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A little appetiser before next week's main course: https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/property/a36343040/grand-designs-lighthouse-for-sale-croyde-north-devon/
I do sometimes wonder why it takes 7 years to do the training.
1 year to do fancy drawings
1 year to do CAD
1 year to do building regs n stuff
3 years to learn how to write obscure bolleaux to either sell the scheme, blame the engineer, blame the builder or blame the client for changing their mind
1 year to buy black polo necks, thick rimmed specs and a Saab
Once again even when she asked the architect to design and build they couldn’t do it for her budget. I do sometimes wonder why it takes 7 years to do the training.
We've had some insane inflation in construction, a lot of it coming from COVID causing supply chain issues. Plus a smattering of Brexit headaches. Coming in 12% over really isn't bad in those circumstances, especially with foundation issues which always cost a fortune
Think this was one of my favourite ever grand designs. It just looked like somewhere that would be lovely to live in.
Managing a build budget like that to within 12% was good going and all credit to the architect for such a good design given the limitations of the site. My own self-build was 12% over budget in 12 months during COVID and we were pretty well insulated from any material price increases, it was mainly just ‘stuff’, not an extra £10k in groundworks or an extra £30k+ on a kitchen - we did managed to spend £2k on cupboards for putting all our stuff in though.
Fair play to the guy for finishing the Devon lighthouse. Gutted for him that he has to sell it without ever living it.
10 mil for the lot? When’s the euromillions?
Finishing the main build maybe? No kitchen, bathrooms or lighting anywhere judging by the coiled cables hanging out of every room and not able to live in it as he has to sell both as they are. Bloody idiot from the start lol!
The finished product did look pretty nice but I think they'll be lucky to sell for £10m in the market now.
.....and who wants to buy two houses at once? 🤔
My concern is that the pilings turn out to be not as future proof as they think and when that soft sandstone disappears it'll start moving.
Frankly the whole thing was a stupid idea in the first place.
Was it worth losing your wife and kids over?..... Never.
Oh..... And not only do you get to put your own kitchen in but the bathrooms haven't been done either!
and who wants to buy two houses at once?
Someone who wants to buy the main house & have the eye as a guest house. Someone for whom 10mil is pocket change.
Was it worth losing your wife and kids over?….. Never.
At the end the (grown up) kids implied that all was not well between husband and wife even without the project, and felt that all of them were better apart than they were together so maybe the house was just a catalyst for that.
I'm not sure I'd choose to live there though - looked more like a statement building on a business park than a home. My guess is that the site will end up as two high end holiday homes - surprised they hadn't already gone down that route to get some income while they try to sell it because my guess is it's not going to be a quick sale.
Possibly the grandest of grand designs. His folly, that was evident throughout and she been persuaded that his dream was her dream.
Good evidence for the life goes on post divorce thread.
Someone who wants to buy the main house & have the eye as a guest house. Someone for whom 10mil is pocket change.
If you can afford that then there's many, many better places to spend your money. In addition, people with that sort of money do not pay the asking price - I doubt it will get close to £10m.
The question then is whether he comes out of this with anything?
The biggest Grand Designs of them all and it leaves me utterly cold.
It's the perfect example of money and ambition corrupting people, thier family and friends, the environment they installed the folly in and more.
But then I've always preferred the "Ben, woodsman who built a cottage by his own hands and enough for his needs" approach.
I think I'm more a Modest Designs guy.
1 year to buy black polo necks, thick rimmed specs and a Saab
You've met my brother then?
(Except the Saab was short lived and replaced with a Citroen DS....)
I wonder how long it will be until your 3 acres becomes 2 acres, becomes 1 acre…….
It does nothing for me, the eye looked far better IMO and he probably should just have done a slightly larger version of it to fit the whole family in
If you can afford that then there’s many, many better places to spend your money. In addition, people with that sort of money do not pay the asking price – I doubt it will get close to £10m.
The question then is whether he comes out of this with anything?
Only takes one to fall in love with the location though. Even if it doesn’t make 10, he’s in it for 5.5 I think. VC has funded it though so guess they’ll want their bit of any profit before he gets anything.
On a more practical point, how many days a year is that pool going to be useable? Even in the summer, wind might make it a less than enjoyable place to be?
You’ve met my brother then?
(Except the Saab was short lived and replaced with a Citroen DS….)
Living his best stereotype? 😀
(I love DSs!)
Keeping all of those windows clean is going to be a full time job!
Word on the street, well in the bay, is he'd had an offer of £7.5 million made and he'd turned it down. Braunton/Croyde lovely part of the world, but Croyde is a victim of its own success and properties there are stupid amounts of money.
Here we go again. New series, new opportunity for Grand Designs bingo.
Kev is still feeling the cold, multiple layers of knitwear and down.
I’m not optimistic about Granddad Leo seeing the finished build.
edit. Oh.
🙈🙈🙈
Aaaaand she’s pregnant
Just need huge delays on windows for a win in bingo.
Over budget in the design phase. Tick
Pregnant. Tick
Come on it’s gonna be glazing over budget / doesn’t fit / forgot we need windows for the bingo win….
VAT misunderstanding, that’s a new one🤣🤣🤣 Tbats not what the revenue call it💩
£1.2m is my guess.
I do like it.
Ok, fair enough, 2 bingo boxes ticked but not a full house. And they have a rather nice full house.
I liked it until the master bedroom with the shitter (unroofed and undoored) just behind the bed’s headboard! What’s that all about???
Do we think Leo was really someone else in this family?
I do like that. Not a fan of the marble though.
She’s obviously stopped eating pies now to pay for the mortgage
To be fair really like the house. Must be worth a fair penny, and you get the impression she won’t sell
Could you not just let AI generate Grand Designs by now?
Delay in the windows delivery from Germany, pregnant in a caravan, half a million quid over-budget, shake the money tree to magic up the half a mil…
Oh look… another visitor centre. Hurray!
£1.2m ……… 🥳🍾🍾
Makes me grateful for a bathroom door to be honest. They clearly don't partake in a dirty Friday night kebab and the obvious resulting effects.
I bet they’ll struggle to afford a dirty Friday night kebab 😂
Its very nice sans the missing door bit.
I think I would be tempted to cut a few corners on the finish to save a few £10’s of thousands. Landscaping, marble kitchen, Corten steel water feature, etc.
Clearly sky diving instructing pays better than you might think
Fascinating to see the inside of the Gower house tho....it's a couple of miles from me and I've cycled/run past it dozens of times....I've never seen a single sign of anyone actually living there tho.
Also that architect bollox about taking the landscape, removing it, building a house then putting the landscape back....before they knocked it down to build the concrete thing, there was a perfectly nice, big, conventional house on that site.
I liked it until the master bedroom with the shitter (unroofed and undoored) just behind the bed’s headboard! What’s that all about???
I love my wife more than life itself but hearing her strain the vegetables whilst I’m having a lie in with a cuppa isn’t my idea of fun for £1.2m.
The upper floor of the curved bit is a complete waste of space (complete with random chairs making it look like a waiting room), but i can see how it made the space underneath work.
I just can't get my head around how an audiologist and skydiving instructor can fund a £1.2m build. Also, a £1.2m build in rural Herefordshire makes no sense.
In bitch mode, some of that £1.2m must have gone on elocution lessons and a makeover for her 😂
Oh and the obsession with "grandad" Leo is weird.
A typical start to the series. They have £700k so the architect designs something that costs £1.1 to £1.4m to build. Those years of training clearly paid off.
Even having scraped the money from somewhere how they are going to service the debt is a mystery. I was in hysterics at the end when she said she wouldn’t have done it if she knew the costs at the beginning. But she did and still did it
The upper floor of the curved bit is a complete waste of space (complete with random chairs making it look like a waiting room), but i can see how it made the space underneath work.
Yep I did think that, especially having a toddler running round. I bet they don’t go up there until the kid is 10yrs old
This trend for having your bog / shower in the bedroom is odd as has been mentioned above, my Mrs goes to work earlier than I do. Thankfully a door separates her having a morning dump and shower whilst I get my beauty sleep. I bet they end up using a bog and shower at the other end of the house
I hope they don’t end up getting divorced and bankrupt. He was clearly stressed by the money, she was blinkered by links to Grandad. He will want to sell and she won’t, they will both work themselves to death to pay the mortgage, end up bankrupt and divorced