newhome

Mine too. Just something about getting the roof tiles and the colour of the render agreed by the planning department.

We had one. Was used for shelter / storage but not secure storage (wasn’t ever even locked ). It was a bit like Meccano putting it together but it wasn’t too bad until one particularly bad storm here (even for these parts) of the type that if you weren’t holding onto something you literally blew over. The whole thing ripped away like a sardine can (the bottom part was still attached to the base) and ended up like this! Get a proper storage container!

Griselinia purchased from the garden centre. Never heard of it before but they had 3 types! I have bought one variegated and one not and will see how they do. The guy who advised me said that the variegated one which is a bit larger had been growing there outside for a year and had done well, and the green one was less of a known quantity as it was a new arrival. Thanks @PeterStarck and @Cpd I will be planting them tomorrow.

I've read 2 different interpretations on that here; one being that you can't claim for anything purchased after the date on the completion certificate and the other being that you can as long as it's before you send the claim off (ie within the 3 month period since completion). That said if @lizzie has bought all of the materials needed to complete her project I imagine she can just claim for those as who is going to know whether they have actually been fitted or not? I have tiles still to be fitted here. The vast majority have been fitted but there are still a few to complete. I have however included the entire tile invoice within my claim.

My BCO didn't give a stuff about the actual garden but then none of that was prescribed in the planning permission. As far as outside bits were concerned he was interested in the disabled access and the other entrances to the house, and he insisted we put up a proper fence bordering one side of the house as there was a drop. We had a temporary fence (sheep netting) in place but he demanded something more substantial (we had intended to replace the fence with a wooden one eventually anyway). Other than that he wasn't bothered. I had the BCO round before I filled out the completion application. I asked if someone would come and help me understand what was still required to achieve sign off and they were happy to come out and let me know. It meant that I had a full list of things that I knew had to be worked on before I got as far as the completion stage, so my expectations weren't dashed when I thought it was complete only to find that there were things that I hadn't even considered that still needed to be done. If you're approaching being ready it might be worth you asking if someone will come out and have a look for you.

Me too now but previously the division of labour was pretty equal. I did shopping and weekend cooking, hubby did DIY and weekday cooking (as I worked much longer hours!), and we did our own washing. He would have done mine too as it happens but I didn’t trust him to be careful enough with my stuff and his way of drying was to lob it all on an airer meaning it looked like shit afterwards and needed to be ironed.

I have MVHR too. Still wouldn’t be without my dryer . Tumbles the creases out so iron free. Helps heat the house too given my pathetic heating system .

Rather you then me anyway that rather depends on whether she takes any notice too . Can’t abide wet washing draped everywhere and I don’t think it’s healthy having it drying on radiators causing condensation and worse. http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/news/you-should-not-hang-your-clothes-on-radiators-health-warning

I pretty much do the same apart from taking sheets to the laundry. No laundry anywhere round here lol. Used to have a separate washing machine for dog beds in the previous house and that was in plan for this one but I haven’t got round to it so use one of the horse rug bags for dog beds / coats to try to save the filter. Love towels coming out of the dryer all soft and clean. Can’t see the appeal of them coming off the line all rough.

Thanks! Will have a look out for that in the garden centre. Don’t recall seeing it (or Myrtle) but will ask next time I go.

I mostly wash things on 40 degrees unless I only have a couple of things to wash that really just need freshening, then I use the economy 30 degree wash which takes 30 mins but it doesn’t work with a full load. I try to ensure that the machine is full generally however and an excuse to have lots of clothes . I use a laundry cleanser but have no idea if that’s a marketing gimmick or not . I’m very inefficient when drying however as everything (unless it would wreck it) goes in the dryer. It’s too windy here most of the time to hang things out and I don’t fancy retrieving my smalls from next door’s garden! So it all goes in the dryer and gets put away later that day. I never iron. Life’s too short for that crap! The tumble dryer removes the creases generally coupled with choosing clothes carefully.

Thsnks! Not tried Myrtle so I will look at that and the others you mention. I have 4 Aucuba but none of them are doing great. I think the leaves just don’t stand up to being battered by the wind constantly. Leaves get ripped off by it. I do like them though so will leave them here for now and see if they pick up. They’ve only been in for under 2 years so far. Any suggestions for something evergreen I could grow in a pot to reach circa 6 foot?

I agree totally. If you are going to the effort of building your own home it definitely should be about you if you intend staying there for a decent length of time. I don’t think I could be bothered with the effort of it all if that wasn’t the case.

Mine was very rough and ready, done on a fag packet just now . Never worked it out before. I was told that the house was 350 square metres so didn't work that out but I think it might be a bit bigger than that if I look at the external dimensions of the footprint as it seems to be 12 metres deep by 16.5 wide x 2 as it's 2 storey, minus a bit as one room at the back is single storey. There are no balconies or verandas but I did include the cost of the detached garage but not the size of it. I included costs of the fencing, patio, steps, disabled ramp etc etc. but not plants. Didn't include the vat reclaim as I am hopefully getting that back. I included all fees, insurance, warranty and testing costs apart from the plot purchase / solicitor, and we didn't pay for the original building warrant or the planning permission as it had that already. The majority of the foundations were here already too so wrapped up in the plot purchase which I didn't include. I included the cost of the more significant tools / equipment such as the scaffold tower and any tools / equipment hire costs, but not general purpose things as hubby had quite a lot of tools already and I didn't track absolutely everything he bought, but that wouldn't add a significant amount to the cost anyway. So yes, it's not an exact science! We didn't use a cost estimator but I had looked at one before we put the budget together. I got the OH to break down the individual trades and phases and come up with an estimate for each as that was way out of my comfort zone. I did ask him to walk me through each cost element though and sometimes the simple task of doing that and my uneducated questioning uncovered areas that weren't quite right and were readjusted. We had to factor in labour costs for the areas that he wasn't able to do himself and that was a bit of a leap of faith as some of the things that were down to him he hadn't attempted before. My only involvement in this project to begin with was ordering, payments, and keeping control of the budget. I originally set the budget at 200k with a 20k contingency. We were pretty much on track with that with a bit of economising in areas when we went over in other areas. And then it all went a bit wrong when my hubby got sick as he got someone to build an extension on the back to house the bloody simulator that he bought and never used, so that pushed the cost up, and left me with an administrative nightmare with the council which one day I will write up to serve as a warning to others when you step outside of process! And I ended up paying about 30k in labour costs to get things done once my hubby was too sick to do anything himself and finish things off. He would have done many of those jobs himself previously. So that pushed it up to around 260k in the end which given the circumstances I didn't think was too bad. By that stage I was just relieved to get it signed off!

Mine sounds like a bargain bucket compared to others. Without the land (and most of the foundations as they were here already) it cost circa £750 per square metre including fees and services. That’s probably reflective of my husband doing such a lot of the work here to keep costs down however, and maybe there are some economies of scale too as the house is 350 square metres. It’s also a pretty ‘normal’ house in my view. Nothing architecturally inspiring, it looks exactly like the house next door! It’s still very touch and go in terms of being able to recover the cost if I sold it however, and there are still things that need to be done here if I ever manage to get someone out here to do them. It’s a timber frame house with blocks and rendering. We did pay 10k extra for ‘Supawall’ from the timber frame company which meant that we had pre insulated panels delivered and installed. We had some very good trades in and some fairly hopeless ones too. As newbies to the area it was difficult to get the better ones at times.

I’ve never been in love with this house sadly. I was a very reluctant self builder as it was my hubby’s dream, not mine. After 4 years of weekly commuting to Edinburgh from Kent I was offered a company assisted move but it meant relocating to Scotland. Hubby was reluctant to move here but said that he would do so if he could build his own house. So he bought the first plot he saw, and we had to build the house that had been agreed here apart from some internal changes as the foundations were already here. And later I ended up having to complete the work on my own which I found very difficult given the circumstances and my lack of knowledge. I wish that I’d found this forum back then as the support, advice and camaraderie is amazing. I certainly may have felt less daunted and alone. So now I’m on my own in a house that’s far too large for me, and given the location quite isolating too. And the heating doesn’t bloody work either! As soon as I retire I will sell up and move back down south. It was supposed to be our forever home but it’s anything but for me now. I hope once you’ve moved in that you start to love the house you have created. It sounds like it was completely designed for your needs so I really hope you do. Time heals, but it will take time I’m sure xx

I have tried to grow some decent screening plants here but many just won’t grow in these windy conditions. I’m not right on the coast but not far off. Laurel dies, other things never grow, and some things I haven’t attempted to grow. Not tried photinia as I thought it looked pretty but too delicate. Hebe and ceanothus seem to be ok. I’ve just bought a tall bay tree / bush that I’m pretty sure will die!

We did manage new appliances as most of the appliances in the old house were integrated so we had no choice, but I did economise on the make of the units and appliances. I’m on my own now too so like you nothing gets loads of wear especially in the kitchen since I’m no domestic goddess anyway . I did buy a fair bit of new furniture but only because things took so long I managed to earn the money to buy them in the interim . If I’m lucky I might get back what the house cost to build when I sell but that doesn’t cover any of the work my hubby did (or me to an extent as I did a lot of painting and general stuff). In contrast my old house went up by 150k since I sold it and it was resold last year and it looks like they had done nothing to it at all apart from putting a shed up! This game is not for wimps for sure!

That all sounds horrific. Luckily there was water here already, no gas in the area anyway, and whilst I thought at the time that £1200 was a lot to run a cable from next door to provide electric I now feel quite fortunate. Things in other areas did cost a lot more however so I was mean and shrunk the budgets elsewhere to accommodate (kitchen and bathrooms mostly), but there are things that I wish I hadn’t economised on as I see them every day. Rock and hard place though!

It’s crazily windy here (on the coast) much of the time. We used to have to dismantle our scaffold tower every day it was used after the bloody thing blew over one night, luckily and miraculously avoiding any damage and most importantly injury. I have such a fear of heights I can’t watch people working on the roof etc. I only went upstairs in this house a couple of times before the stairs were put in as it involved climbing a ladder! Fred is a legend!

Possibly not but most local folk here completely avoid the beaches where the seals are and walk elsewhere. We all know where they are and avoid them if we can. Occasionally dead seals are washed round the bay and end up on the beaches where I walk. Thankfully the beaches are pretty empty here and we get relatively few tourists even in the summer. Plenty of fishing line and plastic left behind though and I try to make a point of removing it where I can. Humans are way more disgusting than dogs could ever be.

My dogs are walked on the beach every day but I do clean up after them, and they don’t tend to bite anyone. The collies just chase a ball and the sheltie is constantly on the lookout for rancid dead things to scoff (fish, seals, birds - she’s not fussy). I don’t think water meters are common or really encouraged up here as far as I can tell. Rains so much they have to use all that water somehow I guess

My water is like that too but we don’t get a separate water / sewage bill, it’s all wrapped up within the council tax. I pay 337 for water and 391 for sewage if I look at the breakdown though. Not sure how that compares.

I find it's a bit different up here too. No builders in Scotland ever seem to want tea / coffee. They all either sit in their vans or outside and smoke during their breaks. Never seen so many smokers as in the Scottish building trade. Down in Kent builders wanted tea / coffee on permanent supply, and biscuits too.

Maybe she'll be epilating later getting ready to pay you a visit