The moment of truth arrived with the reveal of our concrete floor. It feels like a bit of a gamble, as I had just seen photos of a floor with the same aggregate, so patience and some courage are needed with this choice of floor. The concrete was polished by John Carroll from Concrete Concepts. …
Far from perfect… The excitement of seeing our grass emerging followed with a realisation that this living scape will not tend to itself. On closer examination, I realised that our lovely lawn had quite a lot of skutch grass, a very determined weed that will take over given half a chance. I consulted google to …
What a thrilling experience to see the LED screens light up in our house, knowing that electricity has finally made its way into the veins of the building. It’s a wow moment and I will never take for granted the work that’s involved to make that flick of a switch happen. Just 18 months ago, …
Even a plantroom is Instagram worthy, with the services beautifully expressing their own rigor and order. It reminds me of the Pompidou centre in Paris, where the services are celebrated on the outside of the building. (see picture in post of a fresher faced Cian and Gemma!). Full disclosure, I will struggle to explain how …
Once the plaster is dried completely, the house can be spray painted. The advantage of painting before the second fix electrical is sockets and plugs don’t have to be protected. Spray painting is the quickest way to get maximum coverage. There is a fair bit of preparation with protecting and taping around the windows, our …
After the house is slabbed, the next stage is skimming. Skim is the 3mm plaster mix that’s applied with a trowel to the plasterboard, this is the ultimate concealer that smooths out all the cracks and imperfections away. Applying the plaster is done in ‘shots’, but prior to this there is a rigorous process of …
Dry-stone walling is the traditional boundary wall in the rocky fields of Connemara, the fields are relatively small and there is an abundance of rock in the ground. During Construction we set aside the large boulders and rocks to the side, we could use the stone of the field later on for our boundaries. Using …
Slabbing is the lingo used in construction to describe the process of cutting and fixing the plasterboard into place. The crews that do this work are called ‘Slabbers’. We had a fantastic duo called Padraig and Pat whose work ethic was unreal. Starting work in the dark with the generator providing light, when I arrived …
Airtightness isn’t exactly instagrammable, but it’s the invisible bubble that provides the most comfort and cost savings in our home. We had our first air tightness test back in November. I was quite nervous, handing over our building baby for a ‘blower door test’, I wondered would all our hard work and attention to detail …
Planning for lighting the darker months of the year is often underestimated. Designing good lighting is as important as orientating your home to the sun and in ways you can be even more creative. It’s like lighting a stage set, considering the mood for different activities and the space can completely change depending on the …
We were delighted to give two site tours today, as part of the Architecture on the Edge festival. I was chuffed to be asked to do it, but I also thought nobody would come all the way out, but we had 30 people attending. Thank you to everyone who came and the thoughtful questions and feedback. It was so lovely to see our home from fresh eyes, …
How are we already approaching the clocks changing? The pace of life has been hectic, between work, kids and house building. Our little people have grown so much, with our baby girl just starting to walk. A lot has been achieved, but I’m also feeling the fatigue, with no time to stop and reflect. The …
For the past six weeks Dad has been working tirelessly on our site getting lots of the carpentry jobs done. He brings decades of experience and we’re lucky he could help out. First of all, we built out the recesses for the concealed blinds, not a small job with 25 windows to complete. We worked …
We now have rooms with a roof. Although the wall panels are trusses are made offsite, the trusses, decks, gutters and parapet need to be assembled and crafted onsite. Great care was taken by Irish ecohomes to get all the details right, from the falls in the gutter to the slope in the parapet, to …
Our walls and roof will be filled with stories, before we even begin to make our own! 600 bags of cellulose insulation were pumped into our walls and roofs, that’s 9 tonnes of recycled newspaper that will have its second life in our home. It blew my mind to see the insulation up close and the …