Grand Designs has lost it's focus. AIBU?

[SecretLocker]

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?

[Rockmysocks]

Maybe he's had other grand designs going on!

[froomeonthebroom]

The Malvern Hills man is a friend of a friend and he was literally broken by the time they finished. We drive past the house all the time and I'm not sure it was worth it tbh.

[Satsumaeater]

It constantly amazes me what people will put themselves through - not sure it's always worth it, although some of the houses are beautiful.

This week's one drove me mad. If the woman's friend was an architect why on earth didn't they just want until she was available? They said she was too busy at first. And the woman was soooo self-indulgent. Putting her family through all that. The GD team must have waived the "not unexpected baby" clause on that one though as they were stuck in the caravan for so long,

I'm too lazy to even get my kitchen redone because I hate mess and upheaval. Oh well Each to their own. The allergy house was good although I can't quite see the point of making the house airtight if you then open the windows out to London pollution

[Satsumaeater]

wait not want

[Becles]

@fabulousathome I loved the Huf Haus episode too. I'm on their website all the time dreaming of the installation being project managed by an efficient German who sorts out the British workmen.

I also really love a very early episode with the old electric generating station. Real love and ambition there.

[glueandstick]

I have a hankering for a grand design and quite fancy another baby. Massive crush on Kev.... let’s just combine it all 😂😂

[PlasticAlternative]

The Huf House one and similar are not on much as the job goes far too well. Precision built abroad, installed by experts, look lovely-job done.

An ex-colleague of mine was on one GD episode. You didn't see her much and the couple had huge arguments and fallings out with the neighbours.

I remember one where the woman was very proud of having two super expensive fitted ovens....to make her kitchen symmetrical.
Kevin was a bit

[GerdaLovesLili]

I just caught an episode of Impossible Builds , it was just like GD used to be, concentrating on the build process (and they seemed to have found a couple who weren't teeth-itchingly annoying)

Yes! The windows were "wrong" but no she wasn't unexpectedly pregnant at the end.

But Charlie Luxton is not Kevin Mc.

[MissLingoss]

....dreaming of the installation being project managed by an efficient German who sorts out the British workmen.

There was one where the woman wanted a special German roof installed by German workmen. Which then leaked, and you could see the British workmen trying not to snigger. That couple did dreadful things to a perfectly inoffensive 19th century house, and I couldn't imagine who would want to buy it if they ever needed or wanted to sell.

And another couple who thought planning permission was only for plebs, not people like them.

[TheSteakBakeOfAwesome]

The absolute best ones were the one in the mews where they pissed off every single neighbour completely, the boat monstrosity from recycled shit he'd found on ebay where he pissed every builder off spectacularly and generally the ones where everything goes completely and totally tits up.

I've never got into the newer ones as much as the old classic disaster movie ones.

[WhichSchoolForDS]

I've always found it tried to over dramatise the difficulties of living in a caravan (especially when there aren't even any kids involved).

[Whatthefoxgoingon]

I’ve been in the mews one (one in west London?), it’s bloody awful. This was the one backing onto train tracks, tiny bedrooms and house squeezed into a stupidly small site. There seemed to be some sort of water feature that had failed and gone mouldy too

[NewYoiker]

@Whatthefoxgoingon really? The one with the dance floor? That's kind of sad.

I'm off work sick today and I'm watching grand designs in bed all day. Just watched one in London where they demolished 17 garden fences and kept their neighbours sweet with banana bread and it was meant to be eco and hippy but it was made from concrete 😂

[StripyDeckchair]

I always, always end up fixating on the staircases. They are invariably open tread, highly polished metal and glass, arching gracefully over some brushed steel spikes and all I can do is imagine the terrible accidents one could have on them. How can anyone have a staircase like that if they have small children?!

[NewYoiker]

@TheSteakBakeOfAwesome I watched one on Cumbria where they kept the inner walls? And then built a monstrous house around it ran out of money and went bankrupt then a neighbour leant about a million to fix it

[Villainelle]

I enjoy GD bingo. We look for:

• the couple are an artist and an architect

-Budget is £600,000
-the windows are late
-some part of the building is being delivered from Antwerp

[EssentialHummus]

some part of the building is being delivered from Antwerp



That west London-mews-dancefloor basement one seems to be one every time I switch on the telly. I often wonder how they're getting on and how many of their neighbours are speaking to them!

[EssentialHummus]

*to be on, not "one"

[Whatthefoxgoingon]

NewYoiker

That’s the one. The windows were very well insulated so you couldn’t hear the train noise but what a depressing view of the tracks (and millions of rats no doubt) Narrow staircases, whole place was claustrophobic despite having quite a few rooms. That dance floor seemed a total waste of space. Everything looks bigger on tv. The house was definitely not worth pissing your neighbours off for, it was very clear why they objected so vehemently.

[DonDrapersOldFashioned]

I don’t know how anyone can fancy Kevin, the nervous tic lip licking is so revoltingly offputting. [bleugh]

This week’s episode was v odd. I do think they made the first architect look a bit foolish when KMc asked him why when the budget was £250k, he had designed a £450k house for them. His answer wasn’t exactly great, something along the lines of ‘that’s mostly the costs of the ground works and reinforcements for the basement’. Riiiiight, so it’s expensive because you designed it that way. So if that design is almost twice their budget, why offer it to them? Why not come up with something more affordable that doesn’t require a load of extremely costly structural work before the house even gets out of the ground? Then of course, in swoops the the award winning Big London architect who just happens to be a friend of the yokels, tonsave the day.

They couldn’t afford the first ‘Grand Design’ which is completely fine. It’s nice to see innovative builds on a budget, especially when there’s the story like hers with the family connection. I’m not sure how necessary it was to show the first bit with the original house design and the original architect.

[CinnaMessala]

@Jakethecob Thank you thank you thank you! I have been asking this question in RL for years and I’m not sure why it never occurred to me to post online. It’s been driving me nuts for years. And now, it’s just a click away on amazon prime

[Cheeseplantandpickle]

I love it when Kevin speaks French and Italian.

[DonDrapersOldFashioned]

Oh god yes, the west London dance floor mews house was ghastly whatthefox. It looked pokey and overdesigned on the tv so goodness knows what it looks like in RL.

[SleepingBooty]

I watch the 1st and last 15 mins of it, the middle is boring.

[DuggeesWoggle]

Charlie Luxton is hotter than our Kev. I love his Homes By The Sea program that shows off beautiful posh houses that I will never be able to afford but would dearly love to live in.