Aneta - Case Study

Building your very own home is a dream many of us have. Deciding to go for it can be the hardest part especially if you don’t consider yourself very good with home décor and design. We caught up with Aneta who felt like this before deciding to go for it. She is now in the process of building her forever home with her partner Aidan. Aneta shares her experience on the build so far as well as some advice for others building their own home.

Hello everyone, my name is Aneta. I’m originally from Poland but I’ve lived in Ireland for almost 15 years now. Myself and my boyfriend Aidan begun an adventure of a lifetime in January 2019. We decided to build our forever home.

We knew it was going to be a long and stressful process, full of obstacles but that didn’t scare us. We were lucky enough because Aidan already had a site in his name, so after a few months of working with the Planning Consultant and getting the planning permission we were excited to start the build of a lovely storey and a half house.

This house will have 4 bedrooms, one with an en-suite and a walk-in wardrobe, 2 other bathrooms, one located upstairs and a wet room downstairs. It will also have an open plan kitchen/dining area and of course a sitting room.

Before we started building the house, I didn’t think I would have much interest in home design, home décor and bathroom design. That changed when I saw our beautiful house on paper. Millions of ideas started flooding into my mind.

We didn’t know where to start, but a friend of ours suggested that we should go to SelfBuild Ireland Exhibition. We went to the one in Millstreet and it was great. The amount of information and ideas, leaflets and contacts were a little overwhelming but also really helpful. I would suggest that anyone who is thinking about building, or is about to start building, to go to this event. Get there early, that way you’ll have enough time to talk to people without queueing. It really is well worth it.

As social media is such a huge thing these days, we searched for inspiration online. Pinterest and Instagram were our main focus and it was Instagram where I came across Bathshack.

They have an enormous range of products, but we were especially interested in their bathroom selection. We knew that when the time comes, we wanted to buy everything in one place.

We met with Gavin, the showroom manager in Cork, and after a lovely chat we got more ideas for our bathrooms. He walked us around the showroom and showed us most of the products we were interested in, lucky for us, they had them on display.

In the end we bought everything for our 3 bathrooms. Starting from heated towel racks, toilets, vanity units, pedestal sink, a bath, shower cabin, shower heads, taps and finishing on a shower screen for the wet room, which is my absolute favourite, as it’s the one with black detail.

We are very happy with our purchase. All of it will be delivered and fitted in the middle of April and we can’t wait.

In terms of building a house, the biggest obstacle for us was to find the right builder to build us the house we’d love. In terms of bathrooms we both like simplicity, nothing too over the top and once you decide on a colour, you’re halfway there.