Off grid house build Orkney

Thanks very much, I’m really happy with how it’s looking, ended up being almost 80m2 we laid. Yeah uh huh, that’s the plan, there’s a wee frame still to go around it as well and that’s going the ceiling colour too which will hopefully hide it away a little. Need to prime it first as it has a plasticky feeling coating, but going to do all of that next time I have all the painting stuff out, it’s such a pain in the arse cleaning everything again after such a tiny wee bit..

Last couple days I’ve added a second coat of the sealer on the tiles and the bottle says it should last 3-5 years so will hopefully be a while before I have to do it again. The new grout got delivered the other night too and is a much closer match to the tiles (the bag is the grout colour). It’s still a little lighter, but I’d rather that than it being a little darker. The grout will hide all the light edges you can see on the tiles now which should pull it all together ok.

@almac68 that is so kind of you, thank you! I know I’ll be dipping back to this comment whenever I’ve had a tough day on it to help encourage me to keep going. It feels so nice to have people being interested in, or supportive of, this project! I know the first year in will be a learning curve on power consumption and things, but hoping to demonstrate that treading gently can be manageable and that it can be comfortable too. Thank you for following along, I appreciate it more than you could know.

@skinny I know right?! I still look up when I’m working away in the field digging something and have to just pinch myself!

Had to postpone the stove fitting as the two problem solving flue bends hadn’t shown up yet, I bet they show up this morning as well..

Been in touch with the builder who says the render will be here on Friday and should hopefully get that gable finished off and all scaffolding away next week. The guy with the digger is off to a job on another island and then should be with us for drainage, water connection and a bit of earth levelling in a couple weeks. Although, I remember being told this a couple months ago as well..

Still no update on the heat pump apart from a couple more positive noises from our off grid guy after speaking to his heat pump guy. Feeling positive that it’ll get sorted and just waiting to hear back from the Grant technical team to see how we manage the control of it.

Apart from that, our sparky had covid last week and is now away on holiday for 3.. things are getting so close and looking done, but still some major bits to happen. Just need to convince myself these are large bits, but once the people are on site none of it should really take too long, fingers crossed..