Stuart and Katie’s tips

Visit different showrooms for kitchens and bathrooms. We got a price to do all our bathrooms and then went to a place recommended by our architect who was able to do all the bathrooms and the tiles for the same price as the other places were quoting just for the sanitaryware. So there’s £3,000 worth of tiles that we wouldn’t have otherwise.

Haggle. There’s no shame in just going in and saying, “I have a better price elsewhere. Can you match that?” Having a good, honest conversation can get you a long way.

Try to enjoy the process. I admit that I stressed out a lot and lost sleep over it, but in hindsight, I should have trusted the professionals more and enjoyed the process a bit more.

New Build

gain. Even in the winter, the house feels quite warm on sunny days. However, we purposely placed the bedrooms on the north side because we don’t like sleeping in hot rooms. This setup works well for us, keeping the bedrooms cool in the summer.”

“In the future, we would love to install an air source heat pump or a ground source heat pump, since we have enough land to fit it, but we had to draw a line in the budget somewhere.”

“We considered the payback period for our solar panels and estimated that they would be paid off within four years. They have been working for us. Last year, we didn’t use our oil for heating from May until the second week of October, relying solely on solar panels. This significantly reduced our electric bill and heating costs. Any extra energy that wasn’t used went to the immersion heater so hot water was free too. When fuel prices went up, we decided to buy an electric car, which at times we charge using the solar panels.”

“At design stage, our solar panel providers recommended installing a heavy cable from the junction box to the garage for a future EV charging point. We thought it would be unnecessary since we weren’t planning on getting an electric car for a few years. However, we decided to have the cable put in at the last minute. Within a few months of moving in, we had an electric car and were grateful for the futureproofing since it saved us money on cable installation, which would have been a nightmare to install with the vaulted ceilings.”

“Initially, we’d also removed landscaping from the contract to save costs. However, we later added it back in and were able to get our patios and tarmac done by the builder. He also sowed all the grass for us, and since then, I have been planting trees and hedges. If I had been left with a bare acre site, I’m not sure I would have been capable of making that lawn.”

One of the biggest challenges to the build was the timeframe, especially when it came to the windows. “The window installation took 10 weeks longer than expected,” admits Stuart. “But as we had specifically appointed the window people, it was our responsibility to manage those delays.”

After a year of living in the house, how is it working for them? “It’s been great so far,” says Katie. “There are very few things that I’m not happy with. I love the open plan living, which works well for our family life. We still need to decorate our lounge and have that as a separate space, but overall, I think the house is not too big and is easy to keep clean. It works well for us as our family home.”

November 2019

Site purchased

November 2019

Applied for planning for change of house

December 2019

Planning granted

May 2020

Out to tender

October 2020

Tender completed

March 2021

Build start

May 2022

Build end