15k fees to the council in kildare, that's a fortune ! in longford, we have paid 2,900k fees for a 2,800 sq ft house and a 500 sq.ft detached garage. i am aware there is a difference between the counties but that's a big diff.
we are doing the direct labour route and managing things from London ! mad or what but have good local people and my Dad and brothers will oversee things. so far we are almost finished the groundwork/foundations/made a driveway (60 ft back from the road) in to the house and that will all come to about £15k (5k for labour and about 10k for materials). having a precast concrete first floor which is costing 4.5k from Wrightspan in Monaghan. all internal walls are going to be block.
hope to start blockwork beginning of July (17k labour and 10k for materials at tops). buying blocks from whelans in roscommon - a load of 4" solid blocks (1,056 blocks in a load) costs 496 plus VAT which is pretty good.
concrete 35n20 was bought from spallons in glasson, athlone costing 700 + VAT per 10m or 560 + VAT for 8m.
getting 27 bog oak windows which have a 67mm upVC section with vista therma elite (minimises heat loss), set of french doors, wooden front door with sidelights and arched fanlight, a back door for house and a door for garage costing 13,810 from Fox & O'Rourke in Longford Town. Going to get a quote from Senator as well but unless Senator are a hell of a lot cheaper which I doubt they will be then we will use F&O based on local recommendations.
2 plumber nephews will do the plumbing, the local electrican will do the electrics, husband is a carpenter so he will do the roof and a local roofer wil do the slating.
we expect to have the house and garage watertight by end of September or if any delays certainly by end of Oct then we will have a rest ! hope to achieve all this for 100k (euros) at the very most.
next phase will be at Easter 2008 (first stage plumbing, electrics etc).
we have set aside 3 years to complete the build as we will not be living in ireland till 2010.
have looked at solar panels, wood pellet burners, geothermal etc and having none of them now. going with oil and rads and a good stove with a back boiler in lounge. lots of free timber and turf available.
we are waiting on quote for a vacuum system and hope to install this.
putting a chimney on the garage for the oil boiler instead of one those ugly pipes out the side of the wall and the wall gets dirty looking.
all fun and games and many hopefully cheap ryanair flights to Dublin !