Off grid house build Orkney

Unreal photo of the aurora!

Spectacular

I'm half expecting UFO to land in your yard... very nice. Re pump I meant is it air type, meaning sucking warm air , compressing etc to heat water and rest, as there are ground types too, which extract the heat from the (temperature stable) underground, more efficient, but more costly too. I know these modern ones work up to -10C or so, perhaps that's all you need with an insulated house, mine is over 200y old and listed, so for it may not work.

happy moving in day!

^agree! Hope you’re nearly at the champagne on the floor in front of the fire stage

Haha does a cider in front of the stove count??

@skinny @mi7rennie @Five-Hats @Eejit @Ottomanotter @TW @JurekB thanks so much, just a long shutter so can’t take any credit but definitely the most vivid I’ve seen since being here!

@Foreigner65 sorry yeah, it’s air to water, we had looked at ground source but would have been another 10k or so in groundworks and we just couldn’t manage it, would probably have been more efficient though. I’m hoping the northern gusts here don’t impact it too much!

@hvsds that’s really kind of you to remember thank you! Moving in was a bit of a riot but we got there.. starting to make it feel like home! Got the last of the tiles in the bathroom in and grouted this weekend too. Had the stove going all weekend and cooked lunch on/in it both days. Kept the place nice and toasty actually.

It’s definitely true, the house is subconsciously the same colour as nihil!!

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B eautiful
R ad
A wesome
V alidating
O utcome
May you and your family Live , Laugh , Love and Lounge in it

That front room is amazing - love it a lot. Don't think I'd ever get bored of the view!

Love it.

I like the unpretentiousness and simplicity of the design and decoration. I mean that as a compliment. It's a home. Our place is similar, but in need of work.

B eautiful

R ad
A wesome
V alidating
O utcome
May you and your family Live , Laugh , Love and Lounge in it

Not sure about this though

What the B?
“Bangin” maybe? Can’t think of any other B’s at the moment

It’s definitely true, the house is subconsciously the same colour as nihil!!

So would you say the colour scheme is nihilistic?

It's looking brilliant, squire. Really impressive and properly becoming a home.

Sunny Nihilism, surely :)
as I just was reading about, and is apparently a thing

Thanks so much John! Still plenty to do, but it is beginning to feel home like! We’ve got all the lights running now (through the generator at the minute unfortunately but still) and he’s hoping to get al our sockets and things in use too. Still no further forward with the plumbers coming out to finish their side though. It was my partner’s 40th yesterday so I surprised her with an Orkney chair. Had the craftsman make it with Scottish burr oak and it is just a thing of beauty. Reckon it’s going to sit pretty nicely in there!

@rawspuds yeah me neither, it’s so changeable with weather, light and season that it’s never the same.

@skinny thank you! Haha that lack of pretentiousness just comes from having no money left and having to use what furniture we had brought from previous places 😂

@ketsbaia haha yes very much so, and @crossedthread is right, when nothing matters the world and all it’s possibilities open outside of the current social framework. Freedom and joy outside of the crushing death knell of capitalism, attempts and successes mean as much (or as little) as attempts and failures! You should also look into the ideas of passive and active nihilism, passive being allowing things to crumble and active being doing all you can to accelerate the death of meaning, theory and societal values/structures.. anyway, probably a different thread for that somewhere, here’s pictures of a hand crafted chair with about 150 hours of skilled work put in.

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Since it’s all crisp and frosty here I was hoping for some stunning winter Orkney pics, maybe some snow or an incredible sunset.

If we are putting in requests I want

• Beautiful sunset
  
• Crisp frost
  
• Noctilucent lenticular clouds
  
• Northern lights
  
• Cat
  
  

Thanks

What a marvellous thread, thread of the year brought me here. Congrats on the fantastic house. As I don't know a thing about Orkney and with some time on my hands, I started googlemapping the place, looks beautiful and definitely a place I want to visit. What time of year would be recommended? Don't mind a little cold.
Btw, quite childish, but the google reviews of Twatt church in Birsay made me chuckle a bit.

For me, your list is upside-down (priority-wise) but I concur with the content.

Sorry to disappoint, it’s been sleety here, but pretty miserable and not overly photo worthy..
started full time at the mental health charity I work for so I’ll be leaving and returning in the dark for the next few months too..

@Five-Hats noted, and I will get to work on that! @Cazakstan I will probably barrage you with more of nihil as she gets comfier and finds her spots. She used to love on top of doors but couldn’t in the place we rented for 3 years because they were all fire doors that swung shut. She got 3/4 of the way up one the other day, I think she’s finding her climbing feet again!

The sparky got some more of the lights wired together so could see the bathroom with the spotlights in which was nice. And with some side up and down lighters the shadows of the two big lights meet in the middle in a really pleasing fashion. Definitely need some gentler lightbulbs in the driftwood light but that’s easily done.. the sparky fell through his ceiling working on his house and cracked his ribs. Fortunately he says he wasn’t too badly hurt, but not quite sure how much more that will progress for a wee while, these things were sent to try us..

Will need blinds for the consistent daylight in the summer but have really enjoyed the light from the moon in there the last few mornings/

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Thread of the year? There’s much cooler things going on than this surely? Yeah it’s a really beautiful spot, feeling incredibly fortunate there was such a beautiful bit of land going.

We had actually visited twatt church a couple times considering a renovation project but quickly realised I did not have the skill and we did not have the money for that.. I reckon we’d still be sitting damp with a fire going in the middle of it if we’d gone down that route.. it’s really tough to give a time of year, we can have beautiful weeks in spring and autumn, but the next week it can feel like winter again. I love the winter, but it can be a real problem getting here with boat cancellations sometimes and the summer can be stunning one week and then you don’t even see the coast the next week when the sea fog (haar) settles.. last year my parents left that massive heatwave and came up here to an entire week of mist and didn’t see the sun once.. a lot of the time when the weather is bad it blows through quite quickly though so you can get a nice day either side too. Those still days are amazing after a storm; kind of feels like the wind has run out

gentler lightbulbs

Do you have a dimmer? I understand the daytime appeal of clear squirrel cage lamps but IME they're horrible when not dimmed right back (i have this battle regularly with ID/architects). If you want to go clear then either a simple wall dimmer to settle them or you could consider mirrored lower half options. If you'd consider frosted/opal and have a wall dimmer you could go dim to warm which would really work well in that space.

+1 for thread of the year, it's like a health spa after spending time in any of the M&M threads.

Wow, thanks for the imaginitive description. Sounds so mystical and relaxing, aware of the elements.
You're too modest saying that there are cooler stuff going on. The fact that you make the time to keep track of the project in this thread is quite something. I imagine it must be a bit stressful keeping up with the construction itself.

I don’t have a dimmer as when we were planning things I just figured they always seem the first switches to go.. the idea of a mirrored half of the bulb seems interesting to kill some of that harshness. They were bulbs we bought ages back with no real consideration of exactly what we might need so hoping a combo of the mirrored/frosted and lower wattage should make a difference.
Haha, I know what you mean, everyone on here has been so positive and supportive of things that it does make a really nice read.

@damskodonny you’re exactly right, living in cities most of my life weather and seasons are things that just happen to you rather than something you’re involved in and see the progression of. Sounds a bit hippy like but think one of my goals for the next year is taking my shoes off and just standing in the ground more.

I’ve mentioned it before in the thread but mental health, self esteem and isolation are things I’ve struggled with throughout this build, as well as just generally. I’ve found documenting things here really useful as it’s given me the space to look back to see what I’ve managed when things are getting me down, or to convince myself there’s a lot more that’s been done than still needs to happen. It’s always been a major part in not feeling so isolated and sometimes just a little encouraging word from someone supportive on here has been exactly what I’ve needed for keeping going. Feeling incredibly fortunate and feel I’ve got a lot more from this than anything I have put in.

Got this sheet back on for the fuse box to get attached. Was terrified of going through any of this as it’s all the electrics and the mains water so had to pretty much draw it out on the sheet for future reference.

Also nihil seems to be building her winter chunk and has now claimed the armchair closest to the stove in the evenings..

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How was Christmas in the new gaffe @Creek_Tebsin ? Hope it was stress free and very enjoyable.

@andyp Hey Andy, not great unfortunately. I hadn’t been happy in the relationship for a while and had failed pretty miserably at ever communicating it, instead choosing just to distract myself with the build and work until I’d just let it go too far.. I’m staying in Kirkwall just now while we work out what to do with the house and whether one of us can afford to manage it on our own (I really don’t want to sell it to anyone else!).
Then, I started to try a bit of self care going into the new year, did some yoga Sunday and Monday and then because I was in Kirkwall I decided I’d treat myself to a cycle out to the beach afterwards, hit some black ice coming round a corner and broke my femur in two places right at the hip.. helicoptered down to Aberdeen a couple days ago and I’m just waiting to go into surgery for some pins and screws.. hoping 2023 improves soon haha 🤞