I demolished your house, but I'm not moving the debris!

[Jeremy Harris]

Good points, @pdf27, describes what we did for the first 10 years or so after getting married (for the second time), buy cheap, run down places, do them up and save every single penny we could.  I suffered an early set back by getting married young, having my wife leave me and consequently losing over half of everything, so had to start again when I was in my early 30's.  As a working scientist I was never well paid, (although the job satisfaction and fun factor at work was tremendous) and my wife (the current one) was a paediatric nurse, so we weren't well off, and didn't move out of rented accommodation until I was 33.

 

In many respects I doubt our situation was much different to younger people today, TBH.  When we first bought a house mortgage rates were around 8 or 9% and quickly rose to around 14% or so, which seems unthinkable today, but somehow we managed.  One advantage was that we got used to spending vast amounts on our mortgage. so when the interest rates started to drop I chose to keep paying the same every month - made a massive difference to the total amount we repaid, and ultimately saved us a lot of money, as well as paying of the mortgage years early.

 

My income didn't rise much above my wife's until I took the decision to accept being moved into management in the mid-1990s, where my pay quadrupled over a period of about 15 years, and as I was on a final salary pension that made a hell of a difference.  The downside was I absolutely hated management, but saw it as a necessary evil to be able to do what we wanted to do in retirement.  My really lucky break was David Cameron being elected and introducing austerity, and I didn't even vote for his party.  That gave me a fantastic stroke of luck, in that I was allowed to retire at 57 with a full pension and gratuity, so I escaped the stress of being a bloody manager and had enough money to start seriously thinking about building a house and living as we'd always wanted to.  My job meant I had to moved around the country every 3 years or so for the last 18 years or so, so always ended up in pretty horrible houses in the main - we were never likely to stay in one long enough for it to really matter too much.

 

It's good to see younger people choosing to save and self-build.  Saving is, I think, the key thing.  It takes a hell of a lot of discipline to do it, and the rewards are often a long way off, but the combination of saving from an early age and making damned sure I had a decent pension (I can thank my late father for drumming the importance of a pension into me, time and time again) put us in the position where we could eventually start to self-build when I was 59.  We simply couldn't have done it before then, both because of lack of time and funds.

[Cpd]

3 hours ago, Onoff said:

I love the whole upcycling

 Same here, it’s my preferred choice. It’s not for everyone that’s for sure and I don’t push it but for me I love being resourceful and tracking down second hand kit and materials. I have been in both camps, once I ran a company that made a lot of money and I had less time to do the whole up-cycling, but that money enabled me to buy my place for cash. I now have VERY little money but I have an amazing property and am really enjoying the challenges of doing things well on a very small budget. Yes it’s taking an age....but I love the journey so it’s all good.

[Ferdinand]

 

On younger self-builders I think that @Visti (Graven Hill) and @Grosey (Cornwall) are both in that bracket. As is @Construction Channel, of course - though building on the family farm.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited August 24, 2018 by Ferdinand
Removed bit which misunderstood previous post.

[Ferdinand]

Oops. Clearly slightly mis-estimated at least one person's age.

Which way? Ferdy's not telling !

 

Several ladies taught me not to publish such statements a long time ago, given my age estimating lack-of-skills.

 

??

Edited August 24, 2018 by Ferdinand

[newhome]

58 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

A lot of my generation just don't save hard enough. Spend money on phones, running multiple cars etc. Or just mortgage themselves to the eye balls in a cheap poorly constructed developer house.

 

 

It’s about priorities too though. I never had any thoughts of building my own home EVER. And when I was younger (early 20s) i mortgaged myself to the top of what I could borrow to buy a crappy old terrace house with no heating and an avocado bathroom within commuting distance to my work in London. Interest rates on my mortgage hit 15% within a year. Ouch. Eventually I earned more, my negative equity resolved and I was able to sell (for about the same price as I bought but 12 years later) and move on. The vast majority of people will never aspire to build their own home or even renovate one. It’s a pretty niche group TBH. 

[Alexphd1]

Excuse me..... I am in the sub 40 category aswell?

 

Tbh I have a few friends that would be more than able to go down the self build route (main contractor) but they have no interest, they are more than happy just to go to the local developments stick there name and get the keys 12 months later. 

[newhome]

34 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

One advantage was that we got used to spending vast amounts on our mortgage. so when the interest rates started to drop I chose to keep paying the same every month - made a massive difference to the total amount we repaid, and ultimately saved us a lot of money, as well as paying of the mortgage years early.

 

+1. Managed to pay off my mortgage when I hit 40 and then save enough to buy the plot here. The sale of my old house was then enough to complete the build. There were some tough times in my 20s though. I had a book where I monitored every penny I had so as to afford to eat as well as pay the mortgage and bills. 

[newhome]

7 minutes ago, Alexphd1 said:

but they have no interest, they are more than happy just to go to the local developments stick there name and get the keys 12 months later. 

 

Welcome to the young ones as you younguns will now be known ?. Great to see so many under 40s realising a dream. That makes me feel ancient mind ?. 

 

Self building isn’t on many people’s list of must do things for sure! 

[pdf27]

58 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

It's good to see younger people choosing to save and self-build.  Saving is, I think, the key thing.  It takes a hell of a lot of discipline to do it, and the rewards are often a long way off, but the combination of saving from an early age and making damned sure I had a decent pension (I can thank my late father for drumming the importance of a pension into me, time and time again) put us in the position where we could eventually start to self-build when I was 59.  We simply couldn't have done it before then, both because of lack of time and funds.

I think there is one key difference with the saving - we've shifted from lower house prices & sky high interest rates to higher house prices & low interest rates (something I suspect is no coincidence). The amount people can afford to spend on a mortgage hasn't changed much, but the multiple of income it covers (and hence the multiple of income you have to save to have the same effect) has increased. I think that's maybe an underappreciated impact among the older generation, in much the same way as most of the younger generation's minds boggle at the thought of the bank manager telling you how to live your life.

Combined with rock-bottom interest rates for savings it makes saving towards a house significantly harder - I certainly couldn't have bought my first house without a lot of assistance from my family, despite having been saving like crazy for 5 years (living in someone's spare room and being in the TA so I didn't even pay for food most weekends and had no time for hobbies). If we do rebuild the current house (very, very close to pushing the button on starting the process now) it will only be possible through borrowing a very substantial amount of money from my siblings

[Stones]

I built my first house in my early 20's, primarily on the basis that having looked at a couple of terraced developer starter homes (I distinctly remember going into the first one and asking where the lounge was - the sales woman said your in it - a glorified corridor with staircase!) I worked out I could build something bigger, and detached by self building. 

 

I started out with precisely zero savings, borrowed to fund everything.  I (and my wife) made the decision to forgo holidays and material items to get the house we wanted.  It was a choice.  Scoffed at by others over the course of the years for being tight fisted and not having the latest mod cons, new car etc, the same people moan when it all comes together and you have a really nice house, and little or no mortgage.

 

I could have built my current house for a lot less if I had made different choices, but they were my choices.  I'll relate these in my blog in due course.  

[ProDave]

45 minutes ago, Stones said:

I built my first house in my early 20's, primarily on the basis that having looked at a couple of terraced developer starter homes (I distinctly remember going into the first one and asking where the lounge was - the sales woman said your in it - a glorified corridor with staircase!) I worked out I could build something bigger, and detached by self building. 

 

That is exactly what I wanted to do.  There was a building plot for sale at the time for £20K. It had an old timber, lath and plaster bungalow on it to be demolished and replaced. To be honest I would have lived in the old house, or a caravan in the garden until I could afford to build, but back then nobody would lend me money to buy this "plot" (it was unmortgageable as a house). So instead my only option was pay £36K for a starter home as you described

 

So that plot was on sale for 55% of the cost of a 1 bedroom starter home.  Given that the market value of that starter home is now about £200K, where are all the building plots in Oxfordshire for £110K?  That plot I was denied looked to be good value.

 

Like many others here, I started in a climate of high interest rates and high inflation.  The good thing about high inflation was it eroded you debt quite rapidly (assuming of course your salary kept up with inflation which mine did) and when interest rates went down like many others I just paid the same and paid of the mortgage much quicker.

[newhome]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Several ladies taught me not to publish such statements a long time ago, given my age estimating lack-of-skills.

 

Women always look younger. If you remember that you’ll always be fine ?

[Hecateh]

8 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

Women always look younger. If you remember that you’ll always be fine ?

Not very young women -  teenagers often try to look older - I guess it changed when they can legally do what they have been doing for the last 4 or 5 years anyway

 

[Jeremy Harris]

6 minutes ago, Hecateh said:

Not very young women -  teenagers often try to look older - I guess it changed when they can legally do what they have been doing for the last 4 or 5 years anyway

 

 

Teenagers of either gender try to look older, I think.  I remember going on holiday with some friends when I was around 17 and us all having a competition to grow the best moustache (droopy moustaches were fashionable at the time).  Our main motivation for wanting facial hair was so we'd more easily pass for 18 in a pub...

[newhome]

I remember trying to look 18 from the age of 14 in order to drink in pubs and go to X rated films lol. Nothing changes! ?

[Triassic]

I remember going into my local with a load of mates, the landlord asked what’s the occasion? It was my 18th, I’d already been a regular there for about four years!

[Construction Channel]

I started this when I was 27 and it had nothing to do with wanting to build my own house. I planned to do this in my 40s hopefully when I could afford it. BUT I just couldn’t get a mortgage to buy a house in this area. Plan was to buy, renovate sell and so on. Problem was being able to buy the first one. So I am now in a position where I have to build 7 days a week, can’t afford to get anyone in to speed it up. My wife lives with my parents and has done for over 5 years now.  I’m so bloody arrogant that I’m adamant that I’ll build my own stairs which is taking months longer than it should do which....... why did you all drag me into this. I’ll piss doing this for under 1k/m2 but I’m not happy about it yet. Grrrr why would anybody build their own house, 

[Onoff]

28 minutes ago, Construction Channel said:

I started this when I was 27 and it had nothing to do with wanting to build my own house. I planned to do this in my 40s hopefully when I could afford it. BUT I just couldn’t get a mortgage to buy a house in this area. Plan was to buy, renovate sell and so on. Problem was being able to buy the first one. So I am now in a position where I have to build 7 days a week, can’t afford to get anyone in to speed it up. My wife lives with my parents and has done for over 5 years now.  I’m so bloody arrogant that I’m adamant that I’ll build my own stairs which is taking months longer than it should do which....... why did you all drag me into this. I’ll piss doing this for under 1k/m2 but I’m not happy about it yet. Grrrr why would anybody build their own house, 

 

Don't forget you've got to make all the doors too!

[Construction Channel]

12 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Don't forget you've got to make all the doors too!

Luckily I bought the doors when Howdens were having a clear out for £5 each. But that’s little consolation ??

[newhome]

54 minutes ago, Construction Channel said:

My wife lives with my parents and has done for over 5 years now.  I’m so bloody arrogant that I’m adamant that I’ll build my own stairs which is taking months longer than it should do which.....

 

It's lucky the wife loves you 

 

[Tennentslager]

Seemingly there's one hut per every 11 scandavians, so one per every single extended family and pretty much everyone has access.

Owning a second 'home' carries no stigma as it's so universal and does not have the economic impact as here what with holiday home ownership etc.

My point is...you can have a cheap, comfortable away place and built it yourself on a meagre budget.

Me and swmbo work in the voluntary sector so not the best pay and unfortunately poor pensions too...but...we could afford a really nice holiday hut.

This is an initiative worth pushing as it blends DIY, upcycling and nature. If more of us had family huts, self build houses would not seem such a far away dream.

And for the record, I top the leader board for £ per sq/m... furnished for under £300.???

[newhome]

3 minutes ago, Tennentslager said:

If more of us had family huts, self build houses would not seem such a far away dream.

 

Where would you put them all on this overcrowded island though? 

[dpmiller]

I'm 47 and put off/ talked myself out of this journey until we were mortgage free. For context tho, I bought the house we're in now when I was 20, I *wanted* to own a house then and paying even that £25k mortgage was hard work for the first years. But it's the choice I made.

[Tennentslager]

10 minutes ago, newhome said:

13 minutes ago, Tennentslager said:

If more of us had family huts, self build houses would not seem such a far away dream.

 

Where would you put them all on this overcrowded island though? 

We are not overcrowded...really we are not, even in the south east.

I used to go to Oasis, now CentreParcs by Penrith. Driving the A66 you see the forested hill from a couple of miles away...you'd never know there's hundreds of posh lodges et al nestled in there.

It is very possible but not cultural which is very hard to change.

Check out Google maps, there really is NO shortage of land almost anywhere in the UK

[newhome]

Just now, Tennentslager said:

Check out Google maps, there really is NO shortage of land almost anywhere in the UK

 

You're not allowed to put anything on most of it though (which is a different problem I know ...).