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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be driven crackers by the people on Grand Designs?

250 replies

CruCru · 11/09/2013 22:36

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.

OP posts:

expatinscotland · 12/09/2013 09:58

This show was boring as all fuck from about the third episode with the exception of a handful of incidents.

Wealthy, smug families (almost all with requisite 3+ kids) and access to endless amounts of money.

Yawn.

mumofboyo · 12/09/2013 09:58

All the houses just seem so cold and clinical, unwelcoming almost. And they always have huuuuge windows with no curtains. I couldn't live with no curtains, no matter how remote.
I don't know how they cope with so much debt, and I always wonder how the couples manage to stay together after such a project - thinking about the arguments me and dh have had just over doing up the garden.

ubik · 12/09/2013 09:59

I loved The Woodsman and the Huff House - such a lovely couple and what a beautiful house they had in the end. Also the artists who converted this enormous barn into a house/studio.

ubik · 12/09/2013 10:01

I think last night's couple must have splashed the cash around the neighbours to keep them quiet. Which is fair enough. Oh and they baked them some banana bread

Methe · 12/09/2013 10:08

They were a pair of knobs weren't they! Dh and I were trying to figure out where they got their money from.. No-one makes 1.2m from pissing around in Toyota Prius' or being a bit part actress.

They must have inherited?

Methe · 12/09/2013 10:08

And his hair! How fast did it grow

mistlethrush · 12/09/2013 10:10

The charcoal burner's house was superb. Wood from his own woodland, self-built (with help from friends and people learning how to work with wood if I remember correctly) not grand scale-wise, but the result was stunning.

Methe · 12/09/2013 10:11

House in the woods guy was called Ben Law I think. That was my favourite episode ever!

Osmiornica · 12/09/2013 10:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SlobAtHome · 12/09/2013 10:16

Oh no I like the program and liked that house (though for reasons already mentioned couldn't live in it myself)

LostMyBiroAgain · 12/09/2013 10:21

I'm currently watching last night's show on Catch Up. I think they must have inherited. Surely no one would just randomly sell their business and therefore have no income unless they have money coming in from somewhere.

Wasn't Deborah Sheridan-Taylor's mum an actress? Maybe she inherited from her

dufflefluffle · 12/09/2013 10:22

I have a massive problem with Kevin. His summing up at the end of each programme is such a load of pretentious twaddle I want to throw something at the screen.

Me too! and he pauses for effect - soooo obviously - I do like watching GD but I have to switch it off for his thought of the episode!!
Also: have you noticed he talks to womens (in fairness to men's too) bosoms sometimes?????

Noseynoonoo · 12/09/2013 10:25

The wife is the daughter of the late Joyce Blair and niece of Lionel Blair. I imagine she inherited quite a bit from her mum.

LouiseAderyn · 12/09/2013 10:31

Did anyone else think that underground swimming pool and gym area looked claustrophobic?

I thought they were very selfish to make their kids live like that for 3 years and put the family under all that financial stress, just so they could have what they wanted.

I think it is George Clark who does the amazing spaces programme - there are some excellent examples of innovative design, instead of the identikit glass and concrete shite on GD

SixPackWellies · 12/09/2013 10:33

The woodsman in the forest is our favourite too. he was so lovely, and interesting and a hermit, and then got married, had babies and lived with his wife and MIL. I covet his life.

The ones that made me watch with horrified fascination was the one where they pissed off the neighbours and built a disco floor in the basement. Yep- there is a one hit wonder. Also the woman who pissed off her neighbours and name-dropped all the time. When her husband said he was not into art she commented smugly 'you liked that Tracey Emin piece'.

we wept over that.

Methe · 12/09/2013 10:37

The disco floor couple really rode rough shod over their neighbours didn't they. A least last night couple seemed to give a shit about the people who's lives they disrupted.

HorryIsUpduffed · 12/09/2013 10:40

The cavernous "living space" with inbuilt "AV systems" that will be defunct before they even move in, and bedrooms you can scarcely get a bed into. I'm always howling "But where do you keep the ironing board and the football kit?!"

I luffs it though.

SixPackWellies · 12/09/2013 10:44

They certainly did ride roughshod Methe. They were so self obsessed too about it all.

sophiedaal · 12/09/2013 10:47

I liked the couple who were so determined to have the sort of massive curving corridor normally found in the outer departure hubs of international airports that the children ended up being crammed into tiny solitary confinement cells with no windows.

ArtisanLentilWeaver · 12/09/2013 10:53

I wish they would do a more realistic GD. Who the hell is going to install remote control egg cups or wtf and those glass staircases with no sides and a new baby.
And a trillion pound overdraught. Who do they bank with that actually lends?

Junebugjr · 12/09/2013 10:55

What I couldn't understand about it, was why have the utterly shit swimming pool, which you'd be hard pressed to get one person in, and a cramped 'gym'. It didnt seem worth the bother of going underground. Having two studies as well, what would she need a study for, better to have a cwtch with a massive stock of wine to relax after looking after kids all day. Strange.

BlueSkySunnyDay · 12/09/2013 10:56

I was amazed he managed to keep all the neighbours happy this week and said they wanted to be part of the community....will not be surprised to see the house for sale in the not too distant future.

Loved the woodsmans house and the water tower, the one I hated the most was the Henley one on the river - the kind of self obsessed couple you just want to slap.

dandydorset · 12/09/2013 11:11

ubik

thank god you said that i was screaming that in my head last night,then saw this thread but couldnt be bothered to type

TheCraicDealer · 12/09/2013 11:13

I loved the Restoration Man episode where there was an architect and his fiance who were converting a Victorian water tower. It was lovely, very well done, but I loved the bit where George went, "If the utility room is on the ground floor and the master suite is on the fourth, how are you going to feel about carting your laundry down all those stairs?". The look of oh fuck on the fiance's face was priceless.

ubik · 12/09/2013 11:17

The disco floor was her 'toy' if I remember correctly £20,000 worth. She reminded me if Edina in Ab Fab.

I also loved the house a couple had built on Skye. It was beautiful. But Skye in winter? No thanks

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