Grand Designs – full commitment again…

Some money in them socials ! Thing is, these things don’t last ! Loved the house, less impressed with the boring garden.

I’m doubting the under budget bit, I suspect not entirely honest there, all for the clicks and likes.

Do GD check this or just take their word?

He did mention he had a contingency built into his costings. Might have been a generous 10/20%

Apart from the extra £4k they paid on the groundworks ( probably offset by what they saved on the Corten) , it all appeared to go well.

Only thing that niggled me ,were the missing skylights. Why not just knock up some waterproof timber covers so they could get on with the inside with no danger of water coming in . ( rather than just stapling polythene sheets to the outside )

less impressed with the boring garden.

That’ll mature in though.

They came across reasonably well. Presuming the relationship with the farmer was true and they kept him sweet for access to his son and equipment.

We caught it part way through. I immediately thought ‘Apprentice meets Grand Designs’ mashup… I bet the ‘£623k’ was the bricks etc build cost. Excluding plot, architect etc. I don’t believe an IT PM and a makeup influencer (gah!) could do that for £100k under unless the budget was inflated £100k over in the first place – specially when they seemed to forget to confirm where one trade ended and the next began eg groundworkers and brickies and to order rooflights that actually fitted…

Where was the log store and log basket for the nice woodburning stove ?

That  gym was not a cost saving!

The bbq looked huge on the patio too!

That huge pond or swimming pool?

Its those smaller details makes you realize the money spent and add to that mortgage!

I missed the start as well.

The end product did look ok .

The garden feature did work and help the overall look.

Can’t win with you miserable buggers on here.

Came in ahead of schedule and under-budget – no major SNAFUs.

Seemed like nice people – the chap was a bit too fond of the corporate jargon, but didn’t find him as triggering as some of the absolute roasters they have on.

I quite liked the house – even the corten looked ok (on the outside) – not a fan of the decoration, but I quite liked the design.  My only critisism is that the brickwork on the front should have been a bit more interesting – a few more buttresses or details around the windows, it just looked too much like a estate new-build.

I thought the garden looked great in the renderings – even the giant pagoda.  Once it’s all planted-out it’ll look good I think.

Proof that a well managed build doesn’t make a great episode.

Build cost of 1600 per square meter? Unlikely with handmade bricks, corten, slate roof, glazing sizes, garden structures, and the internal fit out, including the gym which you don’t fit out like that if you are tight on budget!
But good looking building, and despite my intense dislike of influencers and their type they seemed quite nice!

I’m currently building my own house. Huge for me, but relatively modest compared to most Grand Designs, 10m x 9m footprint, it’s looking like we’ll be all in , including internal fit out/furniture for less than £210k. We’re currently almost watertight (2 windows and the patio doors to be fitted, when we finally get them – the Company went bust 3 weeks ago), fitting out the inside now.
From my back of envelope figures, we’re currently at around £160k, the external brickwork is the only remaining large bill (£10-15k), possibly some tarmac at £5-7k too. Then its flooring, wall coverings and external landscaping to get rid of the piles of waste soil and raise the ground level around 300mm. That should take us to the £200-210k level, so if managed correctly I can see how they did their large build for £630k.
Oh, we’re not skimping too, really well insulated, ASHP, Neff ovens (note plural!), nice large bathrooms etc. If it was a budget build I could definietley do it for less than £200k for a four bed, 2 bath detached. Of course, I’m not taking wages out of it, so that would be a £30k cost on top, even then, its easily doable for well under £250k.

I dont watch Grand Designs but caught this one and I agree with some of the comments here, Kevin def warmed to them and surprised under budget, delivered quickly and no pregnancy or divorce/split!

Carrying a few thousand slates onto a roof in a nice shiny superdry rucksack whilst looking better than I do when I go out for a posh meal?  Completely staged.

I mean, the whole show is somewhat staged, but I expect they filmed the first dozen runs to see if they failed or made it, looked like they would do it so filmed the clip and then left them too it, I bet by the time they finished there looked much worse being sweaty and mucky!

Couldn’t figure out why they didn’t just hire a Bumpa lift for the slates, one of them loading and the other unloading. Suppose the flaw is that they’d have needed another to film it for the Socials.
A minor quibble, as otherwise I liked it.

I imagine that they were quite savy and that a lot of the “featured” suppliers were assisting with the financing in some way.  The we’re influencers and are going to be on Grand Designs will certainly help in that regard.

Did anyone notice that the farmer’s son’s Tshirt getting blurred out in one scene – I wonder if it was just a swoosh or if he thought “I’ll get a tshirt printed for GD”?

I’ve just caught up with the first one. I really liked it and I quite liked him. Sure he must have been infuriating to work with but he never blamed others for his mistakes which is why I guess his contactors have been able to work with him for years.

Couldn’t figure out why they didn’t just hire a Bumpa lift for the slates,

because they wanted to come in under budget. That’s how you make savings, lots of little areas, not one big one.

tomhoward
Couldn’t figure out why they didn’t just hire a Bumpa lift for the slates,
because they wanted to come in under budget. That’s how you make savings, lots of little areas, not one big one.

If you, for one minute, believe that they carried several tonnes of slates up that ladder, 10 at a time in a rucksack, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you.

Unlikely with handmade bricks

It looked like they were mass-produced and then given a cosmetic overhaul to achieve the hand-made look.

It looked like they were mass-produced and then given a cosmetic overhaul to achieve the hand-made look

There was a whole segment on how the new bricks were distressed…

The wolf logo on their hi viz looked familiar but I can’t think what brand?

There was a whole segment on how the new bricks were distressed…

When they were delivered all the logos were smudged out. Always find that weird.

I always assumed that the smudge was for advertising “reasons” but it always annoys me that a large number of these builds are be architects or “builder” who get lots of free advertising by dint of its being their build.

I built my house, or at least managed the architect , build etc, and I’m not surprised some aren’t perfect as I reckoned it would take 3 tries to get exactly what I really wanted. I’m not surprised some don’t go to plan as they’re not the stock buiolt boxes most builders deal with so some experimentation is required.

Lot of stress, but definitely worth doing if you get the chance.

We self built 9 years ago and I saw a lot I recognised in this one.

Wanted to dislike them but they clearly got stuck in. Never understand the branding rules on GD – why are some co’s shown and others blurred out?

Coming in under budget was impressive. I came in on budget. How? realistic to start with (most GD aren’t)  – lots of research and quotes. Make sure estimates for anything you dont know are high and have a big contingency.  Then scale stuff back when one thing goes over – they did a load themselves (there was a comment about finish quality being rough in places), the garden wasn’t planted, some of the rooms weren’t finished, had they delayed the hot tub?  did they actually build the outbuildings that were mentioned at the start? (I’m guessing the gym was going to be in a garden building, they scrapped that and put it in the garage. That might have been 50k by itself..

https://www.instagram.com/thefoxesmaltings/

 did they actually build the outbuildings that were mentioned at the start?

You could see the big black “shed” when looking out the big rear window

Quite a bit of jealous sounding people on here.

Thought they were a breath of fresh air. Clearly both happy to get stuck in and lived and breathed the build.

Getting it done in the timescale was ridiculous. My jaw dropped when I saw the first visit was March last year. Figured that they’d either smash it or it went horribly wrong.

As for their jobs a lot of people give influencers a bad rep cos of how many fakes there are out there. To actually be successful is full time hard graft just in a way a lot of people from older generations can’t even begin to understand.

Cool disability bungalow tonight. Good for them.

Best one I’ve seen for ages

Best one I’ve seen for ages

i concur.  lovely story and lovely place, real feelgood factor.

Wasn’t sure at first, seemed to be losing too much time in life with family & kids for the sake of not looking accessible, but the finished article was just great  thumbs up emoji

Yeah enjoyed that one, he was a proper grafter and seemed a nice bloke.

Like how Kevin seemed to be setting him up as a project management business for accessible buildings at the end. He really seemed get on with them, was less arsey with them.

How could you be arsey with them? Amazing people.

Did she get pregnant half way through or is Kevin losing his appeal? ?

We had a power cut as the mason was cutting the stone round the rsj…..

Certinly one of the best I’ve seen. Well done to them….he’s a real grafter.

jamiemcf
We had a power cut as the mason was cutting the stone round the rsj…..

i doubt they’re related.

Great build last night. Fabulous. Now we can’t be having two builds come in around time and budget and looking great. When is the next disaster ? LOL.

Last weeks couple are busy pimping themselves around the internet.  They posted on a Victorian and Edwardian renovation FB group for some reason despite being a newbuild.

This weeks was great. Loved the re-use of all the old light switches, bar rails etc.

That was my favourite build, I think.

A really nice house in a nice location built for the right reasons.

Caught up on this series.

Lighthouse / 1st episode. Guy was a complete ****, knew full well what he was doing regarding planning, the party wall and chimney looked pretty knackered and were left exposed for too long. His contractors obviously like his coin as otherwise they’d have told him to **** off years ago.

Felt sorry for the guy next door and the son.

Episode 2, I couldn’t figure the angle with the farmer and his son but the build turned out okay and the young couple were likeable. £3k a month mortgage though!!!!!!!

Episode 3. MrsRNP favourite ever GD because of the woman her positive attitude and the finished interior fit out and style, lad was a grafter.

Kev’s cars have come on a bit – I remember very early episodes where he drove an ex military Landrover Series 3

Kev’s cars have come on a bit

True, but that BMW is so ugly

As someone interested in design I am surprised that he chose it, although it may be a loaner