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Didn't realise there was a new series!
There's also a podcast show on More4 just after with Greg James and Kevin talking about the episode just shown 👍
“Why didn’t anybody pick up on this before ? “
Isn’t that the project managers job ? Ahem .. 😉
I admired her commitment to the hemp, but when she had guessed at £20k for cladding, I did facepalm a little...
Should've bought a nice modular fixed price number instead...
https://www.hebhomes.com/
It did feel like she had £330K so that's the budget rather than actually working out what it will actually cost. I quite liked the look of the hemp but the interior finish was not to my taste
The whole thing was awful - apart from the weird hemp, it was characterless.
The Stonework was nice, and I actually didn't mind the hemp walls.
Yet again though...no chuffin blinds!
Which episode is it? Looking on Channel 4 catch up - there are lots of episodes for 2025 but isnt clear which one it is.
Perfect thanks!
Black is the new grey.
Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom in the factory is
a bit of a gimmick and the end result absolutely looked like something designed to fit on a lorry. Couldn’t help thinking they could have had a more traditionally constructed building for less money and had a less compromised design
Large footprint and driveway didn't exactly leave much room for the wild nature garden before you even start down the path of an "eco house" replacing a perfectly serviceable existing house.
I couldn’t help thinking that if you are building a bungalow it’s a bit dumb not to make it wheel chair accessible. We all get old and who knows what will happen in life.
Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom in the factory is
a bit of a gimmick and the end result absolutely looked like something designed to fit on a lorry. Couldn’t help thinking they could have had a more traditionally constructed building for less money and had a less compromised design
Yeah, I was thinking what the actual benefits were of doing everything in the factory, as opposed to building the walls, floors, etc and flat packing it to site, sticking it up in a day, then getting the trades in once it's weatherproof. 🤔
I couldn’t get over: the frame not being designed to receive plumbing, surely the whole point is you design and construct the frame with sufficient space for toilet waste pipes etc and; if that’s your companies job, why don’t you design the width of the gates a bit more generously. Insane.
It seemed alot of money for what they actually got in the end. The exterior may look awful after some proper weathering? I think you will always look at it and think "container!" as well. Even if it was done well.
Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom in the factory is
a bit of a gimmick and the end result absolutely looked like something designed to fit on a lorry. Couldn’t help thinking they could have had a more traditionally constructed building for less money and had a less compromised design
Yeah, I was thinking what the actual benefits were of doing everything in the factory, as opposed to building the walls, floors, etc and flat packing it to site, sticking it up in a day, then getting the trades in once it's weatherproof. 🤔
this. Factory built seems to make sense if you’re going a lot of identical modules - hotels, high rise apartments etc. but doesn’t seem to make sense for one off houses. And the house was taking up space in a factory when it was effectively water tight (eg “Couldn’t help feel the whole do the tiling the bathroom”. A massively overbuild 7 layer floor so it wouldn’t crack in transit!??)
also, looked like it was out in the voucher try, but a 2m fence around the whole plot so no view. If you want a visual barrier make it planting but surely you’d only need that on one side anyway.
Another one here who thought it a high financial cost for a black portacabin with some tilted roofs.
Any anyone who describes a house as 'eco' in 2025 shows thier shallow knowledge...
I liked it and think this a far better build method than brick by brick in some muddy site whilst everything gets damaged by rain.
I think there was some embellishment to the tree selection portion of proceedings but, even as a veteran of several modular housing projects, I was impressed by the construction if not necessarily the execution (chopping stuff out on site should be avoidable if everyone knows what they're doing). A 4m wide module is a massive thing and wasn't something we were ever able to achieve in a mechanised factory but these guys seem to have achieved it quite well and the modules are actually quite nice liveable spaces. There's still the issue about double thick walls where the modules meet but there's no real way around that.
I was quite impressed.
I still think the FACIT solution is more impressive overall though.
Enjoyed this one - turning trees into a building where felled is quite nice
Yes all really great and he was genuinely humble about the whole thing especially in acknowledging how lucky they were to be able to give it a go, shame that they hadn't done it years earlier when the kids were younger. Definitely hits my one of the top builds lists - I even thought the bathroom location would make for a fabulous experience.
I liked but struggled with the whole eco side of it. The idea that they are turning the existing home into an Airbnb means that the whole new building is extra eco impact how ever motivated they are.
They have to live the life style for 5 years while being monitored, would you not hedge your bets and keep your existing house?
I really liked it but I did think that their kids looked unhappy about their new living arrangements/home. At 14 yrs old I'm not sure I would have appreciated going to live in the woods somewhere......
I thought they had kept their original house and it was used as an Air bnb permanently?
Yeah, the kids looked very far from happy about it. Did they say how far from civilisation it was? (I was only half-watching at times). Also, I thought some of the wood supports looked a bit flimsy and wondered how rot-proof they will be (I accept they are on stone piers so they are not in the ground slowly rotting).
They did say that every summer they lived away from their Tenby house, so the kids should be used to it.
Really not that far away anyway -
https://maps.app.goo.gl/T2M2MBVC2nMonTk77
Strange lack of gutters but apart from that I liked it. Kids less than impressed!
I even thought the bathroom location would make for a fabulous experience.
If having an outside bath in West Wales was a good thing then we'd all be doing it. It's a really stupid idea that might be used once before the cold, damp and mouldy reality intrudes. We don't have an outdoor lifestyle in Wales for very obvious reasons. To paraphrase Rhod Gilbert - I was 16 before I realised that I could take my cagoule off.
They have to live the life style for 5 years while being monitored, would you not hedge your bets and keep your existing house?
My problem with the Tenby house was that Kevin made it sound like they were hippies for giving up their house every summer and living in a shed. They aren't, they give up the house to make money out of it. And I also agree that your eco motives are questionable if you have a cosy second home to fall back on when you fail. (Also, on eco notes, did anyone notice that their food was standard supermarket packaged food.) The kids will need to be driven to school each day because there's nothing around Lawrenny, ditto shopping and all of their other day to day activities. I suspect that their eco motivation is not that deep.
I stumbled across this yesterday, which puts most of the efforts on Grand Designs to shame...
Talking of Grand Designs - this house has been going up just outside Oakerthorpe in Derbyshire (for nearly 4 years now!). I drive past regularly and keep expecting to see a film crew and Kevin McCloud being filmed in the driveway!...
It looks like a new Baptist/Methodist church
I stumbled across this yesterday, which puts most of the efforts on Grand Designs to shame...
You didn't stumble across it at all, and neither did I, it was the algorithms that stumbled across us 😂
It's quite a story isn't it.
If having an outside bath in West Wales was a good thing then we'd all be doing it. It's a really stupid idea that might be used once before the cold, damp and mouldy reality intrudes.
Aww where's your sense of fun & also so much better than having a bath in your bedroom, which seems all the rage these days. Or maybe it's just that my great aunts view that having a toilet in the house was a disgusting idea has rubbed off on me?
I really liked last night's house but it was such a shame that she didn't get to see it finished
It looks like a new Baptist/Methodist church
That was my initial reaction.
I still like it though, and with some good landscaping it'll look less like one.
That was a lovely episode - love that she wanted a project to keep her mind off cancer.
Never ceases to amaze me how much money some people have.
Next week's looks proper bonkers with someone with way more money than sense when I heard £7,000,000 casually mentioned as if it was just a weeks grocery shopping.
Talking of Grand Designs - this house has been going up just outside Oakerthorpe in Derbyshire (for nearly 4 years now!). I drive past regularly and keep expecting to see a film crew and Kevin McCloud being filmed in the driveway!...
That looks truly hideous!
This is just down the road from me and I keep expecting to see Kev and a pregnent woman in a static caravan outside. Ive seen the artists impression of what its going to look like when/if it ever gets built and it looks amazing and ambitious, with more than a slight 'visitor centre' vibe about it.
Work began on it about a year ago, which involved clearing a whole massive chunk of very steep hillside of trees then digging an enormous hole. Work then stopped for 6 months, for whatever reason, then they came back and made the hole even bigger. That in itself is probably a metaphor for something.
They've just been slapped with an order to pack in working on it by the local planning office and United Utilities as their excavations are causing havoc with the drainage and underground pipework around the site as the hillside is sliding down in an attempt to fill the big hole they've dug. As there are houses all around it - perfectly normal stone terraces - it seems a very odd choice of site. God knows how they got planning permission for it.
I'll be really dissapointed if its not on telly as its already got '4 years late and 3.5 million overbudget' written all over it. They must have spent a fortune already and all they've got is a bloody big hole!
That was a lovely episode - love that she wanted a project to keep her mind off cancer.
Never ceases to amaze me how much money some people have.
Have to admit I didn't really get it, spending £700k on what was a pretty simple building & not sure it was right sort of house for the horse & dog loving partner left behind.
Well tonight’s build was dreadful, a silly amount of money for a huge awful house and a very unlikeable developer. It’s not often I wish they loose it all but he was getting pretty close
Well tonight’s build was dreadful, a silly amount of money for a huge awful house and a very unlikeable developer. It’s not often I wish they loose it all but he was getting pretty close
I thought it was going the way of Edwards Saunton Sands house for a while there.
Just didn’t seem homely at all, they seemed more interested in leaving a legacy .
Certainly did that, he’s up there at No 2 in the knobs who bit off more than they could chew charts
I've only seen the black house and the "hippy" house. Like both with reservations.
The black house seemed ideal but that budget was at least double I was expecting. For a £1.5million house it's suddenly expensive (including land purchase and house demolition). As always I'm astounded at kitchens that cost the same as houses
The hippy house was odd. Two mobile home sized units stuck together because of planning? Mobile homes only really get planning because they are mobile that's why they have wheels.
Noticed they passed over the communal garden and that 35% of their food would have to come from there, what about everyone else? And, yes suddenly it's supermarket scran in the kitchen.
I've only seen the black house and the "hippy" house. Like both with reservations.
The black house seemed ideal but that budget was at least double I was expecting. For a £1.5million house it's suddenly expensive (including land purchase and house demolition). As always I'm astounded at kitchens that cost the same as houses
The hippy house was odd. Two mobile home sized units stuck together because of planning? Mobile homes only really get planning because they are mobile that's why they have wheels.
Noticed they passed over the communal garden and that 35% of their food would have to come from there, what about everyone else? And, yes suddenly it's supermarket scran in the kitchen.