Buildhub the Dream

[Ferdinand]

Watching Building the Dream and his suggestions are what people on BH get in the first 3 messages.

 

TV is learning.

[ToughButterCup]

People construct their own online Learning Networks, @Ferdinand. And what people learn from any resource is not always what the producer intends.

I always bless @Construction Channel : he has no idea how much his vidoes have taught me about building. I have watched almost all of them 3 times - and each time I learn something new. Poor Faye for one thing 

 

 

 

[Construction Channel]

2 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

Poor Faye for one thing 

 

Don't you go giving that girl any crazy ideas. 

Faye loves helping out.......

[PeterW]

Tonight's surreal comment ...

 

".. you don't get what you want with selfbuild you have to compromise...."

 

I thought that's the reason for self building ..??!!

[ProDave]

8 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Tonight's surreal comment ...

 

".. you don't get what you want with selfbuild you have to compromise...."

 

I thought that's the reason for self building ..??!!

But you get a LOT closer to it than buying an off the peg house.
 

[joe90]

"Compromise", I disagree, we have got exactly what we want ( well, the only thing that would not work for us was a cold larder like my gran used to have). The wife is telling me our build is smaller than she thought but that's quite common with bare brick walls, I have promised her it will all be ok when plastered and furnished ( no pressure there then ?).

[Triassic]

I don't know many people who've bought new build homes but the last three I talked to said it was the worst decision they had ever made. Self build is the way to go, at least you get closer to your ideal, budget permitting!

[gravelld]

Were they from volume builders @Triassic or smaller builders? Just wondering whether it's sloppy standards being the problem, or just that the houses don't fit into their lives, aren't designed for them.

[Bitpipe]

Our last house before acquiring the one that we demolished to build this one (still with me) was a new build. It was a one off in an infill plot in a mature Victorian street from a small developer, a few guys who used to work for one of the majors.

 

Local builder used, we only got involved at the last minute and got to install fireplace and wood / stone floors prior to completion.

 

From the exterior it was a pretty house, blended in perfectly to the street. Internally it was nice enough and warm, functional. However after a few years it was clear that the plumber had cut corners and we had lots of issues, from leaks to underperformance. Build quality was OK, the quality of kitchen and bathroom fittings was so-so, joinery was very average (MDF central, hollow doors etc..). Sure, all of this could have been upgraded over time. 

 

It was the layout that eventually didn't work for us, too many ground floor rooms disconnected from each other and the bedrooms were odd sizes (some square, some long and thin. To resolve his would have been too much - also no plot space to expand the footprint.

 

What I like about our new build is that it's a space that works perfectly for us - right blend of individual, social and sleeping areas that logically flow. Also we have the quality, performance and finish that we want. Yes, it's come at a price but it is not so quirky that we would never recover the investment should we ever need to.

 

[Mikey_1980]

Our last two house have been new builds and we had no issues with them in the 5 years we lived in each.  The first one was David Wilson house on a new estate, and the 2nd was an infil plot where a small local developer demolished a bungalow in the hope of getting permission for a small cul-de-sace with 6 houses but permission was never approved so they eneded up building 2 semis, one 4 bed which we brought and one 2 bed. 

 

It was quite funny as the house was on the market for 18 months and we looked at it 3 times, we didn't like the downstairs layout but it was the only 4 bed that was on the market in the town that we wanted to live, so we put in an offer and 2 days after moving in the builders moved in to rip apart the downstairs.  My wife was 9 months pregnant at the time and our first child was born in the middle of the 4 weeks the building work went on for, but we ended up with a house that worked. People thought we were mad redeveloping a brand new house but it gave us the house we and other people would want and it sold the same day we put it on the market.

[Triassic]

4 hours ago, gravelld said:

Were they from volume builders @Triassic or smaller builders? Just wondering whether it's sloppy standards being the problem, or just that the houses don't fit into their lives, aren't designed for them.

 

All three were from volume builders. Sloppy standards, poor quality materials and small rooms were the issue. In one case the kids bed would not fit in the bedroom! In another it was the lack of storage space.

[jack]

17 hours ago, PeterW said:

Tonight's surreal comment ...

 

".. you don't get what you want with selfbuild you have to compromise...."

 

I thought that's the reason for self building ..??!!

 

I've repeatedly put it to visitors that the thing about building your own home isn't that you don't have to compromise, but that you get to choose both where and how much to compromise.  

 

For example, I'd have dearly loved a proper home cinema/music room, but it just didn't make sense in the context of the rest of the house or the budget, so the idea was jettisoned pretty early.

 

Compromise, yes, but our compromise! 

[Declan52]

You move into a house that is maybe 90% of what you have always wanted a house to be to work for you and how you live.

Or you buy a standard builders house and spend the next 20 years rearranging it to get to maybe 60% of what you want and then realise it just doesn't work so have to move again.

That's why we self build.