When friends approached me with drawings from Suart Bagshaw of a building project they had in mind, I knew this building was
something I wanted to do and knew it would take all my knowledge and experience to complete.
As the Hopes had no experience of building other than garden walls, and I was the only experienced builder, I knew it was a huge responsibility as nothing like this had been built before. There was even a difficulty getting an engineer's agreement. We incurred some delays due to the weather as the project began in November and all the timber structure was carved on site using chisels, a chainsaw and saws.
I chose each timber specifically for each section taking into account the grain direction and knowing that every joint had to fit perfectly in order to support the tons of weight from the turf roof. Although we had drawings, a lot was left to me the joiner to design, including the entire 2nd floor and redesigning the roof where the chimney would have been. These were passed by the Architect and engineer.
The only problem on the entire project that occurred was a pre-fabricated
steel beam which was meant to support the front curve of the roof around the large expanse of windows. Unfortunately this didn't work, which
meant I had to design the curve out of timber, also re-shapeing the curve slightly at the Hopes request.
I am proud to say that not one piece of timber was wasted, I even used the offcuts to create the finish of the house including curved windwowcills, shelving and stairs. This is a massive cathedral like timber structure which stands alone, waterproof and independant of its stone cladding and turf. This building could be encased with anything but the stone and turf alllow the building to blend with the landscape.