Room to Improve (v2)

If her salary is only 32k a year, as you say, no wonder she got such a shock when she saw Dermots plans for the first time, with 2 living room area, fancy extension, pool room etc. If I was earning that as well I would pinch myself and think I'd won the lotto if I thought I was going to end up in a house worth the guts of a million in Dublin.

I still think the age 70 thing was a fib or a joke though unless she did not start working until age 30, as she can retire with lump sum and pension after 40 years.

Yeh they did put it in...there was a shot of the pipework before the concrete was poured onto it. Its kindve bananas to choose ufh at last minute. Speaking from experience, you need manifold cabinets in a few of the rooms and they can be ugly if placed in the wrong area.

House looked great at the end. Not sure they left space above the kitchen windows for blinds which you need if you have a tv with the sun shining on it , thats my only note on design.

I would have been interested in seeing this detail. We saw a shot of the fire having been ripped out but no coverage of what went in its place. The show spends ages on coverage that is not relevant (such as the visit to a house in Terenure) which added no value to the episode. Also no interest in the daughters gymnastics class.

The last 30% of the build is always skipped over, why weren't the bathrooms shown- same as the Mayo one last week; no bathrooms.

Weird the way Dermot presented them with 2 samples, one of the worktop and one of the presses and basically said - here this is what I have decided upon for your house. Like would they not make the choice themselves..

re the pool room, we have a pool table here in what was the playroom, it gets lots of use; be easy to repurpose the room at another stage.

Had to laugh at the mini goal for the 13 year old!

I thought the couple were very likeable and they did a beautiful job. The insulation and underfloor heating will make the house lovely and warm.

I would have gone for an electric fire, they look brilliant now and so easy.

Not sure how the house could get an A/B rating when the upstairs wasn't done and if this affects the grants.

Didn't see a downstairs loo or utility.

II agree that the football storage thing was contrived. Similar for the kitchen colour. Dermot probably got her to pretend she didn't like green just to have a bit of conflict. Similar to bed issue last week.

Think it's a sign of agreeable clients and Dermot delivering that they want that they have to invent clashes over ideas.

Its like the families are told by the production team not to tidy up and to make the house look as messy and cluttered as possible when the cameras visit for the first time. There is no way the couple last night were living with shoes everywhere in the porch and kids outdoor clutter in the sitting room. If they were living like that the new extension will be a mess in no time.

Some of the responses here are a bit odd the grants are a statuarty government scheme it's not means tested.

There are millionaires who have purchased houses in Dublin and availed of all the grant and they have the luxury of employing an an project manager to over see the whole project.

There should be more of a discussion on the cost benefit risk of buying an older house taking in to account the good public transport links good school in a lot of the older suburbs of Dublin.

That's a great phrase you came up with.

" we are in Celtic Tiger mark 2 but it's worse as gen z can't afford to buy a house".

Are we the only country in the world where big grants are given out for home Renovations ( 95 k on the show a week ago, 35 k last night )?

Now I simply don't believe you have researched grants all around the world to say that Ireland is the only country to give big grants out for home renovations. I just did a simple Google and found below. This is the same fund we use as other EU countries but you are absolutely POSITIVE no other EU fund is as generous as ours?

https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/energy-efficiency/financing/financing-building-renovations_en

absolutely! The begrudgery from that poster is unbelievable. These SEAI grants are available to anyone, not means tested either.

Read what I wrote again, more carefully this time before you personally attack me. I asked the question "are we the only country in the world where big grants are given out for home renovations"( 95 k last week, 35k this week). Maybe you can tell us what countries in the world if any give non means tested grants of this magnitude. I am not saying there are not any, I am just asking how do we stand internationally. In America I believe there are grants but qualifications are extremely strict. Being a veteran helps but it's mostly income based, with the household income needing to be below 25,000 dollars per year or something like that? In England I understand there are some relatively small grants for upgrading insulation etc but these are means tested and only available in council tax bands A to D?

All you had to do was a quick google to find out because your question is to suggest you believe Ireland is somehow unique. If you think that is a personal attack I suggest you get a thicker skin.

Germany

The upper limit of eligible costs in the BEG WG and BEG NWG for residential buildings is max. 150,000 euros for efficiency houses 40 Plus or efficiency buildings with EE or NH class, otherwise the upper limit is 120,000 euros per residential unit. In the case of non-residential buildings, the upper limit is a maximum of EUR 2,000 per m2 of net floor area, with a maximum total of EUR 30 million.

So the answer is no we are not the only country in the world that give out such large grants. I doubt we are even only one of 2 in the EU. You do get there are rules about how grants from EU funds are given? So if you want to know where we stand internationally consider we stand with the EU

What is wrong with the government saving money for themselves and its' citizens?

Grants for energy efficiency upgrades are strictly means tested in Germany, a.f.a.i.k., same as in USA and UK.

Someone else else pointed out that someone spending over 300k on a renovation is going to ( or at least should) upgrade the insulation anyway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123051152#Comment_123051152

We have storage in our utility room for shoes. In my old house we didnt have a utility room so shoes were stored neatly at the bottom of everyones wardrobes. I hate to see loads of shoes stacked by a door.

I actually think the family last night are in reality neat people. The shoes at the front were for affect and drama only to give the impression they have no space - I doubt that lady allowed shoes to be in a mess at the front door.