Reflections on six months of building.

31st December 2022

We’ve come a long way since we left our beautiful flat, on Portobello Promenade, on 31st May.

We eased our way into caravan living by moving to the caravan park near Tarbert, Loch Fyne. Although quite different to living in a spacious flat, we did have all the facilities we needed at hand – washing machines, showers, toilets and electricity, and it was early summer so it wasn’t cold and it didn’t rain too much.

The main inconvenience was having to top up our water barrel each day so that we could have running water in the caravan. That made us think carefully about our water usage and we quickly started using our supply sparingly. It also brought to light, for us, how much we had come to take for granted. Nonetheless we settled easily into our new lifestyle and circumstances.

Enthusiastic and highly motivated, less than a week after moving, we got on with building the timber frames of our house, guided by our guru, Andrew. It was a bit daunting at first and we made mistakes, not always reading the plans correctly or rushing ahead and not taking enough care.

We had to learn that the timber we had to work with was not always perfectly straight and was often twisted and bent, and that we had to try and choose the timbers carefully but not leave all the worst bits to the end.

We also had to learn how to measure and cut accurately, which took a while. Finally we decided that it was best if we measured twice ot thrice with one of us making the first measurement and the other checking its accuracy.

An interesting thing to those inexperienced in accurate measurment (to the millimeter) is that if you don’t look directly down over the measuring tape you will see the marks at an angle and get an inaccurate reading. Andrew told us we had to be accurate to within 5mm over 10m. Not much room for error there.

Amazingly we got all the timber frames for our house and the mega-shed built in six weeks and we were feeling very pleased with our efforts, although at that point we couldn’t be sure that everything would fit together properly once erected. We just had to hold our nerve and hope for the best.

We learned something important early on in the build and that was that it is best to concentrate on the task at hand and limit yourself to learning only the relevant skills needed. This approach has allowed us to keep the anxiety and stress of the undertaking to a minimum, and pretty much from the beginning we have rarely felt overwhelmed by our project .

Andrew has largely followed this approach with us and so has tasked and instructed us as we have gone along.

There are a few drawbacks to this approach, mostly because it is better if you understand the full sequence of tasks. We learned to our cost that if you don’t do some of the tasks in the right order you come across problems further down the line. This has happened most often when we, or other people working on the build, are too keen to rush ahead and get things done without stopping and thinking it through. It is always good to take your time, after all it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

With the timber frames built we moved back to our plot to help with the groundworks and foundations. This introduced us to a whole new experience of caravan living. This time we had no mains electricity, plumbed in toilet, shower, washing machine or dryer. Our life became one of privations. Everything basic involved effort from topping up the water barrel to emptying the waste water and worst of all we had to use a portaloo because of the lack of a plumbed in toilet.

Luckily for us we have always been very adaptable people and along with the excitement of building our own house as a major motivation, we didn’t let it get us down and just got on with it. We found the outside laundrette at Dunbeg for doing our washing, and the sauna in Oban for washing ourselves and we got used to the portaloo, well sort of.

Surely we’ll enjoy all the creature comforts of our house, once it’s finished, all the more for having experienced such basic facilities during the build.

Lorne arrived on 18th July and the groundworks began. He did most of the work with the digger but we were determined to help and so we got stuck in. This was much more physically demanding work than building the timber frames, and some of the tasks were pretty unpleasant, but before long we had prepared the land enough to assemble the insulation kit ready for the concrete foundation slab. This was really exciting because for the first time we could get an idea of the scale of the house and the mega-shed. Things were beginning to feel a lot more real.

Doing the groundworks well and accurately is very important and you need to have ground plans to follow. This didn’t happen and resulted in some challenges when setting out the drainage pipes that come up through the insulated slab. We really struggled with this and it caused us quite a bit of anxiety and stress. In fact we still don’t know for sure if the drainage pipes for the showers are exactly in the right places. No matter what, it won’t be a disaster because you can find a fix for everything, or almost everything.

Having prepared the insulation kit with the radon barrier and the steel reinforcement the day for the concrete pour arrived and, with help drafted in, within a day we had our foundations in place. We were so relieved to get that done and to be able to move on from the groundworks and make things ready for erecting the timber frames.

We had never worked with concrete before so it was all new to us but what was interesting was that the quality of the pour is so dependent on the mix. The first load we got was too dry and so was very hard work to spread and in the end gave us the least satisfactory area of the slab.

By the time we did the last pours the mix was much better and the level of the slab more accurate, unfortunately the last pours were for the mega-shed not the house.

The knock-on effect of the concrete pour was that when we fitted the soul plates we had to plane down certain sections to get things level so that when the timber frames were bolted on they would all join correctly and be the same height. The planing took a bit of time, due to inexperience, and didn’t fully resolve the issue.

The day our timber frames arrived on the lorry with the crane was possibly the most exciting day so far. In just one day, with the help of a team of men directed by Andrew, the walls of both buildings went up. Everything slotted togther as designed and we could see our buildings emerging from the ground. It was so exciting and a great relief, what a day!

It takes quite a bit of confidence and maybe a bit of arrogance to start a project like this but there was always a wee nagging doubt about our abilities. Seeing the walls standing there and the structure looking like the beginnings of a real house was brilliant.

We gained a huge amount of confidence knowing that our timber frame building had been good enough to fit together properly and we haven’t looked back since.

It wasn’t too long before the crane returned and the trusses arrived and again within a day, a very long day, we made another huge step forward.

With the trusses erected on both buildings but no scaffolding around the house we decided to concentrate sheeting out the roofs on both buildings. We managed that fairly efficiently but still we had no scaffolding so we concentrated in insulating and covering the shed roof so that, with autumn approaching, we could have a dry space to work.

We were very lucky to have our friend Martin come and help with the mega-shed roof, he’s very hard working and very strong, and before long the roof was watertight and ready for the corrugated metal covering.

Martin is one of many locals, family and friends who’ve helped us along the way and without whom we could never have got this far. Iain and Alistair MacLaren helped us with their telehandler by moving heavy palettes of materials from delivery lorries and placing around our plot or onto the scaffolding. Martin, Gary, Mariano, Cristi, Ishbel, Ross and Kathleen all helped with the build, Gordon and Duncan moved our caravan back and forth and Margaret let us use some of her space and her electricity whenever we asked. All these people have been great and we owe them such a debt of gratitude.

In October we had hoped to get the roof of the house insulated and ready for it’s metal finish but it started raining and the scaffolding had still not arrived. It rained, and it rained, and it rained for two months, almost every day, and even if we’d had the scaffolding we couldn’t have done the roof. Instead, we worked on the interior of the shed getting it ready for installing a sink and toilet and finishing the attic space to make it useable.

During this time we got our electricity supply and, contrary to our expectations, we got our meter in six weeks. With the meter installed we were able to have a mains electricity supply to the mega-shed and the caravan. Des the plumber came and installed the toilet and sink. It felt like we were in the lap of luxury. Best of all the hated portaloo could go.

It’s amazing how seemingly mundane things can transform your life and how happy that can make you feel. We’d coped with our privations and we didn’t moan about it, much, but nonetheless we were happy to be over with that part of it all. However, it is interesting how quickly you become accustomed to the new, improved circumstances, and begin to take them for granted. We hope that what we experienced living with such limited facilities stays with us and helps us be more empathetic.

The scaffolding finally arrived at the end of November, right after which the rain stopped. We got straight to it and in no time had the roof ladders on the house and were installing the insulation. It was great because we got lots of help from Martin and Gary and the following week Cristi arrived from Argentina to help followed by her husband Mariano. With lots of extra hands we made light work of the roof and within a fortnight the house was watertight. This was a huge relief to us because in October and Novemeber, when it rained almost constantly, we were getting progressively distressed as the house got soaked. Now we could relax about it.

Just before Christmas, Ross and Kathleen came and helped too and we got more work done on the shed and the big window installed on the west mezzanine level. What a great way to end the year.

So, it’s been a great big rollercoaster ride over the last seven months and we have achieved loads because of the help, support and encouragemnent of our friends and family. We’ve never been ones to ask for help until now and I think that is a mistake. We were always happy to help others but we turned down help when offered because we didn’t want to put people out. What we’ve learned is that people offer their help because they want to, and they don’t mind at all giving their time and energy. Most of all we’ve learned that accepting help builds and strengthens relationships and that friends and family are the most valuable things in life.

We wish you all an exciting, happy, fun and rewarding year ahead and with any luck we’ll have our house built and ready to move into by the middle of the year.