The Great House Giveaway Channel 4

[LadyEloise]

Anyone watching.
I've enjoyed the 2 episodes I've seen.

The first thing I would have done is sell the pews, organ and the amazing wood panelling. This would have increased the budget. There was some fabulous stuff there.

I felt sorry for them. It was a bit unfair as that was much too much for an inexperienced couple to do in 6 months.

Glad they got some money though as they both worked hard and together so they deserved some recompense.

I agree they should have put some effort into selling all the pews and panelling.

Another huge loss! 4-5pm weekdays is becoming my shout at the telly time. It's so annoying to watch but I can't stop

Today's couple seemed committed at first. However, they were slap dash with the budget and started to run out of time so they became despondent and gave up. Such a shame as the work they did do was good and with a bit more time and money they could have finished and made a profit.

The plumber/gas guy should have known that it can be difficult to get a mortgage on a house with no boiler, surely? That can seriously limit who can buy the house. The £1500 they spent on the decorator should have gone on the boiler. Anyone can paint!

Arrrrgh!

I don't understand how they wouldn't sweep the floor, wipe down the kitchen counter top, remove the left over broken tiles on the floor in the corner and remove the gunge from the bath.
Make some kind of effort.

They so often seem to start off keen and then lose interest. Doing up a wreck of a house is hard work but surely they should have the sense to realise this.

You just have to do as much of the work as you can, even trying to learn new skills as you go. My DH taught himself to plaster and lay bricks when we had a wreck of a house years ago. Painting is something you can always do yourself and, obviously, to save money should

I wonder what the viewing figures for this show are. I've told a few friends and family who are watching it mainly to see how bad they are!

It's a bit like CDWM. You don't watch it for the excellent food, you want to see their reactions to shit served on a plate

I didn't think today's couple had a hope in hell, but they pulled it off. Hats off to them.

When the man said he had flu and pneumonia it made me wonder if he had covid in the early days

I know the girl that took part in that one. The plan was to get a kitchen they'd seen for £500 but the carpenter the bloke booked said he couldn't fit it, something about having a holiday booked and needing a rigid pre built kitchen so there wasn't much option but to get one off the shelve. Would have been cheaper to sack him off and try do it themselves

What's with the ripping out of perfectly serviceable kitchen cabinets, sinks and bathroom sanitary ware ?
New doors could replace old kitchen doors but keep the old carcasses.
I'm watching at the stupidity. They are trying to make a profit yet don't sit down together and work out a plan to maximise it.
I wish the presenter would tell them in plain English do not rip stuff out unnecessarily.
He just comments to camera and watches the disaster unfold.

Plus the impact on the environment with all that stuff going to landfill !!!

To be fair, he usually tries to steer them away from daft decisions, but a big part of the show’s appeal for a lot of viewers is watching them fuck up.

Like Simon said, it was the perfect quick flip opportunity. A couple of months work tarting it up to get it sold.

I would have just retiled the kitchen and bathroom, taken the wardrobes out of the bedroom, decorated everywhere and put in new flooring. Carpets make a massive difference. The panelling was absolutely fine! I was horrified watching him rip out the perfectly good kitchen carcasses. If they were insistent on a new kitchen they could at least have repurposed the old one to make a really good utility room in the basement. It's criminal that they left the basement untouched.

LagneyandCasey ( great name )

It was utterly criminal to leave the basement like that as you say.
But why did the presenter not SHOUT do not pull out the bath and kitchen. S p e l l i t o u t
c l e a r l y to them. It would have been a doddle for the joiner.
Give them some good guidance.

Again I'm sad for the environment at the unnecessary binning of perfectly good stuff. They've obviously not heard if Greta Thunberg and her crusade.

I'm going to watch the episodes I've recorded from last week then I'll stop recording / watching as it's too annoying to watch stupidity and the presenter not giving the advice to the participants that he tells us, the viewers.

But he does give the advice to the participants. It can only go so far. Ultimately if you just get two novices and tell them exactly what to do, you haven’t got much of a show.

In fairness he did tell them just to do what was really necessary like the electrics. Unless they were really thick they should have understood. It was pretty obvious they would not be able to have the house rewired, put in a new kitchen and bathroom, paint every etc for £10,000.

I would have left the panelling in the hallway. Ok it's not everyone's taste but a buyer could remove it. Not only did the guy remove it but he removed the plaster underneath. Just why?

The kitchen only needed new doors and possibly worktops (I didn't really notice what they were like). I doubt I would have done anything much to the bathroom. The tiles weren't to my liking but they were ok.

The thing is you can spend a fortune on a property but if the buyer is not keen on things they just rip them out. I know someone who had a new kitchen fitted less than a year before they sold their house. It was quite an expensive kitchen. The buyer ripped it out and replaced it 6 months after moving in.

The 2 yesterday really annoyed me. Why did he take it on when he worked long hours? The woman just wanted to rip everything out which was idiotic. The house just looked boring when she had finished. She didn't even put a shower in the bathroom and a silly corner bath!

I do wonder if some of them see people ripping things out and smashing them up and think ‘Ooh, that looks fun!’ and don’t take time to think about whether it’s necessary.

".......he did tell them them just to do whatever was necessary..."

I really felt it needed to be spelled out to them what was necessary.

@LadyEloise

".......he did tell them them just to do whatever was necessary..."

I really felt it needed to be spelled out to them what was necessary.

Well they must be pretty stupid then. They knew what the budget was so should have found out what it costs to rewire a house and then see what else they could afford.

Maybe if the two had been young I might just have agreed but they were both in their 40's!

We watched a couple of episodes today. Where are they getting the huge figures we are told are spent on fees from? It doesn't seem to stack up.

@wowfudge

We watched a couple of episodes today. Where are they getting the huge figures we are told are spent on fees from? It doesn't seem to stack up.

Yes I'd like to see a proper breakdown of fees as well. They are using an auction finance company to raise the money needed so obviously those fees are included.

But I do think Simon tries to advise people against their poor choices. he's quite clear what needs doing (eg rewiring) and he did tell Friday's couple not to remove the panelling. He told them their budget was only £10000 because it only needed rewiring and a bit of decorating.

He was also quite clear on that Welsh house with the cheeky woman who wanted to build a kitchen extension that it didn't need doing and they didn't have the budget for it. When she realised the mistake she'd made she then got her boyfriend who'd done the work to to put in a retrospective bill for £7000 and wiped out the whole budget.

I think a lot of these people just think they know better!

She was an absolute cow - wanted it all her own way and said no to every quote he obtained then tried to screw him over to pay her boyfriend and claimed he wasn't pulling his weight. I think he learned a few lessons on that project.

I was absolutely disgusted watching this on Friday,there is always two sides to a story,the show cut most of it out (shame on you lot),this woman wanted everything her way,including having her boyfriend,son and father doing the work,it was her idea to take the kitchen out and also the bathroom.This is the other side of the story.On Fridays he had got quotes but she rejected all of them, they were told it would need a rewire and he had got a quote of £2500 for all the electrics, plumbing and gas work including a brand new combi boiler, and all that work would have been done in a week. who in their right mind would turn that down?the kitchen cost them £1600 which he could have fitted in 2 or 3 days but that was held up through no fault of his own.
He made all new skirting boards and architraves for the whole house at a cost of £200 but she didn't like it so bought what she liked which will have cost upwards of £700.
She even turned down his friend's quote of £300 for all the plastering that needed doing and that would have been done in a day which she said on camera.
I know him personally and have had work done by him so I know he knows what he's talking about,
He is convinced that if he hadn't had both his hands tied behind his back then the total cost would have been no more than £6000 and it would have been completed in under 2 months, and I have no reason to doubt him because he does this kind of thing for a living (the company he worked for at the time specialise in refurbishment work)

@Speaksmymind I did not like the woman on Friday at all. She was a bossy know all. To have the attitude of "rip it out, rip it out" was just stupid.

Mind you the guy was the one who took the panelling off (why) and the plaster underneath. No need at all. Also why did he take it on when he worked so much?

The show knew before filming started that he would go weekends,and through the weekif he could,end of day he has his family to support unlike her.End of day she wanted him gone so her family could do it,in a work place it would be regarded as construtive dismisal.

Speaksmymind We can only comment on what we're shown. Of course there will be things we don't know, six months are squeezed into 45 minutes.

Most of the pairings have very different
skills, backgrounds, lives and commitments. Having one working 60+ hours a week while one is studying, and can presumably work around their studies, is asking for trouble as one will invariably put in more time than the other. Having family and friends help is great but when there's an imbalance in that it causes friction too.

If they used real life couples, friends, family the outcome would probably be a lot better, but they want the friction that putting two strangers together can cause so the viewers keep tuning in.