What I have learnt from house building - Part 1

- It is so inspirational and creative to be able to design what you want in your own home. To decide that you want to have little boxes built into the wall as you go up the steps, like what we saw in that cafe once, with little unglazed ceramic doors which we will line with rice paper, a low light bulb behind which will heat up the ceramics infusing the scented oils to all who enter the house. And then actually see it being made. (I have so many lovely inspirational ideas but would love more if people have dreams of what they would like in their dream houses)

-Ideas should be written down with attached photos for ideas and then given in triplicate, in every possible medium, to who will be making it to ensure it is how you imagined it (just saying 'you know, what we saw, those box things I fell in love with and felt so sad that I didn´t have my camera with' doesn´t give the full picture).

-Everything will cost a lot more than you imagined and take a lot longer. Plan for it so you don´t get disappointed like I did (But I thought our life would be starting now!!!!!!! What do you mean it may take another year!!!!!!)

-It is heartbreaking to be writing out such large checks. (Are you sure we need such an expensive heating sytem? Are you sure we can´t put in an open fireplace as they are so much cheaper. They are so romantic. Of yeah, I´ve forgotten how cold it gets here. Yes I would like to have floor heating too. Ok, let´s empty our bank accounts).

-And when you think you have saved more money than you will ever imagine having, it isn´t enough and you will have to sign away your life for more.

-E-bay can be a wonderful source of buying things cheaply. But there are things to learn (almost a blog in itself). Look at a ruler. Don´t spread your hands out to imagine how big something is as I can assure you that if you are like me, you will be wrong. The 20cm in my hand looked too small so I went for the 30cm shower head. While my husband assures me that it is really good value for the price, we unfortunately will need to spend much more now to reinforce the wall in order to hold it up.

-In the same e-bay thoughts, don´t put a bid on something which seems like a good bargain without looking at the fine print. I have been drooling over a stand alone bath (villeroy and boch actually). These were way out of our price range. But then I saw one similar and it only had 30 mins to go and it was only €260. A bargain. You can´t get a cheap bath here for that price. Quick, put in a bid. I´m sure we won´t get it anyway so I won´t tell F. What I have done........... Little did I know that our bath tub had no other bids on it (swim away Ingrid, Don´t dive in) due to the exorborant shipping costs. Almost as much as the expensive baths. (I haven´t always learnt the lesson, though, so take heed from the idiot who forgets to read small print in her excitement).

-Your husbands ideas of what is considered necessary tools for the building site will differ from yours. I admit, the mixer and the coffee machine are most probably a little less necessary than the drill which drills all the powerpoints. But it was on sale. And think of all the lovely coffees and cakes and icecream I can make you. And it is so important that I have it now so I can design the kitchen appropriately. How else will I get the colour right? (I´ve included the photo for you here so you can all agree with me...)

You can see how well my pottery matchesAnd the wooden box F. made for the coffee grinds (yes I know clever husband). See it, was important (and see, I can manage to import the photos, just can´t manage to fit it on the page how I want).

-Children of all ages will be attracted to a building site. And small children will not be able to read the keep out signs no matter how many you put up and the big ones will ignore them. Create a little viewing area. Maybe put a few chairs in and refreshments to ensure that accident prone people keep out.

-I will never understand the people who can solemnly look at a plan or a building site and shake their heads saying ernestly, 'it´s going to look so nice when it is finished'. To me, a house becomes a house when it is decorated with furniture and niknaks and art works and lived in looks and people. Otherwise it is just a shell. I´m sure that other people could move into my shell and I wouldn´t like it as much I will like the home we want to make.

-And finally, as long as you have a building site, you will have dust (I should explain, we live in an old house next door. We are building above the old workshop behind. So we sort of live in our building site). Dust will stay with you and enter every facet of your life as long as there is a building site. It´s not worth cleaning as it will just reappear (look behind where you just dusted. You can see the dust resettling).

-Keep up the mantra 'It won´t last forever'. 'It will be so nice when it is finished' 'It is all worth it'. Sometimes you will believe it.