Grand Designs

Fiskar

i'd say you would need a full time cleaner just to clean the glass! Imagine yer man seeing streaks in the glass. I thought royalty were bad, this guy needs to get a grip

recipio

Fiskar wrote: »

i'd say you would need a full time cleaner just to clean the glass! Imagine yer man seeing streaks in the glass. I thought royalty were bad, this guy needs to get a grip

Well, you can get self cleaning glass. Wonder if that's the reason he got it from Switzerland. ?

Mc Love

The finished house was breathtaking! He did some job on it, would love a house like that bar it being slighty too big!

The architect was a good laugh though, was like a cartoon character

recipio

Mc Love wrote: »

The finished house was breathtaking! He did some job on it, would love a house like that bar it being slighty too big!

The architect was a good laugh though, was like a cartoon character

I thought he should have stuck to a more minimalist look for the interiors.
The blue carpet and brown upholstery kinda killed it for me. The blue/black kitchen was cool - only 120k to you and me !
At the end of the day he got a four bedroom house with sauna and gym - and who uses an outdoor pool in our climate ? Not great for an outlay of 1.5 mil.

Mc Love

Sussex is on the south coast of England and they get much better summers than we do so I think it would get some use. I thought him and the wife had separated as it wasnt clear that the kids stayed there all the time.

recipio

Mc Love wrote: »

Sussex is on the south coast of England and they get much better summers than we do so I think it would get some use. I thought him and the wife had separated as it wasnt clear that the kids stayed there all the time.

Good point. A little way into the programme Kevin does say that it is heated by a ground source pump.
The kids are with him 3-4 days per week so it looks like he and the wife are separated.

irishchris

Just watched 5his weeks episode. What a mad eccentric this week's house builder is. Building a house even though he hates houses :-)

recipio

Badly burned by his builder going bust - I think I'll look for insurance against that if I ever built again.
Not the most exciting house - he must have clusterphilia - love of small spaces.

orthsquel

Yeah a bit of an eccentric I suppose, however I actually quite liked the design. For once it was like an episode where something actually got built without too much trouble and the usual issues and there being an unusual happy outcome. I thought it was an unusual episode where there was more about the personal back story - maybe they felt the need to provide context - but tbh there was a lot of chat that could have proved somewhat embarrassing that could have been left out. What I thought that they might have incorporated into the design was that rather than the house being on steel stilts, it could have have risen via a mechanism should that area ever flood. I'm not sure whether it was Grand Designs or another show but I do recall a show about someone who built on that landbank of the Thames that built the house that had a way around to combat flooding.
I couldn't imagine a flatpack kitchen though! I actually really liked the general design and that part that was meant to be his workshop/boatyard/outdoor area.

neris

Not surprised the lad this week was getting his money from a trust fund. Next weeks episode looks like the regular - family want huge new house, over stretch themselves, but in the end all will be ok. Has there ever been an epsiode where its gone spectacularly wrong and the family are left with a half built house and a date in bankruptcy court?

recipio

neris wrote: »

Not surprised the lad this week was getting his money from a trust fund. Next weeks episode looks like the regular - family want huge new house, over stretch themselves, but in the end all will be ok. Has there ever been an epsiode where its gone spectacularly wrong and the family are left with a half built house and a date in bankruptcy court?

Nearly. There was a builder in London who got a heart attack during the build from stress. Not surprised as he was building a glass fronted space ship.
He pulled it off in the end after a few years.

HeidiHeidi

Just watched this episode now.

What a delightfully and completely barmy project - and subject - this week!

As a very boaty person, I can absolutely identify with his sentiments, even if I'm not sure I could actually live with them in reality. I've a pain in my face from just smiling throughout the whole programme.

Well done James for sticking to his principles, and even more well done Ben for putting up with him throughout - what a pair.

Of all the houses on GD that I've seen, I think this is probably one of my favourites - I particularly loved the pebble wall in the bathroom - I've seen a bathroom border done like that and have always coveted it, but a whole wall is amazing.

The one downside was the repeated shots of the pylons and wires - they're there, obviously, but was there really any need to show panoramic shots of them every 10 minutes?

A very refreshing change from the usual wildly-different-but-not-really-that different-really builds that are the normal GD fare.

I'd take this house any day over that megalomanicac's echo chamber last week!!!

And as for that loo with a view.....

_Tombstone_

Most expensive build ever this wk I think...

HeidiHeidi

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Most expensive build ever this wk I think...

More expensive than last week's? :eek:

Or was that just the biggest ever?

DivingDuck

neris wrote: »

Not surprised the lad this week was getting his money from a trust fund. Next weeks episode looks like the regular - family want huge new house, over stretch themselves, but in the end all will be ok. Has there ever been an epsiode where its gone spectacularly wrong and the family are left with a half built house and a date in bankruptcy court?

The big houseboat from years ago ended up washed up on the banks of the Thames.

Another couple ended up with health problems and getting divorced.

There was also a house that had to have its design slashed halfway through, and the owners only ended up keeping it because a random person heard about their plight and offered to loan them the money. It's now up for sale. They had to run it as a B&B in the end, and they weren't the only ones that applied to, either.

The Irish chap who was doing up that castle in the West still hasn't been able to finish it, and apparently is now trying to use crowdfunding to get the job done.

There have been quite a few stories where things haven't turned out like the self-builders would have liked.

recipio

I thought the last week's owner ( one of a twin ) was more interesting than the house ! An 'old hippy' sums him up ? - it helps to have a trust fund of course.
Check out a new series by Charlie Luxton on homes by the sea starting on More 4 on Sept 29. I always reflect on what a wealthier society the UK is compared to us when I see all those georgeous houses.

neris

recipio wrote: »

I thought the last week's owner ( one of a twin ) was more interesting than the house ! An 'old hippy' sums him up ? - it helps to have a trust fund of course.
Check out a new series by Charlie Luxton on homes by the sea starting on More 4 on Sept 29. I always reflect on what a wealthier society the UK is compared to us when I see all those georgeous houses.

I saw the 1st series of that homes by the sea, some stunning houses. The one with george clarke (small spaces?) is very good and some of the things people have done with shed sized buildings.

HeidiHeidi

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Most expensive build ever this wk I think...

Holy ****, 900+K for THE SITE

Sterling!

:eek::eek::eek:

neris

This has to go titts up they dont have the money

HeidiHeidi

They've got Jamie Oliver as their architect!

Also, their basement alone is three times the size of my house :eek:

I know (from personal experience) how a "life's too short" attitude can take hold after something like yer man suffered - but seriously......

HeidiHeidi

Feckin hell, yer man'll give himself another brain haemorrhage the way this is going :eek:

HeidiHeidi

Maybe it's lost in TV translation, but the front door seriously disappoints.

Those views are seriously wasted on kids!

Is that a separate kids' table in the kitchen???

neris

Why not build a smaller house and fill it to the gills with materialistic crap and be less in debt

neris

Wonder how often the pool gets used can never understand an outdoor pool in ireland or the uk

yabadabado

So about 2.2m for that gaff.11 different loans on it.Madness.

mad m

yabadabado wrote: »

So about 2.2m for that gaff.11 different loans on it.Madness.

Don't forget to add on nearly a mil for land also...Sheer madness...

yabadabado

mad m wrote: »

Don't forget to add on nearly a mil for land also...Sheer madness...

I think that included the land?Isn't that the figure Kevin guessed near the end ,was that not all inclusive?

recipio

Lincoln Miles, the architect looks familiar. Didn't he do his own 'Grand Designs' ?
The Isle of Wight is pretty posh,which might explain the delusions of grandeur but hats off for sheer determination.:D

HeidiHeidi

yabadabado wrote: »

I think that included the land?Isn't that the figure Kevin guessed near the end ,was that not all inclusive?

Nope, that was the build price.

935k for the site.

They'll be paying for it from the grave.

yabadabado

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Nope, that was the build price.

935k for the site.

They'll be paying for it from the grave.

Crazy .
One thing building a house like that if you can anyways afford it but they didnt have a ****ing clue of the cost when it came down to it.
It will cost approx 850K and its 3 times that amount at the end.

I think that architect was on other jobs on GD before,the voice sounded very familiar.He didn't give 2 ****s what it was costing and even put in things that he had no real idea what they would cost or how they would work.