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About this blog

A sporadic record of my project to build a very small house entirely by myself- from the drawings through to sawing up the bits of wood- on my croft o the Isle of Skye.

Entries in this blog

A few more finishing touches

With the 2019 season now here, I've spent the last couple of weekends doing a bit of tarting up around the outside of the wee house. Little things that you don't think really matter, but the end result looks far more 'finished'. I was never very sure how to complete the gable ends of the house- whether to box them in or not- but eventually decided to kill two birds with one stone and use the space for a log store. I think it looks pretty good, and it's tempting to do the same on every side
Crofter

Crofter

6

And he's building a stairway to decking

Firstly, for all you lot waiting with baited breath for my next blog update, my apologies! Since the house was opened up for guests I've needed a bit of time to switch off from what was a very full time project for the last few years. When we first opened to guests the house was missing its decking. I had gone through various ideas for the design of this, and in the end decided that less was more, and made it a fairly minimal affair, just somewhere to allow access to the big sliding door an
Crofter

Crofter

8

It's Business Time

It's been a long journey, but our little cottage is finally up and running as a holiday house. First guests just checked out and left us with some very kind words having thoroughly enjoyed their stay. Of course it's not exactly 'finished' but it's certainly usable. I'd have liked to have had a few extra days to tidy things up, but all the essentials are in place. There's decking still be be built out the front, I'm hoping to get this done in a gap between changeovers soon.  
Crofter

Crofter

5

Are we there yet?

One final push today saw all the furniture and curtains put in place- a big group effort with much input from the in-laws. I'm very fortunate to have a MiL who is an ace seamstress and who has a bit of a thing about Harris Tweed. To say I'm chuffed is a bit of an understatement. It's been over four years since the concept of this project first appeared, and three years since work began in earnest. Today we finally saw the culmination of all that effort as the building site was transformed i
Crofter

Crofter

23

On the home straight

It's starting to feel like the finish line is in sight now. Since my last entry, I've largely finished the interior including all the flooring, the doors, most of the kitchen, the windowsills, and the huge and daunting task of the bathroom (big thanks to @Nickfromwales for answering my hundreds of questions on that one!). I got a plumber in to install my UVC (sorry Nick, forgot to get a photo of that).  I've also done a bit more of the cladding, but the exterior work has been on the back bu
Crofter

Crofter

13

Starting the interior

Just a quick update seeing as I had the camera on me. As always, not as much progress as I would have liked- I was away from the build for a lot of August, but it's good to come back to it refreshed. The painting is finally finished (that seemed to take an age), the WC is temporarily installed, and the woodburner is up and running- I'll do a separate entry for that, at some point. The overhead beams are now sanded back and sealed with Osmo Polyx oil- I'll use the same stuff on the wind
Crofter

Crofter

4

Getting plastered, and painting the town, erm, matt contract white

Since the last update, the interior of the cottage has come on leaps and bounds. The rather unusual partitions and ceilings were all framed up and then plasterboarded. I was sensible enough to enlist help with some vaulted ceilings, having learnt the hard way that a 9.5mm board balanced on your head is quite liable to snap in half.   I had originally planned to simply tape and fill, but at short notice heard that a plasterer was up on the island and available for work (his original con
Crofter

Crofter

6

The Wall Will Be Built!

How long can it take to build a timber partition wall? One that is only 16ft long, in a straight line, no curves, no fancy materials.   This one has taken me well over a week, which has become a little frustrating. The reason is partly due to the complex shape, and partly due to my design having changed significantly just before I started the wall. Having switched to a more open plan layout, the wall now has multiple different ceiling heights all tying into it which led to a lot of hea
Crofter

Crofter

2

Clad tidings...

So the roof is now totally finished- was a beast of a job and having finished the ridge I felt as though I had been riding a particularly fat horse all week. Physically tough doing it without help and using just a ladder, but I'm impressed with the corrugated steel and would happily use it in future. I would seriously consider it for wall cladding as well, as it was much quicker and not any more expensive compared to my larch.   I had made a start on the larch wall cladding a few month
Crofter

Crofter

9

If you like it then you should have put a roof on it

I had the offer of some help from a neighbour so decided to crack on with the roof sheets. These are corrugated sheets 4x1m and in the thicker 0.7mm spec, so fairly heavy and awkward things to handle. I did get the first sheet up and fixed by myself but am not daft enough to turn down an offer of help when it appears!   When I bought the roofing, I had recently read @ProDave's less than glowing review of Jewsons' plastic headed roofing screws, so made a point of asking what would be su
Crofter

Crofter

11

New year update

I was about to write 'time flies by with too little progress to show for it' and then realised that was exactly what I said last time! Anyway, since the last update, I have battened out the walls and fitted the first layer of larch cladding on the gables. There was a fair bit of head scratching and working out how the detailing around the windows etc was going to work out before I could get on with the battens. The larch also had to be treated with preservative oil- this will be an ongoing task
Crofter

Crofter

5

Itching to get finished...

Time seems to be flying past with not enough progress to show for it. Anyway, a brief update.   I got my 8ft wide triple glazed door (all 240kg of it) installed singlehandedly, showing just what you can do with a bit of patience and some levers, packers, and a bottle jack. Perhaps the reason progress is slowing down is that I find myself standing admiring the view out to the loch too often.   Nearing the end of the chipboard flooring installation, I discovered maybe the first
Crofter

Crofter

6

Windows go in

After a few weeks away from the build, I've been back at work and in the last few days everything is seeming much closer to completion. All three windows and the back door are all in place now (not yet foamed up etc)- just the big beast patio door still to go, which weighs about a quarter of a tonne, so that one will need a bit of a squad. Fitting the back door has made a huge difference to how the house feels- I can keep the sheep out now   The other jobs I've been doing are layi
Crofter

Crofter

5

Where Am I Now?

I'm going to jump right to the current status on site and at some point will go back and fill in the gaps. A summary of major jobs completed to date: - access created - water and electricity on site - septic tank and 'Puraflo' secondary treatment/filtration system installed and signed off by BCO - footprint of house laid with membrane and chips - concrete footings and piers poured - Douglas Fir ring beam installed - JJI joists installed on hangers - A
Crofter

Crofter

8

Part 3: Build Route

I started the project with a pretty clear idea of what I wanted: the 'contemporary vernacular' style that Skye has embraced is a modern take on traditional proportions, using simple materials to create stunning properties with clean lines that sit well in the landscape. The best known examples are those drawn by Dualchas architects, with their designs featuring on Grand Designs and in various magazines. I seriously looked into a 'Heb Homes' kit but this would have been way out of my budget.
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0

Part 2: The Site

This is a retrospective look at how the site was when we first started the project. Our croft is a typical long, narrow strip of land. Crofts were traditionally carved up in such a way that everybody got a share of the different bits of land- a bit of shoreline, a bit of lower good ground, and a bit of rough hill ground. In our case, the croft is 27m wide and nearly 500m in length! If nothing else it ensures plenty of work for fencing contractors. Our strip has two public roads running
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0

Background and beginnings

This blog was originally begun over the now closed eBuild forum. I will be transferring most of the my blog posts over here in due course and taking the opportunity to tidy the blog up a little and fill in some of the gaps along the way.   In 2013 I became the owner of a house and croft on the Isle of Skye, and set about looking for ways to make the most of this opportunity. In particular I was keen to set up some form of income generation to supplement my earnings. The first idea
Crofter

Crofter

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