Our goal with this site is to help others through the whole process of self-build, with us giving as much value to you as we can. It can be pretty daunting at times. When we first thought of trying for planning we were told by pretty much everybody that we were wasting our time, as our plot was outside the boundary of our village for building consent, and we would have no chance. Luckily for us, we don’t listen to negative people, we never have!

The way we see it…..

If you tell yourself you can – You’re right

or

If you tell yourself you can’t – Your are right!

You are what you believe!

Our original planning CGI’s (computer generated images) we had made for planning. We always look at these pictures to give us inspiration and keep us moving forward. We have changed the design slightly. The garage is now an office, gym and snug. We added an extra window at the back too, which eventually changed into a door. The amazing thing about our design is that the house has grown and adapted as we have. We gained planning in 2013, we went from a family of 4 to 5, got extra animals and changed career paths a few times. The house evolved as we did which is a huge testament to our architect Ian Hunter.

This CGI (computer generated image) is of our house design, actually sitting in our plot. Our build is a contemporary ECO house. We love the design with the green roof, flint tower, zinc, render and cedar cladding. Originally when our house was designed, it was a “Code of Sustainable Homes” level 6. That is the highest code possible and basically means that it is a zero carbon house. So it produces more than it consumes. With features, such as an air source heat pump, green roof to encourage wildlife, mechanical ventilation heat recovery, borehole, solar panels and triple glazed windows… this super insulated house should provide us with an amazing space, warm and dry with very few bills and very little impact on the environment.

Our plot before we started back in 2016