recoveringbuilder

This so looks like our ‘site office ‘ which just happened to be home for 7 months, the awning was the office part until a big wind got up last September and took it out!

I’m beginning to think you must be a bit younger than me! I came in last Thursday armed with grout cleaner raring to go to se if it really would clean it, of course I don’t have big square tiles I have the long narrow wood plank effect ones, I got down and did about 2sq m , yes it worked but I was knackered so the other 22m2 will have to wait ??

We started off with choosing the best we thought we could afford, the window style was on the architect plans, the spec was up to us, the kit firm quoted us for the style and spec we wanted, We also commanded all oak finishings and oak and glass staircase so this was all within the quote from the TF company so all this was locked in the budget from the start. I also wanted a bespoke kitchen so this was locked in pretty quickly. I have interior design qualifications so I always start with something I really like be it tiles , flooring or whatever and the theme then grows from there, hence the piles of samples early on and I eventually pick a starting point and work from there. I am also living without any new furniture at the minute until I decide what I really want as it’s very easy to see something that you think is what you want then a few months down the line you regret it. I have now extended the design to outside, steps matching window sills, decking matching windows and so on driving hubby mad! Dogs! That’s the problem!

I used this in my kitchen with cream tiles but wish I’d gone with grey it gets too dirty!

You could start your research now, we had a lot of things chosen before we started but quite often these choices will change as other things go over budget and you need to make adjustments. We bought a timber frame package so windows were chosen at time of order then the kit firm asked us at the appropriate time to make the choices for doors, handles, wardrobe doors etc I had piles of samples for tiles, flooring etc long before I needed to decide and the same with bathroom fittings, all well researched before needed and you also need to take into account delivery times, get on with it while you have time on your hands before it all gets a bit manic!

There was an article on countryfile last week about this, a large percentage of land being owned by a small percentage of people and they are able to avoid death duties, can’t remember it in great detail but was an interesting article

Welcome to the world of madness, gird your loins you’re in for a great experience, a bit like child birth, immediately after you say you’ll never do it again but the memories fade fast!

Thanks @Temp, I will speak to solicitor on Monday regarding this

I’ve read about this felling thing but seems to purport to trees on your own land however these trees are on the verge so out-with our ownership, I wouldn’t foresee a problem as it’s not a conservation area and there are a few trees within 100m which have been removed recently, don’t know who these were felled by

Yeah personally if I’d been dealing directly with this they would have mysteriously disappeared but it’s out of my hands, he’s got back to me to say he’s spoken to planning and roads and as you rightly say it’s a different department, planner has said he’ll speak to them next week ?

Has anyone on here ever had to remove trees from the verge of their plots for any reason? as you may know we have two plots we are currently marketing and we have a chap who has applied for detailed permission on one of them. At the time when we got the planning in principle the roads department were concerned with the lack of enough visibility splays and we then had to do a traffic survey. at the conclusion of this they agreed to relax the visibility splay and agreed that this could be achieved by removing some of the trees on the verge. Now I’ve had this potential buyer asking me about removing the trees and who should he gain permission to do this from,roads department have advised him 4 trees will have to be removed or he will not get the permission, after making some enquires I’ve been told the trees will belong to the roads department, he is afraid he won’t get the necessary permission but surely if they are suggesting it they must be willing to allow this to happen?

Yes +1 , we had decided to go with danwood and had had various conversations with their rep, you had to supply the slab or pay extra for them doing it, the last time I spoke to the rep was at the Homebuilding show in 2017 , we more or less told them we would be going with them and asked if there were any houses we could look at, they identified two within driving distance of us and said they would speak to the owner about us paying a visit, in the meantime we had plans they had sent us and on closer inspection the bedrooms were barely bigger than cupboards with no en-suite, garages were a whole lot of more money anything away from their standard plans were mega bucks, as it turned out we never got to see a house as they never contacted us again

Yes that’s what we did, their quote detailed various stages of the build and as each was completed to our satisfaction they were paid that stage.

Have you ever seen a programme called cowboy builders or various other programmes along the same line. You NEVER pay them upfront!

We haven’t got completion yet still steps and ramp and paths to do!

We have had no visits at all from BC, SE told us they don’t tend to visit like they used to as they are now known as building standards so do things different and don’t pay visits like they used to.

Our screed was poured before the timber frame arrived but we were at the opposite end of the scale in that it was during the long hot summer last year and ours had to be hosed to keep it from drying too quickly. I doubt it would be wise to have it poured if it’s torrential rain like we have had here the last few days but if it’s light rain I would imagine a cover of polythene would suffice

When we put our plans out for pricing for the timber frame we did so at the Homebuilding show thinking that speaking to them directly would be preferable to email enquires however this didn’t work as it is their most busy time, of the 5 or 6 we gave plans to only 2 got back to us, one within the 6week timeframe they had given us and the other about 6 months later. We went with the one who did what they said as that seemed to stand them in good stead for future dealings.If you are asking them to give a quote for a timber frame it does take them some time to go through plans etc and yours will not be the only set of drawings on their desk if they’re a busy company. We have never regretted going with the company we did as having recently looked at other builds nearby we realised we had got a good deal with ours.

There’s a company called mountain lodge homes that we looked at when we hoped to buy a plot a few years ago, their lodges were lovely but not suitable for this plot, the one we missed would have lent itself to the design

Did your tradesmen walk away with the left-overs? I can assure you they didn’t! they already had experience of what happened with the kit erectors when they decided to help themselves!

Quite easy to do yourself, I even as a mere woman did ours and there wasn’t even a block left, same with gutters etc

Our first house had a section 75 agreement, this meant our house had an agricultural tie on it, we were running a plant nursery on the land at the time so this tie meant we couldn’t sell the house without the business, the house should it have been sold would have had to be sold to someone working in agriculture or horticulture, this tie affected the value of the property quite a bit as it couldn’t just be sold to anyone. After a good few years we applied to have the tie lifted but the local authority refused however they had granted permission for another house across the road from us on a farm and this house didn’t have the section 75 agreement so we fought it with the Secretary of State and won. The tie was lifted and the rest is history. The one thing I can say is that it took us a long time to find a lender as it was viewed as a higher risk, our solicitor was eventually the one who challenged the bank as to why they wouldn’t lend to us and eventually they did,

We originally put our water pipe through a random duct but when Scottish water came out to inspect they wouldn’t accept it and we had to change to the blue duct specifically for water pipe, bt supplied their duct and a roll of rope to draw through and SP energy supplied red duct for the cables .

Self build is not to be taken lightly, it takes a lot of time and a lot of guts to successfully complete a self build and by the end of it you’ll have aged considerably! To do it on a tight budget you have to be willing to forego a lot of your normal life, although we are now completing our third self build we spent at least a year in the planning of it, and during the build we have had no holidays, only a couple of meals out unless you count takeaways and have dressed like a pair of tramps, this life is not for everyone, my own family wouldn’t even consider it as they are too used to having holidays and nights out but this is the life we chose, a determination to have something better, a bloody lot of hard work!

So you’ve just answered your own question