Has anyone had a house built

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We are in an unusual situation in which the most economical way to own a house big enough for our family is to have one built. We live abroad and qualify for a subsidised building plot (still bloody expensive).

Has anyone had a house built? Is it a complete nightmare?

I've watched grand designs in the past and that is not what I want Were quite pragmatic and not desperate to be unique or twerk the design within an inch of its life. I'd love a kit house, but the plot comes with conditions about what can be put on the site, some of which are very specific.

Is it possible for a building project to go smoothly and not go over budget? Has anyone done this? Any stories to share?

We're and tweek - not were and twerk! I don't want to micromanage the details of a build given I can't micromanage the details of a post! Hence the appeal of a kit house...

My ILs have built multiple properties over the years. Use a reputable company and it'll be quite smooth, in their experience.

HoneysuckIejasmine thats reassuring, thank you.

I should say, FIL is very exacting and demanding, and he was v happy.

Did your in-laws design all their houses with architects, or buy on developments, or buy an off the peg design on a one off plot, or a mix HoneysuckIejasmine ?

We have first refusal on a plot, but there is no company involved except for a contractor who the local council arrange to put utilities in.

I imagine architect designed will be out of our price range.

I'd love anyone's account of putting up a "kit" house.

Our friends built a Potton house themselves. Not sure if they are still in business. They were kit timber frame houses. No, it was not easy. Lots went wrong and it went over budget! They always do!

I woud have a Huff House in an instant! I know of several and they go up in a week. How ever ground prep is key as is deep pockets. Also good access to site. They are system build houses, built in a factory and assembled on site.

Therefore what do you mean by "kit".

Fertighaus Things like these, sorry the link's in German but the pictures and floorplans are international :) - yep like a Huff Haus sort of... But Huff are the expensive end I believe.

Yes. Huff are expensive but hugely desirable I think! However they are not a self build kit. Grand Designs is following the self builds in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Not sure if there is s web site that might be linked to that. We saw the programme last night. Might give ideas.

Huf tend to have too much glass for real life IMO - who's going to clean it? Plus I don't like websites without any prices....

By a kit house I mean a system build one I think. We have a show village 45 minutes drive away so will be going to look once we know exactly how much we can borrow. I'm not very romantic about it and just want a solid, sensibly laid out house with 4 proper bedrooms upstairs and a utility room on the ground floor... There are obviously loads of things I'd like, namely an office in addition to the bedrooms and a proper eat in kitchen as well as separate living room (all the standard houses are open plan to a greater or lesser extent) but as the council has requirements about exact pitch and type of roof and various other things which cost money they're unrealistic.

We do really want the house build managed by one company and hope this prevents the budget spiralling - you can choose ready to move into packages but I'm sure there are endless attempts to upsell and potential problems.

We have a Potton timber-framed house which we designed ourselves and they built it. Didn't go over-budget, is not at all 'grand' and took 7 months start to finish. Had a project manager but I was on site most days to make quick decisions when needed (eg which way do you want the doors to open). It's our forever home but I'd build another one!

We were in a similar position op with the same sort of requirements as you. We used an experienced architect and the costs were very reasonable. Many people build like that here. Everything went pretty much to plan though keeping a close eye on progress paid off. It was work deciding on every single aspect of the build, it was a steep learning curve and I think I would actually enjoy the process second time.
round.

Our priority was an energy efficient home using renewable resources. This means no energy bills basically. A huge saving in comparison to buying an older property or building a "normal" house for pretty much the same cost and a huge plus when we come to sell.

They used Border Oak, and all builds have been empty plots of land they owned, to build purpose designed, bespoke houses.

The houses are designed in consultation with architects and to my ILs specifications.

Thanks everyone. I talked yesterday to an acquaintance who built a "fertighaus" just a couple of miles away from "our" plot, and he invited us to go round for coffee with him and his wife and talk about it more, so that will be informative I hope. I'm worried about how much it will cost because the council have so many incredibly detailed requirements which mean the standard spec fertighaus would have to be tweeked (things like distance between ceiling and roof). I guess we won't know until we sit down with some of the companies and go through the details.

TheShuttle are you in Germany can I ask? We initially wanted an energy efficient "passive" house but they seem to come out at about 100k more than a similar "normal" house! Which company did you use to get one for a "normal" price?

It's not a certified passive house, but is officially "energy neutral", run on solar panels and a ground source heat pump which was the biggest investment. Triple glazing, extra thick insulation everywhere. What we paid is the value of a comparable size house in the area built to normal (old fashioned?) specs. For each item the architect managed quotes from local companies. Funnily enough, our modern house is not valued more highly, although a buyer benefits from no energy costs and also no council taxes for some years to reward building this way.

The ground source heat pump can also be used as a cooling system in summer. So low energy air-conditioning.

I had the impression that building a passive house was overkill and would have meant building to unecessarily high standards to no advantage.

We looked at the "fertig house" option but found it overly restrictive when our priority was energy efficiency. I also had the impression they did not want to tweak their plans.

When looking at the fertighaus option you need to carefully consider how any house would fit in your particular plot. eg. Is the garage / downstairs loo on the north side so living space is more east and/or west or possibly south facing. I don't think I thought about that at the time but it's really important! Concentrate on the floor plans before being seduced by a beautiful house that is just wrong on your particular plot.. Definitely talk to the couple who have already bought a fertighaus! I suspect this involves far less input from you, which is good and bad depending on how much time you are happy to invest. I resented the time spent over a year or so but it really paid off in the end!

Our architect did a free first consultation and first plan and breakdown of estimate of costs. By law, the price paid had to be within reasonable parameters of the estimate. I would consider doing this if I were you, with an architect who has an interest in building ecologically. Get a clear outline of fees. I think c 6 % of costs is what we paid and I didn't find that excessive.

I'm in Ireland, self building is quite common here. We bought a site with outline planning permission, sketched out what we wanted to build on a piece of paper, got a draughtsman to draw up the plans, then once we got planning permission contracted a builder who dealt with the timber frame company & project managed the build for us. We went over time - it took about 9 months - but not much over budget as we did quite a bit ourselves. We've ended up with a great house for about two thirds of what we'd have paid if we'd bought rather than built.

We had a barn converted. It did go massively over budget, but it's really nice to know it's entirely our own, and we could fit it and decorate to our tastes from the start. Some of the imperfections (built in wardrobe doors don't close properly) we overlooked at the time as overwhelmed with bigger issues, and they're still a pain 18 years later. I wish we'd complained and had them put right at the time because they're so very annoying. Another drawback is we had to wait 4 years, until finances allowed, for a garden.

Oh, and bloody 'water-saving' loos that you have to stand over and flush 3 times, don't get me started on them!

Where I live lots and lots of people self build.

Ask the neighbours what they did. Drive around, find a house you like and knock the door and find out how they got it built.

There's so many ways of self building I reckon you should just go with the consensus in your area. Whatever you do allocate 10-20% of the budget for unforeseen extras and mentally think in terms 30% longer to actually move in than you were quoted.

There are 3 newbuilds near my friend, one took about a year, another used the same construction company as the first but has gone vastly over budget and taken almost 2 years from start to finish - the people are in but it is nowhere near finished apparently - they had problems with the site - it had been backfilled in the past so they had to do some sort of piling then the weather was against them, and various problems and issues along the way eg problems getting utilities in. The builders are apparently reluctant to finish off for some reason, there are lots of snagging issues, the owners have been out at work and not nagging the builders daily which my friend thinks is the problem with the time factor.

The third was built by the owner of a construction company, it's somewhat telling that it was up and finished in about 6 months and looks absolutely lovely. It obviously helps to site manage your own builders! Admittedly they started it last May just as the dry weather started.

I think Ariela's right.. it pays off to be present briefly every day to spot any potential problems and answer any questions workmen have. It helps if you live or work close by.

A second time round, I would also cover the front garden with cardboard & permeable black plastic asap to stop the weeds growing if you're not doing the garden in a hurry.

We had to have a big rainwater tank underground for the toilets and washing machine, garden etc..