Very green but keen!

[Lew80]

Hi all,

Roughly a year ago I sold my house and decided to rent. I had been looking to buy another house but competition is fierce and the one house I had an offer accepted on fell through due to a chain. I always thought building your own house was for people on the TV and builders but I've been giving it some serious consideration and turned my attention to that for the past couple of weeks. I don't have many practical labouring skills and have made my living in IT so I will be hiring experts if I manage to proceed.

 

I'm currently going in circles at the moment with searching in rural areas in Norfolk for a plot, I find something, discover it is just outside the settlement boundary or the plot neighbors designated county greenery or the village is rejecting everything because they have exceeded their necessary building commitment. I talk myself out of these but I really don't know what I'm talking about! I don't know planning, I have no drawings and I haven't approached land owners. It's a chicken before the egg scenario!

 

I'm hoping to learn from your experiences on here.

 

Thanks 

Lew

[ProDave]

Hi and welcome.  As you are finding out the crux of a self build is finding a plot.  Harder in some places but Norfolk should not be too bad.  Are you looking at bare plots of land without planning and dismissing them as unlikely to get planning permission?  You are better off looking for plots that at least have outline planning permission or near derelict houses to knock down and rebuild.

[Jilly]

Or how about starting with a refurbishment before going the whole hog? You will gain a lot of DIY skills whilst living in the house which you could use on your self build later if you get the bug? 

[Jilly]

There's a Passive House retrofit open day in Norfolk this weekend, shows you exactly what can be done with an ugly old bungalow:   https://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/UserFiles/File/Events/2022/11.11 iPH Open Days_Winter Edition/Booking forms/2022 UK Passivhaus Open Days_The Willows_v2.pdf

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, Jilly said:

ugly old bungalow

Or Normal for Norfolk.

[Lew80]

On 08/11/2022 at 08:27, ProDave said:

Hi and welcome.  As you are finding out the crux of a self build is finding a plot.  Harder in some places but Norfolk should not be too bad.  Are you looking at bare plots of land without planning and dismissing them as unlikely to get planning permission?  You are better off looking for plots that at least have outline planning permission or near derelict houses to knock down and rebuild.

Thank you. Indeed it is certainly a skill.

 

I was looking for something that I could have at least a decent sized garden 0.5acre or so, the problem is that it would be deemed decent enough for a few homes when it comes to an outline planning permission sales and priced accordingly however I haven't seen too many. I guess you can throw away the plan and get your own design and go out for planning again, or do people buy the plot and just build what has been designed? Does that kind of defeat the point. I can away try something to gain the experience and allow me to move on.

 

The things I have seen I am debating that I'd get planning at the current time even if I could get the land owner to sell it. But yes all Greenfield. I need some more experience, for example even approaching someone to buy land off market I don't know what I'm doing, I have no idea about if it's suitable or what price to pay and I haven't go any support circle yet.

[Lew80]

On 08/11/2022 at 08:58, Jilly said:

Or how about starting with a refurbishment before going the whole hog? You will gain a lot of DIY skills whilst living in the house which you could use on your self build later if you get the bug? 

Thanks for the suggestion. My house I had before was a refurbishment someone who had lived in it 20 years and never done anything to it, including vacuum... It had green gunk electrical cables, no central heating, old everything. I had basically stripped that bare and then hired trades people and did some laboring to help with them. But very basic laboring. I didn't trust myself with finish work or cutting ect and I just paid for that. I really should improve on my DIY though.

I was pleased with what I achieved but it was a fairly basic finish except the kitchen was decent and one of the last things I had done to be fair.

 

Thanks so much for introducing me to the open day