Hi, sorry I hadn't replied to this thread in a while so it had dropped off the bottom of my activity list. I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.
Did you source the parts yourself and get the LBS to do the labour or was it a joint effort? Can you give an approximate cost for things like the hub gear, shifter and wheel?
Apart from the frame which I sourced from
Ebay, everything was ordered by the LBS, and where there was a choice I decided - example the rims and crankset were my choice, the rest selected by the shop. The shop owner did it cheap for me because he wanted to build a bike of this spec, and I was also helping him out with some other stuff so I wasn't paying as much as he could have charged.
One other idea I did come across when considering this build, was another LBS who offered to sell me a single speed bike and the hub, and would rebuild the rear wheel around a hub gear, and not charge me for the rebuild. To be honest I'm not sure this would have actually worked!
I would expect the cost in parts for the complete rear wheel and shifter would be £150 tops. I think the rims were £25, hub about £70. Maybe less, actually.