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...

Friends of mine were on “Ugly House to Pretty House” with George whatsit (though in their case I’m afraid it was “Ugly House to Even Uglier House” 🙄).
I think some of the smaller bits in the house was lent/given to them by the production company, but more than that my friends wrote to eg bathroom suppliers and got heaps of free stuff by saying the house would be on TV and the company would be name checked.

I work in this field and I work with these kind of people. I can’t watch Grand Designs because it’s too much like being at work and I shout at the TV (because I can’t shout at my clients…).

So many of them get sold within a few years of build or they have to find extra money by air bnb or similar. I always google What happened next?
There was one several years back where they had to carve into the rocky hillside next to a major road in Devon (Dartmouth area). The GD house was obviously a means of petting permission for further development as they have now built a further 3 or similar properties adjacent to it. I know because a millionaire relative of DH 'traded down' to one of them when they retired.

The woodsman’s cottage is my absolute favourite. They revisited it a few years later when he had a small family.

We've got one being built on my route to work, I've seen the tv crews van but not Kevin. Not this series, it's not completed but not too far off. They are annoying me big time clogging up country lanes with dozens of builders

I never understand why they need all this 'space'... and it's just polished concrete everywhere. It just looks like the foyer of an office block or something. I guess it doesn't take much upkeep, but it feels cold and distinctly unhomelike.

And why does anyone need a kitchen worktop that's like 50 feet long?

most don’t value any kind of privacy or cosines. Also don’t watch an even vaguely normal TV - either no evidence of it or cinema with surround sound.

I read somewhere that KMcC's house was an old farmhouse and didn't have open plan and huge windows, but he might have moved since then.

Probably from a similar stable to the Escape to the Country participants:

"We're looking for a detached character property in its own two acre grounds in a village within a National Park. Five bedrooms, mostly ensuite, inglenook fireplace, fitted kitchen, close to shops and local amenities."

"What's your budget?"

"£80,000".

My fave episode is the one where they had a house prebuilt in Germany and then just shipped the whole thing over to the UK and stuck it up. Can’t remember the name or the system - so satisfying to watch it just go up no issues.

@PuppyMonkey

I remember that one, wasn't it in Devon? They have done a few flat pack ones that seem to be a good system to me.

That said I was stressed out just refitting my kitchen!

And all that glass….
With children!!
Cleaning that will be a full time job - sticky fingerprints everywhere

No one with children would build a house for open plan living! Commune in the kitchen please and then bugger off and leave me in peace 🤣

My favourite was the hobbit house in West Wales. Went on to burn down in some sort of electrical issue but yeah - self-built, teeny budget.

I've only just finished our house renovation here and felt elements of GD syndrome creeping in - dispensing with the architect, trying to project manage, everything being 2cm out because I measured in the middle of the night, frazzled, random lampshades and tiles from Germany...

I love it!

It's supposed to be over the top- that's literally the point!

I like it but I think most of the people who go on the programme do so because they feel safe with rich parents who they can sponge borrow money from when they overspend.

😂I can just imagine if I was married to someone like your DH god only knows what we'd build. I get fantastical ideas and DH rolls his eyes and reigns me in. My DH also gets worried about the amount of 'home' shows I like watching

The programme makers need people who will create a bit of drama. Sensible people don't make good TV

I remember a particularly awful episode where a couple in London converted a workshop and it was completely open planned with really high ceilings and the kitchen was plonked in the middle and looked tiny. The bedrooms were then in weird boxes at one end of it. I think one of them was an a architect too. Blegh 🤮

You've missed out: a couple of years after completing the Dream Home they always bloody put it up for sale! After waxing lyrical about the studio for Gwen to paint in and the wild woodland where the kids can camp they move before anyone has had a chance to erect a tent!

I know a couple who applied to GD and got the impression they were too organised and switched on, with a proper budget and GD thought there'd be no drama because it would all go smoothly.

the TV show only want people with unrealistic plans because it makes good TV. I know someone who self built who applied to be on it. They were turned down for the show because they had realistic plans and a sensible budget!

My old neighbours should have been on it, they took years to build a very ugly house, that at one point in the middle of winter they had to move into with no electric or plumbing or roof and they were scaling ladders in the middle of the night to go to bed. The house only got finished when it got sold as they couldn't afford to stay there as they overspent, but it's bizarre because he kept adding bits and building sheds rather than getting the balcony fitted, they had huge bifold doors in the bedroom that just opened onto a sheer drop, and the final floor plan had 3 lounges plus open plan kitchen/lounge/diner.

Wasn't there one where one of the designers didn't want bedrooms but 'sleeping pods' which looked like 4 boxes stuck in the middle of nowhere in the house. There was no privacy at all! I mean no wonder parents have no sex life if that is how people live. And the person in the middle sleeping pod had to wiggle past wooden 'doors' to the pods left open to get to a bathroom, no air in them at night , no window dressing, it was like sleeping in a rabbit hutch! And who would buy a house with no bedrooms? Totally crazy!

YES! I remember that one. The female half of the couple was just an awful, massively entitled, professional irritant on all counts. I vaguely recall her being obsessed with a door handle (at least, I think that was her) and just coming across as extremely unlikeable and up herself. I don't think anyone really comes across all that well on 'reality' programmes, though, do they?

I don't really understand why GD has been going as long as it has beyond the joy of watching idiots with not enough money, experience, logic or individual style build their dream glass and concrete McMansion and fail dismally in their attempts to create anything original or unique - most of the houses look pretty much the same eventually. I've answered my own question, there - it is quite fun to watch the resultant disappointment writ large over their faces once they realise they'll have to work until they're 100 years old to repay the mortgage. The folly of desiring such enormous houses definitely comes homes to roost for many of them.

The 'good' ones stand out a mile - remember the guy who worked as a woodsman and almost single-handedly built his own timber house in the middle of a forest? And the couple who virtually had to rebuild a massive pile of stones into a castle - part of the structure fell down during filming. I also enjoyed the one where a quite young couple - they might have been farmers (or from farming families) - built a really quite modest, but beautifully finished farmhouse-style house.

Does anyone remember the one years ago when the man scraped together all of the money - some on credit cards- and hand built a really eccentric building. It was a bit weird then afterwards it burnt to the ground the day after the insurance had expired 😫

He had to cobble together funds to patiently rebuild it. He was so lovely and stoic and said that he preferred the second version as he'd learnt from his mistakes first time round.

Remarkable man but I don't remember much about the actual house. Think it was one of the very early episodes.