Self Build House Story

I have shown the pictoral progress of my house build. It starts with the pictures of the land when I bought it and progresses to the end of the house build and even on to present day. Hopefully it will give you an idea of how my house build unfolded. Your self build could be similar.

This is what I have been looking to purchase for a long time. I have finally found my dream selfbuild plot. Now I can start planning the design and style of my house.

There is going to be a lot of groundwork to do, so I purchase an "old banger" JCB. It has oil leaks, all the gears do not work, the tyres are bald but the engine starts. I have never driven a JCB before so I drive it into the wettest part of the land and get it bogged down, it has to be left there for the next 2 months waiting for dry land.

The services (gas, water, electric, telephone) have to be installed in a 150m trench from the main road. After the services are installed I can order the 20 lorry loads of hardcore needed for the driveway.

There are no other houses around my land, so I need to construct a security compound for the storage of materials. The secure cabin was purchased from a plant auction and only broken into once during the build!

This was a very satisfying time. I had pegged out the site, the JCB had dug the foundations and I am in the process of removing the soil crumb from the bottom of the trenches and the building inspector will be visiting site to check out the foundations. As you can see from the foliage, this is a nice time of year, about the end of June.

Building materials start to arrive on site. All we await now is for the stonemasons and labourers to turn up on site. Tradesmen prove to be the most unreliable people and only turn up when they want to.

Actual house building started on the 4th of July. After all the planning, I can now see the stone walls going up.

View of the house and the surrounding area. The self build is starting to give us an idea of the size of the completed house. It is now looking bigger than was at first expected after the apparently small foundation footprint. One visitor asked us why we were building a "shoebox" in such a wonderful location.

Getting up to 1st floor level. Due for our 1st stage inspection for the mortgage payment. Not very good for us, they only value the work at about 33% of what I have actually paid out. This is where the Accelerator is the best, payments at the beginning of each stage.

Now we have got up to wallplate level, the JCB has been very helpful again. At weekends we have been using the JCB to load blocks and stone up onto the scaffold and 1st floor level.

Roof trusses have been fitted onto the wallplate. It was interesting to find out that the roof trusses had to be stacked in a certain way so that they do not warp and bend.

The natural blue slates are being installed on the roof. We cannot wait until the house is watertight so that the inside work can begin. It would have been a lot quicker with a timber frame construction.

The windows have now been installed. I now board up all of the windows so that the house becomes secure, the double glasing units will have to wait until the house is nearer completion and we are ready to move in.

We now jump quite few months, it is difficult to take good pictures of interior work (especially when the windows are covered over and it is dark). It is block paving time. I have decided to lay the 200m of block paving myself, with the help of my boys.

This gives you an overall impression of the front of the house.

Next the boys and myself tackle the landscaping, with the help of the trusty JCB. Basically we are sorting the soil and laying the turf.

I have now sold the building plot next door to my house, so we can afford the luxury of a conservatory. I laid all the foundations, the stonework was done by the same builder.

The house is nearing its final completion which includes the conservatory, lawns, block paving and landscaping. Final completion, no it will never end, we will always be adding or changing some part of the house as our families needs change.

An extremely sad day. I have decided that the JCB has done all of the work that is needed for my house build, it has been sold and will go on to help somebody else, at least for a few years.

The second house has now been built, so I design an entrance area for the 2 houses. It will consist of a dwarf stone wall split with pillars with wrought iron railings on the wall. The focal point will be an ornate wrought iron entrance gate powered by electric openers.

The materials for the gates are purchased locally and are cut, welded and sprayed in my garage, also they were sent away for hot dip galvanising to make sure they do not rust.

This is the finished gates. It stops people from walking up the drive and also keeps my daughter, safely on the drive.

Planning permission was gained for a 3rd house. This shows all 3 houses.

This is my house as of July 2004. Notice that recently the garage has been converted into a granny flat.

This is the area in front of my house. I planted about 1500 trees and shrubs after the house had been completed. They have now started to establish.

Moving on a few years the trees have got rampant. They will need to be thinned out soon.

Start of 2004 and I am again working. A lot of the trees have been felled and I am now constructing a pathway through the trees. This will allow my daughter to take a shortcut to school.