Totally clueless and overwhelmed.......help!

[Joannteg]

As the title suggests I am lost! I am a mother of 2 soon to be 3 kids homeschooling and a husband who dropped this idea on me roughly a month ago!

We are looking to build a 2-2500 sq ft 4 bedroom 1.5 story family home with double garage on a green site in Northern Ireland.
We have full planning permission For a 3000sq ft 5 bedroom modern home (plans from seller of site) but we want to build something to suit out taste and budget so will need to redo plans. But here is where the problem lies. We had a brief meeting with an architect and my husband is too easily swayed by modern looks but it’s not to our taste.

i would love to be able to view houses with plans before going to an architect so we can show him what we like not the other way around but I’m really struggling. Pinterest isn’t great as when you click into view most are gone or not available to view in any detail.

We are complete novices to this and a lot of it is being left to me as my husband says I’m the artistic one! There’s one thing being creative and a whole other thing designing a family from scratch with literally no experience.

We have started to watch channels 4 building the dream for inspo.

Has anyone got advise or tips on what they have learned from experience.

My list is short and sweet:

* 4 bedrooms all with walk in closet (nothing too big or fancy needed)

* master bedroom downstairs with walk in shower en-suite (open to pros & cons of this being down stairs)

* open plan kitchen dining living area (walk in pantry)

* family bathroom

* W/C downstairs

* Utility

* plenty of light and storage space 

Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I am pregnant and home schooling a 6 & 4 year old so really want to get started on this so we can get things moving.

Thank you

 

[Declan52]

Welcome. The easiest option is look on propertypal for new builds that are located near you and go round for a look. Make note of all you like and don't like in these houses and that will give you your list to give to the architect when the time comes.

What type of build are you leaning towards, traditional block/brick, timber frame, icf.

I built my 2500sq ft chalet bungalow in Co. Armagh 6 years ago. When you say 1.5 storey do you mean a chalet bungalow or do you intend to extend the outside skin up to cill height and then start the roof. 

 

[recoveringbuilder]

Do you really want your master bedroom downstairs when you have young children? 
open plan kitchen dining living room is great but do you not want a more formal lounge for visitors?

what about a playroom downstairs so that when you’re in the main living areas you can keep an eye on the children?

Just a few thoughts I would have if I had young children.

[the_r_sole]

Tbh, an architect should be able to show you plans and design to your tastes and brief - we would usually spend a good bit of time with clients at the early stage to understand what they want/need and then balance that with what the site offers (then usually that they don't have enough budget to do everything they want!)

If you go to an architect with a floor plan already you're not making the most out of an architect - what would be better is to figure out how you want spaces to work together and what links to what...

Edited July 5, 2020 by the_r_sole

[Joannteg]

1 hour ago, Declan52 said:

Welcome. The easiest option is look on propertypal for new builds that are located near you and go round for a look. Make note of all you like and don't like in these houses and that will give you your list to give to the architect when the time comes.

What type of build are you leaning towards, traditional block/brick, timber frame, icf.

I built my 2500sq ft chalet bungalow in Co. Armagh 6 years ago. When you say 1.5 storey do you mean a chalet bungalow or do you intend to extend the outside skin up to cill height and then start the roof. 

 

Thank you Declan your just down the road from us then. Husband wants trad block/brick as I said we are real novices so going by what others have done in the past. I have been stalking propertypal and driving around looking at houses we like. Yes chalet bungalow/1.5 story/ dormer, that’s what planning permission has allowed for not full 2 story and not keen on a bungalow.

[Joannteg]

54 minutes ago, Christine Walker said:

Do you really want your master bedroom downstairs when you have young children? 
open plan kitchen dining living room is great but do you not want a more formal lounge for visitors?

what about a playroom downstairs so that when you’re in the main living areas you can keep an eye on the children?

Just a few thoughts I would have if I had young children.

Thank you Christine, I see what you mean about the separate floors with young kids. Was thinking more down the road to save us climbing stairs in old age lol. We’re debating a family room or sunroom, we have a sunroom now which is being used as the kids dumping ground for toys and another living room which is being used as a temp office for my husband cos of COVID. My main request is a lot of storage as I hate clutter and having kids and clutter go hand in hand. 

[vfrdave]

Welcome to the forum, I built close to dromore co. Down a traditional block built bungalow.

 

@Declan52 has given you good advice. Consider the accommodation you want. Then consider the size of bedrooms etc, we found it useful to compare it to rooms we could stand in already to get a better visual idea of space.

 

Lots of architects have the style they always do rather than what the client may want so be careful.

 

The planning portal is a useful resource www.planningni.gov.uk if you have seen a recent build nearby that you like the look of you can generally search and view floor plans and architects details.

[Joannteg]

28 minutes ago, the_r_sole said:

Tbh, an architect should be able to show you plans and design to your tastes and brief - we would usually spend a good bit of time with clients at the early stage to understand what they want/need and then balance that with what the site offers (then usually that they don't have enough budget to do everything they want!)

If you go to an architect with a floor plan already you're not making the most out of an architect - what would be better is to figure out how you want spaces to work together and what links to what...

Thank you very much for that it’s really helped, we have never done anything like this before so have no clue as to what we are suppose to come prepared with. I am very flexible and realistic and 100% understand we have to work with what we have onsite and financially as we don’t want to put ourselves under pressure for the sake of vanity but would also love to know the tips and tricks to get the best we can afford. If anything COVID has taught us you never know what’s ahead of you. 

[Joannteg]

Just now, vfrdave said:

Welcome to the forum, I built close to dromore co. Down a traditional block built bungalow.

 

@Declan52 has given you good advice. Consider the accommodation you want. Then consider the size of bedrooms etc, we found it useful to compare it to rooms we could stand in already to get a better visual idea of space.

 

Lots of architects have the style they always do rather than what the client may want so be careful.

 

The planning portal is a useful resource www.planningni.gov.uk if you have seen a recent build nearby that you like the look of you can generally search and view floor plans and architects details.

Fantastic thank you for that tip that’s exactly what I need as we have seen a few beauties built close to us. Unfortunately I found that after a recent meeting over plans, we left with modern build plans nothing to our taste. We are not fans of the industrial look that’s popping up everywhere.

[Declan52]

30 minutes ago, Joannteg said:

Thank you Christine, I see what you mean about the separate floors with young kids. Was thinking more down the road to save us climbing stairs in old age lol. We’re debating a family room or sunroom, we have a sunroom now which is being used as the kids dumping ground for toys and another living room which is being used as a temp office for my husband cos of COVID. My main request is a lot of storage as I hate clutter and having kids and clutter go hand in hand. 

My main bedroom is downstairs and it works for us. I have another bedroom next door plus 2 larger rooms upstairs. Your going to be building a hopefully forever home so think long term. When mine where young you wanted them close now they are teenagers they are smelly, huffy, messy, noisy and generally a pain in the hole they can't be far enough away.

[Mr Punter]

5 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

When mine where young you wanted them close now they are teenagers they are smelly, huffy, messy, noisy and generally a pain in the hole they can't be far enough away.

 

I bet they say the same for you!

[Declan52]

4 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

 

I bet they say the same for you!

They don't really communicate like normal people. All you get is grunts or doing tic toks.

[Joannteg]

6 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

My main bedroom is downstairs and it works for us. I have another bedroom next door plus 2 larger rooms upstairs. Your going to be building a hopefully forever home so think long term. When mine where young you wanted them close now they are teenagers they are smelly, huffy, messy, noisy and generally a pain in the hole they can't be far enough away.

Lol that’s my problem I’m thinking probably too far ahead, I’ve us 1 foot in the grave already. My sister has her master bedroom downstairs too and always thought it was a good idea as I’ve had a few knee injuries and had to move into my parents house a few years back for the downstairs bedroom. As you said this is our forever home so don’t want to have to do renovations down the line. I’m itching to see other plans with a similar floor plan with good use of space so we can go with a clear plan and not be swayed.

[MikeSharp01]

Welcome to THE forum for selfbuilders and like minded types. 

 

Our experience, still building in Kent, was to create a mood board, in our case a word document, into which we pasted dozens of images, furniture, interiors / exteriors / details from the web and photos we took out and about. We thinned this down and gave it to the architect as 'our sort of thing'. They then worked with that as their starting place. We have put a bedroom, with ensuite, downstairs as we are basically retired and we were wondering how long we would be able to climb stairs - however we put another upstairs and that will be our bedroom at the outset, the room downstairs will be our snug / guest room, albeit with a rather odd ensuite attached, complete with sofa bed. Our kids are grown up - well mostly, and live away so the extension we built at millstone manor is now largely empty - we have three bedrooms and a sitting room we don't use - how daft is that we now think. If I were going for a forever home I think I might just think about the tightest spot, when the kids were about 16/18 and create for that but working out how each of the spaces would be used once they are flown away. Eventually, one hopes, they will be back with partners & kids of their own so maybe those rooms will get used sometimes.

[Bitpipe]

3 hours ago, Joannteg said:

As the title suggests I am lost! I am a mother of 2 soon to be 3 kids homeschooling and a husband who dropped this idea on me roughly a month ago!

 

Welcome! We too started on the selfbuild journey having never built more than an Ikea wardrobe.

 

You can be paralysed by choice initially but looking at other builds is invaluable, especially before you get too deep with the architect.

 

Try not to confuse traditional style with modern methods of construction - you can have an old style stone cottage that is highly thermally efficient or a modern box that's draughty and hard to heat or keep cool.

 

Whatever design you land on, no reason why it can't be built to a very high and future proof standard for more or less the same cost as 'traditional' methods.

 

That's part of the benefit of being a self builder  - the build quality is as good as the aesthetic design. 

 

44 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

They don't really communicate like normal people. All you get is grunts or doing tic toks.

 

This is why I built a basement  It is hard to see beyond the stage you're at right now when you have kids  but if you have a flexible design that allows them to be close and then further away then you'll really be future proofing.

 

Teenagers like to socialise and a tip my older sister gave me long ago is, for better or worse, try and make your house the one they want to gravitate to as you'll see what's going on! So think about teen friendly social spaces, where you can still have peace and quiet, for the years to come - may even just be a garden room etc.

 

 

[Joannteg]

41 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Welcome to THE forum for selfbuilders and like minded types. 

 

Our experience, still building in Kent, was to create a mood board, in our case a word document, into which we pasted dozens of images, furniture, interiors / exteriors / details from the web and photos we took out and about. We thinned this down and gave it to the architect as 'our sort of thing'. They then worked with that as their starting place. We have put a bedroom, with ensuite, downstairs as we are basically retired and we were wondering how long we would be able to climb stairs - however we put another upstairs and that will be our bedroom at the outset, the room downstairs will be our snug / guest room, albeit with a rather odd ensuite attached, complete with sofa bed. Our kids are grown up - well mostly, and live away so the extension we built at millstone manor is now largely empty - we have three bedrooms and a sitting room we don't use - how daft is that we now think. If I were going for a forever home I think I might just think about the tightest spot, when the kids were about 16/18 and create for that but working out how each of the spaces would be used once they are flown away. Eventually, one hopes, they will be back with partners & kids of their own so maybe those rooms will get used sometimes.

That’s such a good idea Mike! It will gave the architect the sense of style we like instead of being shown their latest drawings. I must look into making a virtual scrapbook to keep ideas together and easily forwarded to he architect. Your right too on the size as we don’t plan on opening a B&B when the kids do grow up lol.

[dpmiller]

thee are some good "book plans" out there to get you started.

 

We used this guy

 

http://www.irish-house-plans.ie/index.html

 

Shaun is really good, he totally re-drew one of his base designs to suit our needs. he's got a wide range of examples and you might be able to find portions of some that suit.

[Joannteg]

10 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Welcome! We too started on the selfbuild journey having never built more than an Ikea wardrobe.

 

You can be paralysed by choice initially but looking at other builds is invaluable, especially before you get too deep with the architect.

 

Try not to confuse traditional style with modern methods of construction - you can have an old style stone cottage that is highly thermally efficient or a modern box that's draughty and hard to heat or keep cool.

 

Whatever design you land on, no reason why it can't be built to a very high and future proof standard for more or less the same cost as 'traditional' methods.

 

That's part of the benefit of being a self builder  - the build quality is as good as the aesthetic design. 

 

 

This is why I built a basement  It is hard to see beyond the stage you're at right now when you have kids  but if you have a flexible design that allows them to be close and then further away then you'll really be future proofing.

 

Teenagers like to socialise and a tip my older sister gave me long ago is, for better or worse, try and make your house the one they want to gravitate to as you'll see what's going on! So think about teen friendly social spaces, where you can still have peace and quiet, for the years to come - may even just be a garden room etc.

 

 

That’s what my mum suggested too, excellent advise. Hubby proposed a 2 story garage to double up as a games room/man cave. We live in the country so this would be ideal to keep kids safe but still have their own space to socialise.

[Joannteg]

2 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

thee are some good "book plans" out there to get you started.

 

We used this guy

 

http://www.irish-house-plans.ie/index.html

 

Shaun is really good, he totally re-drew one of his base designs to suit our needs. he's got a wide range of examples and you might be able to find portions of some that suit.

Perfect! I am a very visual person need to “see” it. We are only going to do this once so don’t want to look back and regret too much (I know nobody gets it 100%)

[Temp]

Can we ask roughly what your budget is? Its quite easy to get carried away at the design stage and add things that cost a lot for little benefit. Some of us are very sceptical  of some of the figures quoted on  programs like Grand Designs. 

 

I recommend making a scrap book for the architect. Collect photos from magazines and those you have taken yourself. However be prepared to be guided by him. In many cases the plot and the surroundings dictate the design the planners will allow. 

 

 

[Joannteg]

5 minutes ago, Temp said:

Can we ask roughly what your budget is? Its quite easy to get carried away at the design stage and add things that cost a lot for little benefit. Some of us are very sceptical  of some of the figures quoted on  programs like Grand Designs. 

 

I recommend making a scrap book for the architect. Collect photos from magazines and those you have taken yourself. However be prepared to be guided by him. In many cases the plot and the surroundings dictate the design the planners will allow. 

 

 

Yes budget is £250,00 so no Hugh Hefner’s luxury pad ?

I am very realistic and very willing to work within the budget as I don’t want the house to become a dead weight of debt hence the begging for help. Everything seems to change so fast and new advances and ways to save money ??

[Bitpipe]

5 minutes ago, Temp said:

Can we ask roughly what your budget is? Its quite easy to get carried away at the design stage and add things that cost a lot for little benefit. Some of us are very sceptical  of some of the figures quoted on  programs like Grand Designs. 

 

I recommend making a scrap book for the architect. Collect photos from magazines and those you have taken yourself. However be prepared to be guided by him. In many cases the plot and the surroundings dictate the design the planners will allow. 

 

+1 on the budget, although I found some architects can breeze through this as they can have unrealistic expectations of what build costs can be.

 

However if you're firm from the outset, then this can keep everyone grounded.

 

You normally work to a price / m2 of internal area and it can vary hugely depending on area, size, design and how much is DIY vs hands off involvement. Rranges on this forum from £1000/m2 to £2000+ / m2.

 

As your site is green, you will need to factor in the boring stuff like access (i.e. how you get from the nearest main road to your site, will need to work for the build itself), services (power & water, telecoms, sewage etc), etc..  There's also hard external landscaping (driveways, patios) and soft (lawns, gardens etc.). 

 

This all comes out of your budget before you've laid a brick, as does professional services (architect, engineers, building control) not to mention warranties, site insurance and all that necessary stuff. 

 

The Home Builder's Bible (the one book you should buy) does a great explanation of how design influences cost - a square is cheaper to build than an L as you need more wall to enclose the same area. There's a lot to get your head around but don't be put off as you need to challenge as you go to ensure you get what you want and what you can afford.

 

All worth it in the end!

[Joannteg]

1 minute ago, Bitpipe said:

 

+1 on the budget, although I found some architects can breeze through this as they can have unrealistic expectations of what build costs can be.

 

However if you're firm from the outset, then this can keep everyone grounded.

 

You normally work to a price / m2 of internal area and it can vary hugely depending on area, size, design and how much is DIY vs hands off involvement. Rranges on this forum from £1000/m2 to £2000+ / m2.

 

As your site is green, you will need to factor in the boring stuff like access (i.e. how you get from the nearest main road to your site, will need to work for the build itself), services (power & water, telecoms, sewage etc), etc..  There's also hard external landscaping (driveways, patios) and soft (lawns, gardens etc.). 

 

This all comes out of your budget before you've laid a brick, as does professional services (architect, engineers, building control) not to mention warranties, site insurance and all that necessary stuff. 

 

The Home Builder's Bible (the one book you should buy) does a great explanation of how design influences cost - a square is cheaper to build than an L as you need more wall to enclose the same area. There's a lot to get your head around but don't be put off as you need to challenge as you go to ensure you get what you want and what you can afford.

 

All worth it in the end!

I will get on to amazon now to get that book cos those tips of cheapest shape etc are exactly what I want. We do need to do a lot with connections to grid water etc. My husband is an account and runs his own business (not your typical 9-5hrs and I’m due baby number 3 in sept so not a lot of hands on unfortunately) we really need as much help and advise as we can get so things don’t run off on us.

[Declan52]

Does that £250,000 include the plot or is that for just the house? If it's just for the house then that will build a very nice house here.

Is there any houses close by that would give you an idea of the ground conditions?? 

That's the big unknown where your budget can take a big hit. Once your above the grass then it's much easier to work out costs.

[Joannteg]

1 minute ago, Declan52 said:

Does that £250,000 include the plot or is that for just the house? If it's just for the house then that will build a very nice house here.

Is there any houses close by that would give you an idea of the ground conditions?? 

That's the big unknown where your budget can take a big hit. Once your above the grass then it's much easier to work out costs.

Yes that’s just the house we have the site, funny you should ask my husbands cousin is building a 3000sq ft at the top of the field and is at roof level now. They are slightly more elevated but should be similar ground....hopefully. Watching these building programmes we are yet to see 1 go smoothly, on time or anywhere near initial budget ??