[Closed] Grand Designs new series next Weds

Oh goody, we get to see rich people acting as project manager on their building projects despite having no experience and then inevitably running over time and budget with a build lul in the winter 2/3rds of the way through the TV show to add some doom and gloom (as they're living in a caravan on site) before they finally finish in spring just after dropping a sprog and everyone's happy.

I like the show but it is a bit sort of the same each time,

As reality TV, its shite.

Its value is in seeing ideas/materials/construction methods that inspire, and people with the balls (and cash) to go for it.

Time for a baby boom?

Time for a cull of the middle class ****ers.

Good stuff.

[justathought]May I suggest that if you don't like it, or the people who tend to be on it, that you should consider watching something else?[/justathought]

before they finally finish in spring just after dropping a sprog and everyone's happy

I've lost count of how many children Kevin has sired during the run of Grand Designs. I'm looking forward to the series featuring all of the offspring from Grand Designs and Sarah Beany's property ladder titled "Grand Designs the Next Generation: Self Build Village of the Damned"

[img] [/img]

ahhh, tasty home pron to glaze my brainhole:

It's invariably the location/ideas/build methods that inspire, the "owners" are always little more than puppets and Kevs dry sarcasm's lost on most.
I tend to record it, skip through the adverts and arty shots of concrete trucks reversing into spaces little bigger than a park bench, which means I get 54% of my time back, so to speak.

Why don't channel 4 just have done with it and rename it Big Cheque Book, Bigger Ego!

Blah, blah, blah...... £250,000 windows imported from Germany... blah.... Yes, we went 1.2 million over budget.... blah....

No thanks!

"It's winter, and they still haven't got the **** roof on...."

It does seem to have turned into an advertising platform for aspiring architects. Always prefer the self-build ones doing it on a shoestring but don't seem to be so many of those anymore.

George Clark's Amazing Spaces seems to have taken up the mantle of normal people doing creative stuff on real world budgets.

There's not much of interest about Grand Designs - watching some retiring city banker or CEO spaff their enormous pension on some massive, predictable and unimaginative vanity project in Tuscany

George Clark's Amazing Spaces seems to have taken up the mantle of normal people doing creative stuff on real world budgets.

It's just a shame it has to have George 'watch me draw on a wall then knock it down' Clark featured so heavily...

I predict:

Concrete
Oak panels for the exterior or Beech or Bubinga
224mtr Sq frameless windows, with integral blinds/shades
Square box architecture
Swirly staircases
Stainless steel or polished alloy handrails/staircases/bog seats
Open plan everything, so you can shit in one end of the "space" and keep an eye on your 14yr old daughter playing with her new best friend at the other end.
Airport escalators to enable easy movement around "the space"
A snooker room complete with bar in the basement.
Wife who gets better looking as the programme catches them at the groundworks stage then when they move in.
No animals, not even a Hamster.

Kevin's just a nice chap trying to make himself a living. The fact he uses rich ex bankers etc to do that is perhaps a wee bit old hat now, but if I win the lottery, I'm gonna watch all the old episodes for inspiration - oh aye! You can then watch me gloat on telly as well

I loved the one where the welsh farmer/actor got into a massive row with the architect and basically told her he hated her work.

I've lost count of how many children Kevin has sired during the run of Grand Designs

along with Sarah "permenently pregnant" Beeny theyre creating a future property boom between them.

I loved the one where the welsh farmer/actor got into a massive row with the architect and basically told her he hated her work.

the best one was the kids-home-resident-made-good who was building something lavish/grotesque (to prove his worth in order to conquer his own insecurities) including planning to have a Ducati mounted on the living room wall, then had a heart attack and a complete change of attitude and priorities. Though it appears he went ahead with the ducati in the end.

apologies only link I can find about the story is the daily fail.

http://www.****/property/article-1254568/It-cost-1-8m-heart-bypasses-Grand-Design-paid-end.html

Kevin ponders whether the build is too ambitious / not risky enough / unsuitable for the local area.
Then says he likes it after all
** walks out of shot **

Kevs dry sarcasm's lost on most.

This. Once you realise he's taking the piss most of the time it becomes a lot better. I enjoy watching the aspiring upper classes make a hash of things and get it all horribly wrong and wondering why, when really it should be obvious.

It'll also be interesting to see how many of the mega modern, minimalist glass/concrete things manage to look homely and like houses rather than fancy offices or visitor centres.

It does amaze me that these rich blokes haven't yet learned the first, most important lesson of Grand Designs.

That letting your wife play at being project manager will end up costing you a damn site more than if she just carries on doing lunch with her mates in expensive restaurants, and going shopping for shoes and handbags in Selfridges every day.

Yeah but you do get some great ones, I don't bother watching the boring ones but there have been some gems such as the people in Italy who pretty much did it all themselves and the guy that lived in the woods. And the mud mansion man, oh and some of those castle renovation ones.

Yeah I watch it for the houses. Some of the contestants on it really wind me up.

Oh and I like Kev.

From Weds 3rd Sept 9.00 C4. Cant wait

Time to get a pair of new batteries for the night riding season.

Always prefer the self-build ones doing it on a shoestring

+1

Always prefer the self-build ones doing it on a shoestring

Its been an awful long time since they've had one of those. I'm pretty sure that, with weary predictability, everything will look exactly like this...

[img] [/img]

Another series of Grand Designs? Oh good.

The next housing crash will occur in two years, one month and 6 days.

Approximately.

It does seem to have turned into an advertising platform for aspiring architects.

Er, I don;t think there are many "aspiring" architects, more some pretty well known ones from large, well established practices.

TBH, many years ago it was great. Now it's just a caricature of itself, although Kev treads a fine line between humorous pisstaking and heading up his own (well lined) fundament.

Kevin's just a nice chap trying to make himself a living. The fact he uses rich ex bankers etc to do that is perhaps a wee bit old hat now, but if I win the lottery, I'm gonna watch all the old episodes for inspiration - oh aye! You can then watch me gloat on telly as well

very much this 😆

I enjoy it but I never understand 2 things

1. Where they suddenly find all the extra cash from when they go fantastically over budget
2. The number of what appear to be school boy mistakes the architects make. It's not a good advert for the architect profession.

1. Where they suddenly find all the extra cash from when they go fantastically over budget
2. The number of what appear to be school boy mistakes the architects make. It's not a good advert for the architect profession.

1.
[img] [/img]

2. I'd say it's a fairly accurate representation...

From Weds 3rd Sept 9.00 C4. Cant wait
Time to get a pair of new batteries for the night riding season.

Hmm good point I will be riding - better remember to set the recorder thingy 🙂

I have a love hate relationship with the show

My pet hates are the un written tag line

"Because I am considerably richer than you"

and

The owners pretense that ripping a whole in hill that's an hours drive from where they work, pouring in 80 lorry loads of concrete and then having all the external walls made of glass becomes "the sustainable home we always dreamed of" because they fitted a couple of LED lights

A handful of the homes, and characters, have been inspirational though -- real laid back folk, taking their time to get it right. Thinking of the female couple on Skye, that was a lovely build and a lovely couple..

You couldn't wish for bigger failures on some of the absolute tossers though, the Thames riverside house springs to mind; house was just too much but they made such a meal of it, and their neighbours, that that tipped me over into boundless dislike.

You couldn't wish for bigger failures on some of the absolute tossers though

basement disco, anybody?

It's a load of ostentatious crap masquerading as some kind of worthy self-improvement handbook.

"Look at me, look at me, I've got loads of dosh, but I don't want to appear too vulgar by buying a big car, so I'll convert some old derelict factory into a dream house instead".

As Withnail said, "you can stuff it up your arse for nothing and f-off while you're doing it".

And Kevin McCloud gets on my tits with his fake credulity as the poser in question finds out that it is quite expensive to coat an entire derelict factory in stained glass.

Blurgh.

My 2 favourites are the timber house overlooking the lake and the old water tank.

Loved the cob house, proper grafter doing some improvising that was. Also the on site machined one, even if they did need a proper modular designer on board (which I was at the time) loads of schoolboy errors here that they'd have spotted with a bit of experience but it does seem to be a brilliant system. Wonder if it's got anywhere?

I'm sure there are others but can't think of any, usually there's something that goes against it, either the crap design, idiot architects or "how on earth did a t**t like that get enough money to do this?" client/patron/project manager.

Always disappoints when they're on the market just after airing too. Just makes it look like a massive advertisement.

And Kevin McCloud gets on my tits with his fake credulity as the poser in question finds out that it is quite expensive to coat an entire derelict factory in stained glass.

Ooh no, that's the best bit... he is millimeters away from looking at the camera and rolling his eyes most of the time 🙂 Where's the Fast Show when you need it?

Ha ha I'd never made the pregnancy connection before 😀

maccruiskeen - Member

before they finally finish in spring just after dropping a sprog and everyone's happy

I've lost count of how many children Kevin has sired during the run of Grand Designs. I'm looking forward to the series featuring all of the offspring from Grand Designs and Sarah Beany's property ladder titled "Grand Designs the Next Generation: Self Build Village of the Damned"

"Have they bitten off more than they can chew?"

Speeder, that's Facit homes. They're doing well and are very busy by all accounts.

I think with the Architects, the more realistic story is the clients didn't want to pay for more than planning drawings which, surprisingly, weren't enough to build off.

Oh, this episode has everything bar the baby so far.

Time yet

I'm 5 mins in, knobbers.