Grand Designs – full commitment again…

They always seem surprised when it goes well over time and over budget. Have they never watched the show before?

Literally put next door in the shade.

I have given up on it – it’s just badly organised people , with lots of money, grandstanding. And preparing the pro folio for when they sell.
It stop being interesting when it is all about big budgets

I would love to know how a relatively young couple found £1.5m without a mortgage to buy the plot and then fund the build.

I always ponder the motivation of the people who are on there – if they’re an architect then it’s clearly got potential to be good exposure (and I’d guess maybe it’s the architects that suggest/persuade some of the others) but for a lot it’s a bit of a puzzle

Having watched a presentation from someone on who appeared on the show then you dont want to be chosen. It means the programme makers think it will make good tv which means a horrible build or massive overspends.

Asfor the architect angle the programme usually makes them look useless. If you believe the programme most of them must be incapable of designing a house that can be built,let alone within the clients budget. It makes me wonder why it takes 7 years to train

Asfor the architect angle the programme usually makes them look useless.

There are few that know how to build safely and cost effectively from my experiences in the late noughties.

Speeder
Full Member
grahamt1980
His wife must be either mental or have the patience of a saint

She seemed a less enthusiastic at the start of the programme but was as bad as he was by the end – #stockholmsyndrome

She made quite a sharp comment about 3/4s of the way through about him getting back to his proper work. It made me wonder whether he’d taken time out voluntarily to build his house, or whether there was another reason. (Sacked, made redundant, breakdown, etc) If that, saying that he was building his house would be a good excuse, and also account for some of the other oddities about this build, like the lack of detail, guardedness on camera. Of course, I might be thinking far too much into it. 😀

What’s going on with Kevins hair ?

I counted Kevin wearing four jackets at the same time in last night’s episode.

He usually wears two, occasionally three, but four is a new record.

That was one of the ugliest houses I’ve seen in quite sometime, nice details in isolation but an incoherent mess. The bit where she started welling up because they had to drive by the site a few times on the way home, paint the odd room and hang some pictures had me on the verge of shouting at the TV, absolutely clueless.

Episode 1 – Something seriously dodgy going on with Latvian glass, that made no sense at all, I just don’t trust him.

Episode 2 (modular build) has been, by quite some distance, the best of this series. Its up there with my top 5 of all time. Nice couple. Sensible budget, realistic build, interesting process, it obviously meant so much to them. There were aspects of the house I didn’t like but the world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things.

Episode 3 – Truly awful man builds truly awful house, made out he was a perfectionist but he sounds like a nightmare to work for and probably ended up doing it himself trades just refused to work for him. He spent so much money, there are some beautiful houses for sale within 10 miles of his build for a lot less money.

Episode 4 – They got what they wanted, a lot of their time and cost costs were due to COVID so skews things slightly. House was all over the place, on a standalone site fair enough but on a street like that it just jarred. Finance is nuts though, cost of build and site could have got them a very nice house in the area.

Is this a new jacket record? I’m sure that’s 5 layers he’s wearing…

I like the design

I love the parents. WTF would we want to move here? 🤣

That house is massive. Just ridiculous for what will be 2 of them v soon

I love the parents. WTF would we want to move here?

Did they not say that some of the planning decision was based on intergenerational occupation. And it explains why his parents had a room, but her mum a full wing with kitchen, lounge etc

Sad news of his dad and mum.

looks like a visitor centre.

We thought sub-visitor centre, more outward bounds centre. It just needs some feral teenagers from Wythenshawe smoking weed outside

I guarantee that both granny’s will have started a proxy war with each other within a week that will make everyone’s else’s life hell

Commercial unit to let….

Inside’s alright though

wife said its more like a respite care home…

Oh boy…that looks horrible. Why is it clad with salmon pink corrugated steel. Yuck.

Pretty sad that his dad died before it was finished. The elderly mother is somewhat rude too.

Ugly house – looks like a commercial building – rather than a home. They seem a very self-satisfied couple.

Commercial unit to let….

Inside’s alright though

^ that.

(And that was hilarious when Kevin realised that the sheep are pets, not products…)

Outside was a bit challenging and not too welcoming. Too much wriggly tin cladding. Some nice timber or stone cladding would have softened the overall look.

I reckon that within a couple of years the exterior won’t look too different to the barn/cowshed it replaced

Looks like those accountancy offices you see on industrial units.

The elderly mother is somewhat rude too.

Blunt northerner, having no truck with softy southerner! I thought she was great, zero ***** given about Kevin. 🤣

And nice to see the daughter being glad to be home with her family and no longer in That London – a proper multi-generation home.

I quite liked the sheet-metal finish too – pretty much weather resistant, no upkeep or treatments required in the future, and almost zero running costs. I’d rather have that than the bland identikit little boxes that are being built literally in their thousands on green-field sites very close to me; very soon Corsham and Lacock with just be extensions of Chippenham! 😖

Makes me spit feathers when the “architectural merit” card is played, basically if you’ve got a shit tonne of money you can, in the words of our King, “build a carbuncle in the countryside” whereas genuine small holders wouldn’t be able to get planning to build a real (as in not **** huge) eco house to support their low impact lifestyle grrrrr. Also recon the multi generational living card must have been played at planning stage – moving the older generation to the countryside where they have no connections and will need lifts or taxis (in that location ha ha) to get anywhere is not insightful and is usually better done in built up areas with only relatively minor adaptions done to a normal house.

Yup, wasn’t hugely convinced that it had architectural merit, as the roof was the only unusual feature and despite claims that it matched the contours, looked more like the fuselage of a F-117 nighthawk. Perhaps when the vertical element and the walkway is added to the first floor, it won’t look like “ accountancy offices you see on industrial units” as so aptly noted above. Can’t help but think they’ll soon be down to 3 rattling around in 5k sq ft with two full size dining tables.

I reckon that within a couple of years the exterior won’t look too different to the barn/cowshed it replaced

Yeah, tuned in halfway through, looked at the exterior, first word that came to mind was ‘barn’.

All this show does is highlight the important bits of life you are missing while you are **** around with a ridiculous self-indulgent self-build. Your kids are in a shit rental, you never see them, you’re not around to support your parents through bereavement and illness while you shovel cash at a minimalist cowshed in a puddle.

Didn’t make it to the end – did the poor mum live long enough to be moved in?

Looked like an office as someone said up there, then i decided it felt more like a hospice. Truly wonder why people like this sort of design. Also, oddly specific build for particular needs. Guess that’s ok if you accept it has a use for a short term period then you are left with something hardly anyone would want to buy nor work on when something goes wrong.

Imagine the roofing bills when something needs done.

Another very indulgent, oversized and over budget house.
It wasn’t even interesting …

Blunt northerner, having no truck with softy southerner! I thought she was great, zero ***** given about Kevin. 🤣

She had a Brummie accent – lived in Stratford and I am from Birmingham and still not quite that rude.

I was confused by the artisan bespoke roof vs the bargain basement crappy corrugated cladding. Was the roof a part of the planning condition to make it a suitably meritorious bit of architecture? They also seemed surprised by the size of the thing and could’ve probably lost 25% off the volume, saved a packet of cash and still been more than adequate for their needs.

Intergenerational wing will be an Airbnb rental soon enough.

I also wonder if the intergenerational aspect was code for accessing parents capital to help fund the build.

End result was pretty awful, the roof shape had promise, but the sheer size of it and the baby-poo brown cladding killed it for me.

The larger the build the more the owners yak on trying to justify the purpose as being something more than just a fancy ego fulfilling house – I get the multi-generational need, but not sure how that justifies a 9m high ceiling with a 20ft chandelier.

As someone else has already said, getting round permission based on something as subjective as Section 79/Architectural merit is a slap in the face for everyone else. If you can afford the most expensive architect and the most expensive build then you can beat the system……so totally apt for the current political climate then.

How on earth that got planning permission on the grounds of exceptional architectural merit is a mystery to me. It was huge and, as others have said, looked more like a small business park than a home.

Clearly daughter is eithe unemployed / starting a new job / or has very understanding employers to WFH and not going to the office very often as it would be a right PITA from there to get to the train station every time. I did laugh out loud when the parents said they saw no merit in moving in, especially given the way it was designed, and no doubt sold to the planners.

a 9m high ceiling

I think this is close to the height of my whole 2-storey house, and we don’t have low ceilings. How do people keep ceilings clear of cobwebs when they are this high? How do they heat their houses? Though, I’ll bet my kids could still get food up there!

I would love to know how a relatively young couple found £1.5m without a mortgage to buy the plot and then fund the build.

In my experience (friend was a Est Agent in Richmond for years), … daddy

Couple on scooter looking for £800k flat in Richmond. Nothing on books. We have this for £1.2 though. Next weekend yes sure we can up our budget to that now. Daddy bunged us more…

Idle Jon, you think they will clean their own house? We are the only people I know who cleans our own house. Fact