Plans had been approved and Mark and Theresa Edwards were ready to get to work on their building project, but then they met architect Stuart Bagshaw…
TEXT NIK HUNTER IMAGES ELLIOT ROBERTS
The Edwards had been holidaying in Cove in Wester Ross with their small children for about 10 years when the opportunity arose to create a more permanent base. “We fell in love with the area,” Theresa recalls. “Eventually we thought, what if we could have something up here to escape from our busy business life and create a legacy for the children?”
The family knew the locals well and when one of them decided to split up his croft, they asked if he would consider selling them part of it. He said yes and in 2010 the couple took ownership of a plot of land overlooking Loch Ewe. Initially there was no planning permission and not even a road to the plot but over time, plans were put in place for a conventional timber frame dwelling. “It had taken a long time to get that permission as the planning department were quite fussy about what could go up in the area and quite rightly so,” Mark explains.
During this time, through their work with their business, Strathearn Stone & Timber, the couple encountered architect Stuart Bagshaw. “We were on a job in Harris and the builder said that the architect would like to speak to us as he was interested in what we were doing,” Mark remembers. “We met with Stuart and his signature build was everything we wanted but couldn’t put into words.” After a phone call to planning, the plans for the current build were scrapped. “We said we wanted to build a Stuart Bagshaw house. The planners knew of Stuart, and they said if we were building one of his designs, we wouldn’t have any problems with permissions, and they were right.”
Stuart’s design of Black Sheep House was one of Mark’s favourites, but the couple were aware that this design wouldn’t be large enough for them and their family. “I think because I had seen Black Sheep being developed, it was my idea of the perfect bothy; something small where you could hunker down in wild weather.”
“Mark wanted a small house like Black Sheep but of course that wouldn’t have worked for family living,” Stuart recalls. However, regardless of the size of the property Stuart affirms that his design process always starts in the same way. “Where is north? Where does the sun rise and where does the sun set? Then I look at how the sun will move during the day, the prevailing winds. After that you can site the rooms around where you get the views and where you get the sunlight.” And that’s exactly what Stuart did here.
Once the rooms are sited, Stuart starts to consider volume as he explains: “My own house is an old croft house, but it still has double height spaces which always surprises people. Volume is important, I liken it to when people lived in caves; creating different volumes creates different atmospheres.”
The other thing that all Stuart’s designs have in common is the absence of CAD: “I draw everything by hand on tracing paper and then layer up the tracing paper.” That’s not to say that Stuart isn’t familiar with CAD. “I did learn to use CAD but it didn’t work for me and there are certain things that CAD will just not let you do or add into the design.”
Even without the assistance of computers, the design evolved quickly, Stuart remembers: “We swapped a few rooms, and the boat house wasn’t in the original brief but once that was firmed up, Mark was really involved and hands on and he came to me for technical info and spatial details.”
“What Stuart designed here was right,” says Mark. “The only changes we made were to make the utility room into a bar and the log store into the utility and we changed one square window to an arched one. The bar space was too good an opportunity to waste!”
Theresa adds: “One of the first things Stuart asked us was how would we live when we were here? When you turn up in the car from Perthshire?” The response was there had to be a fire, there would be family and people and the kitchen would be the hub of the house. “However, while we knew it made sense to have an open plan design, we didn’t want a vast, cold space. Stuart did things like lowering the ceiling in the kitchen/dining area to make it feel cosier. The space is perfect for us, and I think that was because of the relationship we had. He understood us and we could trust him.”
Stuart’s design incorporated an entrance hall, den, bathroom, bar, and a staircase to a bedroom and bathroom at the front of the house. Once into the main body of the building there’s an open plan kitchen/living/dining area, a utility room and the main bedroom suite with a dressing room and ensuite. Mark came up with the design for the handcrafted staircase which is a work of art in itself, and this leads to a mezzanine level and an upstairs bedroom and ensuite.
With the design finalised quickly and planning permission granted, the couple were good to go, but the next part took a little bit longer. “In 2010 we bought the land, and we finished the build last year! It did take longer than we thought,” says Theresa. “After planning was granted, the next two or three years included the purchase of a caravan so we could continue to holiday here along with working on site, then Mark built the shed and next came the foundations. It was during the financial crash, so we were trying to pull funding together.”
Once the foundations were in, the couple secured funding for the timber structure and the huge steels that were required, and Mark made the decision to work on the build full time. “I took a step back from the business and concentrated on this for approximately three years and for two of those years it was only my son and I working here,” Mark remembers. “There’s nothing conventional about this building,” Theresa explains. “Mark was learning on the job and for his first build he couldn’t have picked a more difficult one.”
One of the most difficult aspects of the build was the roofline both for Stuart and Mark. “Part of my approach is that I like my buildings to mature into the landscape,” Stuart explains. “If you use materials from the site they grow into the landscape. However, the roofline was probably the biggest challenge, designing it in such a way that it fitted into this natural and wild environment.”
While Stuart had deliberated over the design, Mark had the pleasure of making the design come alive and the roof certainly kept him occupied for a while. “The main house is a 200mm timber frame kit with steel supports, block skin and then rock,” Mark explains. “But the roof is an entirely different entity.” Layered up with a sarking board, membrane, batons, two layers of marine ply, fibre glass tape, rubber coating, geotex tile, drainage membrane, geo web, mesh, soil and turf, “it’s about 500mm thick and it’s not maintenance free.”
Fortunately, Stuart was on hand to provide moral support and professional help. “We worked together very closely, and the relationship was absolutely as it should be between client and architect, but we had no problem asking questions,” Mark remembers. “We see it a lot through our business when clients use an architect to get planning permission, ditch the architect and then suffer the pitfalls. Architects can bring a lot more to the table than just a set of drawings. Stuart advised us on aesthetics and the internal design.”
Internally, the design also dictated many of the decor and furniture choices as Mark recalls: “The beauty and cleverness of the design is that it’s actually very simple, but it hides a lot of complexity, features and angles. It therefore made sense to choose a couple of materials to run with as much as we could.”
And, while Theresa and Mark have access to a vast range of products and new innovations through their business, they were surprisingly decisive. “We chose the oak flooring relatively early in the process,” says Theresa. “Of course, new products came in over time, but our first decision was the right one. Fortunately, Mark and I tended to agree on most things, we always had the same vision.”
The kitchen was also a quick decision: “We saw the worktop in Granite Systems in Glasgow and that was it. The rest of the kitchen came from Birkwood, which is a small family business – again, it was the people that made the process so much better.”
When it came to the colour scheme, the couple heeded Stuart’s advice as Theresa recalls: “Stuart said we should paint the walls white and that was another thing we trusted him on and of course it meant there was no deliberation over paint colours.” Mark adds laughing: “We did talk about multi-coloured doors at one point – I have no idea where that idea came from!”
Stuart continues: “I always told my children they could have any colour on the wall as long as it was white! Mark and Theresa were very co-operative and with all the angles and details in the interior, white makes them work best.”
“This project worked because we found the right people,” says Theresa. “The right architect, the right stonemason for the internal stonework, the right plasterer. We had a brilliant team come over from Scoraig to do the external drystone walls; they were incredibly skilled and real characters.” Mark continues: “We were also fortunate that we had a lot of skill in-house. It was out of everyone’s comfort zone, and consequently I think we achieved a better result. When tradespeople and craftspeople have an input into the project, everyone gets so much more out of it. They add to the quality, they’re proud of what they’re doing.”
Today, the couple are still holidaying in Cove but they’re out of the caravan and inside the house which now goes under the moniker Lewie’s Croft, named after an owner of the land in the distant past. Their children also
now have a legacy although they are a bit older than anticipated as Theresa explains: “Our kids are past the partying stage which is probably better for the house but now we have grandchildren to enjoy this with us too. I think we were a little naive about how much it would cost and how long it would take but there’s no regrets.” For Mark, it’s still taking a bit of time to sink in: “It’s taken me a while to realise and understand what we’ve built and that it’s a great place to be. There’s just a few more things I want to do…”