Room To Improve

amdublin

Seriously he was slagging off the bungalow book at the beginning of the program, well his designs are all exactly the same for the last two years :rolleyes:

amdublin

Please, NO musical singing at the end of this program.

That is all.

Kerrydude1981

I hope there kids dont grow up and become hurlers,there going to have some fun then with all that glass

passremarkable

way too much glass..grey looks terrible!!looks a really cold house

Kerrydude1981

The big party at the end probably cost the same as the builder had to pay up for the chimney

WaltKowalski

Why was the builder expected to pay anyways??

Cringe at the singing.

amdublin

amdublin wrote: »

Please, NO musical singing at the end of this program.

That is all.

NO!! I said NO!

JonathanAnon

amdublin wrote: »

Please, NO musical singing at the end of this program.That is all.

lol.... What a self indulgent fool he is. You can tell by the look of him..

woodoo

I wouldn't mind knowing where they got the wooden floors from. They look great.

Thoie

Does he ever think about how people are going to put curtains on these vast expanses of glass?

It's all very well letting light into the room, but when it's dark outside you've no idea who could be out there, and when it's freezing cold, you'd need some curtains to add an extra layer of insulation.

Kerrydude1981

If you got him to design a dog house for you it would be all glass

1966

Thoie wrote: »

Does he ever think about how people are going to put curtains on these vast expanses of glass?

It's all very well letting light into the room, but when it's dark outside you've no idea who could be out there, and when it's freezing cold, you'd need some curtains to add an extra layer of insulation.

I have been thing the same but I dont think they add curtains to these massive windows???

Agree about people looking in too - but how the heck do they clean them??

Thoie

1966 wrote: »

I have been thing the same but I dont think they add curtains to these massive windows???

Agree about people looking in too - but how the heck do they clean them??

Exactly - those are the kind of practicalities that often seem to be glossed over. It's the same when you see people putting in 30 foot ceilings with a feature light in the middle - which is great until you need to hire scaffolding to change the bulbs

Lisha

Thoie wrote: »

Exactly - those are the kind of practicalities that often seem to be glossed over. It's the same when you see people putting in 30 foot ceilings with a feature light in the middle - which is great until you need to hire scaffolding to change the bulbs

On a really cool grand design s they had a switch that turned a clear window opaque using an electrical current not done here but would be a good option. I have big window in my house and have blinds down a lot by day in living room kitchen as I hate too much glare. I don't close living room curtains by night some visitors hate it feel that any one could be looking in.
When I was watching room to improve I was thinking that blinds would have to be put in. Was thinking I would do it on bottom half or bottom third of window still cost a mint though

Lol at needing scaffolding for changin bulbs happens to a friend of mine

Thoie

Lisha wrote: »

On a really cool grand design s they had a switch that turned a clear window opaque using an electrical current not done here but would be a good option. I have big window in my house and have blinds down a lot by day in living room kitchen as I hate too much glare. I don't close living room curtains by night some visitors hate it feel that any one could be looking in.
When I was watching room to improve I was thinking that blinds would have to be put in. Was thinking I would do it on bottom half or bottom third of window still cost a mint though

Lol at needing scaffolding for changin bulbs happens to a friend of mine

I saw that Grand Designs, and love the idea of that window, but it'd cost a fortune, and how the hell would you fix it if something went wrong?

Any window I've come across needs a covering of some kind - if only to keep out the glare, or keep the sun out of someone's eyes. I pull the curtains in my sitting room during the summer while I'm out to help keep the place cool.

I do like a lot of glass, and having places nice and open and airy, but there are practicalities that architects on these programmes rarely seem to consider. How/where would you hang blinds or curtains from? How can you let air into a glass room without having to open a door? If the only ventilation is a sliding door, out the country you'd constantly be catching mice. If there's no window opening/shade, the room will be unusable on a hot day.

Even if there is some way to hang curtains, you want them to fall into a standard size. I have one window which is an unusual standard size - ready made curtains do exist for it, but took ages to find. Quotes for a very simple made to order curtain were coming in over €5,000 a few years ago, so I was very glad to find ready made!

DeepBlue

Why don't they use the expanded running time (from the previous half-hour to a full hour) to focus on more details of the build instead of wasting time focusing on the lives of the home owners which 99.999999% of viewers couldn't care less about?

Every show seems to be the same now and follows these lines each week:

* Homeowner has high expectations and not enough budget
* Dermot's design is pooh-poohed by the QS as too expensive and she pares it back with Dermot moaning about how some lost feature was critical to the design.
* Dermot has minor disagreement with homeowner or builder which is blown up out of all proportion to fill a ten minute segment of the show and to "add drama".
* By some miracle everything works out and they're all bestest buddies again at the end of the show congratulating each other on their great taste, excellent decisions etc etc.
* The house extension ends up looking the same as pretty much all the other extensions done by Dermot.

For some reason I still tune in. I don't know why.

LizT

I didn't like the extension this week, it felt very empty and sounded echo-y as well. It looked more like a show house than somewhere you could live.

Japer

Thoie wrote: »

Does he ever think about how people are going to put curtains on these vast expanses of glass?

It's all very well letting light into the room, but when it's dark outside you've no idea who could be out there, .

saw the programme last week. good point. I also wonder how draught proof these big expanses of glass are....in a winter storm with the rain lashing against it. They look great on a sunny day when there are lots of people around. How would you feel if you were alone in the house on a long winters evening and everyone even a hundred yards away in the darkness can see you lit up plain as day? I wonder how the flat roofs - which his extensions often feature - will last as well? Some flat roofs 10 or 30 years old leak, that I know of in Dublin anyway. Maybe flat roof technology has improved.

Good programme all the same.
Also I assume the programme makers pay the architects / q.s. fees ....there are no mention of them....fair enough I suppose, it means people getting cheaper extensions than they would otherwise cost. Also I wonder if having the camera around means people probably getting better service (with a smile) / value / quality than would otherwise be the case, as its a great ad for the businesses involved.

amdublin

Who's around tonight?

WaltKowalski

Nice to see someone returning to Ireland rather than leaving it!
Whatever the build will be like!

amdublin

WaltKowalski wrote: »

Nice to see someone returning to Ireland rather than leaving it!

That's true!

WaltKowalski

Such a fine house and Granny stuck in that pokey room! :eek:
No wonder she spends so much time at the neighbours.

df1985

this programme makes me want to gut my house and start from scratch, and for someone else to do it!

amdublin

Dermot: Let me go away and draw a cube with glass and a flat roof which we'll stick on the back of the house.

Dj

amdublin wrote: »

Dermot: Let me go away and draw a cube with glass and a flat roof which we'll stick on the back of the house.

and don't forget the glass has to be floor to ceiling, no dermot cube will work without it

ABlur

amdublin wrote: »

Dermot: Let me go away and draw a cube with glass and a flat roof which we'll stick on the back of the house.

Kerrydude1981

That hole in the wall will have to go

WaltKowalski

I remember the builder and his wife from the show From Here to Maternity!
Now they had some house, and lovely kids.

ABlur

Wheres the swimming pool going to go??!!

amdublin

That Morehampton road house is very dark :eek: Is the kitchen in the basement

But I liked it all the same. Just didn't think the Americans would!