Living the green life near Dungourney

Trish Dromey reports on a home which was designed by an holistic architect to be environmentally sensitive.

Dungourney, East Cork, €250,000

Size: 179 sq m ( 1,950 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 2

BER: C3

Best Feature: Eco-cred

IN BUILDING their timber framed eco home near Dungourney village, its owners have made every possible effort to tread lightly on the planet. While many are content to strive for energy efficiency, this Scottish/Irish couple have taken their environmental beliefs a great deal further. The property has a composting toilet system instead of a septic tank and a small wetland area in the garden which is used to treat wastewater from the sinks. For heating there is just one solid fuel stove, supplemented by a heat recovery ventilation system.

“We wanted to leave as light an eco footprint as possible,’’ says the lady of the house explaining that she and her husband commissioned holistic architect Mike Rice to provide an environmentally-sensitive design for their eco home.

Holistic architecture involves drawing inspiration from the local environment as well as minimising the impact on it, she explains. Their request was for light, family space, low energy usage and a home that was not wasteful of space and would blend with its surroundings.

The result is a 1,930 sq ft house built in 2007, which is partially clad in Douglas fir and has cedar cladding on the roof curve. Set against a forested backdrop, it’s attractively designed with a flower-filled cottage garden at the front.

The most striking feature on the outside is the curved roof and on the inside it’s the curved hallway, which maximizes space usage. This leads through to the kitchen which has units made from old oak and beyond this there’s a large living room with south-facing French doors and a Charnwood stove which heats the house. At this level there’s also an office, a utility room and a bedroom and a guest bathroom.

On the first floor there is a master bedroom in the middle with a high sloping ceiling and a bedroom on either side of it, each with mezzanine space overhead used for storage. There’s also an upstairs bathroom.

Much of the carpentry work in the house has been done by the owner including the staircase and the bathroom cabinets. This includes cedar cabinets for the waterless eco toilets which use sawdust as a bio-filter to prevent odour.

The property has basic timber sheeting on the floors in all the rooms - and it is likely that a purchaser will want to improve on this and on the fairly basic staircase.

As can be expected with an eco house, it has solar panels to heat the water. The south- facing gable end has a large window with solar panes above it. The owners say that to gain maximum heat and light, the majority of the double glazed windows face south as well as east and west.

The house achieved a C3 BER rating, which the owners were very disappointed with – given the huge efforts they had made to reduce energy usage. The lady of the house says she understands they could have got a higher rating if the house had a gas condensing boiler - but which would have given it a higher energy usage.

The house and garden are integrated according to permaculture principles on a site of over half an acre. Striving to be as self-sufficient as possible, the owners have planted fruit trees and bushes and have built a large polytunnel to grow their own vegetables.

In the gardens there is an 11 sq metre, lined wetland for wastewater which is surrounded by fast growing willows. At the edge of the forest there is a composting area for the toilets, which after 12 to 18 months provides fertilizer, used for the gardens.

From the upstairs windows there are distant views of Ballycotton Island and the Galtee Mountains.

Obliged to leave for work reasons, the vendors are disappointed to leave their eco home but say they hope to build another for themselves and their six children in their new location.

Situated at Garrylaurence within a short drive from Dungourney and eight miles from Midleton, the eco house is on the market with CCM Property which is seeking offers of €250,000.

It has already attracted the attention of several young couples and one early bid. “Some just want a family home in the area while others are interested in buying an eco house in a tranquil rural location, says auctioneer Helen Kearney noting that all the viewers said they would put in a septic tank if they bought it.

VERDICT: Very eco-aware