Bought a field, building a house
Discussion
Fantastic project OP, I wish you the very best for a speedy and trouble free build! 
We just completed something very similar over the last two years: Farmer sold off fairly generous plots in a field, and had the sewage/digester system installed and piped to the 4 plots. After that it was up to us to design and build whatever we wanted, within the bounds of planning of course.
It took around 18 months from start to finish. Covid slowed us down quite a bit as we started just as the first lockdown hit, and you couldn't even buy a pallet of blocks as everywhere had shut down, and materials were quite slow to obtain throughout the build, but thankfully we were just about finished before all the daft price rises happened.
The whole process for us was a mixture of joy and frustration as you can imagine with a self build, but ultimately we got there in the end.
Good luck and enjoy your new home!
We just completed something very similar over the last two years: Farmer sold off fairly generous plots in a field, and had the sewage/digester system installed and piped to the 4 plots. After that it was up to us to design and build whatever we wanted, within the bounds of planning of course.
It took around 18 months from start to finish. Covid slowed us down quite a bit as we started just as the first lockdown hit, and you couldn't even buy a pallet of blocks as everywhere had shut down, and materials were quite slow to obtain throughout the build, but thankfully we were just about finished before all the daft price rises happened.
The whole process for us was a mixture of joy and frustration as you can imagine with a self build, but ultimately we got there in the end.
Good luck and enjoy your new home!
Simir said:
Does the property to your right have a glazed gable as this would be looking directly at your house?
No, it’s a blank gable with no windows. Only ones they have looking our way are set way further back and very small, bathroom sized affairs.Naturally we’re not planning on having anything looking their way. The windows will be north/west/south facing.
emicen said:
Its too early for trying to successfully multiquote on the replies 
The farmer has installed the signed off tanks in the 8 complete properties and the 5 currently in build, so fingers crossed/touch wood, hopefully ours is also in the correct place. Their locations/orientations are marked out on the overall development’s plans but I don’t see any dimensions to verify the location.
Total plot size is 1.2 acres, access via private road which is shared between all the houses. We are the last house in the initial tranche of 10, the road hooks a left immediately after [what will be] our drive, leading to the later additional 5 units.
There’s no mains gas supply and the design guide pushes towards alternative heat sources. GSHP isn’t brilliantly suited to the stodgy clay we have all through the central belt from what I have been reading, so it’ll be insulated to the eyeballs and running ASHPs with underfloor. Solar PV [+battery] is on my agenda, they’ll certainly by installed on the garage block, just trying to convince SWMBO on the rest of the house.
Had never heard of a Potton house before. If our plot was down Oulton Park way, maybe. Not really in keeping with either of our tastes or styles tbh.
id certainly look at ASHP or GSHP, anything else is not simply not looking to the future on a luxury build like yours will beThe farmer has installed the signed off tanks in the 8 complete properties and the 5 currently in build, so fingers crossed/touch wood, hopefully ours is also in the correct place. Their locations/orientations are marked out on the overall development’s plans but I don’t see any dimensions to verify the location.
Total plot size is 1.2 acres, access via private road which is shared between all the houses. We are the last house in the initial tranche of 10, the road hooks a left immediately after [what will be] our drive, leading to the later additional 5 units.
There’s no mains gas supply and the design guide pushes towards alternative heat sources. GSHP isn’t brilliantly suited to the stodgy clay we have all through the central belt from what I have been reading, so it’ll be insulated to the eyeballs and running ASHPs with underfloor. Solar PV [+battery] is on my agenda, they’ll certainly by installed on the garage block, just trying to convince SWMBO on the rest of the house.
Had never heard of a Potton house before. If our plot was down Oulton Park way, maybe. Not really in keeping with either of our tastes or styles tbh.
Id see if you can find someone who does this, https://www.ecohome.net/guides/3364/aerobarrier-ho... looks like an amazing idea, i remember when i build my home in the UK and got a pressure test i was shocked at the amount of leakage on new windows and other areas. around light switches etc, this removes all this and will seal your place up tight
On things to add, vaulted ceilings and roof lights add grandeur to kitchen/ diner /lounge environments so would def be putting that in. i would look to the future on products, that last, weather well with little maintenance and pay the extra at the time, you only build it once, in 20 years time your will be thankful everything is tight and looks good with no hassle
oh, and id get your kidney and maybe half your liver ready to be advertised on ebay, your want the cash
Edited by satans worm on Thursday 25th August 19:47
Andeh1 said:
Equus said:
caziques said:
Bottom lines:
Underfloor heating
No fossil fuel boiler
Enclosed showers
Proper heat recovery/ventilation system (two fan)
Orientate for solar gain in winter
Shade from the summer sun
Plan for solar PV
Underfloor heating
No fossil fuel boiler
Enclosed showers
Proper heat recovery/ventilation system (two fan)
Orientate for solar gain in winter
Shade from the summer sun
Plan for solar PV
What you get when a heating engineer designs your house...
Reality is, even current building regulations will ensure your house is well insulated to the tune of "pretty cheap" energy bills, and insulation/energy saving systems will have progressingly less impact on bills, as per law of diminishing returns. So biasing/compromising budget and design to save an extra £10 a month doesn't make sense.
As for OP, we are about 2/3rds of the way through our new build project (big bungalow build thread), so best of luck with the project!!
Or so plus being more independent is only a good thing. Future proof!
emicen said:
Our architect visited the site some time ago in order to get a feel for it and the concept is largely developed on relating the building to the land. We’re a couple of ridge lines up from where our current house is, central scotland is not flat so it doesn’t make sense to build a big flat house.
We only have a neighbour to one side to really consider and the design he has created is more about looking inward to our plot, or north / south to the hills beyond, and largely obscuring the neighbours’ property to the east.
His first pass:
I won’t lie, we went to the first meeting with the architect having given him an outline of what we were after, not really knowing what to expect or how much more detail we would need to give. We were absolutely blown away when he had already created a concept model!
No not interested in the numbers just the mechanics and timings.We only have a neighbour to one side to really consider and the design he has created is more about looking inward to our plot, or north / south to the hills beyond, and largely obscuring the neighbours’ property to the east.
His first pass:
I won’t lie, we went to the first meeting with the architect having given him an outline of what we were after, not really knowing what to expect or how much more detail we would need to give. We were absolutely blown away when he had already created a concept model!
Edited by emicen on Wednesday 24th August 16:17
fuzzymonkey said:
Is there a reason the farmer has sold the land like this rather than just selling the field in one go?
Far more money to be made selling individual plots to private buyers. If you sell individual plots to the general public, you could flog them for, £200k, £300k, £400k each, or more/less depending on the location and size. If you wanted to sell the field as a whole in one sale, the only people who would be interested in buying would be developers/builders, and they would want to pay an awful lot less per plot.
Some progress has been made.
Planning application should go in this weekend hopefully. Architect has all the designs, retained land owners and project outline architect buy in to them, desk study complete and full site investigations started.
Ground gas monitoring required on account of the location, so we have 3 of these in place for the next 6 weeks to complete analysis.
Hopefully get to digging in spring when the weather improves a bit.
Planning application should go in this weekend hopefully. Architect has all the designs, retained land owners and project outline architect buy in to them, desk study complete and full site investigations started.
Ground gas monitoring required on account of the location, so we have 3 of these in place for the next 6 weeks to complete analysis.
Hopefully get to digging in spring when the weather improves a bit.
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