maison d'etre

They sound great. Just need to build a house with cladding now!

Firstly, thanks for sharing your work - it's really useful to see what builds such as this are like while in progress. I'm interested in the external blinds you have, as parts of our existing house get far too much solar gain on sunny days. The blinds look very similar to internal blinds, but does that mean that they flap about when it is windy? I can see what look like side tracks, but it looks like they hang on string or cord, but that suggests they have a lot of freedom of movement when 'out'.

That has been against us before with houses that are potential projects - we get surprised by something unexpected on the market, so aren't in a great position to buy as we are not in the process of selling; make an offer but are reticent because the costs of house plus what we'd like to do to it are troubling; get outbid by people who either want the house in its existing state, or haven't thought about the costs of the next bit, or are wealthy enough not to care. To clarify, yes, we are in Southern England. Not quite the SE, but North Buckinghamshire, so not an affordable area.

What?! That's incredible. Thanks for the replies, they're a great help. I called the agent and it was suggested to offer less than the asking price as the seller wants to get rid of the land, which wasn't helpful! The question of timing is a tricky one. I suspect that, like a lot of things, there will never be a perfect time. My OH and I have said that if we do a build, especially if it is a sizeable house, it would be nice to do it sooner rather than later, so that the children can grow up in it. Having a large house once it is just the two of you seems a bit of a waste. Our eldest is 8, so given the timeframe of a build, it's probably a good time for us to get a useful amount of family life out of the end result. But it is difficult trying to weigh that against the lost time spent together without trying to juggle a build, effects on holidays due to budgeting, etc.

Thanks for the replies. I should explain that the mention of £0.5million was referring to the plot price. I was assuming £2500+/sqm for the build cost. This raises another issue, which is that I feel like I need to have done more homework. For example, when £/sqm rough numbers are given, I don’t know whether that is intended to roughly encompass all the costs of the build, or whether you then add on things like utility connections, site security, etc.

Hello, A plot came up for sale near us a couple of months ago, with PP for a large house. The area is a small settlement about 2 miles from the town in which we live. It's about 1/3 of an acre plot, has a disused outbuilding on it, an electricity pylon and cable running through it, but it is a peaceful setting and it has some mature trees (although they are conifers). We viewed the plot, liked the idea of the project but were then told the plot had sold. It is now back on the market. I was initially quite excited, and we have expressed an interest and started the process of putting our house on the market. However, we're now planning to call the agent tomorrow and say we're not going to go through with it. There's plenty to like, but the PP is for a house we would never build if we had a blank canvas. I appreciate plans can be changed, but the reserved matters went through a few iterations before they approved a fairly generic style of house, so the extent to which we could alter the design is a complete unknown. Also, the costs are just scaring us off. 500k plot, plus a 285sqm house which we would want to do to a nice specification, plus double garage, plus preparing the site with demolition and relocating power lines, plus fees for all sorts of people, plus SDLT, plus renting another house for a good while... I've really struggled with the decision. On the one hand, we want to do a house that's how we want it, and this presents a pretty good option for doing that, while our children are still young enough to enjoy the result. On the other, I don't want to be the person everyone tries to bleed dry for a couple of years, be mortgaged up to the eyeballs for the rest of our working lives, or have to keep compromising on standard of finish or specification because we can't afford it, but need to finish the build, so can't wait until we can afford it. We don't relish the thought of spending a load on rent, or subjecting our children to a worse house than the one they live in now for a couple of years. There's also the stress and reduction in time with the children when we inevitably have to spend time on "house stuff". Apologies for the big moan - I love the idea of a self build, and I feel like a failure for walking away from an opportunity to do it. If this is my response to the reality though, is it just not for me? Or do I need to spend more time trying to do it in a way that doesn't start with spending half a million quid?!

Amazing! Thanks for sharing the photos.

I was really surprised to see a figure of c£1800 per sqm for a house from Dan Wood. Most other kit homes companies who openly share pricing guidance seem to be £3000+ per sqm. I realise that there is massive potential for variations based on standard of finish etc, and that Dan Wood doesn't include the kitchen, but even considering that, the difference is huge. Have I missed something, or do they have a magic ingredient that means they are really cost effective?