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About this blog

Hello everyone.

 

I've decided to start a blog for purely selfish reasons.  This is going to be a long long process and I want this blog to help me remember along the way why we made certain decisions.  It's going to be more a diary of my thoughts leading up to decisions with hopefully some succesful outcomes at the end.  I discovered first time round that I have a habit of forgetting why I have decided upon a course of action which leads to me thinking through the whole process again - hopefully this blog will allow me to read my thoughts rather than think it through again saving me a bit of time!  A lot of the stuff below is already on my introduction but I've added it here to keep everything in one place.

 

Our plot is 1.5 acres in green belt within 400m of an SSSI.  We are less than 3 miles to beautiful beaches which the dogs love.  The New Forest is a 20 minute drive away.  All in all it is a wonderful place to live and very different from West London where we moved from in 2015.

 

The plot has a chequered history and was taken into the ownership of the family we bought it from basically by sqautting.  They rocked up in the 50's, planted a caravan and never left.  The plot is divided into two parcels of land.  One parcel came with absolute title and this is where our current house sits.  The other parcel (the much larger parcel of land) was bought with possesory title and an indemnity insurance to protect us should the original deed holder turn up.  Our new house will be built on this land so we will need to increase our indemnity insurance to cover the cost of the build.  We can convert this title into an absolute title in 2023.

 

The house that we are currently living in is classified as a temporary structure and following the tightening of the mortgage rules after the 2008 crash, is no longer mortgageable.  It previously lived about 5 plots up and was brought here with a tractor, trailer and a crane by the previous owners.  It is lovely to know that we can stay in this house for the whole time of the build - life will be so much easier here than in a caravan.  The current planning permission has a condition that this house is removed from site within 28 days of a completion certificate being issued.  It's a shame that it is too wide to get down the lane - it is a perfect self-build dwelling but just that bit to large to move on.  

 

I have read quite a few of the blogs on here and found them so helpful and informative - a little insight into another person's life.  I am thinking about running my blog a little differently.  It may not work at all - time will tell.  As there are so many different desisions that a self-build needs and they all run in parellel, I am thinking about starting several different threads, each one belonging to an individual area of the build which I will continue to add thoughts (and hopefully comments from the collective mind added in) until that area is done.  It may end up a huge confusing mess but as I've never done a blog, the only way to find out is to try it!

 

Welcome along to the ride.

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Entries in this blog

4 Paddocks and a garden - loads to do

During the year of waiting for the planning refusal, we (or more accurately Peter) has been busy in the gardens, getting things sorted.   The kitchen garden is coming along nicely.  The trees and bushes have settled down and it looks like we are in for a bumper crop this year.  We have 6 IBCs that will be filled over the winter to use in the drier months.   We have an additional 2 IBCs by the house which will collect the initial rainfall, before it is pumped to where we need it in the
Sue B

Sue B

5

It's going to be a long cold winter so what can we do?

It's been a really tough few months.  Problems at work (I got the timetable finished ready for September and now they want another one ready for straight after October half term), my best friend diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer and then the delay in planning approval leading to us appealing to the planning inspectorate to try for a non-determination decision.  We have both been down in the dumps and on the verge of giving up.  Two weeks off work (sick leave for stress, it was so close to a re
Sue B

Sue B

0

Just what DO we want to build?

I uploaded my draft floor plans a while ago and I have lived with them a while and am fairly content that they will meet our needs.   We have one elderly parent left  who we could easily argue needs to move in with us ( that is closer to the truth than I like to think about as it is my MIL not my own mum).  That gives us the need to a downstairs bedroom and en-suite.  Everything else is fairly normal but of reasonably generous proportions in line with most self builds. We hope to have
Sue B

Sue B

63

Kitchens, Utility Rooms, Pantries and Appliances

This week is half term in school so I have had two days at work, in splendid isolation, making the many many changes to the timetable ready for the first day back.  Today we have the architect round to do a proper start on the plans and while I'm waiting for him to arrive, I started to do some batch cooking of things to last me through the next 6 weeks or so.  Being in the kitchen, turned my thoughts to what I really wanted out of the new house in terms of cooking, eating and washing.  This blog
Sue B

Sue B

8

How to build - so many options

When we first started on this path, we wanted a hands off, almost turnkey project.  I'd heard of SIPS and seen lots of positive stories about energy efficiency so all was set.  Then we spoke with a mortgage advisor and our world started to tumble down.  I am now 56, Peter is 57.  We will need a mortgage to build this house but because of our ages, we know that the mortgage providers will all keep the term of the mortgage down to 15 years max which will make the repayments large.  Drastic action
Sue B

Sue B

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