Room to Improve (v2)

They would for sure but in a house that cost almost €700k I'd like a bit more space.

Demolishing the shed left no place to store kids stuff and bicycles etc.

I saw no sign of access from the front to the garden either but I could have missed that.

On the whole though, a nice job and they seemed happy.

I always make that comment to my wife. Garden make over shows do it to, wholly impractical for a family. You need bike storage , scooter, surfboards etc

Never lived in a city house (apartment) but I would imagine there is a trade off that is different for everyone.

Did not look like it, would surely notice the heat pumps in the back garden. Also heat pumps need plant rooms for storage tanks so these take up space as well.

Joiners should read joists

A samsung heatpump in the back garden.

The garden is the size of pretty much every housing estate garden in Dublin. The space simply isn't there for big gardens.

Even if a house had originally been build with a large garden , guaranteed part of that garden has been built on now.

The majority of housing estates have "greens" for kids to play in. How well they are maintained is up to everyone in the area to do their part.....the biggest offenders for bad behaviour are dog owners.

Didn't think much of last night's programme.

It had the potential to be a good episode, as in , updating a suburban home with limited space....the type of home that a high % of viewers live in.

Instead it chose to spend the majority of time talking about planters.

The couple had a weird dynamic, at first I thought it was mostly her driving the project however it morphed into being all about him and he seemed very petulant and she seemed very fed up.

He was definitely trying to plug his new start up company which in itself was annoying.

D to A

Think that was one of the worst episodes of RTI I've watched and I'm normally at least ambivalent to the show. Also I follow Daniel Davey and Donal Skehan on instagram and enjoy both their content.

The clients said at the start that the main thing was that the house was cold, I'd imagine this was in the extension. But by the end of the show I couldn't tell you what heating and insulation solutions were done, I had lost interest.

Did they take away the kids playroom altogether? Why did they move Daniel's office out to the shed? What are they going to do for a shed now to stores kids toys bikes etc. Didn't like the sharp corner jutting out on the kitchen island, perfect height for the kids to hop their head off when running around. Didn't like the very low bi-fold window, when it was opened out it was perfect for little kids to miss their footing and fall against the kerbing outside. Didn't understand the point of Donal Skehan being on the show. Didn't understand why Donal was advising about the kitchen layout for filming food content while standing in his own kitchen when he mostly films at a different location and not in his sponsored home kitchen.

The couple seemed lovely but it felt like certain things were hammed up for entertainment when otherwise they seemed like a lovely couple who wanted to make their house warmer and to work for them and their family.

I do not think it was clear in the final Q.S. figures if the garden shed and garden work was included in the figures or not. You man was doing awful cribbing during the 2nd half of the programme about not being able to afford things costing a few hundred euro, so doubt if it came in under budget anyway. And no word of them paying for the BER survey before and after - were costs like these and the cut stone splashback and the garden plants the client could not afford paid by the tv programme for the sake of a decent tv ? Would be great if the figures were on the programme or associated website.

Previous owner was the big winner here - basically got 303k for a shell with a view...

Correct. In that cafe scene, all of the people who walked by outside in the street had winter coats on too - it certainly looks like it was filmed last week and slotted in, after all the grants controversy last week. No wonder Dermot went grey after all the controversy last week!

I did not think a property could go from a D to an A that easily without upgraded attic insulation, floors etc being upgraded, and only half the outside of the early 1980s house now covered in external insulation?

There was a comment earlier in the show about the upstairs being upgraded with the same layout retained. As such, there was a fair amount of energy efficiency work that didn't feature in the show I think.

Yes there was a heat pump installed (can see it on builders walkthrough on insta) but flip all mention of the heating system in the programme which I would have liked to have heard discussed to educate us all! Was the plant room/tank or whatever needed behind that door in the kitchen between counter and peninsula? or was that a pantry, not clear.

I though re the shed and bikes storage etc was there not a second door to the right of his office door that I assumed was a bit of shed storage in the 'garden room' ?

I liked her honesty too about the plants, zero point planting expensive plants/shrubs where the home owner is not into gardening or doesn't want the hassle of maintaining them.

Re the shed, it looked like the old shed was retained and incorporated into the new outside office?