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.

If you do this make sure,in best GD way, that the access to deliver your modular house is too narrow for the lorry ( and bordered by ancient oaks you can't trim) and that your very grumpy neighbour owns the access to it and wants £ 20,00 to allow the lorry in.

It's always greed and vanity that drives the giant houses for small numbers of people. Why do so many people build enormous places once their children have already grown up? Always amazes me why they want to get into all that dusting. The dartmoor shard one seemed to be peak vanity. I laughed when Kevin confronted the man on where he was going to put the bins. All that space and nothing practical. No showers near his home gym either.

If I could move into any of them it would be the Loch Long house of green oak and steel construction. It's a bit far from where I live though.

Very judgemental @11NigelTufnel to say it is greed and vanity. Just because you wouldn’t want to do it, it doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t do what they want with their own money. Each to his own, I say.

@RightMoaningHilda I said that about the ones where they go huge on the budget when they very often don't have the money. You can see the strain on their faces and they will either have to drastically cut back on lifestyle, or sell after the stress. It's not something most would aspire to.

I also said about one I would love to move into, but there have been many more. There have been some beautiful homes over the years and it is an enjoyable program because of those more than the over reachers. I also want the hobbit house, the cave house, the octagon house, the Welsh eco village house with greenhouses. What I can afford is my mid terrace, ex-local authority, character free box, so I will just have to keep dreaming of the mezzanine and orangery.

My favourite was the conversion of the old lifeboat station at Tenby - a dream retirement home (but then I think about all the practicalities including maintaining the overwater ramp its sits on). As well as the house in the woods one of the early series had a very impecunious architect who built a lovely practical family home for about £100k and delivered on budget. There was also a build in I think Ireland where someone put a glass structure into an ancient scheduled monument which was really lovely but that again was years ago when it was more interesting.

My parents did a project like this, (pre the program existing).

It was so stressful it tainted the place. It was supposed to be a forever home but they were out in under 5 years.

GD is fucking bonkers. 24 seasons of the same programme....

• wistful discussions about perfecting their dream while living in a bedsit
• Kevin visits ludicrous site 40 miles from civilisation and the property which is half a hay barn and interviews swivel eyed architect and terrified looking builder
• build starts
• archeological remains found
• issues with specialist glass manufacturer in Finland
• Will the roof be on before winter??!!!

Ad break

• Worst winter on record. No roof
• Entire family living in caravan on site or they have decided to relocate to Spain temporarily to make things extra inconvenient. FaceTime updates on build from Husband who is self appointed project manager
• Cashflow problems
• Surprise baby
• Specialist kitchen which involves a truck bringing in an entire slab of marble goes over budget and gets stuck on a hairpin bend

Ad break 20 months later. Kevin visits. He says 'this is a great space look at that view' eleventy billion times and we find out they went £250k over budget.

FIN.

@Talkinpeace i still think about that waterworks, it really was fabulous. Those were the days when such buildings were available at reasonable prices..

We have a drinking game for GD - every time KMcC says ‘vernacular’ ‘artisan’ or ‘splendid’ is worth two shots, triple if it is a week when he demonstrates the load-bearing parts of the building using strips of paper and a stone 😂

We are about to embark on an enforced remodel (subsidence) and I joked to DH that we should do GD now I’ve been through the menopause and there could be no surprise baby. He pointed out we could still get divorced though…

My brain is still fried by the recent episode where the house was built (or not built in this case) by a couple who were both widowed and wanted enough space for bedrooms for both of their daughters. House looked like a red monopoly house, massive disruption to the kids lives during what looked like their GCSES years and the kids ended up with no bedrooms as they ran out of money but still found some to fly to Marrakech to commission artisan tiles… 🤯

The question should be 'do they ever keep the house and do they ever NOT have a surprise baby in the middle of the project?'

Kevin is the common denominator here 🧐

I knew someone in the same position, same outcome- there wasn't enough potential risk.

As to the original question, I know 2 people who have been on it, years ago. Both still have their houses.

There's one just down the road from me. It was on the show 2017 and they're still living there and a very active part of the community.

So yes they do stay sometimes!

@Needapadlockonmyfridge I suppose my point was that plenty of people build stunning houses and get to keep them and live in them. That's because they make sure they have the funds to complete the project before they begin.
GD appear to hand pick people who don't have the funds so that the show has more drama therefore there's a greater % of houses end up having to be sold.

If what they've said is true, they only spent 450k building so that's probably not something they worry about. Not everyone is obsessed with the future value of their homes.

@judgementfail That about sums it up! 😂

I like the one with the castle, I was surprised they managed to finish it

Think it was in Yorkshire