I’ve written a bit about the carbon impact of various parts of our build in previous posts, but don’t think I’ve really talked about the net zero carbon ambition as a whole. At the start of this build journey, can’t say I knew too much about the carbon impact of buildings. I certainly hadn’t heard…

Felt I’d reached a major milestone when for my first trip up in January I only had a couple of paint brushes and tubes of caulk in my car boot, rather than the usual contents of slightly more industrial tools and materials. One year on from our full-on post Christmas 2022 cladding session, the 2023…

My sister, Catherine, has been up to Ardnamurchan three times now. Each time she has been, she reminds me – through her reaction – exactly why we love it so much. It’s perhaps best represented by the fact that she apparently sleeps better when she’s here than anywhere else – and given 2 out of…

We paid for our electricity connection back in the Summer of 2020. Think I wrote earlier about the drama getting the electricity connected in the first place, and then more drama again when we had to move the metre into the house. All the time, we were waiting for the final piece of the electricity…

I did very briefly toy with the idea of doing a short plastering course so that I could do the plastering myself. Fortunately I decided to stick with the professionals – helped by Steve’s suggestion that attempting to do it myself was a really bad idea! So instead I got in touch with Gemma –…

I put off thinking about plasterboard for a long time, as I was hoping that some miraculous new product would become available. An alternative that would be low embodied carbon, made of regenerative natural and/or recycled materials, pleasant to use, fully recyclable, and no waste. There are a couple of alternatives on the market that…

After the excitement of the airtightness test was over, I switched back to focus on the next major stage of the build: preparing for plasterboard. Getting to this point involved building the remaining partition walls. I watched the obligatory youtube videos showing me how to do it, talked to my brother a bit and then…

The day finally came on 5th July when the precision of the build was put to the test: the first airtightness test. This isn’t the official test – that will be done towards the end of the build. But this initial one is carried out at this point before everything is covered up so that…

The first week in May, Gordon and Gareth arrived on site to do the blown-in insulation. Seven pallets of Thermofloc insulation (made from recycled newspapers) had arrived ahead of them the previous week. Despite all the best planning, the haulier decided to deliver on Thursday rather than the planned for Friday. As no-one was due…

I couldn’t put it off any longer: we finally had a date for our blown-in insulation and that meant the big 170mm ducts had to be put through the front wall before that happened. Just to make it a bit more challenging, the MVHR machine itself hadn’t arrived, so I just had to hope that…

It was great to be on site with Steve for almost a full two weeks over Easter. And whilst still lots of various inside jobs going on, the focus was very much on external stuff, not least drainage! Suffice to say that drainage is one of the things that has been top of Steve’s priorities…

After almost 4 weeks away, the last weekend in February I was back up to the house with a car packed full of tools that would be needed for the next stage of our build: including our own mitre saw, belt sander, circular saw, 600mm long augur drill bits, clamps, step-up platforms, trestles and –…

The idea had always been that we’d take a bit of a break after Christmas, and re-start in earnest once the days were beginning to get slightly longer and importantly the weather slightly less hostile. As it turned out, January was a full month on site for the builders, and I was up for two…

What better way could there be to disconnect from work for a week between Christmas and New Year than be up a ladder or on scaffolding in all weathers, installing larch rainscreen cladding on our house gables? I think Steve was convinced… We started pretty slowly first thing morning of 27th December. After all the…

Hallelujah! Whilst rain hasn’t been pouring through the roof in the past weeks, with the protection of the membrane and the sarking, there were still areas where water could seep through. And at this time of year, with the temperatures as they are, there aren’t too many drying days. Big relief then that the slating…

Alongside the builders getting on with the roof, Steve and I started to prepare for the final outer layer of the walls. We’d decided that the external timber cladding was something that we could do ourselves (how hard can it be…??) – both because it would save a lot of money, but also we liked…

I spent a long time thinking (and boring Steve) about windows. It still surprises me – given how much windows cost and how significant they are in terms of the whole look of the building – that you don’t really get to see the details of the windows before they physically arrive on site. By…

Lots of layers to the roof: first the roof rafters: then the same 80mm woodfibre that covered the walls, providing insulation: then the membrane covered the whole thing, including – temporarily – the roof light openings, and the battens: Next came the sarking, which is a pretty major difference between constructing a Scottish and an…

It’s perhaps not exactly how companies market it, but for me when they started to fix the 80mm Pavatex woodfibre boards around the outside walls, it really did feel like the house was being wrapped in a blanket. The boards have tongue and groove on all sides so they slot together easily without airgaps, providing…

Kit build continues – not quite at the same heady pace as that first week, but we’re not too far off from starting on the roof. The scaffolding has gone up around the house this week in preparation.   House Components I’m slowly becoming more conscious – and educated – about the role played by…