Butterycups

Hi There all,
Just wanted to say hello as we are looking at moving to beautiful Ireland within the next 6-12 months (hopefully) and thought we would acquaint ourselves on here before hand.
Hopefully may make some new friends and find out more about where we intend to make our home.
Top of the morning to ya all!

sickntired

Top o the morning to ya. How's she cutting? How's the craic? Mighty craic must be 90 . Any news, any gossip? How's yourself, weather mighty, god may it last.

Butterycups

Good Evening Sickntired! :-)
Hope it's as beautiful there as it is here.
Thank you for the lovely welcome - am just pouring myself a glass of wine if you would like to join me? :-) Always enough for everyone!

Butterycups

Ooh..it's very quiet in here. Did someone turn the internet off? lol

sickntired

We don't yet have internet here in rural nowhere. How can we help you?

Butterycups

Do I sound needy and in dire need of help?

Well yes, I am as you mention it. lol

There are SO many questions that my fingers don't know where to hit the keyboard first!!

Should I submit a list or break it in gently?

sickntired

Make a list and I'll see if I can help.

There used to be a lot more people on here, but some have had their homes repossessed, others can't afford broadband, others electricity disconnected, and the rest are suffering depression.

Butterycups

You are very very kind sickntired and it's very much appreciated.

Wow..where to start.

We have made enquiries about several properties so far and each time the property has already been sold. It's very frustrating! Why do property agents leave already sold houses on daft.ie and other such sites?

Is most of R of I suitable for growing food crops such as you would need to be self sufficient vegetable wise? Or are there areas we should avoid?

Are there areas which are very anti-British that we should avoid? Even though with our wonderfully winning personalities I'm sure we could convert the populace into believing all British were fabulous! lolol I'm taking it that you know I'm trying to be humorous there.

After watching a documentary on Rathkeale and Irish travellers recently I'm inclined to try and not buy a house in a town that is predominantly owned by travellers. Seems like a reasonable plan. However, are there other places which it would be wise to avoid also?

Considering insurance and tax which cars would be the cheapest to run in R of I? Ours is totally clapped out so we would have to purchase one once we get there but want to keep running costs as low as possible as our income will be limited.

There's a few Q's for now...I have many many more...lol..which hopefully you won't mind me asking.

Thank you sickntired...you are a gent and a scholar!

sickntired

Auctioneers often leave their properties on Daft.ie when "sale agreed" which is not sold as the buyer can and often does pull out. The they'd have to put it back on.

I don't grow vegetables I buy from Supermarkets etc. My friend grows tons of veg in a poly tunnel and it does well. It's in Roscommon, I'd imagine you could
grow anywhere.

Rathkeale is a knacker town and would best to be avoided. In my opinion Ballinasloe and Tuam should be swerved.

It would be best to buy a vehicle in the UK and own it in your name and insured in your name for at least 6 months before you arrive and you would avoid paying VRT. Cars are cheaper in the UK and you get a higher Specification. Cheapest cars to run would be diesel car 2008 on, road taxed on emmissions.

http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovern...donEngineSize/

http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovern...nCO2Emissions/

The top table is for pre 08 cars based on engine size.
The bottom table is for post 08 cars based on Co2 emmissions.

osgood

A friend recently bought a new house in co.mayo, at a great price, in a village called Balla near to castlebar,kiltimagh,claremorris and knock airport...www.daft.ie/searchnew_development.daft?id=960

taragreen

Hi Butterycups

Growing food. You will need a polytunnel, the growing season in Ireland much shorter than UK if you're planning on growing salad type crops, ok outside for the auld spuds, cabbages, and ing'uns (onions lol) but stuff ready later than you'd be used to... Also it's much more enjoyable working on your crops with a cover over you from the fine mist!

Have a really really good look at your ground if planning to grow, like take a spade on viewings and have a dig... a few places, as ground can differ a lot over an area. We actually built raised beds in and outside of the tunnels out of scaffold planks (4euro each) and bought in topsoil to fill, as we are in west limerick hills, border of Kerry and the ground can be quite stony - Tipperary is good growing land, but we found the area felt a bit desolate somehow, We are now in Abbeyfeale, has a nice village feel, you do get tops of the mornings on the high street. We are in the midst of setting up a plant nursery/PYO farm so we have a few acres and two big polytunnels, 6m wide by 14m long - 40 tonnes of soil was brought up the mountain in two loads in a massive 9 wheel truck, cost 900 euro, courtesy of the local fuel dealers. Your fuel man will become very important in helping you find the basics of life here - cultivate this contact more than any other!!!. Polytunnels were just under 4K after some bargaining, they are top of the range, all aluminium construction so no rotting base rails after two years. Plus we had to do a good bit of groundwork anchoring them in 5ft down - the winds are something else here and you dont want your tunnels flying off overnight.

House buying - much the same as UK estate Agents, do not fall for the flannel. They are all rogues, which in a way worked in our favour. We viewed a house in June 2012, had gone from 185k to 99k over 18months - but we still had not sold ours. We came out again with money to buy in September once ours had sold, the house I'd fallen in love with had gone under offer in July. After speaking to the agent again about it, he said things were not moving along too well with the sale. In the end, he agreed a deal where the first purchaser to put 50k in the seller's solicitors account had the property. As we were cash buyers with the equity from sale of house in UK, we were able to do this not more than 48 hours later. By end of october, we were moving in. Since we've met the neighbours, what we found out is that the other buyer was only offering 65k, we paid the 99k without bargaining. Still, we thought the house and land was worth 95k to us so we roll with it. So worth pushing if theres something that really lights your fire!

We imported our Mini Cooper GT registered it here and paid no VRT as we owned it for 6 years. She is now garaged (after several burst tyres on the road to Listowel) with four new tyres. We intend to sell her next year when the year embargo is up, we've already been offered 5k more than it would sell for in the UK, by, you've guessed it, the fuel man. We have a runabout irish reg van now, so the sudden change from celtic tiger roads to boreens no longer fills me with dread. Plus the tax on the mini here would make your eyes water.

In terms of 'anti-british' There's good and bad whatever country you live in. I lived here as a child with my Irish family(6 years to 12) and then in UK. I remember it being more apparent back then in the eighties. These days, there's so many other cultures moving here, eastern european, african, brazillian, dutch, german, that it's harder to meet any curmudgeons.... My four neighbours up our hill are english, portugese, german and irish.

Rathkeale is a howl - drive through at Christmas and it's like Chelsea FC car park - ranks of white Land Rovers and more Hairdressers than newsagents shops. My second cousin lived there, until two tinker families moved in either side of him and each family wanted to buy him out. Originally, he resisted - he's lived in the family house of 4 generations all his life. The offers got higher and higher for a 2 bed terrace until one family said if you dont take 250 grand cash, we will burn you out. So he relented. Other places I felt the Bandit Vibe were Askeaton and some places out east of Limerick City.

The cultural things I find different here is the lack of police presence in your daily life compared to the UK, which is on the one hand liberating, but scary too. No CCTV, no police patrols, hardly any police on the roads. Driving habits here are also different, more like the french with reckless overtaking - and a lack of general courtesy I find! If moving out into the wilds, take into account 'The Worst Should Happen' scenario, eg. house fire. Can a fire engine get down your road? Into your property? How long would that take? House fires are a big danger here, we have big ropes under every bed upstairs, should the stairs become blocked off by fire we can escape out the windows. Seems crazy thoughts huh, but you have to think a little more frontier-like out here, in many ways, without the Safety Blanket of the UK around you!

Organise yourself a currency account, we used currencies direct, with a pre-loaded currency card, Much better rate than the bank too. this will help you with the transition and wait to open an Irish bank account, where you need utility bills in your name address etc. Be aware that cash is used much more frequently here than cards, not all shops take cards.

Hope that helps - Tara

Butterycups

Thanks for that osgood,
I think we are looking more at an old farmhouse type property with an acre or two of land - so we can grow the veggies and have some chucks.

I've also been looking into getting a solar water heating system installed and of course every company say theirs is the best and that it will reduce energy bills dramatically. But, here's the thing. In the summer when these systems are running at capacity we would only need them for showers and pot washing etc, whilst in the depths of winter when 4 jumpers is still not enough to prevent hypothermia, they run at 10-15% capacity. So...despite what the installer companies say I'm really not sure this type of system will deliver the goods. A real quandry as one of the main things we wanted was to be less of a burden on the planet and keep money in the bank rather than the utility company's pockets.

Anyways...so here's another question...lol...do any of you wonderful peoples have much experience with these kind of renewable energy installations being used on the Emerald Isle...?

taragreen

Haha... yep.

House we bought has solar system for hot water. It only works when sun is out. Hence it's been hot enough to wash up, shower etc for approx 30 days so far this year. Rest of the time the solid fuel range heats the water and rads. We have an immersion system too, so this helps when it's too warm to have the range on (not often in an older farmhouse stone type property, even in summer) we do have a massive water tank though (family of four size, its 100ltrs I think) and I wonder if that's why, i.e. smaller water tank takes less energy to heat up. Local chap has a mini turbine, cost about 6k but is working for them, i think they sell excess power to grid also. Since we have more wind than sun, we're looking doing this in the next few years.

Butterycups

Wow!!! Hi Tara. What a fabulous response. Thank you so much.
That's definitely given me some things to think about - a bit of grass roots info is SO vital at this stage.

I know that there tends to be a fair bit of mist in Ireland but does it depend more on which area you are in? Is the South West or South East coast less damp do you know? Don't mind a bit of soggy but to be misted like a tropical plant every single day might get a bit wearing...lol.

Thank you so much also for the heads up on the soil situation too - I was worried about that I have to be honest..will certainly be dragging round a spade with me to give us an idea. It's so hard to get hold of information like this. With the growing season being shorter in the R of I, does this take into account that with the milder weather through the winter months, root crops should do better than the UK? Or would this be wishful thinking on my part? lol

What kind of things do you grow Tara? All your root and salad veggies? Is it an organic set up? That's what we were hoping to achieve and cut out the chemicals wherever possible.

I could talk to you ALL day...lol. But I will refrain or this will end up the longest post in history! lol

Butterycups

Thanks again Tara,
That is exactly what I suspected...lol. I was thinking about a turbine system but know even less about these than the solar! I would guess that wherever we end up will be quite rural so should be pretty windy. I've also been thinking about a ground source heat pump system as this doesn't have to rely on sunshine or wind and is a pretty constant temperature all year round. Bit more expensive but long term I'm sure would work out great. So much to consider that we didn't anticipate when we had our 'move to Ireland' eureka moment all those months ago..lol.