Your Home Made Perfect

[Halsall]

Anyone watching? Bench Seat Man has gone!

I really didn't like the other design - dark and fussy.

Angela Scanlon saying Gosport feels like Dubai 🤣

I find white a bit sterile, and that bench seating is going to be really uncomfortable, but I think this design really works.

I have a white kitchen island and worktops (in rented) and I panic every time I spill something on it, especially the orangey oil from a take away. It comes off, but it's always an oh shit moment. I'd not choose it for myself.

I liked both designs but did think they'd go for the blue one.

I've said it before on another thread, but I have a total girl crush on Angela Scanlon. I just wish I could be her best friend and hang out with her, plus I think she's beautiful!

I'm really amazed how far they pushed the envelope... That kitchen was as modern and minimal as you can get. I did like their dark wood floor, good choice

I thought they’d go with the second design which I thought was more interesting. I actually wouldn’t have chosen either one & would have loved to have seen what Laura came up with. Didn’t think the two tonight were a patch on her. And practically double their budget. Just have the budget decided before!

I too think the dark wooden floor was nicer.
I HATE bench seating. It's so uncomfortable if you're sitting on the bench part.
I thought the male architect's design was the one they'd go for.

I liked the floor, good choice, hated the bench seating and I have a huge crush on Angela, she is just wonderful and so natural.

I couldn’t agree more about bench seating. When we redid our kitchen the design team kept trying to put bench seating in. No just no.

I do get the budget extension thing.

We’re similar age to the people on today’s show. We wouldn’t get another loan / mortgage now as don’t expect to / want to work long enough to repay. It makes sense that you have cash from savings or inheritance but you don’t want to spend it all in one go, as you know it will never be replaced so you set a budget based on how much of it you are willing to spend.

I didn’t think the new kitchen had enough ‘kitchen’ space and didn’t like their new table but it was a vast improvement on what they had & reckon it would work for what they wanted.

I’d love to go on this show to sort out our awkward kitchen / conservatory more imaginatively but, as above, am reluctant to sink a lot of ££ in. Plus I would get the lovely Angela Scanlon visiting and could tempt her into being MY new BFF.

They said they could up the budget due to an extra £45k inheritance from one of their dads?

The blue one definitely seemed more them, and took on a lit if what they said they wanted but they appeared to have a complete turnaround and choose Angela's. Agree about their choice of flooring - much nicer.

They must've had a massive de clutter unless the living room is piled high!

I thought that maybe the wood floor wouldn't come in on budget but when budget went out the window then all things became possible. I preferred the design option they went with.

The overall impression of their extension is great, but some of the detail not quite so much. I'll never be a fan of bench seating. And did they have a window that actually opened, or just the glass door?

I also much preferred their choice of the dark wood floor, although to me the beautiful armoire looked a bit incongruous in all that white.

I think the little window looked like it had an opener but maybe my imagination.

It's maybe the restrictions the programme sets, but it would have been good for them to say we have £100k but we want everything done including decoration.

I agree the armoire was lovely but it meant them dropping the extension down a couple of steps (not the best with young children) and then taking out the ceiling boards to accommodate it and agree, it didn't sit naturally. I'd have had more storage/a bit of workspace maybe for tea and coffee etc instead. I also wouldn't have had the floor so dark, a lighter wood finish would have been better in terms of hiding marks. I don't like the bench seating either, sure it probably works out cheaper and may use up less space but it limits flexibility so they can't decide that they'd have a much smaller table and sofa as they are now stuck with that or have to rip it out.

I'd love to get an architect out to look at the layout of my house though.

The budget is a misnomer , the chaps extension at 30m square would have been £60k for the basic extension at £2k per square metre

Whilst that may have been possible it becomes unrealistic when you add in the alterations and upgrades to the rest of the house that a client will always expect otherwise you end up with an immaculate extension with no landscaping and the rest of the house looking as it did

Its not a problem overspending but lets be honest about it from the start , but that would probably not make as good TV , loved the design btw and thought it looked fab for them , how long they keep it so uncluttered is for them to decide

I was also slightly surprised that they suddenly plumped for the first design - after all, the entire focus had been around their knick-knacks and the absolute need to have space for them all - in the end they weirdly embraced minimalism wholesale and appeared to have got rid of pretty much everything apart from the armoire and what could fit in it (and tbh it wasn’t exactly crammed full of their previously beloved china & glass when it was opened). So that massive shift in their thinking was fairly hastily glossed over imho.

I wonder why they stuck the pair of twiggy angel wings on the kitchen wall, just like the ones that were in the design? They could have put some of their own Victorian plates up there, maybe interestingly framed if they wanted something different. Odd to have such a definite taste and then just ditch it to go along with a standard feeble design trope

Liked the lovely wide boards on the kitchen floor, but for my taste too dark.

I wasn't surprised they went with the first design. They were obviously wowed by the reveal, whereas their response to the second design was more one of politeness. Perhaps Will may have regretted trying to accommodate their tastes rather than his own instincts.

@catwithflowers You posted that Lynsey, the winning architect this week had visited your home with a view to an extension being built and that she was lovely.
Were you impressed with what she did on the show this week ?

Maybe like mentioned up thread, it was staged for the cameras, and once they stopped rolling they unboxed all the angels and fairies and plates etc.

They did say they realised they needed to declutter and pare things down. That was given as one of the reasons for choosing the more minimal design.

@ImAncient

I thought they’d go with the second design which I thought was more interesting. I actually wouldn’t have chosen either one & would have loved to have seen what Laura came up with. Didn’t think the two tonight were a patch on her. And practically double their budget. Just have the budget decided before!

Agree, would love to see what Laura would have created, i couldn’t take to the new female architect, Laura is so warm and friendly and enthusiastic, this new architect just doesn’t, she seemed very half hearted to me, she acted like she had never come across a chandelier before in her life. I quite liked the male architect but that 80’s conservatory he wanted to plonk on the back of the house was an abomination. I’m actually missing Robert and his bench seating, I miss the crazy!,

What I didn’t get with the design they chose was why they didn’t make the benching useful storage. Looking at it it was just a bench. At least when Robert put his benching in it was multifunctional

Odd to have such a definite taste and then just ditch it to go along with a standard feeble design trope
I was so disappointed. We had a couple who liked natural materials, Victoriana and frou-frou so I thought that we might get something interesting this week. But no - we ended up with the same minimalist white box as always. It's getting boring now. I think even I could do the architect job on this programme!
Of the two, I preferred the second design. It looked a bit like a quirky bistro rather than somebody's home but at least it had some character.

For those of you who have had architects in, how does it work? Do you pay for the initial consultation? And then does the architect oversee any of the actual build? I'm a bit confused as to what point in the project they get paid? Surely if you had two architects come and make their suggestions, you could use some of the ideas without taking the commission any further? And just go with the cheapest person?
I'm just intrigued by the whole process. (And would love someone to help us to create a fourth bedroom somewhere in our house!).