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Original poster

Who's watching the Home Show on channel 4?

131 replies

FluffyBunnyGoneBad · 30/07/2009 20:28

They want an extra 77K on top of the 100K cheque the owners have already given him?? He does this every week. It's

OP posts:
GreatUncleBulgaria · 30/07/2009 23:03

I'm with Saggy on the tiles, they look dreadful, not whqtyou expect from a professional architect. Was watching that new life in the country one earlier where the totally renovated a massive old rectory for 175k, total rip off for tonight's couple who seem to have a pretty stressful life as it is

Sherbert37 · 30/07/2009 23:03

There seems to be a glut of property shows at the moment where they rip out perfectly good furniture and rooms. Seems obscene in the current climate. I would love a kitchen like the one they took apart tonight.

Original poster
FluffyBunnyGoneBad · 30/07/2009 23:13

I liked the old one, there was nothing wrong with it. The property programmes on do annoy me, the auction one on BBC1 annoys me, they are peoples homes, probably reposessions and they are brought to make money on. It's sick in a way.

OP posts:
brimfull · 30/07/2009 23:17

she wasn't a boden wearer surely

definitely white stuff head to toe

Peaches174 · 31/07/2009 05:01

I want to be rich enough to spend £18,000 on a kitchen which sits in a spare room for a whole year!

They seemed like a v nice family and I hope renovation makes them happy but if was me (manage a lot of budgets and external contractors at work) would have gone through that budget with a fine tooth comb and told George 'i buy all my clothes from Reiss' Clarke to get busy negotiating!

An outrageous overspend IMO

LynetteScavo · 31/07/2009 10:04

i really coundlt live in a home like the one they ended up with - kitchen and sitting room in one. You'd have to wash up after every meal {shock]or you wounldn't be able to sit down and relax. I like to close the door on my messy kitchen, and go and sit in another room.

jeanjeannie · 31/07/2009 10:16

LOL@ entire thread - each week we watch and each week we shout at the telly saying everything that's been said here!

Those bloody bi-folding doors - Erm, when do we get weather nice/warm enough to open them up all the way? oh and how do you open a window in them - oh, you can't!

Agree with outrageous over-spend. Been better TV if he'd faced up to the challenge of making their home lovely with a paltry £100k

HerHonesty · 31/07/2009 10:17

yes but i am always mildly amused that now we cant make money from houses bbc1 have that heir hunters programme on...

noddyholder · 31/07/2009 10:17

I can't believe thats all he achieved for the money.Considering they already had the kitchen!

LynetteScavo · 31/07/2009 11:08

Actually - I like those doors...for that money I think he could have had a seemless floor that contniued out onto the area which he's decked.

noddyholder · 31/07/2009 12:01

The house was already a good size.they would have been better retaining the front dining room as a grown up living room and just knocking the back into one but no extension.then they coud have had an ensuite master in a loft conversion and as you say a better floor.i thought the big room was very average looking considering the cost.the utility would have been a good playroom with ds loo in it.The upstairs was too cramped for the rest

CybilLiberty · 31/07/2009 12:09

I thought the extension was tooo big. And too brown and lime green. Those lime green kitchen tiles were just 'meh'. Those 3 girls running around and squawking with no where for the adults to hide.

Their bedroom looked tiny, and I agree that 'boutique' look is dated now. I don't think she liked that room much, her grin looked a bit fixed.

SausageRocket · 31/07/2009 12:33

I didn't like the massive open plan bit. I like open plan to a degree but the 4 rooms in 1 will just look messy, especially if they are just 1 room in each corner of the space.

It would've made tonnes more sense to do a kitchen/diner with a family/play room off it with double doors that can be shut off if you want to have people round for grown up food (not dinner parties, natch) and not have them stare at dolls prams etc. You can leave the doors fully open for day to day family use. I agree with those who said the front formal dining room should have been turned into a grown up living room, a toy free zone.

Thandeka · 31/07/2009 12:46

yeah I thought the play area was redundant space since the kids had the playroom.

I also wondered where they would store the wicker furniture and cushions from outside in the winter- any money it would be the "play space"

SausageRocket · 31/07/2009 12:58

did they have a garage or something ? Was the wicker furniture that all weather stuff ?

PuppyMonkey · 31/07/2009 12:59

Oh I so agree with you all, I was so last night. I would be asking for a full breakdown on what was spent where. Was most of it his fee do you suppose?

I'm sure last series, it wasn't so extravagant. he'd ask folk for about £35,000 and then do them something really nice. Or did I just miss the expensive ones.

SausageRocket · 31/07/2009 13:03

I know that they are creating a 'home for life' and so values before and after, in theory, are irrelevant BUT if the homeowners are spending £177k then it would be useful to have an independent valuation before and after the works.

I agree that a brief financial breakdown would be useful. Presumably the homeowners do get a fully itemised breakdown off camera, I find it hard to believe that people hand over the money and don't want to see exactly where their life saving and remortgaging have actually been spent.

CybilLiberty · 31/07/2009 13:24

I wouldn't trust him. I bet 60 % of the budget went on Colefax and Fowler Boutique wallpaper for that pokey master bedroom.

PuppyMonkey · 31/07/2009 13:35

I could sort of understand that, Cybil - but I bet the interior products were supplied free or very cheap by the PR team, as they all got mentioned in the credits. So where else has the money gone?

MollieO · 31/07/2009 13:39

I don't see how values can be irrelevant even if you don't plan to move. You never know what is around the corner. You may have to move or you may need that money for something else.

All very well to spend that sort of amount if it is value for money. I didn't see anything last night that would constitute that.

SausageRocket · 31/07/2009 13:40

Well, he took most of the supporting walls out do a lot will have gone on steels and making good the structure but there is no way on this earth that the RSJ's justified the £177k spend.

I am gobsmacked that they already had the kitchen (ok, he fitted new worktops and tiles), so the £177k didn't even have to cover kitchen over and above fitting and worktops (prob £8k max)

LIZS · 31/07/2009 13:42

If you look at the website there is page after page(52 ) of "suppliers" who presumably discounted to get the reference (no mention of Ikea though!). I don't get why they have to have all new furniture though. Sure you'd want to replace some but you build up a collection of perfectly functional pieces and some fittings such as bathroom suite may be perfectly reusable(assuming he hasn't sunk his sledgehammer through them of course ). How amazing to form a perfect doorway in one blow, lol.

btw where did the colour-in wallpaper for the playroom come from ?

LynetteScavo · 31/07/2009 13:42

Yes CybliLiberty - It is very important to have expensive wall paper. The lady designer seemed rather keen to point that lstt last night.

And george seems to get the basics fundametally wrong. "oh I didn't realise the staris wouldn't fit up to the loft, so it's taken 10 days to work out we needed to move a wall. Time and money, blah, blah"

Use a tape emasure in the first place, you fool.

Give me Kevin McLeod (sp?) any day.

SausageRocket · 31/07/2009 13:42

I agree with you Mollie that I wouldn't want to spend money that wasnt adding significantly to the value of the house, especially in the case of such large sums.

I would seriously doubt that house increased by any more than £80-£90k, despite him spending twice that. That said I could be talking out of my arse there because I have no idea about house prices in the area they live (Hertford).

SausageRocket · 31/07/2009 13:44

Lynette that stairs fiasco was shocking. The whole point of having an architect on board is that they do serious PLANNING before anyone even opens their tool box. George didn't seem to have a handle on the planning aspect of things at all.