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.

Is this still going? Haven't seen it for years, watched a few but always thought the owners were pretentious show-offs with their ugly glass and/or concrete boxes, clearly thinking their house would be vastly superior to any other. As already said, I can't imagine any of them would be easy to sell on. And why on earth if you were going to go in for this would you want it to be televised? (assume for money?)

Do they get paid? I would have thought they do it because they are the kind of people who like to show off their home, I haven't seen them all but the ones I have seen wouldn't be described as "boxes"

Wasn't there one ages ago where the woman was OBSESSED with building Georgian style to the nth degree and they were wildly over budget and still the obsession continued. Her DH just said he would work harder as she planned some ridiculous hand painted wallpapers.

I wonder if they are still married 🤔

I'm guessing lots have to be sold because they're so over budget: I mean, who would just have a couple hundred thousand extra readily available to tie up for 20 years?
Some people probably heartily sick of the place by the time its built. Some wanting the Next Thing instead. Some in it for publicity (architects, designers, construction industry people, etc).

Oh I thought this was going to be the curved seashell one that was built by a retired lady years ago. Googled that one and she must have passed as it was built in 2005 when she was in her 70s and sold in 2021.

I'm not surprised so many end up selling. They always end up far over budget. I think I'd feel a bit sick every time the mortgage payments went out. It would be hard to enjoy for longer than a year or two.

Some friends of mine were on it when they built their concrete house. They’re still happily living there, many years later. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea at all, and wouldn’t be my own choice, but I have to say that inside it is stunning. More so than in the TV programme because the ‘reveal’ was rushed and the TV company staged it a bit. I can’t see them selling it ever. It’s not overly big and was very much the creation of a long held dream.

Some of them are lovely. I saw one recently that was built by a woman who makes furniture and was one of the founders of the FSC thing that certifies sustainable wood. She did the whole thing by hand and took tree preservation so seriously that she cut her deck around a tree rather than cut it down.

I know a guy who did architectural photography and he was very cynical about GD.
As has been suggested above he said many of these projects were backed by architects/designers as showcases for their work, with the people who apparently owned the house being in it for profit.
I think ages ago there was one that was circular and built in an quarry, it might even have been revolving. Looked like one of those old gasometers. He said that was one of them.

I love this programme and will watch it just to be soothed by Kevin's voice, but it is really rare for me to like the houses that get built. As others have said, so many huge boxes with massive walls of windows and weirdly small bedrooms... each to their own but for the amount of money and time that goes into them I would want something very different

There is one near where my in-laws live. It's actually pretty weird looking in the context of the village, and tucked away down a side lane.

They've had it on the market a few times but it hasn't sold. What they want for it is huge for the area- which is fairly deprived rural. Nobody is likely to buy it because for the same price they can get a large farmhouse with loads of land or a gothic 6-bedroom townhouse. It's also got those big windows and is open plan, which is all very well, but as my father-in-law said, 'who wants big windows in the winter to show you all the clouds and rain'. It's Wales. There is a lot of rain in the winter. The house looks pretty grim when it's wet.

All I think of is how they clean baked-on seagull poop off all the glass and how you have to live with knowing just how much it’s cost in blood, sweat, tears and acrimony 😵‍💫

I think those types of projects are so stressful and mentally, physically and financially draining that it pushes the relationships to the edge at least. That might be why some of them get sold when they are finished if the couple split up

They are often far more expensive than first planned for and in many cases I think the lure of novelty in design runs away with them - meaning they end up with a unique house that (I think) must be a pain in the ass to actually live in.

That Quaver of a house being a fine example. You'd constantly be walking around in semi circles.

https://www.thepoke.com/2024/02/15/every-episode-of-grand-designs-george-lewis-comedy/?fbclid=IwAR10f5YZVwDDRjoJRYXrmZtx7FIOAYBXG_cBG-AWu5Gff_fje4Fonp_q0eY

The bankrupt record producer is north Devon, not Cornwall btw.

Maybe find out a bit more about the owner? They have a reason to be in that area and making it no longer crappy (to use your words) is part of that.

There was one not a million miles from us, some years ago. They bought the prime site for about £1m, demolished the old house, and must have spent God knows what building an extremely weird replacement. There was a big piece about it in the Sunday Times - they confidently expected it to sell for £5m.

Of course we kept a good old nosy eye on nethouseprices - it took at least 2 years to sell, for IIRC around £3.25m.
The irony was, if they’d built a really nice ‘normal’ house in that very special location,,they would have almost certainly achieved the same price within a few weeks.
But that wouldn’t have got them on telly, would it…

As for those acres of window you so often see, with no blinds let alone curtains, funny how good old K Mc C never visits the finished article when it’s dark and raining, isn’t it? Always on a lovely sunny day.

The only GD I ever really liked, was the little house in the woods, built out of all natural, locally available materials. IIRc K McC loved it, too.

I didn't mean to cause offence so apologies if I did.
I meant they've totally outpriced the house for the area so if they ever rant to move it will be a struggle

This it freaks me out

If it's the same one I'm thinking off, they had to abandon landscaping the garden, it looked like the somme.

Also wanted something like a 10 ft wide bed so the whole family could snuggle
in.

The wall paper for the massive main bedroom was silk with birds on costing some thing ridiculous like 5 grand a roll.

I did like the house though, the bits that were part way finished.

There was one inspired by rocks in Devon. A huge mammoth thing. I should have hated it, I normally do with the weird modern ones but there was something about it that I just loved. Totally doesn't fit with the area but it just had some sort of allure. A bit like when you look at art and something about it just works for you. I'm not the type of person who appreciates most art but every once in a while I see something that I like a lot more than I should. The couple didn't seem too stressed about the expense of it so I hope they're still happy and living there.

Those massive windows can go opaque at the touch of a button! So you don’t actually look out at the darkness, the window has become non see through…

The really old water works was one of the best.
Gigantic building.
Cavernous party room.
Entirely practical bedrooms, bathrooms and study built into one end.

I bet Ben is still in his trusty woodmans cottage and it looks like Francis still has the amazing Peel Tower.

Ben Law - good egg https://ben-law.co.uk/