From bitter experience I've learned that some architects love the drawing part, and some architects are good at the managing contractors part - and I've not found many who are good at both. So invariably you have this fantastic design on the page which then gets translated through the contractor's view of what's reasonable/ easy/ intended. So turning an architect's vision into an actual building is quite rare!
Not Grand Designs but ticks all the boxes:
"Building our dream home cost us £2.2m … and our marriage" via The Sunday Times August 25 (was given the paper to use for scrap at a client house)
- hugely inappropriate expense for the location
- took years to build
- marriage collapsed before finished
- sold for less than half what it cost them to build
Sale brochure here -
Although loads of stuff in the Times piece seems to be nonsense. The sold price per Zoopla (ie land registry) was 1.34m (so a loss of 860k not 1.2m, if it actually cost them 2.2m - they're trade so that could be RRPs for everything). The "mini coffee shop (with multiple “barista zones”)" seems to be the coffee machine on the counter behind them in that photo based on something else I found! There are only two Saunas visible on the plans so I dont know where the Time's 3rd one is meant to be.
Looking at the plans what does seem bizarre after the excess of everything else is that only the main bedroom has ensuite - the other two bedrooms which are both pretty sizeable (and mezzanine sleeping areas?) share a single shower room.
As ever, I can see the logic in using it to promote their company, but you'd kind of want to keep quiet about the fact that it took forever and costs were out of control meaning it made a huge loss on sale.
It’s 4.5 years since we moved into our self-build and I suppose lulled into the thought that the succession of jobs needing done on a new house would somehow cease..
This week I’m still putting right some of the things that weren’t right, like the recessed spotlights in the angled ceiling where they’d cut through the vapour barrier and into the foam insulation to install recessed spotlights. You could feel a breeze coming through the lights and we were getting weird condensation on the windows. I’ve had to patch the vapour barrier and install slimline flush spots.
The architects in their wisdom put the front door on the ‘weather’ side - with the winter storms, water gets blown under the door which has been absorbed and blown the skirting. Talking with the door company about replacement seals.
I feel your pain. We've been in our house (full gut job, renovation, adding insulation for the first time, large extension) for more than 2 years, and only recently has the new extension been made watertight; we're currently in the process of ripping out and replacing all the shower glass that was put in during the renovation as it doesn't work (even with large seals on door and static edges, there's still a gap between the glass and water pours out), and getting a Georgian-era, 1970s-replaced portion of the roof replaced for the cost a new car.
Apparently at some point it will all be complete, but not sure when that'll be!
It’s 4.5 years since we moved into our self-build and I suppose lulled into the thought that the succession of jobs needing done on a new house would somehow cease..
This week I’m still putting right some of the things that weren’t right, like the recessed spotlights in the angled ceiling where they’d cut through the vapour barrier and into the foam insulation to install recessed spotlights. You could feel a breeze coming through the lights and we were getting weird condensation on the windows. I’ve had to patch the vapour barrier and install slimline flush spots.
The architects in their wisdom put the front door on the ‘weather’ side - with the winter storms, water gets blown under the door which has been absorbed and blown the skirting. Talking with the door company about replacement seals.
Where's the blame for that? Specification was clearly wrong - who selected flush lights where there wasn't space behind to allow for them? But also crap workmanship because if the electrician cared about the build they should have identified the issue at first fix, or even when they came to cut the first hole in the plasterboard, and made clear that either surface mount or slimline spots were needed.
We've had very little in 10 years in ours but we did almost all the work ourselves so did both the spec and install. I had a Chinese DMX 240v dimmer thing that blew bulbs. Outside lights have been problematic - water getting into fittings and failing. What we thought was a roof leak was actually a very minor lead from the kitchen tap tail that evaporated without causing any real issue unless we went away for some weeks in winter with the heating off. We did have a condensation issue with our ventilation system but improved the insulation on the pipes and solved that. Haven't, yet, had any major jobs. The first is probably going to be some external render in a lightwell where we didn't get the detail above good enough and water gets behind it.
Yes, the lights were fitted before we moved in, during COVID and just assumed they were installed correctly - they’re quite high up in a portal roof and need a ladder to reach them. It was only when I put my hand over one and felt a draught that I took a closer look.
Interesting note to this is that (in Ireland at least) architects and main contractors have statutory liability for 7 years on new renovations/ houses. If that's the same in the UK, I'd be pursuing fairly hard to get them to come back and bring the house up to the standard they had claimed they were doing it to (ie not having wind whistling through it)