Grosey

This is the other angles of the house, from the rear the lower white portion will be underground with rear patio doors opening on to the ledge level.

I should say I purchased the site with the excavations done as per the first photo, never saw the site when it was just a sloping bank! God knows how many tonne the previous owner removed to get it to stage 1.

Correct, just seeing anything happen is really exciting! Retaining wall is going in first, then back filled up to the level of the ledge, semi basement/garage as you say, with basically a dormer bungalow sat on top. Hopefully a good chunk of the spoil will go back in behind both retaining walls. The levelling of the the site was an additional cost. £300 a day for digger and driver, dumped hire and diesal for both, I drove the dumper so save a couple days wages. All in should hopefully only come to £1000 of extra costs which if correct I'm more than happy with at groundworks stage. All the spoil is currrntly piled up at the back of the site in "Shellet Mountain" - Neighbour also took a good couple hundred tonne to adjust some levels in his garden. Im hoping to use all the spoil on site over the course of the build and not have to pay for anything to be removed.

So, work has finally started! After initially thinking I had purchased a fully excavated site, 2 days and 700 tonnes later, I understand why everybody says ground works are the worst part! That is of course except for the opportunity for me to spend 2 days having a great time driving a 9 tonne dumper. ? Slightly hairy moment when I bumped a tree, showered myself in apples, lost the use of the brakes... Spotted an apple had wedged itself under the brake pedal as I was rolling downhill! One of the labourers has been assigned duties of chief Goose Wrangler... The Neighbours Geese and various other wildlife are very used to having my plot as their afternoon grazing ground and they aren't best pleased with my arrival. Funny they have their schedule though, 1pm every day they come wandering over in single file for a snack! Still, 4 days work and I am now the proud owner of something that more closely resembles a building site, with completed footings.

I've just done exactly that, £300 for a caravan that was traded in at a local dealer. I said to the bloke "I need a cheap caravan to use as a site office" Bloke "Yes sir, I may have something for you, we just accepted it as a trade in, we were towing it back here and the wheel fell off!" Me "that sounds like just the caravan for me - I'll take it!" The deal is cash on delivery, so if the caravan makes it to site it's sold, if it falls apart on the A38 it's not my problem ? Fully working kitchen and and running water, do have the same issue as you regarding emptying a toilet used by builders though! And exactly where to tip it?!

No tree survey, the whole place was mostly just overgrown and but wild, with apple trees that have been slowly seeding themselves around the site. Probably time for one last scrumpy harvest.

Haha yeah it's not exactly a great oak! Glorified weed really, just wasn't sure how seriously planning take these things! Now where's my chainsaw...

This is the tree in front of the Semis on the higher level. That level needs to be reduced by around 1m so we are going to be getting close to undermining it, everything is generally going to be a lot easier if the tree isn't there!

Agreed! Unfortunately I purchased with detailed planning permission in place.

I need to remove a tree on my plot, it does not have a TPO. The only reference to said tree in the whole of the approved planning permission is on the attached site plan. At the rear of the property is the tree along with "Trees to be retained" - does this sentence actually carry any weight of enforcement or am I free to hack it down? site boundary.pdf

www.badgerbadgerbadger.com

In order to apply for my site insurance I need to provide a method statement for the construction of the retaining wall. Does anybody have an example of one they could provide for guidance?

Cheers everyone, I think you'd be surprised at how useful early stage self builders will find all this! (Apart from the marriage stuff of course - spoken like a true 1 year newlywed!)

Haha a big American fridge is quite high up on my fridge, mainly for the ice/water dispenser! Good to hear your opinion though. Im a nightmare of getting buyers remorse so hopefully this thread my make me think twice! P.S does anyone else know of any ice/water dispensers that aren't part of a fridge freezer?

See the white box in the photo, 2 leads coming out of it, 1 plugs in to the strip, the other has about 2 inches of cable and a the sensor on the end of it. You can see the sensor in the photo just above the coiled up transformer lead. Basically youll need need that control box maximum of 2 inches away from the sensor, unless you use an infrared repeater I suppose? I too want to use these in my shower alcoves, but you are way ahead of me so will have to solve all these problems long before me

Just saw a post where somebody mentioned that they were happy at the end of the build with the extra expense of an item they specified, but that wasn't the case for all their specifications. Thought this his might be a good topic idea, what have you spent money on or upped the spec on etc that you have later regretted and feel was not worth the extra money?

I on the other hand live in South West Water's area... Quite a different story I do do actually happen to have running water from somewhere right past my boundary, I may have to look in to harvesting that.

Yes, just wondering about any issues there may be with running rainwater through the pump/filtration and heating elements of a hot tub?

Ideal, that pretty much decides it for me. Any ideas if whether treated rainwater would be suitable for use in a hot tub?

Has anybody installed a grey water recycling system? ive had a quote of £2000 ex vat from aquaco, see attachment. Any by thoughts or opinions on whether this is worth it? Aquawiser Domestic Indirect Grey Water - Datasheet.pdf

Just found this link, it appears to be a website geared towards Wickes staff to sign up customers when they are in store. Still, I've just put an application in for myself so let's see what happens, easy way to avoid having to convince someone you are in the trade? http://www.wickestradeoffers.co.uk

The whole gift card thing appears to be a stroke of genius, I can also purchase gift cards at a discounted rate through work. £10k worth of wickes vouchers for £9k would definitely be useful, topped off with their trade card! Im assuming receipts will still be provided as per usual and ok for VAT purposes when purchasing with a gift card?

Just to close this issue had my first load delivered today, 4" down, got a nice levelled site entrance now which should pay dividends for all future deliveries. Next load coming tomorrow morning.

I'm currently paying £130 a month for a self storage unit smaller than a 20ft container... So this thread has just been a bit of an epiphany for me! I need a shipping container!!! Even renting at £12 per week will save me considerably! Does anyone have any recommended companies in Devon or Cornwall?

Mafaldina believed you maybe able to offer some insight or advice on this?