Owning your own home

I have no knowledge except that gleaned from grand designs, but a couple of the builds they did built a fair bit underground, and piped light in through those tubes.
You could have a two/three story above ground, and a large cellar pad below.

Building underground is massively expensive. 90k won't even get one floor properly excavated and built.

However eco building materials and a tight budget don't work together.

^ This.

I've not built from scratch, but have done 3 major conversions. As above, allow 10-20% contingency. Make sure everything is budgeted for including fees [/Beeny] and decorating / furnishing.

Plan, research, plan and research some more. Finding the fittings you want and can afford can take ages and during a build decisions suddenly come very fast - quick decisions generally cost you. Light fittings, door handles, switches & plugs etc can all be a pain in the arse.
Planning where and what electricals you need also takes a while, but you need all of that nailed down so you can get a firm builders' quote, otherwise the danger is that you get 'add-ons' you weren't expecting.

I have a map of the City that I stole. That's it.

which city did you steal?

That Detriot city stuff looks amazing. I would love to visit one day, looks almost post nuclear war in some places

My dad has one of these: http://www.spirityachts.com/spirityachts_52_drawings.htm.

I used to live really close to the boat yard in Ipswich where it was built and go to see it being put together. The level of craftmanship is amazing!

Yeah, really great stuff coming out of Suffolk at the moment. Oyster and Spirit in Ipswich, and on a smaller, more high tech note; carbonology in Woodbridge (where I currently reside).
I did a bit of work experience at Oyster, in the comissioning dept, and the pedantry was unreal!

Here's one for the boatbuilders - Phil Bolger's extraordinary AS29 design, conceived as cheap, mobile housing for a single person:
http://www.leow.de/
It's basically a big plywood box, but shaped so cunningly that it functions as a fast, seaworthy yacht. Maybe six month's work for a competent carpenter gets you a comfortable mobile home. Materials - maybe £20k plus a bit more for gear if you actually want to cruise it properly.
This is THE site for self-builders with green leanings: http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/
Lots of extremely helpful, knowledgable people there.
I don't think houses are a good buy as an investment, although obviously they're useful to live in. Over the last ten years, the government has deliberately engineered massive increases in house prices to boost the financial services sector. Higher prices=more money paid out on mortgages, either your own or your landlords=more money being pumped through the financial sector. Unfortunately they pissed it all up the wall in a spectacular display on incompetence. I can't see how prices can be sustained at current levels in the long term.

Anyone seen Garbage Warrior?
Awesome film about eco housing, if you have a few spare tyres and beer bottles laying around you're sorted.

which city did you steal?

London

Bastards have just stopped stamp-duty for first time buyers. That's £2000 I'm going to have to cheat the government out of some other way. Fscks.

Just a quick update: Just placed an offer on a small 1 bed flat in Clapton. Ex local authority so no character but has a lot of space and light which more than makes up for it.

I'm 28 and don't own a home, and this makes me quite angry.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342607/Saving-deposit-home-It-17-YEARS.html

As Daily Mail articles are supposed to...

Tell you what, Matt, owning your own home is very overrated.

I'd owned for a lot of years, but actually losing my house was strangely liberating.

It got to the point where I felt like the house owned me rather than vice versa.

Constant repairs, mortgage hikes, the need for more space...

And the fact that it's so hard to move house! Withe renting, if I get bored here (as I tend to do) I can find a new place and go live there! The downside is not owning a place to live when I retire, but I'll worry about that later.

If you're reading a Daily Mail article and not getting angry, that's when you know something is wrong.

The best thing about renting is when the fridge breaks, it gets replaced with a new one the same day for nothing. Same with the cooker. And property is theft too, i guess...

The best thing about renting is when the fridge breaks, it gets replaced with a new one the same day for nothing. Same with the cooker. And property is theft too, i guess...

Ha.. do a survey of renters and see how many of them get new stuff the same day as it breaks..

I know, I've heard some real horror stories too....but touch wood (!) we've been ok so far. Some letting agents are retards.

I'm just sick of rip-off landlords. I've been saving half of my salary for two years now (sometimes slightly more) and making sacrifices to do so, while all around me people just seem to be complaining that the value of their home has dropped. Like it even matters if you already own it...

Even at this rate of saving I'm nowhere near being able to buy.

I'm just sick of rip-off landlords. I've been saving half of my salary for two years now (sometimes slightly more) and making sacrifices to do so, while all around me people just seem to be complaining that the value of their home has dropped. Like it even matters if you already own it...
Even at this rate of saving I'm nowhere near being able to buy.

It matters, because they probably don't own it, at least not all of it and if they need to move due to work, etc they are fucked when it comes to sell.
It's not all rosey being a home-owner.

How long have you been working full time?

Well, it does matter to them, it's probably relatively important if they couldn't get to where they wanted to be on the first step.

The other day I had dinner at my grandparents, and they told us that we shouldn't worry, because didn't buy a house until they were in their 40's.

They also said they only paid £3000 for it, and there was no way they could ever see any of their grandchildren owning a house. Ace!

I agree that owning your own home can be very stressful. Especially at this time of year. The boiler broke down last week, a leaking roof the other month etc. But being someone who moved house about 9 times in 3 years before I owned, I can handle the stress and financial nightmare that is part and parcel or owning a place for the added security I get. And the knowledge that one day ( 23 years and counting ) I will eventually own it

I have just bought a place, and can I just ask, what the fuck did I pay the surveyers for?! They appear to have missed a rather large crack in the bedroom wall (previously hidden by a wardrobe) and a another crack in the bathroom tiling. 700 and some change for...what? Cunts.

How soon after buying your first property do you start knocking walls down 'because you can'? My mates just got a house on a part ownership scheme and i must of suggested it about 50 times in the first hour of seeing it. Do you get a lot of 'pimp my home' feelings like with a bike, or is it like a car where you just keep it in good nick but don't change lots.

With my letting agents, they have a 24 hour call out number.

Something gets broken, or there's a leak, I call that number and a bloke toddles round in less than 24 hours.

He does the work, he fucks off, i never hear about the matter again.

It is joy.