Our self-build - what do you think? (Pictures!)
Discussion
So, the scaffold is down on our selfbuild... what do you think?
It's taken just under a year to build it and we've still got a bit of decorating to do. The house is in the local vernacular (one and a half stories, long and narrow and catslide dormers) and we've got a bit of space left for a garage and garden. After five years in a caravan, it's light, airy, warm, draught free and quite fantastically comfortable.
The boy's room:
A bit of the kitchen and gallery (need a wide angle lens)
Stone floor:
It's taken just under a year to build it and we've still got a bit of decorating to do. The house is in the local vernacular (one and a half stories, long and narrow and catslide dormers) and we've got a bit of space left for a garage and garden. After five years in a caravan, it's light, airy, warm, draught free and quite fantastically comfortable.
The boy's room:
A bit of the kitchen and gallery (need a wide angle lens)
Stone floor:
Simpo Two said:
I like the galleried landing, but dormer windows can be bad news if you are tall and get up in the middle of the night!
Loads of room in the bedrooms! The bottoms of the big beams are at eight foot, and the ceilings are nine foot something high so it's only in the corners that you run any risk of bumping your head.
Good work Tuna,
I take it the windows are ally, did they cost much more than UPVC? We just went the UPVC route and regretted it ever since, we have a big picture window to our vaulted lounge in ally and it looks superb in black.
Also love the guttering and downpipes, they will age nicely.
So, now your done, and living in it, I know you will think its worth it the sense of achievement is hard to compare, especially when you think it will be their long after your gone!
Any regrets though? minor ones like a room that could of been done with a foot or so more room, or a window that you would like to picke up and shift a few feet? or major ones such as 'why the hell did i think that would work'
Might have to put ours on PH at some point, when its tidy enough to take photos of!!
What air pressure test rating did you get in the end, you were aiming high i seem to remember (well, high in aim, low in scoring )
Edited by satans worm on Tuesday 28th September 15:26
Thanks for the great comments.
We've been so busy with the build that the blog is fantastically out of date. I'm planning a forensic reconstruction once I'm not spending the evenings putting up wallpaper, tiling, grouting, plumbing and fixing sockets onto walls. Total costs are currently unknown - we need to sit down and do our VAT claim, at which point we'll probably get a surprise. We certainly went over the £1000 per square metre 'ballpark' that we based the house size/budget on, but we managed not to run out of cash with a little help from family (the mortgage company went back on initial promises after the reality of the credit crisis hit).
The windows are Oak, with aluminium cladding - internally they look pretty traditional and externally we shouldn't need to paint or treat them for 20 years+. They are impressively high quality. The folding-sliding doors in the centre section match and are wonderful to throw open on a warm evening.
Any regrets? Not really. There are compromises in the house, but I think virtually all of them were part of the planning phase rather than things we 'got wrong' either in the design or build. It's amusing that people say it looks quite European - the tiles and render were the choice of the planners, who insisted they were very natural for the area. For those that don't know, the clay around here and for tens of miles all around is uniformly grey and most older houses were either finished in flint or timber. Of course it would be lovely if it was two foot bigger in every direction, but we were restricted by the planning rules which were particularly difficult as we're outside of any village boundary where any sort of new build is actively discouraged.
In design terms we are absolutely delighted in how well the house works. We've not put in all the 'built in' storage yet - no wardrobes in the bedrooms, but should be in a good state once that's done. It would have been nice to have an extra foot or so of space in the utility and family bathroom, but both still work well. The window cills in the dormers are actually an inch or so lower than ideal, but again not a problem.
No air pressure test yet - we've got to get our stove plumbed in first. No pictures of the lounge either as we've not decorated it yet, or got sofas. If anyone works in John Lewis, we know which one we want and can meet you round the back of the store with a pickup truck.
What else? The rainwater goods are Lindab, and the render is Weber - both to be recommended. The 'stone' floor is porcelain tiling over underfloor heating, lovely and warm in the morning.
The space above the kitchen isn't a problem for smells - we have whole house ventilation, so the place stays fresh and free of condensation or dust. If we really need to 'clear the air', there are two veluxes above the gallery which do the job.
Next year is going to be all about the garden and doing the garage.
We've been so busy with the build that the blog is fantastically out of date. I'm planning a forensic reconstruction once I'm not spending the evenings putting up wallpaper, tiling, grouting, plumbing and fixing sockets onto walls. Total costs are currently unknown - we need to sit down and do our VAT claim, at which point we'll probably get a surprise. We certainly went over the £1000 per square metre 'ballpark' that we based the house size/budget on, but we managed not to run out of cash with a little help from family (the mortgage company went back on initial promises after the reality of the credit crisis hit).
The windows are Oak, with aluminium cladding - internally they look pretty traditional and externally we shouldn't need to paint or treat them for 20 years+. They are impressively high quality. The folding-sliding doors in the centre section match and are wonderful to throw open on a warm evening.
Any regrets? Not really. There are compromises in the house, but I think virtually all of them were part of the planning phase rather than things we 'got wrong' either in the design or build. It's amusing that people say it looks quite European - the tiles and render were the choice of the planners, who insisted they were very natural for the area. For those that don't know, the clay around here and for tens of miles all around is uniformly grey and most older houses were either finished in flint or timber. Of course it would be lovely if it was two foot bigger in every direction, but we were restricted by the planning rules which were particularly difficult as we're outside of any village boundary where any sort of new build is actively discouraged.
In design terms we are absolutely delighted in how well the house works. We've not put in all the 'built in' storage yet - no wardrobes in the bedrooms, but should be in a good state once that's done. It would have been nice to have an extra foot or so of space in the utility and family bathroom, but both still work well. The window cills in the dormers are actually an inch or so lower than ideal, but again not a problem.
No air pressure test yet - we've got to get our stove plumbed in first. No pictures of the lounge either as we've not decorated it yet, or got sofas. If anyone works in John Lewis, we know which one we want and can meet you round the back of the store with a pickup truck.
What else? The rainwater goods are Lindab, and the render is Weber - both to be recommended. The 'stone' floor is porcelain tiling over underfloor heating, lovely and warm in the morning.
The space above the kitchen isn't a problem for smells - we have whole house ventilation, so the place stays fresh and free of condensation or dust. If we really need to 'clear the air', there are two veluxes above the gallery which do the job.
Next year is going to be all about the garden and doing the garage.
What a lovely job, I bet you're glad to be in after living in a caravan all that time. I love watching these grand design type programs, but I know how much hard work it must be so I'd never dare do it myself (just spent the last six months on and off just doing a kitchen/dinning room knock through so who knows how long I'd take doing a whole house). I love the galleried areas, though something inside me makes me want to use the space for more room upstairs as my landing is very wasteful of space and the main bedroom could have been made bigger, so I'm biased I suppose.
Looking forward to next pictures and when you finish the garden and garage...more power to your elbow.
Looking forward to next pictures and when you finish the garden and garage...more power to your elbow.
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