Last issues before the start

April 18, 2006 | Leave a Comment |

Today I had an extensive phone call with Jon to cover all latest developments. It appears that the trenching for the water is complete and mains water is ready for connection. Only Scottish Water has not yet delivered their part of the deal: the stand pipe with building water. In case of emergency Jon has already asked our neighbours of Skinidin 17 for the use of their external tap.

James MacQueen is still aiming for a start of the build at the end of this month. Based on that schedule the frame of the house should be erected somewhere in the first weeks of June.

The electricity company is reluctant to release the main power cable before the house is ready for connection. This means that Hughie has to bring in his digger again when they’re willing to drop of the cable, which is not be very economical. We’ll see whether there’s a more economical approach for this. Their reason for not releasing the power cable is fear of damage to the cable during the build of the house.

Posted by roger | Filed Under Build, House Project 

Cills and mullions

April 17, 2006 | Leave a Comment |

The Cills and Mullions are finishing components for the windows of the house. During the outlining and detailing phases of the project with SkyeHomes we had several meetings with them to determine the exact contents of the kit. Eventually we determined all relevant options: doors, windows, materials, etc, etc, and whether we wanted their cills and mullions.Well, we decided that we wanted them and received a quotation from SkyeHomes for the total kit price assuming that that quotation would include those Cills and Mullions. But now… by sheer miracle there appears an additional quation of £1590.00 + VAT for the cills and mullions!! As we thought they were included in the kit price, you can image us being a bit surprised here…

Now, here comes the funny part: those cills and mullions are options on the kit which you actually CANNOT NOT order!! Not only funny but also confusing!! Why make them an option in the first place?

Here we were… after several extensive meeting with SkyeHomes to define a complete kit, only not including all the options we apparently need. Looks like the meetings for determining the optionlist are quite a waste of time and that the kit price you’re being offered is most certainly not the price you’re going to pay. Very confusing and a strange way of doing business, in our modest opinion. Maybe SkyeHomes has an issue regarding the competitiveness of their kit prices?? We don’t know…

For now, we will ask James MacQueen to supply the cills and mullions. It’s our unbiased advice to thoroughly discuss your kit contents and the price offered by SkyeHomes, just to make sure that everything is covered in that price and that you don’t end up with additonal surprises!

Posted by roger | Filed Under Build, House Project 

Letter from Planning Officer

April 17, 2006 | Leave a Comment |

Today we received an email from Jon Howarth with an attached scan of a letter received from the Skye Planning Officer. The letter stated the following:

  • The Planning Officer is happy with the location of the house. This basically removes the issue with the inconsistency between the drawing and the actual house location noted by Jon Howarth and James MacQueen while pegging out the exact location of the house.
  • The inspection showed that the size of the bell mouth of the access road was too small. This means that Hughie has to do additional work to enlarge this space.
  • There was a vague comment on the materials to be used on the outside finish of the house. The suggested materials in the letter are however EXACTLY the materials mentioned on the submitted plans for obtaining detailed planning permission. Probably some minor oversight? Who knows, but we do not take this point as a critical issue.

Furthermore, we’re steering towards a small change in the design of the house by adding Velux windows in the attic area covering the central rectangular part of the house. These windows will add loads of opportunities to the house without adding too much cost.

Posted by roger | Filed Under House design