Grand Designs – full commitment again…

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!

or change the lightbulbs in their bespoke blown-glass chandelier….

Oh that house “cost almost nothing to heat” according to Kevin…. Struggling to believe a 500sq m space will heat itself through winter just by solar gain. I thought passivehaus partly relied on smaller volumes where the heat from occupants, cooking, fridge etc could warm the space?

Another monster steel frame, OSB and foam million pound ego trip.

A smaller version from straw bales with a glulam not steel frame would have been more appropriate for architectural and eco merit.

How do people keep ceilings clear of cobwebs when they are this high?

Same way companies/offices with double plus height reception areas do, specialist High Level cleaning company, normally with a scissor lift.

My parents had an extension built where the lamp units could only be changed using a scaffolding tower and cast shadows at the desks. The extension was a study on the side of the house. It was at basement level on a house on the side of a hill and the stairs from the first floor were so badly designed they took up a third of the space.

Architect was a friends daughter. Utterly useless

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

Yep that sucks and tbh makes me think of Swinhay House 🙂

I know this isn’t adding anything to the debate but im so sick of cavernous, inappropriately large houses. Its actually making me angry when I see it unveiled on GD! Still watch it though.

My schadenfreude will have to be satisfied by rewatching the disastrous faux lighthouse build

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

This, good connections in the council, the right planning consultant who knows how to influence the key people. It’s all about who you know and what you are prepared to pay

My schadenfreude will have to be satisfied by rewatching the disastrous faux lighthouse build

I think there might be catch-up episode of this one coming up at the end of this series, there was an interview with the dude in radio times a couple of weeks ago.

@fingerbang knowing that massive house owners get the same % off their gas & electric bills as us meer mortals no doubt won’t help.

Yes I know that some are highly energy efficient but I work in some really high end stuff & the size of their boilers to heat the pool, gym, cinema, dog wash room, heated garage, jet lag room (yes it is a thing) is way beyond normal domestic stuff.

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

Isn’t there some sort of rule where if you want to buy a farm then you actually have to prove you are going to farm it ?
After watching Clarksons Farm, sheep farming isn’t something you do to make a living….

Isn’t there some sort of rule where if you want to buy a farm then you actually have to prove you are going to farm it ?

To be eligible for subsidies and access to preferential rates/insurance/vat relief etc you need to maintain a minimal level of stock and show husbandship of the land, a mate has a 1500 acre hillside farm in Galloway on very poor but typical topography (now sold) and I helped him out for the previous 15odd years, a helluva amount of work with his 200 head of cattle and 600 sheep, the paperwork has to perfect and handed in on time otherwise it’s a world of pain.

knowing that massive house owners get the same % off their gas & electric bills as us meer mortals no doubt won’t help.

Not the same percentage, the same flat discount isn’t it? So assuming they’re using a load more they’ll actually get a smaller percentage – which still probably won’t make you feel any better 😬

Blunt northerner, having no truck with softy southerner!

She was rude AF in my opinion. Kevin asked how she was during the reveal, to which she replied with no other greeting ‘Id be better with another cup of tea inside me’, as if it’s his job, as a guest, to be constantly pouring tea down her gullet.

And nice to see the daughter being glad to be home with her family and no longer in That London –

Er, yeah. More like ‘Dad’s built a million pound house, I might give that a go for a while till I get fed up with granny’.

Cladding was gopping. Funny watching the wife try to justify the second ‘formal’ dining area, which they clearly didn’t know what to do with.

Kevin asked how she was during the reveal, to which she replied with no other greeting ‘Id be better with another cup of tea inside me’, as if it’s his job, as a guest, to be constantly pouring tea down her gullet.

I got the feeling she had been collected the night before, asked to smile and wave for the camera, and was being delivered home later. I genuinely think she was not comfortable with being on camera…

Struggling to get the point of erecting a commercial/municipal building in the middle of the country and living in it. Could have built something half the size in oak, stone and glass, employing local craftsmen that would have been stunning, but no, they built a call centre instead.

Not my thing – ugly on the outside and little to commend on the inside – half of the view from the main bedroom was of the roof of the wing. I wonder if the cladding might have been a requirement of the planners to try and replace the barns which were taken down.

I’m not sure if it’s a call centre or the local offices for some government quango.
The special architectural merit thing is clearly a pisstake. With all the chat about the spectacular roof being in perfect feng shui with the surrounding landscape, I kept waiting for the perfect drone angle where it all made sense. That never happened.

Still, at least they have a nice 9M high section of roof to hang the bauble collection from.

Just looking at this week’s design, seems like he’s created a w_nk pit/office/man cave that’s inaccessible to his wife. Ingenious

Crack

Bang

John can’t wait to christen his w_nk tower

Why is it so bloody big?

Half a million over budget 😱

Seems to fulfill their needs and they can afford it , so good for them.

Jeez, I wanted this to turn out well.

Glad they didn’t go overboard on a million bedrooms that would never be used. Nice of Kevin to acknowledge some GD clichés part way through. Not sure why the decorative concrete beams on the roof facing had to be solid concrete though? They still looked a bit wonky even after being fixed.

Garden soil just needed ripping.

Did they say what part of the UK? I’m guessing SE England by the accents.

Seems to fulfill their needs and they can afford it , so good for them.

Yeah, this.

Dunstable I think they said – Bedfordshire

I noticed they never overcame the corner misalignment on the conc beams.
I saw last week when they showed snippets of a weld breaking, I though it was going to be the brackets for the concrete . Looked very pigeon shitty , like it was an afterthought and they had been stick welded afterwards.

The architect should have been shot for those 1.7t (apiece) fascia’s.

I quite liked the outcome even though John was too busy trying to promote his son. And £500k over budget…. holy crap!

Pleasing to see how his wife had progressed during the two years.

Always a bit of a dull episode when money is no object. Of course it was going to turn out brilliantly – every time there was an issue they could just throw another 50K at it!

Yeah, really pleased that they got what they wanted and that they could absorb the price. They needed it to allow them both to live together again. The wife had shown a fair bit of progress as well which was nice to see.

Not my taste though, i would personally have liked to take their previous house though, that was gorgeous!

Interesting episode – I quite liked the finished building though the Isle of Wight house really showed how that style of thing could be done. I didn’t notice did the architect show their face at all? As has been said the 1.7T facias were ludicrous but some blame should have fallen to the structural engineer as there was a lot that went wrong there.

The old house was indeed lovely and must have sold for a decent amount. I imagine £3-4m? in that area?

Did they say what part of the UK?

Kensworth, just outside Dunstable. Nice village on the Downs near Whipsnade.

Is THIS the old place? He was a horse trainer.

That’s the place. I think they said he was a businessman, so just an equestrian property – of which there are quite a few around there. On google maps it looks like the new place is east south east of the old house. Values around there are somewhat influenced by the Luton Airport flight paths. Nice design and outcome, one no doubt aided by deep pockets.

Sold in 2021 for around 3.5M according to online sources – land plus inflated build came to around 2.6M so he was nowhere near in trouble.

Looking forward to the next one, it’s just up the road from me on the Dulwich Estate and a remodel of an already very nice Austin Vernon & partners townhouse. was going to pop out for a look in a bit but might wait until after watching the program.
I’m also wondering if there is going to be any back and forth with the Estate as while they encourage good architecture they do have their rules regarding reworking existing property.

just startting to catch up with these now and watched 2nd episode.

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.

agreed. it was lovely to see a genuine couple who have been through hardship for many years, building something (relatively) cheap that meant so much to them.

mrs ex-p welled up too when they did. lovely couple and a top episode.

Glad to see her walking and speaking again. best outcome of any GD I’ve seen tbh.

the Isle of Wight house

That was utterly lovely. Proper lottery win territory.

I thought their version was pretty good though, and a wonderful end. Bit of a sales promo for his son though.

Is it just me or does this series all miss out a fair chunk of the build? Seems to go from Windows in to done in one fell swoop.

Flipping wowser

Why can’t people be honest with themselves and admit to architects that they watch telly. Oh, and yes I like large screens too.

The number of houses where it is clearly an afterthought plonked in an awkward corner is amazing.