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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Bananasin · 13/09/2015 15:58

We built our own house years ago and had considered a Huf haus, but having seen one put up and lived in on GD we were most put off the idea. Also - all those windows with no curtains? How does that work at nighttime?

The one episode I always wanted to see a follow up to was the Georgian style house in Farnham. I would love to know how that turned out

spanky2 · 13/09/2015 16:14

I want to know what happened to the man who was building his house with an inverted roof so it looked like wings. He fell over in the building site and broke his ankle and no-one came to his rescue! He also did the final finish on the roof before the house was water tight and the finish was ruined as it got wet. He also sold the family home without telling his wife and kids! I've tried fining him as I wonder if he ever finished it, or if his wife divorced him for making her and the kids homeless?

2rebecca · 13/09/2015 16:26

Agree that I don't understand why anyone wants a staircase without a banister/ barrier. It seems to show a huge lack of imagination and foresight. Do these people and their architects not have young or elderly relatives? I'm also not a fan of the one large room format, but living in Scotland and having teenage kids probably makes you appreciate small easy to heat rooms and people having their own space in a house.
I love the eco houses, but always want to know how economical the various features really are.
I also want to know more about how these people finance their houses and how much it really cost to build including working out what it would cost if you paid builders to do bits people do themselves.
We had an extension and that was traumatic enough. I have a friend whose husband built their house, but she was living in a partly finished building site for over 15 years.

Pipbin · 13/09/2015 16:49

I love watching GD.
I pass judgement on every choice they make, which is surely the whole point of the program.
This whole not liking = jealousy idea is generally the reserve of arrogant cocks and is often the argument given by aggressive Audi drivers.

I would love to see property shows where they have a budget of 150 grand for a family home, rather than half a million!
I agree - I'd love to see a episode of LLL where they have a budget of £150k

And Kevin McLoud is not a twat but a fertility god!!
We play the game at the end of the program about which way he will walk off after saying that the house was fucking hideous but making it sound like he liked it.

OddlyLogical · 13/09/2015 17:43

I love Grand Designs and I love Kevin

Doobigetta · 13/09/2015 17:52

I quite enjoy watching it, but it has started to really piss me off when they describe 6 bedroomed, multiple bathroomed houses with thousands of square feet of space built for three people to live in as "sustainable". Would there be room for everyone in the country to have a home of that size? No, there wouldn't. So I don't care how bloody efficient the heating is (and I don't believe heating double height living rooms can ever be efficient), it's not fucking sustainable and the people building them are deeply selfish, imo.

buggerthebotox · 13/09/2015 17:53

I missed the end of the one with the massive bungalow with swimming pool and I'm dying to know whether the owner managed to get hold of a massive sofa? I think 7 m or something?

Pantone363 · 13/09/2015 17:55

Ooooooooooo

I have gossip about people on GD.

DPs mate did some work at one of the Eco houses about two months after they finished filming. The owners were fucking freezing and called his mate in to plaster all the walls properly Grin

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 13/09/2015 18:00

I'm always baffled by why the GD participants seem to build houses that are only just big enough - they will have a master suite for themselves, a little bedroom for the baby, and that's it! No spare room, no room for the inevitable second baby, and the baby's room they do build never looks big enough for when the baby is a teenager with lots of stuff.

I wonder if they prioritise the expensive and beautiful fittings or expensive design features (gull wing roof, copper cladding etched) over space - but for me, if I was having a house built, space would be the key thing, even if that meant outfitting it on a much smaller budget. All the posh cupboard fittings and taps wouldn't make up for the family being crammed in top of one another, irritating the bejeezus out if each other.

I do love the programme, though - it's an hour of property porn, and I do watch it wishing I was the sort of person who could live in one of those houses, and keep it looking so beautiful, tidy and pristine. But I'm not - and I know I'm not - so any house I commissioned would need lots of storage, to put all the stuff away in, before Kevin came to call.

Who knows, maybe if he opened the wrong doors in the pristine houses, lots of crap would come pouring out - like Monica's closet on Friends!

Pipbin · 13/09/2015 18:05

I'm always baffled by why the GD participants seem to build houses that are only just big enough

See now I was about to post about why people always build houses with 6 bedrooms and a guest wing when they have one baby.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 13/09/2015 18:19

Pipbin - I suspect we are both right, and basically the participants never make the right sized house - but we each notice the thing that irks us more - and for me that's the just-enough-space mob, but for you it is the 6 bedrooms and a staff wing types.

AppleAndBlackberry · 13/09/2015 18:41

Exactly SDTG! The guy this week had 4 children and spent over a million pounds and he didn't build them a bedroom each, they had 3 between them.

londonrach · 13/09/2015 18:43

Tbh if you got kevin from gd coming you need at least 6 bedrooms....

Skiptonlass · 13/09/2015 19:16

After watching GD for years and always chuckling about the bad timing of the woman in the couple getting pregnant ... I found out I was pregnant the day the cranes rolled in with bits of house. Oh dear.

(I promise you that Kevin McCloud was not involved :) )

MummaGiles · 13/09/2015 19:17

Don't watch it then?

Muskey · 13/09/2015 19:21

I really hate the show. Nine times out of ten the people are so obnoxious. It makes me laugh that the same obnoxious people are the ones who decide they can project manage the build because they are too tight and what actually happens the builder actually sorts it all and then the obnoxious ones then claim they did it all. Also why are most of the houses so cold looking and sterile looking.

absolutelynotfabulous · 13/09/2015 19:32

muskey I agree. I love the show but I can't get excited about yet another cedar-faced open-plan box. Not homely at all. Those panes of glass must be a bugger in winter-you'd be looking out at blackness most of the time.

Merguez · 13/09/2015 19:36

If you don't like it, you don't have to watch it.

Personally I love it - a chance to see some interesting and unusual architecture along with all the dramas you get with building a house/financing it etc.

And yes, lots of the people are obnoxious, but that also makes it more entertaining too.

Still love the episode where the guy built a little house in the woods. ben-law.co.uk

Flutterbutterfly · 13/09/2015 19:40

God I love it. Stop being jealous. There are programs where people build a house under 100 k if you want to see less glamour.

Sparklingbrook · 13/09/2015 19:42

Nobody is jealous. Confused Just a bit bored of it which is why I stopped watching.

Flutterbutterfly · 13/09/2015 19:42

Skipton. I did the same....massive project house, two months after we got the keys pregnant!

Flutterbutterfly · 13/09/2015 19:44

The title says it's all a Stealth boast.... jealous!

Sparklingbrook · 13/09/2015 19:47

That makes no sense at all Flutter. I never understand why the jealous thing is always mentioned when people say they don't like something. Confused

HamaTime · 13/09/2015 19:50

I love it. There are some fab houses and some hilarious people. I loved the violin factory one, it was insane (and not soulless at all - it had a lovely library with, iirc, an open fire)

I remember one that had really odd windows because it had a million neighbours and they were trying not to overlook people and they ended up with a lovely little courtyard with a tree in it practically in the middle of their house. I liked the Skye one too but their bedroom was open plan Hmm. DP and I would last 5 minutes before there would be a job for Taggart.

Flutterbutterfly · 13/09/2015 19:51

The OP mentions building houses she could never afford to live in.

I think she's green!

She's not saying she doesn't like the program she is categorically saying it's all a stealth boast.

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