Bought a field, building a house
Discussion
Wilco500 said:
Will watch this thread with interest. Just put planning in myself for a new build on the sea in Scotland. Look forward to your updates.
That sounds great, are you going to do a thread too please? Would be interested how you found a plot and got permission, as I'd like to look into doing similar one day if the stars and planets align for me.
Lord Marylebone said:
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 specific areas were identified as eligible for such schemes based on the area’s mining past and its social & environmental legacy.
There aren’t many developers operate to a business model where they buy 10 acres to only be able to put up 10 houses.
We’re on land that has never seen historic mining but land very close by was covered by an opencast permit. We’ve had a certain element of additional environmental hoops needing jumped through where we are, if we were on the area covered by the permit, even though it was never actually touched, we’d be another several grand down on our site surveys with 30m+ boreholes being required.
Bannock said:
That sounds great, are you going to do a thread too please? Would be interested how you found a plot and got permission, as I'd like to look into doing similar one day if the stars and planets align for me.
In our case, sign visible from the road saying plots available. Our plans had to fit in with the outline planning permission for the crofts, something an individual plot wouldn’t have to worry about although it’s likely certain elements of what is fitting for a countryside location would apply.Not a speedy process all things considered. Whilst we are the final plot, the first applications went in 15 years ago for the initial permissions and the first houses weren’t built until (I think) about 6-7 years ago.
Edited by emicen on Monday 10th April 11:32
Bannock said:
That sounds great, are you going to do a thread too please? Would be interested how you found a plot and got permission, as I'd like to look into doing similar one day if the stars and planets align for me.
Yes plan to, I actually run a mortgage lender and we are looking to launch a self build mortgage product so this will be a good test case of what a borrower really needs during financing, I'll be taking finance from a usual provider and improving where I can. Brief update to say, not a lot to update on really. Planning application has been submitted.
In the mean time, National Planning Framework 4 was adopted, which meant we needed to include an ecological assessment in the application. We didn’t know this before hand and finding a qualified ecologist to carry out the preliminary ecological assessment required by planning was interesting, funnily enough, they’re in quite high demand!
Report completed and all was good, in their opinion we’re not endangering any species and there are a number of measures in our plans to support and enhance biodiversity.
It actually was something we had considered before ever hearing of NPF4. Whilst our current house has good access to nature, the new place is in nature. That’s a big part of the draw and something we really wanted to foster.
So, work in progress, should hear in about a month.
For the record, it’s a soak away style pond, not an outdoor pool
In the mean time, National Planning Framework 4 was adopted, which meant we needed to include an ecological assessment in the application. We didn’t know this before hand and finding a qualified ecologist to carry out the preliminary ecological assessment required by planning was interesting, funnily enough, they’re in quite high demand!
Report completed and all was good, in their opinion we’re not endangering any species and there are a number of measures in our plans to support and enhance biodiversity.
It actually was something we had considered before ever hearing of NPF4. Whilst our current house has good access to nature, the new place is in nature. That’s a big part of the draw and something we really wanted to foster.
So, work in progress, should hear in about a month.
For the record, it’s a soak away style pond, not an outdoor pool
Edited by emicen on Monday 10th April 13:17
The plot and outline design look great. I'm not too far away from you over in Kirknewton.
I had a look at the planning application online and it's a seriously impressive house! Good luck with the build.
I've just finished a self-build and moved in a couple of months ago so feel free to give me a shout if you'd like to discuss any of it. We did timber kit, ASHP, underfloor heating so similar build principles.
I had a look at the planning application online and it's a seriously impressive house! Good luck with the build.
I've just finished a self-build and moved in a couple of months ago so feel free to give me a shout if you'd like to discuss any of it. We did timber kit, ASHP, underfloor heating so similar build principles.
Equus said:
The rest of the stuff is hardly top of the list when it comes to writing a design brief.
Of cause not, but it probably should be.It is LONG way from being a pasivhous, not helped by 120yo solid uninsulated walls, but our house has large bay windows on the south side, and the kitchen on the north side. Which means even at this time of year we are significantly benefiting from solar gain to the living rooms which are also lovely an bright an airy, and even in the heat waves the kitchen and pantry is lovely and cool. We seem to have forgotten to factor in to orientation of the house these days.
Underfloor heating in a no-brainer in terms of getting the emitter sizing for modern low flow temp heating installations, be that a condensing gas boiler, or critically, an heat pump based system. And a having good airtightness and a MHRV system makes a lovely house and a huge difference to heating requirements.
emicen said:
Plot
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!
Looks awesome. I'm in!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!
dhutch said:
We seem to have forgotten to factor in to orientation of the house these days.
Not at all. Any competent architect will bear it in mind throughout the design process; merely that (as I suggested), there are invariably other constraints and opportunities that take a higher precedence. Allowing solar orientation to dictate everything else is tail wagging dog.
Relatively high level of airtightness is a given, these days, just to comply with Regs on a new-build, so not something the client really needs to worry about.
Bannock said:
Wilco500 said:
Will watch this thread with interest. Just put planning in myself for a new build on the sea in Scotland. Look forward to your updates.
That sounds great, are you going to do a thread too please? Would be interested how you found a plot and got permission, as I'd like to look into doing similar one day if the stars and planets align for me.Anyway... here ya' go. The blog was more therapy than anything else, as I was stressed - to say the least! :>>> http://www.stevecarter.com/build/build.htm
akirk said:
surely solar orientation is critical - otherwise how do you position the morning room etc?!
I can't remember the last time I designed a house with a morning room! 
The reality for most people is that the plot dictates the orientation more than the sun.
Of course, if we can take advantage of solar orientation - whilst making other aspects of the design work - then we do so, but it's some way from top of the list. Here in England there is also now Part O of the Building Regulations to consider.
GetCarter said:
Bannock said:
Wilco500 said:
Will watch this thread with interest. Just put planning in myself for a new build on the sea in Scotland. Look forward to your updates.
That sounds great, are you going to do a thread too please? Would be interested how you found a plot and got permission, as I'd like to look into doing similar one day if the stars and planets align for me.Anyway... here ya' go. The blog was more therapy than anything else, as I was stressed - to say the least! :>>> http://www.stevecarter.com/build/build.htm
k in Berkshire, within 20 minutes walk of a fast train to London, in an already built house where it is very nice. 
Equus said:
Relatively high level of airtightness is a given, these days, just to comply with Regs on a new-build, so not something the client really needs to worry about.
Given recent threads about draught newbuilds, I wouldn't agree with that at all.You should be absolutely correct, but sadly in reality a lot of new builds with poorly fitting brickwork and final finishing, including the use of 'dot and dab' plasterboard, are in no way guaranteed to have any better airtightness performance than a well made house with conventional plaster from the 80, 90s. Although I am sure there where also poorly made and very leaky houses in the 80s and 90s too!
Overall, and certainly if you wind the clock back far enough, it is an improving trend. But certainly a very long way from where it could or should be.
Equus said:
akirk said:
surely solar orientation is critical - otherwise how do you position the morning room etc?!
I can't remember the last time I designed a house with a morning room! The reality for most people is that the plot dictates the orientation more than the sun
Of course, if we can take advantage of solar orientation - whilst making other aspects of the design work - then we do so, but it's some way from top of the list. Here in England there is also now Part O of the Building Regulations to consider.
That exact thing happened when we built our house 2 years ago. The house faces South (fractionally SE), which means the garden/patio area to the rear faces North, as do the large glazed sections of the house at the back. There isn't anything we could do about this, as we naturally wanted the house to face the road, for obvious reasons. It would look very, very odd otherwise. The road being South of the plot.
To be fair, it works out well though. Throughout summer, from about 1:30-2pm the sun has moved round sufficiently that it is pretty much shining right onto the patio area, and 'full sun' continues until it sets behind the forest in the distance, which is pretty nice to watch from the patio.
GetCarter said:
In case you missed it, I did this in 2005/7. Might be worth a read. It's a LOT easier now in Scotland as planning regs have been eased considerably, and there are now firms that will do a 'turn key' policy.
Anyway... here ya' go. The blog was more therapy than anything else, as I was stressed - to say the least! :>>> http://www.stevecarter.com/build/build.htm
Thanks for posting that, I've just spent a couple of hours in awe at your surroundings!Anyway... here ya' go. The blog was more therapy than anything else, as I was stressed - to say the least! :>>> http://www.stevecarter.com/build/build.htm
(I passed close by in 2019 when naviating the NC500, when I went thru Shieldaig by the looks of it)
Apologies for thread de-rail
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