Room to Improve.

lulu1

just watched bits and pieces tonight didn't really interest me. Give me a nice down to earth couple and an ordinary house any day. Who wants white walls and furniture with kids, you would have to be running around with a cloth after them which is defo not my scene.

Woodville56

jos28 wrote: »

Yet another soul less white house. It all seemed very impractical for a family with 3 kids. White walls, white kitchen, white table and chairs with white fabric. How is a child supposed to enjoy Nutella and toast sitting on white fabric !!

Trophy house more like - cold, clinical sterile looking space - wouldn't describe it as homely in a million years -and to think they spent €300k on making it look like that !!

Cork Lass

Samsgirl wrote: »

If you are sad you can go.up there and hide. Poor child.

I thought this was really strange to be honest. But then I remembered who his mother was. Poor kid.

Lady Chatterton

Mod Note

Some posts have been removed from this thread as they were offensive/insulting.

Thoie

BabysCoffee wrote: »

So who is going to apply for next season's Room to Improve?!

I've a small 2 bed apartment - would love to see what he'd do with it, given that it already has floor to ceiling windows, and there's nowhere to add a glass box onto

madrabui

jos28 wrote: »

Yet another soul less white house. It all seemed very impractical for a family with 3 kids. White walls, white kitchen, white table and chairs with white fabric. How is a child supposed to enjoy Nutella and toast sitting on white fabric !!

When the walls have a few knocks and scraps; the kitchen has crumbs, smears of Nutella and crap all over the place, it will make it look more lived in. I read the thread before watching it and was expecting some industrial soulless house, but the warm wooden flooring and stairs are reflecting onto the walls. I hope they plant a few more birch trees outside and the garden will mature nicely.

But feck it's huge for two people. I hope the kids never leave or they repeat what the owner did and buy it off their parents. Why are there four ovens (two upper, two lower) and only a ceramic hob?

vicwatson

madrabui wrote: »

. Why are there four ovens (two upper, two lower) and only a ceramic hob?

And an extractor fan that'll be utterly useless.

somesoldiers

vicwatson wrote: »

And an extractor fan that'll be utterly useless.

Was thinking it wouldn't be much use so high up on the ceiling

HeidiHeidi

And after all that, we never found out where she's going to be making the sandwiches :mad:

Eyepatch

When I saw they had decided to self-build, it really put me on edge for the rest of the show.

boccy23

No way that kitchen cost €7K. :eek:

Woodville56

boccy23 wrote: »

No way that kitchen cost €7K. :eek:

Didn't the lady say at one point in the programme that she expected to be spending more than €7k on the kitchen , that she didn't want to be looking at a cheapie kitchen at that money ??

Macy0161

Woodville56 wrote: »

Trophy house more like - cold, clinical sterile looking space - wouldn't describe it as homely in a million years -and to think they spent €300k on making it look like that !!

Not to excuse some of the behaviour, but didn't the QS give a figure of 250K just for the refit/ refurb of the existing house, with all the insulation needed? That was without the extension. Personally, I'd have kept the stonework rather than the plaster.

I do wonder why people go for this show and then spend the whole process rowing with Dermot. If you have such strong ideas yourself it will always lead to conflict with an architect. Just get an engineer to draw up what you want! Not just this particular episode or show, but all these types of show (Sarah Beeny and posh Geordie bloke have it as well).

MisterAnarchy

Macy0161 wrote: »

I do wonder why people go for this show and then spend the whole process rowing with Dermot. If you have such strong ideas yourself it will always lead to conflict with an architect. Just get an engineer to draw up what you want! Not just this particular episode or show, but all these types of show (Sarah Beeny and posh Geordie bloke have it as well).

I'd imagine its because Bannon is such an opinionated and headstrong person.
He consistently seems to ride roughshod over the owners wishes and ideas,its there money after all not his .

Beeny and George Clarke are much more easy going in their manner and their designs arent as money hungry as Bannon who consistently goes over budget .

Penny Dreadful

jos28 wrote: »

Yet another soul less white house. It all seemed very impractical for a family with 3 kids. White walls, white kitchen, white table and chairs with white fabric. How is a child supposed to enjoy Nutella and toast sitting on white fabric !!

Child? I'm a grown up (almost at 37) and I'd be scared to eat Nutella and toast and enjoy my cup of tea there.
Actually I'd be too tempted to throw my tea at that woman. She was terribly annoying.

I'd love to see the bits that ended up on the cutting room floor. The show went very quickly from her tantrum about spending "only" €7000 on the kitchen to the rent a crowd party. There must have been serious fights with this woman and Dermot.

derb12

It bugs the hell out of me that I watched the show but have no idea how they managed to make it a nice warm house - other than upgrading windows. Did they go for external insulation cladding? Did they go for under floor heating? What heating solution did they go for In the end? I think rte feel we are more interested in the manufactured disagreements with dermot and the family diving expedition than the nuts and bolts of a building project.

WoolyJumper

To be honest I think if I was on this show everyone here would be calling me a nightmare too. At the end of the day the clients are the ones spending all the money and going to be living there for the rest of their lives (or at least plan too). If an Architect came to me with something I didn't like, then i'd be adamant about not having it. For example I hate white walls with black windows. After seeing the house in Galway I hated it and after seeing the final house I still hate it. There would have been nothing Dermot could have done to convince me otherwise.

Then again I'd never hire Dermot as my Architect. (More the point I doubt I'd ever have 300 000 to spend on doing up a 3000 sq house).

Have to say I didn't like how this house turned out. The outside looked to messy for me and really dont like black windows and white. Inside looked really bland and cold. Probably my least favourite of the series.

lulu1

Does anyone know if I can watch a repeat of the show on rte. I know i can watch on the player but prefer the tv

Jeju

derb12 wrote: »

It bugs the hell out of me that I watched the show but have no idea how they managed to make it a nice warm house - other than upgrading windows. Did they go for external insulation cladding? Did they go for under floor heating? What heating solution did they go for In the end? I think rte feel we are more interested in the manufactured disagreements with dermot and the family diving expedition than the nuts and bolts of a building project.

Dont think it was underfloor heating the way they used the digger to "pour" the concrete in the extension.
They probably had two boilers installed, one to heat the space and one to heat the wow.
Anyone see any solar panels; shame to waste all that roof space.

FC1

I just watched this episode. I think the show highlighted how architects can get it so wrong. The original house was designed by an architect and although impressive for its time never really worked as a house. It was impractical to live in, difficult to heat etc.

She wanted a WOW house. She ended up with a house that looks like a factory from the outside. Inside was cold and sterile. Nothing Wow about this house for the money they spent.

I would love to see RTE do a ''room to improve revisted'' show to see how the houses functioned once they were being lived in. We only see the clients gush about the house when they have moved in the day before but what are these houses actually like to live in!
Do they still love Dermot a year on when all the glass he puts in is filthy and cobwebs are hanging down the double height space!

Woodville56

As I said before here, I'd love to see the programme feature an ordinary 3 or 4 bed semi detached house needing some updating, with a budget within reasonable limits and a brief to make the house more comfortable and energy/space efficient, nothing mega or with all glass and courtyards etc etc. Probably wouldn't have enough WOW potential or scope to showcase Dermot's architectural skills ? I'm not being critical of Dermot Bannon but the programmes now are just too predictable and similar in tone and solution. Wish they would just do something with an ordinary house for ordinary people - if that's not too vague a proposal ?

Atlantic Dawn

Dermot on Raymond D'Arcys radio show now.

Woodville56

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Dermot on Raymond D'Arcys radio show now.

He's looking for WOW potential houses for the next series- more of the same next time, sounding a bit dismissive about potential WOW factor of ordinary semi detached or housing estate type houses - that rules out a large swath of the housing stock so ! Doubt I could afford his fee anyway !

Atlantic Dawn

Big success this season he said, so far averaging 600k odd viewers.

Quazzie

Do the people pay his fees, or are they waived in lieu of taking part in the show?

salmocab

Quazzie wrote: »

Do the people pay his fees, or are they waived in lieu of taking part in the show?

I would guess his fees are the clients payment for doing the show. Having worked on a lot of these type of refurbishment of houses over the last few years I can tell you all that its not just Diarmuid who has a hard on for building big white soulless extensions as kitchens on peoples houses coupled with the glass box, they are the fashion of the moment and Ive worked on a good few with varying results.

amdublin

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Big success this season he said, so far averaging 600k odd viewers.

Dermot Bannon would say mass I reckon

salmocab

amdublin wrote: »

Dermot Bannon would say mass I reckon

but he would end up over budget on that mass

somesoldiers

And sticking a courtyard in the middle of the chapel

CountyHurler

salmocab wrote: »

but he would end up over budget on that mass

And the priest wouldnt be happy when he'd come back and see the Church spire had been pulled down and replaced with a skylight...