Retired army officer and serial property developer John Dallas and his partner Annie Davidson, a trainer and developer, commissioned Dan-Wood to build a bespoke-designed house on the remote Scottish island of Kererra, a mile off Scotland's West Coast. Accessible only by ferry from Oban, the island has no roads or energy supply, so the project was far from plain sailing. But thanks to a combination of hard work, goodwill and ingenuity, the couple's one-and-a-half storey, five-bedroom, three-bathroom detached house with panoramic windows on three sides was fully completed in only six weeks.
“Right on schedule, five articulated lorries arrived in Oban carrying the components of the house,” said John, who is now a Dan-Wood UK agent. “But the lorries were too long to fit on the ferry! I had to hire a bigger ferry from a local shellfish company and we decanted all the components from the artics on to smaller tipper lorries.That was on day one, but by 4pm the following day the house was already wind and water-tight!”
Despite the complex logistics, the house cost just £200,000 to build and will make John's next project feel like a piece of cake. “It’s not only hassle-free, but is a fascinating process to watch," he said. "In fact, I describe Dan-Wood as being like ‘adult Lego’!”
