From Care Home to Contractor Hub : The Reinvention of a Keith Landmark

If you’d driven past the building a few years ago, you probably wouldn’t have looked twice.

It was tired. Quiet. A bit forgotten.

It had history — it had served people well for many years — but it was no longer what Keith needed it to be. And that’s where our story really starts.

When we first walked through the doors, it still felt like a care home. Long corridors. Heavy furniture. Rooms that had once served a completely different purpose. It wasn’t run down in a dramatic way. It just felt… paused. Like it was waiting for something new. Most people would have looked at it and thought, “That’s a lot of work.” They would have been right.

But we didn’t just see the work. We saw the potential.

Keith is in a unique position. Close to energy projects. Close to distilleries. Close to Dr Gray’s in Elgin. Positioned between Inverness and Aberdeen. Yet, accommodation options were limited, especially for people coming here to work. Not tourists. Workers. Contractors on renewables projects. Construction teams. NHS staff on placement. People relocating for jobs in whisky or public sector roles.

There was demand.

But there wasn’t the right kind of supply. Hotels serve a purpose. B&Bs serve a purpose. Airbnbs serve a purpose. But none of them were really built for someone staying six weeks, eight weeks, three months at a time. So standing in that old care home, we had a choice.

Leave it as it was. Or reinvent it. We chose reinvention. Not in a glossy, grand-designs way. Not with millions poured into dramatic extensions. But steadily. Intentionally. Room by room. Decision by decision. The first thing we did was strip things back.

Old, bulky furniture went. Rooms were cleared. Layouts were rethought. We asked ourselves constantly: “If someone is living here for weeks, what do they actually need?”

Not what looks impressive. What works.

Wall-mounted TVs to free up space. Proper desks, because people work in their rooms sometimes. Durable furniture that can handle real use. Yellow accent chairs that brought warmth without clutter. Tartan bedding as a nod to our Scottish setting, but fresh rather than dated. It wasn’t about luxury. It was about practicality done properly. The building slowly shifted identity. It stopped feeling like something that had been. And started feeling like something becoming.

The corridors brightened. Communal kitchens were organised to support multiple long-term guests. Laundry facilities became part of the rhythm of the place. Daily cleaning routines were set. And so it transformed from Care Home to Contractor Hub

We live on-site, which changed everything. This wasn’t a distant investment. It wasn’t managed remotely. It became part of our life. We heard every door close. Every piece of feedback. Every suggestion. Every small frustration that needed fixing. And we fixed things.

Weston House didn’t become a contractor hub overnight. It evolved into one because that’s who kept walking through the door. The first long-term guests arrived and stayed longer than expected. Then they came back for another project. Then their colleagues asked where they’d stayed. Word spreads quickly in workforce circles. “Stay there. It’s straightforward.”

That’s usually the kind of recommendation we hear about later. Straightforward.

It might not sound glamorous, but in workforce accommodation, that word is gold.

As more projects began across Moray — renewables, infrastructure, distilleries expanding — we saw the pattern clearly. Keith needed accommodation that matched its working identity.

Not just tourism marketing. Real, functioning, practical spaces for people building things.

That’s what Weston House became.

Twenty-five private rooms. Weekly rates designed for longer stays. Proper self-catering kitchens. Laundry. Quiet hours. On-site support. It wasn’t flashy. But it worked. And when something works, it grows naturally.

The building itself holds history. Many locals remember it in its former life. Some had relatives there. Some worked there. There’s respect attached to that.

Reinventing it wasn’t about erasing the past. It was about giving it a future.

Buildings, like towns, evolve. Keith is evolving.

Energy projects bring new people. The whisky industry continues to draw workers and visitors. Public sector roles shift. Infrastructure changes. And with that movement comes the need for accommodation that isn’t temporary in feel, even if the stay itself is temporary.

We’ve invested heavily in the property since taking ownership. Renovations. Compliance. Systems. IT. Appliances. Maintenance. It hasn’t been a small task. The financial side tells one story. The emotional side tells another. There’s something powerful about taking a building that had gone quiet and hearing it full of life again.

Doors opening in the morning. Boots on the stairs. Kitchen conversations in the evening. Laughter. The steady rhythm of people working hard and coming back to rest.

That’s what it feels like now. A contractor hub doesn’t mean a noisy, chaotic place. It means a building with purpose. Everyone there has somewhere to be in the morning.

And there’s pride in that. We’ve also started looking beyond the inside.

The exterior of the building still carries its old identity in some ways. We want it to reflect the landscape, the distilleries, the working identity of the area. Because Weston House isn’t separate from Keith. It’s part of it.

The reinvention hasn’t been perfect. There have been challenges. Unexpected costs. Learning curves. Renovations never go exactly to plan. But every improvement has been done with a long-term view. Not quick fixes. Proper foundations.

We’re not trying to build something that spikes for a year and fades.

We’re building something steady.

Something that supports the projects shaping Moray.

Something that gives workers a proper base.

Something that respects the building’s past while giving it relevance now.

From the outside, it might just look like accommodation.

From the inside, it’s a working ecosystem.

Twenty-five individual routines. Different shifts. Different industries. Shared kitchens. Shared understanding. Private spaces.

It’s not glamorous.

But it’s purposeful.

And purpose transforms buildings.

If you’re driving through Keith now and you see Weston House, you’re not just seeing an old care home with a new name.

You’re seeing a building that adapted.

A building that found a new role in a changing town.

A building that went from quiet corridors to steady boots on the stairs.

That’s reinvention.

And it’s still ongoing.

Because just like Keith, we’re not finished evolving yet.

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