Self Build House Costs

Self Build House Costs

This post will try to share some of my headaches around the price to build a house in Ireland in 2016! There is always the two key elements of "Can I?" vs "Should I?" at play. Just because you can afford to build at the very outside of your budget, doesn't mean you should! Do I go for a 20% deposit to get a better interest rate and leave myself cash short during build?

I've been busy contacting various institutions to get an idea of costs to work out a monthly budget. I've used this to track back the mortgage I'm comfortable paying (while hopefully not resorting to baked beans 7 days a week!) and inform the overall building budget. This then informs the size of the house to build based on square meters (which as I've learnt is the internal floor area of a building that includes partition walls, doors etc).

At least that's how I've worked out a comfortable balance between size, cost to build, cost of mortgage that I'll be left with once the dust and concrete has settled!

All I used was Excel and just started adding workbooks that tackle different areas:

Requirements

• Must Have
• Nice to Have
• Risks / Unknowns / Area to enquire about

These represent the Project Brief you supply to the builder/architect. And it keeps you honest, put a cost against as many as you can in the nice to have column.

Annual Budget (Current)

• Cost of roof over my head (rent and bills)
• Car running costs (I track my fuel costs for work)
• Personal expenses from insurances to mobile phone top ups
• Misc (Charitable Donations etc)
• Savings

This shows you what you've been paying historically, see how much cash you HAD but blew?!!

Monthly Budget (Projected)

• Mortgage
• Pension AVCs
• Utility Bills
• Home Insurance
• Bins
• Irish Water
• Car
• Mobile
• Property Tax
• Life Insurance for Mortgage

This is the meat and the first look at how much you will be left to live on after all the bills are paid. Calculate all your annual bills and divide by 12. You have to keep this money available each month.

Regarding Payslips: Remember that if you get Health Insurance through your Employer it's not free. Benefit in Kind is applied so while it's cheaper you are paying for it yourself. Good to know if you change employer! I strongly recommend you scrutinize your Payslip to fully understand what every line item is. Things change, if you get mileage it may not be constant, a car allowance can be taken away. Use your base salary and work out if you can afford to pay the mortgage with it. If not you're at risk....

Work out if you're missing any tax credits and start saving all medical receipts for sending either to your Health Provider or Revenue (you can't do both!). Streamline your charges, change banks if that is necessary. Use websites that are geared to saving you money by comparing banks, atm charges, energy costs etc for instance:

http://www.moneyguideireland.com

Then when you have all that done go back again and see what you missed! You're taking a plunge both short term and longer term. Make sure you know what every charge is on your bank / credit card statement. Do I REALLY need that?

Now you're ready to work out the build costs. You'll get various quotes for €X per square meter. You need to add to that all the extra charges to get a total cost.

• Size of House (Sq. Meters) 
• Cost per Sq Meter €
• Build Cost (=Size x Cost)
• 10% Contingency (Add 10% and add VAT of 13.5%)
• Architect Fees 11% (Add VAT of 23%)
• Quantity Surveyor 3% (Add VAT of 23%)
• Structural Engineer
• Site Cost (Get solicitors letter agreeing site layout & cost subject to planning permission before purchasing)
• Stamp Duty (1% on Site Cost plus House build cost)
• Legal Costs
• Site Survey
• Self Build Insurance (Public Liability but check if your approach needs more than this)
• 
  
• County Council Contribution
• Irish Water Connection Charge
• ESB Connection Charge
• Bord Gais Connection Charge
• Virgin Media Charge
• 
  
• Rainwater Harvesting
• Home Automation
• Appliances 
• Furniture
• 
  
• Total Build Cost:

So now you have a list of items you need to go out and get the price for. You should then be able to work out the cost. I copied the costs across the page into one of four Stages so I can see when I need to have each sum of money ready to payout (The costs outlined above are listed in one category or broken up over several):

• Stage 1 - Initial Design
• Stage 2 - Developed Design
• Stage 3 - Detail Design
• Stage 4 - Construction
• Stage 5 - Post Construction

The Mortgage Provider should be quized as to how they release funds. You need to know how much of a Deposit you can afford without leaving you cash strapped during the build phase. Different Architects may have different approaches so you need to know when you'll have an accurate picture of costs. Ideally before you go to planning. That alone will drain a lot of your deposit and the bank will only let you start drawdown once you get approval. The bank I talked to will allow me to include the Professional Fees such as Architect & Quantity Surveyor as part of the mortgage even though they are being paid a good chunk beforehand. However I still need to present an intact deposit to them to get that lovely 20% interest rate, have a think about that and see how you go?! 

So, Excel is your friend! You can find online Mortgage Calculators to help you plan what the mortgage repayments are likely to be. Stress it yourself to 6-8% and see what happens. You'll need 6 months of savings records going to the bank to help you prove you can afford it.Play with different mortgage terms. 

https://www.drcalculator.com/mortgage/ie/

Now pick 2 from the Triangle below:

Feeling dizzy yet?!! For sure building is not cheap. You can end up with a house that costs more to build than it's worth to sell! But only you can determine the value of it once you're living there. Smaller is better but not necessarily cheaper. There are definitely economies of scale to be had which I'm going to miss out on due to the size of the site and my overall budget. 

One Tip: Measure out the rooms in your house and get a feel for what space you like / when it starts to get to be a squeeze. Measure them & calculate the total square meter area. Add up the number of rooms and sizes you want and see if you put it into your Excel sheet above, can you afford it? (Allow a bit for partition walls, doors, hotpress etc) Then work upwards +Sq Meters & downwards -Sq Meters - you can copy a worksheet or just play with the size to get your ideal. Now you're ready to talk to an Architect and state what you want and what you can afford. 

The exercise is gruelling a little but it gives you crystal clear understanding of your financial situation and exposure. The last thing you or the bank wants is to hand back the keys after a year.....plan well, ask the right questions, listen to the advice, some of it will be hard but be realistic and always, always sleep well at night, a mortgage and new house isn't going to make your life any easier but it can be an accomplishment in your life and something to be proud of when it's all finished. 

Water Quality

Water Quality

I'm an avid user of Volvic bottled water and have been for years after discovering I'm sensitive to calcium. Other brands have higher concentrations and I break out in eczema when I drink to much dairy / calcium or after drinking gallons of milk which I was able to in my younger years!

I wanted to move away from the supermarket trip and start using the new metal water containers I bought but I need a clean water source. There are lots of options but a good starting place is to get your water tested. Yes, it's drinking water but can you trust it? I guess the reason a lot of people buy bottled or filter is that they don't! Fluoride, Chlorine, aluminium, lead, and the list goes on!

I found a local lab that does testing. I also looked up the county council who conduct their own tests to see what info was there. They tell you their findings but not in the detail I would like. Do you live in a hard or soft water area? With the pressure on Dublin water did you know the water you assumed was soft is being mixed with hard water due to demand?

Hard water contains a significant amount of minerals such as calcium and magnesium. It reacts with soap to create a film and not suds. It leaves a scale deposit and doesn't form a lather with detergents. This damages appliances over time and many people down the country prefer to treat their water as it enters the building as a result.

I never considered that I might be getting Hard Water in Dublin but as they are proposing pumping water from the Shannon now we're more likely going to see hard water appearing. Currently where I live it's mixed 3 parts soft to 1 hard but this is subject to Irish Water of course!

Of course you can always reduce your demand, use low flow taps and shower heads, install a Rainwater Harvesting system which is naturally soft but you still need mains for drinking, cooking, washing (dishes) and showering. The Rainwater is good for clothes washing and flushing the toilets.

There are a lot more elements to water and the EU has a standard it sets out S.I. 439. It can be tested against and there are two standard tests available. One is simpler and is carried out monthly by the councils at various locations. The more stringent test is done yearly. They publish the results but only the summary, rather than all the data.

The Tests are laid out here:
http://www.publicanalystdublin.ie/en/EnvironmentalHealthService/WaterAnalyticalServices/

The Check Monitoring is for drinking water and would be equivalent to that monthly check mentioned earlier. The Audit Monitoring is probably the yearly check.

Check Monitoring:

Audit Monitoring:

The are a number of labs around Dublin & Ireland that offer tests ranging from €50-€200+ depending on options. They post you out a test kit. You fill up the bottles according to instructions provided and get them back to the Lab within 6 hours. Pick a nearby site! there are postal options and self test kits also.

My own test kit arrived recently and I've dropped it back to awaiting the results - typically emailed to you within 10 working days or so. Once I have the results I can determine what, if any, filtering would be best for my new build house. A filter at point of entry, a brita jug or something else. It helps because you need to know what you intend to filter. Is it just for taste or is there something more sinister around? There should be no lead in the pipes I'm currently using as it's a new housing estate, they are typically plastic but I've added that test and Calcium also just for kicks!

The Councils have pages where you can review water quality test results for your area:
http://www.dlrcoco.ie/aboutus/councildepartments/wateranddrainage/findit/drinkingwaterqualityresults/
http://www.sdcc.ie/services/environmental-health/water-services/drinking-water
http://www.fingalcoco.ie/water-and-drainage/water-quality/water-quality-reports/
http://kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/waterservices/watersupply/waterquality/

The water testing laboratories will inform you immediately if they see any bacteria etc but if other tests are around the EU limits they will just send on the whole lot to you when they are ready.

A sample from the Dublin City Council water testing 2015 is shown below:

This gives you an idea what problems there may be in your area. Coolock was subject to a boil notice 3 years ago so Dublin isn't as safe as you might assume so it's worth once a year checking the reports for your area and ringing the Council if you have any concerns.

I take fresh clean water for granted. Think it's easy as turning a tap - I bet there's a whole TV Programme around how they manage the water supply. Unfortunately with Irish Water on the game there's a lot of flux around who controls what so you may end up running between them and the councils but it should sort itself out in the next few years (hopefully!).

I looked into the cost of a Hot Tub once and saw the effort it takes to regulate the water, a relatively small amount (maybe that's the problem, low volume compared to reservoirs). There were chemicals for everything and lots of PH strips and other test kits required. So - hats off to the Council for keeping an ageing water system in play!

I'll post the results when I get them to give you an idea of what comes back. Some Labs that offer testing are as follows (in no particular order):
http://www.watertesting.ie
http://www.cityanalysts.ie
http://www.alswatertesting.ie
https://irishwatertesting.com

There are kits you can post back or do yourself, google away - I prefer a Lab as I wanted a Professional to have a look mine and avoid installing a whole house water filtration system when I sneezed into the test kit - that wouldn't be good!!

Happy Gurgling on a glass of the good clear stuff!

Update 18/01/16

I got the water test results:

They send you  a doc with a list of normal value ranges for comparison:

pH: Should be between 6.5 and 9.5
Nitrates: Below 10mg/l
Conductivity: Less than 2500 uS/cm @ 20 degrees C
Iron: Less than 0.20 mg/l
Total Coliforms: limit of 0 cfu/100ml
E-Coli: limit of 0 cfu/100ml
Total Hardness: No Limit Applies
Apparent Colour: "Limit=Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change"
Flouride: Less than 0.8mg/lF in flouridated Supplies
Turbidity: Recommended value under 1 NTU

Extra Tests I Ordered:
Calcium: Not sure but the value I got I compare to bottled water where I know what levels affect me personally.
Lead: under 10 ug per litre

So, all good more or less. Good to know the Council is keeping a good watch on things.....
                                        

How well do you sleep?

How well do you sleep?

I've been struggling with sleep for the last year. From waking up at 5am for no reason to headaches in the morning. Also I sometimes wake up when the room is so stuffy you have to open a window! I'd been suffering with a sore neck so I started retracing the bedroom choices I've made (!) and probably gotten away with in regard to my sleeping habits!

You spend 1/3 of your life sleeping in bed so like a good pair of shoes, are you really aware of how your choice of temperature, pillow, duvet and sheets can play a part in the quality of your sleep? It started for me about a year ago with my neck. I had bought a memory foam pillow a year previously and while lovely and contoured it only occurred to me at that point that the neck problem had been going on about that long. I also suffered from a lot of head colds. Could this be anything to do with my choice of pillow or gap between washing pillow cases?

I took a trip to IKEA and was amazed at the range of pillows on offer. I narrowed down the choices to medium or firm and bought one of each. I sought new pillow cases that would give me a spare to rotate through and the plan was if I got a cold I would wash the pillow cases more frequently to purge them of germs I undoubtedly hit them with each night. I found a single firm pillow suited me best and I must admit my neck has been greatly improved. The frequency of head colds has also diminished so now it's odd when I sneeze instead of when I don't.

I remember buying the warmest duvet available once with a TOG rating of 15. I only used it for one night because it was TOO warm! I reverted to a TOG 7 or so I've had for years. In the last month or two however I've found myself getting a bit too warm at night so I've taken to using a single sheet and a blanket over it and so far so good. I got a headache two nights running when I woke up this week and found if I double up the blanket around my shoulders due to the way it was arranged on the bed, I was more likely to suffer the headaches. I turned the blanket 90 degrees and today, no problem - no headache. Case pending.....!

Anyway, long boring story short - be aware of how you prepare your bed. Getting the right temperature that works for you is important. As is the choice of Mattress, Pillow etc. Maybe as I get older I'm less tolerant of things that didn't bother me before but I've found a little attention can make a big difference the following day. A good night sleep is So gracious but if absent, makes the following day much harder. There's no substitute, and I don't drink coffee/tea...!!

One Blog post on Passive Houses I read recommended a sensor that reads Temperature, Humidity and CO2. I purchased one from ebay and started monitoring my bedroom to see if I could tell when things were getting too stuffy. I did a bit of research around air quality and found it of interest what my bedroom was like sleeping in overnight vs when I was gone.

The ebay link to the sensor is here:
USB CO2 CARBON DIOXIDE Air Temperature Humidity DataLogger Meter Monitor LCD/PC
http://www.ebay.com/itm/301283660682
You can run it off batteries or mains, I found it uses batteries even when the mains was connected so keep the batteries out (if your CO2 stops working it's an indicator of low battery power) and run it from mains but close enough to a Laptop / PC to connect the USB to download the data without unplugging it! I'm not sure the data survives that....

My findings after a week (traditional 15 years old Irish semi detached house) were as follows:

The shocking thing to me was the CO2 levels and how they rose and rose even when I spent time in my bedroom awake, never mind asleep! Leaving the window open kept things @ 700ppm but as soon as that was closed it rose. It would peak early in the morning just before waking. From the chart below it's clearly not ideal and unless you leave the window open all night it's not something you can adjust easily. I've a main road beside the house so noise levels are bad enough, trying to get a good night's sleep is paramount. 

Now I'm not going to die from these levels but my hope is a passive house will increase ventilation and give dead air somewhere to go without impacting temperature which we discuss next. When the cold weather hits, opening a window is the last thing I want to have to do!

The temperature was taken during a warm November week and about halfway during this test I turned on the radiator. Temperatures would drop 3-4 degrees slowly over the course of the night until the morning heating period kicked in from the gas boiler. You can see a swing of 10 degrees though in the graph. I noted 21 degree was perfect for me, but with as little as a 2-3 degree drop my hands got cold over the space of a few hours.  

The Infra Red image taken above shows my wall temperature of 8 degrees in the evening when the heat is on. This is probably due to poor insulation levels. Obviously windows are warmer as the old double glazing has lost it's seal by now and even the cold bridging around the foundations is a showing up! But that's the way the houses were built back in the day.....The camera is a FLIR One for Android - harder to get these days but a cool gadget all the same! 

Humidity is next and there is an ideal range considered to minimize transmission of diseases and suppress bacteria and viruses. I always thought a good cold spell would kill most things off but you can see it's not temperature so much as moisture that's at play below. Now one thing the Irish weather is good for is humidity so it's probably a plus I'm in a good old Irish House! It will be interesting to see how a Passive House copes and what levels are experienced in a more controlled climate. 

So, there you go. A whistle-stop tour of bedroom health and comfort! I plan to repeat the tests above again if I ever get my passive house built one day and look back and see how it's helped / made a difference. In the meantime I continue to look at how I sleep, and how I can maintain warm enough temperatures without overheating. I plan to cool things a bit as I hear having your body work a bit harder to keep itself warm helps lose weight but I don't want to get too cold! 

Visiting a Passive House

Visiting a Passive House

Today I went and stepped inside my first passive house....or two!! I signed up to the Nearly Zero Energy Buildings - Open Doors Ireland event which has been held for the last few years. A number of willing residents open their doors for visitors like me to come poking around and asking lots and lots of questions! The hosts were great and very patient! You can find out more here:

http://www.nzeb-opendoors.ie

Some of the houses have attached websites / blogs you can access to get more in depth information and inspiration for your own build.

One of the first things that struck me was how quiet it was. With all the rain and wind outside, there was no way of noticing it once you stepped inside and closed the door! A summary of items I found interesting from each house is as follows:

House #1 - Newbridge:

This was a build in progress. As time and money allow Seamus was working on the inside now the building was air tight and sealed. I took a LOT of notes as he pointed out each detail and explained how each was progressing and challenges faced along the way. The H shape was very interesting but it increased the cost and challenged the PHPP software! He recommended the 2/3 day Passive House course to get some additional info prior to building and understand how the PHPP calculations work. The course is @ €300 for the 3 days.

As the house wasn't finished it was great to get handed examples of the materials used and see into the building which when finished of course hides much of the magic.

He noted his triple glazed windows and door were Passive House certified at the time of purchase but since then the manufacturer hasn't kept up payments to the Passive House Organization and has been dropped from their Database...they still work fine though!

Seamus recommended illbruck TP600 for sealing around windows etc rather than Flexifoam he used (if using foam make sure it's specifically for windows). The only thing is the speed at which the window has to be installed after the product is let "loose" as it expands quickly to fill the space. It's breathable, weather sealant and provides Thermal and acoustic insulation. Good tip!

Getting a good windows installer is tricky - some suppliers just don't understand how to deal with a passive house so ask for the companies best installers and insist they are the only ones allowed onsite. The weight of the doors can be a problem so check hinges are able to take the weight, they may need to be upgraded if the company chosen are not familiar with the loads. Windows can bend if the wrong foam is used as the pressure is different at various points of the frame, not good for doors especially as you get gaps. This is one clear area where precision to avoid thermal bridging is important.

Prices for Windows is around €500 per sq meter, halve that if you have a very solid building - timber flexes by 13% but with the reinforcing Seamus had put it it's only 6% so he could put in rebates into the building window openings to take the glass directly without a window frame! Saved half the cost that way. The spacers in the windows he got were thermal and dark coloured. The right stuff in other words! Don't forget to ask about Low-e!

Seamus is keeping the PV panels supplying DC instead of inverting it to AC and using the power to look after a 500 litre storage heater for hot water and the rads. He reckons if you're paying more than €1 per kW for the panels then you're being overcharged - so for 1kW you'd need 4 panels and it should only cost €1,000.

Solar Panels for heating water - a drainback system empties the panel when not in use. This avoids systems that use Glycol which can turn to sludge in very hot weather if turned off and needs cleaning out. It's also acidic in that state.

His LEDs are "homemade" - he had a panel with 4 set up, two Sharp LEDs, an off the shelf LED and a Halogen for comparison to show how he made them up and the differences in colour temperature. The Sharp CRI value showed the best light after the Halogen and only uses 9 (vs 50) volts. He bought the LEDs, mountings and heatsinks and soldered / glued them ( in that order) himself. The electronics in a standard LED are compressed to make them like traditional Halogens but they also have to keep things cool, not so eazy - Seamus reckons the lifespan of those off the shelf LEDs are not too good as a result. He used a separate box to drive the electronics and can connect up to 5 LEDs to achieve a much longer life solution @ 50,000 hours all going well!

His rainwater harvesting solution is based on a 2,000 litre concrete tank. He has designed his own control unit which uses a header tank. If the rainwater is low it switches to mains. If you're heading out on holidays to avoid untreated water getting stale and smelly while you're away you can force a mains water flush to put chlorine into the header and leave it there until you come back and then revert. Very smart! The commercial equivalent is €700-800, his was €200! Plus he reckons the pumps they use are too powerful so he's sourcing a smaller 12v one.

He's also designing a leak detector to turn off the mains water and placing it beside the immersion tank.

For KNX he's going to use a binary device from ABB - this negates the need to buy expensive light switches, basically the box is the brains and you don't need fancy sockets or switches, use ordinary ones! The KNX switches are €70 a pop otherwise!

House #2 - Enniskerry:

This was a finished Passive House and again was very quiet, although we were in the country! The warmth was lovely and even though they'd cooked a fry earlier there was no smell. The Mechanical Heat Recovery unit was interested to see, very, very simple, dishwasher safe! And it works! They've two of them and rarely use the underfloor heating. I didn't recognize the hot water system but it was also well insulated and works well for them.

They had large windows but an overhang to prevent overheating - they find the Spring and Autumn are the warmest months when the sunlight is able to get right in! The back door had to have the hinges replaced as they were too weak and the supplier also didn't apply UV treatment on the windows which had to be done later to prevent deterioration.

Their Electric bill is €150 every 2 months all in, mine is the same but you should see my gas bill!!! The only thing is the internal sound - it's very easy for noise to pass through the walls so if going timber frame and you have more than one person in the house, or kids, pay attention and get extra sound proofing. Also if you've upstairs / downstairs pay attention there also.

The design was fabulous - the huge living room set of windows was really something from a showhouse!

Update: Forgot to add, the owner noted that keeping fruit lying around wasn't possible due to the temperature, something I hadn't thought of. They have an interesting porch that is outside the insulated envelope they use to come in from outside, shed wet shoes / clothes etc so a similar cold room might be an idea for food storage. Other methods include cellars but with a Passive Slab I doubt this is possible.

Well, I hope you found some of this interesting. I'm not planning any more trade shows / visits but am talking to Architects myself at the moment to start the design and planning. I expect it will take a while to firm up the detail but start slow is my advice, changes now are much easier before things get locked in!

Conventions & Shows

Conventions & Shows

This weekend I attended the Self Build Show in Millstreet, Cork. I missed the Citywest one in September so took a train ride or two down there to see what was on display. Most of the event was geared I thought more towards refit / renovate rather than building new but with some obvious overlap. But it depends how big a renovation or extension you're planning!

I found the show featured national and local suppliers so some of the show as it was local to Cork wasn't as useful as the Dublin one may have been to me but it was still worth attending.

Like most conventions I tend to tack around the outside once, before weaving my way through the inside paths to make sure I cover all the displays.

I talked to a few of the exhibitors about different products they had and picked up more than a few leaflets to take away. The dining hall was packed so I headed into Millstreet afterwards and got a lovely lunch in the Hotel there. The exhibition hall entrance is a bit of a walk around from where you park the car, or for me, an even longer walk from the train station! At least the nearer road entrance was open which saved me a few minutes.

Shows like this and the Ideal homes Exhibition were useful in that I got a chance to see cross sections of timer / concrete framed factory built houses and also different insulation options. The idea of sitting a house on top of dense polystyrene is interesting to say the least! I'm glad I checked both of the shows out altough don't feel the urge to go back. When starting out on the road to a self build though they are invaluable to getting a toe in the water for what's out there and to talk to Architects and other Professionals about your Project. That's the time to ask questions and listen to the advice given. It's a steep learning curve and there's no better way to spend a morning or afternoon. A contact you make here could become very useful later on.

Ideal Homes Exhibition - RDS every Spring & Autumn:
http://idealhome.ie

Self Build Exhibition - Shows in Dublin, Belfast & Cork:
http://selfbuild.ie/the-shows/

Each year there is also the opportunity to visit energy efficient houses in November:
http://www.nzeb-opendoors.ie
I've booked two for next weekend so will get another opportunity to find out more about the process and pitfalls and see what living in these homes is like.

In summary, explore & attend the shows that interest you and engage with the professionals there. You can usually get your teeth whitened for free in addition to a head massage while you wait!

Also send email enquiries to get answers to your questions. Each reply can open up more areas for you to consider or consolidate your knowledge. You can then refer back if you organize them for later review.

The search begins!

The Search Begins!

Well, this might be a very short series of posts or if I get greenlit turn into an interesting one! I'm on a journey to try and own my own house in Ireland before I turn 80 and start wheeling a shopping trolley around the streets!

I have a deposit and had hope to buy last year but the Dublin housing market woke up and chased back to it's crazy days as quickly as it could before I could hop onboard. The numbers of viewings were crazy so I backed off until the Central Bank mortgage lending restrictions kicked in. Even now with prices around me at €275K I think this is a crazy sum and the quality of the second hand stock I've rented in for 20 years depressing. You would be left with nothing to fix the windows, insulation etc!

So, after viewing the Grand Design's programme on Container Houses I saw a ray of light. Here was someone with family land building a lovely place for £100K! Surely something smaller should be affordable for me? Possibly so but I contacted a few Architects the response wasn't encouraging. You can buy a single 40 Ft. Container all ready to go and have it shipped to Ireland and plug it in but joining two or more together and the problems start. You have to shore up the containers when you remove the common side areas which provide structural stability and strength. There goes that plan out the window.

My sister rang me about an Irish Architect who built his own home for €25K. The whole process I found exciting as the local knowledge that once existed to do this has been lost as specialized trades people took over. There are courses you can take on using Cob and Straw Bale houses etc so that's always possible but while looking into this I came across the term "Passive House". I'm not going to elaborate here on what that is but it sounded exactly like what I was after.

Now all I needed was to get some land. Not as easy as I thought! Land in Dublin is mostly held by developers and people with larger pockets than mine. Building outside Dublin but within commuter range seemed possible but the local needs issue is you need to either work in an area or be from the area (for 12 years or so!). I can understand why, they don't want one off builds turning up everywhere but developers aren't building the type of house I want to buy, some do build energy efficient houses but the rest build and move on, meet the regs & that's all.

In the UK there is a scheme to release land in a controlled way for self builders although even that land in the South East is too expensive for most, at least there are plots going. So, unless I marry a local I'm stuck! A derelict property is treated as a new build but a poor property which is habitable could be developed by tearing it down to build what you want. Guess what they cost?!! €50K-€120 and you've to pay to tear it down. A passive house requires a design from the foundations up so you can't reuse what's there and expect the same efficiency.

So, I could get a new site somewhere way out west but not within sight of the coast and if you end up in the middle of nowhere, while idyllic, I'm only ever going to see it at the weekend, and have to keep renting in Dublin for work. Sounds like the UK a bit? Who keeps an eye on the house when I'm gone? What about health / car issues and their impact? I've lived in Dublin all my life, my first preference would be to stay there close to friends and family.

So, in the process of investigating this area I found the following books really helpful. If you're looking to build and have a site (family site ideally!) I suggest you check them out and start thinking Eco and Efficient!

Housebuilder's Bible - Mark Brinkley (11th Edition currently)

The Sustainable Building Guide - Tim Pullen

I got two books on Passive Houses but I think you'd get as much online as I did out of them.

I went to the Ideal Home Exhibition in the RDS last weekend and spoke to a few of the people on the stands. I got good advice from the Architect you can book and sit down with.

Next up I'm travelling to the Self Build show in Cork on 7th November 2015 and visiting two energy efficient Houses the following weekend as part of Near Zero Open Door annual event.

Hope the above is of use and if you're trying to get on the property ladder good luck!