Surviving a Self-Build

Reflecting on the journey and why I am here.

Apr 14, 2025

Reflecting on how far I have come.

Last night, I lay awake at 3am (as I often am), with a million things racing through my mind. All the things I have forgotten, missed, or got wrong.

Why am I doing this?

I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately. I’m juggling a full-time job at a growing architecture studio, managing a self-build project that my husband and I designed, and overseeing a renovation too. It’s a lot. I’m tired, I’m not sleeping, and the responsibility feels immense.

A friend recently suggested I start writing about it all. As a way to offload, to zoom out and reflect on how far I’ve come. So here we are.

I’m going to be reflecting on the journey of how we got here. Designing and project managing a self build is hard. I'm not going to sugar coat it. However, I hope that through documenting this, it might help a few people who are interested in going on a similar journey - whether that be a DIY project or a full self build. I’ll share the good bits and the ugly bits and my best bits of advice.

Who am I?

I love dogs, I love festivals, I love being silly, I love learning, I love making things work better. Do I love architecture? At this point, the jury is still out.

I am a 33 year old architect, working remotely for architecture & design studio Koto. 18 months ago, my husband and I packed our bags and left our London lives and community behind to move to West Wales to project manage a self build that we started designing at the start of lockdown.

This is a really special project. The plot of land overlooks Poppit Sands near Cardigan and it is the place that my family love the most. My 92 year old grandparents live next door. To cut a long story short - my grandpa bought a plot of land in the 70s with a run down asbestos bungalow on it, and gave it to my dad when he was 21. It was his dream to rebuild it some day, however, he was never able to due to an unexpected heart attack in 2005 when he was 46. I don’t know the words to describe what losing him was like at 14.

My dad was a doctor but loved architecture and building projects were ‘his thing’. When he was 14, he designed and built a den called Ty Rheddyn right here in Poppit Sands that came with concrete foundations, glazing and drainage.

Fast forward 52 years, and here I am doing what he never got the chance to do - designing and building what was always his dream, in the same spot that he built his den at 14 years old. I am doing this mainly for my mum and my brother Sam, but also for my husband Luke and my nephew Eddie.

Where we are right now.

We’re 18 months into the build and about 75% of the way through. We’re on the home stretch — but for context, we’d hoped to be finished six months ago. We’ve had to realign our expectations; availability of labour has been a huge issue here, and not something we’d experienced before.

We’re at the ‘closing up’ stage. The structure is complete, and most of the services are in. It’s a stressful part of the build — once it’s boarded and skimmed, it’s very hard to go back and change anything. Yikes.

I’m the most stressed I’ve been throughout the project. I think that’s because, right now, it feels like it’s all on my shoulders.

Still, we’ve come so far, and we’re much closer to the end than the beginning — and that, really, will just be the start of the new life Ty Twt will have. Hopefully, it’ll be filled with many years of happy memories.

What I’ll be writing about next.

I’d like to use this space as a diary of the build — something that might help a few people, but also helps me document and offload some of the stress that keeps me awake at night. I’ll do my best to post weekly.

I won’t start at the very beginning, but jump around instead.

Thank you for reading x