[CalRobert]

I lived in Ireland for 10 years. It's not the same as the UK but there _is_ cultural overlap. Every time you shared a new idea with _anyone_, even things as simple as "I want to buy a site and build a house on it", the first thing you hear is how that's a bad idea, you will fail, it will never work, and you need to leave it to "professionals".

Not to mention the whole idea that trying to be successful is "notions" and should be sneered at.

Edit: To compare -

Me: "I want to build a house"

Irish friends: "That's a bad idea, you'll never make it work, you'll go bankrupt and it will kill you..."

California/Oregon friends: "Fuck yeah I'll bring a nailgun"

[porker]

(UK resident, born and bread) Yes this drives me absolutely mad. I'm a poor risk taker and can come up with all those reasons something's a bad idea, but when I've made up my mind to take the risk I want supportive people around not people who would rather you never tried anything outside their "comfort zone".

And the problem runs in families. This is not therapy but every time I talked to my parents about an idea it would be dammed with faint praise or I'd be told I'm wasting my time. It's taken 20 years to work out that the more they dissed an idea is the better it actually was.

[CalRobert]

What nobody tells you is that doing nothing is also very risky.

[_hao]

You could argue that doing nothing is actually more risky! Nothing stays static in nature! You move/change or you die!

[Kallocain]

I don't know what the regulations are in the UK, but in many European countries, building a house isn't just about knowing how to build a house, it's also about knowing all the DIN requirements. These are necessary for insurance to pay out if something happens to your house. Let's take a simple example: You're wiring your house. Because of a mistake, the house burns down.

Insurance: “Okay sir, who did the electrical wiring? you: “Me”. Insurance: “Are you a professional? you: “No" Insurance: “Have you had your work certified by a third party?" you: “Do my buddies count?” insurance: "Have a good day sir"

There may never be a problem and you may have figured out everything that's required to get your butt covered (good for you in this case), but the fact is that a lot of people don't know about these things, do their own thing and get royally screwed if there's a problem and, God forbid, someone gets hurt.

[pjc50]

I suspect that in any of the big cities in America you can't just buy a plot and start building, for exactly the same reasons. See also the complexities of CA fire insurance.

[CalRobert]

True, it's more common in rural areas. (I wasn't doing this in the middle of Dublin)

[tonyedgecombe]

>"That's a bad idea, you'll never make it work, you'll go bankrupt and it will kill you..."

There is an element of truth to that, self build projects seem to go about was well as the typical software project.

[CalRobert]

We got ours built for what it’s worth. Beautiful house, though we ended up leaving.