To be driven crackers by the people on Grand Designs?

[CruCru]

On the episode today, the couple have sort of fallen out with all their neighbours. The project is over budget (by more than £200k) and over deadline. The guy has sold his business to finance the project and no longer has work to support the family. And they all seem to live in the one studio flat.

Argh! I couldn't bear it.

I am watching that! So far they haven't had an extra baby mid way through the build that they neglected to build a bedroom for, which is unusual.

Or build a totally open plan house because it's brilliant for the children forgetting that they will eventually be teenage boys who may actually want space to sleep without their parents watching.

Or live in a caravan with two under fives and no heating in winter.

Stopped watching it for just this reason - when the overspend is twice what my house is worth and they make it sound as if they've gone into the overdraft by a tenner.......

I can't understand where the surprise babies come from during these epic renovations. I've never had such feelings of utter loathing towards my DP than when we've been sulking over over-budget fecking lighting plans or what color to paint the bloody spare room.

My lovely calm experienced funny builder, on the other hand...

They didn't fall out with their neighbours (very surprisingly!) but that build seemed crazy and not exactly family friendly

It drives me mad. The couple end up borrowing a million from the bank sometimes - who are these people who can live with that sort of debt?

Totally agree re the open plan thing. I'm always trying to get away from the rest of my family; couldn't bear having everyone "there" all the time.

Grand Designs always drives me crackers. The general format seems to be:

Smug over achieving couple buy aged but slightly interesting property, often with some historical significance and nice architecture.

Smug Couple decide that they want to 'put their own stamp' on the building, or to 'modernise' it.

The rest of the program is then spent following Smug Couple patronising workmen and arguing over the 'space'.

The end result is pretty much always some god awful 'bespoke organic living solution' involving lots of perspex and masses of horrible concreting. Any original qualities that the building may have had are ignored in favour of lighting solutions and inappropriate stairwells.

By the end of an episode my eyes are usually bulging slightly.

I hated grand designs tonight, it was wen they started looking at heated toilet seats.

Ridiculous the whole set up!

The people on GD are always such smug fucks as well

They were not wise. It was Saskia from Eastenders - knew I recognised her.

Ewwwww! Heated toilet seats?! So it's just like when you go to the loo and its still warm from the last occupant?! That's really gross.

Major cringe re the heated toilet seat and expected to hate the end result but actually quite liked it....the couple did strike me as typical London types though (more money than sense....)

I always make the same comment to DH when we're watching Grand Designs: 'but what about when the kids are teenagers?!' Although to be fair to the Mum in tonight's episode, she was delighted to hear her children playing in their rooms as they'd been living in what looked like a studio for so long.
I don't always think the people on GD are smug (although some have been). I remember a great one where a guy nearing retirement age built a house using commercial steel techniques partly to save his business which employed people who'd become family friends over the years. Brought a tear to the eye, that one...

What annoys me about GD is the way Kevin pops up a third of the way through to say all the things the viewer is thinking, eg, 'But why are you concreting over the beautiful floor tiles/knocking out the stained glass window/getting a customised up and over garage door to replace the linenfold panelling?' But... then he reappears at the end, when you're desperate for him to read them the Riot Act about their stupidity, and he totally changes his tune and says how bold and innovative it all is, and how industrial concrete can be suprisingly homely.

I'm always secretly hoping there will be one of those disclaimers after the credits, saying 'Justin and Fleur have now put 1, The Old Slaughterhouse on the market. Justin is being pursued by Lambeth Council for contravening his Listed Building Consent. Fleur is living with Sven the architect. Justin's mother wants her deposit back.'

They always run out of money and time! They always fail to think of the family's future needs. It is always an enjoyable watch nonetheless.

Although, yes, echocave, I agree that there are also some lovely people who you really hope will get the money together and get the roof on during the Worst Storms in Norfolk since 1873, during the Worst Slate Shortage in Norfolk since 1603, and the Biggest Exodus of Eastern European Labourers for 20 years, etc.

I thought C4 only paid them £5k to appear and most of the people go on the show through vanity?

I loved tonight's house - and I didn't expect to. Wasn't so keen on the couple though.

There was one where they bought a plot of land with a hill with a ramshackle, half collapsed cottage on it. Dug out under the hill, a la tellytubby land and built a house, closed the "holes" in the cottage with sheets of glass and connected the two with a staircase. So from the road it just looked the same as it always had, but it was actually someone's home office with a four bedroom house under it. That was cool, but they ruined it by having all the wiring and utilities running along the ceiling because they wanted it to look "industrial"

I always judge people who give their kids tiny rooms so they can have a "fabulous bathroom" or cave-like entrance hall or something equally crap. Like their kids won't grow, or have friends they might want to have around. Mean!

Haven,t seen tonights but have recorded it.

Echocave: I remember that episode & agree it was lovely. That and the chap who restored Peel Hse ar my all time faves.

at sophie.

Agree about all the open plan stuff not being a good idea. And that they always build the thing one room too small because they needed to have a double height living room for some reason (and how do you change those lightbulbs? That's what I'd like to know) and then they end up building an extension to house the surprise baby that they manage to conceive while living in arctic temperatures in a caravan. I especially hate the very coy way the man (and it is almost always the man) tells Kevin their exciting news and the woman (usually blonde) looks smug and does some horrid smug tummy rubbing. And Kevin has to pretend to be delighted and comes over all avuncular when actually he really couldn't care less and just wants to have a nose around the house, make some snide comments and still get home in time to watch Great British Bake Off.

I was in awe of his negotiation skills in managing to persuade 17 sets of neighbours to let him take down their back walls, operate a building site for years where there had only been stuff growing before and then build a pretty big structure.

I get annoyed with GD, they're not grand designs, they're concrete and steel structures with lots of glass. Everyone is building that, it's not grand any more.

The guy who built his home out of wood from his land was amazing, I fell in love with that house, loved the really happy ending too. He deserved it.