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Over the years, 24 and counting, as a couple we’ve never settled, bought a house needing doing up, renovated it, lived in it, whilst bringing up our son. Sold, moved to rented, bought and renovated others. Sold and moved on, but never settled. Thought about emigrating, a disastrous foray into overseas property and we still found ourselves unsettled. The thought of doing something different with our lives and possibly working together was always there. Over the years I’ve built extensions for families and seen the positive impact I’ve had on them. The want to build my own house was strong, and when I say build my own, I want to do it all, and luckily Mandy’s onboard. Fast forward a few more years, we re-model our house and sell. Move to rented with the plan of moving to the Highlands. We’ve got a very modest budget i.e. not enough (remember the overseas bit). So the land needed to help, we found a croft for sale with no buildings or services, and too expensive, but with a bit of negotiating made an offer with clauses for planning and services. More on the plans later. Based in a small rural village of Occumster on the North East Coast in Caithness, Scotland, known as the lowlands of the highlands, our croft of 11.8 acres of grass, now has planning for a house and a couple of Glamping Pods. The croft is fronted by the A99, part of the North Coast 500 route, so hopefully this is where our initial income will come from. I’m more than aware that I will need to go off and earn money to live. Eventually we will have Bees, and rare breed pigs hopefully boosting our income, and satisfying the croft requirements to work the land. And here starts the adventure..