Starting over

[Russell griffiths]

Just interested in people's opinions

has anybody got all there plans ready for planning, and then completely changed their mind on design?

 

we have spent 6 months getting everything ready and I'm now unsure if the house we have designed will fit in with the surroundings. 

If I ditch it and start again it will cost me aprox £5000 to start again but if I push on and build it I may have a very expensive show piece that I don't like. 

Anybody else had the jitters this late on?

[Triassic]

I got the jitters and have procrastinated for around twelve months. Having talked it through with a friend who is also self building I've bitten the bullet and we will be starting the build as planned this year.

 

Just a thought, why not post your plans here and get some feedback. It might help you focus.

[jamiehamy]

Not quite - although we did completely rework the entrance/kitchen/dining/toilet the day before the electrics were going in...

 

One thing I would say however is that you could think up a new design everyday - there is no single design that will be 'the one' - in my opinion. So you might have the jitters now, redesign - and have the same again 6months down the line!

 

Do you really not like the design? If not - then just stop now, £5k is nothing compared to doing it later. This is the second cheapest point to halt and have a redesign. During build is many multiples more and once it's built - you might have to sell it and start again!

 

Nothing stopping you getting planning for this design and delaying the decision for a bit longer tho - aside from the application cost itself, the cost of the redesign is going to be similar regardless surely?

 

 

 

 

[PeterW]

Don't forget that PP gets the outside approved - what's inside can change up to the point you start building ...!

[Pete]

We have delayed our build for various reasons over the last 18 months, but in that time we have altered externally and internally. They are only minor tweaks, some due to architects flair not being feasible, some due to overheating issues and more importantly making changes to suit our lifestyle. 

We are starting our build in July and feel as though this 18 months has really helped us to really make this our dream home. We loved our design from the beginning, not sure if that is the case with everybody who self builds? Our design is very contemporary and it is being built in a very quaint limestone village in Cumbria so not only did we need to love it but hope our neighbour's would accept it. (Some did,some didn't )

I agree with the comment's above and if unsure get planning and have a re-think?

Do you like the look of the design as we did the moment we saw the architect's design.?

[NSS]

4 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Just interested in people's opinions

has anybody got all there plans ready for planning, and then completely changed there mind on design

 

we have spent 6 months getting everything ready and I'm now unsure if the house we have designed will fit in with the surroundings. 

If I ditch it and start again it will cost me aprox £5000 to start again but if I push on and build it I may have a very expensive show piece that I don't like. 

Anybody else had the jitters this late on. 

In what way do you fear it won't fit the surroundings; style, size, external finishes? If 'tweaks' to some or all of these could be made you may be able to arrive at a design that you are happy with without the cost of a full re design. I'd sit down with your architect and list the elements that are concerning you and see which can be relatively easily addressed. I certainly wouldn't build to a design I wasn't happy with unless my intention was to sell it and the design offered the best potential for return on investment.

Edited March 21, 2017 by NSS

[Ferdinand]

Good comments and a fantastic question to ask.

 

You haven't said when your PP runs out, which sets a limit to procrastination !

 

I say take a break and relax for 2 or 3 months, away from your design, so that you can recharge your batteries and allow subliminal insights you have gained space to surface. Then think and make a decision or some changes. Or not.

 

This is also for hinterland ... which helps give a more rounded judgement. Architects get it through variety, and the sheer length of their training. eg In the 1950s when traininng my father was sent from Sheffield to I think Edinburgh with a group of students to do a site survey of one of the Civic Buildings by crawling all over it. I think taking a break gives self-builders a chance to reflect and perhaps rethink. Isn't there a French slogan "reculer pour mieux sauter" about pausing your horse slightly better to jump the fence?

 

If you have sufficient time and have had your heads under the bonnet (so to speak) looking at spark plugs, then perhaps there is merit in stepping away and looking at the whole car. Have you been heavily house-focused for so long that you may have allowed your "life we want" compass to be obscured a little?

 

Perhaps focus away for a month or four and do something completely different or that you love.

 

Go on a weekend course about to learn about oil painting, butchery, or a new skill, cycle down the Rhine Path to find some Euro-architecture, or go on a cruise, or to Le Mans, or spend a week at Iona, or go to Barcelona to visit the Pavilion, or on a theatre binge. And come back refreshed in June or July to make any changes or get started in autumn / spring. And/Or spend some time "window shopping" to see other people houses (see eg http://www.themodernhouse.com/) or there are various distinctive modern / innovative houses owned by the National Trust (Willow Road, The Homewood, Red House, or Hill House for the NT for Scotland) which may differently inspire. The Landmark Trust also has a wide range of contrasting houses where you can stay, such as Anderton House in Devon by Peter Aldington. I still like Aldington, and his own modern house can be visited, and is in a village setting.

 

Are there not also some "Grand Designs" which do B&B? Here are eleven in a slightly out of date article.

 

Who knows .. you may find just the thing to soften your house into its setting.

 

Not so much about finding new ideas, as setting a deliberate semi-colon and seeing some different ideas - for an extra contrast and perspective now you are slightly different people.

 

Vive La Difference !

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited March 22, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Fallingditch]

12 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

has anybody got all there plans ready for planning, and then completely changed there mind on design

Anybody else had the jitters this late on. 

100%.

 

Spent about two years working with an architectural technician to come up with our ideal design - and I still really would have liked to live in it.

 

We live in a rural environment.Unfortunately, shorty after we received PP, we moved out - huge mistake!

 

Shorty after that, the farmer decided to build a reservoir with a 4m earth bank wall next to our plot. (Farmers can do that sort of thing and there's not much ordinary people can do about it).

 

So we went back and got PP for a building raised up another 600mm. (Another mistake !)

 

Then we went out to tender to try to find a contractor who would build it. The cheapest price we got was 2.25 per sq m. Most expensive was double that !!  OK so the design was somewhat unusual, but I have to say I was not impressed with the quality of the Builders' responses here in NE Essex. 

 

This was the lowpoint. For three months we did nothing (apart from pay rent, unnecessarily). Fretted.

 

Then one night - inspiration!  Drop the fancy design. Build something simple - and tall to see over the bank LOL.

 

So we came up with a three storey building designed to look like a water mill. Took that to the planners. Got lucky and were assigned Grayson Perry's Officer (so to speak). He was happy with what we were trying to do. Architectural technician and I worked on the plans. Got them submitted and they were approved without going to committee. (From inspiration to approval took three months - phew ...)

 

Having said all that, the biggest stroke of luck we had was finding a team of builders we could work with, who were able to build it at a reasonable price (around £1,500 psm). That and having a good Architectural technician, and eventually finding a good Structural Engineer.

 

Those plans are pretty close to what we have built, internal and out. Moving in at Easter - fingers crossed etc etc etc

 

Many people on this site who have successfully got to the end of the journey move in, and subsequently spend a lot of time being distracted by defects and the mistakes they made. Seems like it can't be helped. (I know I will - I can list half a dozen right now). But at least I know when I look at the building, I am happy with what I designed.

 

If you built what you've planned for today, and subseqently decided it wasn't right, that would be a tough thing to live with.

 

So to address the original question - do not proceed until you are confident. In the scheme of things, £5k is small beer. 

 

(Not everybody will agree with me, but this is a place for opinions  )

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2017 by Fallingditch
typo

[Crofter]

I fretted too much over my design, and it wa only when I realised that all I was doing was farting about with partitions etc that I finally submitted planning drawings.

I'm still fretting occasionally now, even though the shell is up and I am about to start plasterboarding! I keep having this sudden urge to make the place open plan. It's probably what an architect would want me to do. But then you try to work out how the space would work as a home and it doesn't make so much sense.

I might start a thread on it, actually...

[Gone West]

Our plans changed a fair bit over the three designs, not because we wanted the changes, but because the planners forced it. We were just relieved when we finally got planning permission.

[divorcingjack]

We got to the day before submission of our warrant before pulling the whole package due to a last minute opportunity to buy some more land. It worked out much better in the end, but I could have cried because we had to basically junk the whole approved planning application and all the engineering and architect work done to date. It was an expensive (but hopefully) worthwhile decision. Tough though. 

 

I should add that the reason would couldn't just amend was that we had to change the whole orientation, access and height of the house, so it was a new application or nothing 

Edited March 22, 2017 by divorcingjack
addition of detail

[Russell griffiths]

Ok news update. 

 

It's a funny old world isn't it. 

So yesterday I turned up to a job that was a new build, very modern timber frame, timber cladding. I got talking to the owner and at break time told him my troubles and showed him our plans, he loved it. 

 

After work i bumped into a good neighbour who asked how things where going, I told him and showed him the plans. He loved it. 

 

so it must be I'm just an idiot. 

 

Meeting the the first guy did show me that we have designed it a bit to large as every one of our rooms was a good metre bigger than his in both directions, so going to try and squeeze it up a bit as I know the planners are going to have a fit when we send it in. 

And every metre is going to cost more dosh so it's going on a diet. 

Cheers russ. 

Edited March 23, 2017 by Russell griffiths
Poor spelling as usual

[joe90]

Well I designed our build over 20 years ago ( in my head) and it was not until I met my wife ( who had a plot with an old knackered bungalow on it) that I had somewhere to build, we just turned it round 90' luckily my wife liked the design, we both love cottages and it's the Devon countryside. What's not to like!

[Ferdinand]

12 hours ago, joe90 said:

Well I designed our build over 20 years ago ( in my head) and it was not until I met my wife ( who had a plot with an old knackered bungalow on it) that I had somewhere to build, we just turned it round 90' luckily my wife liked the design, we both love cottages and it's the Devon countryside. What's not to like!

 

That is one good strategy to find a plot that hadn't occurred to me ! 

 

I am reminded of Henry VII marrying Elizabeth of York.

 

(Takes care to choose relatively admirable English King who did not behead the wife).

 

Now where is an heiress who owns half of Gloucestershire and has the fortune to pay for me to develop it?

 

Ferdinand

 

[jack]

12 hours ago, joe90 said:

What's not to like!

 

The local planning process? 

[Russell griffiths]

21 hours ago, joe90 said:

Well I designed our build over 20 years ago ( in my head) and it was not until I met my wife ( who had a plot with an old knackered bungalow on it) that I had somewhere to build, we just turned it round 90' luckily my wife liked the design, we both love cottages and it's the Devon countryside. What's not to like!

So did you go looking for a wife and got a bonus building plot, or go looking for a plot that came with a bonus wife. 

Win win. Can she cook as well. 

Well done that man

[joe90]

6 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

So did you go looking for a wife and got a bonus building plot, or go looking for a plot that came with a bonus wife. 

Win win. Can she cook as well. 

Well done that man

No comment milud.

 

actually it was a blind date set up by our friends, her first question was "what do you want to do with your life", I said retire and build my cottage in the countryside and I don't care where." I asked her what she wanted to do with her life and she replied " I want to retire to where I come from, Devon, and I just happen to own my late fathers old timber and asbestos bungalow out in the sticks down there", ( and flattering her long eyelashes said) "but I don't have the resources to do it up or anything". Kerching ?

 

( not a bad cook)