Building a House in Ireland
Laying Foundations

We’re building a house in Ireland and we’re into month 2 of the build phase of the project. This month it's all about laying foundations and putting in some of the steel.

It’s a great feeling popping over to the house and watching things happen. Myles, our foreman keeps us up to date with everything that’s happening. Mostly, they just get on with it.

And things are moving forward. Let’s have a look at the progress made this month.

On Site - laying foundations

This month is all about foundations and groundwork. It’s all stuff we won’t see but it will keep the house from sinking into the ground.

The outline of the foundation takes shape

The radon layer is installed

There's a lot of insulation going into the foundation to keep us warm.

Piles of thick insulation for the foundation

The internal demolition on the east side commenced with scaffolding in place to support the ceiling while we wait for the steel to arrive.

laying foundation scaffolding holding wall

Scaffolding goes in to support the ceiling where an internal wall has been removed

Some of the steel starts to go up.

Steel goes up on the West side

Budget

There are a few things that have an impact on the budget. On the plus side there is already a significant amount of damp course in place which puts us in credit. On the other hand, the walls of the garages aren’t in great shape and a decision is taken that they need to be pulled down and rebuilt. We’re just about flat overall after the laying foundations phase.

We get our first bill towards the end of this month which once approved by the architect and QS we’re happy to pay. We’re well on our way with the project.

Off-site

After all the thought that we put in to window design last month we meet with architect to agree on the final window design. We also need to find a supplier to design and create a stained glass window to replace the picture window at the front of the house.

It’s also time to start putting in some footwork around the kitchen showrooms.

This month we visit...

We'll bring in one or two more kitchen companies next month.

Building a House in Ireland - who knew?

There must be some kind of optical illusion at work when it comes to foundations. With just the foundations the new parts of the house look really small. I actually got a tape measure out to convince myself that they were right.