Couple spend £1.1million on building their dream home in Scotland

2023-02-09

Couple who built dream £1.1 million Scandinavian holiday home in Scotland reveal they went £200,000 over budget after transporting materials 600 MILES from Wales

Ewan and Amy’s home designed and built in Wales and transported to Scotland
The whole project took a year and cost them £200,000 than they had planned
Read more: Grand Designs viewers blast £1.5 million home

An ambitious couple built their dream holiday home built in a factory in Wales and transported to a Scottish island – paying £200,000 more than they had planned on Build Your Dream Home in the Country.

Ewan and Amy, from Inverness, planned to build a Scandinavian home for them and their four sons, Jake, Alex, Lewis and Ben, on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and had budgeted £900,000 for the whole construction.

The couple, who are appearing in the Channel 5 show tonight at 8pm, had hired a company based in Wales, 600 miles away, to source, create and assemble seven timber modules, worth hundreds of thousands each, and to transport them to the island.

However, the parents-of-four, who had planned for their new holiday home to be ready in six months, saw construction slowed down by timber shortage, hikes in wood prices and a broken down ferry putting the whole affair to a halt, causing costly delays.

But, once the built was completed, presenter Mark Millar, who followed its construction from start to finish, said the build was ‘mind-blowingly beautiful,’ and than the quality of the house had him ‘shaking.’

Ewan and Amy, from Inverness, planned to build a Scandinavian home for them and their four sons, Jake, Alex, Lewis and Ben, on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebridges. Eventually, they spent a year, and £1.1million on the build

Ewan who runs an insurance business in Inverness, where Amy works part-time as an accountant, is also an Olympic curling champion.

He admitted that a ‘lot of sweat and tears’ had gone into funding the project.

The couple bought a plot of land on North Uist three years ago for £150,000.

‘It’s a massive change from what we’re doing in Inverness, it’s a complete contrast,’ the couple told Mark.

Ewan and Amy began the project in October 2021 and wanted a Scandinavian build, comprising seven timber modules.

Four smaller modules would form the central living space, with herringbone floor and triple glazed windows, while two large modules would be put on top of each other for the boys’ bedrooms.

Meanwhile, the master bedroom would come with floor to ceilling windows to enjoy the views of the surrounding sea.

The budget for the building, which the couple hoped would be finished in six months, was £900,000.

Ewan and Amy (left), from Inverness, planned to build a Scandinavian home for them and their four sons, Jake, Alex, Lewis and Ben, on the island of North Uist

The house comprised of seven tiomber modules put together in a factory in Wales, 600miles from the island

At the end of the episode, Mark got to visit the finished and out admired the amazing the family enjoyed from their living-room

A view of the house’s central living space, which was made out of four modules joined together by steel beams

Ewan explained that the ‘biggest and the most challenging part of this project’ was transporting the modules from Wales to Scotland via trucks and then ferry.

‘The dimensions of the modules have been measured specifically to get on the boat,’ he said.

‘So on the width, the width is absolutely maxed out. So we have to make sure it goes on and off the ferry,’ he added.

The couple had monumental challenges ahead of them to get their dream house.

The Welsh factory had to source the wood to created the house’s structural beams, which were in the 100s, and laminated together to keep them stable.

However, Ewan and Amy had to put up with big delays due to the pandemic and Brexit as soon as their project started.

Mark, pictured, visited the Welsh factory while the timber modules were being built in early 2022

Mark with Kenton, the main man in charge of Ewan and Amy’s ambitious modular home build, which took a year to build

The couple travelled to the factory in Wales to see the modules in March 2022, which they had initially hoped would be the month they’d move into the finished home.

‘The biggest problem is material,’ their architect, Kenton, explained. ‘Getting hold of material, shortage of timber, shortage of steel, prices constantly going up, staff being off of covid…

‘I think you just got to find your way through it and just get to the other end,’ he told Mark.

Waiting for the windows further delayed the build, but by May 2022, the modules were fitted with floors, windows and sliding doors, and even a front doors.

The delays were a concern for Amy and Ewan, with the father explaining that there was a ‘very narrow weather window to get the modules to the island, due to high winds.

The modules were transported from Wales to the Scottish island via trucks and via ferries, which further complicated the building process

All the bedrooms enjoyed beautiful views of the sea and the shore thanks to bay windows which were fitted in Wales with the modules

‘That’s a real concern, Ewan said. It’s really important they’re on time. It could eventually impact the overall cost for the project, depending on when they do get there.’

The father-of-four and his wife were worried that missing this window would set them back an extra £50,000 to £100,000.

By mid-July, the modules were finished, and ready to begin their 600m journey to Scotland.

The modules were propped on large trucks that had to drive to the shore, where they would take a ferry to cross the sea to the Scottish island.

But the convoy had to be very careful that none of the modules got damaged during the journey, that went through narrow and sometimes uneven or hilly roads.

The trucks also had to be escorted through the narrowest road, which risked delaying the journey even more.

‘The police don’t turn up for whatever reason, we miss the ferry,’ a truck driver named Jim told Mark, adding that if the team missed the ferry, they could be delayed by a week.

Bad news struck during the journey when one of the largest ferries, which had been meant to transport the biggest modules to Scotland, had broken down.

The team had to wait for the ferry to be repaired in Glasgow, because there was no other ferry available to take the journey, which caused the convoy to be delayed by a couple of days.

The living-room opened to a terrace via a large, floor-to-ceilling sliding door. Ewan and Amy spent £200,000 more than they had planned

But eventually, Amy and Ewan marvelled as the modules that would eventually make their house arrived safely in Scotland and were expertly placed by Kenton and his team.

The modules had to be lowered to the ground with a crane and put in the exact right position.

Once placed, they had to be structurally joined by steel beams in order to make the home complete in order to have their kitchen and bathroom fitted.

Mark revisited the build in October once the family were all moved in.

From the moment he stepped into the home, he told Amy and Mark how ‘mind-blowingly’ beautiful it was.

‘Everything is just immaculate. The quality of this build, I’m actually shaking, it’s so gorgeous,’ he said.

All the rooms in the house looked over the wild Scottish sea, including the master bedroom’s bathroom.

‘Everything is just so organic,’ Mark marvelled.

‘You think of a modular build as this very hard structure,’ he remarked to Amy and Ewan.

‘I forgot this was a modular build because it’s just blended into the countryside. I’m quite emotional about it,’ he added.

‘As I’m walking around the house, I keep spotting all these amazing little architectural features. Look at this window up across the roof and down the other side,’ he said.

‘This house is full of gems,’ he added with enthusiasm.

Amy and Ewan were so in love with their holiday home that they didn’t mind the fact the delays in the construction cost them £200,000 than they had initially planned.

Overall, the build ended up costing them £1.1million.

Mark remarked that, for a construction of this scale, going over by £200,000 wasn’t too bad.

Ewan agreed that the couple hadn’t done so bad, considering they had made the build: ‘through times where there has been a lot of chances in material costs and it has a bit of an impact.

‘Timber prices had gone through the roof. So everything must have just fluctuated at that point,’ Mark remarked.

In spite of his financial setback, the couple were ‘over the moon’ with the house, adding they were ‘so pleased,’ with how the project had unfolded.

Build Your Dream Home in the Country airs tonight at 8pm on Channel 5

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