Room to Improve (v2)

No, we are not.

The grant last week was for a derelict house, a very different thing to a simple renovation. Getting derelict houses restored to be lived in, is a good thing, dont you think?

Small boot room or cupboard/halltree inside the front door

There are pros and cons to means testing grants. The US and UK means test theirs, while it appears Germany means tests some ( eg the replacement of boiler to a climate friendly boiler, according to www.cleanenergywire.org ) but not other grants.

The young couples who cannot get on the housing ladder at all or emigrate to Australia ( no grants there afaik) may not like the idea of some of their taxes here going towards people doing 300,000 euro plus renovations who would upgrade their insulation anyway.

If someone is getting a 35k energy grant and the aim is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, do you think they should have to get rid of their fossil fuel burning fire in favour of a more climate friendly alternative?

But it is saving them money.

i think most of the work was done downstairs and the new extension was built the house was insulated to a high standard .anyone can apply for a grant to improve insulation and and upgrade the heating system

i think they were very likeable both working full time bringing up 2 children in a cold house with no insulation

Have a Stanley superstar myself, heating 14 rads and hot water of timber logs and my own turf off my own privately owned bogland. Honestly it’s the cheapest system you could run providing you have access to your own supply of solid fuel.
will be upgrading the house greatly with extension, will be insulating big time and upgrading windows and doors. I will be upgrading the Stanley range to a Stanley Reginald solid fuel stove along with an oil firebird.

I’d say my solid fuel usage will be drastically reduced with the heavier insulation, but there something so nice about sitting around a stove and seeing the fire lit.

Anyone I know that has gotten rid of the stove and blocked chimneys for the heat pump miss the stove and the visual fire that subconsciously warms them.

You seem extremely hung up on these grants. It was the same last week.

The grants are there to promote more energy efficient houses, that's it. There's no means testing. And a fire won't disqualify you from one, it doesn't need to be a passive house or carbon neutral house to get the grant.

An important consideration that I don't think has been mentioned yet. This couple will have forked out a huge amount of VAT in their spend. Not sure what the split would be between services and materials (different VAT rates), but they've probably paid somewhere in the region of 40-60k to the exchequer for their extension.

They've almost certainly achieved a grant neutral house if that makes it easier.

I'm not sure about means testing on grants in the UK but I'm certain that the UK government do offer non means tested VAT exemptions on new builds. New builds are sold at zero % VAT and self builders can claim all the VAT back.

We are not alone in our "unfair" non means tested incentives.

Does anyone else remember a past episode when Dermot was brought in to renovate a house in Dublin and he warned them that the amount they bought the house for coupled with the amount of their desired renovations would be greater than the potentisl sale value of the house and was very cautious about the spend on the renovations?

I'm trying to wrap my head around last night's couple spending 400k plus another 300+k on their house.

You mean without renovation? So you are implying that they made a tax free capital gain of over 300,000 since they bought it about 5 or 6 years ago?

If what you say is true then for the 316000 renovation to wash its face financially the house should be worth over a million now? I think the renovation, some think excluding upstairs, cost 316,000, excluding Dermots fees, which are paid by the tv company?

From looking at what is on myhome I don't think the house is worth more than 600k. It is very uncommon for an extension/renovation to increase the value of the property by the amount spent. I think it is strange people think it does.

I assume this is not their first home so while they may have bought at 400k it probably didn't cost them that much and they had gains from a previous property. They would be very hard pushed to get a mortgage for such a large amount at their age and with one of them on a low wage

Agree with most of that except I thought the green worktop was lovely, but would have been nicer still if it was a darker green. On screen I think Dermot just pushed that colour on them without discussing the shade.

Good tv anyway but as you say could be better with a bit of tweaking. Glad the couple are happy with it.

I think it's a bit of a ploy with Dermot to go for a real shock factor suggestion first when it comes to kitchens… adds to the drama of it all and it's almost certainly not his first pick imo. But it leads the client to where he wants to get to.

I.e his suggestion of the green kitchen last night was OTT imo, I think he knew it was, he then got a "compromise" on the green countertop. Funnily enough, he had the green countertop to hand. The was no green cabinet sample to hand.

I thought it funny that the client in the episode the week earlier went with for his first bold suggestion without hesitation, he was visibily shocked that she did. For some reason that wasn't explained, she ended up with a less bold kitchen by the end... Maybe Dermot's intended second choice originally

did she really say her daughter does gymnastics 6 days a week?

Not for that age it wouldn't. I know kids older than her who are doing competitive gymnastics in Phoenix Gymnastics which is a local rival to Excel and they're certainly not doing it as often as that.

what age was she 7? the poor woman had no life, neither will the child, the gymnastics people shouldn't allow it.