Read on to find out how they did it…
Gary and Sam tell us how the name of your house came about…
The pair told us they’d researched around 30 house names, as Gary had been very hands on with the planning of the property he wanted Sam to feel a part of the build too so they came up the name ‘Sarsa House’ after the town Sam is originally from.
“I had about 30 names of houses on my phone and thought I like that one, then we thought lets pick something special for us, I had been involved in from turning the soil to buying the curtains and wanted Sam to have a connection to the build too.”
The pair purchased the site without any planning permission in place, a risky undertaking some might say. The land consisted of an unsued farm yard and what remained of a derelict house. They approached a local planning consultant who was able to steer them in the right direction and secure planning approval for a replacement dwelling on the first application.
Gary had by that stage already drawn up rough floor plans of what he wanted the footprint of the house to look like.
“Not liking to spend money where I don’t have to, I used free online App to prepare the floorplan of the house.”
A great idea for someone starting on a similar journey, there are a number of free Apps that can help you along the way if planning your own self-build or extension.
Using this Gary was able to add rooms, windows and doorways to the floorplan. Although not to scale, when it came to taking the plans to a local architect to have plans drawn up for building Gary was able to take the plans he had drafted with him.
“Because we saved a lot of time where the architect didn’t have to plan this with is we saved approximately £2,000 in professional fees.”
The couple had already spent most evenings reviewing and adapting their draft floor plans to meet their needs. They’d realised that as the bedrooms of their home had their own ensuites they had no need for a main upstairs bathroom. Removing this from their original draft they were able to increase the size of their walk in wardrobe…definitely something I think most of us aspire to!
This great cost saving measure did away with a lot of the ground work and factfinding the architect would normally do with the client when drafting plans from scratch.
We asked Gary and Sam what other cost savings measures they took along the way…
“We always priced between three to four people, no matter what we were getting done. I'll be honest with you, the prices we received for cornicing for example was worlds apart. We were worried about choosing the cheapest option as we didn’t want to have a cheaper product. Getting a few quotes for each thing we needed definitely helped us find the right person for the job.”
The internally cornicing added to the property is beautiful and a real addition to the home adding character to the traditional style of the property together with the white sash window frames. The guys are more than happy with the result and so they should be. Their attention to detail in creating this beautiful is a real testament to all of the planning that went into the build.
Sam being a professional painter and decorator took great care to create the right look for the property, the pair chose complementing colours throughout and by painting the walls and ceilings in the same colour and painting the cornicing white this makes the detail stand out even more.
Choosing between a traditional brick or block home or opting for timber can be a difficult choice weighing up the pros and cons isn’t always easy.
In this build Gary and Sam opted for a timber frame. Although in the original plans they had intended to construct the property from block when they then considered the cost of insulation, heating and energy costs and build costs they engaged a local company who provided not only the timber framing but also the insulation, windows, doors and roof.
“In just six weeks from start of putting the frame up we had windows and doors and a roof and were ready to get started on the rest.”
This method can be much quicker than constructing a traditional brick or block home. Them you have to consider the weather and make sure that your mortgage company are happy with the building method.
We’ll being you the rest of this self build story soon…
