Building a house in Ireland, Trapeze, Travel, Flying, Fun and Work in interesting places...

It's a bit of a mix on this site, we are trying to maximise our work/life balance (well, that's the excuse!) 
Scroll Down for the Irish House Photos:

To the Paragliding site To our Vehicles and Vans To the Trapeze Site To some travel and work photos Installing the Solar Panels
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The House at Coom

Carol, Maddy and Tony are off to become farmers in Ireland (or not...)



The Plan, the cunning plan... Buy a Ruined Farmhouse in Ireland and then renovate it in the spare moments that we are not working overseas... Since the house isn't yet serviced with electricity, water, sewerage or telephone and it doesn't have much in the way of floors or internal walls we will be doing lots of building!

The Horsebox

And meanwhile, we camp out on site - exhibit 1; a converted Horsebox built in 1967 which is currently being transformed from damp, draughty stable to warm dry apartment. (well, that's the plan...)

Horsebox was purchased as a horse box, (it had been used in a field as a stable by the last owners) Nov 5th 2002  The truck part is a 5 litre petrol engined Bedford, with a wooden traditional box on the back

We fitted insulation, lining, a ceiling and floor, and kitchen with gas heated water and a wood-burning stove.
The double-glazed patio doors have been fitted (just what every well appointed horsebox requires!) and work is nearly done...

Putting in the Water

with no water supply we had to drill a borehole - at 80 metres depth we got a good aquifer and a reliable watersupply which we don't have to filter or treat in any way

No Road

At first we had no road to the house, a good excuse to get a LandRover!  Crossing the Ballydonnegan River wasn't always as easy as this though, after a day's rain it could be a metre deep and very fast-flowing. 

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Inside the House

The farmhouse had never had electricity or water (or a toilet!) and it had stood empty for many years before we bought it, so the walls were bare stone, and the floors were rotten

Water Tower

Until the Borehole was drilled we had to pump water from the river and use this home-built water tower to provide us with water at low pressure.  Every day we had to start up the generator to power the pump to fill the water tank...  and filter out the shrimps and other wildlife which came thorugh the taps!

Bathroom Shed

For many years this shed provided us with a bathroom.  The shower was electrically heated, and the toilet flushed into out newly installed septic tank.  Life in a horsebox on a building site...

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Putting in the Septic Tank

progress!  Real civilisation with not only clean water in, but dirty water out...  

We set up a separate grey-water (sink, shower and roof gutters) system, so the septic tank outflow then runs through the gravel trench of the grey-water to further clean it

Home Improvements

Since it was taking so long to build the house, we decided to build a smaller one-room self-contained house, to give us more comfort than the Horsebox.  
So we started with the old cowshed at the back of the main house...












The Design

This was the closest we got to plans for any of the building work... Tony was in Indonesia working on Tsunami Response (in 2005) and we needed a design for the stonemason to use.















Shed Roofing

The plan seemed to work!  Here is the roof going on, to be covered with a membrane and then Green Roofed












A proper kitchen!

The Shed Kitchen (and Living Room, and Bedroom!) Comfort and indoor bathroom for the first time...  Luxury!











Green Roof

The Shed Green Roof has done really well 
(everything grows well in West Cork!)

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The Horsebox we used to live in is now the spare room for visitors

The Horsebox

Now the Garden Shed and spare room, the Horsebox was our home for years while we were building the house, now it is retired and the interior has been stripped down to a minimalist bedroom and study (still with the wood-burning stove!)  The decking is great for evening Gin & Tonic sessions watching the sunset over the Atlantic!

At last the House is finished

The Kitchen is transformed from the concrete blockwork we started with, now at last the years of building work have been rewarded!

Comfortable at last!

it took a LONG time, but finally the house is done, and we are rather pleased with the result!
Heating is from a Ground-Source Heat Pump, so it takes heat from the field in front and produced warm water for the under-floor heating system, the water is from our own borehole, and waste is treated in our septic tank and gravel trench runoff.  The only Grid connection is electricity, one day we will get a wind-turbine, but that will be another project... 

The Big Room

we kept the upstairs of the old house completely open, so it is just one room, with the original field-stone wall at the gable end, and an oak floor.  

Open Plan

since the original house was quite small we tried to keep it as open as possible to maximise the space and light.  

The View...

This is what it is all about...  The sunsets over the Atlantic, Venus above a New Moon  and the view out to Dursey Island and Bull Rock, then nothing until Newfoundland! 

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Philip

We couldn't have a website of photos of our house without a picture of Philip the pheasant - for about 7 years he visited us for breakfast and woke us up by tapping on the kitchen window if we hadn't put out his food (organic oats or museli, he would only eat the best!)  He was very good company and is missed...  

Link to an Online Book of Coom Photos Back to the Main Website Page