Grand Designs - New Series

[anonymous-user]

Starts Wednesday September 3rd.

Hopefully some new exciting stuff.

[anonymous-user]

...and lots of self-important pseudo-professional "something in media" types made up of some chinless wonder with money and his stay-at-home wife (invaribaly with an overdose of The Mental) who dig themselves a massive hole, sometimes financially, sometimes literally, don't appear to have the first clue about building, blame it all on the architect, then get all emotional when the bank declines another £50k for a hand made Italian glass door knob or some such other tat.
Dreadful program.

[anonymous-user]

slinky said:

It's a good job you're not forced to watch it then...

I am. Mrs CK loves it.

[anonymous-user]

Tuna said:

episodes that had to stop before the build was actually complete

That's most of them isn't it?

[anonymous-user]

ajprice said:

Yay!
I'm off to make some bingo cards with 'eco', 'off grid', 'over budget', 'pregnant', 'project manage the build themselves', 'underfloor heating' and 'the windows don't fit' written on them

I'm in.
Could I offer "one piece granite worktops"?

[anonymous-user]

...not forgetting:
"with every one being made by hand taking approximately 200 hours each"

[anonymous-user]

That's my understanding also Toohuge.

I thought about applying to GD for my self-build, mainly as a means to getting a video diary of sorts. As soon as I realised the amount of input/control from the program makers I lost interest.

Having seen the TV ad for the new series, I can see two potentially interesting builds - here's hoping!

[anonymous-user]

Cloud 8 had two episodes and was still not finished.

[anonymous-user]

Beati Dogu said:

The Oriental wife bit doesn't really narrow it down.

Lake District with the barrelled roof and rock wall down the centre.

[anonymous-user]

Sheepshanks said:

toohuge said:

I used to enjoy GD but having helped numerous clients with numerous builds, the show seems to concentrate on fairly trivial matters when there are far more interesting parts to the build that could be highlighted.

I know it's light entertainment, but just a little bit more insight into materials and techniques would be interesting, and people can look up further details on the web if they want to.

Ok, in very general terms.....
Anything steel/aluminium comes from Germany on a mahoosive Mercedes Actros.
Anything glass come from Italy, is handmade, and cost many thousands of pounds.
Anything wood comes from Scandinavia somewhere and is a million times more "Eco" than anything south of Stockholm.

[anonymous-user]

bazza white said:

I remember it was the old women who lent them the money. The build was huge. The bloke was a bit of a plonker from memory.

The wife came on PH after they were slagged off in the original GD thread! 'Twas a little heated

[anonymous-user]

Sounds mental but I love the idea of putting it somewhere spectacular for their lifetime and screw what happens when they've gone.

[anonymous-user]

The old 'self PM to save £400k trick'!!

OMFG!!

[anonymous-user]

I'm guessing it will end up at £450-500k.

[anonymous-user]

That interface between glass and stone looks stunning.

As much as I said I respect their willingness to ignore the long term viability, it's sad to think a potentially beautiful building could be gone in the blink of an eye

[anonymous-user]

MiniMan64 said:

I'm guessing it will end up in the sea.

[anonymous-user]

Wife = impatient mentalist . That's my professional opinion.

[anonymous-user]

garyhun said:

Wife = impatient mentalist

Only caught the last twenty minutes or so (thank god) and have to agree.
She had High-maintenance Mental written all over her (as usual)

[anonymous-user]

a boardman said:

Company I work for did the structural engineering on the building.

So if it falls down.....

[anonymous-user]

a boardman said:

Company I work for did the structural engineering on the building.

Being serious, that steel frame (which I assume you designed) looked lovely.