[Closed] PSA Grand Designs

For someone that grew up in the countryside (hence liking the green vista of a cemetery); runs fancy fishing trips all round the world and has shared custody of a child at boarding school, seems odd building in London.

Would be a niche market to sell it to as well.

Wow

There really are some horrible nasty small minded dicks on this forum.

Well done all.

Place was pretty amazing. Really impressive how it actually managed to suit the older building and where it was situated.

Definitely impressive. Nice too see the occasional mega design like that

Yep I'm with Brad on this and for this series pilot, it was a cracker I loved the bath stone and thought the new bit of the place was hidden tastefully considering its setting, him and his new bird will have a whale of a time there you small minded dicks. Thought it a lovely touch he'd followed along the lines of the family business in the extreme fishing game I'm sure it brought a tear to brads eye. 😂

I might watch it again, but as a drinking game. Every time he mentions being in the army, drink....

seems odd building in London.

SW London will be handy for Eton and Sandhurst as Rupert jr goes through his schooling.

Having proclaimed 3/4 of the way in that he was going to fail, I left the room.

I clearly should have stayed to the end for big reveal.

(I still don't really like the property, but I did warm to him.)

Really quite liked the end product (although I would never have bothered with any of the basement), but what's the point is professing your love of the cemetery and then building a massive fence around your property 🤔 or is that just the cost of having a swish pad in public view?

I wonder if hiding it with a big fence was part of planning permission? Also wondering if he could've done something with the old toilet block instead. I quite like that 1930s utility building style. He talked about liking the history then knocked down a big chunk of it. House was nice enough but it really didn't make much of its location.

Next week's look more my cup of tea, a bit more hands on.

This the family home ??
Nice

Handy for a spot of biking

I was going to say I've played chess with Catherine at the end of a beer festival. Or so I've been told.

How far would he have to walk from the front door to where he wanted the gate? 20 yards? 30? Whinging tit.

I’ve played chess with Catherine at the end of a beer festival.

Euphemism?

Well I thought both he, and the house, were bloody great. I loved his enthusiasm, ambition and determination to build a proper legacy house. Good on him. The stonework was beautiful, the house was great and he would easily get his money back if he sold. He got exactly what he wanted.

I assume as soon as the cameras were away he will build a hidden gate in the fence to access the cemetery, Easily done and no need for it to be visible.

The great reveal of the girlfriend was all a bit odd though.

Liked it. Pleased there are still people who will build something different and the pool in the basement was great. (As was the staircase).

m_oaa given how much Orkney skull splitter I'd had I doubt it 😁.

Surprised the pool wasn't one of those moving water jobs.
Notice he got his gate.

God how utterly awful and doubt he will be able to sell it for anywhere near what he spent on it. The whole thing is in revolting taste. What insanity. I thought Kevin really struggled to mask his utter disdain for the whole thing and the twit building it.

Premier Icon
Joe
Free Member

God how utterly awful and doubt he will be able to sell it for anywhere near what he spent on it.

Have you actually looked at property prices in Fulham?

How far would he have to walk from the front door to where he wanted the gate? 20 yards? 30? Whinging tit.

His front door was on the public side of a cemetery gate which is closed and locked at night. Side gate would give him out of hours access.

I thought it was a nice pad but not really Grand Designs standard. He didn't seem to have much involvement, didn't really seem to be that bothered as if it was just a investment. Anyone (who has the funds) can chuck a load of money at builders, site managers and architects and get them to come up with something but the whole point of GD is the emotional involvement, isn't it?

Fascinating episode i thought. Architecturally impressive and given the area I'd expect 6m wouldn't be out the question if it went to market. Shame about the finishing/furnishing - the pool, wine cellar and gas fire feature in the kitchen were vomit inducing.......can't buy taste as they say!!

Traquair house is something quite extraordinary and apparently Catherine and immediate family are super down to earth with considerably more taste than the young cousin Justin.

Roll on the next episode!

His front door was on the public side of a cemetery gate which is closed and locked at night.

Didn't look like that to me, looked like both vehicle access and front door were beyond public gate, only original metal front gate is on road side.

but the whole point of GD is the emotional involvement, isn’t it?

Not for about ten years, no. It’s about who can order the most expensive windows from Germany while building their visitor centre and going a million pounds over-budget in the process.

Not for about ten years, no.

This. Remember the Irish architect that built his house out of shipping containers, as an eco on a budget option, then put in a carbon fibre bathtub.

The youngster will follow daddy up to Ampleforth £36k pa. I think financially his reality and mine are very different. I can't help but feel it was a bit vulgar.
Built for him and child but with 5 bedrooms. Oh and way to much furniture. Rewatch and count the chairs/seats/stools.

Not for about ten years, no. It’s about who can order the most expensive windows from Germany while building their visitor centre and going a million pounds over-budget in the process.

Ah, right. I do tend to watch the old ones tbf.

The finish was gorgeous, at least you could see where the money went, but just why did he need to go that big? Could have gotten away with just a ground floor extension and renovating the house, and would have cost a lot lot less, than he's now in debt for. As for the overall value.. well he has a house with no neighbours in fullham, I think it's might be worth a bob or two, wasn't the plot 1.8 million?

Ah, right. I do tend to watch the old ones tbf.

Do you watch George Clarkes Amazing Spaces? That's taken up the mantle of people building great, imaginative things with small budgets and loads of passion. Last nights was ace. A couple converting a 1980's fire engine into a mobile bar and a 23-year-old lad building a shepherd's hut from scratch with some amazing craftsmanship that his dad had taught him. All on real-world budgets.

Considerably more interesting than watching a crane lifting yet another half a million quids worth of German windows onto a building site as the owner goes to magic up another million quid from somewhere or other to cover the budget shortfall

The only interesting recent Grand Designs are the proper car crash ones. The Devon lighthouse springs to mind as an exercise in pure folly. It was mesmerising to watch the level of delusion. The bloke may as well have stood on the cliffs emptying suitcases of cash into the sea

^ yr just well jel, innit? 😜

well he has a house with no neighbours

Shhhh...

I do like a bit of grand designs some connect more than others.
the chap with that build in Devon binners mentioned lost everything, he was clearly delusional about the build but you couldn’t help feel for him.

I remember one where a young couple bought an old water treatment plant, it was vast and they did most of the work themselves, including chipping plaster off on Christmas Day. They really deserved what they got, it wasn’t an exercise in how much credit they can get..

Matey boy in the graveyard got a lovely house,, it just didn’t feel personal.

I’d have been a bit hacked off if it was crap for £4m though

I remember one where a young couple bought an old water treatment plant, it was vast and they did most of the work themselves, including chipping plaster off on Christmas Day.

That was definitely my favourite ever one. It was amazing when they'd finished it and a rare example of something that stopped short of multiples in seven figures. The guy who built the place out of shipping containers in Ireland was amazing too.

I just can't get excited about what often looks like just throwing apparently limitless amounts of money at a project which invariably ends up looking like a visitor centre

The guy in Devon was tragic. He just literally kept digging

Do you watch George Clarkes Amazing Spaces? That’s taken up the mantle of people building great, imaginative things with small budgets and loads of passion.

https://www.ecogypsy.co.uk

pisses all over Grand Designs now as you say. A lot of the stuff is achievable/inspiring for regular people with a normal budget, too.

If you want to take self build completely back to basics Ben Fogle's New Lives in the Wild is usually pretty good. New series just started and the first episode was interesting. Very much not Grand Designs
https://www.channel5.com/show/ben-fogle-new-lives-in-the-wild/

 the extreme fishing game I’m sure it brought a tear to brads eye. 😂

Had to read that twice

I'm sure that would bring a tear to anyone's eye

Not sure what the fuss was about the back gate, his main gate was behind the cemetery gates so he can roam the graves after hours anyway!

The only interesting recent Grand Designs are the proper car crash ones. The Devon lighthouse springs to mind as an exercise in pure folly

If you watch Harry Dwyer's latest episode of his speedboat pootle around the UK, he takes a quick look at the latest lighthouse scaffolding :). It's a good little series, plus some madcap projects on his previous videos, such as a bike camper build and wild camp 🙂

47m40s

Thoroughly nice chap.

I thought he was brave going on tv showing his heritage and obvious money as can be seen by some of the comments above. To be fair though his swimming technique was shocking

Grand Designs on the whole has become a way of getting free advertising for selling your newly built property.

You can often find the properties have been sold or turned in to expensive holiday lets

Had to read that twice

I’m sure that would bring a tear to anyone’s eye

I read it twice and still don't get it.
I know they were whalers.

I read it twice and still don’t get it.

There was a thread on here several years back having fun changing the name of a TV show by one letter that i think started with

Extreme Fisting with Robson Green

I really like the building and the way he finished it. It’s certainly wasn’t the sort of GD that appeals to me.

However I have no financial sympathy for him. The initial quotes showed exactly how expensive the end project would have been, he knew what he was getting into. £2M mortgage seems crazy to me even if he got it interest free and he would get far more if he sold it.

I very much doubt any of it was financed n fishing trips no matter how posh they might be. That aside I quite liked it, it was certainly well done and not at any point lacking in any ambition. A lot of "what if?"s during the build had the hallmarks of a proper car crash but expect the family and potential pay off steadied the bank's nerves there.

How the other half live eh. ;o)

£2M mortgage

steadied the bank’s nerves

Indeed - must have been family guarantees on all those mortgages and a shit load of income that didn't come from the fishing business. A mortgage on the basis of income from a tour company that was not trading for the foreseeable future due to COVID seemed...unlikely...

Didn’t he have another Fulham property already (IIRC it’s what he re-mortgaged initially) though he seemed in no rush to sell that, as is normal in this sort of situation. I’d just assumed they threw the cash at him as it was worth way more than it was mortgaged for, even after the top ups?

Might be misremembering all that though.

You can often find the properties have been sold or turned in to expensive holiday lets

Indeedy the rock house locally, is now a (very expensive) holiday let, which I don't know how to feel about. That said, I don't know his situation, so ppl with glass houses and all that..

https://www.therockhouseretreat.co.uk/

Didn’t he have another Fulham property already (IIRC it’s what he re-mortgaged initially) though he seemed in no rush to sell that, as is normal in this sort of situation. I’d just assumed they threw the cash at him as it was worth way more than it was mortgaged for, even after the top ups?

sure, but you still have to have cover the interest payments (and demonstrate that you can). It sounded like he'd ended up mortgaged up to £3m or more.

Even at 2% that's £60k p.a. of taxed income...