The Renovation
This is it... The building was purchased as part of our house building site, and it seemed the perfect opportunity to realise our dream. This dilapidated house will be transformed with a modernised but traditional external renovation (keeping a red roof of course!) and a fantastic contemporary interior with exciting features such as slate paved floors and a cathedral ceiling. For anyone interested, this page is a blog of the build, from the shell to completion, and all the stages along the way! We hope you find our journey interesting...
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HISTORY OF THE BLACKHOUSE
Old Scottish croft (leased smallholding) houses are known as blackhouses. The name dates back to a time when families burnt peat without a chimney. The peat-blackened smoke would have gone out of a hole in the roof, colouring the walls and the inhabitants on the way! The crofters also tended to keep their animals, particularly cattle, inside to help provide additional warmth during the winter. Our blackhouse was apparently on the first Ordnance Survey map (created to help control the Jacobites after the 1745 rebellion) so may be at least 250 years old. Its age is also evident from the rounded corners (since covered up) which are now a rarity. It has been lived in within living memory by relatives of a local crofter but has since been used solely as a cattle byre, gradually falling into ruin and disrepair.
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The current doorway | | The old range | | The divider for the cattle | | Inside the building |
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Recent posts first
30th September 2010 And the insides can finally be worked on. First we had to barrow tonnes of rubble in to level the floor and compact it down with a machine. Then the plumbing went in followed by a damp proof membrane and insulation. Only then could the concrete floor be laid with metal reinforcments. Once this was dry the internal frame went up to hold the electrics and plasterboard, also creating a toilet room and kitchen. It finally feels like we are really getting somewhere! | | |
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| Levelling the floor to make it flat | | The membrane and insulation down | | Starting the concrete floor | | The internal walls going up! |
3rd September 2010 The roof is finished and the windows are in. Each window is a completely different size so we have had to have them specially made to fit. And of course they had to be red too! They were still very difficult to fit into the very irregular walls but with wooden wedges and expanding foam they are now going nowhere. The sills are then created with concrete which will be finished with render at a later date. | | |
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| The red roof finished | | The first window starting to go in | | And the second soon follows | | Creating the window sills |
| 31st July 2010 And thats the roof nearly there! The sheets are lifted, lined up and nearly a thousand bolts drilled in and capped to match the red colour. The edges will be put on at a later date to waterproof them against the walls but that cant be done until the walls have their first layer of render on. The velux windows are also in which makes a huge difference to the amount of light in the building. | | |
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| Battens on and holes cut for the velux windows | | The veluxes going in | | The first of the red sheets goes up | | Nearly half way along the back |
4th April 2010 The roof is going on. The boards have been laid across the roof and we are ready to lay the waterproof sheeting over them that lies under the tin. Then all we have to do is lay the battens ready for the red tin roof itself. While we wait for it to arrive though we have a temporary blue roof cafe gallery! | | |
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The sarking boards going on | Continuing the boards | | Filling in the gaps | Starting to cover the boards with waterproof sheeting |
9th February 2010 The gable ends are ready for the roof to go on. This had to be as accurate as possible to make it both structurally sound and in order for the roof to fit properly! A guide truss was therefore used top make sure we were doing the blockwork correctly. They are heavy blocks though and when you are lifting them at height it can be pretty scary! That is the blockwork totally finished now though and we are ready for the roof... | | | | |
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Creating the gable ends | | The first trusses are put on | | More trusses are added | | Boards start to be laid across the roof |
21st December 2009 The walls are complete with lintols over the windows and doors and we are ready for the roof! Snow has arrived as we have been putting our own house up which has made working rather chilly, but the scenery is beautiful, the sun is shining and we are excited about getting the roof on. The wall plates are on -planks of wood that run around the perimiter of the walls to attach the trusses onto. Also a temporary guide truss has been cut to guide the gable-end blockwork which has now started. We are very fed up of doing blockwork after completing our house foundations, but not too much more to go on the blackhouse at least! | |
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The wall plate going on | | Then getting it straight! | | The doorway with lintols over it and blockwork finished | | The walls completed! |
1st November 2009 The last of the concrete shuttering is complete and we are now able to build the walls up! Three layers of blockwork are on their way. The project has slowed somewhat due to the fact that we are also building our own house and have had to get the foundations done before the frame arrives... (click here to see our facebook album if you are interested). But we are now nearly ready to build the gable ends up on the cafe and get the roof trusses up. If only the weather would let us have more days on site! Once the roof is on though we will be able to work indoors as well as out which will be great news. | | |
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The final concrete cap shuttering | | The blocks are up and start to be laid | | Carefully carrying buckets of mortar around the walls | | Two courses done! |
5th September 2009 58 straight days of rain haven't helped progress over the last six weeks, but we have managed to get some work done between the showers. Space for a new doorway has been made by knocking through a section at the rear of the building. The walls have all been built up to the same level and infilled with stones and rubble, recycling stones from the internal wall and new doorway. At the moment we are making the most of summer's resurgence, capping the tops of the walls with concrete. This will stabilise the structure and provide a nice flat platform to increase the height with blocks. Its a back-breaking slog but at last it feels good to be building something new! | | |
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The walls heightened | | The new doorway knocked through | | The walls infilled with rubble | | The concrete caps half done |
23rd July 2009 So the roof is off! The tin was taken down first by grinding through every rivet, followed by carefully taking down the trusses. This has left us with just four double walls (two walls and a cavity) filled with rubble. Next job is to build the walls up with stone and concrete to level them -no easy job as one side is well over half a metre higher than the other! The floor level is also too low on one side and will have to be built right up to make it level. At least we are going to be constructing something now though rather than destructing! | |
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The tin is off! | | The trusses start to come down | | The trusses almost down | | All that is left -the walls! |
9th July 2009 The pointing is pretty much finished and our building warrant is nearly through! So we have been taking the huge internal wall down stone by stone and now have tons of rock to use for other things. (We tried to save the old range but unfortunately it just crumbled in our hands). The old roof is starting to be taken down too and the building is looking more and more bare... We are looking forward to putting it all back together again though! | |
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The chimney and the internal wall start coming down | | The wall continues to be dismantled | | The roof starts to come off | | The roof half off |
11th June 2009 The work has begun! We are still waiting for our building warrant but we have full planning permission for change of use to a cafe gallery and we are delighted. We also now have electricity and a sewage tank. First job, pointing the dry stane walls... two weeks of pulling all the old pointing, tons of rubble, and hundreds of stones out of the walls... and another eight weeks of putting them all back in again! Plus the diggers are on site creating parking spaces and a road, and digging the blackhouse out of the hill that has settled on it over time. | |
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Pointing the front | | Craig picking out the rubble | | The back of the building dug out and half pointed | | Parking spaces start to be created |