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1. How it all began....

MikeSharp01

Entry posted by MikeSharp01

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J (wife of 30 years, mother of our children & gyroscope - keeps us on the level and on course) and I have always dreamed of building our own home.

We had a sort of go at it at ‘millstone manor’, see below, by knocking down a single story wing and rebuilding it to two stories - we learned two lessons.

Firstly we no longer think that architects 'do money'. We gave him a budget and the final bill was 3 times that. Secondly we ended up with a house too big for just the two of us now the boomerang kids are on their outward flight – naturally they may still come back but we are not sure we want to be here when they do. Also I enjoyed it immensely which I was not sure I would at the outset. I have spent a lifetime creating stuff and educating people who go on to create stuff but the scale of the sense of achievement when I fixed the second to last piece of skirting board, the last bit is still to be done in the corner of my study, was fantastic.

 

House 1.jpg.png

We had employed only three trades, Bricklayer, roofer (for the tiling) and plasterer the rest I did myself, with appropriate sign offs, in an attempt to control the budget.

So when the opportunity arose for me to retire a little early we decided to go for a complete build and fulfil our dreams. Well at least that is what we thought. One and a bit years on and we are beginning to wonder.....

We cast about the country, from north to south, looking for a suitable opportunity we love Scotland, Yorkshire, the Lake District and of course our home county of Kent. In the end we chose to develop in Kent a suitable plot came up, its closer to home and the chosen location allows us to visit London quickly using the HS1 Hitachi trains.

So one year ago we took possession of this: 11m x 36m plot with a 1911 dilapidated wooden shack, 2 beds - outside toilet, around brick chimney on the front portion.

 

 

20150324_130817.jpg

Then the fun started.......

 

 

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ProDave

There's actually something cute about that little bungalow, almost a shame to knock it down.

Before I bought my first house, there was an opportunity like that, a tiny little wooden bungallow with PP to knock it down and rebuild. It had an external brick chimney that was leaning away from the rest of the house. That was when my bubble was burst as everywhere I tried said they would lend money to build a house, but I could not find anybody that would lend the money to buy the site.  Hence it was almost 20 years before I got to do any of this self build stuff.

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