Words
Ellen Calder
Category
Building
Published
At six in the morning the meadow at Fernwood is silver with dew, and the only sound is a skylark above the hill. By seven, a crane is unfolding at the bottom of the track.
Each Hide leaves our workshop finished: lined, glazed, wired and oiled. It travels on a single low loader, wrapped against the weather, and arrives on site the same morning it is lifted. The posts have been waiting for weeks, screwed into the ground and levelled to the millimetre, with nothing else on the plot but grass.
Forty minutes, four straps
The lift itself takes about forty minutes. Four straps, two people guiding by hand, and a steady voice on the radio. When the house settles onto its frame there is a soft knock, and then nothing. No mixer, no skip, no mud. By evening the crane has gone and the meadow is quiet again.
Phase two at Fernwood will be lifted in next spring. If you would like to watch, register your interest and we will send you the date.
“The best compliment we get is from the neighbours: they did not notice we had been.”
Want to see a Hide for yourself? Viewings at the show home on Saturdays, or register to hear about new homes first.
