To find these episodes of Location Location Location very funny

[Summerbreezing]

The ones where the couple want a house 'full of character', so Kirstie shows them a quirky cottage, a cleverly restored barn, and an old mellow farmhouse; which are all rejected on the grounds of 'too near the road', 'not enough garden', 'nowhere to store our six racing bikes' etc.

The couple then go off and 'discover' a three bedroom semi in a gated development at the edge of the village, put in a 'cheeky offer' and buy it. A few months later Kirstie has to go around for a visit and ooh and aah at their John Lewis sofa and homebase cushions and decking out the back and tell them how 'clever' they've been and how the made 'the decision that was right for them', and all the time you can almost see the bubble over her head thinking "WTF? . That lovely cottage was twenty grand less that this boring box".

Disclaimer: Can't afford to live in beautiful old farmhouse with antique furniture myself so not mocking semis and homebase. But I just saw a repeat of one of those programmes and it made me smile.

The mad violin factory GD is in now

*on

(More4)

Here's the clip of gargoyle house. You can imagine how it turned out.

The whole episode is also available online.

Loved the gargoyle house episode, none of the architectural styles (if you can call them that ) matched each other, IYSWIM?

The one part that had me snorting was their Gothic double reception room with the outsized fireplace in one section and the most mahoosive wall-mounted flat screen TV in the other section - Kev looked apoplectic

I hate the new presenter on escape to the country- she can't walk in her ridiculously high heels and is really rude to the buyers if they dare to find fault with any if the houses. Same goes for Jonny Irwin, he's irritating!!

I love how Kirsty and Phil struggle to say they're looking for houses in Essex....it's always 'on the borders of Herfordshire' 'close to the Suffolk border' like actually saying the word 'Essex' might somehow contaminate them!

Haha so true hiccupgirl!
I watched a episode of restoration man recently and this couple had run out of money and so the guy ended up doing loads of the work himself. He did an amazing job then his wife just came along and did the easy interiors part and just moaned, she seemed to have no gratitude for what her husband had done for her and her children, I think their marriage was on the brink!

I just watched the result of the gargoyle house on the YouTube clip. I actually quite like the stairs, and I don't find the whole thing as dreadful as some clearly do.

I'm with Kevin on the tv though. I don't understand why so many people who are building their own houses seem to pretend that they never watch tv. People on GD seem to either stick them in a corner or have a cinema room.
That said maybe I am biased. We (DH) rejected entire houses when we were moving because the speaker placement wouldn't work.

Curiosity got the better of me and I watched the gothic grand designs. A disaster on so many levels.

The couple weren't what I was expecting at all, I thought it was going to be Robert Smith from the Cure and Siouxise Sioux, not Mr and Mrs Average. Part of the problem is that they weren't as avant garde as they thought and the finished house was for the most part, desperately conventional suburban naff with a room layout and giant telly to match. Despite their cock ups and wasted money, they appeared to have learned nothing from the experience.

They ended up with a fur coat and no knickers Barratt Box with arched windows and a grossly out of proportion staircase and fireplace. When they finished it at the height of the property boom, they'd spent more than what the house would sell for, so god knows how much negative equity they are in now. I wouldn't fancy their chances of ever selling it either, unless an ex goth accountant is in the market for somewhere to live

And the price? 400k plus the cost of the land? Surely that would have bought a lovely Victorian neo-gothic place in that neck of the woods.

It was filmed in the 2006/7 and already seems like a pre-recession period piece. I hope when they come to write the story of the credit crunch- the willingness of the banks to lend money for cock-eyed schemes, the mania surrounding property and the willingness to nearly bankrupt yourself pursuing 'the dream property you deserve' - people will be shown that episode of Grand Designs and mock our collective stupidity.