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Self Build Blog Entries
- Choosing tiles for the bathroom floors and walls
- Heated towel rads
- En-suite bathroom walls and shower purchases
- Plastering progress
- Storing information and goodies for the future in a hidden time capsule
- Bathroom and en-suite sanitary items ordered
- Frosty roof reveals minor heat loss
- Skimming with wet plaster
- And now for some fun stuff - shopping
- More plasterboarding - it feels like home already
- Why is it so hard to buy stuff?
- The beginning of the end
- Fiddlers on the roof
- Site rubbish and weekend jobs
- Burning rubber with the roofing details
- More 1st Fix Plumbing and Electrics
- Getting picky with the house insulation
- 1st Fix Plumbing and Electrics
- Interior woodwork
- Front door joinery arrival and installation
- Screed floor is dry - now comes the interior fit out
- Screeding the floor
- Underfloor heating pipes installed
- First step towards toasty toes
- Floor damp-proofing and insulation
- Choosing the bathroom and en-suite sanitary items
- Wall ties - going ‘eco’ starts small
- Fitting the windows and french doors
- Internal structural woodwork
- Getting the roof watertight
- Creating the driveway and garden path
- Final structural roof elements and visual details
- Here come the windows
- Connecting to the outside world - water, gas and electricity
- Boarding out and insulating the roof
- Main roof structure is all done and looking great
- Time for some timber
- If you go down to the site today…
- Constructing a soakaway
- All hands on deck to construct the steel frame
- Lintels and padstones
- Going window shopping
- The only way is up
- One steel, two steels, three steels…
- Time for some scaffolding
- House walls (going up)... rain water drainage (going down)
- The house exterior walls are going up
- Preparing the ingredients for the house-building recipe
- Kitchen ordered today
- It’s time to pour some more concrete
- Damp proof membrane phase of the slab construction
- Progress with building the house footprint and slab
- Insert suitable gag about laying drains for sinks and toilets here
- Coming out of the ground one layer at a time
- Cutting bricks down to size for the boundary wall
- First blocks laid for house itself
- Rear retaining wall is done (virtual tour) and new Santa’s grotto installed
- Blocks are flying up fast towards completing the retaining wall
- Pouring the concrete for the foundations
- Foundation reinforcing steel cage ready for pouring concrete
- Virtual Tour - foundation trenches all dug
- Going down some more, before anything can up
- Time to get this show on the road (footpath)
- Getting connected… the old fashioned way
- Planning permission for design changes granted
- Brick by brick… and the boundary wall takes shape
- Choosing a new kitchen
- 2 steps forward… 2 steps back
- Is it a fence? Is it a wall? Neither yet.
- Building site virtual tour
- The retaining wall continues
- We have a wall (or the beginnings of)
- First concrete goes down
- Building our Eco knowledge at the EcoBuild show London
- Nobody wanting to ‘tank’ responsibility
- The calm after the storm
- Builders working at midnight? No, it’s a teen hoodie causing a scare!
- Big boys toys
- Actual size? Or just an illusion?
- Day 2 - Site clearance
- Today… is Day 1
- Hiring a solicitor for a self build
- Self build mortgage gets the go-ahead… although I’m not counting chickens yet!
- Researching other Self Build mortgage lenders
- What a load of bankers!!
- Yet more fencing erected to replace dodgy boundary wall
- Filming for SelfBuilder TV show today
- Big News: House now up for sale
- More fence repairs. Thanks a lot local kids!
- Builder’s Quotes - whistle while you wait
- Final day of site clearance - felling the willow tree
- An amazing difference and transformation
- First real physical action on the site
- On-site meeting with planning & building consultants
- Another option - local developer and project manager
- Meeting a local builder
- Moving on to the next stage of the design process
- Planning permission application successful!!
- Planning permission application submitted
- New “Butterfly Roof” Design Sketches
- A spot of gardening to keep the neighbours happy
- Anti Fly-Tipping Fencing Erected
- Self Build Course - Construction Technology (Part 1)
- Fly Tipping On Site
- Planning difficulties, slow progress and design changes
- Self Build Course - Evaluating Your Plot, Designing Your Project and Construction Preliminaries
- Self Build Course - Budgeting for Your Project and Finding Land
- Wow - new ‘funky’ house design!!
- New house design in progress
- Planner’s lukewarm response
- National Self Build and Renovation Centre Show
- First meeting with the Architect
- I’ve just bought a plot of land at auction!
Guest Articles
- Natural Roof Slate - a natural choice for the British Isles
- Efficient home heating with log burner logs
- Decorative stone cladding designed to add some extra style to a feature wall
- Keep your conservatory cool in the summer with conservatory roof blinds
- Traditional flagstone flooring for new build homes
- Choose timber