Dublin to get first 'top quality' modular homes by end of the month

Twenty-two modular homes will be completed and ready to move into in Ballymun in north Dublin by the end of the month.

That is a delay of around two months after protests at the site and weather disruption.

The homes will be for people currently on the homeless list, and are the first of 135 modular homes to be built in the Dublin area.

The Housing Minister Alan Kelly says the modular homes have been constructed in just 25 working days.

Mr Kelly said: "They're incredible units. I think what this shows is the quality of housing that can be developed in such a short space of time using this mechanism.

"These are spacious homes, top quality and fitted out very well. From an energy point of view they are better than most homes in Ireland."

The post Dublin to get first ‘top quality' modular homes by end of the month appeared first on MyHome.ie Advice & Blog.

Organized (and decorated!) mudroom

Happy February everyone!  Mudroom is decorated for Valentine's Day!  But before we go any further… quick announcement.  The winner of the Paint and Prose prints from my last Friday Favorite's post is Lisa who said: "#ican’teven is my favorite! Oh my how many times I’ve felt that when I’m getting ready to tackle the laundry! […]

The post Organized (and decorated!) mudroom appeared first on The Sunny Side Up Blog.

Property prices set to grow 8% this year, predict SCSI

The average price of three-bed semi-detached houses here is set to soar by up to 8% this year, according to the Society for Chartered Surveyors Ireland.

In further bad news for the rental market, costs are also expected to swell by between 5% and 7%, depending on location.

The survey of more than 700 estate agents and chartered surveyors in the SCSI Residential Property Report found the price of property went up 8.8% across the country last year and that trend is set to continue.

House prices in Dublin rose 19.5% in 2014 but last year moderated to 4.8%.

The SCSI credited the Central Bank’s lending rules for slowing down price growth in the capital, which caused a swell in property values in neighbouring counties.

John O’Sullivan, chairman of the SCSI Residential Agency Professional Group, said: “The ongoing economic recovery is starting to spread across the country.

“Further increases in property values in the regions can be expected in 2016 as incomes and expectations for the future continue to improve.

“The outlook remains fragile however and is dependent largely on employment opportunities and investment for regional towns.”

After rental values climbed by 12% nationally in 2015, this looks set to continue as there is still a shortage of supply.

Two thirds of experts also agreed the rent-free legislation will lead to further price hikes for tenants.

Mr O’Sullivan said: “Allied to this, the collapse in construction output has resulted in virtually zero supply of social housing units to accommodate the growing social housing lists.

“Consequently, these tenants have had to seek accommodation in the private sector, putting further pressure on limited supply.”

The post Property prices set to grow 8% this year, predict SCSI appeared first on MyHome.ie Advice & Blog.

Weekend Excitement

After losing your home in a house fire, then three years later

THIS is happening in your driveway,

you kind of freak out!

Home base, of Rockin' B Ranch, is located in a valley.

The flames came rolling over the hill, south of the house.

The pasture south was engulfed in flames!

Firemen sprang into action!

They began spraying down the house!

The pumper truck was laying out hose!

All in preparation to save our house!

Sorry for the lack of photos here...

7 trucks were lined up between our house and the fire line!

I was on the phone with The Big Kids, texting the remainder of my family, gathering a few personal items, putting on my ring, and loading the dogs in the truck.

All the while, praying and hoping no one reached out to Drewman, as he was in Chicago for intern training!

As I look back through my texts, my family may have thought I was losing my mind!

"Grass fire just south of the house. Making its way over the hill. Fire trucks on the road. We are ok."

Next text

"It's at the pond"

Next text

"Trucks are in the yard"

Next text

"Truck number 7 just pulled in the yard. They are ready to pump water on the house if needed"

Next

"It's still across the pond"

Next

"The dozer is here now"

Next

"Helicopters too"

(It must have been a news chopper or a medical helicopter, because no water was dropped.)

Next Text

"They had us move all the vehicles"

Lastly

"it's under control"

The county commissioner, our neighbor and good friend, is always called and made abreast of happenings in his district.

The fire department is quick to call the county for backup equipment and help.

The dozer arrived on scene, under the operation of the county commissioner.

If you look in the center of this photo, you will see the dozer at work.

There was also a semi water transport truck and a grader, available if needed.

As if that wasn't a big enough scare, for a Saturday!

There was also a fire on Friday!

It was on the east side of the mile section!

This is the photo published by the NewsPress.

We quickly recognized the photo.

It was taken from the hill, just south of our house!

You know...

The hill that burned on Saturday!

Can you see the flames?

Just a little too close for comfort!

By Sunday evening, God had painted a beautiful canvas for chore time!

And the sun did rise this morning!

We have no complaints!

Just trying to settle into our week after all the weekend excitement!

Feeling Thankful and Blessed!

XOXO,

Rancher Girl

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To view our full website, visit www.therockinB.com

valentine's day gifts for him

Hey friends and happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. The hubs and I enjoyed a kid free weekend in Savannah. And thanks to all of your great recommendations on Instagram and Facebook we had a fantastic trip. I literally ate my way through the city…..so thanks for that. ;) It was our very first visit, and I can't wait to share more details with y'all.

Today since I just realized it's February 1st (how'd that happen?!) and I need to get my Valentine's-Day-gift-giving bootie in gear I thought I'd share a few fun, sweet and silly finds in case you're still stumped as to what to give your Valentine this year. Hubs and I don't go nuts with our gift giving. A card and a little something is usually all we do. Our gifts rarely cost more than about $20. To me it's more about the thought that counts, and I tend to give sarcastic cards and gifts………because that's my love language.

Last year I gave my man this coffee mug, and every time he uses it I smile.

Coffee Mug

This year I might be gifting him with another mug……as he's a huge Star Wars lover, so I'm sure this mug would end up being his favorite.

t-shirt, reversible bowtie, collar stays, lobster card, bourbon infused marshmallows, binge watch card, obi wan mug

But how great is that t-shirt? Ha! I love it! I'm also loving that Friends reference - you're my lobster - card. And the bourbon infused marshmallows would definitely be like a gift for both of us. How good would those be?! I've tried making marshmallows before and failed……there's apparently a lot more to making them than you'd think. Anyhow the hand stamped stainless steel collar stays are probably the most useful and something I think he'd use a lot for work. Then again Valentine's Day isn't really about practical gifts is it? So maybe I should just go with the Obi Wan mug……or maybe this Yoda one?

What about you all? Do you exchange Valentine's Day gifts? Any fun plans to celebrate that weekend? Is it true there's going to be a Friends reunion? Let's discuss below!

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Finishing The Room Over Our Garage

Who remembers our old furniture and pillow hoarding room at the end of the hall that we used to call "the storage room"? You may recall that we stole a bit of its square footage to create our laundry room), which conveniently left us with a more rectangular shaped room and easier access via the new glass door that we installed at the end of the hallway.

And if you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you already know that it has been undergoing a bit of a transformation lately…

First, some background. We knew this room would someday become a great bonus space for us. Many of our neighbors' homes had their above-the-garage area finished from the get-go, but for some reason ours only got framing and HVAC (which we kept turned off in there to avoid heating/cooling a room with no insulation). So for a few years, it was just a spot where we corralled things like seasonal decorations, yet-to-be-used furniture, and my wife's collection of 10,000 maniacs pillows. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, there may have only been 5,000.

Looking back, we realized we never showed very much of this room because, well, there wasn't much to show. You get a good-but-dark view of it during this house tour video (around the 3:10 mark) and you caught a few glimpses of it during our laundry reno posts. Mostly it looked like the room where you might inexplicably find that single shoe you've been missing for the last twelve months or a half-eaten box of old raisins. In other words: super organized.

When we moved in, turning it into a legit room was pretty low on our to-do list, figuring we wouldn't need it until our kids (well, kid at the time) grew and could use it more as an independent playing/movie-night/sleepover-hosting space. But as the years rolled by (and our child count doubled, along with a bunch of our friends' broods) we realized that 360 finished square feet would be a lot more useful than "an almost-finished room to hoard ALL THE PILLOWS" (besides, Sherry still has our walk-up attic for that).

We think it'll be handy for art/homework/playing/movie nights & spillover sleeping space for all of our friends & family with more than one kid (that's all our guest room really fits comfortably). So late last year we began the process of turning the unfinished storage space into a finished room. It was all pretty straightforward – get some of the electrical updated, add insulation & drywall, install flooring/trim/baseboard, then paint – and voila! Here's the closest thing I dug up to a "before" which was taken while we were using it as a painting space for our hallway wainscoting project.

First we had our go-to electrician add outlets and recessed lights (which is a lot faster/less expensive when there's no drywall), and we hired a local window company to convert an existing single window into a triple window to let in a lot more light. As you can see in the photo above, it was already framed with the necessary header for a larger window – making it a pretty simple switch (the exterior here is one of our few spots of siding, so no brick work was necessary either). Excuse the bowing in some of these pics – we just used the panoramic feature on our iPhones. 

We considered doing the drywall ourselves, but it's a not a task we particularly enjoy or are particularly fast at (drywalling and mudding the laundry room was fine, but this is roughly 6X bigger). So we found a local pro (the window guy's cousin, actually) who came in with two other guys and knocked it all out in three days for us. Best. Decision. Ever.

That just left us with finishing & flooring stuff (priming & painting the walls/ceiling, laying hardwoods, installing trim & baseboards, and then the obligatory twirling around in the finished space like a Disney character). After considering wall-to-wall carpeting, we opted to continue the same oak hardwood flooring that goes throughout the rest of the upstairs. Since you see it down the hallway, we thought the flow would be nice and it'll hopefully make the room feel like it was always finished (as opposed to being an add on). And we're thinking we'll put down a nice big area rug to cozy things up like we did in the other rooms upstairs.

Lucky for us, this room wasn't cursed with the same particle board subfloor that the rest of our house's second floor had (which required a floating hardwood installation). Regular plywood subfloor meant we could try our hand at a more traditional nail-down installation, which ended up being weirdly fun. I'll try to share some tips on what we learned in another post.

You can see that we painted the walls before installing the floor, using the same color that's in the hallway (Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore), and then it was just a matter of adding baseboards and trimming out the windows. Although by this time the kids were so excited to see it come together that they couldn't have cared less about what the windows looked like.

Now we're in the process of filling it in. As much fun as a big empty room without any furniture is (and believe me, we were briefly tempted to leave it like that for sheer running/jumping/"GET SOME ENERGY OUT KIDS!" stuff) we know it'll serve us even better with actual things in it.

We're planning to take it slow on the furnishing front: bringing in a few already-owned items, relocating a few existing toys, and adding a hand-me-down craft table for the kids (you know, as opposed to buying a bunch of new things to fill it up right away – just so we can see how we naturally use the space). Although we do have a plan for that recessed/sloped area around the single window, and we're in the process of updating a Craigslist find for the room. We hope to drop back in with more details when it comes together a little more, but until then just picture the kids (Burger included) running laps and laughing/barking loudly while their voices echo off the freshly hung walls.

Psst- We finally created this Shop Our House page to help you hunt down any furniture/accessories that you see in our house, along with our paint colors (only took us 2.5 years!). 

Design Dilemma - decorating above a cabinet

I mentioned when I shared my 2016 plans for the blog that I would be starting a design dilemma series this year. Over the years since I've been blogging I've had the honor of fielding a number of design related questions from sweet readers. It's always such a compliment to me that any of you would seek my advice. Truly, your emails pretty much make my day. As I've mentioned multiple times, I'm not an expert, not a designer, just a design-obsessed girl with a passion for creating stylish, livable spaces, so the fact that you take the time to message me for help feels really special.

I think sometimes we just need a second opinion or a sounding board to help us flush out our ideas and arrive at a conclusion. Today we're discussing the age old question of……….

"How should I decorate the space above a cabinet?"

We're not talking kitchen cabinets; we're talking tv cabinets, armoires and other tall pieces of furniture.

Specifically, a lovely reader, who is working on pulling her family living space together, is having trouble figuring out what to do with the space above her television cabinet.

The ceiling is tall in this room, so there's quite a bit of space above the cabinet. If the ceiling was lower I might recommend not putting anything above the cabinet at all. I'd say a good general rule of thumb is if there's less than 2 ft above the cabinet just leave the space empty. Not every flat surface needs to have something on display. But in this case, there's a lot more than 2 feet above the cabinet and this wall in general seems to be the focal point of the whole room, so having something above the cabinet definitely makes sense. Here are few ideas for dealing with this space…….

#1 - Hang Something Sculptural

You don't necessarily have to set objects on the space above a cabinet. Alternatively, something hung on the wall will finish the space off quite nicely without looking too overdone or cluttered. Less to dust is always a good thing in my book. I'd stick to sculptural types of pieces rather than a painting or picture as they will blend in to make one overall statement rather than stealing the show.

Emily A Clark

Ballard Designs

#2 - Stack Things

Decorative boxes, crates and vintage suitcases are all great things to stack on top of a cabinet adding height and interest. I myself love vintage suitcases as they double as great storage pieces for out of season items like wool blankets, sweaters, holiday table linens, etc.

the living room in our kentucky house

master bedroom in our kentucky house

And in the case of a bedroom armoire, a stack of quilts not only looks great but is a great decorative storage idea freeing up space in your linen closet.

Ballard Designs

#3 - Go with a One - Two Punch

What I refer to as "the one-two punch" is a little design trick you'll see employed by many stylists. Basically it's two of the exact same items (or two pieces similar in size, shape & style) paired with one larger sized piece. As a general rule things looks best when grouped in odd numbers. When collecting items to group and display above your cabinet, think big. Oversized items have more presence above eye level.

Pottery Barn

I'm not usually a fan of greenery above a cabinet, but here a bunch of dried eucalyptus works well in this large basket.

Ballard Designs

#4 - One Large Item

I think simplicity is best in most cases and one large scale item can be the perfect finishing touch.

Emily A Clark

#5 - Look to Catalogs for Styling Inspiration

Last but not least if a decorating or styling issue is causing you to rack your brain, thumb through your favorite home store catalogs for ideas. You may have noticed that a majority of the photos featured above are from Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs, those are two of my personal favorites for styling ideas. Both companies have great stylists working for them, and if you really study their catalogs you'll find tons of decorating inspiration and ideas to use in your home. Don't just look at the things they're trying to sell you, examine what's in the photo that makes the space look like you want to live there.

In regards to this sweet reader's space here's a little decorating mock-up (don't judge my sad photo editing skills) of what I think might work well in her living space.

curtain panels, wooden tray, blue vase, round baskets, rectangular baskets, bird print pillow, damask, moroccan

Her television cabinet is quite large, so instead of just one large statement piece above, which would probably be hard to find, I'd recommend a collection of round similar size baskets. A display of five medium size baskets staggered would create a unified look yet not be too cluttered. And I'd complement the baskets on top by bringing baskets in a similar tone to the the shelves below, which will make the baskets on top look more intentional. Then I'd hang neutral curtain panels in the room to soften the whole space and inject a little pattern. For the windows on either side of the tv cabinet, I'd just hang one panel on each window instead of two. I'd hang the panels just under the ceiling fan height which looks to be about 2 ft above the top of the window molding. The addition of window panels will help to soften all the horizontal lines on the wall with the cabinet and will frame that large piece of furniture. Then because I just couldn't help myself, I played around with some finishing accessory ideas. This space already has a great foundation that I know this reader is happy with, but sometimes what keeps us from "finishing" our spaces entirely is getting hung up on the little stuff…….like what to put up above the tv cabinet.

These are just my thoughts and ideas. I don't really think there are any hard and fast rules. It's really all about playing with things until you find a look you love. What do you all think? Do you have any tips or ideas to share for decorating the space above a cabinet? Let's discuss in the comments section down below!

And if you have a design dilemma you'd like to have tackled here at Our Fifth House, shoot me an email with the subject line - HELP: Design Dilemma!

*affiliate links used