Forum menu
Be nice if any actually got finished in this series, clever roof and I'd like to see it finished but echo what others have said, too big. Next weeks revisit should be good, I loved that conversion first time round.
Agreed, not sure how somewhere that unnecessarily big can be called an eco house.
Given that the UK average house is something like 120 sqm, 2 people occupying a space that would typically accommodate 12-15 people is hardly environmentally or ecologically sustainable. How much CO2 was produced pumping all that concrete? Some of the exterior finishing looked shonky too - it’ll look rubbish in a few years time.
What a decision to make; should we have two kitchen islands or just slum it with one?!
Should a house for two people be about the size of Orkney Airport!
I don't know how you guys manage it week in week out. It's pure drivel.
I dipped in to see the wood worker ladies house. Natural sustainable resources... Shipped in from Germany. Cool story. Claims of no more money and an extra 100k is produced. Talk of woodland and space.... Cuts her meagre 1acre plot in half when she sells her existing house. Loving the views from the upstairs floor... So you have made it stand out and visible in the landscape. Not even startedi inside. "Made a shonky as fuc railway" just use a tractor or atleast use a Landover with off-road tyres and point it the right way. Home made formwork... Just use the cardboard ones that actually work. The most interesting bit was the example house he visited. That was beautiful!
Absolute walloppers every single time, I am genuinely struggling to think of genuinely impressive builds, the bodger's house was. There was one built around a tree, octagonal in shape, that was interesting. Most are clearly just jeopardy bate.
They should do a series on genuinely thought provoking builds. Small, mega sustainable social housing, flood resilienting communities.
Once you have bought an expensive plot of land are there external forces pushing you to build the biggest house possible on it so you can 'realise the potential of your investment' or somesuch?
We always watch Grand Designs thinking "What a beautiful space, but we would build a house in the corner and enjoy the land". I assume we must be very financially niaive.
I'm getting a bit pissed off at not seeing finished houses in this series, and this one is soooooo ridiculously massive even for the largest of large families.
I'm struggling to see how he still reckons £1.25m when it's finished. Some of the other stupid builds in this series that are small by comparison are more.
The solar roofing is good, but as for the rest of the econ credentials, surely the scale and materials for two people makes it crap.
Grrr..... Not sure why I watch it anymore 🤣
Not sure why I watch it anymore
I've actually stopped watching them really.
Edit: I should add why. I know they choose extreme people and the 'Grand' project. I've been on site with GD in the past, they do choose nutters. And they are happy to be 'economic' with the truth when filming.
But they just seem to choose more and more oddballs, projects with more bling than great design, finances from another planet etc. And so few are finishing at all...
Only caught the last few minutes, just in time to see the cat flap that cost £1600 🤯
It didn't even look like a cat that would be going outside either 🤣 Being a cat I'm sure it would refuse to use it and just roam the acres of empty house shitting and throwing up where it likes 🤣
We also see half of these projects and think how happy we'd be in the house they're knocking down in a nice patch of land that we could enjoy and grow stuff in.
What Matt said. Series from a few years ago had some great stuff. The "woodsman" who built a modest wooden house using archaic methods. The young couple who made an old pumping station into a really nice quirky house. folk working with budgets that normal folk might have
The “woodsman” who built a modest wooden house using archaic methods.
This is the one that I will remember after all the weird concrete boxes with floor to ceiling windows and 40 grand kitchens have faded.
The cat I saw was Siamese, so you'll unlikely be letting that out. This series has been about unfinished, and un-liveable houses. Last year's cliff house, that went so far over budget - I wonder if it ever sold. Wife divorced him.
The money involved is bonkers, where is it all coming from, especially at these people's stages of life, you'd not want to be borrowing that amount in your late fifties/sixties.
The money involved is bonkers, where is it all coming from,
Being Bernie Ecclestone's missus' divorce lawyer pays for at least one house.
Last year’s cliff house, that went so far over budget – I wonder if it ever sold. Wife divorced him.
If you're talking about the lighthouse at saunton its currently on Rightmove recently reduced to £6.5million - still with no internal fittings (ie lights or a kitchen) and in a position that on a sunny day you'll spend over two hours in a traffic jam trying to get home...
and at £6.5million that barely covers the money he borrowed which means he destroyed his life, and a perfectly good house, for nothing...
Im clearly doing something wrong as I cant even afford a normal mortgage (despite having an above average salary) and am doomed to rent for the rest of my life, how the hell are these people just coming up with a couple of hundred thousand from nowhere every week???
But they just seem to choose more and more oddballs, projects with more bling than great design, finances from another planet etc. And so few are finishing at all…
I think grand designs has been around since 1999. Since then they've shown all sorts of houses and builds and educated the audience. I think that's fed our appitite so we want more and more elaborate builds and characters and secretly we enjoy it when it goes wrong as we will never have £100000 to spend on a kitchen island.
What I don't understand, is when they build these massive houses is why they don't do it in sections. Build half of it first and finish it and move in and then build the 2nd phase with less pressure and stress.
Might not be feesible or economical but they just always seem to bite off more than they can chew.
Going back a few episodes to Rosa and parachute/sweetie man...
OnlyFans was suggested as an explaination of how they were/are able to service a mortgage of that size on what we assume their income to be
This is exactly what the OH and I suggested!! Classic OF material there, I becha! My OH found her instagram account, and it's very "tiny swimsuit and gymwear" heavy!
DrP
Being Bernie Ecclestone’s missus’ divorce lawyer pays for at least one house.
Princess Di's I think they said too.
I thought the house was stupid for all the reasons listed above, but the couple did seem *relatively* down to earth for people who have clearly been earnings £100s of thousands for decades.
tjagain
Full Member
What Matt said. Series from a few years ago had some great stuff. The “woodsman” who built a modest wooden house using archaic methods.
Was that the guy living in the woods making charcoal?
I don't really watch the series but I caught that one, the house was just beautiful and the guy... Well, the world would be a better place if there were more like him. Genuinely decent bloke.
tjagain
Full Member
Yes poopscoop
Did they ever do some sort of follow-up to him, his new family and the build?
Id love to watch that.
tjagain
Full Member
yes again they did. first one was just him and a girlfriend. Second one they had kids and extended the house
Ah! I must have seen that one then because I know he met someone from the local village or something and they had a baby.
I look forward to watching this one later. I'd rather they completed them nicely but there's always a bit of fun in the car crashes.
All the current lot are Covid effected builds just because of the timing. I'd imagine that most GD projects are 3 years from getting the green light and even then not all will proceed or get finished. I'd put money on them filming 8 for 6 programmes each series and this cohort has been worse than normal. A 50-100% increase in material costs will significantly effect anyone's plans.
All the current lot are Covid effected builds just because of the timing.
I was going to point this out as well.
There may also be something in the fact that the rest of the world is catching up with GD style builds. Everywhere I go at the moment I'll see concrete and glass boxes which wouldn't look out of place on the programme. Most of us can't afford them but they are sneakily infiltrating our neighbourhoods. 😀
I don't think it was mentioned last night how much the plot was. I'm guessing that given the size, location and already having planning it wouldn't be far off another million.
Discovering Kirsten Dirksen on youtube has negatively effected my desire to watch grand designs. Far more interesting people/ designs/ communities etc.
Yeh, there's some great stories on there.
Im sure the planning authority would've signed off a reduction in size easily enough. To say that they didn't want another 'fight with the planners' was pathetic.
In terms of 'classic' GD, remember the guy who made his house of mud and the young guy who specialised in making bent metal artwork so applied that to the house, scaled up seemed to work
And the modest 2bed build (I think) on Skye
A couple of times they've gone to architects houses and they've been stunning and then back to the/a client which looks like a monstrous exaggeration of the idea of the architects house.
Wasn't the guy with the shipping containers on the family farm in NI an architect. That was lovely, apart from the carbon fiber (?) bath.
On the budgets issue, sometimes you get the distinct feeling that the folk are being cadgey about their build cost as they are worried that the tax man might be watching the programme. Which might then lead to a few awkward questions over where the finance came from....
The usual half finished monstrosity. There was one a few years ago that was repeated on more 4 yesterday. Young chap and his partner bought a 9 x 4m plot in East London, dug down (had issues with the first basement building firm) and ended up with a very nice 2 bed , 2 bath quirky house and a proper community feel as they worked with their very close neighbours. Went way over their anticipated budget of £160k, at £250k but a superb end result and he embodied all that is good about self builders.
And the modest 2bed build (I think) on Skye
That was the best one, Ive seen it at least 3 times now. Done on a normal persons budget, nice couple, the house was excellent when finished. Rather too spartan for many, but it works. I’d like to see a follow up of that one to see how they have got on since.
The lack of storage space would kill it for my OH, she’s got so much sh*te that another house is needed to store it
I think there has been a fair few good ones over the years, either experimental, great designs or just plain quirky, I just wish the idea of building big houses out in the sticks being sustainable was squashed, they're as bad if not worse than massive EVs or biomass boilers etc Trouble is that decent size plots in towns and cities get snapped up developers for ££££s and a few executive style detached houses get plonked on them 😕
I enjoy the program but often end up shouting at the telly, most episodes seem to follow a few themes:
1. House will cost 500k to build, owner only has 300k and hasn't asked for quotes for things like power and water connection, they just assume it will cost £11,50 and be done by Friday. These minor details are not stopping them forging ahead so the 2nd half of the episode is all sob stories about possibly having to sell before it is finished, putting stuff on credit cards and having to work until the day they die to pay it off. These episodes often include living in a cold, damp caravan on site to save money.
2. Really wants to build a house for their family and this house will be the answer to happiness for the family as the new open plan kitchen/sitting room/something else will enable this. Owner proceeds to spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next 5 years on the build so when it is finished the kids are ready to leave home.
3. Owner is loaded and builds a massive vanity project where everything is too big and a bit ugly.
With an everlasting theme of Kev knocking anybody of child bearing age up 🙂
Whilst this weeks was dreadful from an environmental and selfishness point of view, I did like the whole 'house generates more than it uses' ethos. Sadly that become the one defining ecological feature. 🙁
I really hope that we see the end of visitor centre architecture for two people to live in.
distinct feeling that the folk are being cadgey about their build cost as they are worried that the tax man might be watching the programme. Which might then lead to a few awkward questions over where the finance came from….
The one in Exeter with the standing stones look about it gave me that vibe. My mate lost a fair chunk of money investing in a project the guy was linked to. I got the impression he liked to play with other peoples money .
I also watched a YouTube blog where one of the projects is a £15million house. Apparent everything in it is “up for sale” and is a showroom for the clients business. Yeah right, for me, that translates to everything is bought through my company so I can avoid paying VAT and also claim it all against my corporation taxes 🤷♀️
" translates to everything is bought through my company so I can avoid paying VAT and also claim it all against my corporation taxes 🤷♀️"
It may be a scam but it isn't a VAT scam. New builds are zero rated.
https://www.the-self-build-guide.co.uk/self-build-vat/
Sorry, should have said, this is a refurb they are doing. Apparently everything is for sale, including the furniture etc, its just a massive "show home", that the owner just happens to live in etc etc
I liked this one from a few years ago. Rural site but 35 mins drive from Glasgow. I knew the owner as a teenager when he lived in the next street to me.
A fantastic site he found beside a loch and views over the Campsie fells.
https://www.granddesignsmagazine.com/grand-designs-houses/grand-designs-jim-fairfull/
Whilst this weeks was dreadful from an environmental and selfishness point of view, I did like the whole ‘house generates more than it uses’ ethos. Sadly that become the one defining ecological feature. 🙁
the fundamental flaw being they hadn’t checked their export limits with the dno so they had to cap generation and export. They could have just put up half as much solar and had the same result.
They could have just put up half as much solar and had the same result.
Except PassivHaus Plus whatever needed was it 3x the energy generated to 'pass'. Forget that they are a) wasting surplus resources to build ecessively because b) they are 'throwing away' energy which cannot be used.
How they are wasting this energy I am not sure.