Firstly,,, I admire your taking on such a task,,in such a...climatic place as the west of Scotland... "Love In a Cold Climate" indeed. The structural integrity of the window surrounds interested me...glad to see to got The Roof Done... a priority. With inside walls, and all that collapsing lath work,, I wondered if you were going to reline it with plasterboard/Gib board I think Americans call it "drywall"?, but I can see with all the lovely new framing where you are going. Midwinter for you now..as I send this from midsummer NZ :-) As the Mainland cheese ad says "Good Things Take Time"---keep going.
I have been following you guys since I saw a news article a few ago! I just love how you saw the accidental mix up as an adventure and just rolled with it! So cool to see the progress, your finished home is going to be amazing! - sent from the USA!
I found you on Facebook. We have done some remodeling in our youth, but your undertaking is more than daunting! Looking forward to watching your progress.
Please post more updates! Love your accidental property renovation project! After knowing that you guys still continued the renovation became an inspiration to everyone to always look at the positive side of everything that will suddenly come along the way 😊
You two are absolutely lovely. If there were more people like you, the world would be a much better place. Blown away by all that you've accomplished. Hope your Go fund me exceeds your wildest expectations. You deserve every penny.
Found your story this morning, started with the blog and from there found my way here! Such a treasure of an adventure and journey, thanks so much for sharing it.
..thank you so much for the update - for those of us W/0 insta - bravo on all y'all's hard work and awesome restoration & updating/upgrading...eagerly awaiting to see what's next ..take care ☮️&🌱's
You must be the only girlfriend in the world to have been cool with this and go with it 🤣 what a brilliant story, just came across it today and excited to see how it progresses! Good luck
You two are amazing! I've been watching your progress for almost 2 years now. So impressed with all you have accomplished thus far. I look forward to the day I can come as a guest to Jameswood Villa.
Your diligence is off the charts...well done all of you. It's such a heartwarming and uplifting story.....and something we all need to hear in these sad times I hope you both have many years of happiness and love in your new home 🏚🏠🏡 💪👏
Today I am happy bucos you showed your whole house and i follow you And I pray to God that your whole house is ready soon. Thanks for this video ❤️ sir 🇳🇵
You guys must be so proud of yourselves! Every few months I check on your progress ever since I read a news article about your project. Sheer determination, being young, resourceful and with such a positive outlook on life (and no kids yet to take care of 😊) is making all this possible. When do you estimate you guys could be finished? All the best!!
Just came across your journey on the 'Tradesman Banter' page on Facebook and spent the whole early morning reading your blog and following your Insta! Looks an incredible project and an adventurous lifestyle! One my girlfriend Sarah and myself are hoping to embark upon ourselves in the next few years! We're looking to find a derelict Welsh chapel among the Welsh mountains and villages to renovate into a dream character home. We're both young (31 & 32) and skint too so looking to take on a lot of the project ourselves! I'm an electrician with some other trade experience and Sarah works for a bank in customer service so she will be good with all the planning and finances (project manager!) Though I'll get her on the tools too! 😂 You two remind me very much of ourselves! I totally get Cal with the bureaucracy, I'm the same 'Fuck you I won't do as you tell me!' 😂 Where as Sarah is more like yourself. Looking forward to following your journey building your dream house and hopefully we can share ours in the next couple of years! 😊 Oh and well done for getting this far with the current cost of timber, bet you needed a mortgage for that first fix framework alone! 😂 Best wishes, Matt (Surrey)
Missed opportunity to you should do a weekly video on what you have done and how as people will be interested and this will add allot more user 😃 great inspirational story that could show others not to be scared 😊
Amazing effort, woah! Loved the Guardian article, too. My partner and I are moving to A&B from Inverness. We are yet to find a place to live but find Dunoon to be so sweet! Hope to bump into you on a hill, in the sea or at Screwfix 😅 Keep up the epic work meantime! -Lana and Evan
Love to follow what you are doing from the Netherlands. Like to see a blueprint from before and now! : -) Because whe you are filming I can't recognize it hahahaha So much nice work done already! Regards.
I follow you from the beginning on instagram, I did not know that you had opened a youtube channel, now I follow you here and with the bell you will have me in notice
thanks for the update been wondering how goes it for you guy's... I don't have instagram either only youtube and FB. Facebook is usually how I find you guy's
So we just read this article on Stuff local and world wide newspaper 📰 on line. Are you going to have weekly you tube channel updates for the renovation.
Yeah, I only saw the minor update of them having a kitchen countertop installed. I do not see any video of an entire tour after the thing was completed.
i did, too, cuz lots of the early pics showed a lone building. i haven't seen/watched/followed everything, but i believe that's the first time i've seen the block.
We are on the edge of a small marina town. We get a sense of remoteness because our house backs on to open fields and hills, so although we have neighbours, it often feels like we're out in the middle of nowhere! Best of both worlds!
Do you guys have other jobs that you work at ? I cant imagine the cost of renovations of this size ! Your doing it right though, environmentally and not taking short cuts. Wishing you all the best and many blessings !
We work full time in the house, and Cal takes on carpentry contracts, I make a small amount of earnings from Instagram collaborations and my blog, and work part time managing in hospitality. We also get some help from gofundme! We've spent 60k including 2.5 years of living costs and renovations
Once this is done and you sell the other two units you will have made a really big profit. Especially with people valuing less urbanised areas thanks to covid. I think you could make more profit off of this build by making DIY videos during the build. You should generate a lot more passive income through that with adsense on your RU-vid channel over time. Things like how to restore the stone and mortar, will be something that will remain relevant to others in the UK and large parts of Europe, and with good SEO / naming, keywords and description on said video, you will continue to be found for decades to come. Another thing I wish to point out for your build, that will increase the overall longevity of the building is to make a really good drainage system and to prevent the walls from sucking up moisture. My recommendation is to ultimately lead it out and away from the house and its foundation, but set things up so you could collect a bunch of water to water the garden during the height of summer top by simply lowering a cheap electric pump into the tank with the garden hose attached. For the walls, you should look into cutting into them and putting an insulating later underneath them, to prevent moisture from being sucked up into the wall if you haven't already. Likewise, for heat retention, put a wind indicator like a flag down for a while to see your most common wind direction, and put an extra layer of insulation like a plaster board wall on that side of the building, or something like a shed for firewood storage or a glass house or something to break the wind. Unless that's a unit you're selling ofc. The buyer can do that themselves if they want better insulation lol. No point in building something they might remove and change. Depending on the weather conditions, if there's a lot of wind blowing through your street, you might want to consider getting one of those smaller windturbines you see on boats to augment the solar pannels that I assume youll be adding. The power they both generate will earn back your energy costs by saving on them and there might well be a chance that you can actually make money from the extra energy you provide to the power net depending on how things are in the UK. Especially with the rapidly rising energy prices. Long term, you could save an increasingly large amount of money this way. So go as energy self sufficient as you can whilst you can before those prices rise too. Another cool thing, depending on the size of the yard would be to plant a fruit trea or vegetables that you eat the most. Cause the food prices are ascending too. If you want an apple tree for example, if you buy a sapling now, you have a decent young tree in a few years time. So yeah, best of luck and try think smart and thrifty. Look at your most common expenses, and highest expenses and look for ways to save and cut down on them in the long run like that energy bill through smart planning of your home and yard.
used to follow you on instagram but i got hacked and.......but im back now and wondering, what point are you at ? are you actually residing in the home now, and are you completed, or do you still have a way to go. think you guys are amazing !
