Grand Designs – full commitment again…

I find all the house building and property modification tv shows a bit crap.

Mrs_oab also watches the place in sunny places and off to the country type programmes looking to buy a place – most of them seem to be a desperate for 15 mins of fame with little intention of moving, plus unrealistic expectations and no experience of actually living where the properties are. Madness and I think 90% TV and 10% looking to move…

I love the fact that they borrowed money from all and sundry, so they could live in an aircraft hanger / hotel lobby.

Everyone else gave up holidays / new cars/ luxuries etc , so they could live like wannabe film stars.

It was ego / mind **** territory – I am assuming her full time job was “influencer” as I have no idea what their revenue stream was – other than selling sweets and sky diving.

The decor was premier division footballer / 1 million quid spend in Woolworths.  And the marble just says all you need to know.  All very Dubai – in Hereford

IMHO the marble was one of the worst bits it was truly ghastly. I would also have not had the concrete finish and saved a fortune in that, plasterboard and some walls clad to match the old building would be more my cup of tea.

@twodogs where on Gower is this? I haven’t seen last night’s episode yet

It’s in last night’s episode…Kevin went to visit it cos it’s sort of buried. East end of Llanmadoc Hill, off the road between Kennexstone campsite and Llanmadoc.

In our house the sunny places programs are called unrealistic expe tations. They have to fill the air with crap when they could be inspiring adventure, nature, kindness and exploration.

I find all the house building and property modification tv shows a bit crap.

I suppose you could try not watching them, and not wasting your time commenting on a thread about one of them….just a thought.

I generally don’t. Sorry if you are offended

Offended by what? I just don’t understand why you bother to post to say “all these programs are crap” (tho if you don’t watch them, how do you know?). Strange.

Sorry for existing .

@twodogs where on Gower is this? I haven’t seen last night’s episode yet
It’s in last night’s episode…Kevin went to visit it cos it’s sort of buried. East end of Llanmadoc Hill, off the road between Kennexstone campsite and Llanmadoc.

Just watching it now, and yes, I know exactly where it is. I’ve suffered many times climbing up that gravel track to the hill fort, with plenty of time to browse at the posh house. 😂

Just watching it now, and yes, I know exactly where it is. I’ve suffered many times climbing up that gravel track to the hill fort, with plenty of time to browse at the posh house. 😂

Indeed… I used to just about be able to do it on my singlespeed….I’d die if i tried that now 😂

But have you ever seen an occupant?

No, never even a car on the property.

My wife doesn’t know Rosa, but does know a few people who know her. Nothing unkind to say about her at all. Sadly. 😁

No, never even a car on the property.

Weird innit

Hoping they weren’t on a 2yr fix and need to remortgage currently/soon.

I normally only like maybe 2 of the builds per series and this wasn’t one of them but it did tick a lot of GD bingo points. I’ve still no idea how they are servicing such an amount of debt with their jobs to the point my other half looked on  Rightmove to see if they were already selling it (wouldn’t be the first one).

I liked the house (apart from the doorless ensuite) but can’t fathom how they raised that much money or how they’re going to pay it back.

How much does a Skydiving Instructor make over time in United Kingdom? Skydiving Instructor professionals in United Kingdom have a wide total pay range, between £18,418 and £51,865 depending on experience, with an estimated total pay of £30,907 following the average career path of a Skydiving Instructor.

Curious, I was just having a conversation with my wife about their finances and guessed his income at around £30k. Hers would be somewhere between £30-80k depending on how much commission she makes. Maybe slightly more, but she’s probably at the high end.

On the basis that something wasn’t being disclosed, and they didn’t seem the sort of people who had families with lots of disposable, what other activities could persuade a mortgage lender to give you more money? There’s one obvious, glaring thing, and it’s very unfair of me to think it because it’s purely based on appearance. Does he have an Only Fans page? 🤔 😂

So assuming they are both the best in their fields, (govt says up to 50k for experienced audiologist) they could be in a family income of 90-100k a year, plus the chocolate business. £680k loan value at 2% over 30 years, is 2.5k a month, on 5k ish take home, plus chocolate. So far so good.

Goes up to 4k a month if rates are 6% though.

plus the chocolate business.

Putting together packets of pic’n’mix isn’t going to buy them a million pound house. That was lockdown pocket money. 😂

Could keep covering living expenses though?

Plus, they got past the banks affordability checks, so can’t be impossible for them. Hopefully they got a long fixed initial term

Early in the show, when they said that they had a £700k budget, didn’t they say they only had £200k to put in and the rest would be borrowed? Did I miss something later, when the costs went to over a million? They did suggest that Grandad had left some money, but £100s of £1000s? All very strange.

Grandad left them a £150k house

They borrowed somewhere around £850,000 then?

Maybe I’m old (53) but taking on that debt, FFS.

High maintenance both her and the house and the mortgage.
The whole water tank was a waste. Seemed to be two wrong houses mismatched together. They could have had a great house in the tank, stick the dining room wing on and probably 3bedrooms the high snug, decent kitchen etc. Nar money but massively egotistical, they mortgage must be nearly what they earn and that’s a barn to heat.
And the architect needed a slap.

680 off the bank, 100k of their own savings, 150k from grandads house, the rest from ‘family & friends’ I think

Just watching on catchup.

Does he have an Only Fans page? 🤔 😂

that thought had passed my mind 😎

Grandad left them a £150k house

£150k for a large detached house ?
Surely it was worth a lot more than that ?
If that’s the going rate , I’m moving to the Wye Valley 😂
I wonder if they sold off any of the land he owned as well ?

Anyhoo, I’ve just realised that Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone fishing is a new series and not a repeat 🤦‍♀️ . That’s the next couple of hours sorted

High maintenance both her and the house and the mortgage

seems the type that hasn’t had the word no thrown in her direction a lot 😂

I liked the original part of the building but the new part felt too cramped and all corridor. If it had been me, I’d have just done the original bit up as a more modest build with a plan to extend in the future.

How much room do you need for three/four… and heat it on their salary.

OK, at the end now, but WTF… skydiving and drug selling ? your F35/Euro Fighter pilots cant afford this

Who the fark cleans these houses – it’s hard enough working full time and getting in from a bike commute, then cooking and then cleaning a small house…

150k for a large detached house ?
Surely it was worth a lot more than that ?

I assumed that she wasn’t the only beneficiary from the sale of it.

Ive built a house.  Everything non structural you do cheap as you can. Cut your cloth and so on. Easy.  Marble doodahs and fancy lights are financial drains.  Save up and buy with cash later on

Who the fark cleans these houses – it’s hard enough working full time and getting in from a bike commute, then cooking and then cleaning a small house…

The glib answer is a cleaner. When you’re earning £100k+ (or less, as evidenced on here occasionally) you get someone in to clean for a few hours a week. Problem is, even for my house, a 3 bed terraced house, I reckon I’d need to employ a full time cleaner to actually make it look clean. For that house, you’d need a whole team, with a cherry picker and a gardener, etc. But yeah, plenty of people manage to pay for cleaners, gardeners, dog-walkers, etc. I agree with you though –  after a week of my family living there, there’d be dirty clothes everywhere, cat food all over the kitchen, stuff, just stuff dumped on every surface.

Following the comments on here I was expecting to not like that house, but I thought it was lovely! I wouldn’t have done the uber en-suite or marble, but the layout and quality looked spot on.

Less fussed about the people. Wondering how much of the budget was spent on creosote and teeth whitener. And the horse was never seen again either…

I’d have liked more info about tanking it, insulation and the pointing.

Only Fans page?

I think it is disgusting that anyone suggests such a thing.

I thought exactly the same when watching it.

🙂

Seriously though – who, in their right mind, goes asking everyone they know for money so they can build a house? In my life I have never, ever asked for a hand-out and I don’t think I could live with myself if I had to do so – especially if it’s just so I can have something spangly to show off.

Anyone earning enough from Only Fans for it to be significant would have been recognised by the gutter press by now I reckon.

TBH I don’t think they are that high up in the spending way beyond their means league of grand designers, plenty of folk have taken decades to not fully finish builds they can’t really afford, or have had to sell straight away. They’ve borrowed between what we can roughly work out to be 7-8x their income, some of which one assumes will be at very low interest as it’s mates rates, so similar to what someone on an average wage, buying an average price house, no?

Or, as a colleague suggested earlier, sky-diving partner was actually Bodhi from Point Break. 😀