The diary of a self-builder – Autumn 2017

Week Twenty-Two: Getting connected…

Everything is happening this week! The phone line, broadband and Sky satellite have been installed this week, the front pathway has been laid, and also the two sets of pyramid steps on the back of the house have been built – we love the warm colour of these steps, and were glad we paid the extra money for the warmer colour of these slabs.  It was amazing how quickly our builders constructed these pyramid steps over two days, and they are just perfect!

With the bathrooms and kitchens completed and all rooms are habitable, our drainage tests and air tightness tests were successfully carried out, and we were granted a temporary habitation permit from our Council so we could move in!

We still have to get a Sustainability report,  updated drawings for Building Control, and obtain the final EPC so that we can apply for completion, but we’re nearly there!

Week Twenty-Three: Moving in!

We moved into the house, relishing every moment of moving our things from storage, into the house and garage. It’s been so nice unpacking all our things and finding new homes for them, making choices about floor coverings and light fittings, and getting used to living in our lovely new home.

We absolutely love this house, and can’t praise our builder – Ian Buist of Bell & Buist Joiners Ltd in Fife – and his team highly enough for their professionalism, dedication to the job in thick snow and ice throughout the worst of the Scottish winter weather, and for giving us exactly (and more!) of what we dreamed of when planning this home. A few weeks later we’re starting to landscape beds in the front garden, and a local turf grower has come in to seed the garden for us, just in time for the grass to germinate and have a little bit of growing time this year.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog of our journey, and all we can say to finish is if you’re thinking of building your own house, whether it’s modest like ours, or a real grand design, just go for it.  Pick your professionals wisely,  do your research, keep your budget in check and keep your mind on the end result, no matter how far away it seems – I promise it will be worth it!