Building Blogs

Eaves and doors

Fay Plumb — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:14:32 +0000

The transformation in the last few weeks has been significant – we now have a top floor and the outline of a roof.

The Australian Model

Jason Orme — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:59:10 +0000

The in-laws have just returned from a month in Australia and came over to Orme Towers on Sunday armed with, of course, plenty of photos and, interestingly, local newspaper property sections.

It was fascinating to see how the housing market works over there and, in particular, how self-build - or owner-build, as they call it - dominates the way that people end up in houses.

Part 14: The Final Installment

Marcus Copeland — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:10:47 +0000

I’m hoping that as you read the final instalment of this diary, Yvonne, James, Lily and I will have spent the first full week in our new home! After almost 18 of the most mentally demanding months of my life, and with a slice of overdue luck, we are now starting to enjoy the fruits of our labour. Yvonne has spent the last few weeks packing up our belongings while I have been on site alongside my dad and Jon Day (07918 736198) of Passivhaus Ltd, driving the build along to try and meet our tight deadline.

Part 8

Potton — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:58:46 +0000

The house was insulated and soundproofed before the plasterboard went up – you just use standard insulating material for that, and now the plasterboard is up you can really see what the rooms look like.

Part 7

Potton — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:46:59 +0000

This week’s seen some pretty intense work on the interior of the house.

The first fix electrics went in, so we had the electrician putting the wires in that will go underneath the beams and stud work so they’ll be invisible when the plasterboard goes up.

Walls emerge

Fay Plumb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:43:41 +0000

Once the snows cleared from Christmas we have been inundated with builders! It has been amazing the speed the ground floor has gone up in just the last two weeks, and the house has taken shape. We now have the outline of the ground floor rooms constructed in blocks – at last it is possible to imagine it might actually be a house we are building.

Part 6

Potton — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:54:21 +0000

The bricklayers have been finishing the chimney and inglenook and the tiler is still hard at work on the roof, so everything is still covered in scaffolding.

Part 13: Really Coming Together

Marcus Copeland — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:32:47 +0000

As I sit here typing, part of me wonders if next month’s diary instalment will be written from the comfort of the sofa in our new house! In the next three weeks, we are due to exchange contracts on the barn that has been our home for the last seven-and-a-half years. Unless our new property is ready by then, Yvonne, James, Lily and I will either be living on a building site or moving back in with our parents!

When an oven is not just for cooking

Fay Plumb — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:12:16 +0000

Part 12: This is Going to Be Our Home!

Marcus Copeland — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:09:14 +0000

I don’t know whether it’s just me but throughout the build I never quite believed that the house ever truly belonged to us. Sometimes I would visit the site and feel like I was trespassing, or I was simply an inquisitive guest in another person’s house.

But I think there is a turning point in every self-build when the penny drops and you finally realise that this amazing house is really going to be your dream home. For Yvonne and I, the sale of our existing property proved to be this defining moment.

Part 5

Potton — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:19:48 +0000

We’ve had the bricklayers in this week, working on the chimney and inglenook. We chose the same bricklayers who worked on the Potton showhome at St Neots, Cambridgeshire. The brickwork there is fantastic and I wanted the same builders to do it. They’ve done a great job for us and I’m very happy with it.

Project completed

Nigel Hillyard — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:49:25 +0000

To see the finished barn please go to http://www.paynesfarmkingston.co.uk/id18.html

A concrete box with no escape

Fay Plumb — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:52:34 +0000

Since my last entry all efforts have gone into constructing the basement walls. There was a brief interlude one day when the gas utility company descended on us to finally remove the forlorn gas meter and install a new one for the existing house but otherwise, huge amounts of effort and time have gone into constructing the shuttering for the basement walls, filling them with concrete, removing the shuttering and then waterproofing them.

Part 4

Potton — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:01:53 +0000

Part Eleven: Falling in Love With it Again

Marcus Copeland — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:33:14 +0000

What a difference a month can make. Over the last year, I must have fallen in and out of love with the property on more than a dozen occasions, but with the finishing line almost in sight, the love has definitely been rekindled.

Part 3

Potton — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:49:14 +0000

This week has involved some really intricate work.

The guys from Potton have been hard at work doing all the detailed fixing of the roof. They’ve been putting in the noggins, bits of wood that go in between the frames and also doing work on the rafters and dormer windows.

The work’s been really intensive although visually, we haven’t noticed a great deal of change. By the end of next week, though, the whole timber frame will be finished and we’ll be able to see the house as it’s going to look.

Concrete and hounds

Fay Plumb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:38:32 +0000

The footprint of our basement is now set in concrete, complete with low level “kicker”, which forms the support structure for the reinforcing steel mesh of the walls.

Part Four

McG — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:19:52 +0000

The search for Lord Lucan and Shergar. Otherwise known as -
Finding a builder.

Part 2 of the build

Potton — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:51:23 +0000

You can really see what the house will look like now. Last week we could see how big the rooms on the ground floor were, and now we can see the first floor as well.

Part Ten: A New Lease of Life

Marcus Copeland — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:16:20 +0000

Sometimes it takes a bit of bad luck and a fresh set of ideas to get a project back on track.

Unfortunately for me, the bad luck had come in the shape of a period of sustained illness and some costly errors from an unscrupulous plasterer.

Forced to take some time away from my business and the build, I handed the reins over to my dad, Geoff Copeland. He chose to speed up progress by recruiting more professional help on site.

Part Three

McG — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:53:57 +0000

The search for the Holy Grail and the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Otherwise known as -
Obtaining a Building Warrant & Finance

Architects and dogs are similar in many ways. Some long-haired. Some short-haired. Some very placid and gentle. Some inclined to bite your ar…er, ankles.
That goes for the dogs too.

Building my Potton home by Terry Cobbin

Potton — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:34:56 +0000

Building a home is easier than you might think. So much so, that this is the second building project we have managed. Sharon and I and our three children, Jake, Ella and Max have moved out of our first self-build and in with my dad at his house in Lakenheath while our new Potton timber frame house is being built.

Slow but sure

Fay Plumb — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:06:58 +0000

The last few weeks has seen the basement floor precisely levelled and the first layer of hardcore and concrete laid. The waterproof membrane is now also down and a metal reinforcement mesh suspended over the top. George and his team are taking meticulous care over the levels and dimensions, and progress is currently slow but necessarily so.

Basement or swimming pool?

Fay Plumb — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:39:03 +0000

For the last two weeks the diggers have been hard at it - excavating the basement, through soil, brash and rock. Whilst to some it looks like we are digging a swimming pool, underground car park or even for Australia, it is in fact a 10.59m long x 4.55m wide basement, extending approximately 2m wider at the rear. However, the hole itself is currently around 24m x 8.5m and 4m deep, and is not complete.

Moles Beware

Fay Plumb — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:18:53 +0000

Moles beware

For years we have struggled with moles – at times our back garden has looked like a lunar landscape rather than a beautiful, clover and dandelion infested green lawn. Planting spring bulbs has been rather a philanthropic affair; many of them just vanished underground, never to be seen again, whilst carefully planted daffodils could emerge six months later, metres away and confused amongst the tulips. But now it’s pay-back time: the digger has moved in.

Planning my budget

Parmdeep Vadesha — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:01:47 +0000

Time for another update on my self build!

I mentioned recently that I would be mailing lots of construction companies for quotes. I have sent them all letters that contain a link to my plans online. They then download the plans and give me quote based on the dimensions and assumptions on anything I haven't mentioned or included. Here are the stats so far:

ICF manufacturers

Part 9: A Series of Setbacks

Marcus Copeland — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:46:31 +0000

As with every self-build project, it was almost inevitable that we would come up against setbacks at some point. No matter how well planned or structured a build programme is, it seems you can’t always count on everybody being as reliable as your main contractor.

The saying goes that problems always come in threes and on this occasion it proved correct. In the space of a month we faced costly issues with plasterers, windows and roofs that were all completely out of our control.

Staying flexible is the key

Fay Plumb — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:34:27 +0000

When we tell friends we are building a new house next door to our Grade II thatched cottage, most people think it is really exciting, especially when we say we are building a basement. But I would say starting from scratch, with a blank canvas has been harder than I had anticipated.

It sounds like an amazing opportunity, and it is until you realise that it’s not really blank. At times it felt like we had three different jigsaws on the go with all the pieces muddled up. Remaining flexible has kept us sane.

Is a trampoline a permanent fixture?

Kate S — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:54:31 +0000

When planning to build or renovate we spend a long time looking at the legislation, the type of area we live in or intend to buy in. Are there any restrictive covenants, is it a conservation area? What precedent has been set, how long will it take to get planning? We spend so much time concentrating on this we forget the most basic of potential problems.

The neighbours.

Part 8: A New Impetus

Marcus Copeland — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:57:37 +0000

After eight months of watching the house take shape, it was a pleasant feeling to see work finally begin on the inside. All of a sudden there was a new urgency to the build as a fresh set of faces arrived on site.