All we could want

Our current expedition to Ireland will soon be over.  It has been largely a fact finding mission - there's a lot to do before we could be in a position to buy.  But it has served its purpose.  It has made us really think about what we want.

We're decamping largely due to the political situation, including the toxic numbers of "Little Englanders" with their exceptionalist attitudes.  So we aren't really ready to downsize.  We still want a house big enough for us to be able to spread out and continue our diverse activities.  And a garden where we can grow veggies as well as enjoy shrubs and trees.

We are clear that we would like to do our bit for the climate by trying not to use fossil fuels.  That has turned out to be quite difficult to reconcile with a rural (or edge of urban) house, as the vast majority have oil fired central heating.  

We spent much time discussing upgrading these houses to an air source heat pump - but it isn't just a case of upgrading the "boiler", as an air to water system runs on cooler water than a conventional central heating system, so ideally needs underfloor heating, or failing that, bigger radiators and pipes.

A few days ago, we realised that really what we needed was a newly built house, actually built with an air source heat pump.  This was a source of some angst for us, as we had never considered a new build, and even now, most that we have seen advertised are totally unsatisfactory as they are much too crowded together.

We also started out thinking that we would prefer a house in one of the more westerly counties, and that's where we have been focussing our search.

But yesterday and today has found us looking at newly built properties much further east.  Yesterday, we were up near Edenderry.  The house we saw there was large.  It was also rather oddly laid out, with a huge central hallway and ostentatious feature staircase, and smaller living rooms.  It had ensuite bathrooms in EVERY bedroom, when we felt that this resulted in some of the bedrooms being small.

But it had the insulation and the heating system we want.

Today we were just north of Waterford.  This house is a little older, and is currently lived in.  It is HUGE.  But there wasn't much to dislike about it.  It had the heating system we want.  It had a good sized array of solar panels.  It had an interesting garden, with lots of, admittedly quite immature, trees, a polytunnel, some raised beds.  It's probably a little more rural than we would ideally like, and it didn't have a big enough garage.

We have to be realistic, it will probably have been sold by the time we are ready to put in an offer, but it gives us hope we can find the right house for us.  We have changed the criteria we use to set up searches on Daft.ie to only look for houses with an A rated BER (the measure used in Ireland to rate the energy efficiency of a property) 

PS.  I have back blipped for yesterday as well, should you be interested