Just bought some land!

[mjc55]

Well, hello to everyone and just wanted to introduce ourselves and our project.

 

Having toyed with the idea of a self-build for many years we have just bought a plot at auction last week!

 

We live in the SW, although originally hail from Manchester and moved South in 1990.

 

Having first lived in Berkshire, then Wiltshire for 25 years we are currently renting in Somerset.

 

We sold our house of twenty odd years a couple of years ago to look for a plot and last Friday were lucky enough to win an auction for a plot of land around a quarter of an acre in size.  My goodness what a tense process that was!

 

So, I will in the fullness of time, post some pictures but will wait to complete later this month before doing that.

 

Ever since we were married 40 years ago we have worked on the houses we have lived in, and for a period of time in the 2000's bought a couple of houses to develop.  I then decided after giving up my career in IT to do an Architectural Technology degree at UWE, subsequently working for myself designing extensions until I retired a couple of years ago.

 

These forums look like a great place for picking minds and finding answers the many questions that I am sure that I will generate over the coming months.  For my part hopefully I will be able to contribute some of my knowledge and experiences.

[Crofter]

Welcome! Sounds like you've got a good skill set and have had plenty of time to think up some ideas.

What style/size/construction are you leaning towards?

[Nick Brown]

Sounds exciting, we are doing the same 👍

[mjc55]

1 hour ago, Crofter said:

Welcome! Sounds like you've got a good skill set and have had plenty of time to think up some ideas.

What style/size/construction are you leaning towards?

 

Single storey, fairly modern style is what we are leaning towards.  Probably around 100 sq. m., maybe a little bigger.   We really don't require masses of space but that decision hasn't been made yet.

 

An inspirational idea could be found with the attached, although not as much glass as that and certainly would need to be cheaper than the £3.6k per sq. m. that apparently cost.  But it gives a general idea of what direction we would want to be moving in.

 

Given our experiences over the last 40 years we would want to do as much work as is possible (I built a single storey extension on our last house as recently as 2016) but again that is something that we need to look at as we start the process.

 

The current (putative) plan is to look at moving out of our rental as soon as is possible, and so to that end we would probably look at buying some form of mobile home to park on site.  There currently are no services to that site (although all run along the lane outside the land).  We are about a 20 minute drive from the site so not too far but being on site will obviously be more advantageous in the long run.

 

We are currently in the adrenaline fueled excitement of purchasing the plot but I am not naive enough to think that this will last forever.  I envisage some "interesting" times ahead but I guess that as this process has been running in the background for such a long time that we can cope with the ups and downs of the build process.  

[Andehh]

Very exciting! Not a million miles off our design....

 

Good luck!

Edited November 5, 2023 by Andehh

[mjc55]

10 minutes ago, Andehh said:

Very exciting! Not a million miles off our design....

 

Good luck!

 

Wow that looks great.

 

Whereabouts are you in UK?

 

Would you be happy to discuss in more depth offline from the forum?

 

Cheers

 

Martin

 

[Andehh]

Yes happy to, if you want to pm an email address I'll respond!

 

I'm snowed under early week, but I'll come back to you.

[ProDave]

I take it this plot of land does have some form of planning permissions?

 

You probably want to resubmit planning for the house you want, and include on that temporary planning for a static caravan as accommodation while you build.  You can buy a second hand static for not a lot of money.  Many on here have been temporary caravan dwellers, including me (twice)

[mjc55]

19 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I take it this plot of land does have some form of planning permissions?

 

You probably want to resubmit planning for the house you want, and include on that temporary planning for a static caravan as accommodation while you build.  You can buy a second hand static for not a lot of money.  Many on here have been temporary caravan dwellers, including me (twice)

Yes, OPP for house.  Will definitely have to submit a full PP application 

[mjc55]

34 minutes ago, Andehh said:

Yes happy to, if you want to pm an email address I'll respond!

 

I'm snowed under early week, but I'll come back to you.

 

Probably being a numpty here but can't see a PM facilty!

[saveasteading]

39 minutes ago, mjc55 said:

can't see a PM facilty

Dab the person's name and a screen comes up with a mail icon on it.

Unless they have disabled the option.

 

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Andehh said:

our design

 @AndehhI've done this style a few times  but always much bigger and  as a steel frame. I think timber might be better here.

What width is that roughly?

 

The oversails are worth a lot of attention as they can be expensive or not.  I quote a client £150/m run to see how much they like it.

Don't forget you'll need a column in the corner. I'd make a feature of it a la Pompidou Centre.

 

@mjc55 steel frame then timber  batten?

OR find a design by strom, as recently discussed. They seem to be standard, so maybe they have found an ideal solution, not that the price level reflects that. 

 

[SteamyTea]

Welcome.

Check the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) situation before you start anything.

Don't want to get clobbered for a few grand.

[mjc55]

11 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Welcome.

Check the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) situation before you start anything.

Don't want to get clobbered for a few grand.

 

I did look at the CIL, self-build should be OK.

 

Thanks

[ProDave]

Just now, mjc55 said:

 

I did look at the CIL, self-build should be OK.

 

Thanks

As long as you apply for the self build exemption before you put a spade in the ground.  That bit is important.

[SteamyTea]

Just now, mjc55 said:

 

I did look at the CIL, self-build should be OK.

 

Thanks

But you may hit problems if you put services in for the caravan.

Limited to a bit of gardening really.

 

[mjc55]

14 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

 @AndehhI've done this style a few times  but always much bigger and  as a steel frame. I think timber might be better here.

What width is that roughly?

 

The oversails are worth a lot of attention as they can be expensive or not.  I quote a client £150/m run to see how much they like it.

Don't forget you'll need a column in the corner. I'd make a feature of it a la Pompidou Centre.

 

@mjc55 steel frame then timber  batten?

OR find a design by strom, as recently discussed. They seem to be standard, so maybe they have found an ideal solution, not that the price level reflects that. 

 

 

Very early days, lots to think about but I would suspect that oversails would not be cheap and detailing to stop cold bridging important.

 

Strom as in Strom Architects?

[mjc55]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

As long as you apply for the self build exemption before you put a spade in the ground.  That bit is important.

 

Yes, timing seems to be the key, lots to organise in the coming weeks and months.

[mjc55]

1 minute ago, SteamyTea said:

But you may hit problems if you put services in for the caravan.

Limited to a bit of gardening really.

 

 

I do need to follow this up, will be very careful re CIL and starting.

 

Does need a lot of clearing though, full Summers growth of Nettles unfortunately (apart from the opportunity to make nettle tea!)

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, mjc55 said:

Does need a lot of clearing though

Kill everything, just incase there is something interesting to ecologist.

[mjc55]

3 hours ago, ProDave said:

I take it this plot of land does have some form of planning permissions?

 

You probably want to resubmit planning for the house you want, and include on that temporary planning for a static caravan as accommodation while you build.  You can buy a second hand static for not a lot of money.  Many on here have been temporary caravan dwellers, including me (twice)

 

We are definitely contemplating temporary accommodation, what would you say was "not a lot of money"?  I didn't realise that this would need to be included with planning, will look into that.

[Andehh]

3 hours ago, saveasteading said:

 @AndehhI've done this style a few times  but always much bigger and  as a steel frame. I think timber might be better here.

What width is that roughly?

 

The oversails are worth a lot of attention as they can be expensive or not.  I quote a client £150/m run to see how much they like it.

Don't forget you'll need a column in the corner. I'd make a feature of it a la Pompidou Centre.

 

@mjc55 steel frame then timber  batten?

OR find a design by strom, as recently discussed. They seem to be standard, so maybe they have found an ideal solution, not that the price level reflects that. 

 

 

It's 1.5m horizontal, about 1.8 of actual overhang. Down the side it's only 800mm. About 23sqm of surface area based on the cladding we put on.

 

Brick and block with some serious steels to hold it all up, especially as its a floating corner that is suspending the overhang! Sliders are 5m on one side and 3m other side.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Andehh

[saveasteading]

4 hours ago, mjc55 said:

detailing to stop cold bridging important.

 

Strom as in Strom Architects?

Yes it is tricky to insulate and to make airtight.

and yes, see last week's discussion...a new name to me and  a new cost level.

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Andehh said:

some serious steels to hold it all up, especially as its a floating corner that is suspending the overhang! 

Very impressive. A lot of steel for the omission of a column, and fun for your SE,  but it does look good.

From the first pic I thought it was half the size.

 

Where does the valley gutter drain to?

[saveasteading]

3 hours ago, mjc55 said:

didn't realise that this would need to be included with planning

Most Scottish councils accept a caravan by default. Perhaps some England and Wales do too. Anyway, it shouldn't be contentious but you need to show it.