Living in our new home is a very different experience to building it, the activity of making and finishing a home is constantly in progress. I’ve fallen out of the practice of writing and sharing about the build as the challenges have evolved. The human messiness of life has taken over, from rearing small kids, …
Living is a very different process to building, the activity of making and finishing the home is constantly in progress. I’ve fallen out of the practice of writing and sharing about our home as the challenges have evolved. The human messiness of living day to day life of rearing small kids, work and keeping everyone …
What a treat to experience the northern lights on this clear beautiful night, after the hottest day of the year! I couldn’t believe my eyes!! Thankfully nobody drove by to see me taking pictures of our house in the darkness at midnight! 😆🙈. Get outside and check it out if you’re still up! Apparently the …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
It’s hard to imagine the need for heating during the current heatwave, but the ‘winter is coming’ as they say. Our underfloor heating piping was installed last month. It will be powered by an air to water heat pump. This was the best option for our site, while using a renewable heat source. I included …
Plumbing isn’t necessarily pretty, but it’s the thing that keeps us all looking good at the end of the day. Running water is am essential for modern life, without you’re just camping. When you turn on a tap, you take it for granted the journey the pipes make from beginning to end, watching the installation …
It’s race week in Galway and builder’s holidays, so I’ve a chance to catch-up on work and post some activity from last month. Cian had the awkward job of laying the floor insulation, putting down the plastic sheeting and preparing the floor for underfloor heating. The most difficult part of this job was cutting around …