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4 Timeless Kitchen Remodel Ideas

4 Timeless Kitchen Remodel IdeasThinking about remodelling your kitchen? Remodelling is a fantastic way to breath new life into a home, but it can be expensive. That’s why you want to make sure that you get it right and any new addition to your home isn’t just part of a fleeting trend and will still look fantastic in 5, 10 or 15 years. Here are 4 timeless kitchen remodel ideas that never go out of fashion.

1: Open Layout

More open and spacious kitchen/dining areas are here to stay. By removing a few walls you create a more comfortable cooking environment because the cook isn’t banished to the kitchen by themselves and the more informal dining arrangements both serve to support a modern casual yet connected style of living.

2: Induction Hobs

Induction hobs look like they are here to stay and are growing rapidly in their popularity. They heat up pans quickly, they are energy efficient and extremely safe (it’s almost impossible to burn yourself on them, even when they are on full). They also produce much less excess heat than their electric/gas counterparts so even smaller kitchens stay cool while cooking.

4 Timeless Kitchen Remodel Ideas led lighting3: LED Lighting

Not so long ago, LED bulbs gave off a cold blue hue that made them a nightmare for interior designers. However thanks to strides in technology, their future is looking brighter than ever. They are brighter, more efficient and last longer than fluorescent and halogen bulbs and they can be used in so many creative ways around the kitchen like illuminating an island overhang, brightening up work spaces under cabinets and much more. Many LED bulbs now have a lifespan of 50,000 working hours. So even if they were left on for 12 hours every day, you would still only have to change them once every 11 and a half years or so.

4: Marble Countertops

Marble countertops may be at the higher end of the price scale, but they are something that never goes out of fashion and they can really add a touch of class to your kitchen remodelling project. Marble counters have been popular for so long for a reason and that won’t be changing any time soon.

If you’re going to remodel your kitchen and you want to be sure that your beautiful new space won’t go out of fashion with the passing of a season, you should consider going with an open plan layout, using induction hobs instead of electric or gas, incorporating LED lighting and choosing marble as the surface for your countertops.

Book your remodelling consultation with Sigma Homes now by visiting us online or by calling us on 021-436-5866.

3 Advantages Of Extending Instead Of Moving

6avenueexterior_afterA growing family can mean that your home that used to have an ample amount of space is no longer fit for purpose. An increased demand for bedrooms and living space as the little ones grow up usually leave families with 2 options. You can either move and find a new house, or extend your home to make it more suitable for your needs now and in the future. Here are 3 advantages of extending instead of moving.

1: Stay In The Area You Love

One huge advantage that building a house extension has over moving is that you get to stay in the area that you have made home. When you chose to live in a particular area in the first place, you chose it for a reason. Now that moving house might mean moving away from more friends, family or your children having to move schools, you have all the more reason to stay put.

2: Full Design Control

If you move to a new home you can find something a bit more suitable than your current situation, but with a home extension, you get as much control and input in the design process as you want. You don’t have to rely on what the previous owner decided was best, you can discuss all of the ideas you wish to incorporate in your home with the architect. Nothing is off the table, you get to tailor your home to perfectly complement your needs and lifestyle.

3: Less Reliant On Third Parties

Another major advantage building a home extension has over moving to a new property is that you don’t have to rely so heavily on third parties. If you’re trying to move into a new home, most of the time you will have to rely on an estate agent to sell your current home which puts the process largely out of your control. Another unfortunate factor that happens quite often is that the seller of a new home might be almost finished with the deal and decide they don’t actually want to sell it anymore. This can be hugely frustrating and expensive, especially if you have timed the sale of your home to coincide with when you would be moving into the new home and are forced into the inflated rental market.

3 Advantages Of Extending Instead Of MovingIf you’re weighing up the options and trying to decide if you would be better off moving to a new house or extending your existing home, remember that when you extend you get to keep living in the area you love, you get full control over the design which means you get the exact features you need and you’re less reliant on third parties like estate agents and indecisive sellers.

If you’re running out of room in your home and need an extension, book your consultation with Sigma Homes today. Visit us online or call 021-436-5866 today.

How We Heard About Baby Kate

Sigma Homes only became aware of baby Kate’s story when our project manager David Holmes heard Neil Prendeville discuss their needs on his radio program. Believing we could help, we arranged to visit Lisa, Kate’s mum at her home in Cobh. We understood that Lisa had been told that the current arrangement of her house would make it difficult if not impossible to extend, however given the variety of projects we have worked with in Cork we felt we might be able to help.

The existing house is built back into a steeply sloping site meaning the lowest level is half underground. Despite having three bedrooms its total area is only 1100sqft with the staircase taking a lot of this. All of the rooms are small with no storage and have to fit not only Kate’s needs but both parents, two young boys and a full time carer.  The tiny underground space which is situated on the ground floor, originally designed as a utility room, has no window but this was the only space that Kate’s cot and equipment could fit.

Straight away we decided that the project would not be successful if all we provided was a larger room for Kate; we thought; we may solve an immediate physical need, but the family’s wellbeing and standard of living might suffer, as a result. The solution was to provide a house that would mean the whole family could be together.

The design we propose relocates Kate’s living quarters up onto the first floor; providing her with a large glazed window view and a door accessing the rear garden. Kate would have an en-suite wet-room with the facilities to cover all future needs. There is also space in her room for the carer’s workstation as well as storage for Kate’s medical supplies and equipment.

We also propose to create a new bright, airy open plan living space with direct access out onto the rear garden.  Fundamental to the design are the internal windows linking the family space to Kate’s room, so even when Kate’s tired she can partake in family life.

Sigma Homes take pride in bringing special design features to all our projects and it was a real pleasure to add these throughout this build for such a worthy cause.

Our thanks also go to Michael McCarthy at MMC Quantity surveyors for completing a comprehensive review of the project estimating the total build cost including professional fees would normally stand at around the €140k. We at Sigma Homes feel that we can bring €60k of savings to this figure through both ourselves, subcontractors and suppliers. We would then ask the people of Cork to dig deep so we can fund the remainder of this project for a highly deserving family.

If you’d like to donate please visit the Home for Baby Kate’ Gofund me page at: http://www.gofundme.com./a-home-for-kate

If you fell you can help with the build providing either labour or materials please contact us at : Babykate@sigmahomes.ie

Please feel free to call me if you need any more info 087 7760807

When Your Family Grows

It can happen that your family grows faster than you ever bargained for!  Thankfully, whether it’s a traditional bungalow or a terraced townhouse, there’s a lot that can be done to reimagine your living space. Even a relatively newer home may need expansion as your family grows. A home extension brings with it more storage space and an opportunity to build your home around your good habits — so you can do more of the things you love. An open-plan home can mean more connection with the family, and a visceral sense of expansiveness which, combined with modern architectural knowledge, can improve your mood and wellbeing. 

When Your Family Grows – Open Up Your Space

With a traditional house, we often have heavy blockwork cutting out all the sunlight from entering your home. By adding in modern features you can create a greater sense of space and let more light into your home. We can replace that old blockwork with steel frames. These enable exciting new possibilities to your home. With greater support, you can have much larger windows and sliding doors that give your home a connection with the outside. With modern glass technologies, the glass will help naturally heat your home during the day and keep it well insulated in the evening and night. 

Home extensions

If you have the surrounding space available, you may want to build a two-story extension. For many families, this can often double their living space. Of course, the larger the extension the bigger the project. We start with what you need and wish for your dream home and then we support that vision with plenty of technical thinking. The most important thing is to have solid foundations. We unfortunately work in an industry where many providers are prone to taking half measures and shortcuts, knowing that the cracks won’t show in their work till many years after they’ve upped and left. We always make sure to go deep in everything we do. We help you re-create a space that will last a lifetime. We go over and above expectations to ensure that you remain delighted with your home for decades to come. That’s why we provide aftercare for our newly built renovations, redesigns and extensions. And we’re so confident in our work that we provide a ten year warranty for all new builds.

How Passive Heating Works

Many of us grew up in traditional homes designed using old building technologies in Ireland. Today it’s now possible to create living spaces that are exceptionally well insulated such that natural sunlight is enough to keep your home warm and comfortable all year round. Passive heating can massively reduce your energy costs and transform your living experience. And while it may not always be easy to achieve full passive heating in an older home, you may be able to reap much of the benefits in a new home extension.

How Passive Heating Works

Passive heating is firstly about patching up the ‘leaks’ in your home. That is, identifying areas where heat can escape. Once this is achieved, you can then look at natural heating such as solar gain as a source of free heat energy. To ‘plug those leaks’,  the first step is to insulate. Attic insulation comes first since heat rises and this is followed by insulating the walls. Most homes in Ireland today have some degree of insulation in the attic. Some have wall insulation to some extent. However, it’s amazing how much heat can still escape from seemingly tiny gaps.

The next step in plugging those leaks is to improve airtightness.  Your design and build team will install an airtight membrane throughout the building. Using testing equipment, they will identify areas where heat can still escape through walls, windows, doors and attic spaces. They will then plug that up so that your home becomes draught-proof. Cold chills can become a thing of the past.

how passive heating works

Direct Gain

If you have south-facing windows in your home, you may get all the heat you need during the day. For example, with an open-plan living space and large windows built with modern materials (such as highly insulated triple glazed windows), your highly insulated, airtight home will store up that natural heat. And you may only need a very small amount of heating in the evenings to keep things comfortable. 

BER Ratings

A Building Energy Rating (BER) Certificate helps to classify your home’s energy efficiency. It rates a home from an A1 Rating to a G rating. A G-rated home has virtually no insulation aside from its bare walls and roof. An A-rated home can be quite difficult to achieve through a renovation as you are working with a pre-existing structure. It’s much easier to achieve an A rating with a house built from scratch using all the modern technologies and materials. However, anything above a B2 rating is excellent and will feel extremely comfortable even in the worst of our Irish weather. Despite the challenge, we have achieved an A-rating on many renovations. 

Breaking Down Walls

There are many advantages to renovating your traditional home. One of the best is that you have a chance to redesign the layout completely.  This typically involves some demolition work on the interior. The initial phases of a remodel can be scary for homeowners, especially if they were inhabiting the space before renovations began. As they look at the demolished areas of the home, they might wince and think, “are we sure this was the right move”?

Breaking down walls to create a new space

But their fear never lasts long once the demolition work is complete. With the old, cramped layout gone, they can see all of space to work with. The most exciting transformations occur when the owners were occupying the space; When you’re used to living in a space with a typical Irish layout, small spaces, limited light, the shift to an open, bright warm space can surprise you — even after spending a great of time planning and designing the rebuild and seeing that dream home on a computer screen in a 3d drawing, it’s never the same as stepping into that space for the first time and feeling for yourself what that can do for you on a visceral level.

And once that space has been reclaimed, you can rethink your home. You can get way more use out of the space, and with some clever designs, you can get plenty of functionality, plenty of storage and plenty of peace. 

Cosy up to new possibilities

During a renovation, you have an opportunity to get all-new windows and all-new insulation. This can transform your living space. With many of our older homes, we take cold draughts and dampness as part of the furniture, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With modern airtightness technology, you can remove the dreaded draught from your home. And using super-insulated, large windows built with modern design materials, you can bring more light into your space. You  can take full advantage of the sun’s natural heat. So you can keep your home comfy and fresh throughout the year.

So there’s a great deal to be said for demolition work. It might feel scary, but the only is up when you have the right design, and a great design and build team.

Dramatic Designs

We help our clients create dramatic designs that radically transform their living experience. Whether it’s by altering the structure itself or by remodeling a kitchen or interior, specific changes in the features or layout of your home can have a profound impact. Here are some examples.

Letting more light in

You can create a beautiful contemporary home that uses modern glass technology to allow the maximum amount of natural light and heat into your space while allowing you to soak in the exterior landscape. This can also be one of the advantages of renovating a country home, where there aren’t so many houses around you is that you can take great advantage of the surrounding exterior space while maintaining your sense of privacy.

Marrying the old with the new

We can take what’s beautiful about your traditional home and add some modern flair while creating a sense of connection between the different spaces. We build livings spaces that are clever by design. When we initially meet with you to discuss your dream home, we’re taking in what you need and what you want, and from there, we’ll figure out a design that exceeds your expectations.

We can add those elements that bring utility to your space while enabling a minimal look in other areas. For example, a modern pantry space gives you easy accessibility to everything you need for cooking while freeing your kitchen space of clutter to enable fine lines and beautiful contours that make your spaces beautiful. 

Dramatic designs that make working from home a pleasure

Working from home is a different thing altogether when you’re in a cleverly constructed space designed with your work in mind. We can implement a modern office space for you, with natural light and correct placement so that you’re getting that natural light but without the glare or eye strain as you work at your computer. Planning the space around your office desk means we can take full advantage of the light, the outer landscape, and other features of your home to deliver a comfortable, remarkable home office that can make work feel light and easy throughout the day. 

 It is crucial to have a sense of separation between work and play, especially when you work from home. Re-thinking your living space allows you to create something new, like a chillout area. A different physical space to enter will enable you to enter a different mental and emotional space. And these are just some of the dramatic changes that can occur in your home when you take intelligent design to your living space. 

Reflecting on a Wonderful Year

It’s always good to look back on the year and reflect on what was accomplished. As a house design and build company with years under our belt, it has always been inspiring to look back and see what we were able to accomplish when we focused on quality. As we look back on the year, we can see we’ve handed over a record number of renovations. We do so many handovers each month it’s hard to keep up. Yet our team has never missed a deadline. That in itself is something to be proud of. Especially in an industry that is infamous for poor customer service and torturous delays.

Reflecting on a Wonderful Year of Quality Kitchen Renovations

In the last twelve months, we’ve delivered some truly beautiful kitchen renovations for many dozens of families throughout Cork city and suburbs. We’ve delivered some truly beautiful colour schemes, finishes and styles that will bring value to our clients’ lives for decades to come. And in 2022, we want to bring more value to our clients with more options for finishes and even more assistance with interior design. 

Exceptional Extensions

Home renovations can be a hassle. It’s up there as one of the most stressful things a person can experience in their lives. In 2021, we re-imagined dozens of homes for our clients. With tailor-made homes that ticked all the boxes on our client’s wishlist. It starts from our first meeting, where we learn about your requirements and dreams. We survey your existing property to see what’s possible. We exchange some ideas and make suggestions, and from there produce a 3d drawing so you can see what it will feel like to step into your newly renovated home when it’s completed. One thing we’ve become exceptional at, and 2021 was no different, was planning. We can immediately assess whether planning permission is required and we can handle the entire process with the council to ensure you get planning approval. 

Attention to Detail

We love finding new ways to make your home better. We love finding ways to make your living space warmer and brighter. With open, welcoming spaces that keep that homely feel without feeling cramped. We look at inefficiencies that will waste energy and money on heating.  We consider where the light falls in your home and make changes such as roof windows. When everything is carefully considered, you can ensure that damp, draughts, and mildew are all things you’ll never experience in your dream home. 

Visit Us at

Unit A4, Donnybrook Commercial Centre
Douglas, Cork

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