In the first of a series of first-hand articles by self-builders, we track the initial inspiration for Amanda Ritchie’s remote Scottish build, and the challenges of upping sticks to Skye
My name is Amanda Ritchie and currently I live with my husband Greig and our three children in the North East of Scotland.
We first began visiting Skye five years ago and at first sight, we totally fell in love with the place. Skye has everything to offer for anyone looking for peace, tranquillity, beauty, Scottish Highland authenticity, mountains and sea, amazing food, whisky, adventures in nature….the list goes on. That first initial trip led to us returning each year (sometimes more than once!) with our affection for Skye growing every time we visited.
My husband and I (as the daughter of a builder!) had always talked about building a home, but we never got round to actually doing it. 2020 was the year that changed it all. Due to the lockdowns, we decided to make our annual family holiday a trip to the Outer Hebrides – as it was somewhere we had not yet been but, of course, not without a stop off on Skye. In the lead up to the trip, my husband casually dropped into conversation that he had stumbled across a beautiful plot on the island and arranged for us to take a look. I reluctantly agreed; the idea of building on Skye was such a challenge (he’s the idealist, I’m the realist). We currently live so far away, and we had zero experience in building a home and did not have an unlimited budget. Cut to me standing on the plot; within five minutes I turn to my husband and say, ‘we are buying this!’.
A month later we’d purchased the site, and almost immediately began looking into what we would build, and how we would build it. We had many different ideas but we decided on a small holiday home that we, and our family and friends could use. We spoke to local architects who kept us on the right track and quite quickly, the idea of going with Scottish timber kit home firm RHouse emerged.
We liked that they were local, and were big advocates for sustainability. They offered us a ‘turnkey service’ which was perfect for us, being based so far away from the island. As part of this service, the company arranged everything from planning right through to handing over the keys.
PROGRESSING IN STAGES
We met with a sales manager, Susan, at one of RHouse’s completed builds; it was perfect for what we were looking for. After taking them on, we met their architect at our plot. Our initial key aims were to make the most of the views and to maximise the size of the main living area by adding a fully vaulted ceiling. Following that we received the first initial plans and, once fine-tuned, our planning application was submitted to local planning.
We were assigned one project manager for the build and a project manager for the interiors. This was the fun part for me – being able to design the interior to your own exact specification. This is great because it makes the house very personal and allows you to put your own stamp on it which we have enjoyed doing very much.
After planning was granted, we applied for a building warrant which took around 12 weeks, with groundworks taking about 6 weeks. Ensuring the build was wind and watertight is next on the list, and we are currently at the first fix stage. Our completion target date is November which is very exciting – but so soon!
We have enjoyed much of the process; and the highlight was seeing it all come together. On our most recent visit we stood and looked out at the amazing views from our living area – something we had been dreaming about since our very first visit to the plot! Also, with there being many challenges to such a project, RHouse managed to largely shelter us from that stress of managing the project.
In terms of challenges, being very remote has been tough. We would like to be there each week to see how it’s coming together, but that hasn’t been possible so we’ve had sporadic trips to site. Keeping to our budget has also been a challenge and it is fair to say that we have probably increased beyond where we originally started a couple of times. There are always unforeseen costs, but as long as you have the right people in your team, you can keep those as minimal as possible. Fortunately for us, we had people giving us a heads up as to what those could be, such as groundworks, which is normally a challenge when building on the Hebrides.
The next steps are to complete the first fix and get to the interiors. We cannot wait for key handover day, it will be a ‘dream come true’ moment for us, and we look forward to a future of family adventures on Skye.