Grand Designs

Author
Discussion

Doofus

25,850 posts

174 months

Friday 26th April 2019
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227bhp said:
Probably better off not posting at all then really.
You and me both

rolleyes

Lucas Ayde

3,567 posts

169 months

Saturday 27th April 2019
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Muncher said:
Bit odd that she wasn’t around for the final filming?

I can’t see how that system is viable, they’ve spent £200k building a 2 bedroom timber frame house, with 7,000 man hours free labour, plus I suspect a lot of free time from their architects. The plywood could have easily been ruined in poor weather.

No idea why they didn’t either spray the cladding panels, or char them. I did like the balustrade and stair detail however.
Agreed - no idea how they managed to spend so much money given that the 'plywood box' design was supposed to be cheap/quick to put up and they essentially had free labour to do that part (or very cheap labour at least), there were only 2 bedrooms (one of which was a downstairs office/spare room) and they didn't seem to spend much on interior finishing unless they paid through the nose for the 'rough and industrial' look.

It did look very nice from the outside though and I liked the planted roof(s). More about form over function though overall, I thought.


The other one featured next door was really impressive - really good architecture (despite being a DIY design), 3 decent bedrooms, quality construction and finish (soundproofing a great idea), lovely upstairs lounge with great views and a useful apartment in the attic (not finished at time of filming but no need to do it quickly as the rest of the house was pretty much done and functional). And they managed to eliminate their mortgage by moving there - bloody fantastic. A 600k house for 300k and no mortgage to pay! Kevin seemed well impressed.

trooperiziz

9,456 posts

253 months

Saturday 27th April 2019
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Lucas Ayde said:
The other one featured next door was really impressive - really good architecture (despite being a DIY design), 3 decent bedrooms, quality construction and finish (soundproofing a great idea), lovely upstairs lounge with great views and a useful apartment in the attic (not finished at time of filming but no need to do it quickly as the rest of the house was pretty much done and functional). And they managed to eliminate their mortgage by moving there - bloody fantastic. A 600k house for 300k and no mortgage to pay! Kevin seemed well impressed.
I thought that was a great house, designed around their needs with the primary consideration of it actually being a house to live in, for a reasonable cost.

No chance they would have made it onto grand designs on an ordinary series! biggrin

droopsnoot

11,978 posts

243 months

Saturday 27th April 2019
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Muncher said:
Bit odd that she wasn’t around for the final filming?
She's in work, he said at the start of the wrap-up.

Laurel Green

30,783 posts

233 months

Saturday 27th April 2019
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droopsnoot said:
Muncher said:
Bit odd that she wasn’t around for the final filming?
She's in work, he said at the start of the wrap-up.
Yes, and he looked a tad sheepish when saying so. A tad odd when considering the programme and all that encompases it, wouldn't you think?

DoctorX

7,305 posts

168 months

Saturday 27th April 2019
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Still can’t understand how that small packing crate and that nice family house ended up costing the same...

shady lee

962 posts

183 months

Saturday 27th April 2019
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DoctorX said:
Still can’t understand how that small packing crate and that nice family house ended up costing the same...
My thoughts exactly after watching it!

227bhp

10,203 posts

129 months

Sunday 28th April 2019
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Laurel Green said:
droopsnoot said:
Muncher said:
Bit odd that she wasn’t around for the final filming?
She's in work, he said at the start of the wrap-up.
Yes, and he looked a tad sheepish when saying so. A tad odd when considering the programme and all that encompases it, wouldn't you think?
'Kevin and Ch4 are coming round to film the last part of our epic build on Friday'
'Sorry I'm at work that day'.

IIRC she had a pretty mundane job too, but I forget what it was.

Bonefish Blues

26,842 posts

224 months

Sunday 28th April 2019
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Waitrose checkout

Funk

26,300 posts

210 months

Sunday 28th April 2019
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Bonefish Blues said:
227bhp said:
Laurel Green said:
droopsnoot said:
Muncher said:
Bit odd that she wasn’t around for the final filming?
She's in work, he said at the start of the wrap-up.
Yes, and he looked a tad sheepish when saying so. A tad odd when considering the programme and all that encompases it, wouldn't you think?
'Kevin and Ch4 are coming round to film the last part of our epic build on Friday'
'Sorry I'm at work that day'.

IIRC she had a pretty mundane job too, but I forget what it was.
Waitrose checkout
You'd have thought she'd have been able to swap a shift around to be there if she really wanted to... I suspect things might've deteriorated between them and she simply didn't want to have to put on a front for the cameras..?

shady lee said:
DoctorX said:
Still can’t understand how that small packing crate and that nice family house ended up costing the same...
My thoughts exactly after watching it!
Mine too! I know which I'd rather have.

droopsnoot

11,978 posts

243 months

Monday 29th April 2019
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OK, you've convinced me, maybe she was under the garden. It's just a bit strange, it wouldn't be the first time even in this series that a partner had been off the scene by the time the build was finished. Anyway, not important.

One thing that keeps coming up is the great view out of the back of these houses, there was a lovely distant farm building shown in the latest episode. But as I think they said there's about a thousand of these self-builds going up at this location, and from memory these featured ones don't seem to be across one edge, I wonder how many of them will keep those views?

Bonefish Blues

26,842 posts

224 months

Monday 29th April 2019
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Slightly more than you might think as it's a circular development - but that does mean that for every view of open countryside there's others with a view of the sewage works, distribution sheds etc.

https://www.gravenhill.co.uk/map/

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Graven+Hill+Pl...

kev1974

4,029 posts

130 months

Monday 29th April 2019
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The black cladding was horrible, because of the way he had made it into individual square units it looked like he had used spray painted pallets up the side of the house. Would have looked much better if he had kept the wood in long vertical straights without all the cuts.

droopsnoot

11,978 posts

243 months

Monday 29th April 2019
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kev1974 said:
The black cladding was horrible, because of the way he had made it into individual square units it looked like he had used spray painted pallets up the side of the house. Would have looked much better if he had kept the wood in long vertical straights without all the cuts.
Funnily enough while I was watching them painting those sections, I thought they'd have saved money by just using some pallets.

Mark Benson

7,523 posts

270 months

Monday 29th April 2019
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Bonefish Blues said:
Slightly more than you might think as it's a circular development - but that does mean that for every view of open countryside there's others with a view of the sewage works, distribution sheds etc.

https://www.gravenhill.co.uk/map/

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Graven+Hill+Pl...
There also appears to be a lot of non-self builds being done by the developer. The programme gives the impression that the whole place is self-built when actually only a small proportion are.

Bonefish Blues

26,842 posts

224 months

Monday 29th April 2019
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Mark Benson said:
There also appears to be a lot of non-self builds being done by the developer. The programme gives the impression that the whole place is self-built when actually only a small proportion are.
There are, but they are custom built within certain specs, so they will look less identikit, albeit developers are doing similar things these days too.

Laurel Green

30,783 posts

233 months

Thursday 2nd May 2019
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What, no mention of the Aston Martin test engineer in this week's programme?

Bonefish Blues

26,842 posts

224 months

Thursday 2nd May 2019
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All rather meh this week I thought.

Laurel Green

30,783 posts

233 months

Thursday 2nd May 2019
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Am just watching it now. The Aston factory visit being the highlight so far.

Laurel Green

30,783 posts

233 months

Thursday 2nd May 2019
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Bonefish Blues said:
All rather meh this week I thought.
Have to agree, a tad (and never thought I'd ever say this word) 'meh' this week.