Alan and Ber Glass not only built their dream home for their young and growing family, they did it in such a way that regular bouts of respiratory attacks are now a distant memory.
Our only option, if we wanted to get the family home we needed, was to self-build,” says Ber. “We had bought a two bedroom apartment, before we had children. Then when we started our family, we moved to my aunt’s house where we stayed for a while.”
“With negative equity still in the apartment, and the need to have a 20 per cent deposit for a mortgage on an existing home, we knew we’d have to wait at least five years to buy a house. So we started looking for a site and found one fairly quickly.”
“It was ideal in that it was a good site to get planning permission on. It wasn’t zoned in the County Development Plan as being in an area with a local needs provision attached.”
Build overview & costs
Site size: 3/4 acre
House size: 2,700 sqft
Bedrooms: 4
Construction: blockwork (cavity wall)
Heating and hot water: air to water heat pump
Ventilation: mechanical with heat recovery
BER: A2
Cost (build and finishes): €185k
