My Bungalow Bliss

Corrugated roof was atrocious, why didn't they go with coloured slate instead, it's a house, not a jaysus art exhibition for cars driving by to gawk at. More expense with the slate but a much more future proof job. I can never understand people fitting nice fancy modern high end kitchens and then putting poverty spec €9.99 white switches for the main cooking appliances. I'd love to know the energy rating before and after.

I'd like to see the Bungalow book make a comeback, why bother making a seperate design for each individual house around the country? An A++ rated bungalow built in Bally Back Of My Hole is the same as one built in a city, no adaptions needed. I don't like all the options when doing a one off, opening a book and choosing page 7 is the way to go.

I loved the inside of the house, lovely scandi style to it, lots of wood and the no skirting etc is slick. Liked the polished concrete floor as well. They didn't focus much on the island he made oddly. But the other furniture was terrific. As were the windows.

But I don't get the roof at all....it looked horrible...the colour hmm....the noise! I would think could be hard to maintain, possibly hard to insure? And only three bedrooms at the end of the day.

The money spent felt like an awful lot, especially given how much they reduced the size of the place, maybe the pandemic didn't help in they, I suppose not a concern unless they need to sell up.

Yeah it's weird, they said they couldn't afford Dublin prices but 500K would get you a 3 bedroom house in Dublin. Granted you won't get the land.

Well they were able to buy the original house for 150 with the land obviously 😊 100% increase on market value would still only bring it to 300k I'm not aware of any area increasing by 100% in last 10 years especially not Connemara.

It's a nice high spec house and it is their "forever home" but I'd imagine if it was brought to market now it would sell at a loss.

500k for a 3 bed bungalow in Connemara seems ridiculous.

Exactly, I feel the book raised a huge percentage of the population back in the day who couldn't afford a 'mainstream home'. I don't recall a single case of Mica or any poor design issue that the designers had to be sued about or the owners put out of their home about.

That wouldn't have been tolerated on Grand Designs 😊 some amazing stories, Builds and even more amazing furniture made by participants.

Our house increased 100 percent on our purchase and we only picked it up 4 years ago. That said we bought savvy, we bought a location I saw the potential. And it's got the valuation from multiple separate agents one over the phone without a viewing.... All within 10 grand of each other.

As for the house on the shower. I like it, I don't like the shade of green though maybe darker I think. But the notion you'd pick up a detached house with that level of land and size and space in Dublin for 500k or anything remotely close to that money is hilarious. Dublin isn't the centre of the universe. This couple got a lot for their money overall.

Admittedly the build costs are massive. But the industry is that cost now. No one can escape the costs. They had no control over that tbh.

I always reckon the numbers (costs) are makey up on these programmes as are the routine dramas about budgets/fights with builders etc. It's a TV programme after all.

Liked what they did myself and the roof was what at least one of the clients was looking for in the brief - a statement.

Properly insulated there would be minimal rain noise on a handful of days when you get torrential rain. There a good deal of myth about steel roofs out there tbh. I speak from some experience on that, properly done they are as good a way of doing it as any.

Having done something similar ourselves last year and finished just before Covid kicked in,I can tell you 350K does not go far in such a renovation. At the outset we were told 220K was a very healthy budget, but all quotes came in at over 400K and we were not building a mansion. There are reasons behind keeping certain parts of the original fabric of the building, planning in our case was one of them - it just made the process easier and quicker and we were told there is no cost advantage to flattening the old structure and restarting.

When you consider the bit ticket items in such a house - heating and electrical probably at least 20-25k each, insulation at least 15k, blockwork, plastering, roofing, flooring etc, It all adds up, And then you have the finish - kitchens, bathrooms etc. We spent the extra money to get the finish we wanted as it's a house for live, so the investment is for the next 50 years (I hope!)

What's the saying...."those that can't , teach"

I'd personally doubt they are Gaurenteed for 30 years, I've been looking at this option myself, there's a discoloration gaurentee of 20 years on the quotes I've got. I supposed it's down to the type of cladding choosen, is it galvanised etc. I'm no expert incidently, others may have different opinions. I'm looking at a tile effect, insulated type.

I think he just didnt like the design, but was railroaded into it.

One reason for doing a major renovation is to bring the insulation and heating standards up to current levels. I hate the way these programmes never mention this - I suppose they are considered too nerdy for most of us. The 'human story' gets preference instead.

What? Lazy sh*te.

Thanks, I didn't see the entire program, will have to look at it later.

Honestly, I'm not impressed with the exterior at all and the Roof color a little loud IMO, I think a Grey Tile effect would have looked better, but again, just a personal opinion.

If it's a statement they were trying to achieve, they did, this building was once a cow shed 😁

I'm still not getting were €350k went

Thanks for that link.

This came up as a concern before in another show.....do all the bedrooms have a door to get outside?

1. Extra expense of the door.

2. Not very practical when you have small children or even teenagers!

It must the most expensive 3 bed bungalow west of the Shannon or perhaps east !

It would be OK for a retired couple who had more money than sense but not ideal for a young growing family

Allow €50k for site & land, it cost €450k approx, at 1,800 sq. feet that's approx €250.00 per sq foot. Compare that with what the mica affected home owners in Donegal are offered.

For €75k less they should have a modern fit for purpose house with a minimium of 4 bedrooms on ground floor and attic space completed

Architects love to indulge their fantasies as long as some poor gullible git is paying thru' the nose for it and stuck with it for decades and paying an exorbitant mortgage for the next 35 years.

Having kitchen, dining room & living room in one open plan area is a disaster and they'll regret it. It may be fine for summer holiday apartment along the Med. but not for permanent living in rainy Ireland.

Needless to say the green roof is a disaster, seeing that money was no object they should have gone for natural slate, Blue Bangor or similar. The colour was the only thing green about it - no solar or photovolatic panel in sight....but I guess they would not be visually pleasing in the eyes of airy-fairy architects.