The house that boards built!

General Update

The tiler arrived today and is tiling out kitchen and utility room. We got what I consider to be a good price, again from a local guy of €475 to tile 63sqYards* plus €245 for the adhesive and grout which he prefers to use**. I might have gotten cheaper if I shopped around a bit more, but I know this guy and I know his work so I'm happy to pay the money for the standard he gives.

I got a recommendation from the manufacturer of the stairs of someone to fit it, and he came out and offered a price, which was more than I budgeted but I accepted the premium for the guarantee of his workmanship. Using someone that the manufacturer recommends and uses regularly was important to me as I felt by splitting the job it might lead to problems whereas this means that all parties involved are in constant contact and know where each other is coming from. In terms of my stairs I'm only too happy pay marginally more for the peace of mind. Total pricing for fitting is coming in at €550, which includes the stairs and about 8M of ballustrade upstairs.

Next Up:
Doors, Blinds for the windows, Final fix plumbing etc

Just a note on my kitchen. We bought an ex-display kitchen from a manufacturer in Kildare. The kitchen is exactly what we want and we are nothing but happy with the quality for the product we got, but because it was ex-display we had to make minor compromises and move some things around. The main one being the fridge and the sink. We were happy to do this but it also meant our socket layout in the kitchen was wrong. We now have two sockets which our electrician has stated is outside regulations due to proximity to the water source at the sink. Oops was my reaction. FUUUUU was my second. Luckily he has offered to rechase the walls where they are, go back to the source at at the top of the wall and relocate the sockets to suit. There is a decent bit of work involved but he assures me it won't cost more than "a couple hundred euro". Disappointing really but when it comes to Regs I'm a real stickler so it has to be done.


*i hate using SqYards but thats the price he gave
** I've been advised numerous times never to buy grout as all tilers prefer using whatever brand/type they are used to.

RKQ wrote: »

Sounds like a great price to me, €475 to lay 63sqYards of tiles.

I'm happy enough with it overall. I never though the price of tiling was so much so it was initially a shock but people keep telling me that its a great price.

Just after getting a phone call and they are scheduled to be finished this evening.

Overall there is a genuine feeling of excitement in the evenings.

1. Its stated somewhere earlier in the thread. I'll see can I root it out for you.
2. No. When I was designing this PHPP seemed like pipedream stuff. I see its a lot more common now, but I Never used it in the process of designing my house. 3. I'm not 100% sure but again I'll try root it out for you.

Not quiet getting in for under €65/sqft but hopefully for under €70 which I think is still pretty good.

I was asked this on another forum so I said I'd post it here too.

draffodx wrote:

Quazzie, quick question, do you find building your own house to be stressful or enjoyable? If you had a choice would you build a house all over again or just buy one somewhere already built?

That's two very separate questions. Firstly on whether it is stressful or enjoyable. It is immensely stressful. It is something that is all consuming. If you look at your life as it is now, and try to look at the few minutes you get at certain times during the day/week where you just sit for a minute or two and relax, well they don't exist any more. Every waking minute that isn't dedicated to something else is dedicated to thinking about the house. There are always a million tiny different decisions to be made, and every single one of them have to be lived with. Stuff you take for granted in a house have to be addressed, and because its your own house you really have to put thought into it. The only way I've been able to deal with this is to make the build really really long so that I have proper time to research all the little bits and try come up with solutions I'm happy to live with. Also it really throws off your interpretation of money. In normal life, depending on what our financial situation is we think of everything in terms of €10 or €100. For example you think I'll buy a pair of jeans so you think to yourself ok thats gonna be €50 (5x€10), when you are building a house this increment is changed to €1000. Figures quoted are in massive multiples so suddenly you think that €20 is nothing and only equivalent to what you previously equated to €2. I have found it hard at times to separate my personal budget management, and my house budget management. This at times has lead me to being reckless with my personal budget as I've impulsed bought with large sums because they felt like small sums.

Now for the second question about whether I would buy a house. No. Building has been massively stressful and has nearly broke me both financially and emotionally at times, but when I walk through my house I know it is exactly what I want, and I could never buy a house where I could state that.

muffler wrote: »

A very honest, personal and thought provoking post Quazzie. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Thanks. Its not something I've ever really thought about but when asked the question it kind of just all came out.

muffler wrote: »

Just to fire a couple of other questions at you. Leaving the money aspect aside for a moment do you think it would have been less stressful say 6 or 7 years ago when there was less detailing and attention to be paid to the renewables, ventilation, insulation, cold bridging etc etc?

In a word Yes. I was constantly always aware of the benefits of doing it the right way, but the stress came into it when I tried to figure out what the best way to achieve the results required. Its not like you can apply a formula to a house and say "Do A and B and then you will have C". The truth is its more like "You can do X or Y or Z, but if you use X you need to use A and if you use Y or Z you can't use B but can use D, and at the end of it all you might end up with D". There is no definitive answer to what renewable to use or what build method to employ. What I've done is try find a combination that suited me.

Then came the second stressful part of it. After deciding on a solution for myself I then had to go about trying to portray the importance of doing it the way I wanted to the builders I selected. My Dad and Uncle done a massive amount of work on the house, and I saved a fortune because of it, but they are old-school builders and have really struggled to come to terms with my 'new age' thinking in terms of insulation/renewable energy etc. This has lead to arguments and work having to be redone because it wasn't done to my satisfaction. My advice to avoid this is if at all possible, find a builder that is educated on modern building techniques and one who will listen to your concerns and who you feel comfortable with.

I've tried my best to get the best building fabric I could afford that suited my situation, but I've always had the feeling that shortly after investing in a method its outdated, or a 'better' solutions becomes available. Its a sign of the fast moving nature of the industry currently, and the every increasing importance of new technologies. When I started stuff like PHP and Airtightness was something that applied to passive houses and was the stuff of dreams, or the wealthy. Now its increasingly normal and in all probability it will soon be standard spec. To equate it to something its like buying a new phone, only to have Steve Jobs (or his replacement as is the case now) announce a shiny new version of it, a few weeks later, with a better screen, better camera and you suddenly have an old phone.

muffler wrote: »

If you were starting all over again tomorrow would you still go down the direct labour route or engage a contractor? - budget permitting of course.

I'd definitely go down the direct labour route, but one thing I would do is that I would hire a project manager to help buffer some of the stress for me, and to deal with on-site issues that I couldn't deal with immediately due to work.
I suppose if you found the right contractor then he would do a similar job, but I feel a project manager would be more suited to my particular needs as I like to take my time over the decisions made. In my situation in hindsight hiring a project manager would've easily paid for itself, which was the main reason I didn't go down that route.

11-11-11

Seems almost poetic that I should move in on that date, but thats what seems to be happening

muffler wrote: »

Im sure you're relived as well as excited

Massively excited and equally as nervous. Worried that when it actually comes to live in it, ill discover a million design flaws, but I suppose thats all part of the charm of the building process.

Cheers Tal. Also a massive thanks for coming out and taking some pictures of the house. Here it is.




This is the kitchen. The addition of an "American style fridge" is probably the only thing that will change. The more eagle eyed among you will notice the dangerously placed sockets beside the sink. I want to assure you that these are deactivated and are going to be moved. We placed them before we bought the kitchen, but because we bought a display kitchen for a discount price they were placed wrong. They were deactivated because of the proximity to the sink and the obvious dangers involved and we are currently waiting for them to be moved.


This is just another view of it showing the corner window.


This is the other end of the same room. As you can see we've set aside one part as a dining area, and another part of the room as a tV viewing/relaxing area. I am so proud of this room as it works exactly how I wanted it to. We can watch TV whilst eating our dinner, we can sit at the table whilst talking to others sitting on the couch. It has a really relaxed feel to it, and the flow of the room is superb. The light and heat that comes through the windows from even the faintest of sunshine is amazing and adds massively to the room both aesthetically and also in the solar gain.


Next up is the entrance/foyer. This is where the stairs is. It is mostly unfinished but I'll put up the pictures as it gives an idea of what it will look like when finished. The stairs and ballustrade upstairs are unpainted/unstained but they'll be painted white over the next few weeks with the walnut threads and handrail getting a nice lacquer to bring out the colour. I am delighted with the stairs. The quality is really excellent, and I know its still early days but there is zero movement in it. its solid and excellently put together. as you can imagine from the second picture, when you walk in the front door your eyes are immediately drawn upwards to the 2 keylite windows up above. The large stained purlin beams above really give a beautiful 'old' feel to the foyer. Its hints at my original idea for the house, which has always been a modern take on an old farmhouse.
http://pix.ie/tallon/2644722
http://pix.ie/tallon/2644723

There are two bedrooms which remain unfinished, but I am in no hurry to do anything with them yet. This picture shows how far along they are, but I'm happy to just close the door on them for now until we are settled, both mentally and financially.
http://pix.ie/tallon/2644721

As they say on MTV cribs, this is where the magic happens. The master bedroom. Plenty of more furniture to be added but I'm really happy with how it feels. The room might look small but I think the bed throws off the scale a bit because its a Super King Size (6ft x 6ft) bed. The thing is absolutely massive, but sits nicely in the room. I forgot to ask Tallon to take a picture from the other way showing the doors to the en-suite and WIW but I'll do that later myself and edit this post to include it.
http://pix.ie/tallon/2644720

Now just back to the outside one more time to the South elevation. As you can see I went with the idea 'more glass = good'. The corner windows are what people comment on the most, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. This is the view you see when you drive up to the house so its the first impression people get and I have to say I'm delighted with how it all turned out.
http://pix.ie/tallon/2644712

I'll keep adding pictures as I go along finishing room and landscaping but I just wanted to put these up to show the progress so far.

I was actually referring to the ones just over the fridge, but now that you say it I must ask the electrician when he returns about the proximity of the others.

Tallon wrote: »

Put them behind the tea-coffee things... Near the cooker.. Won't need to move the electronics at all then

I think there is a regulation about the proximity of an electrical outlet to a water source. I'll have to look it up as its not a regulation I'm familiar with it.

Gary ITR wrote: »

Well done Quazzie, it's been a long time coming. I hope you have a decent sweeping brush though because I'm still finding coffe beans since your last visit here :mad:

And thats why you'll never step foot in my house.

muffler wrote: »

Forgot to ask....are you well settled in and is there anything you would change or do differently?

Definitely. I don't think anyone moves into a house and thinks they wouldn't do some things differently. I'll throw a few up here now, but I'll go away and have a proper think about it and post a more comprehensive answer later.

A few small things I would change:
1. Light switches. A few of them, whilst in the most logical place are just in the wrong place. A bit more thinking on the subject, and a few more practice walk arounds of the house, and I would've discovered that a few of them would be moved to somewhere that feels a little more natural. Its only a small thing but its something that affects us ever day.
2. Wooden floors. I've got either wooden floors (laminate) or tiles throughout the whole house. As an aesthetic theme, they work perfectly and tie some of the rooms together, and blend them into the hall, to give a lovely appearance. Living with them though is a different subject. They attract a lot of dust which really shows up on them, but that's not even the biggest issue. The sound just bounces off them. This means that sound can be heard throughout the house. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to start putting down some rugs to try counteract it.
3. The Foyer. When you walk in through the front door the Foyer is double height and its one of the best parts of the house. The problem being though that its also the worst thing to live with. Nearly all the rooms, in some way open up onto the Foyer. This means that all the noises of the house get transmitted through this and it's hard to live with especially when we've a three year old who goes to bed at half eight.
4. The kitchen. At the moment the only TV in the house is in the kitchen/dining/living open plan room. This leads to a bit of a problem when trying to watch TV when dinner is being prepared. The noises involved in cooking means the TV can't be heard and eventually gets turned up until all of a sudden we're shouting before we know it.

I'll try post up some more later on.