Having agreed with many of the comments on the most recent thread re this programme. I am genuinely impressed by the chap building his own cob house.

It is epic.

He is epic.

And it’s a million light years from the smug sods shoehorning dull, tasteless and ludicrously expensive buildings into equally dull spaces which have characterised the programme recently (with a very few honourable exceptions).

Grand Design has just redeemed itself.

Agreed OP!

Aye, redeeming.

And, best of all, he hasn’t said ‘off-grid’ once. 🙄

back to how grand designs should be.

I think we have a winner

Last ad break….feart we’re no going to see a finished article!

I can’t believe they wouldn’t have it finished, although it does look like a long shot

That is a first, hopefully they will have a revisited one soon

His lad is pretty hand too. That’s an amazing tree he’s put on the wall.

Working tonight (well, apart from this bit of browsing, obvs) so haven’t had a chance to watch it – the photos I saw looked amazing. What was their (his?) budget?

It’s a bloody ridiculous size. They could open an orphanage, and they’re going to need a massive cleaning contract. Excessive IMO.

What was their (his?) budget?

Short. By miles.

Awesome build! reminds me of the guy that built his house out of wood in the early series. Just an epic build, pity its not finished, but saying that £1.1m for the older house?? really??

Teletubby land at its best, once finished it will be epic, one of those very unique grand designs.

Incredible. Gutted its not finished.

Budget (max borrowing) was £350,000 excluding his labour…

Can someone please make an offer on their original house so he can get the new one finished?

Not finished, no baby. 8/10

It’s a bloody ridiculous size. They could open an orphanage, and they’re going to need a massive cleaning contract. Excessive IMO.

I bet your dreams are teh oarsumz.

That is truly staggering. I thought his current house was great but this is amazing. As others have said; will love to see the follow up. Restores my faith in the programme!!

I bet your dreams are teh oarsumz.

Perhaps not, but at least I can afford windows in my modest semi. 😀

I bet McMoonter or Stoner would have finished it. 😀

great to see some real ambition, hope he gets it finished.

Brilliant/Inspiring. Bloody gutted I didn’t get to see it finished though, hope someone buys the old house ASAP (perhaps the reason for airing?) and he gets it finished. Can’t wait for a revisit.

Brilliant, so much better than watching a smug couple build a ego-shell.

I rarely get the urge to put my head through my own TV but the couple on Beenies “Build your dream home for half the money” last night who smugly sat there and said that their house was worth £2.2 million needed a reality check!

The old cob house is still available on rightmove if anyone feels like buying into the cob empire! Just Search for Westhill.

Agree with tthew. Its impressive, he seems a great, talented bloke. It is the best show in the series so far. But why is the house so bloody huge??

Not grand designs but there was some program on the other day where this poor couple were terribly upset their house was too small. I was mortified for them. We got shown a 1.6 million pound house which was their ideal home, I nearly cried for them.

You know, until it turned out they had a million pound mansion already with another £200k in the bank to make it good.

Christ. I’m assuming they nipped down the food bank once the cameras turned off.

Samuri,

That was the one with Beenie last night, had a budget of £200k to change their house, ended up spending half a million on a house already worth more than a million….

Smugness at its worst.

Well impressed with the COB house, didn’t know you could build such skinny pillars out of the stuff- gives me food for thought!- I feel a new design for the garden house coming on

Bumping this for the daytime crowd. I can answer some of the questions as my practice did the structural engineering.

Why is the house so bloody huge?

One of the reasons, bizarrely, is planning. He needed special planning permission as it is a new dwelling house in the countryside outside the development area. He needed to achieve a very low environmental impact, sustainable homes level 6 zero carbon (I think that classification has changed now), and be a ‘mansion of architectural merit’. Thus it is very big. I do wonder whether even with a 20% reduction in its size, he would have achieved all that and be finished by now.

One thing that surprised me with the edit of the programme was no mention of the fire at their current house. They had a thatch fire and completely lost the roof, with considerable internal water damage from the fire fighting. It was insured and was all repaired (with a slate roof this time). That all delayed the new project significantly, and was probably why he started so late the first summer and set the chain of delays that followed. I’d have thought that would have made a good angle for the TV, but I suppose they had enough of an unusual story anyway.

Kevin McCabe is a mountain biker… but I’ve not seen him out on the bike for while as he seems to have spent every daylight hour on his build – that really came across in the programme.

He will definitely finish it – and it will make a great second programme in a year or so.

I enjoyed the program and was very impressed by the chaps drive, skill and determination, but I do have to wonder why he insisted in building using cob, surely all he’s done is show why no other bugger uses it anymore!

I’m sure it will be a fantastic when it’s complete, but I’m also sure that the same building could be built faster and cheaper using an alternative building material.

but I do have to wonder why he insisted in building using cob

Erm…. because he could.

He is a specialist cob builder in a region where there are thousands perfectly sound cob buildings. He’s admirably trying to promote cob as a low energy alternative to masonry – it will never happen for mass housing but for one-off projects it has its place.

Kevin McCabe is obviously a top geezer, but I was a tiny bit disappointed that no local contractors got a mention for working on the barn roof.. 😉

Missed it, how long till 4 on demand has it? Thanks for the inside angle agent 41 as well.

I agree GD has been a minimalist bore fest of late … but last night’s was no better than the ego stimulation of last week’s that you lot jumped all over.

60k on glass … or something like, was the thread’s title last week…. This fella had 58 windows… 58 windows in his nob extension and could only afford to glaze a few of them.

So to say

Awesome build!

or

I think we have a winner

Is crazy … it’s not finished… nowhere near it.

And

It a massive great place completely out of context with it’s environment, no matter how curvy and swooping the roof line is or what it is made of

Not surprised they could sell their original house who what to live next to that blooming great thing

Ah well, at least it wasn’t ‘built’ by a pair of irritating braying yehaws and doesn’t look like a local authority rates office. They came over as nice people and with that, I can forgive them their over indulgences 🙂

Not surprised they could sell their original house who what to live next to that blooming great thing

My thoughts exactly. I loved the program and was a return to what I loved about Grand Designs in the first place, but if I was going to spend over £1m on his old cob house I wouldn’t want to be right next door to an even bigger one. It’ll be interesting to see the impact the new build has on the value of his current house.

harry too – Member
The old cob house is still available on rightmove if anyone feels like buying into the cob empire! Just Search for Westhill.

Which westhill? Got a link? (and yes I did serch on rightmove, but couldn’t find it)

Is it THIS ONE?

I was surprised that they didn’t build the annex first. Get that finished, move out and sell the old home, build the main house. Is that too sensible?

JEngledow – Member
Is it THIS ONE?

thank YOU

but saying that £1.1m for the older house?? really??

If this is the old house http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42162980.html?premiumA=true then it sounds like it comes with approaching 30 acres of land…

EDIT: Just seen JEngledow’s link – I think I might have the wrong cob house, so I’ll cob along 🙂

I was surprised that they didn’t build the annex first. Get that finished, move out and sell the old home, build the main house. Is that too sensible?

wasn’t that almost what they ended up trying to do (only the sale fell through)?

yeah, I know, they built the whole structure + roof in one go, but walls and a roof are only two bits of a finished house…

anyway, all food for thought, as we need to give our shed some serious attention in the next year or two. maybe it’ll end up being rebuilt* with cob.

(*one wall at a time, exactly as per permitted repairs)