So we know it takes what, £150k to build a house traditionally, right?

Is there an alternative house one could build for significantly less? I know there are timber kits available, what else? A yurt might not go down too well with Mrs Grips even though I like them 🙂

It it possible to come up with your own design for house construction without building regs being a massive headache?

Google broken?

Building a house is quite cheap comared tothe land cost and fees for arcitects and builders.

Then there are planning regulations to make sure the house conforms to others nearby.

I believe if you build a house filled only with bathrooms, building regs don’t apply.

Then there is funding it,unless your paying outright your restricted to traditional methods mostly

Insuring it

Selling it

Hmm.. sounds iffy then. However if it were sufficiently cheap to build, buying it outright could be easier than a traditional house.

clicky for article. More like your budget?!

http://www.envisioneer.net/gallery/index.php

you need to perhaps look at http://earthship.com/

IIRC you can claim the VAT back on a self build.

Getting planning is hard, and then ensuring it meets building regs.

And finding a plot…

Straw bale – S house.

http://www.s-house.at/cgi-bin/news.pl

Would this be before or after you’ve changed your life, bought a track bike, lost weight and won MTB races, bought a boat, etc, etc,? 🙂

Choose something to do.

Devote your time to doing it as well as you can.

Be satisfied with yourself.

Pigyn, that house is stunning.

Choose something to do.

I have, I’ve chosen mulling over ideas on STW with you lot 🙂

Btw, choosing one thing means discarding most of the things I would like to do 😉

Yunki – the earthship is about a mile from me.

It should be possible to build something pretty amazing for £150k if you get creative.

http://strawworks.co.uk/

Lovely people, great background in straw bale construction. They built 2 storey semis with load bearing bale walls for North Kesteven Council.

The plot is the killer in the UK.

I want a plot of woodland.. I reckon I could be off-grid which should help the cost no?

Hmmm. But not choosing one thing has led to a seemingly endless cycle of flitting from one idea to the next, with little to show for it.

I wanted to race Mountain bikes so I did.
I wanted to race cyclo-cross so I did.
I wanted to fell race so I did.
I wanted to road race so I did.

I did all these things as well as I possibly could by concentrating on them and getting on with being as good as I could. This didn’t exclude me from doing other things.

Procrastination is the thief of time.

Yep, but they are all quite similar you must admit.

But I don’t want to get into this, the thread was just something I was wondering about. I like to wonder, develop ideas, think and learn. It’s an activity in itself, and it makes me happy. Even if they never get done.

Well you can buy a brand new traditionally built house for £103,000 round here, so how much cheaper do you want it to be? That’s a straight commercial development so there might be a bit of profit in there too.

If you can come up with a design without building regs being a massive headache, you are already a builder, architect or architectural technician.

Depending on the location/site conditions, I’d be looking at Structural Insulated Panels and external cladding, but for a more retro/diy approach try The Irish Bungalow Book

They are similar, and I apologise for moving off topic as it were. But while doing those things I also did all the other things that I did that I didn’t mention.

Thinking of things to do isn’t the same as doing things that you have thought of to do. 😉

You can build for less than 150k especially if you build more than 1.

Well you can buy a brand new traditionally built house for £103,000 round here

Where’s round there? And do I want to live there?

Thinking of things to do isn’t the same as doing things that you have thought of to do.

Quite clearly. However it’s a lot easier, and much easier to do whilst relaxing in a hotel room.

I’m pleased for you that you are so proactive, you must be very proud. Pat yourself on the back.

if you’ve got a site with planning permission

then it’s possible.

some friends knocked down a shonky concrete bungalow and built a steel framed / straw bailed house on the footprint

they used reclaimed steels from a barn on site, another friend did all the structural calcs and an arch technician helped as well

build was less than 100k 2 years ago and they had an expensive biomass boiler

another option worth considering is roundwood construction

http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/home/747067/roundwood_timber_framing_the_greener_way_to_build.html

I’m pleased for you that you are so proactive, you must be very proud. Pat yourself on the back.

Being patronising isn’t the same as actually doing things either.

I’m not ‘so proactive’; I just choose things and do them instead of thinking about doing them. It’s not difficult, it’s what normal people do.

Love those houses too. Great thread 🙂 Apart from Crikey.

it’s what normal people do

God forbid I’d ever be described as ‘normal’ 😉

Again, Hmmm….

You’d no doubt need a 3 page thread on ‘I’m thinking of being normal, how should I do this?’. Followed by earnest proclamations regarding your inability to be normal because you are somehow special, and does anyone have a special normalisation method that might work for you.

Followed swiftly by a thread about being a zookeeper…

😀

I am special. I AM SPECIAL!

I am special. I AM SPECIAL!

Complete with accompanying ‘needs’! 😀

Yep, I need to be loved. Please comment on my threads.

I have one mate who’s pretty much lives all year round in his sprawling multi level treehouse sort of thing he does – north glen glass, he started building it 15 yrs ago and i doubt he has planning permission but it is on his parents private estate.

His father is renowned glass blower Ed Iglehart Info here, well worth a visit if your riding the 7stanes at Dalbeattie as it’s only 10 miles away – really interesting guy and he makes the most amazing little glass psilocybin shrooms along with massive wtf? chandeliers etc.

Don’t forget the humble shipping container as well.

Very versatile, you can make feature out of them by just repainting and putting floor to ceiling glass in the sides, or completely disguise them behind cladding/roof decks etc.

You can arrange them around an internal courtyard, stack them up into hotels, bury them into the ground, knock several into one open plan space, I’ve even seen (on the internet) a waterfront tower where you rent a ‘hole’ in the tower, and then ‘ship’ your container flat from its previous waterfront location and just crane it into the new place. Its a flat you take with you as you move around the coast 🙂

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=shipping+container+homes&hl=en&rlz=1C1AVSA_enGB431GB431&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=525GUIOQPJSxhAeWkAE&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1288&bih=707#hl=en&rlz=1C1AVSA_enGB431GB431&tbm=isch&q=shipping+container+house&revid=1521399961&sa=X&ei=625GULHnC8TI0QXJ1oHwAw&ved=0CEUQgxY&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=c4a997a0bf568463&biw=1288&bih=707

Oooh.. I designed a multi level tree house, it was absolutely fab. The top pod was the sitting room and it was above the treetops so you could see across hundreds of square miles of Swedish forest towards the mountains.

In my head though, crikey 🙂

Spooky – genius.

Off grid can, of course, be done. However, it would require a lot of money or a lot of change to your way of living (making wild assumptions that you live a fairly ‘regular’ life at the moment). Getting woodland with planning permission or even the chance of planning permission (and everything you need to live off grid) for a reasonable sum would be a miracle.

I would strong urge people considering building their own house to use SIPs panels and heat recvoery ventilation. Pasivhaus standards are stringent and very desirable [if that’s your thing] and SIPs gets you 80% of the way there very easily – and 80% better than the low minimum standards of the building regs.

When built in from the start the additional cost of HR is quite small and payback very quick.

Can’t remember who it was the other day but their family home was costing £200 a year to heat.