Grand designes

Sir Osis of Liver. · 03-10-2014 10:55PM

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

gipi · 03-10-2014 10:59PM

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 · 03-10-2014 11:00PM

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 · 03-10-2014 11:05PM

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 · 03-10-2014 11:19PM

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 · 03-10-2014 11:31PM

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 · 03-10-2014 11:40PM

"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 · 03-10-2014 11:55PM

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 · 03-10-2014 11:58PM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:11AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:22AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:26AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:27AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:35AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:35AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:41AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:47AM

obligatory for this thread.

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

crockholm · 04-10-2014 12:50AM

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 · 04-10-2014 12:52AM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

The designs themselves however are only grand.

And some of them are desperate.

Tail Docker · 04-10-2014 12:53AM

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.

Tail Docker · 04-10-2014 01:00AM

Worse again, there's a 14c church outside which Trinity come down every year to check for dimensional integrity - I think they expect us to bulldoze it at any minute, they arrive with tapes and gps and suspicious, beardy glances every November. If they knew how superstitious I was, they wouldn't worry. Not for diamonds would i damage it.

crockholm · 04-10-2014 01:01AM

Tail Docker wrote: »

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.

I sympathise with you on it being a right pain in the hole,but,it should look better,and even though you may not give a tinkers shyt,but I Think future generations will thank you for your sympathetic endeavours.

Lord knows,I have seen a fair few modern eyesores around Ballyknockan,which really should have much stricter guidelines.

Well done for helping to preserve our built heritage:)

Tail Docker · 04-10-2014 01:03AM

crockholm wrote: »

I sympathise with you on it being a right pain in the hole,but,it should look better,and even though you may not give a tinkers shyt,but I Think future generations will thank you for your sympathetic endeavours.

Lord knows,I have seen a fair few modern eyesores around Ballyknockan,which really should have much stricter guidelines.

Well done for helping to preserve our built heritage

I skit and mess a lot, but I actually am quite serious when it comes to old buildings. They're scarce and delicate and need preserving, if only so future generations can have a goo and sympathise at how primitive old buildings used to be..

crockholm · 04-10-2014 01:06AM

Tail Docker wrote: »

I skit and mess a lot, but I actually am quite serious when it comes to old buildings. They're scarce and delicate and need preserving, if only so future generations can have a goo and sympathise at how primitive old buildings used to be..

I Think you're kinda baiting me with the last sentence;););)

md23040 · 04-10-2014 01:06AM

mickydoomsux wrote: »

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.

Thats been done already think it was in Operation Transformation or was it Sarah Beeny's Double Your House For Halve The Money or 60 Minute Makeover, Location Location Location, A Place in the Sun, Escape to the County, Homes Under The Hammer, Restoration Home, The House That £100k Built, Tricks of the Trade, Phil Spencer: Secret Agent.

Ah Jezz its confused me now, but it was definately in one of them.

_Whimsical_ · 04-10-2014 01:13AM

There is a BBC equivalent of this show on atm, well I say equivalent but its actually the complete opposite, it is more of a Grim Designs. It's called "The 100k House tricks of the trade". It sets unrealistically low budgets for big projects and the results are quite realistically awful, extensions the size of broom closets that you can't fit a table and a chair in at the same time etc (that was this weeks episode).

The main host is an architect who is like Kevin from Grand designs barmy cousin, he even looks like a bargain basement Kevin! His job seems to be to fill peoples head with grandiose ideas of what they might do with 10k, bring them to stately homes or modern architectural wonders and tell them this might be theirs and then leave them with extensions onto their homes that look like unfinished flat pack sheds from Woodies. He will then tell them that it's no problem that they can't afford to box in the copper plumbing pipes because this plumbing monstrosity is a period home feature...just one with no charm,modern cheapas fittings that happens to be in a Woodies shed.

It is car crash TV. It's like something to dissuade people from even thinking about renovations or extentions.
Of course as such it is worth the occasional watch!

Voodoomelon · 04-10-2014 01:29AM

Tail Docker wrote: »

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.

I've been doing similar for the last two years with my 1820s house in Louth, I even applied to Grand Designs for the craic and they showed interest up to a point but never heard anything after that, must not have been "grand" enough.

Tail Docker · 04-10-2014 10:50AM

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I've been doing similar for the last two years with my 1820s house in Louth, I even applied to Grand Designs for the craic and they showed interest up to a point but never heard anything after that, must not have been "grand" enough.

It was the thought of travveling to Louth that put them off.

How far have you got through it? Is it live-able? We were in ours almost all along, the kitchen was a moveable feast that bounced from room to room depending on what was being done. That's ok with just adults there, but it gets dull with young kids. Finishing is a great day, no more muck and scaffolding or dust. Jasus, the dust...

Tail Docker · 04-10-2014 10:58AM

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?

Mainly, but some parts go back to the 1400's and it became a proper "house" in 1690. Some of the yard buildings are also as old as the 1400's, there's a small church that dates from around then - students come down from Dublin to measure and photograph that every year too. The Dalyells were the old family here and they did a lot of the adding on too.

crockholm · 04-10-2014 12:39PM

Tail Docker wrote: »

Mainly, but some parts go back to the 1400's and it became a proper "house" in 1690. Some of the yard buildings are also as old as the 1400's, there's a small church that dates from around then - students come down from Dublin to measure and photograph that every year too. The Dalyells were the old family here and they did a lot of the adding on too.

My interest is well and truely piqued now:D Any chance of posting a pic or 2,not of the front or anything,just a few ones that you can still retain your anonymity

I'm really interested in Buildings from the 1600s-you go from defensive structures (parkes castle) to early Palladian (Beaulieu) by end of Century-and we don't have too many visible ones in the country either.

Again,thanks for taking the time,patience and Money to ensure the house's survival-I hold men like yourself in much high esteem.

Grand designes

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