Kim and I were/are avid watchers (and readers) of Grand Designs, and so we took the plunge - we would build our own house.

Well, sort of. Our plan was to "armchair self-build". I would design the house (big box with a pointy lid and some windows and doors), and we would get a builder to construct it. Seriously, at the point we were buying the plot, that's as much as we knew had to be done. Of course there was the detail, but we expected the builder to handle most of that - after all, that's what builders do, right?

Wrong. But by the time we sussed that out, much time had passed and we owned the plot. And by "much time", we are talking many many months. Here's why...

First, because the house and plot were on the same deed, we had to arrange for them to be split. That led to negotiations between 3 sets of solicitors.

Then my wife and I decided we would have a basement. That led to Party wall negotiations, because we were going below the zone of influence for the neighbouring foundations (just).

During all this, we had visited a number of self build trade shows (Harrogate, Swindon, Manchester, etc) and had settled on ICF as the way to go. So we found ourselves a highly recommended ICF specialist builder who agreed to build our house for us - splendid.

But by the time we had completed the purchase of the plot, nearly 6 months had elapsed, and our builder had moved on to other work. To his infinite credit, he offered to consult on our build for free, but we would have to build it ourselves...

... Now I am a software engineer and project manager by trade, so I had already decided I would manage the build... and how hard could it be, building an ICF house? After all, I am good with Lego - here's proof!