Welcome to UKselfbuild !

A big welcome to UKselfbuild. At some point roughly 2 or 3 years ago, we decided we wanted to build our own house. We'd read some selfbuild magazines, watched Grand Designs, and seen some relations build their own house - and so began what could be the biggest challenge of our lives so far.

This site aims to track our progress - from trying to find a building plot, learning about selfbuild finance, getting planning permission, using an architect, finding a builder, getting the house built and - hopefully - moving in. There will be highs and lows. Right now, we are part way through the list...check our selfbuild diary and selfbuild photo pages to see exactly where. For those who are interested, the fun is taking place just on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District, not far from Matlock.

Maybe you're only just thinking of selfbuilding; perhaps you're currently wrangling with your planning department, or you might even be reading this inside your finished selfbuild - feet up, shouting "Don't do it!"; whatever stage you're at - we hope you will find this site of use. Hearing stories from other selfbuilders has given us more confidence to tackle such a project, so we hope our story might do the same for others.

Bear with us as this site takes shape - we've still got a lot of retrospective diary writing to do, and things might move around or change shape from time to time - but it should be worth it so keep checking back. If you want to make any suggestions...

Please feel free to get in touch and ask questions, or share your stories with us!

We hope you enjoy the site.

Lee & Emma