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FRAME GOES UP AS RAIN COMES DOWN
LAST September, the prefab kit was delivered in 16 truckloads that took a team of six builders threeand-a-half weeks to assemble.
The entire ground floor was nailed, bolted and glued together in just a week. By the end of day one, Gary says, ‘the ground floor walls were up and we started to get a feel for the layout of the house. It was the most exciting part of the process’.
In the second week, the first floor was constructed, and after threeand-a-half weeks the roof — which arrived in eight sections — had been hoisted on with a crane.
Then the windows arrived. Triple-glazed, some were so heavy they had to be fitted by all six men.
Exciting progress, then. But by autumn, the weather had turned, the family had been living in their cabin for six months and Gary was spending every available moment overseeing the project. Surely tempers had started to fray?
‘We didn’t argue,’ insists Gary. Meanwhile, Emma says problems were compounded by the endless rain that flooded the site, pouring mud into their temporary home. ‘We’d have to wade through water to get from our car to the cabin. I’d wear wellies with my suit on my way to court. It was awful.’
Visualising their dream home was essential. ‘We kept a picture of the plan of the finished house on the cabin wall. It kept us focused.’
FIRST FIXES FOR A FUTURISTIC HOME
THEN came the first electrical and plumbing fixes to prepare the house for a new-fangled home automation system, which allows motion sensors to turn on the LED low-voltage lights, and apps on the family’s smartphones to control the sound system and underfloor heating. From this stage on, Gary took over as project manager which he says probably saved them over €100,000.
‘We wanted to be part of the entire process, whether that was choosing wall colours or wheelbarrowing cement,’ he says.
By the end of the year, they had finalised their kitchen and bathroom choices, which included walk-in glass showers, a huge kitchen island and two ovens. ‘I wanted one for sweet and one for savoury food so my cakes didn’t smell of garlic,’ says Emma, who admits she felt spoilt by her choices.
FRUSTRATION SETS IN AS PLANS ARE DELAYED
OVER the winter the timber frame was strengthened with a concrete covering before being rendered. A chipboard floor was fitted and internal walls erected before Gary spent six weeks meticulously fitting high-grade insulation.
By this stage, Emma admits frustration. ‘I did have to bite my tongue. I was taking care of the children, cooking, cleaning and doing a stressful job, while Gary was merrily talking to the workmen over a beer at the end of the day.’
By February, both realised that building plans always take longer than expected. ‘I resigned myself to the fact we wouldn’t be moving in March,’ says Gary. Neither, however, could anticipate the chaos around the corner . . .
CURIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING STAIRS
AS LOCKDOWN looked imminent, Gary cancelled all his tradesmen apart from carpenter Dave, who continued to work alone wearing a mask. The sparkling new kitchen due to be delivered, meanwhile, was stuck in a warehouse.
‘It was locked there for six weeks until we hired two brothers from a removal company — allowed to work together because they lived together — to collect it in May,’ says Gary.
Then their €8,000 ash stairway went missing for four weeks. ‘Finally a man turned up with a lorry and the glass side panels.’
But the rest of the staircase was never found.Instead, the manufacturers spent three weeks building another staircase while Gary put his day job on hold to spend 60-odd hours a week on site.
Emma, home-schooling from the cabin, however, was at her wit’s end. Her father, Tony, who had advised the couple throughout, was increasingly ill with cancer. ‘Working from home while the boys studied on our one tiny table was disruptive, and caring for my father emotionally exhausting. Cracks started to show.
‘Sometimes I just wanted to stop it all and escape. By May it got too much and my manager suggested I take time off work.’
Their project became bittersweet this Father’s Day, when Emma’s dad paid his last visit to the nearly completed house. ‘It was lovely he got to see it,’ says Emma. He passed away on July 2, aged 76.
SO WAS ALL THE HARD WORK WORTH IT?
THEY finally moved in on June 23 — 14 months after they decamped to the cabin, four years after buying the plot and almost €1.3million later. On their first evening, Emma made beef fajitas to celebrate. ‘It was lovely to have room to make a mess while cooking, to have a huge bed and massive glass windows. It’s beautiful here.’
After four years, the boys finally have their own bedrooms. ‘In the cabin it was difficult to get them off their screens, but suddenly they reverted to shooting their Lego cars up and down the hallway as they had done when they were tiny,’ says Gary.
This wasn’t a whirlwind project. But they believe their prefab is more sustainable, energy efficient and stylish than many conventional homes. Not to mention Gary estimates it’s worth €1.7 million.
‘It’s been the realisation of our 20-year dream,’ he says. ‘I don’t see the downside of a prefab house.’