Room to Improve (v2)

Karl was the kitchen designer on last night's house, and a few other houses over the years, who passed away recently.

Here's a plan, build a small shed in the garden to accommodate bikes and such,the house was grand, wait till the lads are grown before tearin it apart, the house reflects yere personalities, save the money and buy a nice apartment in Spain or Portugal, somewhere warm anyway and retrofit an allmercifull kick in the hole to Bannon to send him on his way and never to darken the door of their semi again with his shytetalk... Gluck Here's my stop now🚌

Every episode of RTI ever....

Client wants house renovation, client approaches DB with budget.

DB designs "forever dream home" but 10k+ over budget.

Comprises ensue, construction begins.

Work goes smoothly until unforseen structural issue arises adding 3k+ to the cost.

Things get tense between DB/builder/QS/client.

Everyone moves on from the "misunderstanding"

DB and client go shopping for floor tiles but can't agree on which one to buy.

DB gets sulky so client gives in.

"I wasn't sure how we could move on from this" says DB.

Construction is completed on time but over budget, house looks grand, everyone is happy with the outcome.

Dermot laughs and says "I was right about the floor tiles!" and pops open a bottle of champagne.

Everyone laughs loudly.

Roll credits and repeat again next week.

Spot on. If this show has proven anything to me it is I would never hire DB. He wants to build "his vision" and everyone is left with a "show home" (OK, I know it needs to be aesthetically perfect for the end drone shot / overdubbed swirling music) that he's delighted with. I'm always wondering how families feel a year later when they actually have lived in it. Some of them look so sterile and "office-y". I want my home to be a home, not a photo in a magazine.

A couple of weeks ago , the renovation of the farm house for the army guy and DB insisted on the installation of the 3 columns outside the kitchen extension (can't remember the correct term for them) to frame the view .... I kept thinking "OK, how much are they adding to the overall cost of the build". Call me a philistine but no.

I should add I'm much more a substance over style sort of person so I regularly get angry watching this show and his fcukwit architectural features .... but the Mrs loves it.

Would love to know how they get on with the sunken living room, going down a few steps. Surely on such a major design decision he should have warned them about the risk of tripping / lack of future proofing - or does everyone who has one (sunken living area) love them so much? More important than tile colour I think.

I love these episodes where they are super tight on budget and 3K is a huge amount to find.

Then low and behold at the end of the show they have a new sofa set, garden has been landscaped, new telly etc etc.

And as for these cowboys who started a job without the funds being in place, very unfair on the builder.

They primarily needed a garage and a utility room , to store their junk, neither of which were incorporated in the 190k.

Part M Building Regulations technical guidance is absolutely clear on the need for level entry without steps, and that steps should only be used at entrances ‘in exceptional circumstances’;

“3.2.2 Accessible Entrance The main entrance is the entrance, which a visitor not familiar with the dwelling would normally expect to approach. The entrance should be provided with a level entry i.e. with maximum threshold height of 15 mm with exposed edges chamfered or pencil rounded;”

There’s good reason for this, as steps are a risk factor, and can generally be designed out without losing any functionality.

Why would you NOT want to design for your lifetime when you’re doing a once-in-a-lifetime project like this? Universal Design principles will produce a design that works for everyone and is future proofed.

So you adjust the levels outside to have a gentle sloped approach instead of steps.

Thats fair enough on new builds, but every other house in that estate would have been built to older regs, and dont have sloped entrances to the access doors, as you'd expect to find on a new build.

Just because you're adding an extension, doesn't mean that you have to retroactively go through the entire house and bring it into line with current regs.

What age are they? mid forties? they could have 30 years before mobility becomes an issue?

should we all live in bungalows? what do older people who live in apartments do if the lift is broken?

you cant engineer for every possible outcome, only do best practice and use common sense.

I'll posit another example,

in a downstairs bathroom in new builds, there has to be a clear access space of something like 1200mm x 760mm, to facilitate wheelchair access.

Now lets go to the retrofit scenario, downstairs bathroom, picking out your ware.

lets just say that you'd love to fit a vanity unit in here, but its slightly too big and encroaches on the aforementioned space. Now, as a forty year old person , do you forego 30 years of use with the vanity unit you'd like, over going for something you'll be unhappy with for years?

Does it not make sense to plan for the future. Most people wont have the money in their old age to do a big job on their house to make it age friendly. What if elderly parents etc come to stay with them.

I dont live in a bungalow but I do have a bedroom and bathroom downstairs should anything happen in the future that makes climbing stairs difficult - but I never intend to move so it made sense to make it futureproof.

A vanity unit is trivial compared to correcting different levels, steps etc.

My comments about the stepped entrance were about the previous two weeks, effectively new builds, and Bannon slapped in steps at both front doors, in breach of Part M.

Clearly hit the shelf of the press door.

He got a massive screen and projector. Like a cinema a guess. 😂

Completely pointless. Better off having two of them as fixed windows without a centre split. Then put a bi fold on the very end of the extension.

All commentary and criticism aside 190k for a small extension that did not include some joinery, the garden and the furniture... I cannot see Bannon on next year as the vast majority of Irish people will simply not be able to afford this. He may have to travel to the UK where prices are within the sphere of reality of being reasonable.