This is the – ongoing – story of Steve and Harriet’s house build on a beautiful hillside in Ardnamurchan. We have no intention of this being any widely publicised ‘Grand Design’ build project: this blog is primarily a record for us, and interested family and friends.
What we’re building:
The plan is to build a 2-bedroom, net zero carbon, certified Passivhaus, which – if we achieve the Passivhaus certification (not straightforward for small detached houses in the Scottish Highlands) – will likely be the first in Ardnamurchan, and possibly the first in Lochaber or even further afield. Being first though isn’t our motivation – having the lowest impact on the environment is, both in construction and operationally ongoing. And if by building our house, we help builders and tradesmen in the Ardnamurchan/Fort William area increase their knowledge of more sustainable building techniques – and enable them to incorporate this knowledge into future houses that they build – that in itself is hugely motivating.
Both Passivhaus certification and net zero involve collecting and collating significant amounts of information – that old saying “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. We’ll be recording every stage of the building process, attempting to show the detail of how the building has been built and understand the carbon impact of every material and process we use (from roof slates to the number of vehicles driving to site and where they’re driving from). It won’t be a perfect process, but hopefully will help everyone involved in the project to make slightly more conscious decisions.
Joining us on our journey:
Peter Smith – our architect, from Roderick James Architects, based in Glasgow.
Our building contractor, Michael Faryma Joinery Contractors in Fort William – with the team led by Steve Faryma and John Corbett, from J Corbett Architecture. Taking us to first fix stage.
and many other people helping us at various points along the way, including:
- Es Tresidder – providing Passivhaus guidance in the planning stages
- Jonathan and Jae from Passivhaus Homes, who are supplying our timber frame kit
- Eenie MacGilivray – first digging on site, to get our electricity connected
- Danny Anderson – initial groundworks for house and garage
- Richard and Vicky, owners of the Ardnamurchan Natural History Centre & Café, and extremely kind hosts to our caravan during the first part of our build
(Note: the list above covers those involved in the first phase of our build. Others are mentioned within individual blog posts).