Thedreamer

Building in the Hebrides a winter build was not a option for me. I started in March and adopted a subcontractor approach therefore had more time delays than most, my first aim was getting wind and water tight before the autumn. I guess it depends on your building materials and how much you are prepared to pay for speed.

Where are you in UK?

Been there, I wonder how many the trips I made and we only have 1.75 storey.

You have to be realistic as to what time you have available? If you are retired or semi retired it would be easy. I had to do it whilst working 6 days a week and fitting in spending time with my two children was tough. But as somebody who won't attempt, joinery, electric, plumbing etc this approach saved me money and I have end up with a fairly modest mortgage in my early thirties. Will you supply materials? I did to keep costs low, but you have to become an expert on matters fast. My calculations were pretty good but it took time to work out, research, get prices and then await delivery. I.e. ordered decking recently and had only a few planks left, stressful but again kept the cost to a minimum. Communication is vital. I would keep them updated on progress before they were due to come on site. When actually doing the work minimum would be a site visit first thing and then to have a look in the evening. If you are going for DIY as well then you need to factor in loads of time to do the job. I like doing jobs when they had no other knock on jobs, i.e. painting the external walls. Don't underestimate the power of a brush. Keeping a site tidy is almost a weekend job, contractors would often comment. If the site looks like untidy, people will just add to the mess. Not having a main contractor will mean you got all the extra costs (loo, fencing, site security), for us living in a remote part of the country kept these costs to a bare minimum. With the contractor approach typically taking longer these costs can mount up over extra weeks, months, years! Ensure you have right contractors and they have experience to do the work. Especially if it's something a bit bespoke. You might still need some form of supervision, we used a RICS surveyor to provide inspection certificates (last one is tomorrow!) it seem to me to be the most cost effective way of ticking the lenders box, 5 inspections £1.5k.

Hi @RazzleDazzle we took the same approach of managing contractors and undertaking some jobs. Worked well for us.

Thanks for the comments and likes.

That was all fine.

Completion certificate received. I guess it's no longer a dream.....

Yes.

Our structural engineer has since retired, but if it helps the fee was £850 (structural drawings, certificates and inspection of ground conditions).

Telescopic window cleaner, you can get them on amazon.

We had our final inspection yesterday and building control were happy with the house. Just awaiting on an EPC certificate and we should have our completion certificate next week. We had a little tidy up before the inspector arrived so probably the ideal time to upload a few pictures. Landing and upstairs - not posted much here as this was covered in a earlier blog entry. Considering we put in outline planning in 2009 when we were 23 it's been a long time coming and a great relief to know it's nearly all over. I intend to post a couple more entries with the last bits of outside work and one about the costing/finance. Thanks for all those who commented over the years and answered odd queries, much appreciated. The to do list of actual jobs is getting short now. Proper downpipes – ordered Gravel - ordered, coming on Monday

It's within the forum. Usually an admin grants access to create one. Perhaps an admin will be along shortly...

@ProDave yes no problem. If IIRC from previous threads you have a bit of raised ground so your's won't be as long?

Thanks @soapstar We were quite close to be being finished, but I believe you need the bare necessities to live there (kitchen, bathroom). The electrical and fire safety certificates had to be uploaded before the certificate was granted. We stayed with my wife parents just up by and could move in when the certificate was granted. I also registered for council tax and tv licence at that time to be squeaky clean.

Does there not need to be dishonestly for theft to occur? Could this be just an accident.

Pretty squeamish about squashed animals on the roads. You know the ones you notice that slowly disintegrate each day when you pass. Worse than that is when I'm driving and there is like a million frogs and toads hoping across the road. It's total carnage.

Hi, little further up the way in Skye. Very close to finishing a self build next to a Loch. I like l living next to the Loch as we always have different stuff to look at. Whether it's the moon on the water, ducks floating by, a heron waiting for a fish or stormy waves. We built a fairly simple shape and invested the savings in the fabric like your plan.

Hello, It’s been around two months since we moved in. After a brief period of enjoying the summer and the new house we have made a push towards getting our completion certificate. We got our air test which came back as 3.33. We got the property registered for Council tax, pleased the assessor rated the property as a band D. The last bit of major building work has been the construction of the ramp and decking. We always knew that because of the ground conditions and the suspended timber floor our ramp was going to be higher than your average. After considering many different options we decided to build one out of Siberian Larch, which allowed us to have just a single order and the joiners could do the two together. I’ll need to apply some non-slip oil in the next few weeks. Here is one of the ramp And the decking. As with many self builders I now have an abundance of wooden pallets. I broke a few of them up and started on this. It’s a wood store. Still some finishing touches required. What’s next, all being well, hopefully a final inspection and completion. Other jobs which won’t hold this up, but on the to do list are proper downpipes and ordering gravel for around the house.

That 4.5kWh, is that just for you? The 10kWh is all our household energy for two adults and two children. What's the set-up for your hot water and initial investment?

I fitted a joule aero cylinder, pulls air from bathroom, ensuite and utility. I'm really pleased with the results, at moment it is extremely efficient. Currently all our energy usage for the house is 10kw per day for a family of four. This does a 260 litre tank for our hot water and cost £2,500 to buy. Our house is a new self build with reasonable insulation and large amount of south facing glazing.

Interesting post. We have some hawthorn on our shelter belt next to the house it's really prickly but great with our oaks for birds and other critters. I like the hawthorn because it's a natural deterrence to beasts coming into the garden. This might be a project for next year but will most likely need to make a hedge around our stock fencing, is the blackthorn, just as prickly as the hawthorn but we should be able to harvest it to make sloe gin? Also is this a concern? https://thewildenmarshblog.com/2015/12/03/blackthorn-poisoning-a-warning/

As mentioned previously constructional hearths are less common. In the past more ground floors would have had joists and the constructional hearth would have provided fire protection. Our floor which has joists the hearth is the only place that has a concrete slab this was also needed to support the weight of the dense concrete blocks around the stove.

Our ramp construction started today! We have a suspended timber floor so a bit higher than most. Our building inspectors has okayed the use of timber for us. What he said to me was don't build a ramp that looks like you are planning to remove it as I drive away. ? I've had some Siberian Larch decking constructed this week and using the same stuff for the ramp. I'm building in Scotland where prehaps the disability access regulations might be different.

Not sure what the visual warning area is. Our Caithness hearth is 104cms by 80cms. We have dense concrete block sitting on the concrete slab. Is the stove going to be free standing or boxed in? That stove is Charnwood C-4 for reference.