New Development Royal Canal Park D15

Hi All,

Can somebody give me a rough estimate on how much did it cost for following few things to get done? We are trying to set a budget for ourselves and how much cash we would have to roughly keep at our disposal when we get a call for snagging/keys:

1. Flooring for the Ash 3-bed
2. Snagging company's fee
3. Roller blinds
4. Alarm/security system

I just need an idea and want to prepare before the time comes.

Thanks

Good news and bad news on the broadband for Camden phase. So I finally found out (via another Board with an Eir representative) when they expect to be laying the cables in the road in order to give us broadband. The date given was 30/12/18. So that's the bad news, no telly for xmas unless you're going to saorview!

I doubt very much that they'll be laying cables over Christmas either but at least there is some date in the calendar and hopefully be all resolved in January.

Meanwhile it's mobile broadband and Netflix for us!

NC99 wrote: »

Hi All,

Can somebody give me a rough estimate on how much did it cost for following few things to get done? We are trying to set a budget for ourselves and how much cash we would have to roughly keep at our disposal when we get a call for snagging/keys:

1. Flooring for the Ash 3-bed
2. Snagging company's fee
3. Roller blinds
4. Alarm/security system

I just need an idea and want to prepare before the time comes.

Thanks

Hello,
We're waiting for an Ash as well. Did you hear anything about snagging dates for Ashes ? 
Obviously costs will vary depending on the quality / fanciness of the material/service etc, but our (maybe a bit pessimistic)  understanding is 
1 a ) Get a flooring company do it all for you   ~ 5K
   b) Get measures yourself, order the laminate yourself, find a flooring specialist through reference/ internet ~3 - 3.5 K 
   c) Get measures yourself, order non-brand name laminate from Belfast, get it transported here, find a guy here etc etc 2K euros
2 Snagging 
  a ) find someone through reference / internet  150 - 300 
  b ) work with a company 200 - 300
3 ) didn't look into this one.
4 ) Alarm system 750 - 1000 for traditional alarms, should be less than 500 for smart home security package, nest etc.
Best of luck !

The Rathborne park side of the road that the Ashes face onto appeared to be open as I walked past earlier. Might be of interest for those of you who want to get a closer look at your new houses.

engineer0 wrote: »

I see Google Maps has updated the Ashtown Area, I believe the data belongs to Summer 2018 . Earlier phases are now all finished as well.

Camden or Rathbourne Park aren't on Google maps. Everyone gets lost. I tell all delivery men to go to Centra and I just run around. It's just easier!

In other things I learned this week that might save some of you some time....

Fences - a couple of ours weren't nailed down. Ballymore came back and nailed them down but check when you're doing the snag. I can hear them rattling as it's a windy day today and I'm sure there'd be some damage over time if it wasn't addressed

Dust - spare yourself the bother of trying to clean your windows or paying someone to do it. There is so much dust from the construction site that I can barely see out my windscreen. I'll get them professionally cleaned in the spring when most of the construction will be done

Carpets - we're getting carpet on our stairs and landing. We have to get one side bound as the banisters are open ie no skirting to stick it to so there would be frayed edges. Also thing we need a metal bar on the edge on the landing. To be decided by the fitter

All is going well though, really happy with the house and the community. And I have plenty time to explore it all due to lack of tv/broadband!!

Broombridge is massively improved and a whole lot busier now. I walked it in the dark all last Winter before and after work. Dont know that I'd do it at 9 by myself though. Never walked the Ballyboggan road so can't vouch for it either way. Generally I'd either get the train to Ashtown or switch to the bus from the Luas at Parnell st at that hour.

I would absolutely 100% not dry clothes in the box room without opening a window.

Forumsie wrote: »

Hi folks, just a couple of questions for those of you living here for a while if you wouldn't mind?

Broombridge station - we were warned to avoid walking down the canal path after dark. We walked down today for a look and walked back via the road and ballyboggan road. Is that ok after dark? Like say 9pm if I was shopping in town after work?

Mould - we're currently using our box room as a drying room as we don't like drying clothes from wet in the tumble dryer and we dont have a line yet. We have the door and the vents open but not the windows this weekend as it was very cold. Someone said to us that we need to stop drying inside because new houses are so well insulated that we could end up with mould on our walls after just a few months. Has anyone else had problems with mould?

Thanks

Broombridge is not the place it was 10-15 years ago. The canal walk is dark right now but incidents are rare. Ive walked it in the dark on my own many times. I know thats a risk, but its a risk anywhere in Dublin. Exercise the same caution you would anywhere (confidence, be alert etc) and you'l be fine.

Have not had a mould issue but we dont dry clothes in the box room. use the hot press upstairs. the tank will ensure its always too dry for mould.
Kit it out with some drying racks from ikea or even just a couple of freestanding ones

Really, you should get a dehumidifier. We have one, in the hotpress/airing closet and its amazing. Will dry a two washing machine loads of clothes in a few hours. If you have to use the box room, the dehumidifier will ensure mould wont be an issue.

check out this thread for info on dehumidifiers.

Forumsie wrote: »

Hi folks, just a couple of questions for those of you living here for a while if you wouldn't mind?

Mould - we're currently using our box room as a drying room as we don't like drying clothes from wet in the tumble dryer and we dont have a line yet. We have the door and the vents open but not the windows this weekend as it was very cold. Someone said to us that we need to stop drying inside because new houses are so well insulated that we could end up with mould on our walls after just a few months. Has anyone else had problems with mould?


I use the box room myself, but vent on windows is always open when I dry clothes. Haven’t had any mould till date but not to say can’t happen in future.

gmurali wrote: »

Hi All,

I am new to this thread and would like to thank everyone who have contributed to this thread so far. This thread helped us big time in choosing Camden as our new home and we have booked a Heron.

While we have the contracts signed, we were not provided of any point of contact from Ballymore. When i asked Sherry Fitzgerald for any potential alterations (For eg. paint) they said, Ballymore does not promote any alterations to the house and will build it similarly for everyone.

I have not been able to contact Ballymore regarding this. Going by the history of this thread, i can see that a few people have managed to get the house painted in Grey.
I was wondering how they got Ballymore to do this and if there is contact for Bally,ore regarding alterations, i'll be really grateful, if you could PM the contact to me.

Welcome & congratulations! To be honest we moved in earlier this year and were unable to get any alterations to paint from Ballymore. It was just standard white.
I'm glad we haven't had the house painted yet either as there are some large settling cracks in the wall (which we would have to repaint) so we will wait till the summer now once the house is fully settled to finally paint it.
We were also advised that Ballymore will no longer be doing changes for the show homes, so fingers crossed you get a better reply than what they said. I do know alterations can cause delays and I assume that's why they don't entertain the idea anymore. The Grey was done in the first couple of Phases not any recently.
I know on the FB group, everyone is very friendly in offering references of tradesmen who can help to do bits and bobs that need to be done.

n1ckymar1e wrote: »

Welcome & congratulations! To be honest we moved in earlier this year and were unable to get any alterations to paint from Ballymore. It was just standard white.
I'm glad we haven't had the house painted yet either as there are some large settling cracks in the wall (which we would have to repaint) so we will wait till the summer now once the house is fully settled to finally paint it.
We were also advised that Ballymore will no longer be doing changes for the show homes, so fingers crossed you get a better reply than what they said. I do know alterations can cause delays and I assume that's why they don't entertain the idea anymore. The Grey was done in the first couple of Phases not any recently.
I know on the FB group, everyone is very friendly in offering references of tradesmen who can help to do bits and bobs that need to be done.

Many thanks for the info. Would you be able to PM the link to the FB group please?

gmurali wrote: »

Hi All,

I am new to this thread and would like to thank everyone who have contributed to this thread so far. This thread helped us big time in choosing Camden as our new home and we have booked a Heron.

While we have the contracts signed, we were not provided of any point of contact from Ballymore. When i asked Sherry Fitzgerald for any potential alterations (For eg. paint) they said, Ballymore does not promote any alterations to the house and will build it similarly for everyone.

I have not been able to contact Ballymore regarding this. Going by the history of this thread, i can see that a few people have managed to get the house painted in Grey.
I was wondering how they got Ballymore to do this and if there is contact for Bally,ore regarding alterations, i'll be really grateful, if you could PM the contact to me.

We purchased an Ash in the last phase and were told by the foreman that no alterations would be allowed. I had wanted to change the shower heads and make changes to the kitchen. I got onto the kitchen supplier first and then the foreman and both the foreman and the supplier said no changes. We were able to request that the skirting boards on the ground floor and upstairs be tacked on rather than nailed on to allow for the flooring but no success with any other requests.

Forumsie wrote: »

Thanks for the tips everyone. One thing is for sure, I'm doing public transport from now on. It took me 1 hour 45 mins to drive home from Ballsbridge yesterday evening, over an hour just on Pearse Street! Never again!

So I've ordered online and have 3 large ish items being delivered to the management suite. They'll hate me!! I won't do it again but I literally can't take any more time off work for deliveries. We want to pick it up immediately so they don't go mad. Does anyone know what they they close at in the evenings? Thanks

It's 24 7 security. They will be the one's you will meet. Sometimes you won' be lucky to meet them in the office though, so I generally ring ahead.

cronos wrote: »

It's 24 7 security. They will be the one's you will meet. Sometimes you won' be lucky to meet them in the office though, so I generally ring ahead.

Perfect, I'll do that thanks

Thanks Mannion, yes I've been getting the 120 in the mornings but it leaves to early for me in the evenings. But the train is good enough

New Camdeners - unconfirmed reports of Eir being spotted laying the cables so hopefully we will be able to get TV/Broadband sooner than anticipated!

Pokas wrote: »

Hi DaffDaff,
Who did you contact? I would also like to request the skirting boards to be tacked instead.
Thanks

We asked the foreman for the skirting to be tacked too. The downstairs ones were done but not the other two floors. Our carpenter pulled them off and put them back on after the floor was laid but they didn't look great, even the ones that were only tacked downstairs. We ended up getting our decorator to fill in the gaps between each boardn sand them and paint them

engineer0 wrote: »

Hello,
We found it difficult to get a home insurance for Camden, given the address is not in the list, no alarms installed etc.
Can you share your experience with home insurance ? The only quote i was given was from Zurich Homestar and it looks rather expensive (440 euros /year).
Also when do you get the insurance ? When you get a snagging date ? Or when you're about to close ? 
Thank you for the input

Ah insurance, so many hazards....!

I found it difficult too - we had no Eircode when I started ringing around so Zurich were pretty much the only one who would quote us. Same price for us and they won't give us flood cover as we're in a flood zone apparently. Now canals don't flood and I hope the tolka river is never going to rise about 20 feet and Ashtown as a whole is considered low risk for flooding but it was a case of computer says no! I will appeal that next year when we're renewing as I'd like some cover for in case pipes burst in our house or on the street or something but at the time I just needed to get insurance in place to close the sale. Oh actually FBD quoted me too - took about 3 days to get a quote and then it came back at a ridiculous cost of around 900 euro.

In terms of timing, Zurich told us they couldn't give us cover until the day we were closing. And we couldn't pay in advance and get the documents which need to be sent onto the bank and be updated in their system to get the money released. Our solicitor told us this was rubbish and to tell them the closing date was a Friday when we were closing the following wednesday. Therefore we had time to get the documents and AIB to update their systems. Not that I'm condoning misleading an insurance company but you're actually over insuring yourself slightly. Also you have to tell the insurance company that you're moving in immediately after closing otherwise they'll only give you partial insurance as the building is unoccupied. We only got our alarm after we moved in so we couldn't get a discount for that but maybe next year it'll be slightly cheaper.

Also - make sure the rebuild amount you give the insurance company exactly matches the rebuild figure on the valuation that the bank does. If it doesn't there is a problem. So get your valuation done during snagging and then go back to your insurance company to get it settled.

Speaking of insurance - I had to change the address on my car insurance. €50 euro extra for being a northsider!!! I like to think it's not really that but more the fact that my car is now in the driveway rather than a locked garage.

Finally, mortgage protection insurance is what nearly got us. Everyone told us to get it in place early. So we did, got it organised in April and our snagging didn't start til end of July. However, mortgage protection insurance is reducing balance, so when we went to draw down the money we realised that the the balance of the insurance had dipped slightly below the mortgage amount. We offered to pay the difference. But the bank wouldn't accept that, said we'd have to reapply and it would have to go to the underwriters again etc. We didn't have time for that. Long story short, we got letters from insurance company and various assurances and they let us away with it. But if you're setting up mortgage protection insurance early make sure the reducing balance at your expected time of closing will cover the mortgage amount

Best of luck!