SELFBUILDER DIARIES


In the first o a series o firsthand articles by selbuilders, we trac the initial inspiration or Amanda Ritchies remote Scottish build, and the challenges o upping stics to Sye


selfbuilder Diaries


M


y name is Amanda Ritchie and currently I live with my husband Greig and our three children in the North East of Scotland. e first began visiting Sye five years ago and at first sight, we totally ell in love with the place Sye has everything to oer or anyone looing or peace, tranuillity, beauty, Scottish Highland authenticity, mountains and sea, amaing ood, whisy, adventures in naturethe list goes on hat first initial trip led to us returning each year (sometimes more than once with our aection or Sye growing every time we visited. My husband and I (as the daughter o a builder had always taled about building a home, but we never got round to actually doing it. 2020 was the year that changed it all. Due to the locdowns, we decided to mae our annual family holiday a trip to the Outer Hebrides  as it was somewhere we had not yet been but, o course, not without a stop o on Sye 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 or us to tae a loo I reluctantly agreed; the idea of building on Sye was such a challenge hes the idealist, Im the realist e currently live so ar away, and we had ero eperience 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 looing 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 amily and riends could use e spoe to local architects who ept us on the right trac and uite uicly, the idea o going with Scottish timber it home firm RHouse emerged


6 www.sbhonline.co.uk


e lied that they were local, and were big advocates for sustainability. They oered us a turney service which was perect or us, being based so ar away rom the island As part o this service, the company arranged everything from planning right through to handing over the eys


PROGRESSING IN STAGES e met with a sales manager, Susan, at one o RHouses completed builds it was perect or what we were looing or Ater taing them on, we met their architect at our plot Our initial ey aims were to mae the most o the views and to maimise the sie o the main living area by adding a fully vaulted ceiling. ollowing 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 un part or me  being able to design the interior to your own eact specification his is great because it maes the house very personal and allows you to put your own stamp on it which we have enjoyed doing very much. Ater planning was granted, we applied or a building warrant which too around 1 wees, with groundwors taing about  wees Ensuring the build was wind and watertight is net on the list, and we are currently at the first fi stage Our completion target date is November which is very eciting  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 looed out at the amaing views rom 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 proect,


RHouse managed to largely shelter us from that stress of managing the project. In terms o challenges, being very


remote has been tough e would lie to be there each wee 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 eep those as minimal as possible. Fortunately or us, we had people giving us a heads up as to what those could be, such as groundwors, which is normally a challenge when building on the Hebrides


he net steps are to complete the first fi and get to the interiors e cannot wait or ey handover day, it will be a dream come true moment or us, and we loo orward to a uture o amily adventures on Sye


sep/oct 2022


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