Grand designes

Am I missing out on something.

I like watching programs like grand designs and the like I like seeing the finished building its interesting, however I just don't get design and all the money they spent to get it just so. I mostly think the finished building look odd, its all about the texture and light bouncing off the bare concrete wall.... to me it an unfinished concrete wall grey and dull, am I just not getting it? or the 20,000 stainless steal kitchen that they are all wowing over.. to me its a catering kitchen or even wors they are all nearly having an orgasm over some piece of furniture by a famous designer that they just have to have because it would look so right in that space, I am siting there thinking thats exactly like something you would get in Ikea.

Am I the only one who just does not get it or am I missing something.

caustic 1

It's all about Kevin mc friggin Cloud hoping they fail and go way over budget then walks all around at the end saying how wonderful it is.

KungPao

I prefer the poverty version; 60 Minute Makeover.

SEPT 23 1989

Its a great show

AnonoBoy

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Its a great show

The designs themselves however are only grand.

SEPT 23 1989

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Its a great show

It a great show but I keep expecting to see something amazing when the building is finished but 9 time out of 10 its does not look amazing and they have spent a fortune, maybe its me.

looking_around

My other half watches it...


I'm just left thinking... "waste of money, waste of money, waste of money" ....
And ALOT of the times, the money is from mortgages, it's not like they actually have this money to spend.

It's all about showing off "look what I can do/can afford".
There's only a couple of houses that are truly amazing, the one built around a tree? by mostly 1 person and the family wanted a "self sustainable living".

But most are simply "Look how much money I have, and I want to do something that's never been done before......=.=

frozenfrozen

it depends on how well it's done, but when the whole minimalism thing is done properly I think it looks great

ScumLord

I think the difference with grand designs is the people on the show are making somewhat artistic statements, or preserving old buildings in a modern way. It;s not just a renovation show showing you how to do things on the cheap.

Grand designs also runs exhibitions across the UK where you can go to talks and buy most of the things on the show. So they need to promote the lifestyle on the show to get people in the doors of their exhibitions and spending money.

KeithM89

Shur it ends in divorce half the time.

I was watching an episode last night that I think was a repeat. They spent more money than they intended to.

ScumLord

Deleted User wrote: »

I was watching an episode last night that I think was a repeat. They spent more money than they intended to.

That's no repeat, that's every show.

Pumpkinseeds

I haven't watched it for years. When I did watch it I found it all a bit meh. Essentially it seems to be couples spending ridiculous amounts of money building something that is so suited to their own tastes(not a good thing), that it would appear to be a bit of a white elephant if they ever wanted to sell up. As for restorations, I'm appalled by people who buy an old building and go ultra modern inside, it's neither one thing or the other then.

ArtyM

KeithM89 wrote: »

Shur it ends in divorce half the time.

I think you are mixing up Grand Designs and Swinging.

looking_around

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I haven't watched it for years. When I did watch it I found it all a bit meh. Essentially it seems to be couples spending ridiculous amounts of money building something that is so suited to their own tastes(not a good thing), that it would appear to be a bit of a white elephant if they ever wanted to sell up. As for restorations, I'm appalled by people who buy an old building and go ultra modern inside, it's neither one thing or the other then.

I love the old outdoor, modern minimalist indoor.

Unfortunately, don't see that much on grand design, most of the designs are over the top.

Owen_S

Interesting show, but some of the eejits on there make it tough to watch.

jiminho

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I haven't watched it for years. When I did watch it I found it all a bit meh. Essentially it seems to be couples spending ridiculous amounts of money building something that is so suited to their own tastes(not a good thing), that it would appear to be a bit of a white elephant if they ever wanted to sell up. As for restorations, I'm appalled by people who buy an old building and go ultra modern inside, it's neither one thing or the other then.

I can only think of handful that spend "ridiculous amounts of money". Btw what is considered ridiculous amounts when building a house? The vast majority of the homes would be in the 200-400k bracket and they get a hell of a lot more for their house then the standard person buying would.

"suited to their own tastes" - why would you build a house if not to suit your own tastes? What would be the point in building a standard dormer bungalow? The majority of these people are building their forever homes so what does it matter.

"As for restorations, I'm appalled by people who buy an old building and go ultra modern inside" - well that's just your opinion. It can look old on the outside and modern on the inside and still look very impressive. The majority of people don't want that Victorian tea set look in their home.

You should try watch it again, maybe your opinion will change

The Diabolical Monocle

Opportunity for the rich to show off how educated they are and how much good taste they have.
Then that guy at the end says something he doesn't really understand himself but contains words like 'quintessential' 'evolution' and 'aesthetic foreplay'.

yaw yaw one sees the prolific grandeur representative of the phallic influence that is todays postmodern society in these faux ivory door handles, chortle chortle, quite amusing, yet ironic in a carbon neutral fair trade sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLIOLhQDzM4

DLMA23

Fantastic water tower conversion in Belgium known as the Chateau d'eau

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/bham-design-studio-chateau-deau

kylith

I like watching Grand Designs because I love having a nosey around the houses. Recently there's a mad trend for open plan stark white places that look really uninviting. I prefer a house to look like the kind of place you can walk into, kick off your shoes and flop on the sofa, not somewhere that looks like a show home, or has painted concrete block walls so it looks like a warehouse with a sofa in it.

ScumLord

ScumLord wrote: »

That's no repeat, that's every show.

Oh(!)

kylith

kylith wrote: »

I like watching Grand Designs because I love having a nosey around the houses. Recently there's a mad trend for open plan stark white places that look really uninviting. I prefer a house to look like the kind of place you can walk into, kick off your shoes and flop on the sofa, not somewhere that looks like a show home, or has painted concrete block walls so it looks like a warehouse with a sofa in it.

Dark wood paneling, fire, wingback chair.

Call Me Jimmy

Is it weird to want a bath situated in front of the fire? Just think it'd be a cracking combo, anyone feelin me?

kylith

Deleted User wrote: »

Dark wood paneling, fire, wingback chair.

Add a wall of bookshelves and I'm there.

woodoo

There was a similar show on the BBC the other night where they gave a woman from Birmingham a concrete floor and a concrete counter top along with bare mdf kitchen cabinets. They raved about how good it looked. But it was absolutely hideous.

LETHAL LADY

I don't watch it that often but I liked the house the Northern Irish farmer built out of shipping containers.

Slicemeister

Was at a wedding once back when the Celtic Tiger was in full swing. This irish lady had an audience as she explained how herself and her husband had filmed for this series, an overhaul to an old grainmill. La de da, she's stinking in it so I thought.

Saw the episode a few months later, they hadn't two beans to rub together. Opened my eyes, even if it did turn out brilliant for a finish. But jaysus they sacrificed everything to build and exhibit their own mecca( in their eyes).

kylith

kylith wrote: »

Add a wall of bookshelves and I'm there.

How else would one get into the room?

Aidric

The Diabolical Monocle wrote: »

Then that guy at the end says something he doesn't really understand himself but contains words like 'quintessential' 'evolution' and 'aesthetic foreplay'.

yaw yaw one sees the prolific grandeur representative of the phallic influence that is todays postmodern society in these faux ivory door handles, chortle chortle, quite amusing, yet ironic in a carbon neutral fair trade sense.

Lol, nice take-down. You get a share of bells on the show but overall I give it the benefit of the doubt. It's a pleasantly distracting hour of television with some real gems and the theme tune blows everything else out of the park.

miss no stars

The comments in this thread show why Irish people live in generally crap boxes cloned all over the country with miserable decor and furnishing.

Ruu

One in the US called Property Virgins, oh yeah!

Sir Osis of Liver.

Thought I might commission John Rocha to design me a garden Igloo this winter.

gipi

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Is it weird to want a bath situated in front of the fire? Just think it'd be a cracking combo, anyone feelin me?

That's so 1960s....pure retro!!!

pavb2

I watched the one the other night where the lad built a house out of 4 shipping containers. Whether you Liked the finished article or not it made for interesting viewing

mickydoomsux

I'm going to build a house out of an old bit of carpet i found in a skip and furnish it with empty Dutch Gold cans.

Shabby chic is what i'm going for.

Packrat

looking_around wrote: »

My other half watches it...


I'm just left thinking... "waste of money, waste of money, waste of money" ....
And ALOT of the times, the money is from mortgages, it's not like they actually have this money to spend.

It's all about showing off "look what I can do/can afford".
There's only a couple of houses that are truly amazing, the one built around a tree? by mostly 1 person and the family wanted a "self sustainable living".

But most are simply "Look how much money I have, and I want to do something that's never been done before......=.=

For design to progress, somebody has to push the boat out, - to try new things, maybe even bankrupt themselves in the process, - look at the history of the truly great houses of the past: many of the people who built them lost it all quite rapidly afterwards, but left us something to be marvelled at today.

Think of those houses like concept cars, - nobody is going to build thousands of them, but they influence the design of the commercial saleable models which come after them.

mickydoomsux

A house...... made entirely of comically large dildos.

I'm an architectural genius. No one has even done this before. It's much better than a normal house with regular walls and **** that is practical to live in.

Tail Docker

"our budgets blown, we only had 400k and we've gone waay over..." fcukk off. if I spent 400k, i'd live in the fcuking white-house replica.

Packrat

Tail Docker wrote: »

"our budgets blown, we only had 400k and we've gone waay over..." fcukk off. if I spent 400k, i'd live in the fcuking white-house replica.

No, you wouldn't.

I know you're a builder, - so am I, and as such we could and in my case did build for far less than the average Joe, given our advantages in the sector.

I did an analysis recently of the rebuild cost of my boom time house which cost me 350k at the time. Contractor figures in 2005 would have been around 550k with an inferior finish level.
If I was to rebuild it today from scratch I could build a very similar house for about 250k, but that exact finish spec would still cost me 300ish.

This btw is a 2200 sq ft high spec house, not a Mcmansion.

.

on_my_oe

You should try The Block or House Rules

The block is a competition where couples (either actual couples, friends, siblings etc) compete to renovate five properties room by room, properties go up for auction at the end, and they keep their winnings (profit above the reserve) plus an extra 100,000 for the couple with the most profit. The properties are found by the production crew.

House Rules is a similar competition, where actual couples ( no friends, siblings this time) compete to renovate five properties room by room; the twist is each week four couples renovate the fifth couples house guided by three rules, and gradually each couple is eliminated. Everyone ends up with a renovated house (depending on far they get through the competition!), and the winner also gets their mortgage paid off.

They're both Australian, but I'm surprised the format hasn't been imported into the UK or Ireland.

Tail Docker

Packrat wrote: »

No, you wouldn't.

I know you're a builder, - so am I, and as such we could and in my case did build for far less than the average Joe, given our advantages in the sector.

I did an analysis recently of the rebuild cost of my boom time house which cost me 350k at the time. Contractor figures in 2005 would have been around 550k with an inferior finish level.
If I was to rebuild it today from scratch I could build a very similar house for about 250k, but that exact finish spec would still cost me 300ish.

This btw is a 2200 sq ft high spec house, not a Mcmansion.

.

I banged on a 3500 sq ft extension for 160k - lovely spec. As in I did, not I imagined I did. And there's Boardsies that have been in it. So if that's bull, ye who know me feel free to call me out.

Packrat

Tail Docker wrote: »

I banged on a 3500 sq ft extension for 160k - lovely spec. As in I did, not I imagined I did. And there's Boardsies that have been in it. So if that's bull, ye who know me feel free to call me out.

Not saying you didn't, but few outside the industry, (most of the Grand Designees aren't builders) could do that.
Also, my buddy built his 2500 sq ft house for about 120k, -during the boom. Lovely spec, but with clever use of tiles at 15 a yard rather than travertine at 80, - stuff like that. Also, he did all the labour bar blocks, elec&plumbing himself.

Quazzie

Packrat wrote: »

No, you wouldn't.

I know you're a builder, - so am I, and as such we could and in my case did build for far less than the average Joe, given our advantages in the sector.

I did an analysis recently of the rebuild cost of my boom time house which cost me 350k at the time. Contractor figures in 2005 would have been around 550k with an inferior finish level.
If I was to rebuild it today from scratch I could build a very similar house for about 250k, but that exact finish spec would still cost me 300ish.

This btw is a 2200 sq ft high spec house, not a Mcmansion.

.

I built a 3100sqft A2 house for €200k and I aint no builder.

stg£400k would build me a LOT of house.

Summer wind

Tail Docker wrote: »

I banged on a 3500 sq ft extension for 160k - lovely spec. As in I did, not I imagined I did. And there's Boardsies that have been in it. So if that's bull, ye who know me feel free to call me out.

"And then we built an extension onto the extension and the house is in a circle now".

I'm so sorry I couldn't resist:)

Tail Docker

Summer wind wrote: »

"And then we built an extension onto the extension and the house is in a circle now".

I'm so sorry I couldn't resist:)

You're grand, - it is - it's a square around an atrium in the middle with a nice pond. The front was there, I built on to make it an open square. But i do it for a living so it's like a software engineer writing a programme to organise their music collection, no big deal and sort of a mystery why it interests people. Grand designs bores me stupid. Big whoop. You built a house.

crockholm

Again I feel rather envious of the U.K. when I see that programme-one off Buildings in Ireland tend to be mawkish with the addendum that "shur face it with a bitta sthone" is the general consensus. The restorations (few that they are) would bring a tear to a glass Eye.

Tail Docker

crockholm wrote: »

Again I feel rather envious of the U.K. when I see that programme-one off Buildings in Ireland tend to be mawkish with the addendum that "shur face it with a bitta sthone" is the general consensus. The restorations (few that they are) would bring a tear to a glass Eye.

The main bit of ours is from 1740 and an bord pleanala were all over it like a rash to begin with, then they saw we wouldn't ruin anything and left us alone.

ballsymchugh

obligatory for this thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKxO57g8kAI

crockholm

Tail Docker wrote: »

The main bit of ours is from 1740 and an bord pleanala were all over it like a rash to begin with, then they saw we wouldn't ruin anything and left us alone.

Georgian so..when you put extensions onto the house did it keep the symmetry,or did you opt for distingushing the older from the new?

Tarzana

AnonoBoy wrote: »

The designs themselves however are only grand.

And some of them are desperate.

Tail Docker

crockholm wrote: »

Georgian so..when you put extensions onto the house did it keep the symmetry,or did you opt for distingushing the older from the new?

I had to match the existing to get planning, so same roof profile and finish, same stone on the walls, same windows(timber) and I had to keep to the same fascia and soffit finish(which was a pita as it was timber and hand done). I had to refurbish not replace the front facing windows on pains of death and they came down every six months to check too.