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?

DonDraper'soldfashioned, thank you so much for the link. I've been wondering what happened to that house. The man stuck in my brain after he came home and told his wife that he'd sold their house without telling her.

This my favourite thread ever

Did anyone see at the end of last night's episode that KM is returning to the cob house?

I am irrationally excited about this, remember watching the episode years ago and they barely got the build off the ground, it was so frustrating spending an hour watching them do naff all due to weather etc. So excited to see if it's finally finished (yes I know I'm a saddo).

kikashi, I think so many come up for sale for refinancing reasons. So many of the featured self builders seem to go way over budget because they can’t ‘scrimp at the end and compromise the aesthetic/quality/style’ and then find that they simply cannot afford the repayments for all those stretched to the limit loans. They envisage these houses as long term family homes and convince themselves that the overspend doesn’t matter for that reason but apparently forget that in the short-medium term they will have to repay the additional borrowings and it will HURT.

Does anyone else watch the start and then fast forward to the last ten minutes? The bit in the middle is too stressful for me (the best thing about GD is it has convinced MrNC he doesn't want to build his own home after all, so I can put up with watching it!).
Also are there multiple episodes where one of the couple get cancer, or do we just keep finding the same one?

Love this thread. I like most others have been watching it since the beginning. Started watching it when I just started living with my boyfriend now I'm married to him living in Ireland with 3 kids . It's one the only programmes that's held my interest over the years. Love getting all the reminders of grand designs from years ago. One that's stuck with me was from grand designs abroad it was an irish guy trying to renovate a castle folly on an island in a lake. It went no where really he got so far and ran out of money but I knew the castle from when I was child so was disappointed it never worked. It's still there pretty much back to ruins.

On this series I like that kevin is doing more about the people involved always felt that side was missing from the earlier series. Last night's was horrendous especially as a family home my kids would be spooked going to bed at night with all those dark corners and oppressive celings. He was deep sea diver surely he should have been craving light and openess

I’m sat here watching now.
I’m wondering how much being a deep sea diver pays and can I retrain.

I remember the Irish castle one, Dulra. He was an actor. It’s a shame that it’s back to ruins, I seem to recall that he’d sunk a fair few hundreds of thousands into it too. What a waste.

In fact, this blog talks about a loan of 1.2 million

VisitorsEntrance my dh said it pays very very well but comes with a lot of risks. After looking at the footage of it last night you could never pay me enough to do it

More castle info here looks like the funding fell through thanks to the financial crisis.

I guess you ase away from your family for months on end and putting your life at risk.

I watched a repeat last night of the one where the husband has been diagnosed with a brain tumour, and they’ve decided to move to the country and self-build a massive house in pursuit of a ‘stress free lifestyle’. Also he’s in IT, it’s about 2001 and they’re ‘future proofing’ by installing hundreds of meters of computer cables so the house can be ‘networked’. Hmm. Bet that was worth it.

I suspect that some of the builds end up with more usable footage than others - the cameras are only there sometimes and so are at the mercy of being told when something interesting is happening. Haven't watched yesterday's yet, (apprentice was on) but the others were good this year

I kind of liked it in the end.

What was all the green stuff growing in the ceiling and the brown stains running down the walls at the top?
That house gave me the heebie geebies because it looked filthy.
I'm freaking out about the concrete bunker.

Bellini, I bet the cobb house was finished this year after the hot summer we had. I really liked this one.

@Spankyoumuchly it did look dirty didn't it?! I'm watching the linekilns one on all4 :)

Just read the whole thread. Love it. Hated last night's though! It was just so dark inside and grey everywhere. Hideous, just hideous.
We built our own house 13 years ago. We love it. We still live here and will as long as we can. It was finished but we are still making our way round the garden as we have sloping site and never got round to turning most of it from virgin field!

Nope, I don't like the way KM speaks to women. In the early episodes he was blatantly sexist. I'm afraid that entirely put me off him.

Though actually jealous he is so talented if I'm honest.

Talking of honest: I fucking hate that word when referring to buildings. Fucksake!

But honest needs to go into GD bingo.

I too did not like last nights 'honest' concrete bunker. Drab, dull and depressing. I was almost on board when he was talking about the curvy concrete at the skate oark, but this house had none of that.

I didn't like the previous weeks one either. Should have been one house on that plot, then it would have been amazing.

I long for a beautiful house, well built, with new tech like when they first started building with SIP systems.
One house I remember I think was in the Cotswolds? They had to be very careful about it fitting in. I think she was a vet. It was a simple house, but beautiful. Right next to the road. Lovely little porch.

I surprised myself by how much I liked the concrete bunker. You have to remember that the house isn’t finished - they said they envisage moving in in another six weeks. It’s been hurriedly dressed for filming. That’s why it looks a bit spartan. I reckon that if they’d only waited to film till they’ve actually moved in, it would look more inviting and thought through. I hope they return and film again in a year’s time.

I would have wanted more skylights in there though personally. I agree with pp that it looks very dark.

The very noughties three matching plants in pots in a row outside the house made my teeth itch. That’s got to be set dressing but argh, come on, you can’t put something from the Next Home & Garden catalogue circa 2001 outside architecture like that. Even temporarily.

Hated last nights.
Does anyone remember the one in France where they filled tires up with soil or was it concrete and the sad one where the husband died

Was the one with the tyres the guy who made curved wooden lampshades?

longtompot, I think you’re talking about the Border Oak cottage in Pembridge, Herefordshire. The oversized oak porch based on the church’s gate where the couple got married? That one was a bit disengenous, tbh. She was/is the daughter of the oak framing company that built the house. Her house was one of 3 on the site. It was basically an ad for Border Oak developments. Instead it was sold to the audience as a sweet, naive newlywed couple building an artisan house. Not quite true.

They are lovely, well crafted houses but they are a ‘developer’ of sorts, buying up building plots in pretty villages and building (very expensive) new houses all over Herefordshire.

Oh and she works for Border Oak too (did then, does now).