ykhan16

Hi, we kind of had a fairly similar issue. A plot came up but even with our savings we were short on funds to buy it so we had to get money from the equity held in our house. We didnt remortgage to do this but applied to the lender for "Further borrowing" on the house. The lender did ask what we needed the money for and we told them it was to buy a plot. Then we just chose which product we wanted for the borrowed amount (2 year fixed) and keeping within the total LTV of the property. All got sorted in a few weeks and now we have a mortgage comprising both the original product and the new product with both the repayments paid together. Not really clear on the 2nd part of your plan- selling your home then starting the build. In my case I am planning to go through build store to get a self build mortgage. As I own the land outright that should make things easier as I should be able to get a mortgage that pays in advance so we can stay in our current home whilst the new one is built.

I'm really liking some of the plans on this thread especially Re. dressing rooms/ensuite layouts *steals ideas*. Personally I wouldnt be too bothered by what people say/think- if you probably dont think you need an ensuite then maybe you shouldnt try to squeeze one in. (I would actually like my new home to have an ensuite mainly because with 2 kids theres a lot of bathroom traffice and me and my wife need to wake at practically the same time to get ready for work- atm I have to wake up 15mins earlier just to free up the bathroom! ) Have you considered modifying your first idea about the single bathroom (between master and bedroom 2) but with two doors- one to the main bedroom and one to the hallway? You can get a simultaneous locking system fitted to both.

@TerryE That sounds sensible. Can you confirm you didnt put UFH in your upstairs bathroom? My upstairs will be carpeted but will tile the bathroom and ensuite so would worry about them being cold to feet and slower drying. Many thanks!

Thanks @ProDave I will try to dig this up!

Not that cheap in comparison to a gas/boiler system is what I meant. IR system looks interesting to me given that it heats solid matter as opposed to air etc so effective efficiency should in theory be higher. I'll need to price it up and do some calculations but you are right and I need look at it objectively!

Hi @christianbeccy we're actually in a similar position as you -just starting out and considering designs, heating options and finding an architect. I was quite keen on ground source pumps at first and then air source but now i'm re-evaluating them. I'm not really sure what your priorities are but i'm looking for the best value system so I can have UFH in the home and its cosy throughout as well as, importantly, bathrooms staying dry (kids always leaving puddles around atm grrr ). I've kind of concluded that air-source is better than ground source, but its actually not that cheap to run even taking RHI into account. Atm i'm drifting towards solar heating for the hot water (no running costs, low maintenance + RHI) and maybe with a small boiler. Underfloor heating i'm now thinking along the lines of Infrared mats which are electric but very energy efficient, zone-able and also healthier (apparently!).

Eeek that doesnt sound very enjoyable @Sue B- glad you've made it through to the other side though! Homebuilding exhibition was good- mooched around the stands, spoke to some suppliers and listened to some experts. Came away feeling upbeat and positive about the road ahead- which i suppose the show is designed to do! Got a few ideas now and some pieces of the jigsaw seem to be slowly coming together in my mind - time for more research! 🔎

I was up round there a few months ago. Honestly its such a lovely place- shame its 400 miles away! :0 @Thedreamer You sound ever so organised- did you get any guidance on this side of things? Someone today suggested that I should go on the project management course run by the NSBRC (https://www.nsbrc.co.uk/the-nsbrc-guide-to-project-management/). Do you think its worth it? Or does anyone know someone who's been on it and what their thoughts were? Its £165 but if its going to prepare me well then the cost should pay for itself I would have thought.

I have two boys aged 9 and 13- youngest is gearing up for 11+ entrance exams and my eldest will be in year 10 next year so beginning his GCSE's. Dont really want give them too much disruption- I know I would blame myself if they underachieved after living through upheaval or none ideal conditions. But about the caravan idea- well definitely my wife's not keen on it. More than just the lack of space, there is a real stigma (in asian cultures at least) of living out of a caravan which some people might find hard to understand. Personally i'm not really sure there's a huge benefit of selling up and caravaning. A year in a caravan would save £5k on repayments and I would get maybe £20K from the sale with the current equity. Is it not a better option to stay at home- ignore the landscaping, leave the ensuite unfinished, keep my old furnishings etc (i.e. equivalent short term sacrifices as you put it)- then finish up on these things after moving in and selling the old place? Anyone can suggest if this is realistic or is there something i'm not considering? (which is quite likely! ) It is definitely frustrating though. We've saved for such a long time, bought land and even with decent jobs we're struggling to build something thats not in the least bit extravagant. Oh well i'm going to the Homebuilding and Renovating show tomorrow in Harrogate. Hopefully i'll pick up some useful info there! Maybe see some of you there!

I'll look into that- you're the 2nd person to suggest going to an architectural technologist. My constant fear is going through this whole process with all its associated hassles- and then ending up with something that looks/feels like a boring developer home. Time isnt really a constraint as we'll still be living at our current home till its complete so perhaps I can maximize the benefit of that somehow- more reading required i think! Thank you all for some good tips- feels like i've already learnt a lot from my 2 days on here!

Is this a common issue with flat roofs? I was hoping to go flat/near flat to trim roofing costs- is it just going to cost me in the long run.

My wife pretty much made it clear from the start that we would have to stay at our current house whilst the build was taking place. It is much closer to her workplace (and the train station for me), and my parents literally live opposite and really help out looking after and collecting our kids from school. Mostly though we dont want to disrupt our kids studies and they need space and some quiet for that.

Surely budget comes from how much I am able to borrow? But thanks that is really good advice and I think i'm kind of doing some of that - quality in the fundamentals of the building and saving money on things that we could add/replace later. I'll need to think more on the time aspect though- hadnt really considered it that way. I think it would come out at ~ £1250 per m2- maybe I might have to get involved for this too. Honestly if I was on my own I wouldnt be bothered about living in a caravan, but i dont think my wife and kids could put up with it- they struggle when we stay at a premier inn for more than a few nights!

@BotusBuild Thanks for linking that acronym thread- bloody hell there's quite a few! 😰 Thank you @Thedreamer -hope your build is going well! I'm actually really interested in hearing how people in my kind of age bracket went through this process and hopefully learning a thing or two. I'm going to speak to my current mortgage provider and with a few other lenders including Ecology which people on here seem to like (Soaked that info in pretty quickly! ) I think affordability is something i'm a bit worried about. Budget is pretty much £200k max (we're not really prepared to sell up and live in a caravan for a year) so i'm trying to get a rough idea of what i could build for that- ideally 150-160m2. From my chats with the architects majority of the reactions were from "ambitious" to "build smaller", the guy from Potton who I was on the phone with went deathly quiet for about 5 seconds.. . (The one i'm thinking about going with was actually quite positive about it and said its achievable if i'm smart about the fittings- i.e. ikea options). So this is my current plan- perhaps someone could critique it? -Speak to more lenders to hopefully get a more accurate budget -Finalise architect -Develop design we're happy with but must include features that cannot be upgraded later easily -size, good insulation, glazing, UFH (is this a good way to do it? Can you simply attach UFH to an air source pump or solar heating to a hot water cylinder later on?) -Apply for PP (The site already has existing PP for a pair of semi's so i'm hopeful a single detached house wont be an issue.) -If granted then (take a breather!)/plan construction phase/apply for SB mortgage. Dont want to think too much further than that just in case it gets a bit overwhelming. Hopefully by the end of this plan I should have read the majority of the 100k+ posts on this forum and am ready to start mixing the mortar! I dont know? Do i? Is this some self-build in-joke?

Hi guys, My name is Yasir and i'm about to start my self-build adventure! 😊 Just a bit of background- I'm in my 30's, married and currently live in a terraced house in West Yorkshire with our two young boys. We've been wanting to move into some place larger and more modern/contemporary for a long time (nothing of that sort round here!) but we also didnt want to move too far from our network of close friends and family so self-build has been in our thoughts for the past few years now. Long story short this year i managed to find and purchase a decent sized plot that was only 7mins drive from where we currently live. So savings spent- the ball is now officially rolling and we've finally committed down this path. But gosh its only just the outset and i'm bloody terrified and I dont want to make any major mistakes! 🤯 I've kind of realised why most self-builders are older/retired couples because time is such an important factor. With both myself and my wife in full time work and managing kids there isnt a lot of free time to plan, research and investigate (so much useful information out there but hard to find concisely what I need to know/learn). Similarly during construction there wont be much time for organisation, supervision and DIY- though ideally i'd like to try to do this around work to save money but really not sure how! Anyways I will potter about this forum- if anyone has a good place to start or a recommended reading list of threads/guides please let me know!🙂 Cheers! Preparations currently done Spoke to Build store about self build mortgages and got some rough borrowing figures (~£175-200K though 2nd time i spoke to someone they gave me a lower figure hmm .....) Enquired about utilities ("we need a architects drawings first apparently....") Shortlisted a few architects one of which i'm really keen on (but they're all generally pricey) Got (free) tickets for the Homebuilding and Renovating show in Harrogate- hopefully this will be useful Massive stack of Build It/Homebuilding & Renovating magazines ordered from ebay <-- Now reading! Housebuilder's bible book by Mark Brinkley <-- Read 2 years ago (and forgotten), now re-reading Grand Designs TV show- series linked!