What is wrong with people who go on Grand Designs?

[RobynRB]

Seriously, time and time again it's the same thing. Why do people feel they need to build a house the size of a cinema complex and then moan when they run out money. Most of these things could be 10-20% smaller and you wouldn't even notice. Don't these people understand that materials like wood and concrete cost money so buy less of them and the house will be cheaper.

Speaking of which, last night was a classic case... we haven't got any money, but we bought this copper bath for our bedroom and this (frankly disgusting but I'm guessing ridiculously expensive) gold and black marble for our kitchen.

It struck me the reservoir building was big enough to build a reasonable house in, maybe with a smaller extension to the side. It certainly looked twice the size of my three bedroomed house on it's own.

And of course five minutes after they started they announced they were having a child. What brilliant timing...

I assume you watched the Sarah Beeny show where she did exactly that?

No, did you not know that brick dust is an aphrodisiac?

Personally, given the stress of some of those builds, and that sometimes, they're having to live in a knackered old caravan for months (or even a year or two), having sex would be the last thing on my mind, the bloke probably feels the same too, after usually having to single handedly build half the house, plaster it, do the electrics, etc themselves because they've no money for tradesmen - how do they find the energy to father a child after that?

Tales me back many years to “Drink Along with Dallas”. If it was a Sue Ellen heavy episode you were sunk.

IMO they are mainly narcissists. Best to give them as little attention as possible.

The bloke of the couple is always something in finance/high flying lawyer, she is something like an organic yogurt knitter and there is always a "space" within the build for her to knit aforesaid yogurt.

Am home sick but man this thread gave me a laugh.

I love it when you watch one where they started the build in Feb 2020 so you can watch knowing that it's going to go badly for 3 years

I do always wonder about all those vast acres of glass, with no blinds let alone curtains. Filming when it’s finished is always (as far as I’ve seen) on a nice sunny summer’s day - what about cold/dark/pouring with rain?

One GD job was not a million miles from us. They bought the site (which we passed almost daily) for about £1m, spent goodness knows what turning it into a large, ultra-ultra-modern thing, and confidently expected to sell it for £5m. There was a piece in a Sunday paper about it at the time.

We kept an eye on the ‘for sale’ process. It took ages, at least two years, and eventually went for something over £3m IIRC.

Bet the mum is now nervous about accepting any cups of "tea"! 😂

DH spent the whole episode shouting at the tv "where did you get the money from"! By the end, what with the fillers et al, the only suggestion I had was OF. 🤣

I'm fairly sure she was wearing a pair of Hermès sandals that were like gold dust this year, and whether you like it or not, that kitchen marble island must have cost a pretty packet.

Most of these houses are so ugly. The one a few weeks ago where 2 guys built an ugly house that sloped into the bank. I get that they wanted it to be 'in keeping' with the landscape but why would you build a house that slopes then waste all that space making the inside level. It was probably one of the ugliest and least people friendly houses I've seen on there.

The one last night seemed like a total recipe for disaster. £600k+ mortgage and he was a skydiving instructor and she was selling sweets?
Also the bedroom was wild. An open shower to the left as soon as you walked in the door, a bath at the end of the bed, and a toilet behind the bed with no door......yikes!

In their defence re budgeting at the outset, our experience with building projects has been that the architects have wildly underpriced how much it would cost to do the project in the first place in order to get you interested.
Last one we did, architect said we could do it for about £400-500k, I knew that was far too low and told DH maybe more like 750-800; in the end it was more like £1.5m. Fortunately we didn't have to sell sweets in order to pay for it! 😂

Last night's was distinctly odd.

I had a look at her Instagram and they apparently had multiple holidays in Mexico, the Maldives, St Lucia, Dubai and Ibiza during the period of build when they were supposedly worrying about the financials. something doesn't quite add up.

Yes! I noticed this. Joking aside, why would you think it was a good idea to have a baby on a building site? Is Kevin the Boris of Ambitious House Projects?!

That one was bonkers but the all time lunatic has to be the millionaire who wanted to build an art deco mansion plus cottages in the side of a cliff. He ended up bankrupt, divorced and it was another ten years before it was finished by which time all he could do was sell it to recoup some of the losses.

When the couple/individual with the "vision" say "we are going to project manage it ourselves" I get the popcorn from the kitchen. There is a reason project managers get paid in construction!

Oh really.... hmm, methinks some shenanigans going on here then!

@Riverlee I loved that one! My absolute favourite.

Last night was odd. I couldn't believe the level of debt and she was swanning around with all her cosmetic procedures and £600 Hermes sandals.

The main bathroom was awful. Why was the shower part, bath and loo all open?!

Why do people feel they need to build a house the size of a cinema complex and then moan when they run out money.

I saw at least one from years ago where they built a small box apparently in the middle of no-where and then went back years later to look and there were now two young boys - and through gritted teeth they love playing outside in all weathers filmed doing so in heavy rain and lots and lots of mud -literally no room to play inside and it was straight into carpeted living space with muddy wellingtons.

They had one living space room kitchen/living room one small bed room and previous office was a kids bedroom - thought they didn't future proof very well.

The guy who had to build the ramp/road too, yes that was insane. His children were all grown up too as well.

😂

Did that one every get finished? I thought it was on right move with computer generated images? Pure greed was the reason they failed, it never needed to be that big!

I was thinking how far they would have to walk from their bedroom to the kitchen if they wanted a drink in the night!

That one on the cliff in Devon or Cornwall was mad. The DDs had grown up and left, his wife had buggered off .... what was the point! The original house that he knocked down could have been gorgeous.

I did wonder what their monthly mortgage payments were - after all that begging and borrowing. They did seem quite depressed when talking

I also wondered where all the toys / hoover / ironing board would go.

I did like the idea of converting it into a house, however, I just think every element was over-engineered and extravagant when it could have been pared back

Classic Grand Designs for me were:

• One in an old violin factory in London, posh couple, he was in hedge funds I think so huge budget but fell out with an orchestra who had an adjoining space.
• Entitled woman demanding a disco basement in a small London mews, furious neighbours.
• But the best still has to be the record producer's gak fuelled vision of a lighthouse on some cliff face in Devon that took eleven years to finish and resulted in having to build another house to sell to finance the first one, oh and divorce. I felt so sorry for the kids.