Selfbuild House Story
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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Building materials start to arrive on site.
All we await now is for the stonemasons and laboureres to turn up on site.
Tradesmen prove to be the most unreliable people and only turn up when
they want to. |
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Actual house building started on the 4th of
July. After all the planning, I can now see the stone walls going up. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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