Grand Designs

[RC1807]

V8covin said:

Watching Homes under the hammer they're keen to point out houses built from non standard construction methods, principally concrete or prefabs,are often difficult to mortgage.
A lot of Grand designs houses are built from concrete or prefabricated panels and yet don't appear to have any problems getting mortgages or funding to build
What's the difference? Is it because modern methods have known standards and controls ?

I’d say it’s this ^^^^
Post war prefabs were like Marley sectional garages, not meant to last 70+ years.
Where I grew up, the LA had to add traditional brick exteriors to houses they still rented to ensure they remained habitable longer term.

[sutoka]

Thoroughly disappoint with this series, we had about 3 brand new episodes and about 4 repeats. Have they slashed the production budget or have people been buggered by the rise in material and trade costs since Covid.

[Promised Land]

sutoka said:

Thoroughly disappoint with this series, we had about 3 brand new episodes and about 4 repeats. Have they slashed the production budget or have people been buggered by the rise in material and trade costs since Covid.

One with the pointy house next to road/ railway was very poor IMO, too much looking for tv jeopardy in it, windows were a big oversight no one saw so who signed off the final design, the roof he faffed about with the top ridge point for days or whatever he said, I’m a joiner myself, a couple of string lines, a couple of bevels, and a piece of ply would have had that sorted in minutes.

I’m fairly sure they’d have got the bus in a lot easier than they showed on camera, it had wheels so why couldn’t they roll it in but anyway what did that have to do with the house build, it’s like them showing you a garden shed in another episode, nothing to do with the house at all.

Kitchen looked cheap, different shaded doors looked awful.

Bottom larch line I’d have had as one continuous line not up and down with cheap led strip lights behind it.

Yes very poor series all told.

ETA. Didn’t all the new episodes end unfinished as well?

Edited by Promised Land on Friday 8th December 07:52

[Puzzles]

Yes it wasn’t a strong series, it surely can’t be a prduction budget issue as it’s relatively cheap to make, and has a big audience.

[droopsnoot]

Promised Land said:

I’m fairly sure they’d have got the bus in a lot easier than they showed on camera, it had wheels so why couldn’t they roll it in but anyway what did that have to do with the house build, it’s like them showing you a garden shed in another episode, nothing to do with the house at all.

I was a bit irritated that they went from showing how it was really difficult to get into place, to it all being in place, without seeing how that happened. I can't remember whether that bit magically sorted itself out in the original programme, or whether it's one of the bits that was cut to make room for the revisit.

[Red9zero]

droopsnoot said:

Promised Land said:

I’m fairly sure they’d have got the bus in a lot easier than they showed on camera, it had wheels so why couldn’t they roll it in but anyway what did that have to do with the house build, it’s like them showing you a garden shed in another episode, nothing to do with the house at all.

I was a bit irritated that they went from showing how it was really difficult to get into place, to it all being in place, without seeing how that happened. I can't remember whether that bit magically sorted itself out in the original programme, or whether it's one of the bits that was cut to make room for the revisit.

Iirc, they had to dismantle part of the neighbours fence to get it in. Not just the bit shown in this weeks episode.

[Promised Land]

droopsnoot said:

I was a bit irritated that they went from showing how it was really difficult to get into place, to it all being in place, without seeing how that happened. I can't remember whether that bit magically sorted itself out in the original programme, or whether it's one of the bits that was cut to make room for the revisit.

Him moving his van irritated me, a heavy goods recovery truck plus double decker are turning up on site and his van was in the entrance, was that for tv as well?

If you know access is poor, road is busy you’d have measured up and checked it would all go smoothly on the day, not wait until it’s here, hold traffic up and faff about.

Actually I thought spending tv time on that was bad for him, any local scrote now knows the aluminium clad double decker has a load of power tools inside it. Not the kind of exposure you’re looking for, sat on a busy road to boot.

[Lucas Ayde]

cmsapms said:

MXRod said:

I noticed the problem with the mill race under the building was edited out ,it was quite serious

Yes, there was just one throwaway comment to the effect that Kev was expecting the kitchen to be cold and damp. I'd have preferred some more detail, but the producer obviously thinks (wrongly, IMO) that Eeyore whining on for minute after minute about them running out of money makes better telly

Yeah, that was a huge part of the original episode (it was the main 'drama' of that episode IIRC) but apparently not important enough to warrant a mention this time around.

Great place though - looked really fantastic with the garden sorted out and the interior was very nicely done too.

Don't blame them for not wanting to spend an absolute fortune to keep as much as possible of the rotten beams and preserve the wooden structure layout as it was for the original mill layout - it's a house now, not a historical mill museum. And the outside structure was wonderfully preserved which is basically what matters to the rest of the world.

[Lucas Ayde]

Puzzles said:

Yes it wasn’t a strong series, it surely can’t be a prduction budget issue as it’s relatively cheap to make, and has a big audience.

As noted already, the Covid lockdowns will have put a huge dent in many of the ongoing builds that they would have been following (both build progress and getting footage), that would otherwise have been finished around now.

[MitchT]

I don't know why they bother with these "revisted" episodes. 50 minutes going over what was shown in the original programme and then ten minutes of whatever has happened since. They could get all the "revisited" ones over in a couple of programmes by dedicating 20 minutes to each house - a quick recap and then the revisit for each house - three houses per episode.

[V8covin]

MitchT said:

I don't know why they bother with these "revisted" episodes. 50 minutes going over what was shown in the original programme and then ten minutes of whatever has happened since. They could get all the "revisited" ones over in a couple of programmes by dedicating 20 minutes to each house - a quick recap and then the revisit for each house - three houses per episode.

Because it's a very cheap way to fill an hour in the schedule

[paulw123]

New one tonight.
Had to chuckle about how he lost 250k to the Latvians whilst his extended family owned a glass company.

Another rather odd vanity project in my opinion. Driveway entrance reminds me of a office block I used to do work at.

Could have just built a nice luxury family home in keeping with the other ones in the area, not annoyed all your neighbours, saved a fortune and been done in a quarter of the time.

[V8covin]

paulw123 said:

New one tonight.
Had to chuckle about how he lost 250k to the Latvians whilst his extended family owned a glass company.

Another rather odd vanity project in my opinion. Driveway entrance reminds me of a office block I used to do work at.

Could have just built a nice luxury family home in keeping with the other ones in the area, not annoyed all your neighbours, saved a fortune and been done in a quarter of the time.

It's a repeat from a year ago,latest series finished last week

[okgo]

Absolutely sick of the scheduling of these property shows. Location location just as bad. Almost impossible to tell if it’s new or from 2009, every fking week.

So GD this year was 3 failed builds then a load of revisits before seamlessly slipping into repeats in the same time slot? fk off.

[Bonefish Blues]

V8covin said:

paulw123 said:

New one tonight.
Had to chuckle about how he lost 250k to the Latvians whilst his extended family owned a glass company.

Another rather odd vanity project in my opinion. Driveway entrance reminds me of a office block I used to do work at.

Could have just built a nice luxury family home in keeping with the other ones in the area, not annoyed all your neighbours, saved a fortune and been done in a quarter of the time.

It's a repeat from a year ago,latest series finished last week

Yes, I didn't bother re-watching it. Classic GD daftness.

[paulw123]

V8covin said:

paulw123 said:

New one tonight.
Had to chuckle about how he lost 250k to the Latvians whilst his extended family owned a glass company.

Another rather odd vanity project in my opinion. Driveway entrance reminds me of a office block I used to do work at.

Could have just built a nice luxury family home in keeping with the other ones in the area, not annoyed all your neighbours, saved a fortune and been done in a quarter of the time.

It's a repeat from a year ago,latest series finished last week

Ah ok, odd as I thought I'd seen all previous ones.
Last series was pretty poor then. Guess higher borrowing and increases build costs are putting people off doing 'Grand designs'

[Bonefish Blues]

paulw123 said:

V8covin said:

paulw123 said:

New one tonight.
Had to chuckle about how he lost 250k to the Latvians whilst his extended family owned a glass company.

Another rather odd vanity project in my opinion. Driveway entrance reminds me of a office block I used to do work at.

Could have just built a nice luxury family home in keeping with the other ones in the area, not annoyed all your neighbours, saved a fortune and been done in a quarter of the time.

It's a repeat from a year ago,latest series finished last week

Ah ok, odd as I thought I'd seen all previous ones.
Last series was pretty poor then. Guess higher borrowing and increases build costs are putting people off doing 'Grand designs'

Yes - some eye-watering increases in build costs were being quoted by a couple of developer posters on the House Pawn thread only a day or two ago.

[sutoka]

Bonefish Blues said:

paulw123 said:

V8covin said:

paulw123 said:

New one tonight.
Had to chuckle about how he lost 250k to the Latvians whilst his extended family owned a glass company.

Another rather odd vanity project in my opinion. Driveway entrance reminds me of a office block I used to do work at.

Could have just built a nice luxury family home in keeping with the other ones in the area, not annoyed all your neighbours, saved a fortune and been done in a quarter of the time.

It's a repeat from a year ago,latest series finished last week

Ah ok, odd as I thought I'd seen all previous ones.
Last series was pretty poor then. Guess higher borrowing and increases build costs are putting people off doing 'Grand designs'

Yes - some eye-watering increases in build costs were being quoted by a couple of developer posters on the House Pawn thread only a day or two ago.

I think the builders merchants are still pretending supply costs are through the roof. My local one throw out different prices for every customer, sometime 30-40% higher then they twig you've bought a lot of the same the previous weeks and they say its a mistake.

Anyone doing a solo build needs to know their onions or they are getting royally ripped off.

But that couple on tonights from the posh area of Manchester got done up like a couple of kippers by not reading the contract, if there even was one. If you are paying £250k to someone for a product or service at least pay someone qualified to draw up documents and a contract. What would have cost a few hundred or a grand max cost him a lot more than his dignity.

The agreement must ave been scribbled on a napkin for their to be absolutely no chance of a comeback or litigation.

Edited by sutoka on Thursday 21st December 04:45

[James6112]

Quite an entertaining episode!

As others said, why not get your family firm to do the glazing in the first place.. made no sense

The curves were nice, but caused a lot of problems.
Think I would have had curves on the bit you see most, go for boring straight lines around the back!

[DodgyGeezer]

Promised Land said:

Him moving his van irritated me, a heavy goods recovery truck plus double decker are turning up on site and his van was in the entrance, was that for tv as well?

If you know access is poor, road is busy you’d have measured up and checked it would all go smoothly on the day, not wait until it’s here, hold traffic up and faff about.

Actually I thought spending tv time on that was bad for him, any local scrote now knows the aluminium clad double decker has a load of power tools inside it. Not the kind of exposure you’re looking for, sat on a busy road to boot.

I'll admit that that was my thought too. Overall I quite enjoyed this, probably as I don't remember watching the original! Absolute nightmare location, not sure you could pay me to live there, but they made a good fist of it and seemed like a very likable couple