Kelvin

Been an interesting and informative discussion. i don’t tend to get too stressed generally but have found this early stage of our self-build journey quite stressful so far and we’ve not finalised the land purchase although the contract is agreed. It’s the uncertainty of finding somewhere to live that’s driving that stress though. But it has made me realise I need to learn to manage the stress!

Thanks all. As already pointed out by DragsterDriver we have a buyer who made a great offer so we just want to get it done now so that we can get on with the next chapter of our life. Buying a house while we build was never in the plan but it’s 3 miles from the plot and we can do it without locking up masses of money we need for the build. There doesn’t seem to be much of alternative at the moment. Plus it completely takes the pressure of us.

We haven’t quite finalised the plot purchase. We’ve agreed the contract and are now at the purification stage. The plot has planning in principle so we need to apply for full planning. Buying a new build with a mortgage will cost less than renting. We’ll need to use some of our house equity for the deposit but we’ll still have our build budget and largish contingency fund.

One hurdle cleared next kicks us right in the ass. We sold our house in England really quickly for a great price and the buyers want to go quickly. The problem is we cannot find a rental in Scotland with 15-20 people viewing every property we have zero chance of getting one as we have two dogs and everything is nae pets. We are months away from being able to put a static caravan on the plot so are a bit stuck. One option is to buy a new build in the area where we have bought the plot. One has come up that i can secure in the next few days but before I commit does anyone have any suggestions? Ideally in Perth & Kinross but anywhere will do really.

My current house came with a very thick and detailed manual with every instruction booklet/manual from plumbing installation to the cooker, a list of every company they used, where all the pipework is, colour code of the paints they used etc. I’ve added to it over the years. We’re now selling and I showed the estate agent the folder and he couldn’t believe it ? I’ll do the same for our self-build as it’s been really useful to have.

On this last point from Donegalsd. We have the budget, without a mortgage, to build something far larger more grand more bespoke but decided early on not to do this because we want the freedom to enjoy our 50s and 60s while we are fit and able. Instead we are going with a kit house from a supplier. We’ve been to see a few of them and we love them. There’s plenty of scope within their designs to make it your own and we’ve made quite a few changes to the basic design. What we will do is spec up the interior more. We will end up with a beautiful house in a beautiful plot for a reasonable cost without going all Grand Design about it.

It is odd that both quotes include a transformer upgrade and the price difference is so huge. The advice is to question whatever quote you get.

Unless you address the insulation problem in older houses then it’s pointless. That’s what should be addressed and new builds should be built to better insulation standards.

We talked it over yesterday with the architect. He was a bit noncommittal on material availability, prices, and trades. Reading between the lines though they are having problems with their other projects. He also mentioned HS2 hoarding materials. Overall I think we are going to delay the build and see how things go. There’s a danger of course that things might not settle or go back to where they were and we’ll get a bit stuck but the ever rising prices aren’t sustainable. We’ll do as much as we can to secure planning etc and then make a start then stop and wait.

Spoke to my solicitor yesterday and my understanding of the LBTT/ADS situation is right. So buy plot of land nothing to pay. Sell current house and buy another house in Scotland (and we may have found the perfect house less than a mile from the plot) no ADS there either subject to timing the buying and selling and you can claim it back anyway. Buying somewhere to live takes all the pressure off doing anything with plot too and maybe we can ride out the current supply chain and trades availability problems as that seems like a World of stress right now. Also allows me to figure out what I am going to do workwise as I quit my stressful job too! ?

Update New quote is £5600 for 100amp connection and that also includes the cost of upgrading the transformer. So all good. Onto sorting out the borehole now.

Yes well that was my view too but SIP does seem to split opinion. I guess some of that might be because it’s less common in the UK.

We are debating delaying any building for some time. That said inflation is also likely to be on the up so either way it’s just going to be dear. The cost is one thing but the lack of availability of materials creating uncertainty in your build schedules and then the massive cost hikes is making us think very carefully about self-building.

We are still deciding which way to go in terms of the kind of house we want to build. We love the HebHomes Longhouse style and we think this style of house will suit our plot very well. HH do three timber kit variants. Closed panel, SIP, and CLT. The closed panel system was cheaper (still is on their website) but may end up being similar to a SIP construction. I’ve read a lot about SIP construction and I am having doubts about using it. I also get the impression it’s not favoured on here. We are now leaning towards their CPS kit. Does CPS suffer the same risks as SIP construction regards mould and rotting of the OSB?

We’ve considered a static caravan but the other half couldn’t easily do her job from home. Plus I reckon we are in for a 18 month to 2 year journey so that’s a long time to be in one. They are rescue chickens and old birds so not much eating there plus they all have names and I reckon it’s hard to eat things you’ve named ? The wee hoose idea is something else we are considering but we’d still end up with a period of time where we’d need to find somewhere to live. @ProDave this exactly my thinking too. I’m seeing my solicitor next week so will chat to him about it. In terms of founding both, just about I think. Finding a suitable place we can afford that we could then turn into a holiday let will be the challenge. The alternative is just to buy a small place and then sell it when the house is ready. It will work out cheaper than renting assuming we could even find somewhere to rent.

We are in the process of completing the purchase of a plot of land in Scotland (currently live in England) We are discussing where to live during the process. The plan is to sell our main residence in England and move to Scotland. We have two dogs and six chickens and the likelihood of finding a rental place that will take pets is limited. We are considering buying a new small main residence in Scotland i.e. sell our house in England and find a suitable place in Scotland to live in while we build the house. What we ideally want to do is find a place that would ultimately be suitable as a holiday rental. Therefore when we finish the self-build we move into that and rather than sell the small house we turn it into a holiday let. What I can’t quite figure out is the tax position we might find ourselves in with the additional dwelling tax supplement.

And i’m a bit worried about boreholes and drainage. ? Sounds awesome

Architects are artists ? i’m not agreeing with the approach just providing some insight from two highly successful retired architects one of whom lives in a Huff Haus that he barely changed from the standard design ?

My other half’s dad and uncle are both architects (retired) one mostly commercial and the other mostly residential. They both have said that architects generally design what they want and often disregard what the client asks for. Some of the time they end up with better outcomes and some of the time it just pisses the clients off ? Ultimately architects want to design stuff they come up with otherwise what’s the point of the 7 years’ training.

lol Have any of you got experience of these guys. I just spoke to one of the their agents who was really helpful. She said when we get to the quote stage if it's still more than I think is reasonable they can help challenge quote if I'm getting nowhere myself. They charge a fee for this. I didn't get into how much that fee was etc. New Electricity Connections - Mains electric for homes & businesses | GEC (gasandelectricityconnections.co.uk)

This is a good point and read the long running thread about that last night. Thanks.

No it's a single plot. The plot is in the middle of farmland and very rural and planning permission wasn't expected to be achieved on it. I walked around the area and I couldn't see any other likely nearby plots that could have planning granted. But given this plot got it then who knows. Ultimately it's a point of negotiation with the seller so we may just reduce our offer slightly splitting the difference between us and them. The farmer who owns this plot owns all the surrounding land too.

Just coming back to this. I made it a condition on our offer for the land that it would be upon a number of things including the cost of getting electricity to the plot. At the moment all they've provided me is an estimate of the cost which, in reality, is fairly meaningless. Therefore, should I ask for quote for the work? We won't be ready to start any work for many months so the quote will run past its 3 month period and of course things can change in between.

The conclusion I am reaching myself which makes a bit of a mockery of the 'you have a choice' stuff on the SSE website and the link on their email they sent me (which didn't work anyway)

Yep tried them they don't do single houses either. I have said I am the developer to a few of them but the follow up question is how many houses lol