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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..

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..

Spent the last couple days scrubbing and mopping the floors to get them ready for sealing. Has definitely darkened them a little, but I think that’ll fade a little as it cures and then as soon as it’s walked and lived on a little. Dropped a bit of water off a mop onto one of the tiles I’d already done and the water just beads right on the top of it. Never imagined rock needing waterproofed..

Stuck the last of the tiles down around the stove and along the windows as well. Just a few rows of sealing to do next to those bits but the other bit of floor needs to cure enough for those lengths of skirting to move.

@gillies Thank you! I’m really surprised at how well it turned out! Reckon if we’d paid a tiler to do it and then come back in we’d have been chuffed with the job they’d done. Here’s the wee triangle cut again for the front of the stove, just helps to tidy it up a bit. We had a nice sunset again last night coming through and here’s a pic from floor level to show the natural inconsistencies in the tile surfaces and a view of it through the kitchen window.

Sealing the stone and then grouting will be my weekend I reckon. Got the stove guy booked in for next Thursday now we’ve got the flue issue solved and hopefully the joiner starts on internals next week or the week after too.

Ran in this morning before the boat to work just to have another wee look. Really happy with the finish along the back edge at windows and doors as well as the square (although the camera makes it look like a trapezoid) for a sunk coir mat at the front door. At the windows there’s going to be a wee oak threshold that will sit on top of the tiles which is why it’s not tiled right to the edge. Snug, bug and rug are words that came to mind.

Haha, this is it receding! When I was younger I had at most a threehead..

@andyp Now to remember wonderwall on guitar haha. It’s never been that shape in its life, reckon the sludge and adhesive dust had merged and glued it there..

@bigshape cheers, have been gaining confidence with it over the week and still have all ten digits! Yeah I’ve looked a riot every time I’ve come down the road this week. Didn’t expect it to be anywhere near as gross, luckily got a good set of waterproof dungarees which saved me from the worst of it.

@TW oh definitely, reckon I’d have been dodging sparks all day too! The water seemed to clear the channel too, cutting felt a lot smoother than when I tried running it dry?

Got some precision cuts going today. Dad and I had a tough morning, cutting in batches and finding that some didn’t quite fit as the tiles aren’t exact measurements which became quite disheartening. Then mum stepped up and smashed it. Sewing prowess came into play and we basically just started cutting patterns out of cardboard, marking that on tiles, cutting and dry laying one to make sure the next one was right and move on. Became a proper wee production line! Really chuffed with the finish at the windows and around the stove, couldn’t have asked for more! Recut that triangle with the corner missing in the last photo so it looks cleaner now. I found cutting a notch in one side of the tile and then cutting from the other side saves it chipping at the corner when it gets skinny.

I’m back at work tomorrow so mum and dad are leaving, been such a massive help and has made me feel that much less overwhelmed by everything. Can’t believe how much we’ve accomplished and don’t want to imagine how long this would have taken on my own..

The length of small cuts in front of the windows and door aren’t stuck down yet but we figured it was more important to get all the cuts sorted today and I can stick them down on myself.

Been lots of cutting today, it’s a great saw though and I’m really happy with some of the fits we’re getting around door frames with it. Trouble is, these tiles are too thick for the guard and without that it kicks up a ton of stone dust water at your face. Not many people can say they know how their floor tastes.. got a little glimpse of how I’ll look as I age as well..

Wow, thank you so much, it has been really tough, but the end is in sight. It’s beginning to look like what we’ve seen in our heads for years! Not to worry, soon as I’ve got the floor laid the joiner will be back for all the internal fittings (skirtings, doors and things) and then will be fitting the kitchen.

@skinny cheers bud, if you get any pictures of your neighbour’s land I’d love to see!

@Dexter thank you, and we got super lucky with that furniture, my mum and dad moved to a smaller place and it wouldn’t fit in their new room..

@stevo_com I’ve surprised myself to be honest! And dad has been a huge help. The tiles all being irregular has definitely been useful for it not looking too erratic.

Been cracking on, one more day of my folks being here and I genuinely think we’ll finish it! Have a bunch cut which will finish the porch, the bathroom and into both bedrooms that we’ll put down first thing tomorrow. Then all that’s left will be a line in front of the window and around the stove!

My mum got some of the grout down where the fridge will go and sealed the tiles in the utility room. We’ve decided the grout is much too light so I’m ordering some more which will match the limestone much more closely. Feel the light grout breaks it up too much and looks messy when it sticks in the pitted edges and a darker grout will make it seem like a more continuous space.

That’s really very kind of you, thank you! It’s nice to have people following along as it can feel quite isolating and overwhelming at points. Had a few good ones recently, things are beginning to look house like now

That’s really very nice, are they at different depths as well?

Didn’t quite appreciate just how much we had managed to stuff into the container. Some bits at the back I couldn’t get to on my own had got a little surface mould on them. Not bad considering we stuffed everything in there last minute on a drizzly Friday afternoon before the yard closed in October 2019. Some vinegar spray and a bit of elbow grease sorted most things. We had time to get things packed back up in a much more organised fashion after most got a wee scrub and we put together the wardrobes and the bed frame. Just as we got everything together the sunset shone right through the bedroom window onto the furniture. I must admit it did leave me feeling rather pleased with our choices despite this build having very nearly beaten me into submission multiple times recently. Haha, please ignore my dad pretending his shadow is a strongman..

Also heard back from building control and have a solution for the stove flue. Going to add two twin wall 45 degree bends higher up and that’ll take us past the truss ok and we have to mastic some fireboard to the truss as a bit more protection. Apparently you have to stick it on with mastic rather than screw it as heat has been known to travel through screws into the trusses. We don’t have to get bigger heatshields either!

Been a tiring week, but really chuffed with what we’re managing to achieve again.

Tiled up to the window apart from the cut bits needed at the edge and it really seems to have expanded the space and made it feel a bit closer to being finished. I thought with the tile being darker than the concrete floor it might feel smaller but doesn’t seem to be the case. Also made our way into the utility room and just have a wee edge to finish in there now. I enjoy that there’ll be no door bars into the utility room, bathroom and porch and should trick the eye into it feeling bigger I think. Having to leave all these edges for now as it was too tricky to do without letting the tiles around them cure so we can stand on them for the last bit.

Only the fiddly cuts and then porch and the bathroom to do now really. Reckon those rooms will feel easy peasy after this space, that main bit is around 52m2 (which according to the weight thing on the pallet means we’ve laid 1600kg of tiles so far!)

My mum also came up to help and she’s been clearing out all the channels for grouting using a rotary tool and has helped us get the wallpaper up in the bedroom too! I really like the paper, enjoy that it has a bit of texture to it and really think it’s starting to add a little warmth to the room rather than feeling too dark. We’re keeping the skirting white (I think) and around the window and door too as I think that makes it seem more light is coming in, but will be painting the loft hatch and it’s wee surround the same colour as the wall and ceiling.

Finished off the corner in the utility room the fridge will sit. Used an electric stone cutter I’d bought years ago when I had time to do things like slate mosaics and it’s worked really well on these. Only trouble is the tiles are too thick to use with the guard so had to wear a bin bag and waterproofs yesterday to shield myself from a wave of grey water being spat out at me the entire cut..

Goal for today is to take advantage of it looking like it’ll be dry all day (and my dad is here to help me with lifting) and pull everything out the container to get the fridge and some of the bedroom furniture in. The fridge happening now will be much easier than when the kitchen has started being fitted etc. and my dad thinks it’ll be good for both me and my partner’s mental health if we can get some furniture in to convince us the end is in sight so he wants to have that done before he leaves.

First job this morning is to grout that corner and then get some stone sealer on it so we can place the fridge at the end of the day.

My partner got a signed bible from the queen when she was 8 after winning some school competition so we’re going to try and dig that out while we’re in there and get it up for sale online, who says the monarchy never gives back to the working class.

No not at all @skinny , that’s really interesting! That could be a fantastic setup for the two of you, probably really nice for him to have the help/someone interested in the same things to pass knowledge onto.

Wow, I hadn’t pictured that in my head at all, that’s brilliant! I’ll need to make some kind of brick one outside as a project in time.

Got moving on things again today and almost at the window now! Builder who had been tiling popped by to sink the waste and pour the floor for the shower tray and looked genuinely surprised at how much of it we’d got through so far. Has saved us hundreds of pounds at least already and feels really nice to be doing it with my dad. It’s natural stone and meant to have an antique effect so none of the tiles are perfectly square or level and each one is really individual with its markings. The differences in gaps and stuff was killing me at first but the more we do the more I like it not being perfectly even. We’ve always aimed for it to not look like a new build and I think these will really add to that.

Nihil was also looking particularly cute on our lunch break!

There’s a shelf and apparently you can grill or barbecue in the glass fronted bit too! Reckon that’ll be murder to clean though so doubt we’ll be doing it much.
Wow, is that just for heating or does it do your hot water too? Lived in Minnesota when I was younger and stayed with a family on a bit of land who had a similar setup and a forest around them. The grandpa spent his summer chopping trees on the land stocking up the wood pile for rotation for the next winter.

Hmm, wonder how you would? Was talking to the guy fitting the stove about airflow today and he was saying a local restaurant was having a real problem with their stove billowing smoke back into the restaurant and he was doing a bunch of troubleshooting to figure out what was going on and it turned out to be the big industrial kitchen extractor pulling it back down the flue!

It’s going to be mainly as a back up for when there isn’t power for cooking or heating, but I’m sure we’ll just have a few nights in front of the fire too.

Had the guys come to fit the stove today but the flue is going to be going through the ceiling too close to the truss.. he’s said we could use a single wall offset pipe in the flue run to take it far enough away from the truss but that brings the single skin part of the flue about 280mm from the wall. We had bought enamel coated metal heatshields which allow things to sit closer to the wall, but the ones we have ordered are 1200mm but this offset would take the height of single skin pipe to about 1800mm… There are 1800mm heatshields available and we might be able to return the other ones and swap for these, checking with the building officer to see if this is the solution to fix this and stay on top of building regulations. Really wanting to avoid having to mount fireboard as the walls are all finished and taped and filled and painted..

We didn’t tile today thinking the stove guy would be up scaffolding there but got the spacer things out and it being clear makes it feel much bigger.
@hvsds that’s very kind of you, thank you! To be honest I think we’re going a bit faster, not surprising to be honest as he’s building his own house right and getting invoices in so stretching an hourly rate to pay what he needs could quite easily become a thing (I think it had!) either way I think we’re working faster and not taking a bunch of breaks and phone calls each day. Cleared the bedroom and took off the floor protectors and I’m pretty sure our grouting is better than his as well..

@Aldosterone thanks so much, it’s been a dream of mine forever. Always said I wanted to build a house but to be honest I pictured a wee hovel built out of pallet wood in a damp bit of woods somewhere, nothing like this!

Pm’d

Thanks, I’m really chuffed with how it’s looking! Think they’ll help the house not feel like a new build which is kind of what we’re after, want it to feel seated in and like it’s been there a while. There’s really pretty variations in the tiles as well. Not cheap, but our hope is they help hold the heat from the underfloor heating on the days we don’t have enough power to switch it on.

We got cracking again early doors this morning and managed to put the same amount down today as we had in the day and a half before that. Hopefully got the guys coming to fit the stove tomorrow so won’t be tiling tomorrow to give them space to do it. Started at the kitchen wall so there weren’t fresh tiles down where the scaffolding will sit for them. Think we’ll clear the kitchen and things into the second bedroom and maybe looking at wallpapering in our room or something.

Yeah he’s a proper lifesaver, talked to him feeling pretty overwhelmed on Monday and he was up on Friday afternoon, legend!

My dad came up yesterday so we’ve been getting cracking on the floor tiling as really can’t afford to be paying anyone to do it.. big heavy bits of 14mm thick limestone so they’re going down quite quickly but it’s tough work.. with a few rows done getting a real idea of what it will look like. Also got the office grouted (still to be properly scrubbed) and laid the hearth so it has time to cure before the stove gets fitted on Tuesday.

Also, a bit of a photo dump here but our stove arrived (which will cook us alive in this well insulated a house) so I’m suddenly less worried about keeping warm. The oven’s temperature gauge goes from cool to very hot, standards of measurement I can get behind! It’s even prettier in person and handmade in Lancashire I believe.

Looking to place our container elsewhere when we’ve got the furniture out of it so have been clearing and levelling a space further along the field. Doesn’t look like a lot of space in the photo but measures 7mx3.5m so a fair old pile of dirt came out, tough couple days..

Builder has been taking their time on things and submitted a rather large invoice for not a lot being done. Told him just to focus on the outside and my dad and I are just going to tile the house ourselves to save paying him any more for it.

They have again got their quantities wrong and so don’t have enough of the silicone render to finish the last gable.. 3 weeks because the colour is a special order..

The renewables guy came out and fitted the turbine inverter yesterday. Had a chat with him and the sparky about this ongoing heat pump issue. Problem seems to be that there isn’t a two way control to the heat pump to tell it to not draw power when there isn’t there to draw. We think we could probably find a way around it manually, not demanding hot water and thermostats down to whatever ambient temperature there is in the house so as not to make it switch on. Talking with them though there does seem to be an inverter which can put the heat pump on a separate part of the system so it can only be switched on when certain demands are met (ie. Producing x kw and batteries at x% full).

CURRENT THOUGHTS – make it work with ASHP now? Or live with only using the immersions and woodburning stove until next year and try and add a heat pump or work out an alternative solution?

We want to avoid making an expensive mistake with the heat pump, so thinking adding it next year (if possible at all) may in many ways be preferable, we would also then have plenty of data as well as an understanding of living in the house how additional components should be incorporated. But if we can make the original plan work now (with reasonable confidence) it would certainly be great. I’ve read a couple of case studies on line with heat pumps integrated in off-grid Victron systems – which lends me to believe the Victron controller can treat the heat pump as a separate AC load from the rest of the house loads, and there is the scope to program the controller..

If a heat pump is installed, my thoughts around operation are something like this:
· ASHP should run fairly consistently in winter months – production dependent – we can live with manually adjusting timers and thermostats based on current and expected daily weather. Also, we will look to prioritise DHW only on low production days, by using the wood burning stove to provide most or all of the space heating (and possibly cooking).
· If battery storage available drops below 50% say, triggers a normal shutdown of the ASHP? i.e. Switch to allow ASHP to turn on only when battery storage is above this threshold. Allowing priority of other house loads over hot water when storage is low. Avoiding situation on low production days or at night, the heat pump running down the batteries and us having no power (also potentially avoiding the heat pump to hard shut down if power runs out)
· ASHP is not used as a dump in the sense of programming it to come on or do more when we have excess production – as this seems risky and might not be achievable anyway. We could increase load manually on high generation days by increasing DHW demand or increasing thermostats… but could a immersion be used as a dump instead, raising the water temperature of the thermal store so less is required of the heating system later? Limited by only having 3kW immersions at the moment (and assuming we can use one of them in this way). If smaller immersions can’t be added limits this dump to only when production > demand by 3kW – but could still provide a good use of excess power on very windy days. Would need some temperature sensor control for this immersion if used in this way.
· Manual management of high power ASHP legionella cycle – will need to plan this around when we have available power (and mitigate by decreasing other loads during the high power cycle).

If it’s not going to be possible to add a heat pump at this stage we will need to use immersions for water heating this Winter. We will have to rely on our wood stove for primary space heating (unless it’s windy and sunny I think) and ration our hot water use – but I think it will be liveable (we don’t have central heating in the place we have been renting for the last few years, and it’s no where as insulated as our new house and we’ve been fine). In this scenario we will want to use the immersion as a dump to take any excess production (after house loads and batteries full), which if there is plenty of wind should mean we manage to heat the water reasonably well those days?

Got the floors cleared for starting on the tiling when dad shows up this weekend too.

Thank you very much, haven’t walked out in that direction in a wee while and just nice to see how it sits in the landscape. Really glad it doesn’t feel or look too intrusive. Really needing it to be in the next couple months, mortgage, rent and invoices are kind of breaking us at the minute. Hoping the electrics issue will be sorted soon and the water connection should be in the next few weeks. Our wood stove started it’s travels up yesterday too so we’ll be able to cook and eat, even without power which could move us in before the habitation certificate and sign off.

@boomboom we’re being really boring and just connecting to mains water.. had looked at rainwater systems, but all our money went in to the renewables and that is something we can always add on in time. It’s gravity fed and we’re relatively low on island so are close to 3 bar pressure which I wasn’t expecting. Know a guy who lives at the top of a hill and has 0.5 bar..

Got one of the bedroom floors finished and the office/second bedroom floor is almost done. I really like the tiles and they do look quite like wood actually, there’s a slight texture to them and they’re not quite perfectly square edges. Judged the grout colour online as there isn’t a huge amount of selection up here and chuffed with how that worked out too. Going to use the same dark colour between the pink kitchen splashback tiles to try and pull everything together as well.

My last few days have been moving all the different bits of wood scattered around into one mass. Got a tarp down underneath and everything sitting on pallets balanced on top of blocks and stones. Been told the last bit of the groundworks is a few weeks away so was wanting to just get it all cleared out the way.

We managed to see the finished product on the side of the house today, with the first panel getting the topcoat of silicone render. This cement board has been a long, and therefore costly, process so hoping it will have a long uncomplicated lifespan..

Yeah you’re probably right, trying to pinch pennies as things are tight at the minute but in the grand scheme of things paying a wee bit more for a job done right is probably worth it!

@mashton Apparently we’re getting fibre on our wee island soon (although, I’ll believe it when I see it). We’re not putting a phone line or anything in so have had to go with one of those wee mifi devices. The 4g signal where we are isn’t bad as you can see straight across the water to one of the towers so the internet is actually quite good.

Getting there.. one room done at least and they’ve spent some time finishing the first coat of external render and the cement round the blockwork of the workshop. Going to use some of the larch for kitchen cabinet doors and had read about the charring method and love how the grain seems to come out. Bought a blowtorch and gave it a wee blast. Trying out different amounts of burning/sanding/oil to see what looks better for now before I really start on anything.