EXTENSION & RENOVATION

which Aoife says was one of the reasons to upgrade the insulation and install photovoltaic (PV) panels. “We got an energy rating assessor in to prove we’d made the improvements; the building energy rating needed to be over a B3 to benefit from the reduced rate,” says Aoife.

“When we bought the house we were a D1, then made a couple changes over the years, a front and back door, added a pull down ladder to the attic, that kind of thing,” says Aoife. “But it’s the energy upgrade and

PV panels that pushed it up to an A2.” The reconfiguration

“Before buying our home we’d been renting for years,” says Aoife. “Mainly apartments, spice boxes is the best way to describe them. And with two small children, we were keen to create a comfortable family home.”

“We did employ an architect and went to him with a very clear idea of the layout that we wanted, symmetry, glazing. We had that in our head. But we knew we would need to take down walls and we needed structural drawings to work that out for us.”

The upstairs extension at the side of the house also required planning permission. “The architect did the planning process for us as well which was great – no issues on that side,” says Aoife.

For inspiration Aoife went to social media. “I had a lot of ideas in mind over the years, what way I would like the house to look. Space and style wise,” she says. “Since we’ve done the reno I’ve noticed people using suppliers from further afield to reduce costs, particularly from Poland which I wasn’t aware of when we did the build.”

“But to be honest we tried to use local places where we could, even for furnishings and finishes,” she says. “For example, we got all of our appliances from the one place. When we bundled them we got some quite decent discounts – we went in to five or six different places, this is the list of appliances we want, give us your best price and we’ll get back to you.”

Finding a unicorn

“We had our planning permission notice up on the site and one random evening a guy knocks at the door and hands in his card saying ‘I’m working on a house around the back’. At that stage our planning was just in, we thought what a chancer knocking and leaving his card in and put it to one side. Never thought about it, not even when we went to tender.”

The tender process to find a builder was through the architect who gave them a shortlist. “We went to five or six but didn’t go with any of the three bidders, as we didn’t get the right feeling so we put the whole thing on hold for a couple months,” says Aoife.

“When we decided not to go ahead with any of the bidders, we were literally cleaning out a drawer and found the card and got that builder to give us a quote. And he did but he was chock-a-block busy and couldn’t start for six months.”

“He actually held the price for us, at a time of material price increases, which is unheard of. I don’t know where we found him, he’s a unicorn,” says Aoife. “We chatted