Building your own home

[pitchshifter]

We're looking to move in the near future and I've seen a patch of land (few acres) that, if I sold my current home, I could probably afford to buy. I could then probably afford to have a home built on said land. Before I get carried away with this, please tell me I'm mad and it's not feasible for 2 people (and a baby!) with no knowledge of house building to build their own home. I think I've watched too much Grand Designs!

If you have built your own home (or had one built to your specifications) please tell me your story, I'd love to hear about it!

[womble]

Can't tell you it's impossible, because if you've got some money to spend, you can get competent people to do it all for you. Whether you have enough money to get the dwelling you want with the amenities you need on that particular plot of land, is a question you'd best get one of them there competent people to answer, if you haven't got a scooby yourself, or you'll end up with no money and no roof over your head. If your desires are not ambitious, it doesn't even need to be expensive, but your question has too many "probably"s for my lay-perspective comfort. Maybe "probably" is more of a certain thing in your lexicon than mine.

[preparedsurrey]

Is there any chance of getting planning permission? Self build or a kit home is doable simply enough

[Catweazle]

The biggest problem is the paperwork. People around the world build their own homes all the time, but they don't have to deal with our planning / building regulations.

Here in Wales we are allowed a simplified system for low impact housing, maybe your area has it too.

http://lammas.org.uk/planning/

[pitchshifter]

Thanks for your input! I talked it over with my husband, thought about it and slept on it... I've decided it's too mad. It may have been doable had we not just had the baby, but to move ourselves, our cats and our 3 month old into temporary accommodation whilst we go about cluelessly building a house is probably not feasible .

[preparedsurrey]

Personally I would go for a couple of static caravans on site that you can live in while you are doing the build rather than rent somewhere. Possibly not the best time to be doing it with a 3 month old though.

[grenfell]

One good thing with the baby only being three months is that they won't be able to wander off around a potentially dangerous building site , once they start walking you'll have to watch them much more closely and they're impossible to reason with for several years to come.
Best of luck whatever course of action you decide.

[Arzosah]

The other thing to think about is how often patches of land like that come up? If they come up every few years, fair enough. But what if its every 20 years? If you can lay your hands on an ex-holiday park caravan, they're the size of a small flat.

By the time you've got through the paperwork, of course, the baby *will* be toddling ... and you've got cats too. Its not an easy equation, not at all. Lots of sums, lots of careful thought, even about the future of the area.

[Catweazle]

My neighbours lived in two static caravans whilst they converted a stone cowshed and milking shed into houses. They did the smallest first, lived in it over winters and rented it out as holiday accommodation in summers - this paid for the conversion of the second, larger building which they now live in. They still have income from the holiday let, and the two static caravans, and now have a spacious home on 4 acres.

They admit it was very hard work, but the rewards are good - they have a good sized family home in a great location.

Re: static caravans, last year the company I worked for bought one 38' x 12', in pretty good condition but with no oven or heating. It's used as a tea room. It cost £250 plus another £250 for delivery. They clad the outside in vertical cedar planking to match the existing workshop buildings, easy job involving screwing battens horizontally and using stainless nails in my nailgun to fix the verticals.

It looks great, and is perfectly habitable.

[metatron]

I quite like the whole tiny home movement https://www.reddit.com/r/TinyHouses/ . You can build one with basic tools and scavenged parts and as long as it's on wheels you don't need planning permission.