I know I have a brand new home in the country which I am delighted with... but I can still dream can't I? I have fallen in love with these Border Oak Homes since I first set eyes on them. They are full of character, old world charm and look so cosy and country cottage like too. Once we had our home built I said never again, there was so much organising and managing on it however if I won the lotto I want one of these!!! You really should check out their website, the finish of the homes are superb and as for the interiors, I just love them!!! So fingers crossed I win the lotto and then I will be contacting Border Oaks to come here to Ireland to build one of these perfect homes for me, overlooking the lake down the long lane. I even have my site picked! What are you dreaming of today???

{All Images from Border Oak Blog}

Take a peep through the hedge and look what you will find :)

Yes... My new home :) 

I will update you with some photographs soon.

There are still items to be finished off including the doors which we are waiting on, the stairs and the light switches/light fittings

Do you live in a red brick home? These homes are in Dublin, I didn't ask the owners permission to take photographs but I was just walking up the street. The area I live in has very few red brick houses they are not traditional to our area, however some of the older railway buildings are built of brick. There are alot of brick buildings in Dublin City and also Northern Ireland but in rural Ireland the traditional buildings are mostly stone. Some modern houses are made of brick but I don't think they look as well as the more traditional red brick.

Here is the progress on my new home so far, the main part of the roof is now tiled and there is a velux window in the middle over the porch. We had the electrican around early in the week so at least things are beginning to happen again. The weather held us up a lot. The windows arrived yesterday. I won't get to see them until the weekend as it is dark by the time I come home from work. I will just have to wait!

Below are a few photographs of my new home. The progress is slow this month, we are waiting on the windows to be installed now. These photos were taken last weekend. Come with me and have a look around...

The photograph above is of the sun room and here is a view of where the french doors will go.  The ceiling will be high and I hope to put a lovely light fitting in here, just like the one below. Excuse the mess outside but it is a building site.

Here are the two front windows of the sun room

And the back window in this room

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Below is a view of the back wall of the kitchen/ dining area. The units will go along the wall at the furthest window with an island in the middle. The door at the end leads to the utility and down stairs shower room.

Here is another view of the kitchen looking out from the sunroom. To the immediate left is the double doorway into the snug/living room where we will have a wood burning stove, beyond that is the door out to the double height hallway and again there is the door at the end  into the utlity and shower room at the end.

Below is a view out the kitchen windows into some of my boyfriend's fields. The  field will be graded down at the back to form part of our garden.

Below a photograph to the front of the snug/living room where the stove will go

And finally the sitting room on the opposite side of the hallway

And that's just a short tour of most of the downstairs of my new home. I have no photographs of the entrance hallway yet as it is very much work in progress.

Here you go, as you can see the upstairs windows are taking shape, the roof is felted and now we are waiting to get the side gables plastered and windows in before we get the roof tiled. It really is coming along quick but the inside work will be slower progressing. At least it will be water tight for christmas!

I always take photographs from this angle and you can't really see the sunroom to the right hand side as this is where the opening is from the road and also there is a large pile of topsoil in the way to take a photograph from straight on. To the left hand side there is a room in the attic space,  this will be my secret room/ den which I will put all my books in and a small desk :)

Here is the progress on my new home. You can see the upstairs windows take shape, there is one on each side. Again as I took this photograph from an angle you cannot see the sunroom to the right hand side. The roofers are coming next week so it will really begin to shape then. We have chosen a storey and a half design house which is in keeping with the traditional farm houses in Ireland. We are going to put some stone on the porch and have brown windows with a coloured door.

This is a long post, so perhaps grab a cuppa tea and take the time to read along with me. Here are a few photographs of homes that are similiar to the one myself and my boyfriend are building. Let me know what you think, I understand that they won't be to everyone's taste and I appreciate that. We went for a traditional Irish farmhouse style, storey and a half house. We felt that the typical dormer bungalows are somewhat out of keeping with our traditonal rural dwellings. I also decided not to go for a full two storey house as I felt it would dominate the skyline too much on our site and a lot of space goes to waste in the attic area. As our site is not very large we decided to attach the garage to the left hand side of the house, however it will look like an extra room on the house with two windows and the garge door will be to the rear. I don't like the dominating garage doors to the front facade of the building. We will also have a sun room to the right hand side of the house to make it look more symmetrical and make the most of the little sunshine we get here in Ireland. Here are a few houses which look very similiar to what ours should look like when complete.

This is quite similiar although we will have a stone porch with arch over the door and a single storey extension to each side.

This one is more like it than the last, although we will have a single storey extension to the right hand side also in the form of a sun room.  I am not that keen on the stone cladding in the image above. I am aware natural stone is expensive but I would rather use it than cladding, that is the reason I will have a natural stone porch and the rest of the house will be plastered.  

Again this house is similiar, however we will not have the garage door to the front elevation and the pitch will not be as high on the upstairs windows.

I hope you get an idea of what our home should look like now, I am aiming for a country cottage hall door in a green/blue colour with small pane of glass in the upper half. If you have any nice ideas, let me know!