Meeting with James MacQueen and Jon Howarth
November 21, 2005 | Leave a Comment |
On November 17th we flew to Edinburgh for a short visit to Skye. On the agenda was a meeting with Jon Howarth and James MacQueen. We had not yet met with James since the outcome of the tender, so we asked Jon to arrange a meeting with him to discuss the project details.We had the 09:00 flight from Schiphol to Edinburgh. Upon arrival we picked up our Megane Scenic at Avis and after a smooth drive we arrived at Dunvegan at about 14:30, all in all a four hour drive which is excellent.
Our meeting with Jon on the next day was to discuss all remaining questions we had regarding the work to be performed by James.
The meeting with James was at 15:00 in a house he had built earlier (click the picture on the left), located in Borneskitaig. Upon arrival James gave us a “tour de maison” to give us an impression of his workmanship.
The meeting proceeded in a very relaxed atmosphere. We discussed the items prepared during the meeting we had with Jon, amongst which were:
- types of slate to be used on the roof
- changing the heating system from a gas based system to an oil based system
- some landscaping activities to be performed by ourselves in due time
We wrapped up the meeting by discussing the time frame for the build. Giving his current activities, James is aiming at May 2006. The first step will be digging the trenches for the foundations. Kit erection is planned for June 2006.At about 16:30 we left Borneskitaig and returned to Dunvegan.
Electricity: progress?
November 12, 2005 | Leave a Comment |
I had a short phonecall with Mr. Fankster, who’s apparently the local supervisor for connecting our plot to the electrical grid. The problem is that for our connection, the electricity company needs to put a pole into the land that belongs to our neighbours of Skinidin 17.
Mr. Fankster has tried to contact them by means of email as - we have no phone number - to get their consent.
As of now they have not yet responded to emails from the electricity company whether they approve of the placement of a pole. I asked Martin what would be the alternative when we never ever hear something from them and he replied “that we have to look for an alternate connection”.
I will cal him again within a couple of weeks…
When to tender your project - just some thoughts
November 6, 2005 | Leave a Comment |
Planning your build project is a challenge! One of the things you have to consider is when to tender the project to a selection of builders. We tendered our project after all the paperwork (Detailed Planning Permission and Building Warrant) had been done.Is that the right thing to do, or is an alternate approach feasible?
An alternate approach could have been to schedule the tender and the application for a Building Warrant as parallel processes. That would have saved us a considerable amount of time (some 6+ weeks).
Taking that approach however, could have had impact on the tender when the Building Warrant inspection pointed out that things had to change or the planning officer was not happy with certain aspects of the design. These changes should then be rerouted back to the selected builders participating in the tender. Obviously more hassle and paperwork…
All in all, if we had to do this again, we would try to tender the project as soon as all the technical drawings are ready for submission for a Building Warrant. This approach will shorten your project preparation considerably. Consult your surveyor - if you engaged one - to determine the optimum route. In our case, we had SkyeHomes working on the Building Warrant drawings and as they’re a local company, their drawings should be “spot-on” for acceptance by the Highland Council.
Given the current situation (as of the end of 2005) in the north of Skye - with a major backlog on the issue of Building Warrants - this approach could mean a real timesaver for your project, but it also means taking some risks. Consider carefully!!
Builder selected
November 6, 2005 | Leave a Comment |
We have selected James MacQueen as our builder. The process took more time than we initially anticipated. Reason for this, was that most of the prices we got back from the builders whom we invited to participate in the tender, were absolutely scary!!
o summarize, the tender was sent to four local builders on Skye, amongst which was James MacQueen. For reasons of confidentiality we’ve not disclosed the details of the other competing builders. Genuinely interested people can contact us by email for more details.
James MacQueen
Of all approached builders, James MacQueen entered with the overall lowest price for the project.
Local builder 2
Entered a price which was more than 20% over the lowest proposal.
Local builder 3
Entered a price which was 30% over the lowest proposal. This one was VERY noteworthy, as this builder - upon early inspection of the design - had indicated that he could build the house for a price below £800,00 per SQM. His actual proposal was way, way, way over that amount! Either his calculator was broke or he could not be bothered about the project anymore.
Local builder 4
Was on holiday and did not bother to return the tender document in time.
It will not come as a surprise that this was a very disappointing outcome. One month had passed and we basically only had one serious offering. At this point in time, there’s a lot of building activity going on on Skye and builders are very busy which - as good economics predict - drives up prices.
As we’re not willing to pay fancy prices for our Skye home, we quickly submitted the proposals of Builder 2 and Builder 3 to the waste-paper basket and we focussed on the offering of James MacQueen.
We validated his proposal against the following sources:
- Self-build prices in the UK, monthly published in the magazine “Home Building & Renovation.
- Builders on the mainland of Scotland. For this we used two builders from the area of Inverness. Their offers were not interesting as they had to take into account long travelling hours and were not willing to stay on site.
- Builders in Holland or from other European countries. It was feasable to mobilize a Dutch or Belgian team, however the overall difference with James MacQueen’s proposal were marginal, so we discarded this alternative.
Compared to the prices mentioned in “Home Building & Renovation”, James’s proposal was only marginally higher, so Friday the 4th of November I asked Jon (who coordinates the tender) to give James MacQueen a call and tell him that he won the tender.
Jon emailed us back that James MacQueen was happy to have been given the job. Upcoming November 17th, we will fly over to Skye for a short visit to meet with Jon and James.
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys