grand designs: why?

[MousyMouse]

are there (almost) never polish builders shown?

There was another sitting room just above the kitchen.

The top room was for ... well ... looking out over the views.

(late to the party as ever)

I LOVED IT too! Thought the couple were really nice, so it's good to see that we have corroboration on Lee being kind. I really liked that 1/2 of couple was the showy, extrovert, and the other 1/2 was a quieter, thinker type. They just seemed to fit nicely.

The building was amazing, and a real achievement to get it finished so quickly. However, it does piss me off on these shows that they go so far over budget with no compunction. I just think it sends out a really bad message in these days of squeezed credit/high personal debt.

anyway, yep, loved the building, but think it's totally unliveable, alas. I know I am a piglet, but there is no way that people will really live that far away from the kitchen, so I predict that the top room will go largely unused, that they'll 'live' in the cube and just shuffle into the tower to sleep. Also, the thinker chap was what - 50? There's no way his knees will be up to all that walking up and down for long. Suspect it'll be rented out or on market soon .

I must getting old because I also said, 'my knees couldn't cope with all those stairs'

I suspect the idea of having a bathroom and bedroom On every floor is with future renting in mind.

Anyone with knowledge of the London property market like to guess how much it could worth?

I've got £50 in my purse, Dp has £40 on him and we really like the place. Do you think they'll take that?

London - 3 bed victorian terraces in zone 2 go for anything from 500k to a million...

I don't know how they could sell it though - they would need to get 3 million for it, and a family couldn't live there. No garden, too many stairs, it wouldn't be feasible. And the lift was just pathetic - it wouldn't fit a double buggy. Or a motability scooter.

It's hardly student accommodation

I suppose some corporate deal could be made where visiting executives could use it - each getting a bedroom/bathroom, with some poor servant living in the very oddly placed fourth bedroom just under the viewing room.

I suspect (but don't know) that the "loan" of 500,000 came from the quiet partner, and the building was bought only by the more active one (sorry, can't remember their names), as he seemed to be the one who "owned" it.

I was also irritated by the angst about money while spending millions . It was a bit unrealistic, though I suppose if you have that sort of money there are much worse things to do with it.

The 360 degree view would sell it to a rich foreign buyer I am sure.

I can see them getting well over 3 million for it. It's got at least 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, large bespoke kitchen multipile choices for reception rooms. But that view alone will command a very high price tag.

I thought they were lovely people, so passionate about the building and getting it right.
But can you imagine slobbing around that kitchen in your pjs with everyone in a 100metre radius being able to look right in and see you! Why does no-one ever ask these people in glass boxes about privacy?!
Also, who's going to sleep / stay in all those immaculate bedrooms and bathrooms?!
And god help the cleaner (cos they didn't look the type to clean it themselves!) who has to lug a hoover around the place!
All in all I loved it but couldn't imagine actually living in it.

I wonder if they'll have a small hoover on every floor, neatly tucked away in one of those concealed cupboards similar to the ones in their dressing room?

I thought they were really lovely guys too. Both very passionate about the building - but in completely different ways. Lee all bubbly and eager to show it off and Graham charmingly quiet about it, but you could see he was equally proud of it.

Open Letter

Dear Lee and Graham,

Please may I come and visit you and your wonderful water tower house. I can bring macaroons if you would like.

Kind Regards,

Cahoots (No 1 Fan)

Dear Lee and Graham

May I come and visit you too - please?

Ola (No 1-&-a-bit fan, after Cahoots)

What were their jobs??

The chap with grey hair (not Lee who was in charge of most of it it seemed) was CEO of a conservation charity I think. I'm not sure if Lee was a property developer as his full time job or did it as well as something else.

I thought it was stunning, but impractical. If you wanted to take a cup of coffee up to the viewing room, it would be pretty much cold by the time you got it there. And I was a bit about the big sliding glass doors on the 'cube' that went the height of two rooms, so you could open the doors at the living level, and the rain could be blowing in at the bedroom level, and you wouldn't know. Plus, you wouldn't be able to have the bedroom window open at night, because someone could put a ladder up and push open the window at the lower level, and break in.

I was very cross with the attitude of the previous week's couple - they seemed utterly self-obsessed and couldn't care less about their neighbours - and I am very surprised indeed that they were allowed to build so close to their boundary. But in the end, I didn't think the house was as much of an eyesore as I thought it was going to be. [damningwithfaintpraise]

Wow - stunning build, amazing views.

But ......

..... everything everyone has said about it being impractical (though I wouldn't say no if someone offered it to me). Though it would keep you fit if you stayed away from the lift.

Agree nice couple ... but how on earth are the pair of them ever going to utilise so much space ? At any one time a huge percent will just be sat there empty with no-one it it I would happily volunteer to help them out with that and think we could probably avoid each other quite easily

Can anyone remember what the final project cost was? I know he was very cagey with old Kev, but what was the ballpark? £2.6M is in my mind for some reason.

I liked it and loved them, but what a bizarre living space!

I had a feeling he paid 350k for it, and the build cost was over 2 million.

But did that build cost include the ground works? And rent of the site. And scaffolding?

He was very cagey - the cost of the fixtures and fitting in the seven bathrooms along with the kitchen must have been way above the cos of an average house, I would have thought.

He was a bit vague but Kev pushed him to the £2m mark. So probably more than that.

He could probably rent the top bit out for photography/film shoots. The views were stunning.

about the big sliding glass doors on the 'cube' that went the height of two rooms, so you could open the doors at the living level, and the rain could be blowing in at the bedroom level, and you wouldn't know.

I didnt think there was a bedroom level on the cube, there was a kitchen downstairs and a living room upstairs

Those sliding glass doors are still perturbing me, i can imagine the pigeons that originally lived in the tower flying right in when they're open, and shitting everywhere..
..Plus, how often is it warm enough in this country, to remove one of the walls in your house? I didn't even manage to take my cardi off this year!

You're right Bruffin - but the point about the doors opening on both levels meaning that the rain or wind could be wreaking havoc in the other room, and you wouldn't know, stays the same.

Bit late I know, but I didn't see the point of the cube at all. Surely they had room for all the rooms they wanted in the tower? The tower itself was gorgeous though.

I suspect it was because they knew that the living accomodation in the tower would be very inconvenient to use, so they wanted the 'day' accomodation together and easily usable. But that could just be me being very cynical.

...or if they decide to rent out rooms or run a b&b they would need space for breakfast...