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Blogs

The Old Cow Shed

Week one clearing the site

We have finally started to build.  Day 1 was Monday 2nd September 2024.  It was nearly 3 years from the first invoice which was for the private planning consultant to discuss and review the possibility of demolishing one of our old barns and building a bungalow on its footprint.  Back then we weren’t overly confident of our chances but the consultant gave us a fairly good chance. Our current home is a listed property on 3 floors. It is far too big for us with 4 double beds, 3 bath
The Fun Irish (House)

Brise Soleil - how I learned to stop worrying and love the metal

One aspect of the Passive House PHPP I paid close attention to was overheating risks. As a result we looked at shading and extended the downstairs porch to shade the downstairs bedroom window. The upstairs we though about using Brise Soleil and have 3 canopies over the 3 main windows. I've been working on this for about 8 months with more than half on design and structural engineering and manufacture taking place in June. Then I spent most of July / August trying to get them to fit before bring
Back on the self-build waggon...

Bathroom finally completed

Just been reading through my last post from end of May, and thinking how on earth did it take me so long to get to this one 🤣   A lot of blood, sweat, tears and swearing later, and i've finally finished the bathroom, which has exceeded what I imagined i might be able to create, I still keep walking in and thinking, naaa this can't be my bathroom. So another room brought to a close 🙂   Those panels on the wall were actually meant for the living room, sound absorbing pane
Contemporary Ball Ache

Clearing the cattery buildings

There were 28 cattery pens and an office building to get rid of.   We really didn't want to have to pay to have this removed, so we put an advert on Facebook, and were inundated with calls.  We sold the lot for 2.5k and after 3 days of removing the roof structure (didn't want to risk people falling through it), the buyers came and removed it.  They left a complete mess, but I spent a further three days putting the remnants in one 4 yard plasterboard skip and 2 * 10 yard skips.  This meant we wer
Da Bungalow

Skoobie joins an anxious team….

Introducing Skoobie, a Skoda Fabia and the newest member of the team.  Not the first purchase towards the build, we’ve already bought a twin battery Makita chainsaw and Trevor the trailer to help clearing trees, but they were back in January. Skoobie is not in the first flush of youth so fits in well with my (G’s) seventh decade creaking knees, but we are hoping she (yes, this Scooby is female) will do great service in pursuit of our new home.   So where is the project now?  We have full p
Little Stud Barn

Been busy even in the rain

Over the last couple of months we have made steady progress. But, I've been very remiss in taking photos.   Last time I posted we were busy building up the walls in phase 1. It's now ready for the lintels, which we waiting a month to be delivered. This one requires some blockwork changes as the overhang is over a block joint.   This is the inside looking North looking down over the valley.       This is the outside looking in, again so
Renovation of Ellesmere Bungalow.

The plans. version 1.

After building the shower room, we had a free shot at planning so I put in for an extension down the side of the bungalow, to create a utility room and this was granted.  But we did not think my parents could cope with the building work so it was never implimented.  And, as they do little cooking, the current kitchen is enough for them.  See origional and permitted plans. However, now that we are planning to move into the bungalow ourselves in the future, we would be  looking to remove the
Renovation of Ellesmere Bungalow.

ASHP and radiators.

Life has been busy since I started the blog so apologies for the lack of posts.  However, the hot water went off in the bungalow on Monday so this has become an issue again.  In April, the hot water also stopped working.  I called Worcester then as the hot water cylinder was still under warranty. When the engineer arrived, he replaced the immersion but he did say that the installed hotwater cylinder, a GreenStore SC 120l indirect unvented cylinder, should have a boiler to heat the water.  We don
Da Bungalow

Action stations!

Back in ‘91 we self built the house we now live in.  Block, render and pantiles.  We were both working full time in those days and we did as much as we could, but that doesn’t include groundwork, blockwork, structural carpentry or plastering.  Rural location, fields front and back, nice big garden.   A third of a century later, at the end of September ‘23, we found ourselves in the back garden of a small, run down 1920s or 1930s timber framed bungalow.  It’s in easy walking distance of
Hampshire self-build. Cheap, high quality and fast - we want all three

How we chose our architect

There is only one time to get the design correct for your house and that is at the beginning. So many consequences are baked in from the early design work that (in my opinion) you would be crazy not to get professional help.   Another maxim we have when investigating potential plots is talking to local people. We button hole anyone we find to solicit their opinion on the local area. And so it was on a visit to Lymington. As the Estate Agent walked me between two potential properties we walk
The Fun Irish (House)

Brick, Blocks and Mortar!

Just an update - had the last two weeks off. Ran a bit low on energy for first week and took a few days off from the build to step back and recharge. The bricklayers arrived onsite and I was able to collaborate with them and address any issues or questions they had as they started off. We're currently about 3 days from finishing - half way up to the 1st floor and it's giving me a massive appreciation for the hard graft/work bricklayers face every day. There are two of them and their labourer qui
Hampshire self-build. Cheap, high quality and fast - we want all three

Thursday 6th June: a big day. We complete the purchase, move into rented and planning is accepted

We have managed to stay in our home for the majority of previous builds. This time we had to sell before we could buy the plot / donor house. So yesterday, we packed up from our 325 sqm house in Stroud, moved into a 114 sqm rental house, sold Stroud, purchased the plot and by coincidence the Planning Application was accepted by the District Council. A big day. https://planning.newforest.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=_NEWFO_DCAPR_221599
Hampshire self-build. Cheap, high quality and fast - we want all three

And so it begins

Yesterday we exchanged contracts on the purchase of a house in Lymington and on the same day we submitted a planning application to demolish the house and build a new house in its place. Probably Timber Frame, definitely to Passiv Haus standards (fabric first etc), 225 m^2, no fossil fuels but plenty of solar complemented by batteries.  We have done this before with a TF house in 2009, a small development of brick and block houses in 2015/16, and an ICF house built into a hill in 2017. 
The Fun Irish (House)

OnSite Power Management

I meant to post this for a while about how I'm supplying power to my site during works. In the Republic of Ireland you can't get a temporary electricity supply like the UK, not unless you're a big developer anyway. You may be lucky enough to be building next door to a house you own, or have a friendly neighbour but in my case while I could go borrowing a lead the odd time, it would start to annoy people I'm sure.  I did consider a generator at one stage, the old Honda route but I upgraded m
The Fun Irish (House)

Project Management

With any self build, unless you can afford an Architect/Builder to oversee the whole project, you're going to be chasing people, materials, answering questions and more.    My own project is up to roof stage, timber frame is finished, roof finished but outer brick/block leaf is next, then soffit, fascia, gutters, then porch, then windows & doors. Each have their own challenges. On top of my day job!    I've a delivery of lintels tomorrow and I only thought to ask what siz
Little Stud Barn

Spring has sprung, but still wet and cold, but some progress.

After my horrid time earlier this year I am now going to post something more positive.   As of yesterday, I was offered a job, not ideal (is any job ideal), rather than working from home I must go to the office which takes 40mins each way and hubby is disappointed that he will be left on his own all day.   That said even with time out for funeral 250 miles away and wet, wet, wet we have progressed.   Some pictures.   hardcore & binding (take 2 after pr
Back on the self-build waggon...

Bathroom refit into new extension

Thanks to the relatively mild weather this winter i decided to start chipping away at the bathroom project, which is being extended into part of the extension which was finished over a year ago. This gave me the opportunity to install the bath, sink and toilet in the new bit, at which time I’d totally disconnected the old bathroom allowing me to strip it out and that’s worked really well for my as I struggle to do more than 4hours in a single day so I could keep doing a bit and stopping when I’d
The Windy Roost

Water management solution and completion

My initial plans were to have rainwater harvesting, build hub taught me no.. so with that scrapped I needed an alternative, soakaways are difficult due to bed rock levels. In addition to this we have lots of run off on the croft, and the track to the house floods. We have already installed a pond for the ducks and this has a large berm to the back and sides so that the runoff is held back and slowly soaks away, but this winter has proved it overflows regularly, that's around 3000L extra. So
The Windy Roost

Water management solution and completion

HiMy initial plans were to have rainwater harvesting, build hub taught me no.. so with that scrapped I needed an alternative, soakaways are difficult due to bed rock levels. In addition to this we have lots of run off on the croft, and the track to the house floods. We have already installed a pond for the ducks and this has a large berm to the back and sides so that the runoff is held back and slowly soaks away, but this winter has proved it overflows regularly, that's around 3000L extra.
The Fun Irish (House)

Roof Cutting in

This week the roof was cut in. Can see the spaces for the Velux rooflights and get a different picture of the inside - the vaulted ceilings in the rear living area in particular. The builder recommended a ceiling in the upstairs  bedrooms at around the 3 meter / 9 foot mark which is high enough even if you're bouncing on the bed! Still leave a bit of space for storage so may leave a small hatch and floor this area after setting it up. It's a warm roof so this is all conditioned space. Next week
The Fun Irish (House)

Timber Frame arrival & erection!

The timber frame arrived this week from the factory. There was a large crane onsite all day yesterday. Got decent weather, no wind and only a bit wet in the morning. The lads have the walls fully up, 1st floor done and a ridge beam in place. They are starting cutting the roof today as that is built in situ. Really surprising walking around the rooms after looking at drawings for years! The window openings are a LOT bigger than I ever thought though, huge would be the description! Had a lodger ar
Renovation of Ellesmere Bungalow.

Architect advice. Do we need this or not?

After my OH's reluctance to go for PV  soon, I needed a plan.  We had already talked and visited a local Eco Architect company when researching for our planned Passivhaus for the time we thought we had a plot.  I therefore got in touch to see what they offered.  We had a zoom meeting when i explained my plans.  Basically i wanted someone to help me plan the stages we could do now to help improve the parents comfort, with the intention to do the whole extension renovation when they don't need the
Renovation of Ellesmere Bungalow.

Solar advice.

While my parents are still in the bungalow, we are reluctant to do any major work as they would not cope with it.  However, I am keen to make improvements if possible.  The heating system is a large very old solid block in the centre cupboard, heated by electric coils overnight (economy 7) and then blown around the place.  It works fine and is quickly heats the place up, which they like.  There is gas in the road but not to the property and when they needed a new hot water tank, we installed a n

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