Where it all began in 2009 on our family croft in Skye. Once we selected the site we put in outline planning for a three bedroom 1 1/2 storey house.

 

 

 

 

 

We then undertook the legal process of decrofting the house site to enable a future self build mortgage.  For the next few years very little happened as we needed to save money towards the project.

 

In 2013 we submitted a detailed planning application for a traditional 1 1/2 storey property which was in keeping with the local vernacular.

 

 

As with outline planning this was easily achieved and we could now concentrate on creating an access and making the site a serviced plot.

 

The access road was to run through an area of woodland so the first job was cutting down a number of trees.

 

 

 

With the trees now cleared and stacked as future fire wood, we arranged for an excavator to form the access, clear the site and put in the services. This work commenced in 2015.

 

The first job was to scrape off the top soil. 

 

 

One of the unexpected costs of self building can be how much an access can be to install. Our access is fairly long and we also need over 100 tree stumps cleared, soil/clay excavated and some form of hardcore put down.

 

Although we are building on clay we also had access to hardcore about 100 meters away. A borrow pit and track was created with enable the hardcore to be quarried with the clay used to fill in the hole and eventually the turfs put back on top. This results in the ground being reinstated to the same condition.

 

 

 

With the necessary rock extracted we could now complete the access.

 

 

 

Organising services can take a while if these are coming long distances, crossing third party land and road crossings. Unfortunately we had all of these to contend with.

 

Electricity was the hardest to achieve but this task was eventually overcome and a temporary supply was on site.

 

 

Our water connection/telephone cable were far more straight forward.

 

With the site levelled off and services ready for contractors our initial works were completed in 2015. 

 

For the next few years we continued to save money and completed a few small jobs such as installing a gate at the access.

 

 

In 2017 we decided to rethink our design we were able to achieve a non material variation. 

 

 

In early 2018 we submitted our building warrant and arranged a self build mortgage.

 

After nearly a decade we were now ready to start building!