Slow but sure

We completed the internal timber framing before Easter and have been doing some fiddly bits - last week we finished the pitch pine panelling around the roof opening. THis required 72 bits of 10mm thick pitch pine joined at some interesting angles, plus holes for the ceiling lights, as the makeup show

We're well on with the first fix electrics now, and also about to plumb in the piping to the solar water collectors for our hot water. This has to be done in silver solder which has an annoyingly high working temperature of 630 Deg C. so needs a massive blast from the blow torch. Drylining boards arrive Tuesday. Here's a few pics

Insulating the roof. Spaceship Ardailly

spaceship

layer 1 

half way there

We've just finished infilling the gaps with foam

Hat and overcoat

from the west

Temporary porch to north

From the south

Space for solar panels left

Looking west

More photographs of the turf roof

We finished turfing just before Hogmanay. It stood up to all the December gales even partially finished and we are ready now to over-seed the turf with primroses, cowslips, harebells and bluebells for the Spring

Coir mat under turfs with wool mat under that

5-8k each

Box guttering

Edge Upstands

The roof apex was complicated joinery wise - all compound angles

The watcher in the skies as Jayne dropped in the last turf

Watertight at last

We stapled up 12 segments of PVC membrane and then welded the other 12 between them so the roof  membrane is fixed down and watertight. The eaves fringe is 20cm to allow for the upstand and gutters to be fixed in.

So now two yeears fter we finished the floors and having been defrauded by our kit builder we have one 9m roundhouse up and watertight. Next job is to fix the eaves and geotextiles and lay the turfs which we cut this week

PICS

Progress at last !!

This last eight days have seen a build crew get the 9m roundhouse shell up and fit the windows.

ALL of our blog input - comments and photos have been put on our Ardailly Ecoroundhouse Facebook page as it is much easier to upload photos.

Please visit the page and put a like on it if you will - as it has been really encouraging to us to have the support of our friends.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ardailly-Ecoroundhouses/179195655511861

The Power of Publicity

We have been very unfortunate in our choice of some of the people we have done business with. As the law is very weak - the only option is to expose - just like Cowboy Builders does. Your average dodgy dealer is usually a good talker and often manages to survive exposure because there are always new targets for their business. Politically, Private Eye does a good job on greedy and hypocritical businessmen, MPs and councillors but there really isn't a co-ordinated equivalent for consumers. All the TV programmes are rather mild. We need a press champion exposing corruption and the ease with which business men can avoid proper regulation. For example, it is, de facto, a criminal offence to be late with your business accounts submissions - but the law seems to be rarely enforced  with only warnings issued. Politicians ignore the huge weaknesses in 
business regulation as anything else would be viewed as 'anti-business'. This is utterly feeble - when Rangers went under the losers were hundreds of one man bands and small businesses in Govan who have gone bust and lost their livelihoods - whereas the ex owner has just walked away scot free.

First Lamb

Our lambs are later than most folk as we delayed putting them to the tup. This has worked out okay for us as it is only now the ground is warming up - even last weekend lambs were being lost to cold. Anyway Jayne found one of our ewes with a large lamb when she went to feed them. Now we just need a few sets of twins.

Tree Huggers

Our 3/4 acre plot is pretty exposed to the west and north west and Gigha still gets a lot of salt laden westerlies - the hurricane of 31st May two years ago scorched all our young trees then, though most have almost recovered. Jayne has her own native cherry tree which is recovering well now, but almost every leaf was burnt by that storm. We also have too many rabbits and have to protect against them. Izzie does chase and kill rabbits, but they get their revenge by eating anything we plant unguarded.

We have a large strip of wet ground with rush (now sprayed) about 15m wide by 50m long. This ground has to do something useful so it might as well grow wood fuel for us.

We also need to provide shelter for our other garden ground without taking away from the incredible views.

There are two wee copses of trees on the adjacent Mill Croft about 25 to 30 years old so we have worked out what is best to plant for our own coppice on the wet ground at the bottom of the plot from what has done well there. The only species we don't have is sweet chestnut which seemed a surprising choice as it isn't a local tree but has done well there and is great for coppicing. We have avoided Sycamore too.

We've had to abandon our plan to plant a lot of Ash - chalara has done for us there. We planted fifty last year but can't plant any more. We've added fifty Hazel in the hedge mix instead. It is native and local.

The Alder has been very successful, is great on Scotland's west coast and is a good coppice firewood tree so we have a hundred of those. They'll put on two to three feet a year when established. Our first trees planted last year put on 30-50 cm in their first year.

Our 100 metres of hedging, all along our boundary fences,  has been planted as a double row of Blackthorn, Hazel, Hawthorn, Oak, Ash, Crab Apple, Elder and .... Swedish Whitebeam. This last species is salt tolerant and very pretty - I have seen them in gardens in Torshavn in the Faroes and they have to be very wind firm to survive there. So we managed to source some Scottish cell grown stock for our plot.

This year I have managed to find two of my own favourites, both Scottish natives - Aspen and White Poplar so we'll have wee clumps of these in the wetter corners - and they are fast growing and coppice too so can provide wood fuel for us in our dotage.

We have native Scots Pines in each corner and birch and rowan for show. Every house needs to have rowan near the front door. Keeps witches away. Pity we didn't plant it sooner - might have worked for our cowboy builder. Rowan is also Jayne's grandson's name so we have ten of these.

At the top of the drive is a large rocky area with lovely native heath/rocky plants - harebells and bluebells, wild primrose. tormentil and eye bright, wild thyme and now a dozen young Junipers in the sheltered crevices. We have a few broom for the odd dry spot too.

Almost all the trees we've planted will coppice so can be cut back every ten years or so and will provide enough wood for the wood fuelled Esse and our two Danish wood stoves and not block the views. In fact we ought to be pretty much self sufficient for fuel - just hope we have enough strength and energy to cut the trees down, and log them in our 70s cos that's how old we'll be by the time these trees are big enough. Luckily modern wood stoves work best on 3-6 inch diameter sticks, so no splitting will be needed.

We have tried to plant 90% natives - everything else is salt and wind tolerant except the fruit trees which we were given last year.

Tree planting at 60 is an act of faith. You know you're not going to see the full benefits but then if we have to leave a legacy a few hundred trees is not such a bad choice.

Better Late Than Never

Our many blog readers will be aware of the longstanding issues we have had with QF Tractors over the JCB 3CX we bought from them in November 2009. 

These mainly related to incomplete pre-delivery repairs.

We can now confirm that these matters have finally been resolved to our satisfaction, as of April 2013, and that we have no further dispute with them. 

KIT = Progress

Very busy measuring every single panel and timber spline in preparation for the build of the 9m roundhouse. 

The SIP panels are mostly cut okay though Tim Allan clearly can't cut  panel to reach 1mm accuracy. All the 24 roof panels are more like 4-6mm out in a crucial dimension.

Of the wall panels, we have discovered that one whole wall has the wrong window size opening and are having to work out what to do about that. This is a standard error in kit fabrication - the windows don't fit. Late last night I was checking the tolerances to see that we had enough space around each opening to fit the windows and discovered that we had a major problem. This means three new panels. 

I have had to recut about 50% of the splines for the walls but am now happy that 11/12 ths of the walls are within 2mm - only got to cut the rebate on one SIP panel now which had got missed out and get the new wall panels made up.

The hardest job will be making up the ringbeam that holds up the roof. Am about to get this started so watch this space.

The whole kit design is incredibly elegant in engineering terms. It is original and ground breaking, but the way it has been designed to fit together is so very neat.

See Otters

A couple of weeks ago we were putting up a shoreline fence to stop our sheep from straying and had to drive the Land Rover down to the Mill. I had just changed all the plugs and leads. It died on us completely and we called Andy to  tow us out. This was the last in a series of  minor disasters and I was feeling very low and despondent about everything. Then... while we were waiting by the shore and as dusk fell we saw a movement on the rocks about 20 yds away and two otters slide into the sea where they played chase for a few minutes, dived for some crabs, lay on their backs crunching away and then swam off later emerging on to rocks about 50 yds away and scuttling back into the wee plantation where they live. This is at the bottom of the plot.  It cheered us up immensely and we had a repeat experience with an otter scuttling out from in front of the Boathouse Bistro and into the water last weekend just as the dogs ran on the beach   It swam off rapidly as one gave chase but the otter was almost as big as a small collie  and so graceful as it disappeared underwater surfacing about 30 yds out - totally unperturbed.
Jayne and I are both Snakes and feel we are both due a bit of luck as we have just passed Chinese New Year.  Sure enough I had a call and have full time work coming up for a couple of months teaching Art -one of my favourite subjects - though I was total rubbish at secondary school level I have done a lot of stone sculpting and various arts and craft works since - currently doing some stained glass work in the bleak midwinter - though sunset today was after six p.m. so the evenings are already drawing out.   Oh,  and the Land Rover was fairly easy to repair too as soon as we realised it was a faulty ignition switch.

Battening down the hatches

The weather has been very windy and wet during January.  But we had no snow. Luckily the kit is under cover and tarped over. We are trying to get a kit builder lined up to get the 9m shell erected this Spring. Unfortunately the company we had hoped would do it are now too busy and no longer interested. So we are looking round for a recommended kit builder and luckily we have found someone who is not only recommended but whose workmanship we have seen.

We have worked out a way to slide the roof panels into the central ringbeam which is the only component missing for the build. It should be being fabricated by the firm we hope will make the rest of the kit up. 

Even reputable builders need constant chasing up, and I'm still waiting for a date when it'll be ready.

We've been offered help from our very good friends Andy and Steve,  and will probably try to use them  to turf the roof if all goes according to plan - which as you know rarely happens for us.

2013 'n' all that

It is 2nd January and has just stopped raining. We have to feed the sheep today and try to get the rest of the kit moved to a totally dry place as some panels have got wet this last week or two. Funnily enough we have had virtually no pure westerlies this autumn so the stored kit has been protected from the worst of the weather up til now. 

We do have enough bits of kit to put up the small 9m roundhouse which was to be the annex and then try to get it finished and move into it during 2013. As we do not have enough funds left from the damage done by Mr Tim Allan this will have to be finished as and when, unless there is a minor miracle.

2012 was a very bad year for us as, after we lost all the kit money and struggled to get some kind of justice or redress, we had major problems getting the missing splines made up for the kit due to supplier issues. We really have had far too many problems with building industry suppliers of whom a considerable number who seem to be ripoff merchants, unreliable, unable to meet the required quality or have poor customer relations.

We are still amazed that the law offers no protection. Anybody who knows how to play the system can run a business into the ground, either through incompetence or by corruption and will get away with it. Lets hope we make some headway with the powers that be in 2013 as their disinterest, unwillingness to act and lack of concern has been stunning up to now.

one step forward....two steps back

It's mid November and we've been thwarted in our efforts to get the 9m roundhouse kit erected before 'fall breaks and back to winter' as the bard had it. Too risky once we had missed the summer window we had available.
It's all stored under cover now till Easter.

We've been equally thwarted in our efforts to get the sewage plant in the ground, concreted and backfilled.  Sadly the water table rose after a weekend of heavy rain in late summer and won't lower enough till Spring for us to pump out the hole, install the plant and backfill it before filling with water again.

We can't move forward until we can save enough to get the 9m kit up and the work situation has been a total farce this autumn. After two months teaching Maths, and I really  do enjoy working at CGS,  I made a change in direction to forestry management (as it was a permanent contract),  only for the Scottish government canceliing all the environment/management schemes I was going to work on, two days after I started.  Job over. It is actually a fair  more complicated than that,  but the full story is for another day.

This was the job that was going to allow us to get our mortgage and build back on track, so we really are two steps backwards. We can't decide whether its Jayne or I who did something really bad in a past life to deserve the terrible run of luck we are still having.
.
Still getting a few new people contacting me about Tim Allan, other people who have been ripped off by him, either trades or clients. He has left an awful  lot of people much worse off as a result of his dodgy business 'methods'. I've been told he moved house soon after the TV feature, and there are certainly a good few people trying to catch up with him.  He has certainly destroyed our project , irreparably for the time being.  He is still  working in the SIPS business,  for another company in Glasgow. His employers, SIP PMC, know of his track record. Strange world the construction industry. It certainly  seems to attract a very high proportion of cowboys.

RIP OFF BRITAIN

The RIP OFF Britain episode with our story is due to be aired 
on BBC one on MONDAY 10th SEPTEMBER at 0915 am

It will be available to play on i-player for one week.

Update

Please go to our new post   "Better Late Than Never"  dated 12/4/13.

http://ardaillyecoroundhouses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-power-of-publicity.html

Update

Please check post "Better Late Than Never"

http://ardaillyecoroundhouses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-power-of-publicity.html

sheep

We've got three ewes, three gimmers (year old females) and six lambs on the croft. One of our gimmers was 'got at' by the tup last autumn so we have just have our sixth lamb. Hebrideans are all black, very hardy, don't need winter hay and are excellent mothers. 
Our sheep have escaped into the plot a couple of times but have only eaten one of the new trees, Strangely they polished off the mint patch which gives us an interesting choice of supplementary feed before they got for the freezer. Hebridean lambs don't go for slaughter until their second year, unlike most types which are only 6 months old when sold on.

It's good to see stock on the croft and the lovely traditional hay pastures getting grazed properly.

The next stage of running the croft is a planning a coppice planting scheme which will provide for all our fuel needs for both the Mill and our house. We'll plant mostly ash, but strangely there is sweet chestnut on the croft in a small copse planted about twenty years ago as an experiment.