Thedreamer

We used a house designer and structural engineer cost us around £2,500 in combined fees for bespoke planning and building warrant design fees. Our kit will be cut by joiners on site. We completed our foundations today and cutting on site allows our joiner to cut the kit to the exact size. I'm project managing our build with a RICS QS providing inspections at a number of intervals (5). I have found to date having good tradesman who know the standard of each of other work has really helped to make the project work well.

For that budget you want to get the pre-build costs to a minimum. It cost us in the region of £20k to a get all professional fees, insurance, warrant/planning, services and access installed. Our site was on agricultural land so cost nothing but some legal fees, but we had to spend a bit more to make it a serviced site.

Looks great.

I used a contractor to do the constestable work and it saved me thousands. We supplied the ducting and this seem to cost a lot less than blinding the trenches. We had around 220 meters of cable and it cost us around £6k in 2015. It's very stressful, we had a lot of emails, wayleaves, road crossing etc. I can't even read old email correspondence as it brings it all back. The terrible thing is that the prices seem to increase above inflation, so if your committed to the project you just got to get it over and done with. Probably our best decision to date was bringing all the services on site first and then considering what we actually wanted to build.

It's been a quiet few weeks on the house site waiting for the contractors to come back, but we have done the following: Building control and quantity surveyor inspected the works carried out to date The plumber supplied our the internal drainage. Anchor straps fitted. Alum clad, triple glazed windows order finalised and placed Attic trusses design reviewed and finalised We are now commencing the final stage of the foundations. In filling the solum is the first job. The solum has now been infilled and whacked with the aggregate. A finer layer is now being added on top. Plenty of diggers and dumpers here. Last day of the foundations. DPC was put down and then the concrete wagon came back on site. We used around 25m3 of concrete and as the photos show through the last few blog posts, we had fantastic weather conditions during this foundation. I was also pleased with the amount of the rubbish that is going to the dump, just four cements bag full of plastic waste.

Put our order for Nordan windows in today. I hope it will be between 8-10 weeks.

Here is what's in the plans. I have come to a conclusion that we only need these for the main rectangle of the house.

I came across this website, don't know if it is of interest to others. https://portreepassivhaus.uk/ Should be interesting to watch the build progress when I pass by on the way to work.

Nearly got a list of materials together for cutting our kit on site. One point not sure of, we have a small lean to at the back, for our utility room, at the end of each joists can you do without straps at the end of the joists for small rooms like this utilities and porch etc (the joists are approximately 2 meter width).

Looks really good, you must be so pleased. ? Is the Bamboo flooring from Howdens?

Looking good, the weather has been great over the last few weeks. Hopefully our foundations will be completed by the middle of the month.

@DreamingTheBuild welcome. Dreams become plans and plans become a home.

I once commuted to work and was stuck behind 30 Italian camper vans all in row. The last one had an Italian flag on the back describing the group as ' the grande journey' on some think to that effect in Italian. For me it was just a very grumpy journey. ?

@ultramods I got quote from Rational it was higher and if I remember rightly they seem to have a strange delivery policy regarding Skye and its bridge...... People on Skye can be very sensitive about this, especially when the same delivery time to north Cathiness/Sutherland would be the same but not penalised.

I like point 3 - Robotic mower ? Nice design. I would move the house.

I'm planning on committing to the windows tomorrow. These are Nordan triple glazed, alum clad. Average U value 1.1 Got a few quotes and spoke with a few organisations over the last few months and I feel they are the best fit for us. Asked about the 5% discount and our quote will kindly have this applied as well.

I'm project managing our self build, doing it in stages as I don't have any rental costs and will continue to save and wait for the right tradesman for the our self build. The plan for us: 1) Design, planning, access and services 2) Foundations 3) Joiner cutting kit, structural stuff and wind and water tight 4) The insides 5) Finishing off I've currently done 1 and nearly done 2. But I'm spending most evening doing house stuff and usually a weekend day. If you have lender you might have to consider what their requirements are, I'm needing a RICS QS to oversee inspections during the course of the build and therefore be the 'project manager'.

Nice stuff, I hope the weather stays good for your groundworks

Despite shifting over 1000 tonnes of material we were lucky that we had a borrow pit on site, we took out hardcore from the ground which left a big hole, we then took the clay excavated from our site and infilled the hole (also with over 100 tree stumps) and then put turf back on and you wouldn't know after 2 1/2 years. Could of cost £10,000's and might have killed the project before starting. Until the concrete lorry came to pour the foundations no material was imported or exported despite the lengthily access.

As long as the house is wind and water tight by around the Autumn, I'll be happy with that. The joiner wants to start cutting the kit on site early in May.

The weather has been good this week in Skye, hopefully it will continue. Our Brickie is doing a great job, he is here at 8.30 and works till 7. I did one day in stacking blocks and busted my back, I don't how these guys do it.

Last week we poured our concrete strip foundation and we have now moved onto the block work. Monday was a day of stacking the first blocks, taking measurements and setting up lines. By the end of Monday we were all ready to start with the first course in the morning. By the end of the Wednesday we were at: By the end of the Thursday, a lot more blocks were delivered and we were at: The good weather continues into the second week and so does the progress on the blockwork. A little job during the weekend, trenches now dug and ready for the plumber to put in waste drainage pipes

The west is the where the prevailing winds come down of the Trotternish ridge, so I wanted this to well protected against the elements and also no views that side. Fortunately we have the site sitting slightly lower, then a shelter belt and the neighboring croft has large outcrops of bedrock so we quite well protected. The self build the next croft along must take a really hammering, as it has very little shelter.

Here are the elevations plans. It's glorious sunshine here today, although I'm in agony. I was too enthusiastic moving blocks yesterday and I've busted my back These were bloody heavy, 6 inch solid concrete blocks. Started shifting blocks this morning and had some pain after twenty minutes. Hats off if you are brickie, it's a very hard job. In terms of the foundations, our structural engineer said because of ground conditions a slab, would not be feasible so we are having a suspended timber floor, so the extra trenches are for the sleeper walls. This will result in the house being slightly higher off the ground, but fortunately I have a pretty much endless supply of sub base so I'll be able to bring the levels up a bit. I might incorporate some decking around the front, although I'll worry about that in 2020.

Not sure, brickie just popped them in their at the end of the day.