I had been thinking of writing about this for a while, but a discussion with 
I took to hanging out in a self-build group on Yahoo (no idea if it is still going) where I could find lots of advice and see what others were doing. Through that we hooked up with a builder who was interested in taking it on. He put us in touch with an architect with whom we worked out a design. We opted for a largely open plan downstairs.
After a lengthy planning process in mid 2002 a digger arrived to start on the foundations. We live on clay, so you need deep foundations to avoid movement. Lots of concrete was poured in. This is not idea from an environmental standpoint and I would be looking at alternatives if doing it now.
A slab was poured on top to give the base of the house. That gave us some idea of how the space would feel.
Next a couple of Canadians who worked for the builder arrived. They had previously worked on a Big Brother house. We had gone with a timber frame and these guys got it up fairly quickly. A lot of UK homes are still largely built using bricks, but timber frame is more common now.
The open living room required a special beam to support upstairs. The kitchen is at the far end.
Within months the house was substanially complete with the roof tiles in place. We went for a big window due to the high ceiling.
There were some issues along the way. The house was clad in board, but it turned out this was not quite right for the render we needed. It took some time to get that resolved and a few years later the render had to be re-done, but it was under warranty.
As you are not allowed to send rainwater from your roof into the drains we needed soak-aways. The clay meant they needed to be long as there is not much soil. One is under the drive and the other under the lawn at the back.
I did a fair bit of the interior finishing work. That included all the wiring. That took quite a while in spare time.
I also did some of the interior wall boards. Instead of the usual plasterboard many houses use we went for a high density board that it much tougher. You can screw into it and hang heavy stuff straight off the board. The stairs went into here later. Until then you needed a ladder to get upstairs. We paid some guys to do some of this work. The living room high ceiling was quite a challenge that involved a couple of scaffolding towers.
I went for some home automation using X10 units and a dedicated controller, but found it was not really essential. I also ran network cable everywhere, but wifi made it largely redundant. Future-proofing is not so simple as technology moves fast. I was on a group for automation stuff too and some people really went to town with that. That market has developed a lot recently, but you have to think about how much really needs automating.
We moved in just before Christmas 2003, so nearly eighteen months after work started. A few issues with the builder and doing work ourselves slowed things down. Having seen some projects on TV I know it can go much worse than we had it.
We are pretty happy with our house. We have plenty of space and it is cozy. Being open plan has some issues such as young kids not going to sleep as they could hear us downstairs. It is good for parties though. I did ensure I had a study so I can do things like my music without disturbing everyone.
If I had the chance I might do a self-build again, but would be more cautious and do less myself. We went for some 'green' features on this house, but solar heating and electrics were beyond the budget. I would go for a much greener build next time to reduce running costs. It can all be quite stressful whilst building is going on, but it is rewarding and we have a unique house.
