Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Original poster

to think Grand Designs is an hour long stealth boast.

181 replies

mileend2bermondsey · 13/09/2015 10:25

I've never understood this programme. It's just an hour of, 'look how much money we have, look how great we are, watch us build a house which you could never afford to live in in your dreams peasants!' I can't stand to watch it because IMO it's just bragging. I can't even justify that perhaps they agree to do the show for money as most of them are rich as hell anyway (as shown by the houses they build).

My family say IABU but I can't be alone thinking this? Can I?

OP posts:

DisconcertedAndRetired · 13/09/2015 12:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

squoosh · 13/09/2015 12:46

Can't stand Grand Designs. Earnest people wittering on about their project's integrity and that po-faced Kevin McCloud giving his self indulgent soliloquies to camera.

Boring.

TittyBiskwits · 13/09/2015 12:50

What a depressing thread full of bitter , and dare I say, jealous posters. Some people really need to look at their posts and have a word with themselves. So sad.

So what episode of Grand Designs was your house featured in?

Alohamora · 13/09/2015 12:56

The episode that had me sitting agog was the one in London that was at the end of a Mews and backed on to a railway line. They managed to offend most of the neighbours, built down under the foundations and had a hideous TV/disco room. That couple were just awful.

HMF1 · 13/09/2015 12:56

I don't think it is always about envy, my point was that at the start the projects were more diverse & there were projects that championed reclamation & eco issues the episodes I have watched recently just seem more homogeleous & the diversity of projects seems to have disappeared. Good luck to anyone with a huge building project, I have been through it & the only thing I will say about is never again, certainly wouldn't have wanted the additional stress of a TV crew around.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 13/09/2015 12:56

bereal7 I'm not bitter, I happen to live in a lovely house and am very lucky, but I still hate those modern soulless monstrosities with their £32k cookers. Let's face it, if some of these people weren't a bit bonkers it wouldn't make a TV show. It's nice that there are some normal people on like the woodsman and the couple that saved the old castle but obviously most of them are there for the entertainment.

bereal7 · 13/09/2015 12:57

Titry I don't even own a house. That doesn't mean I have to tear down those who are fortunate enough to have/build their own.

squoosh · 13/09/2015 12:59

It's an entertainment show, if people aren't entertained by it it doesn't necessarily mean they're jealous.

'You're jealous' is such a predictable response on MN.

bereal7 · 13/09/2015 12:59

Msadorable But so what if they have access to the £32k and want it to spend it on a cooker. They are not daft for that - it's just their preference, which their entitled to. Likewise you're entitled to not like the cooker but attacking their character is not necessary.

bereal7 · 13/09/2015 13:01

sqoosh if they were making comments about the show, I would agree , but most of these comments are bashing the people in the show for how they choose to spend their money.

honeyroar · 13/09/2015 13:01

I find 90% of the houses on there nowadays very ugly (as ugly as the square brick new builds someone was slagging off) and often far too big for the plot they're on. They're dull, plain walls and floor to ceiling glass. Some of them are lovely from inside looking out, but that's because you can't see the full ugliness when you're in it!

I also know someone that is building his own house and going on it. He got a chunk of money from the show towards the build too, he's nowhere near the freebie stage, so I can't comment on that. It wouldn't surprise me though.

I used to like the programme when it first started, and it was more about restoring big old historic houses. Nowadays it seems to be more about knocking the old house down and building an industrial sized greenhouse x house on the site that looks like a blot on the beautiful landscape.

I'm not a Kevin fan, but do admire his linguistic skills.

WhatTheJeffHasGoneOnHere · 13/09/2015 13:02

I never like the massive open spaces and the minimalism. They never look homely or lived in.

Backforthis · 13/09/2015 13:04

It's about design. If you want to see vast quantities of money spent on houses check out rightmove.

Sparklingbrook · 13/09/2015 13:07

I have had a word with myself and myself agreed that Grand Designs is crapola.

Loving that not liking something=jealousy on MN. Again.

squoosh · 13/09/2015 13:07

Yes I didn't mind it so much when they featured derelict historical buildings as well as minimalist new builds.

itmustbeglove · 13/09/2015 13:08

What I love is there's always a big drama accompanied by DM sad face and that it's unlikely to be finished, the budget has all good or something major will have to be imported form Norway and the owner is about to go bankrupt.

Roll on to KM at the end and houses are totally finished with amazing furnishings and full landscaped gardens. Where did all that money come from, an oil well in the garden?

squoosh · 13/09/2015 13:09

But Kevin McCloud has always taken himself so seriously.

'I can't help but wonder if Carol and Tom have somehow failed to understand the complexity of the soul of this building......'

Backforthis · 13/09/2015 13:09

Luckily ITV made 60 Minute Makeover so there's something for everyone.

FuckTheseSixFishInParticular · 13/09/2015 13:09

Some of the couples on it are awful, but I did laugh at the end of the most recent one when they showed a clip from the next episode of a guy saying how much he hated houses that were just big boxes with too much glass built by 'the white sofa brigade', only to cut back the the end shot of the man in his new house, as the camera panned across the big box with massive glass walls and a new white sofa!

Kudos to whoever edited that bit together!

squoosh · 13/09/2015 13:12

I'd rather be slapped in the face for 60 minutes than watch 60 Minute Makeover.

And I'd rather be slapped in the face for 60 minutes by Peter Andre's willy than have that horror crew vandalise my home.

Backforthis · 13/09/2015 13:14

'I'd rather be slapped in the face for 60 minutes by Peter Andre's willy than have that horror crew vandalise my home.'

There's probably a market for that too. Maybe Channel 5?

bettyberry · 13/09/2015 13:15

Sparklingbrook I was thinking that! Though my at spending 32k on a cooker was more to do with that would pay for my car, deposit on a house, new kit I need in the studio and leave a chunk left over to pay even more of the mortgage.

Since when did design have to cost so much money? I wonder if it really is good design because I was always under the impression (and worked by the rules in my own design job) good design isn't ostentatious or cost a fortune and is mostly hidden and certainly not noticed where as bad design you really do notice it!

You don't notice a well thought out, functioning kitchen but you do notice a bad one no matter how much money was spent on it.

squoosh · 13/09/2015 13:16

I'm thinking it's more E4

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 13/09/2015 13:18

having a negative opinion about something = jealousy oh piss off.

MissMarpleCat · 13/09/2015 13:21

I always think who the fuck is going to clean all that glass (on the glassy ones) and whose going to sweep the cobwebs (in the really tall ones)

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Swipe left for the next trending thread