Off grid house build Orkney

That view!

Both look good. They've definitely got a lot cleaner/neater compared to the stuff one of my teachers was installing around town in Oz in the 80s/90s.

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..

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Our mat arrived yesterday and just didn’t quite sit right in the tiles.. realised I hadn’t set the tiles flush to the plasterboard when I laid them, darn..

Wee notch out the plasterboard allowed it to slide under and fit better (4th picture) The skirting will hide the wee notch and with the way the door hinges the other side not quite fitting by about 8mm will never be seen.

And on a much larger, much less “oh woe is me, my mat doesn’t fit into my tiles” note, I went a walk along the shore yesterday and was gutted finding this.. there were so many gannets around our shores last year, and they’re so pretty in flight and when fishing. There were noticeably fewer this year, and to find another that’s died after hearing so many reports of that this year makes me worry that there won’t be many more years of seeing them, alive or dead..

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Simply amazing, it just gets better and better.

I've only skimmed over the recent updates and was wandering what your plans are for lighting? I love the colours and finishes that you've chosen but can't help but notice a lot of them are on the dark side! It looks like it laps up daylight but how does it feel on a dull overcast day or at night?

That’s a sad photo, gannets are so beautiful. Hopefully it’s just a bird flu thing and numbers will bounce back in the coming years, but with the current end times feel to everything you never know.

Love this thread btw, very calming (probably not so calm at your end lol)

Thanks very much, it’s feeling more like a home inside with the floor coming together. Here’s a sketch we’d done years ago which kind of shows it. We’re going to have a few spotlights above the worktops on the wall side of the kitchen and a wall mounted light the other side of the door into the porch, a bit of driftwood with 3 or 4 bulbs on cables wrapped around it hanging above the lid of islandy worktop, two big lights up in the vaulted space and some up and down lighters on the walls in the middle of each gable so hoping we should have enough different lighting ambiences for the different weathers. We’re just going with recessed spotlights in the bedroom and bathroom and just a standard pendant light in the utility, office and porch. The big lights we’re making from whisky barrel staves which I think will project a really nice shadow

Actually got callouses on my knees from all the kneeling over the past few weeks but almost there..

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Yeah I’ve had a soft spot for them for years, went to ailsa Craig one time and one followed the boat back pretty much the whole way.
Like you say, I’m living hopefully, but all the figures suggest the decline is going to continue, I get really choked up and melancholy seeing them in flight now.

Haha, definitely not calming, but we’re getting there! Almost done with the grouting and scrubbing now and will be able to move the piles of skirting tomorrow to finish off the bit around the stove and along the back wall.

There was a gap in the weather and the render arrived so that’s the outside almost finished apart from around windows. The digger should be out for the groundworks next week which will let me get the stone ordered for building the porch too.

Also, a friend dropped this off for me, 50 years later and still kind of trailblazing as we pillage for more gas and oil instead..

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Sounds good, great that you're using some local/found materials. I'm sure you're on to this already but high reflectances will offer better brightness thus driving down energy. If any of those darker finish rooms end up feeling gloomy i'd suggest introducing some lighter surfaces over adding extra lighting. For the big room you might want to think about a more neutral colour temperature (3-4000K) for the fittings you would likely only have on in the day. 2700K can be quite yellow in the daytime.

Where is your mat from please? I would like something similar for our whole porch

That’s really useful, thank you. There’s white mdf windowsills going in too so hoping that will lift it a wee bit. Really tempted to find a bit of live edge to use for a few of the windowsills though.. Sorry, I’m not up on this at all, is that bulb temperature?

@spotter we went with a natural coir one from here;
https://www.commercial-matting.net/ seems tough and like it will last a while, but I would consider going for the synthetic if I was to buy again because this feels like it may molt a lot..

Bit of a photo dump upcoming, had some really good things and really frustrating things happen over the last few days but keeping on keeping on, we’re almost there..

Render finally arrived and went on the final gable on Thursday, and then slipped off when 60mph winds and really heavy rains arrived Friday, spent our anniversary up scaffolding in wind and rain scraping the last of it off, bit of a blow that..

However, yesterday the digger showed up and fortunately did the stuff in the lower bit of the field first, we had a ton of rain forecast overnight and he said that would have been just boggy and unmanageable this morning. They spent today working their way up the hill and digging the waste and drainage around the house!

Joiner has been stuck fixing a family barn but says he’ll be back as soon as he can. He showed up Monday to get the barge boards in and the scaffolding down for the drainage starting today.

I’ve just been continually sealing tiles or grouting, or scrubbing grout or mopping with any time I’ve had. It’s very close to done though!

Have had a couple positive chats, but, no concrete answer from the grant technical team about how the heat pump can be controlled or managed in an off grid system. They seem to think it should be manageable and I found out it can be controlled by hive or nest so there must be a way to, somehow..?

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some more of the floor progress and scaffolding down

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Drainage works

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End of the photo dump, After a few brutal rainy days it got pretty this afternoon..

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Ace!

Better your render takes off than your roof?
Must have been an incredible shit moment though.
So close to finishing, guess you hope to move in soon?

And the last picture needs a motivational quote in it.

Looks nearly done enough for me
Can I move in this month?

You living in it yet? I assume not. Where you living now???

Also, you should video a storm when it hits! That would be insane. I'm imagining sitting on sofas with the cat, drinking hot chocolate, by the fire, watching the apocalypse happening outside.

Haha very true! I must trust the joiners as I didn’t even think to check how many solar panels were left when the winds passed.. definitely was a tough one but trying to keep upbeat and told my partner that if a while ago I was told I’d be spending an anniversary with her scrubbing the house we were building I’d have signed up instantly!

Yeah, we had hoped for end of this month, but with the sparky being on holiday and the heat pump not being quite sorted we’re hoping for next month..

@crossedthread let me get the snagging done first so you’re not inconvenienced!

@ChainBreaker no not yet but living in the house beside the field you can see in some of the photos. Can see our house build from our kitchen window. It’s not the greatest place (no central heating and a plug in job etc, but will do for now.

I will do, it can be really powerful outside and watching from there is going to be pretty great. With the wind and rain it can sometimes seem like there’s someone just out of shot just throwing buckets of water..

They popped back after dinner last night to get the chips into the trenches as is meant to be heavy rain again this morning and any dirt falling back in isn’t an issue if the pipes and chips are down already.

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natural coir one from here;

may molt a lot.

They do, more so if your cat likes a good scratch at it. But nothing a buzz with the hoover won't solve. Then just be prepared to replace it if it starts looking bare. I like the coir.

I think our cat is going to love it! Going to make it a pain in the arse for cleaning up all the fibres, but a small price to pay.

There’s still the big pile of dirt below the wastewater treatment plant that they won’t be able to reach until the spring but they levelled off the pile right behind the house. That’s the drainage in and they’re going to be working on the water connection today. Because we’re off grid they’re also going to bury a half sheet of concrete reinforcement mesh north of the workshop to act as an earth for the system too.

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Have had a couple positive chats, but, no concrete answer from the grant technical team about how the heat pump can be controlled or managed in an off grid system. They seem to think it should be manageable and I found out it can be controlled by hive or nest so there must be a way to, somehow..?

I have a 2 year old Grant heatpump run by a this: https://www.heatmiser.com/en/heatmiser-neo-overview/

It all keeps its settings when the supply to the house is shut off. Or rather it remembers them once the supply goes back on and the app works fine.

What are they worried about not working?

Perfect, thanks very much, and really good to hear from someone with experience. I’ll pass that on to the sparky and see if he reckons that could work. It’s a bit above my pay grade, but from my understanding it’s controlling when the heat pump tries to draw power so it doesn’t just keep draining the system trying to start when we’re just building up our battery storage after running out.

The continuation of groundworks and the mains water exposed. Nice to see the ground level coming up. Scottish water coming for the connection on Friday.

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Jake with the digger showed up yesterday as well because he had to start a new job on Monday. Didn’t quite know what to expect when that part was finished, but this seems like it’ll be the finished groundworks for the moment once the last of it has been packed down.

Those works being done is going to let me order the stone for getting the porch on soon as as the weather up here is definitely turning. Despite what the photos show, it’s been really windy and very wet recently.

Last wee edge bits of the floor done and everything else has been mopped and scrubbed to a point I’m happy with before the joiner and folk come back in and walk over it anyway. The pitting on the tiles caught a lot of the grout and even with the sealant being on it made for a time consuming and difficult clean.. Only part left to do is a tiny wee bit of grouting on either side of the utility room where all the worktops and shower screen are currently sitting. That can happen once they’re moved and then what felt like the never ending saga of tiling the floor is done, although.. that means bathroom wall tiling can begin..

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Been a few difficult days with things just not quite working as they should. Folk came in to fit the stove and have just covered the outside flashing in screws which don’t look so pretty, but, aesthetics aside, it took me a minute to notice but they’ve left the ply they used to position the stove on the hearth underneath the legs.. everything is all sealed up, but will need to drop by 11mm so don’t quite know how that’s going to happen. I’ve put it back to them and expect to hear back today.

I also thought I was done with cutting stone, but we’ve had to take some out in the bathroom as I thought the edge of the slab we tiled to was where the shower tray would sit. Turns out it’s 10mm further so we’ve lifted them and I’ll cut and lay new ones to sit flush. Also going to run a 100mm strip of tile underneath those metal heatshields behind the stove as skirting can’t go there..

I also contacted the builder to make sure when the water connection happens there’s a stopcock or something in place. Thank fuck I messaged him as he’d forgotten to put stop caps on so water would have flooded into both buildings as soon as the connection happened..

My partner’s health is getting worse, I’m sleeping poorly on a couch, work is intensely busy at the moment and I just do not have the time or energy to be chasing up professionals to make sure they’re actually doing their job..

On the plus side the joiner is back and he’s at least one safe pair of hands. He’s fitting internal doors just now and it’s making it feel a lot more homely.

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