Oxford & house in Kildare)
2. A rebuild and remodelling of a house
3. A reality show with a lot of scripting to get laughs/outrage

He needs to decide which one he wants to do and stick to it.

The bit where he got emotional about his Dad I found very touching, I was genuinely moved by that. I also liked some of the comments his brother made about him; making Lego houses in his bedroom and looking at houses along the road.

Addle

In his defense, it’s not necessarily an architects job to cost and be practical?
Aren’t they purely about design?

vicwatson

iano.p wrote: »

He did in my eye get all that for 530k I was expecting more. It's nice but for me it wasn't wow.

I assume plus the cost of the house?

Buford T. Justice XIX

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Same here, I like him too. So much begrudgery on this thread, same every single episode . What people forget is this is a TV show , with a celebrity architect, edited and presented to be entertaining. Whether it is or not is a different story . Take it for what it is , enjoy it or don’t watch it .

It's easier to knock than to build, as Dermot found out twice with his wall before the garden.

I enjoyed the episode and thought the house looked well, especially as it's an A rated building now as well. Great view to the garden and will be even more so as the newer section matures.

Not so sure about plain glass in front of the bath in the shed, though:D

Redo91

Am I right in saying the extension alone was around 2,500 Square feet based on what he said when outlining the plans to the QS? Looked to me like the house was in and around that when finished but must have been bigger if that’s how big the extension was to the original house.

freshpopcorn

Next week!
Dr Eva's Great Escape!
Three-part series following Dr Eva Orsmond and her husband as they take on the ambitious task of renovating a derelict hotel in Portugal.

jos28

While I found the programme frustrating and very badly edited, I'm delighted for Dermot and his family. They got their dream home in an area they love, the kids don't have to change schools, sports clubs etc. It's a fabulous space that will cater for the years ahead as their children grow. I'd imagine there will be lots of lovely occasions to be had there and the best of luck to them.

I certainly didn't like a lot of the design choices - the big black picture window at the front, the gulleys between the roof sections and I'd hate to have my kitchen island in the middle of the house. I'd much prefer to be looking out at the garden while prepping the dinner. But it's not my house, it's Dermot's and I'm sure himself and his family will be very happy there.

FFVII

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Lovely end job, it’s fab and I especially love the garden. I’d say as time goes on the garden will mature and grow. It was a bit annoying at times , but no point in going on about the cost of it on top on what he paid for the house. It’s obviously what he wants and where he wants it , for his wife and kids too. I wouldn’t say he’s too worried about costs, Dermot is on big money these days . Wish him well.

But the garden ended up just being a few steps, a lawn with a few box bushes and a palm in a 4 wall rockery thing. Nice job in the end, timber ceilings, multi level windows and floor to ceiling doors made it.

His house really could have been done in one episode. Maybe a 90 minute special if they really wanted to drag it out but two episodes was very much dragging it out, especially so when you consider how little the house itself seemed to actually feature in the show.


For what it's worth, I realise the show is scripted, is obviously a drama, and clearly has a production crew, however, I do think Dermot himself needed to revise what was being put forward for the show. They made him look like a complete moron. He looked like he had no idea what he was doing, and when it came to things like not understanding primary school stuff like glass being reflective at night, he really must have damaged his professional image.

That said, the house itself seemed a fairly standard Dermot Bannon affair. Glass everywhere (although that pane of clear glass at the end of the hall that leads into the kitchen from the front door is an accident waiting to happen!), a horrendous dormer window that in no way suits the aesthetics of the area, a large open plan living space, coupled with the usual 'we're waiting for a decision to be made' storyline.

The house is nice, although I don't understand how the argument was made that having downpipes on the rear of the house was ugly, but having three separate apex rooflines, with one staggered back, wasn't overly-cluttering the design in itself. Kind of works against the simpler downstairs wall of glass, in my opinion (but then; I'm no architect).


Yer one Patricia seems nice, but they managed to make a tit out of her, too. She came in at a price of, I believe, €780k (650k for house, 30k for front garden and 100k for back garden). Even if we ignore that the builders went looking for more money because they were on-site for too long, and that dermot's family spent what looked like a few hours cutting plants and bringing them to the skip, the price quoted at the end was 'around' €530k.

For a quantity surveyor to price a 530k job at 780k (a different of 250k!) makes her look like a bumbling idiot. She's about 30% off and her only job is to price things.


I presume the people featured in the show have some level of creative control, or get to see the episodes before they're completely finalised, so I've no idea what they were thinking.

Also, that gardener fella got far too much TV Time. It was practically his show. As much as I think a garden is an important part of the house layout (albeit I'm the type that prefers clean lines and tidy rather than messy/overgrown), I don't think it warranted anywhere near as much attention as it had gotten on the show.


That said, all my complaining and moaning aside, fair play to him. At the end of the day, I wouldn't begrudge someone a bit of success, and although I know nothing about him except what I see on TV, he seems a relatively friendly and inoffensive chap, so hopefully things will continue well for him and the family.

Addle

Didn’t she say that he ‘shopped around’? The impression I got was that he called in a lot of favours.

Ceist_Beag

Deleted User wrote: »

His house really could have been done in one episode. Maybe a 90 minute special if they really wanted to drag it out but two episodes was very much dragging it out, especially so when you consider how little the house itself seemed to actually feature in the show.


For what it's worth, I realise the show is scripted, is obviously a drama, and clearly has a production crew, however, I do think Dermot himself needed to revise what was being put forward for the show. They made him look like a complete moron. He looked like he had no idea what he was doing, and when it came to things like not understanding primary school stuff like glass being reflective at night, he really must have damaged his professional image.

That said, the house itself seemed a fairly standard Dermot Bannon affair. Glass everywhere (although that pane of clear glass at the end of the hall that leads into the kitchen from the front door is an accident waiting to happen!), a horrendous dormer window that in no way suits the aesthetics of the area, a large open plan living space, coupled with the usual 'we're waiting for a decision to be made' storyline.

The house is nice, although I don't understand how the argument was made that having downpipes on the rear of the house was ugly, but having three separate apex rooflines, with one staggered back, wasn't overly-cluttering the design in itself. Kind of works against the simpler downstairs wall of glass, in my opinion (but then; I'm no architect).


Yer one Patricia seems nice, but they managed to make a tit out of her, too. She came in at a price of, I believe, €780k (650k for house, 30k for front garden and 100k for back garden). Even if we ignore that the builders went looking for more money because they were on-site for too long, and that dermot's family spent what looked like a few hours cutting plants and bringing them to the skip, the price quoted at the end was 'around' €530k.

For a quantity surveyor to price a 530k job at 780k (a different of 250k!) makes her look like a bumbling idiot. She's about 30% off and her only job is to price things.


I presume the people featured in the show have some level of creative control, or get to see the episodes before they're completely finalised, so I've no idea what they were thinking.

Also, that gardener fella got far too much TV Time. It was practically his show. As much as I think a garden is an important part of the house layout (albeit I'm the type that prefers clean lines and tidy rather than messy/overgrown), I don't think it warranted anywhere near as much attention as it had gotten on the show.


That said, all my complaining and moaning aside, fair play to him. At the end of the day, I wouldn't begrudge someone a bit of success, and although I know nothing about him except what I see on TV, he seems a relatively friendly and inoffensive chap, so hopefully things will continue well for him and the family.

+1 to all of that. I really think Dermot comes off quite badly as a professional in all of this. You wouldn't expect a student architect to make some of the mistakes he made or to be quite as shoddy as he was made out to be.
In fairness to Patricia, I think her final estimate on the house was €600K and I think it probably wasn't far off that. Dermot mumbled the 530 number at the end of the show but I don't think anyone believes that was the final number. Her estimate on the garden was €130K but the garden delivered was a pale imitation of the original design by Diarmuid Gavin. The steps were lovely though - a marked improvement on the wall put in by Dermot originally!
On the house, yeah downstairs looked really nice although some touches I wouldn't be mad on, like the "stove" alongside the tv and the backsplash on the sink in the kitchen was a bit mad! Personally I like having a window to look out of at the sink, especially as his was (I think) looking out at the garden.
But overall, good luck to them.

iamwhoiam

Yes good luck to them and its their house after all . My one big criticism would be the eye sore of the awful black window yokey to the front . Did anyone like it I wonder ? Its neither in keeping with the house or the area .
Another thing I noticed was how the neighbours back rooms looked very shaded by the extension . I would like to know how they felt about it .
Personally speaking if I had 1.5 million I would expect a sea view location and maybe a pool but its not my money he spent !

As for the programme it self , it has jumped the shark and is no longer a programme about ordinary people getting an extension . We saw no bathrooms or anything in Dermots house and no real insight into the cost or spend or sourcing .

Some might enjoy the change of path the show is taking , I prefer the original Room to Improve shows . I definitely won’t be watching the next few with Eva Orsmond anyway !!

HeidiHeidi

That garden was in my eye what DG had proposed/planned - I'm surprised he agreed to that being associated with him to be honest!



A few steps and a big expanse of lawn? Nothing wrong with it (probably a lot more practical for a young sports-mad family than a jungly designer wilderness) and I liked it, but a Diarmuid Gavin spectacular it most certainly was not!


The house inside was amazing - not to my taste but then again it's hard to tell from a telly shot. As others have said, if that's what they actually wanted then more luck to them - it looked like beautiful craftmaship throughout.


I'm also stunned (not in a good way) by the big boxy dormer window at the front - can't believe that got past planning, and can't believe anyone thinks it looks aesthetcally good!


I'm also intensely irritated by the fudging of figures - either don't get involved in money matters at all, or give the audience the respect of using actual figures. They made such a huge deal of budget figures throughout, and then you have Dermot muttering something about €5XX thousand, I forget the actual figure but I believe that as much as I believe in DG's garden.


As for Eva Orsmond - I presume that's not a RTI show? She's up there on my list of the most irritating TV personalities EVER, so as much as I love property programmes I think I'll be giving that one a wide berth.

AndrewJRenko

boggerman1 wrote: »

The dog was the most intelligent of the 3.he kept his mouth shut

You know how they say that dogs grow to look like their owners? Or is it the other way round?

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Is disabled access not required when updating an existing house?

Yes, where 'reasonable' - though enforcement of building regs is very poor, particularly of accessibility issues.

Is the Planning application available on the DCC website?

Millionaire only not wrote: »

They edited out , suddenly there’s the stove nothing about the flue!

He said it was a 'bio ethonol stove, burning rape seed oil' that doesn't need any flue.

Deleted User wrote: »

Yer one Patricia seems nice, but they managed to make a tit out of her, too. She came in at a price of, I believe, €780k (650k for house, 30k for front garden and 100k for back garden). Even if we ignore that the builders went looking for more money because they were on-site for too long, and that dermot's family spent what looked like a few hours cutting plants and bringing them to the skip, the price quoted at the end was 'around' €530k.

For a quantity surveyor to price a 530k job at 780k (a different of 250k!) makes her look like a bumbling idiot. She's about 30% off and her only job is to price things.

Funny how it was Dermot that gave the €530k cost at the end, and not Patricia. Every other episode had the QS doing a final wrap up on costs. Maybe Patricia has some ethical objection to lying on camera?

Penn

I think they mentioned a few times during the episode that things had been taken out of the contract during tender, so even though the initial design & spec came in approx €600k, things were then taken out, and they mentioned that Dermot "shopped round" (aka. "I'm famous and this'll be on RTE so gimme stuff for cheaper"), so I can see how there could have been a decent enough reduction from the initial cost.

However, between the project overrun and stuff added back in, I would have thought it'd still come in closer to €600k. Maybe there's stuff he's counting as separate to the project/contract cost, but that's a bit misleading.

Either way, it didn't look particularly wonderful at the end. It was alright, but nothing great/spectacular. And the whole thing about having his family help with the garden was clearly just done on purpose to bring his family/personal story into it. More fakery for the sake of it.

Grats

Throw in architects fees - Dermot's, his male and female friends fees, his Oxford friend and so on - Diarmuid Gavin's fees, Patricia's fees and various other people he called on, the final cost would be much higher than mentioned. The average client most certainly could not contemplate running up such costs.

LirW

To everyone saying it doesn't fit the area: just in the immediate area a good few houses did huge extension projects that seem a bit tacked on with similar windows.

meeeeh

I liked the house. I'm unsure about the front window, at one level it's interesting but in another a bit too intrusive. I like the back of the house a lot, I like the apex ceilings, they are very nicely done. I would prefer kitchen looking out but but that's personal preference, kitchen itself is very nice.

Bioethanol fire was interesting because we were looking into one of those. We messed chimney design too, although in his case that could be story narrative. They went for very energy efficient house and it's quite possible wood burning stove was never planned.

micks_address

Yeah im pretty sure he could go to suppliers and say things like..hmm ill use you as my preferred supplier for all jobs going forward and they'd say hmm... have this stuff for cost..

actually thought there was going to be a 3rd episode.. it went from chaos to all done in 2 minutes.. the kids dropping the stone in the kitchen was funny... drop it anywhere you want as long as you put it where i tell you...

diarmuid gavins place looks super.. you could probably have that for the same price as the bannons house..

i assume he paid 500k for the house and put in another 550k so its at least a 1 million spend?

I know Drumcondra is nice but id be tempted to get out of the town a bit and get more for the money. The garden is huge though.. id say the neigbours must feel severally underwhelming next to is house.. His extension and roof line must cut off a lot of their light?

Addle wrote: »

Didn’t she say that he ‘shopped around’? The impression I got was that he called in a lot of favours.

Mantis Toboggan

micks_address wrote: »

Yeah im pretty sure he could go to suppliers and say things like..hmm ill use you as my preferred supplier for all jobs going forward and they'd say hmm... have this stuff for cost..

actually thought there was going to be a 3rd episode.. it went from chaos to all done in 2 minutes.. the kids dropping the stone in the kitchen was funny... drop it anywhere you want as long as you put it where i tell you...

diarmuid gavins place looks super.. you could probably have that for the same price as the bannons house..

i assume he paid 500k for the house and put in another 550k so its at least a 1 million spend?

I know Drumcondra is nice but id be tempted to get out of the town a bit and get more for the money. The garden is huge though.. id say the neigbours must feel severally underwhelming next to is house.. His extension and roof line must cut off a lot of their light?

He paid 900K initially for the house and then probably 600K + for the extension and renovation.

I know if I paid that kind of money i'd expect not to be stuck in Drumcondra.

Did we find out if he got the renovation grant?

All these episodes about 90% in go from complete mess to walllah!! Completed. Then all the finer details get lost and it's all happy faces drinking wine in the kitchen and trying to convince each other that it was all worth it.