Building your own home - what do you wish you'd done differently?

[ShyGirlie]

I'm currently in the very beginning stages of thinking about building my own home. Looking for good ideas, and tips or advice on things you wish you'd done differently.

Also, even if you didn't build, just tell me what you like or what you wish you could change about the house you bought!

No suggestion too silly or too small. I really don't know anything about planning a house and I'm just looking for mistakes to avoid and good ideas to include!

Thanks all

I'd like one of those boiling water tap things in the kitchen for instant hot water, never boil a jug again.

Agree with playroom if you can fit one in. Also a big entry way with a cupboard for hanging jackets, putting away shoes. I find this handy. although everyone is too lazy still to use it Big, deep storage cupboards. If there is room a jack and jill bathroom between 2 of the spare bedrooms for DC is something I've seen here that I like. Leaving the 4th bedroom occupant to use the house bathroom.

Definitely do away with radiators. I'd probably not put in one of the standard fake gas fireplaces. Seem rather pointless. A wood burner would be nicer. I would have built in bookshelves either side of the fire, if having one, or a whole wall of bookshelves/cupboards/tv unit built in. You'd need less furniture then and it's all contained.

I wouldn't build storey and a half again. The sloping ceilings in bed rooms restrict where you can get a wardrobe in, which dictates the layout of the bedrooms. Ditto shower in ensuites.
I wouldn't have a minstral landing its just a waste of space.
I wouldn't have spent a fortune on a white oak staircase.
I wouldn't place the master bedroom (or any actually) over an integral garage as the noise of the door going up is enough to wake the dead.

I have lots of nice things too though. (smile)

Ok ill have to think carefully about tradespeople vs. contractors.

Angel, I feel totally overwhelmed too! This thread is great though, so many things I'd never have thought of. Will definitely be making use of these tips!

mary silly question, but what's overspec? I'm wondering if that's what I'm trying to do. Is it insisting on top of the range switches, taps, window latches etc when it's all a bit unnecessary?

I was going to have special plates on my switches but the builders said they would have to put plain ones on to pass B.regs and then switch them all back to the special ones, which would cost me more money (I'd have to buy the plain ones as well also the fitting time cost). It seemed a bit pointless after that. I can always go back and do that later if I really want.

I probably don't need as many spotlights as I do, but it does look very cosy when they are on. Remember to think where you will position light switches and which way you want doors to open. I used to be up half the night planning where all of my furniture was going to go!

Oh and I thought of another annoying thing - I put my Samsung on the wall of my bedroom to keep the dresser top clear but only now realise their design fault; you can't plug a DVD player in when it is on the wall as their sockets are on the back. Really frustrating!

Just a quick question re all this, do you buy the land first even if it has no planning permission? Land where we are goes quickly so how do you know what to do?

Ooh I'm so jealous, would love to do it again.

Maybe a grander entrance given the house was quite big, hallway turned out a bit small. Big wins were solid construction throughout, great for temp control and sound control, and wet underfloor heating absolutely everywhere all individually zoned.

Would be slightly more rational about the number of lights (28 in the kitchen, always one blown somewhere).

Expect it to cost 50% more than the highest figure mentioned, even if that figure was mentioned in jest. Don't forget landscaping ie driveway etc. power and taps outside on front and back garden sides.

Oh make sure your loos take standard size loo seats or replacement seats are easy to get. Our current ones are bespoke to the loos, Italian manufacturer, nightmare.

We're 9 months along and still waiting for a planning decision on the house we want to build in my parents back garden so I'm watching this with interest.

Things I already know I want to get right are like how we heat the house, storage, sockets and light switches and extractor fans that actually extract (personal bugbear!). Also things like a big hall and utility room as I miss in our rental so they are in the plans.

Also, we've tried to plan a house that fits us as a family for the next few years as well as in the future. I'll have teenagers at the same time as just primary age children so having enough bathrooms for that as well enough space downstairs for us to not feel on top of each other was important.

At the point where we are now I wish we'd have known we'd need a full newt survey as they can only be done in certain months of the year (now) and we'd just missed the window when the application went in. Plus it costs a lot.

Also wish we'd not been so naive about Section 106 charges as the shock of all of that was quite stressful. Although the Community Infrastructure Levy is adopted by most areas our council hasn't as yet. And the Feb 2014 changes including self build exemption didn't apply because of that. At first we had a charge of £37,000 from the council (which has to be agreed to be paid before permission is given) for the commuted sum payment for affordable housing as well as developer contributions (we're 'lucky' enough to live somewhere that puts that charge on single dwelling developments as well as bigger ones ). We met a clause that got rid of 20k - with a fight - and another 10k got knocked off as there are plenty of places at the school in the area. Leaving us about 7k to pay. Still a huge chunk out of our budget :(

We reluctantly agreed to pay, after much debate, about 3 weeks ago but got some fantastic news yesterday that the council have adopted the self build exemption to their policy. So we now just have 1k of legal and admin fees. So relieved :o

Anyway, all that won't really apply to you OP but I thought I'd share!

Pancakes yes you can buy land first without permission but you'd have to pretty sure you'd get it.

I'd have thought most sellers would want at least outline planning on the land though as it increases the value.

Also, how would you be buying the land? If it's outright then there's no issue other than the risk you take by potentially not receiving planning permission. If it's through a self build mortgage that lends on land purchase as well I'd have thought they'd wouldn't do it unless you have permission (don't know for sure on that one though).

You can however put in a planning application on land you don't own. Anyone can.

Section 106 is a huge PITA. They can technically charge what you like. Best idea is to put in as few "bedrooms" as possible (pretend one will be a study for eg) as they usually charge per bedroom. I wish we had done that rather than having it as a 4 bed. It can also change council tax so definitely something to do!

I had to do an ecological survey as the land had been vacant for a while and the council said we had to keep habitats intact. We have had to keep a large hedgerow as it had nesting birds in it, but the cost and time it took to do was something else to factor in (£600 and took the guy 2 months to come out and return to check at nesting time) We were lucky no hedgehogs were found though as apparently they are hot on disturbing them now!

Also having a drop curb put in is usually best done by the council - councils can otherwise turn up and say it isn't to their spec and demand you take it out and do it again. Ours cost £1,500 Our council admin/legal costs were only £300, so that will depend on your area I suppose.

*Not what you like obvs, what THEY like!

Didn't explain the drop curb well - we were quoted £800 by builders but they recommended council did it as they had had it happen before. It depends if you get a jobsworth apparently as they use the same materials and measurements - just another way for the council to milk ££.

Put wired Ethernet cables to every room (next to sockets) and have that main cabling/patch box/broadband come into a nice hidden cupboard. Then when all TV comes via broadband you can watch streamed stuff in every room.

Our windows are bigger than standard.
Hence standard curtain sizes are no good. Didnt think of that when we did it!

We are having house built next year so I'm watching with interest. We are planning putting in ground source heat pump and wet underfloor heating throughout. It's expensive but should pay for itself in about 7 years. Also solar panels on south facing roof so our heating costs will be close to zero after the 7 years payback time. Seems like a no brainer as being rural we would need oil central heating which is extortionate.

I looked at the ground source heat pump but was concerned about repair costs and noise. It was also quite a large machine that had to be boxed off in an area outside. I can understand it though if you are rural as definitely would go with that over oil! As long as the people who install it are local you shouldn't have problems getting parts or having it fixed. Also you probably don't have to worry about noise for neighbours.

Ours was a renovation rather than a new build, but here goes:

Back boiler for wood boiler.

I would scrap the underfloor heating we have everywhere and just have radiators - much easier to regulate as and when wanted.

Wood pellet boiler instead of gas to top up the back boiler, along with the solar hot water (which we have and love).

Minimise the distance between the boiler and the bathrooms to the minimum possible - long pipe runs are a complete pain and a waste of heat and water (easier on a new build than a renovation).

Take a lot of care when choosing your aspects - make sure the rooms you are most likely to use in the morning are facing east, the ones you will use in the evening face west and the whole house is mostly oriented towards the south, with big windows south and small windows north. If it were me, I would go the whole hog and have it designed as a passive solar house - will cost a bit more to build, but that will be recouped very, very quickly in lower heating bills, and more than that will be much more pleasant to live in.

We finished a largish extension a year ago. This was caused by my husband becoming very disabled and, as the house is built on a hill and had steps everywhere, we knocked down a lot of the old house (including all the kitchen area) to get something more wheelchair friendly.

The thing we are really cross about forgetting is mat wells! Because we have level access to outside the doors are flush to the ground - so nowhere to put a doormat. So silly!

We have Velux windows in the kitchen and a light tube in the hall. The light tube is fantastic - loads of light and no noise of rain. When it rains the kitchen sounds so miserable with the sound of the rain on the Velux.

In the new kitchen I have a walk-in pantry and also another similar sized cupboard so all saucepans, dishes etc are on shelves round the walls of this - no scrabbling around at the back of cupboards.

In DH's wet room we have a body drier - like a vertical fan heater. If you are clinging on to a frame with both hands you can't use a towel, and the body drier is great. If we hadn't spent all our money I'd be thinking of putting one in the family bathroom.

lion air source has big box outside and can be noisy. Ground source just has bit outside where the tubes all connect (?manifold) and boiler inside which will go in utility room. 20 year guarantee on system too I think.
I really hate radiators and think wet ufh is definitely the way forward.

Agree with as many bathrooms as possible. Invaluable when the kids become teenagers. Large utility and plenty of storage, downstairs loo and cloakroom. Particularly think about maximizing storage in the kitchen. Ideally you want a place for everything and everything it's place (some hope!) love Honu's suggestion of a pantry style cupboard for storing serving plates/dishes and pans. Make sure at least some of your kitchen cupboards have, not the standard one, but two shelves in them, which makes organizing and splitting dinner plates, bowls, side plates etc much easier without having to pile them all up precariously on top of each other and then struggle to get them out.

Ah yes, I was thinking of the air source heat pump, not ground source, apologies!

ooh! our planning permission has just come through for a complete renovation and this thread will come in very handy - ShyGirlie how is your build going? Any lessons learnt so far?