Self Build in Ireland Blog

Roller door

2011-09-26T22:24:00.002+01:00

If the budget fits I am looking at getting an insulated roller door with automation. Pricing around so far I am looking at 700 euro supply on to 1050 euro supply and fit.

Anyone use an company for theirs?

Shed

2011-09-26T21:17:00.004+01:00

After 3 years of thinking I finally got the plans done and the planning in for the shed in May.

Then in the last few weeks I got going. Sean did the raft with me one Tuesday and we had it in in about 4 hours. 12m of concrete went into it.

I got a lad I know from home to do the blocks and they have so far spent 3 days there and then last Saturday working with Dad and Sean, Liam and myself put in the ceiling joists.

We spent a couple of hours on Sunday levelling the roof.

New lawnmower

2011-04-01T12:38:00.004+01:00

Well, long time since I posted on here!!

A lot has happened in both garden, house, work and family!

The garden is getting there, we had our first crop of vegtables last season.

All the lawn is sown, the wall is complete and the site has a shape at last!

My brother is making me 82 concrete stakes to put in along the railway line! :)

Any of course most important we had a new arrival in the house, he is 12 weeks old today!

And a new lawnmower arriving today also! :) Took me 3hrs 20 mins non stop to cut the lawn! Mental really when you think of it. So I had to buy one! :)

Will post up pics when I take a few more! :)

New lawnmower

2011-04-01T12:38:00.003+01:00

Well, long time since I posted on here!!

A lot has happened in both garden, house, work and family!

The garden is getting there, we had our first crop of vegtables last season.

All the lawn is sown, the wall is complete and the site has a shape at last!

My brother is making me 82 concrete stakes to put in along the railway line! :)

Any of course most important we had a new arrival in the house, he is 12 weeks old today!

And a new lawnmower arriving today also! :) Took me 3hrs 20 mins non stop to cut the lawn! Mental really when you think of it. So I had to buy one! :)

Will post up pics when I take a few more! :)

Paving & Garden Wall

2009-11-05T21:31:00.004Z

Currently looking at getting some work done at the back of the house as the front border is near finished. I am waiting for Michael and Sean to come back to me to put in a load of soil in the corner near the road and we will then finish off the panels to the railway line.

My next plan WAS to get the rest of the lawn done but with the amount of rain we have had over the last week there really is little hope of me getting that done now.

So what I have earmarked to look (and do if its not too mental dear) is to built a 3ft high and probably 40ft long, not sure on the lenght yet but again depending on price I will create a "flower box" wall all along the back. What I am look at is something like this in the pictures below. I am still trying to source where the stone/paving was got but no joy so far.

I suspect it COULD be either tobermore or Archeson so I have enquired about prices. But as I said this could be well shot down if it turns out mental pricey bt it would look well I think.

The paving is more a long term thing, until the shed is done I really can't do all 3 sides of the house but I could probably do along the railway side, along the deck and to the back of the house in line with the back door. Again this is pricing stage but would add a wee bit of character to the back of the house.

Looking at various sites there are loads of good ideas out there which might be of interest.

Roadstone - http://www.roadstone.ie/home_garden/range_products.aspx?id=1

Tobermore - http://www.tobermore.co.uk/siteFiles/resources/pdf/domesticbrochure.pdf

Archeson - http://www.acheson-glover.com/

I will put up a post when I get more details and prices.

DIY Conservatories

2009-11-03T14:53:00.005Z

I have been looking into self build conservatories lately. DIY conservatories are pretty much that - conservatories that you build yourself, or have your own professional builder put up. In this case like everything in the house we will probably do this ourselves.

The beauty in the self build conservatory is the money that you save by buying the product directly from the manufacturer, and not having to pay a middleman. After all, most of us already have either the skills, or for others will have a local builder that we go to.

These guys provide DIY conservatories in various designs, from the simple lean to (or sun lounger) conservatory, to the more elegant Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian and Gabled ended. Or you can even combine the styles to create your own bespoke conservatory. The most popular material is uPVC, which has many benefits over timber and aluminium for home conservatories. There have been many advances in uPVC and you can now get it in a wide range of colours (not just white) and woodgrain to help it blend in with your existing home.

From my own research, I would recommend buying directly from a DIY conservatory specialist. They are geared up for these sort of projects and will provided me with a free conservatory quote. They also said they would provide support, both online and over the phone, during the build. There is also a finance option but you should not settle for a warranty less than 10 years.

Steam Train

2009-05-10T09:57:00.002+01:00

Was out on the deck this morning reading the paper andI heard the "chooo" of the steam train that passed last evening.

Never seen one bar last nite and was luck to get it this time!!!!

Video is only from my phone but is ok.

Some advertising :)

2008-09-22T12:32:00.003+01:00

Said I had better give our own company a push on here especially with the downturn, who knows someone might be interested in some Estimating or Financial software for their construction company. We are specific currently to the UK and Ireland markets but this will broaden over time so if anyone outside of this area want to look at it no problems.

We have had enquiries from Sweden and Greece also which we will look into. Also Canada and the USA have expressed an interest.

The links are below:

http://www.constructionestimatingsoftware.ie/

http://www.cmssoftwaresystems.com/

Thanks :)

A little stone picking

2008-08-23T20:58:00.002+01:00

Spent 2 hours picking stones. Weather is unreal bad at the moment. I manged to get out to cut the new (er) lawn last night, took a good 40 minutes and that was without collection of the lawn grass.
I am thinking that to get a full cut of 2 two lawns as they stand I will be looking at the guts of over an hour and that is still without almost the same amount of area to be stoned yet.

I managed to get another area, about 30ft sq stone gathered and the grass seed down. Still a good few hours to be done to close off that section, especially when you only have a wheel barrow and rake.

The lad John who did he deck with me is going to now do his daughters, she saw ours and loved it! So had to go a calling to Fergal again!!!!

All done!

2008-08-01T18:55:00.002+01:00

Well its done, great job!
Dad and John were over and installed the handrail and spindle frames they made up last night. And also installed the timber seat.

It looks very well I have to say. Now its my job to sand the handrail and varnish!!

Have to go tomorrow and buy the kit to install the outdoor lights.

Pics are taken at dusk, so not the best!!!!!

Getting there

2008-07-31T18:51:00.000+01:00

The lads came over and completed the rest of the deck and put down the skirt around the sides of the deck.
They measured up the sides now for the spindles and handrails.

I installed the rest of the lights so all that is done, need to get an external box now, 2 four gang sockets and and external socket for under the seat! Just in case!!!!

The lights look well now when on!!

Day 4 - All decking down

2008-07-30T18:44:00.003+01:00

The lads were over again today.
They did very well completing another section of the deck boards.

AS you can see the rain drove them home today, at the end of the day they are doing me a massive favour so I was not going to argue!!!!!

You can get a better idea of the pattern now and the lights from the pictures below.

Problem with the washing machine, not sure what, its outside now for some "operation" :)

Could be the brushes!!!!

Day 3 - In the deck brother house hold

2008-07-29T16:24:00.002+01:00

John and Dad were over again, finished off the final noggings and started the decking of section 1.
I called back to them at lunch and they were making great progress. Made the lads their soup and headed back.
When I came back they had all section 1 done. I was delighted. Then my job was, on crutches, to get the lights in section 1 installed. I decided that the transformers were going to be installed in the corner. I over the period of about 3 hours I installed the cabling for all 5 transformers, you can see the black cables below in the picture.

Each transformer has 4 lights in it. Each light has a 3m cable run to the "housing" on the end of the cable which returns to the transformer, these cables are 12m in lenght.

So by the end of today I had some of the lights installed also.

Decking Day 2

2008-07-27T13:43:00.000+01:00

Was out for a bit of food last night with my sister and brother-in-law. Went to The Plaza,top notch food and the wine was not bad either ;)

So did not rise until 10am. Bit late I know!!! :)

So the idea today was to tighten down the deck, put the legs and nogging in place and the posts up.
My ankle was playing up today so it slowed me down big time. I decided that I would cover each of the feet with a dpc, stapled onto it. I had some left over. You can see what I did in the photos below.

With all the legs in and the noggings cut out we progressed to also nailing these in, while we had the nail gun.

The seat also went in today. The idea was to have a little table in the corner. The seat is 14ft long.

The posts are all bolted in, and noggings to the side of each, to totally secure them

I had to retire early so John and Dad worked away until 5pm

Decking day 1

2008-07-26T00:38:00.004+01:00

Dad and John were due at 10am. I was at this stage meant to have got the nails, wood protector, nail gun, nails, brackets etc! But on crutches I was meant to be off! No chance.

Into the car, dumped the crutches and hobbles around NCF and Heiton buckleys for the stuff.

Paslode nails 48 euro. Deck screws, 60mm, were 21 euro for 500.
100mm wire nails were a tenner. 12" bolts were 30 cents each.

Nail gun to rent per day, 40 euro in Castlebar, 25 in Westport (Duffy plant hire), figure that out!

Anyway the lads got there and we started.

Supplies wise.

I got 37 joists, 88 deck boards, 8 lenghts of handrails, 88 spinds and 8 posts. Dad and John had taken the spinds and post and routed them witha pattern for effect and they looked well.

So we decided on 3 sections, about 8ft * 14ft each. Middle section running the opposite way, this mean that the centre joists were 2400mm long, meaning that out of joists 4800mm long we got 2 centres.
Joists onto the walls were express nailed in, with a drop of 1" fall outwards. Then the lads started cutting like hell with the chop saw while I measured and hobbled around, Dad given out every few minutes!!!!

Anyway as you can see we progress very well on day one, no supports or noggings. Thats tomorrow!!!
Off for me to get the ice!! and work out the lights.

I bought 20 LED deck lights off ebay for 142 euro. Not bad :)
It wil be a setup of 4 lights on each transformer.

More on that later

A close view from the door

3 separate frames, as you can the middle one will be the opposite direction

The corner was cut off to take the edge off it. Note the lawn growing in the back ground :)

View from the sun room door. Noggings and legs to go in yet.

Bit of a disaster

2008-07-24T00:31:00.001+01:00

After about 2 months in the planning and help in place I decided to do the ligaments in my ankle tonite.
Very easy done, I pushed off after giving a bad pass and as I did my ankle went down into a hole in the ground and cracked. I knew straight away that things were not good as the tingling it in was weird and I had no feeling.

I had also bought a bike from my mate Adrian, he was to leave it to me tonite and I was to cycle it home. Idea is to cycle to work, 5.5 miles each way. It would help to reduce the weight, as 4 months out with a groin injury was no help.

So up to A&E and out in 30 mins with crutches, "keep it up for a few days, on crutches for 2 weeks and out for 6-8" , great!!!!

SO I rang the lads to cancel but they were adamant that they were going to work!!!!

Another day of stones

2008-07-17T00:17:00.002+01:00

After about 4 attempts today we managed to get the machine and rake another section of the site, the area is about 100ft long by about 30/50 ft wide at its widest.
Myself and Michael got stuck in and Dad arrived about 10.30am, fair play to him after doing the papers.
Gerry was due to arrive also but did not manage it due to drink commitments the previous, but he arrived at 2pm and that helped push on the job.
We actually got through it fairly fast, unfortunatley my cracked rib was killing me but had to bear it to get the work done.
So Michael or his Dad Sean raked with the machine and then we pulled back the small stones.
The lads had to go at 4pm and I managed to rid of Dad then also as I could see he was struggling and he had a days work done before he ever arrived.
So what was done today about 1/2 of what was orginally left. Sean called over about 7pm and we seeded what was done.
I then watered it and put up the "Bird protectors" :) Also known as strips of plastic on a stick!!!!
While I was outside I also measured up for the deck, after a year of promising the funds were there to do the work and I started to price around.
For 24 sqm of deck, I was getting quotes of about 1000 euro, thats for standard posts, spindles etc.
I was away with a friend of mine in Rome at a wedding and we got talking about what I was doing, he is is involved with timber processing and he needed me to do some website work for him so we "bartered" :)
Anyway, when he got back he got me a quote of 540!!!! I near died!
So when I heard that I decided to "grow the deck a little!! So now its gone to near 33 sqm.
Deck is 14ft wide, 24ft long and the creeps around the back of the house.
Dad and John are going to be involved again.
I tiled Johns daughters house as payback for all the work he did here.
I will throw up a few pics of it below.

Pretty poor pic of the lawn but you get the idea :)

Simple tiling here, but she liked the idea of the brick effect. Instead of individual borders we just cut large mosaic tiles into strips. Cheaper option

Just another different view.
This was one of 2 bathrooms and then 24 sq yards of kitchen floor.

Stone Picking the day away!!!!

2008-05-10T22:22:00.002+01:00

I am sitting here and can barely stay awake, its been a long long day but I decided to end it with a nice can of cold draught Guiness :)

Started the morning working for my Dad at 5.30am, he delivered papers and for some reason the setup was poor this morning with papers and bundles missing so I was out until 9.45am, luckily my sister Marian was with me in her motor otherwise I would not have finished until 11am.

Georgeous morning, very sunny, so got a quick breakfast and was out and ready to start stone picking at 11am.
I bought a "Landscapers Rake" yesterday in NCF, its about 3ft wide with a long handle, also bought a fork, the two cost me 70 notes, so bit pricey. Also I enquired about the grass seed there and was told it was going to cost me 100 euro to cover the whole 3/4 acre.

The area I was to start with is 60ft by 20ft, roughly. I found that there was serious amount of stones, but I got stuck in and did my "molly Malone" and wheeled my wheel barrow etc.

Sean the next door neighbour and plant owner came over to investigate and suggested I get out a mini digger with rake.
He had one out so he got hold of it for me and with the rake buckets he started to tear into the area, I had at this stage probably 20 odd barrows of stone removed.
But once he got stuck in he took out in or about 30 mini digger buckets of "Skutch grass" and stones.
But it still needed to be covered by me also. So I also raked it for another 3 hours with him.

Then he came back with it and levelled it with the bucket of the digger. Again we took off another 5 buckets of stone, then he returned the machine.
To hire a machine like that is 140 euro but it costs 40 euro to transport!!!! Pricey for the day.

So I had to re-rake and re-level it again with my "super rake". I went in for a bit to eat at 6pm. Out again for 6.30pm and started the re-rake. Sean, fair play to him came out about 7.30pm again and between us spent another 1.5 hours raking and levelling.
I told him to head off home as we had 90% of it done and we also had the side section done, about 4ft wide by 40ft.
So at 9.30pm I finally finished so we are ready to seed this section. Considering that this section is 111 sq m , what remains is over 900 sq m then we are a LONG way off :)

I will try and take a pic of this tomorrow, that if I can walk. Working a 5.30am so I will be gimped!!!
Over and out

Kerbing,leveling and finishing

2008-05-06T23:16:00.004+01:00

So once the lads had a done the wall I had to gather up all the timber and try and tidy up the site, it was a mess but still lacking shape and it was hard to motivate ourselves to get ready for seeding.

I had done a little research on hedges, tress etc and then decided it was time to try and get the hedging done, it was decided that Escolonia was a very good option. I borrowed Seans tracktor and started to shovel loads of soil into the transport box and make a 10" 2ft wide bank for the hedging all along the railway line, 92m to be precise, but once I had 18 loads done my dodgey groin was killing me, been out of soccer for 9 weeks now getting physio but with little joy, doing the basic work is now killing me so picking stones will be some challenge!! :)

Anyway, Sean approached me and told me that if I wanted to get the kerbing done that he could have a machine and men to me for the last week of April, they would also soil up the whole site and get outside the wall done with gravel and also the drive in the house with maintanence.

He said to also save me a lot of work he could get the machine driver to build bank 2 ft high and 3ft wide for me to hedge on, this was going to be great.

So they kept to their word and myself and Sean set out the kerbing on the Sunday for the lads to start on the Tuesday. They had all kerbing done in 2 days and then spent the next 4 days drawing soil and fill to to the site to try and level and soil the whole site. As you can see from the pictures below it made some changes.

The container was going to be a problem, it was planked right in the way of the work, so the decision was made to move it. Dad came over on the Bank Holiday Monday and we set up a base for it.

The Micheal used their 30 ton machine and chains and we moved it to its new home :) Nothing fell out of it!!!!

Then I spent the next couple of hours moving block, timber and other crap to the new site. It left a full run for the lads to fill it up. Luckily for me Sean donated about another 12 loads of soil, black bog soil to the back of the house. Hard to see it from the pictures but it is black!!!!

So I now have a gap of 70 ft odd to fill between the stone wall and the railway line. I did some pricing today.

Chain link, 70 euro for a 35m roll of wire.

12 concrete stakes, 10 euro each.

Then the other options was the panels, I have 9 panels already and 12 stakes. So I need to sit down and work out the budget :)

The plan now is also to price the decking, Siobhan would love a place to be able to sit and chat with our families, at the minute we have nothing so I will price that and again check our budget. Since January we have pumped about 12k into the site, a lot of money.

I have now to spend many days now working the rest of the site, about .7 acres!!!!! It will be fun!

View along the side of the house, all along this side is 92m!!! Side is in or about 30ft wide at the narrowest point.

Front of the site, with the kerbing down and panelsKerbing at front.
A good view of the panels

Images of the back of the house, container moved as you can see.

Picture from 1/2 way down the back. That on the right is a raised bank which I will plant hedging on.

Down the back, side panels also as you can see:

Its been a while

2008-05-01T00:56:00.006+01:00

Been a quite few months to a year :) Cannot say we had done a lot with our patch but after much huff and puff we finally got ourselves back on track.

We started initially back in the middle of last year with a chat to girl called Paula Halpin in Westport re doing a landscape plan for us.
She sat us down asked what we wanted, we told her our thoughts and she came back a week later with a full drawn, taken off our CAD drawns outline drives, lawns, garden patches, hegding, flower beds, decking, paving, kerbing etc. Cost us 150 notes but to be honest it is well worth it as we have a goal now to aim for.

Back then at the beginning of the year I finally got Sean and his lads to come in and level the place off.
There was a load of fill to go in to pull up the back of the house to the near required level before soiling.
Over the next 3 weeks they left in 30 loads of fill to rise up the back and sides of the house.

Then the decision was also made to put a boundary between myself and Sean.
The options were hedge, fence, post and rail, blocks or concrete panels.

The panels in the end were the best and quickest option, with Seans lads able to do the lot of the work we would split the costs on the 50m run.
The panel are 6ft long and 1ft high, we used min of 4 and max of 5 panels high per run. Each panel cost 13 euro each ex vat and also 13 euro per each of the concrete posts which house the panels. The panels are stone effect on one side and plain on the other.
The work itself took about 8 days to do but it was an A1 job which really changed the whole face of the site.

Next up was the front wall. We have a run of 192ft from side to side along the front of the wall. Planning had it noted that we need to have 60ft of stone frontage. I weighed it up and decided that we would use up 125ft of the side with stone faced wall.
I got Sean to put the foundations in and then we were going to block it ourselves, well we did until I was told that a lad would block the lot of it for 290 euro, which was spot on, working out about 70 cent per block.
This changed the whole frontage big time.

The next job was to find someone to do the stone. The original stone masons were no longer working so I had to search about. I got a lad who said he was a good stone mason, brought to work he did and sure enough it looked spot on. Put a price of 3900 euro on it.
So I told him to match the house, got him his bags of cement (4.35 per bag) and 10 ton of sand.
So I left him to it, was working late so it was difficult to see progress, that was until my next door neighbour asked me “Did you spot the stonework”, my answer was “Ya, it looks spot on” but when he asked me did I “really see it” I was worried.
So next day I headed out after lunch to see “the stone work”. I nearly collapsed, how should I put it, if you were to give the work to a 1 handed blind man then you may get better. So to summarise, I got shot of him and spent all one Saturday pulling the lot down with a sledge hammer. So it had to start again.

I got a number then of a lad who I gave UFH advice to for Lithuian lads, Mindy. He arrived with a portfolio of maybe 50 photos and had his tape and measured and priced. He quote me initially 4800 for the stone work and 5400 to also cap the wall.
After a little discussion we arrived at a price of 4500 to do the whole lot, including capping.
So I then got delivery of 45 bags of cement and I already had the sand. It would be 6 weeks before they were able to start.

Then one morning about 2 weeks later I got a call from Mindy to ask me if he could start tomorrow as he had been let down on the delivery of stone!!!!! I near had panic attack J I had no cement delivered and no pallets of stone, which I agreed with Mindy I would get.
So I rang Sweeneys down the Newport road to see if they could deliver and sure enough within 2 hours they had the cement landed. The lads had enough sand and stone to work away with.

So off they set. The worked from about 7am to 5pm most days, Saturdays and Sundays 1/2 days.
To watch these guys work was a joy to say the least, they would spend hours chipping and shaping, no angle grinders or con saws.
They lads were eating up the stone, I had intended to buy 2 pallets of stone at 150 euro per 2 ton pallet.
Mindy wanted 4 pallets! So I was looking at 600 spots for 8 ton of stone!

I rang www.LackenStone.ie and chatted to them there. They said they could deliver to me no bother but then asked me would I have any use for a full load? A full load is 20 tons at 950 euro cash so I decided that for 350 euro more I would get 12 ton, so no real decision. They delivered, made a drop at either side of the gate and the rest of the back.

The lads wrapped up the whole job in 2 weeks, 4 of them. The returned a week later, took down all the casing they used for the caps.
They also then proceed to chip away all waste mortar and clean down the whole wall with a mortar clearer!! Now that’s a service!!
Below is pictures I took during the site fill, the wall build and you can just spot the panels.

Trades & Contacts

2007-12-06T13:08:00.001Z

Guys,
A few people have asked me about who I went with for different things.

Engineer:
Michael ConwayConway Survey & Design, Cashel, Ayle, Westport, Co.Mayo
Tel: 098-35931Fax: 098-35935Mobile: 086-3417478

Window:
Mahon Windows, Athlone, Westmeath

Timber Frame:
Clarke Homes, Lisnaskea, Fermanagh,

Ground works by Sean O'Malley, Cloggernagh, Islandeady, Castlebar, Co.Mayo

Underfloor heating from www.underfloordirect.co.uk

Geothermal from Climate contol in Tuam in Galway, contact Brian Cooley.

Appliances all from Ebay, SecondTek

Decking help

2007-11-28T00:55:00.000Z

Got chatting to a lad who I emailed as regards decking and that.

Eoin is involed in landscaping, ground maintence and decking, with Eoins experience and guidance I was provided with details spec of the materials required, a few different ideas of designs and when I start into it will be available to me in case myself and my Dad get into bother.

I sent him off a few photos of the area to be decked and exact measurements and he gave me a bill of material and 2 designs. In fairness he did all this for 100 euro, saved me a packet.

Not to get the deck done!!!

Have a look at Eoins website www.garden-scapes.net

Garden finished, walls built, shed built

2007-11-15T14:26:00.000Z

Wow, we have now everything completly finished and there is nothing to do :( NOT!!!!

Still no move, spent the last near 4 months chasing the neighbour to get the work done. So not a sausage done!!! I will continued with things once I get the man back!!

Appeared on RTE 1 on 9th December in a show Highly Recommended about all the goods I purchased online, it was great to be on the TV and I won the show pocketing me 2,000 euro!!

The task ahead

2007-04-27T09:52:00.000+01:00

I decided to take a few pictures of the garden and what needs to be done!! It will be a big job but will have to be tackled in stages over the next 3 years or so!!!

But if anyone has any suggestions fire them on or any budding landscaper want to test their skills on a new site I am looking to get some layouts designed, will be doing the work myself but could do with the ideas!!

Final Pictures - Upstairs

2007-04-27T09:47:00.000+01:00

These pictures are of the upstairs : Probably the most uncomplete part of the house!!

Guest Bed 2 - If you have a good back!!!

Spare Bed 3 - aka GYM!!!

Main Bedroom :

Landing :

Landing Again :

Bathroom Upstairs :

Nice Jacuzzi Bath!!

Final Pictures - Downstairs

2007-04-27T09:40:00.000+01:00

Sorry about the delay but I only got around to taking these this week.

Sun Room :

Main Bath DownStairs :

Another of the Main Bathroom :

Guest Bedroom downstairs :

Stairs :

Sitting Room :

Fireplace :

Hall Entrance :

Kitchen:

The break is over

2007-04-17T14:03:00.000+01:00

Well as you can see it has been a while, my holiday is over!! ;)

Since I last posted we have moved in, the Friday before the All-Ireland to be precise, we have done little since, hanging pictures, mirrors etc/
Bought some furniture and I did a little cleaning up around the house but bar that not a lot has been done.

No issues as yet, geothermal has been a great success, I have to do another reading of the electric so that I can quantify the usage in the house, must get that done now soon.

We have started the process of planning the garden/lawn/site/dump what ever name you want to put on it!!!

We have also have had a gander at pricing for decking, so the decking and garden are the next projects.

The decking will have to be done first to allow the outside to be used as of yet we have no where to sit so that will be tackled in the next 2-3 months. Prices are ranging from 800-1400 for material only.

I must get some photos up now also as people have been wondering how we finished it.

Thanks to all for the comments, emails etc. Feel free to contact me, I will answer what I can.

back to grouting

2006-09-11T23:39:00.002+01:00

Grouting to be finished in the kitchen and the white grout in the bathroom to be redone. Slow job but that is the last large job done.

back to grouting

2006-09-11T23:39:00.001+01:00

Grouting to be finished in the kitchen and the white grout in the bathroom to be redone. Slow job but that is the last large job done.

back to grouting

2006-09-11T23:39:00.000+01:00

Grouting to be finished in the kitchen and the white grout in the bathroom to be redone. Slow job but that is the last large job done.

2 matches in 1 day

2006-09-10T23:38:00.000+01:00

Today was a late one, I had my first match at 12pm for the C team but the ref was late and we did not start until 20 past. So after a mad busy match we won 2-1.
The that finished at 2pm, I got my packet of Jaffa cakes and had 10 minutes of rest before I went out for the warm up again.
The B team game kicked off at 2.30pm and near the end I got cramp, but again we won this 1-0. So I could be he first to get 6 points in one day!!!
Back to the house and the final coats of the stairs!

Drill it

2006-09-09T23:37:00.000+01:00

Over about 8am, I gave the stairs another coat and then into town to get the Core bit and drill from Sam Hire for 30 euro to drill through the wall for the tumble drier vernt.
Took about 1hour to get through the block but then I hit one of the studs in the wall so had to cut around this also.
Eventually got a 4" sewage pipe in for the vent.
Then had to drill a section out for the vent from the machine, pain in the head all this.
Took me near the whole day to finish this job.
Got another coat on the stairs and one coat on the back bedroom door.
Off home about 8pm.

Days of varnish

2006-09-04T23:36:00.000+01:00

Started varnishing the spindsles again, slow job only 10 done! Gave the stairs another coat
Varnishing!!!!

5th - No training so finished off the remaining 15 spindles and gave a coat to the steps
6th - Varnish varnish varnish!!! cat slow but it has to be done
7th - varnish stairs after training
8th - Varnish stairs and saddles, finally getting there now with this, pulled ship at about 12.30am. Varnishing near the end at the weekend.

Skin sanding

2006-09-03T23:36:00.000+01:00

Over for 7.30, sanding again, lose the skin on my fingers at this stage!! all sanding of the steps done bar 2.
Gave the done steps a coat of varnish, off to a match then

Sand, sand more sand

2006-09-02T23:35:00.000+01:00

A day of sanding and sanding and more sanding!! From 7am to 8pm. I had a "mouse" sander so that was excellent for the steps.

Sanding

2006-09-01T23:35:00.000+01:00

Started to sandt the spindles with over 50 and it taking 15 minutes each this is gone to be slow!!
Dad was over shelving

Flu's out

2006-08-28T23:34:00.000+01:00

I could not get out of bed today, the flu has hit me like a wall!! The container has arrived, Dad was impressed with the room inside it.

Out of action for next 3 days.

Mayo

2006-08-27T23:33:00.000+01:00

DOing the papers again, I was finshed at 8am, then straight over to the house, I had to finish off wiring the double socket.
When I had that done I decided to put in another double socket upstairs in the attic for the 8 way TV distribution box so that I can install the aerial and distribute the tv signal to the other rooms.
Signal when taken upstairs is fine but not great downstairs.
Off home at about 12pm, feeling crap but ready to watch the Mayo match,

Wiring, painting etc

2006-08-26T23:32:00.000+01:00

Stumbled into the house about 9, cleaned out the front bedroom so that the skirting can get its final coat of varnish. Also had to pain around the painter cawk on the landing to blend it in with the wall.
Aidan can again to finish and test the alarm. I had to wired in a double socket for Eircom to install the dish for the phone.
It needs a power supply beside the phone lines so I had to wire into the back of an exisitng double socket. I had to run upstairs then to run CAT5 cable from the power point to the gable where the dish will be.
I also had a match so dad came over and we set out 4" solids on each of the corners where the container will be. The container is 8ft by 20ft.
Off to the match, I was not feeling the best before it, lacking energy but played anyway.

A shed nearly there

2006-08-25T23:32:00.000+01:00

Had to head out to Gerry in McHales to pay him the rest for the 20ft container. It will be delivered on Monday next.
Siobhan was here again, we wanted to hang the curtains in our room to see they looked good. I finished the flooring in the room upstairs.
We then decided to start cleaning up the saw room, must have been a bag of saw dust! Also a lot of waste timber, so I cut this up on the saw and we moved all boxes of firewood into the spare bedroom upstairs,
The dust was killing herself and we headed off at 10pm, I have work to do for Stevie on the system I am helping him develop.

Cleaning the floors

2006-08-24T23:31:00.000+01:00

Dad was over, he cleaned up all floors of the room upstairs and took down the skirting. It is great that we are also getting this room cleared and floored.
Once all the flooring has been done the saw can be taken down from the "saw room" and Siobhan can have it back as a bedroom.
I started flooring the room and due to 2 V shaped angles in the room it was akward but managed to get 1/2 of the room done. Aidan was also here to put the alarm working but mainly to test all the PIRs.

Move them tools

2006-08-23T23:30:00.000+01:00

The tools and that upstairs all needed to be moved down, very slow job but with Siobhans help they are all gone down, I put some of the sheets of ply up in the attic.

Paths done!

2006-08-22T23:30:00.000+01:00

Sean and the lads have all the paths in now, he also flattened out a big part of the lawn. I could not get into the house because of the fresh concrete. Off Home!!

Sean does well

2006-08-21T23:28:00.000+01:00

Sean was there today, he has now cased in all the paths and rose it up around the house.
I had to go to McHales and pick out a container, 1800 cash which is a good price for a container which is in good condition,
Back to the house, the lads had buried the gas pipe from the house under the paths, had to try and dig it out!!

Build them blocks

2006-08-20T23:28:00.000+01:00

Papers in late, so I did not manage to finish up until 9.30am, home for a quick breakfast and over to the house, Gerry arrived out and we got stuck into moving the large pile of timber,
It tooks us a good 2 hours to move it all, the back to the othe gable to move all the scaffolding and boards, again another hour but that was that!!
There is just 2 piles of slates to move now with the straps and the digger.
We also built up some of the blocks into a neat pile,

DOn't fret!

2006-08-19T23:28:00.000+01:00

Over about 8, Job is to final coat the pres and stain the worktop, again a load of small jobs to do. Sean called and is going to level some of the site so that I can order the container.
This meant panic stations as he wants to start the paths on Monday.
With a truck load of blocks, slates, timber, scaffolding up against the house it all needs to be moved. The table and chairs and the tumble dryer both arrived today.
Had to head into town to get the large 22" grate and fret, had to made in Dineens and ordered through Heiton Buckleys. But feck me the one they make is 26" Have to go back with it.
GOt back to the house and started to move stuff out of the bedroom/tool room up stair stairs so that it can be put int he container and I can floor that room also.
Liam started the leveling about 4pm, Dad came over to give me a hand, but with me having a match @6pm it was going to leave it tight.
Liam gave us a hand with the bucket to shift about 250 blocks in 20 minutes, but that is the main thing to move.
Dad stayed on and moved the timber and other stuff.
I am working @5am in the morning so will have to head over after that to move the rest of the stuff, will be slow but it has to be done. All going well there will be a big change outside next weeked.
It is really dragging on but I think I can see light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Nice unit

2006-08-18T23:26:00.000+01:00

Dad had made a cupboard unit with the IROKO worktop for the utility so this means that it is all kitted out, looks really well.
I had to undercoat the unit and stain the worktop, headed off home about 9.

match

2006-08-17T23:26:00.000+01:00

Match this evening so no work done.

Work holds progress

2006-08-16T23:25:00.000+01:00

another late one at work, getting too much of the habit. Just had time to paint the unit in the utility. All done now!
Dad was over cleaning all the shee hit of the windows. So no sign of Sean, I will have to chase him up now.

Handle it nicely

2006-08-15T23:25:00.000+01:00

Was off today and got to the house and put the handles on the units in the kitchen, I also filled the screw holes.
A bag loads of small jobs.

Utility taking shape

2006-08-14T23:24:00.000+01:00

Was working late again but got to the house and dad was there, he assembled the unit for the washing and tumble dryer. I put on the shelving on the unit.
Then gave the unit a coat of undercoat.

Mayo cancel work!

2006-08-13T23:24:00.000+01:00

Mayo playing today so I did the paper run for my dad @6am so decided to take the rest of the day off.

Bye bye rubbish

2006-08-12T23:23:00.000+01:00

Left Damo off to work for 8am and then into the house. It was time for the final move for all the rubbish which has been gathered up around the build.
I needed to move all the bags to the gable, ended up there were 110 bags!! Could not belive it. I rang Burkes again and he said it would be more like 235 euro for the lot.
He then rang me back and said he could collect today.
I ran into town to get a mirror for the wardrobe, a 48" by 17" is 35 euro. Bit more expensive that I expected.
Back to the house and I gave an undercoat to the cupboards in the utility, slow job.
Burkes arrived and we loaded up 1.5 tons of rubbish, cost us 300 euro, more that I expected but it is gone now!
So back inside to watch the GAA, then back into give a first coat of the final color to the cupboards. AGain it took the guts of 2 hours.
Off at 8pm to give DAmien a life home.

Recylcing and cleaning

2006-08-11T23:21:00.000+01:00

Arrived in the house about 6, Dad was there, working away on shelving the cupboards in the Utility room. We wanted to utilise all the space around the heatpump and cylinder but also to enclose it.
We decided that in order to allow us to recycle as much as we can we split up the shelves to hold 6 containers, for glass, paper, tins, etc etc.
This has now changed the whole utility room, now need to put in the rack for the washing machine and tumble dryer!!
Marie and Siobhan were there to clean up the bedroom and ensuite and try and get rid of the mounds of dust that has built up.
I finished the shelving in the cupboards and started to gather all cardboard together for the recylcing run.
I contacted Burkes bags to see if they would do a run to collect the bags of rubbish at the back of the house, about 40 bags. Said it would be about 150 euro.
I have to go and count them to see.

Road drilling

2006-08-10T23:20:00.000+01:00

I got a hold of a crowd who will drill under the road for the telecoms, 300 euro. I am not overly impressed with having to use a line of sight for the telecoms connection so I prefer to use a straight connection.
I have to talk to Sean as he had to co-ordinate with them;
Dad was over again and he was doing some shelving in the utility.
I got another coat on 5 more doors. so down now to about 5 doors to finish, with 2 of them up on 3 coats.

Work holds me up

2006-08-09T23:19:00.000+01:00

I was at work until 8.30. Dad was over to finish of some 2nd fixing and put skirting in the utility room.

Ward Robe on it's way

2006-08-08T23:19:00.000+01:00

Another day another coat of varnish. Dad was over, he did great work in the walk-in wardrobe to add another shelve and clothes rail underneath.
He asked put up the skirting in the front room. Another great load of jobs done.
I continued on with my varnishing to 5 of the doors. I am of course giving the door 2 more coats than I intended but it leaves them clean, tough and like a mirror.
Was talking to Sean, he hopes to arrive next week to finish the ground work. Mick my engineer is due to arrive this week to sign off the house.

Dad & John working away

2006-08-07T23:18:00.000+01:00

Monday - Match this morning but arrived over @ 8am. Opened all the windows to let the sunshine and fresh air in and then onto more varnishing! Had friends of the family over @10am to see he house
Then onto the match which we won 3-0.
Dad and John were over to do the door and frame for the utility room, then the walk-in wardrobe shelves. 2 great jobs done.
Myself and Siobhan assembled our bed and took all the wrappers off furniture.

Never ending

2006-08-06T23:17:00.000+01:00

Over @ 9am. Again it was a day of varnishing, there was a match I went to and then back to more varnishing!! Have 7 doors given 4 coats and another 7 1 coat.
Back again tomorrow for more of the same!!

Varnishing to death!

2006-08-05T23:16:00.000+01:00

Over about 8.30am, a day of varnishing ahead, doors, architraves and skirting, coat after coat after coat. Up to 4 coats on the doors downstairs.
Had to get the wardrobe railings, 4 4ft lenghts. Also I got paint to blend in the unit in the utility room, I gave Albany a piece of wood with the color of our kitchen,
the put in under a scanner and created the paint for me.
I had to go to a funeral so headed off early.

Varnish

2006-08-04T23:15:00.000+01:00

Had to take out the TV to see if it worked, sure enough no bother!! Started then to varnish the doors, coat 3 to the dining room doors, bathroom and closet.
Coat 4 to sitting room door and coat 1 to the kitchen.
Headed off about 10

TV ready to watch!

2006-08-03T23:14:00.000+01:00

Match today, TV arrived but did not get chance to look at it. Dad and John are making the units for the walkin wardrobe, had to get a load of timber.

Late but something done

2006-08-02T23:14:00.000+01:00

Working late but manged to get a coat on the doors in the dining room and closet. It take 30 minutes per door.

Nothing Done

2006-08-01T23:11:00.000+01:00

Training tonite and headed off home

TV near ready

2006-07-31T23:08:00.000+01:00

LCD is ready, picked up today so time will tell if it is ok!
Dad was over and did the skirting in the hall. Also replaced the architrave upstairs.
More coats given to the sitting room door and dining room doors.

Varnish

2006-07-30T22:58:00.000+01:00

Up at 7.15am, started to finish the final coats in the closet and ripped through that. Also wired up the aerial and boosters.Off to the match @ 10.30 and we beat the top team 5-2, there first defeat in 10,Back to the house and then started the touch up of paint in the dining room, slowly but surely it is getting there.Siobhan was over and she touched up the walls in the sun room while I varnished the doors in the dining room.Tasks down to 55!!!

Lots of jobs

2006-07-29T22:57:00.000+01:00

Over at 7.30 to finish off the hood, the glass needed to be put on but the flutes who wrote the manual seemed to think that the actual extractor should be attached before the glass hood but no.So I had to take down the extractor and then put the glass up, took me 2 hours to change it all around!! I had to head to town and bought an aerial and booster set to see if can get any good pictures for the TV.

I also purchased some bulbs for the wall lights and put them in, poor design on the to be honest.Then it was onto varnishing the architraves, before I left I gave all the timber in the closet an undercoat ready to be finished in the morning.I had to head over to my mother in law to sand and varnish the front of bath for her, gave it 6 coats with a 20 minute drying interval, 2 coats at a time.Got home about 8.30 - also have match tomorrow for the C team, short on a keeper.

2006-07-28T22:56:00.000+01:00

Dad was over and has made a great job in the closet, all the pipes, mainfold and pump are sheeted in and out of harms way.I have a list of about 70 odd jobs to do before the move in, varnishing dominates the list.

One job which had to be done was the Island hood/extractor fan.This was an unknown to me as I had thought I had bought this as a vented less extractor but soon discovered it was not.#I had to work out exactly how to put it up, then had to drill a hole for the vent hose, get into the active and feed it out to the soffit vents.
There is a need to fix a holder to the ceiling, fix the vent to it, then there are brackets which grip the hood and are screwed onto the holder. Once I had figured it out by 11.30pm I had it all up bar the glass hood which was at home.Busted tired, but great to get it out of the way.

No work

2006-07-27T22:56:00.000+01:00

Match tonite and after complete domination we only drew, league is slipping away from us.Dad was over alright but I did not manage to see what he did.

Shelves again

2006-07-26T22:55:00.000+01:00

I started the shelves in the closet, had to put in 2 shelves and a hanger for jackets. Siobhan was over and she has started cleaning the rooms. Bathroom cleaned nicely.

Training

2006-07-25T22:55:00.000+01:00

Training tonite but I wanted to get the skirting in the front bedroom steel wooled and varnished.

LCD

2006-07-24T22:54:00.000+01:00

I started to finish off the landing, had to finish off the cut in and then start the final full coat. Had to cut in the 2nd coat but at least it is another job out of the way!I transfer the 1400 euro to Techsplosion for the 40" LCD, a cracking price considering my mate paid 2200 here for the same screen!!

Shelves

2006-07-23T22:54:00.000+01:00

Had anniversary mass for my gran today and out for a bit of lunch with the family so did not get near the house until 5pm.I decided to finish off shelving the hot press and put 2 sets of shelves in there, at least we can away the quilts!!

Time 2 say adios!

2006-07-22T22:53:00.000+01:00

Up before 7am, over to the house and aim was to get any white grouting done. This was the splashback in the bathroom and also the tiles around the bath.The downstairs and grout the glass blocks for the last time, all of them had to be washed 3 times.Off into town to try and get some contact lenses but I found them very hard to insert and take out again, I have to go back to them again next week.

Got a few things in heiton buckleys then back to the house.I started to do the final cut in on the landing but Shane arrived and waited for over an hour so I then decided to start shelving the hot press.Headed off at 4pm as we were off to a Boceilli concert in Galway

Another room to finish paint

2006-07-21T22:53:00.000+01:00

I was working late at work so only got to the house after 6. I decided to paint the ceiling and walls in the bedroom upstairs. This left only the skirting for doing in this room.Siobhan was over and she cleaned up our bedroom.We now have our bedroom, the sitting room, ensuite and bathroom upstairs fully finished. So ploughing along nicely.

Run rabbit run

2006-07-20T22:52:00.000+01:00

fully hour of endurance training so puffed out!

More varnish

2006-07-19T22:52:00.000+01:00

I decided to start on the varnishing, skirting, architrave, doors. I also put a coat on the beam in the sitting room,I finished the skirting in the bedroom, bathrooms, architraves in them 3 rooms, along with the wardrobe, ensuite and did the door in the mainbathroom. Slow work!

Sand

2006-07-18T22:51:00.000+01:00

Had to go to Galway in the morning, we spotted a tv unit which was ideal, but it would not be here until Sept!, great but sure it looks the part.Back to the house and it was time to go finally finishing the sanding the skirting in the dining room, sitting room and bathroom downstairs.

Expensive glass

2006-07-17T22:51:00.000+01:00

I had to go to Castlebar, have to get contacts for playing football, then into Hursts to pay the bills and pick up a few lids for the sewage manholes.

Off into get pin nails to put in the glass in the dining room doors. Had to pick up the 4 panes of glass from Lawless, 140 euro.Then back to the house but I had to leave again as it was hitting 28 degrees out the back and almost as much inside!! So back to help my da paint the school walls, time to top up Sunday "Tan"!!!

Up Mayo

2006-07-16T22:50:00.000+01:00

Connacht final day so nothing done, Up Mayo!! ;)

Bog and LCD

2006-07-15T22:50:00.000+01:00

Out in the bog again @ 8am, took me 2 hours to finish what was there, again the heat was up in the mid twenties. Have a christening this afternoon so did not get near the house.Got in contact with 2 couriers to see if they could collect the LCD panel, have to wait for prices.

Could not handle heat, so off to bog!

2006-07-14T22:49:00.000+01:00

I decided to leave the house when I got there, the heat was unreal so I decided that it was time to head to the bog to start putting out the turf for my dad, with the wheelbarrow.Waited until 9pm with a nice bit put out.,

Hard to work in mad heat

2006-07-13T22:49:00.000+01:00

I had training this evening, I had to give final coats to the access door in the main bedroom and also paint up around the sockets and lights. Killing warm in the house.

Basing it!

2006-07-12T22:48:00.000+01:00

Dad was over, he cleaned up around the hall and started the shelving and cupboards in the closet. That will be a big job.I went over all the rooms and sanded all the filler.Then I needed to base coat the access doors and attic doors. Then varnish around the architrave surrounding them.Slowly but surely. Had to try and get access to the glove box of the car. After surfing the net I found out how exactly

Training

2006-07-11T22:47:00.000+01:00

Training 7pm to 9.20pm so did not go near the house.

Nearing the end of flooring

2006-07-10T22:47:00.000+01:00

I had a go at timbering the wardrobe and managed to get it pulled tonite. So a good bit of large jobs done now.

Ceiling it

2006-07-09T22:46:00.000+01:00

Over early as I have a match, decided to touch up the ceiling in the hall that I had splattered!! Then onto filling any remaining holes around the house. Had to head at 1pm for the match

No show

2006-07-08T22:45:00.000+01:00

A sore head on me today, bit too much wine out for dinner last nite, throw in a few Guinness and Red bull and it was a disaster.Up at 8am, got a breakfast sandwich and it took another hour for me to wake up,The rain had started but I needed to get out to move all the stuff from around the house for the lads to put in the footpaths.

Dad came over but since Sean had not apppeared with the digger it was akward to move.Sean arrived over and he told us that the ground was not high enough and that we would have to move back all the stuff!!We called it a day as we had to go to a birthday party.

RE COMMENT JULIE - Email me on aidangill@gmail.com and I can answer your questions.

Dinner time

2006-07-07T22:45:00.000+01:00

Out for dinner tonite so did not get anything done. Sean was there and put in the sewage line so that is now done. Trying to get my hands on a 20ft container to use as a shed, found the best price to be from Tyrone for 1800 euro delivered.

nothing doing

2006-07-06T22:44:00.000+01:00

Heavy trainin session so nothing done today.

Part time

2006-07-05T22:44:00.000+01:00

Party for my sis so I did not get near the house

Working late

2006-07-04T22:44:00.000+01:00

In work at 9am and did not get out until 8,30pm, again under major pressure so did not get near the house. Again the migraine was pinching at me.!!

Sick in the head!

2006-07-03T22:43:00.000+01:00

Dad was over today and fair play to him got all the boards done on the back of the stairs and the skirting done.

He also bought in a load of timber to make shelves for the closet, hot press etc.I was at work until 8pm, mental busy and no time for anything, had a busting migraine also so had to head.

Matching it in the heat

2006-07-02T22:42:00.000+01:00

I have a match today so have to split the day up. Went over at 7.30am. I wanted to get the skirting and timber for the back of the boards sanded and varnished.I managed that alright but it took the guts of 3 hours. I went back to trying the bath panel, pain in the arse trying to put on a rounded bath panel.

Headed off to the match and drew in what seemed to be serious temperatures, was with the C team so I am not as pushed at winning the league with them as the B team.Back to the house and I decided to test drive the power showers!!!

I said since they were all cleaned up and hot water was there, what the hell!! Reminded me of a hotel shower with the power of it!Back to the boards and skirting, final coats and they are ready for Dad to tackle tomorrow.I decided it was time to also sand and varnish the skirting in the 2 bathrooms. Headed off at 7.30pm

Splashing about

2006-07-01T22:42:00.000+01:00

Over about 8am, I got stuck into the splash back, had to glue some it and screwed in the rest of it.

?Nothing done!!

2006-06-30T22:41:00.000+01:00

Was working until 6pm then came home, intended to grout the tiles inside the door, get the splashback done and grouted around the fireplace but had 2 sets of visitors until 10pm!!

Match

2006-06-29T22:40:00.000+01:00

Was playing a match tonite in Achill so nothin done. We lost with a pox goal, my first conceeded from play in 6 matches.

Late @ work

2006-06-28T22:39:00.000+01:00

I was working late again but went for an hour to get in the final piece of timber in the sitting room and bedroom so that is all the flooring done bar 2 more boards in the closet which is a five minute job

Lights up

2006-06-27T22:39:00.000+01:00

Brian was there today, he hung the dining room light, put up the 4 wall lights in the rooms and then put the lights in the stairs.We had training so I left it tonite as it was a tough session.

Still floored

2006-06-26T22:38:00.000+01:00

Dad was over again, moved all the spare slates and pallets from the side of the site to allow Sean to eventually move in.I worked on the flooring and have it down to 2 boards to be put down to complete fully the downstairs.