AIBU?
Grand Designs has lost it's focus. AIBU?
SecretLocker · 11/10/2018 17:33
I've watched this lovely programme since it began all those years ago. It's always been a fascinating programme, heavily focussed on building, design and all related subjects. There would be brief info on the people featured each week, with relevant nods when necessary to their financial situation or project setbacks etc.
This current series seems to have changed the balance, and now seems more interested in the personal lives of the couples and their extended families and friends. Too much airtime is taken away from the actual project and the progression of the build.
This week's episode was the worst by far - it just didn't get going. It kept bouncing between the relationship of the female of the project and her best friend, and the struggle of living with kids in a caravan.
Kevin just appears to be conducting interviews now. There was barely any of the building process shown, and I gave up after the second ad break.
Anyone else agree?
NewYoiker · 11/10/2018 21:52
Ah I'm saving this thread to play grand designs bingo later! Watched the one in the Malvern hills last night where the pilot had to pay 40k to install utilities as he hadn't looked at a map and they bought the land whilst in NZ
4oD have loads on there!
Any other good ones ?
kayakingmum · 11/10/2018 22:04
I thought last night's episode was good, but the fact is it wasn't really a grand design in the end as they couldn't afford to build the original design. The editors etc therefore decided to focus on the human element which I thought was quite interesting, rather than focus on a fairly simple house.
I did think it really sad to see a couple apparently grow apart during the building of the house.
Myshinynewname · 11/10/2018 22:06
We play this too!
GD baby
Second baby while still in temp house / caravan
Absolutely no more money in budget (accompanied by scenes of DH of couple painting acres of wall on his own in a building site)
Miraculous more money found from bank of mum and dad
another Winter in the caravan
Windows behind schedule
Workers on site with nothing to do
Kevin raising eyebrows at a terrible part of the plan
Kevin being proved completely right / wrong
Final scenes in ‘beautiful modern home perfect for family living’ with absolutely no toys or books
MrsMoastyToasty · 11/10/2018 22:23
Don't forget Grand Designs Abroad
- couple don't speak the locals language
-KM speaks the locals language fluently
-builder wants to use local building methods
-owner wants cutting edge building technology
-builder goes off in a huff
-owner gets home of their dreams after living for 3 years in a windowless shed usually occupied by goats
- locals smirk at antics of British couple with more money than sense.
BrightYellowDaffodil · 11/10/2018 22:24
Ooh, I love Grand Designs! There's the odd duff episode (one in recent years about a couple building near an abbey - they both irritated me and the house was awful) but generally I find the design aspect fascinating, even if it's not what I'd want to live in myself. I absolutely adore a good restoration :geek:
My GD bingo is:
Kevin being sceptical.
A pregnancy.
The family having to live in a static caravan on the coast of somewhere windswept and unspeakable while the bloke fulfils his "I want to rip it all out and start again" fantasies and him happily spending hours fannying about on a digger in the pissing rain, oblivious to a partner who wants to batter him to death with an RSJ (honestly, how more episodes don't end in the house being subject to a divorce settlement I don't know).
Going vastly over budget because they'd planned for it all costing 2-and-6 and it's actually 4.7 million.
Experimental and/or innovative building materials.
The couple assuming that building a four-story, eight bedroom mansion on a site hewn out of a rock face will take six months despite the fact that they don't have planning permission yet.
Not being "in by Christmas"
Stuff being made a long way away ("Despite the house being on the Isle of Wight, the windows are being made on the east coast of Fiji").
At least one half of the couple taking on project management, despite not having a scrap of experience.
A builder rolling his eyes.
Compromising on design aesthetics due to lack of cash.
I do love this thread! I love it that he really hates most of the things. There was one in an old cinema and he spent ages trying to persuade them to Keep the original floor and they ripped it up. 
CinnaMessala · 11/10/2018 22:42
Does anyone remember the one with a very particularly picky woman (ha, that narrows it down) who spent an absolute fortune on windows? They were like the Ferrari of windows and Kevin was slightly in awe of the sort of budget the windows took? And then she took him to a window and said but look at how they refract the light... and I think Kevin had a slight orgasm on camera then and there.
I think it was handmade and the mad woman had it imported from somewhere?
Does anyone know what sort of glass it was / what to google?
fabulousathome · 11/10/2018 22:50
Years and years ago DH and I loved the Huf House episode.
It's a modern kit house from Germany that you order from a factory to your preferred size. We even went to the place just outside London where they have a sample house built.
It was beautiful and its still out dream to have one built.
Yabbers · 11/10/2018 22:52
Not allowed to watch it, for my own health and sanity.
My job is one of the professions they NEVER hire because they think they can do it themselves. And they badly fuck it up but still claim they were right to do it themselves.
I remember watching one guy who was an ex-Royal Marine. I wondered what would happen if I showed up at a RM base and demanded to be admitted, with no training, no experience whatsoever. But nooooo, everyone can do my job. 😡
4yearsnosleep · 11/10/2018 22:53
I kind of get where you're coming from & Kevin seems to have dramatically mellowed between last series and this one. However I really loved last weeks house. I think because they were so focused on the Building being allergy friendly, they didn't get tangled in ridiculous aspirations, it was just a really lovely house 🤔🤷🏽♀️
MissLingoss · 11/10/2018 23:49
My two favourites are the woodsman's house and the house on Skye. Both small in scale but just absolutely perfect for their location and owners.
Mine too. And the young Welsh couple who rebuilt a derelict cottage in the middle of the foot and mouth epidemic. They were local to the area, and quite ordinary - I think the woman was a nurse - not well to do professionals who parachuted in.
When there's a surprise baby, the house is always entirely unsuitable for toddlers and small children - open staircases with no handrails, second bedroom a long way from the master, and so on.
5foot5 · 12/10/2018 00:16
GD drinking bingo is a ritual here
Have you seen this
Grand Designs Drinking Game
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