EXTENSION & RENOVATION

with the owners of the house around the corner he’d worked on, and it was like it was meant to be.”

“It was a handshake agreement, we had no contract signed and he said he’d keep the price for us, and we assumed that he would,” says Aoife, and he did.

The quote, based on the construction drawings from the architect, covered all structural work (extension upstairs and downstairs, including creating a new corridor through existing rooms upstairs), replacing the internal doors throughout, window installation, insulation, plumbing, and woodwork.

“He told us it would take him 14 weeks but it was 16 weeks because of a delay with the bifold doors arriving, which wasn’t his fault. That represented a three week delay so if that hadn’t happened, he would have finished a week early.”

“The builders who quoted for us at the tender stage said they couldn’t guarantee it would be six months, they said it could be eight or 10, whatever way the chips would fall, depending how they were at the time.”

The build

Mark and Aoife finished up with the architect when they pushed out the build from 2021 to 2022 but still had a structural engineer to sign off on the payments out to the builder.

The entire family did have to move out during the build. “Every single room was touched to some degree plus the whole back of the house was open for several month for the glazing to go in,” says Aoife.

“Every Friday at lunchtime we’d meet the builder here and any of the trades that were on site and we’d check everything. And you know we might pop over to the house some evening as well if we knew something was getting done, we’d pop in to have a look and make sure it was being done right. We really didn’t need to micromanage. To be honest, we needed to do very little. Nobody believes me,” laughs Aoife.

Although it was a good thing she kept an eye on things. “I knew the tiler had been in, so I came over to see. We had a shower niche in the wall for shampoo bottles, and I’d said I want it to be exactly one tile wide so no lines down the centre. I came in to find there was a third of a tile at one side and the rest was two thirds of another tile.”

“The tilers were telling me they couldn’t see an issue, and I told them I’m not going to be able to live with it. The builder said we’ll just take the tiles off that wall and restart. Then in the ensuite they’d tiled one of the walls with no shower niche at all. There had been a niche there the other day – what happened was when they put the tanking up, they’d slabbed over the niche and hadn’t recut the niche out.”

“That was all in the space of 12 hours. And the next morning it was all fixed and done. They were so easy to work with. Other builders could say there’s nothing we can do about it now, it was an oversight, you’ll have to work with it. It was never said this is going to cost you, no. It was a mistake and they fixed it.”

Aoife and Mark got a separate quote for the kitchen, leaving the builder to deal with the manufacturer directly to coordinate the installation.

Insulation and PV panels

“We knew we were going to make some upgrades but we went over and above what we had originally planned,” says Aoife.

“We approached the builder and discussed getting a grant but he wasn’t registered with the SEAI, the government body that administers the individual grants, which meant we weren’t going to be able to get it.”

So they looked at getting a One Stop Shop grant from the SEAI instead, which is administered by one point of contact and you get the grant through them for a full house renovation upgrade, major works including not just insulation and airtightness but also ventilation and windows.

“In the end we felt like we’d be paying out more. And because there were so few One Stop Shops around the country, it was

Aoife’s top tip

Trust your gut. So many people will give you their opinions when you’re building or renovating and by all means, take them on board. But at the end of the day you’re the one who’s’ going to be living in the house, you’re the one who knows how your family lives. You know how you’re going to need to use the space so listen to what people have to say but don’t them influence you if you’re uncomfortable about the advice.

Stick with your guns on the things that matter to you. For example we didn’t really like the tenders that we received, or the advice we were getting from those builders. We decided to hold off even though we were so eager to get started. The tenders had come in over our budget but saying that, we ended up going to that level anyway. The reason we didn’t go for it is we just didn’t get the right feeling.

EXTENSION & RENOVATION

going to cause delays to our build. It was important to us to get back in as quickly as possible so our builder went ahead and did all the energy efficiency upgrades for us and he got the best prices he could for the materials. It just worked out as the best option for us,” adds Aoife.

“The only grant we got in the end was an individual grant, for our 12 photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof and we hired a specialist company to install those for us, completely separate to the builder.”

Comfort

The windows were a big part of the project, and they knew what they wanted from day one although the large expanses of glass can mean there is some overheating. “On days it’s warm we have the back door open and we have demand controlled ventilation –one mechanised unit in the open area and one in the living room. It’s not a centralised system, they’re single units, but they’re continually refreshing the house.”

So what’s the verdict? “Even before Covid when I was working from home in the colder months I could have the heating on from 9am to 3pm or 4pm just to stay warm,” says Aoife. “Even the winter gone when we had the hard frost, over those couple weeks, I maybe had the heat on for an hour and that was it. It’s a massive difference. And if I hadn’t been sitting down working I wouldn’t have needed it at all.”

“We’re calculating that we won’t pay an electric bill until January 2024 thanks to a credit owed, the government credits, and excess electricity generation rebates, mixed in with vastly reduced bills thanks to the energy upgrades. If we look back at the coldest period from November to February our gas bills every two months were €180 to €200.”

And they’re already thinking of how to upgrade the boiler in the future. “Our boiler is hydrogen blend ready meaning it will be able to run on gas and hydrogen at an 80/20 ratio once the fuel is available,” says Aoife. “Installing a heat pump and underfloor heating wasn’t in our budget, so I’m happy to know there’s an environmental alternative down the line.”

Aoife is delighted with the end result but can’t help but be swayed by interior design trends. “I’m trying not to think about changing colours or styles, we’re only just in a year at this stage,” she smiles. “I suppose it’s just fun to think of how you would change different things, while trying not to get too carried away with it at the same time.” The possibilities are endless.

Follow Aoife’s renovation journey on Instagram @building_ashgrove