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First time for everything!


Abbi

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Hi all ??

My husband and I have recently purchased a plot of land to build our own home. It doesn't have planning consent at the moment, but pre-planning advice was positive so fingers crossed! 

There seems to be a lot to learn about this whole process and I'm guessing it will be a steep learning curve! Looking forward to picking up all the advice we can! 

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Welcome to the asylum. We (probably) all started out sane but self building does have its moments. Good luck with the planning application - I hope it goes your way and you aren't saddled with loads of conditions. The learning curve is steep but the information and advice here has saved me no end of grief and problems and led to a better overall design. That's not to say it's been stress free of course!!

Edited by dnb
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Hey @Abbi ; welcome.

 

There is tons to learn and lots of mistakes to make ( talking from my own experience of course ).

Now is the time to be brave and creative though.

 

I can hear a groan coming from the regulars.........

 

Have you considered walk on glazing?. For that wow factor........?

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The Spinklers ! The Sprinklers !

 

(Code for: you may as well consider making it open plan ? . You will understand that one as you learn the ropes. ? )

 

Sprinklers inhabit the nightmares, and trigger the dreams, of self-builders in Wales.

 

It's actually a really good example of how regs can guide your decisions and help you be more creative because of external limitations. I'll explain tomorrow evening when I am back from hospital treatment.

 

Your Mission, should you chose to accept it, is to find out what is distinctive about how self-builders handle Fire Sprinklers and Fire Alarms in Wales. 

 

Edited by Ferdinand
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South Wales = close to Gods country, which everyoen knows is South west Wales!

 

Good luck with your build.  6th year approaching for us but won't be long now (done it all myself + a full time job).  Enjoy it.

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Yes you are not far off the mark that is is a steep learning curve. We all make mistakes, even the "pro's". When you do, prepare to pick your self up and march on. It will be hard at times and every project is differant. If you put in the work things will go better at times than you expect, so look forward to that also. We talk about luck? Seems to me that the folk that put in the work into the research and consider advice seem to be a bit more lucky in general..just and observation.

 

There is however a another bonus in this. You tend to get a home or say an extension that belongs to you, no one else has the same! Maybe adapt what you read here and make it your own.

 

There are a lot of folk on this site that have extensive knowledge and experience so they can really help you form a balanced view. When you get stuck they will make time to help you. Remember, it's your project and your decision so you maybe want to take as many views as you can, and make what is called an "informed client decision"

 

This is still one of the few sites that are not commecially driven (at least I think this for now). The "structural side" of this is my thing and I try, if I can, to chip in. 

 

Make the best you can of this site. Digest the information you get here and make your own informed  decision. Take that approach and it will serve you well.

 

All the best.

 

Gus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 10/07/2020 at 00:01, Ferdinand said:

The Spinklers ! The Sprinklers !

 

(Code for: you may as well consider making it open plan ? . You will understand that one as you learn the ropes. ? )

 

Sprinklers inhabit the nightmares, and trigger the dreams, of self-builders in Wales.

 

It's actually a really good example of how regs can guide your decisions and help you be more creative because of external limitations. I'll explain tomorrow evening when I am back from hospital treatment.

 

Your Mission, should you chose to accept it, is to find out what is distinctive about how self-builders handle Fire Sprinklers and Fire Alarms in Wales. 

 

 

What I mean here is that as a self-builder you need to develop the skill of looking down the other end of the telescope.

 

About a decade go, Wales  decided that all new houses have to have sprinkler systems rather than fire alarms.

 

You can look at that two ways:

 

1 - "Bugger -that's about 3k off our budget spent for us." Yep it is.

2 - "Hmm. Using fire alarms lets us design without some of the traditional limitations which using a sprinkler set up lets us use. Since we're forced to do it, let's take the chance to be more creative".

 

The backstory is that using sprinklers allows some of the fire safety requirements to be relaxed, so you can probably relax those anyway, and start thinking more out of  the  box  from the start. (You need to check that that is actually the case in Welsh regs, but the example stands).

 

And that applies to all  sorts of things. Get a notebook and tape measure  and your smartphone and nosey your way into all sorts of houses - from friends' homes to show homes to for sale homes to instagram, and go in with your design-head and look  for things that interest you.

 

Then by the time you finalise your design you will have a list of 587 ideas, and you will use 30 or 70 of them.  And you'll be able to talk any bores to a standstill. 

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited by Ferdinand
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