Grand Designs - Do they EVER keep the house?

[Annonymiss123]

Just watched GD with the curved house in Devon - completed in 2017. Google tells me that the house was for sale in 2021 and 2023.

https://www.devonlive.com/news/property/gallery/grand-designs-fossil-home-sale-8274322

After all the drama attached to building these homes, the owners rarely seem to live in them long term.

I'd be surprised if they do. They tend to have massive houses built with huge windows that cannot be opened or have curtains put up. I do wonder if all the flat roofs are a liability. I cannot imagine any of them having friends over and the washing on the clothes airer (as they tend to only have a huge open plan room, so nowhere to hide stuff).

Call me a cynic but I think these days it’s not an individual/couple building their dream home any more, it’s an architect and/or their practice, or buildings project manager, or someone in the property business looking for funding and publicity for their next big project. It’s about as genuine as Love Island.

@Kpo58 The huge window drive me crazy! I keep thinking about the cleaning. 😆

@BreakfastAtMilliways Good point. I hadn't considered that, but you're probably right.

Oh that's a shame. Mind you there's one near me where the bloke went bankrupt and had a heart attack! So I'm not surprised if they can't find any takers these days.

Since 99.9% are over budget and massively in debt by the end (and not always completed ) I often wonder why there aren't any points during the build where they realise that's going to happen and change or tweak their plans? Once you've got to a certain point obviously it has to be made watertight etc.

One episode last year was projected to be 250k over budget at the planning stage. ....thry went ahead anyway and ended up way more over budget. But they could possibly have spent another <10k redoing plans to something more modest/within budget right from the start! (But maybe it wouldn't have qualified as grand enough for GD...??)

So often these houses are built so specifically for the owners needs/wants that I imagine they are very hard to sell afterwards, especially for the price tag the owner thinks it is worth. There must be a non-existent limited market for people wanting to buy a Japanese inspired glass shopping centre made from old tyres in the middle of nowhere with a disco floor come spa in the basement.

I find GD a bit hard to take these days- especially the bits where Kevin waxes lyrical about the owners’ “vision” and “rare sensibility” as if they’re better than people who can just about afford to buy a normal sized, pre-existing house. They aren’t, they just have too much money or too little sense or both. And the wanking on about the sustainability of a 10,000 square foot concrete house for two people to live in makes me angry.

I wouldn’t say they “rarely” keep them. But if you’ve gone in to debt to build something and then get offered another £1m or whatever to sell it that must be very tempting

Half the time the people can't afford their vision though and would likely have been better off buying a bog standard do-er upper!

Most of them are one partner - almost alway a man - forcing through their "dream" and creating a batshit, poorly laid out house with tiny bedrooms and cladding that costs more than your average home.

DH and I have agreed if we ever get the money to do a self build, we're buying a house in a box which is made in big sections, then delivered, built and at first fix in a week. 100% project managed by someone else, preferably a German team 😂 as my experience of them on major construction sites is that it happens FAST and goes very well with every possibility accounted for in advance.

Nothing new. I had a house built on a development of ten plots for self build over thirty years ago. I had a builder do a set design and my input was the interior. All the nine other houses were started by enthusiastic people, all of whom gave up during the construction or once done. Not one of them ever lived in the house.

Well, that’s absolutely true, and the concrete mess is left blotting up the landscape. Like that twunt record producer who built half a house on a beautiful bit of cliff in Cornwall, spent 20 years throwing everything at it, destroyed his marriage and then had to sell it anyway, when he’d had a perfectly good house just up the road with sea views. OK, he more than paid the price, but that bit of coastline was still ruined. That hurts everyone.

The problems tend to be;

They spend way too much building them

They are huge ( mainly ) with pokey rooms

I bet they are a nightmare to maintain and heat.

Cleaning would be impossible in some, thinking off really tall high places

I look at some of the light fittings and I think how the hell are you going to change those bulbs.

They make them far too personnel, never thinking of resale.

They tend to follow the pattern of timber cladding, walls of glass, and steel beams every where, they are not original anymore.

They look cold, stark and lack anything that makes them homely.

They are ugly.

I know of 3 grand design houses built all so eco ground heat pumps etc, they all did 1 winter then put gas central heating in.

NCForQuestions

https://www.huf-haus.com/en-uk/

@jollygreenpea exactly that!

Not sure why anyone would think of gas if they have a well installed heat pump in an airtight home. Our energy bills for our large eco-home with ASHP are next to nothing. I would suggest the design of the building is at fault not the technology.

I remember reading a thread on here a few years ago about grand designs. One poster said she knew someone who applied to feature on the show. He had all his plans in place. His financial plan and costings added up. He had the funds to cover the full cost of the build and had a contingency plan if needed for unexpected extras. Grand designs turned him down.There was no jeopardy to create drama and so they were not interested in build.

Also, they always have massive windows with no blinds/curtains. I find it creepy looking out into darkness at night- I always expect an axe murderer/alien/monster to suddenly appear.

Where on earth do you live? I can't imagine feeling afraid in my own home. Large windows (which can be opened) = lots of opportunities to enjoy stunning views.

LoobyDop

Also, they always have massive windows with no blinds/curtains. I find it creepy looking out into darkness at night- I always expect an axe murderer/alien/monster to suddenly appear.

We used to live in the middle of nowhere and the only people who would go by were boy racers flying up and down. When you looked outside there was just nothing, no lights no nothing and it used to freak me out!!!

In daylight, at night it’s just black! I know it’s not particularly reasonable- more the influence of tv than anything else.

Sometimes they do, I watched one where they built in what seemed to be a very impractical place as they couple were a bit older but when Kevin went back they were still there and enjoying it

Everyone who goes on though should be aware that births and/or deaths seem to appear in every episode I see

For a while yes. Bit I also think it's in a lot of these people's personalities to want to do another project.
I know someone who was on GD. They stayed for several years after, then sold as their kids had grown up and left home.
That Devon house was a particularly tragic example of when the house becomes an obsession.

Grand Designs cinema house (granddesignsmagazine.com)
This couple still live here, they will struggle to ever sell it as they have built a very impressive house in a really crappy location of a not great area.

I think the same, (despite living in a nice area with low crime) ....and I wonder if there's never any chance of an annoyingly timed amazon delivery arriving when you were getting dressed!

The last one I watched had an open plan ensuite. They spent about £1.5m and nothing left in the budget to have a proper walk to close off the toilet when you're having a poo??