Build your dream home in the country

[Bonner]

On Channel 5 last night. Interesting prefab build, on a spectacular site with nice finishing details.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11732091/amp/Couple-spend-1-1million-building-dream-Scandinavian-home-Scotland.html

[ProDave]

I watched that.  Interesting, for all the wrong reasons

 

The first being, why did he pay £150K for a plot on North Uist?  Just take a look at the bottom end of properties for sale on the Western Isles, one of the cheapest places in the UK  lots of cheap plots and crofts  https://www.western-isles-properties.com/properties-search/?sortby=price-asc

 

Then he spent £1.1M building the house, shipped 600 miles from a factory in North wales on 7 oversize loads, the largest built to match the bow door size on the ferry!!!

 

So a total of £1.25M for his 5 bedroom house.

 

A quick search shows the most expensive house currently for sale on the Western Isles (actually now sold) is £465K  So he has spent over twice the ceiling price for his dream house.

https://www.hebridespropertyfinder.com/property-for-sale/detail/77771

 

That's okay if you can afford it and you want something individual and are not expecting to ever sell it.  But slightly ironic as the opening bit of the program tells you how building your dream home saves you money over buying...........

 

The local gossip might be interesting.

 

[Kelvin]

There are several very expensive houses on the Islands. I’ve been in one that cost similar money. Me being me I knocked on their door to tell them their house was stunning and they invited me to look round it 😂 

[SteamyTea]

Others over paying for property helps push the local values up.

The canny investor will buy up the cheap stuff, do (expletive deleted) all, and reap the benefits of the local, above inflation, price rises.

[MR10]

I've been enjoying the series so far and last night's episode was no exception. I was disappointed there was no mention of the insulation thickness, u values, air tightness etc. I may have missed it but I can't remember if they mentioned how the house is heated. 

For that sort of money I'll be wanting a certified passive house. Missed opportunity I think.

[ProDave]

I got the impression the insulation would be good, at one point they were making engineered hollow box section timber beams, and filling the void down the middle with insulation.  But these programs never tell you the interesting stuff like U values, what heating system etc.  UFH would be hard on a modular build if installed at the factory for instance, but they mentioned the flooring would be done on site so it might have been?  The only visible heat source was a stove, on an island with hardly any trees so that will all be probably expensive bought in wood.

[Kelvin]

  On 10/02/2023 at 09:57, MR10 said:

I've been enjoying the series so far and last night's episode was no exception. I was disappointed there was no mention of the insulation thickness, u values, air tightness etc. I may have missed it but I can't remember if they mentioned how the house is heated. 

For that sort of money I'll be wanting a certified passive house. Missed opportunity I think.

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The public don’t care about that. Remember when Top Gear used to tell you how big the boot was. Now they blow up caravans. 

[LSB]

I watched the episode yesterday building a big extension, they showed the trenches, almost entirely in clay, yet only 1m.

We have been told we have to have between 1.6 & 2.4 where we have clay.

Original house had already been underpinned.

 

Also, the concrete they poured had a very high (or is it low) slump, looked like water, and then said it could be built on in 2 days which I was surprised at.

 

But, this program, in my opinion is much better than some of the others as they do talk about some of the building bits.