ultramods

I think before doing anything else you need to look at the contract you have with the main contractor. Can you explain to us why you have to pay the additional 9k for the garage? Has he simply bid really low for the work so he would win it, but is now going to hit you with additional costs for every aspect for the build? from my perspective to only unknowns in a build should really be the groundwork’s unless extensive surveys have been carried out before hand. For example on my build the builder gave costs for 3 courses of under build for the foundations but said any additional courses would be additional which was fair enough. Likewise he didn’t know exactly how much excavated earth would need to be transported off site so gave us a cost per m3, which again I was happy with. However once you are out of the ground I really fail to see how trades can’t estimate costs precisely if they are building a fairly standard design house with standard materials that they have experience building with. In in terms of saving costs, we are saving 7-8k by getting our kitchen units and worktop from DIY-Kitchens instead of one of the high street kitchen retailers. All appliances will be bought from eBay (have set up alerts on eBay when specific appliances appear).

In 2009 my wife and I moved into a 3 year old developer built house in Kingseat, Newmachar which is 6 miles north of Aberdeen. Kingseat was originally a farming estate, in 1859 Aberdeen District Lunacy Board required a new mental health facility for paupers and acquired the site. The hospital was constructed between 1901 - 1904, the various buildings were laid out in a villa format, with lots of green space including trees, a football pitch and tennis courts. One of the old hospital building - our current rental accommodation is in this building The hospital closed in 1995, due to the historical importance of the buildings the area was designated a conservation area. In 2006 a house builder was granted permission to convert the old buildings into flats and to build new houses in amongst the old buildings. Typical developer house Another typical developer house I have wanted to build a house since I was a teenager (I'm now 36), in June 2016 we finally decided to take the plunge and put our house on the market, with the intention of building a new house. Initially we were looking for a plot near our current house with a more rural location. However when we saw there was a plot of land available in the Kingseat development we decided that this would be a better option because our son (he is now 8 ) had friends in the development. Our house was on the market for a while because of the fall in the oil price, we managed to sell in February 2017 (10% below valuation). We immediately made an offer on the plot, after some negotiation (on price and us agreeing to put in a mutual driveway at the back of the plot to neighbouring property at our expense) our offer was accepted, although the sale didn't complete until October 2017. The plot is a corner plot approximately 950 square metres. The plot previously had planning permission for a 200 square metre house, however this had lapsed. South North East North East North South West South In the meantime we moved out of our house in May 2107 and moved into a rented flat 100 metres away from the plot. In March 2017 we started working with an architect, initially had a topographical survey of the site completed, Followed by a tree survey. All the trees in Kingseat were covered by a tree preservation order and we had 4 trees in the middle of the plot. Luckily all 4 trees were not one of the original species planted at Kingseat which meant we could remove them. Next we starting to design the house, our brief was: Open plan living room, dining room and family room utility room snug master bedroom with dressing room and ensuite 3 other bedrooms, ideally all with ensuites attic trusses for potential future development of 2 further bedrooms/office Attached double garage 2.7 metre ceiling height ground floor and 2.4 metre first floor The house would be traditional on the outside, similar to the other houses on the development. However inside wanted it to be very contemporary light and airy house with white walls, flush white doors and skirtings, cantilevered stairs etc. The following Images are the style we were aiming for. Our first planning application was rejected because the conservation officer thought the orientation of the house was wrong and the exterior was a bit too bland. The architect and I had a meeting with the conservation officer and discussed the changes that she would like to see and what I would be comfortable with. I feel that we left that house with a better house! The interior was almost identical, however we added an extra gable to one end of the house to make it less symmetrical and broke up the building by changing the garage cladding to black timber. The only thing I wasn't pleased about was reducing the roof pitch to reduce the ridge height, so that it's a similar height to the old cottage next door. In December 2017 our second application was accepted. The following is the design: Ground Floor First Floor Future development option for the attic space Architect 3D render of open plan area.

the Yale lock doesn't get the best of reviews on amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yale-Conexis-Smart-Door-Lock/dp/B01N78HJKV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535754409&sr=8-1&keywords=yale+smart+lock

Seeing this topic I decided to look at the proposed MVHR plans for our house, can anyone tell me what the three items that I have highlighted are please? The plan shows the attic space, it will be a cold roof with the possibility to be converted into living space in the future.

I had just edited my post to include something about transportation costs

just wondering are the standard 8,10, 12 m standard lengths all the same price per linear metre as this might affect the algorithm if they aren't. Also where are the cuts taking place at the suppliers factory or somewhere else? If somewhere else you way want to avoid 8m or 12m standard lengths if no single beam is going to be greater than 6 m in terms of the type of transportation used.

Would depend on: floor area, number of floors, panel type -open or closed, does extra insulation need to be added. Is this just for the structural elements? How are the first and second floors constructed - cassettes, loose joists. Does that include crane/forklift hire? How is the roof constructed - cassettes or individual trusses also the amount of steel beams may impact cost

@Pete currently I am glad that the windows have a 12 week lead time because they are what is going to delay us getting wind and water tight. The timber frame kit was going to be up 2 - 3 weeks before the windows arrive. However I have since changed the first floor layout which is now delaying the timber frame. We should get wind and water tight on the same date but it helps me justify to the wife that the first floor changes aren't delaying the build.

For me in Aberdeenshire roofers didn't quote for doing this, plumbers did.

@Nickfromwales Yeah, they should have gone with a morgue theme.

@Tin Soldier thankfully it's not the mortuary, it's was the maintenance engineers cottage. The mortuary was converted around 6 years ago and can now be yours if that's your sort of thing https://www.aspc.co.uk/search/property/367448/Beech-Tree-Lodge--Kingseat/Aberdeen/

Yes, building control just said to take lots of photos as they wouldn't be able to get to site until next week.

As part of the agreement for buying the plot the previous owner agreed to clear the plot of the 2 mounds of earth. In April 2018 The site was cleared by the previous owner. We had to arrange a tree surgeon to fell the 3 trees. Before The tree surgeon cut the trees into manageable logs, these were easy to get rid of, to various friends. I thought the best way to get rid of the remaining branches and shrubs would be to chip them, I left them to dry out between April and July as chippers don't like greenery. I hired a Timber wolf chipper (£150 for the weekend including delivery, fuel and PPE), it should handle 5" diameter branches. The chipping was slow going as all the branches had to be stripped basically to straight poles, otherwise the chipper would jam or get blocked/bunged up. We filled about 1/2 the box trailer with chippings but then the chipper started to play up, so we put the reaming branches to the local skip. Ready for the site scrape

It is very exciting after what has seemed like a long time getting the planning and mortgage arranged. When the NHS sold the site back in 2006 1 developer bought most of the site, however somehow another developer was able to buy the land that my plot and the cottage next to mine is on. Since then they had my plot for sale and the cottage next door but no one bought them. I think if they had cleared the site it would have sold sooner. What's nice as well is that someone else is now buying the old cottage next to our plot. He is going to start refurbishing it next month.

After yesterdays site scrape the ground workers started again at 07:00 this morning (22nd August 2018) to dig the trenches for the foundations. The idea was to dig the trenches today and then pour the concrete tomorrow. However whilst I was at work around 16:00 the local friendly drone guy sent me a couple of photos which looked like there was concrete in the trenches - this was a nice surprise. Tomorrow 1 of the brickies (the other 2 are on holiday) is going to start the under building (foundation walls), they estimate that this will take 3 days.

Yesterday (August 21st 2018) the ground workers arrived at 07:00 to scrape the site, erect some Heras fencing and mark the house out. The engineer did the setting out first of house boundary. Next the digger driver and one ground worker scraped the site. Next the engineer marked out where the foundations should go, ready to be dug tomorrow. The digger also ripped up the old tarmac road that ran through the plot. They finished at 18:00

If it wont cost much to fix then I am assuming he will be happy to pay for it!

looks very nice and I really like your wood effect tiles. Was the total cost £150-200k or 230-280k?

I would try and be as detailed as possible in terms of the exterior elevations, window sizes/positions. roof and wall cladding materials. Boundary wall, fence heights and materials. I also found it very useful to have a face to face meeting with the planning officer and my architect, things that would have taken weeks to resolve going back and fore in emails were resolved within an hour. Also decide on what you are/aren't willing to compromise as this can help in term's of negotiating with the council but also not delaying the process unnecessarily. However be careful with submitting elevations without having thought about the internal floor plans.

Have you checked the BBC IPlayer?

is abajo a typo or a new model they are bringing out?

I am looking to fit an induction hob with build in recirculating extractor. I haven't been able to find any decent reviews that would help me compare the Siemens with the Bora. Does anyone have any such reviews?

Hi @russ_fae_fyvie, I am starting a build in Newmachar a week tomorrow. I am also using Angus Homes closed panel kit.

I recently ordered 80 sqm timber windows and doors from Russell Timbertech, they were 30% cheaper than Rationel. Similar lead times, customer service isn't as good as Rationel.

what are the dimensions of the ground floor, looks large from the photos?