About Us

My love of self build has developed from a lifelong interest in construction and in particular the idea of fulfilling a dream and building my own home.

Inspired by ambitious DIY projects with my Dad and watching my parents’ house being built when I was young, I finished school and went to university to study for a degree in Construction Management.

I gained experience working in various areas of the industry from a small house building and barn conversion company in the Yorkshire Dales to major contractors in the UK and US on large scale mixed use projects and even ran my own small building business for a while.

After renovating a number of properties I found a good plot of land and got the opportunity to self build my own home. The experience was every bit as gratifying as I had hoped.

It was with this in mind that I decided to create this website to share my experience to help other Self Builders achieve their dream.

We

The website includes input from like-minded self builders, renovators and construction professionals, not least from my long suffering wife, Nina, who shares my passion and despite holding an engineering degree, has been roped into many hours of mixing mortar and lugging materials, not to mention enduring some pretty uncomfortable living conditions at times.

It’s all been fun though!......

The Site

We hope you enjoy visiting The Self Build Guide and find it useful throughout your build. If you like our site, pass it on to any of your friends, family or colleagues who might be interested in taking the plunge.

Feedback is most welcome, so please contact us if you would like to contribute any ideas about how we can improve the site or the information for all our visitors.

Now you know a bit about us and the site, why not have a look at some photos of our self build or read about our experiences living in a caravan on site.

Don't forget to visit us again and you can always sign up to our RSS feed to stay up to date with new additions.

Thanks and regards,

James