This weeks Grand Design

[Fifiesta]

So many questions regarding tonight’s programme, a three floor

house constructed on the site of 2 garages, on a London street.

I’ll kick off with- the two teenage girls (one from each bereaved parent), towards the end of the programme, did not appear to know that they had been allocated basement bedrooms without any natural light.
WTF? No consultation or previous discussion? A bit of a biggie surely?

I was shouting at the tv all through this, mostly my late mother's favourite word "RIDICULOUS!!". I thought the parents were very self-indulgent, putting their daughters through such a high risk project, having to share a bedroom in rented accommodation and putting up with the stress. The older girl having to sleep in the living room! She will probably end up sofa surfing. And I thought it was off planning to put them in the basement anyway, why couldn't the parents have had that space, they could have moved upstairs when the girls left home.

Ok rant over. 😀

It had classic disaster written all over it from the first few minutes - I wonder if these people have actually watched and learned anything from all the previous episodes stretching back many years. For me the alarm bells go off when they only have a contingency of £35k on a predicted build cost of.. what was it? £450k!? Let's say 10% - that's insane - especially with a below ground build. My personal rule of thumb, having watched the program for years (and from being an engineer working on high value engineering projects extending over several years) is a contingency of 50%. The pressure they put themselves under once that contingency disappears, as it often does, early in the build - it's avoidable.

I agree @Cantdonumbers - why not wait until the girls have gone to uni for instance?

I thought they had their priorities all wrong - the emphasis on the symbolism of the tiles from Morocco for instance.

I question why, when they had unexpectedly negotiated the purchase of someone else's garage space, which extended their footprint, they didn't look at changing the build to avoid the costly and problematic underground part of their design.

Every week I'm moved to exclaim "These people are idiots!" after about 5 mins.

I'll guess it won't be long until they are forced to sell it - I think they fell a long way short and still have the issue of the, possibly unsuitable concrete in the basement: I think they were planning to line it with more concrete but actually didn't have the funds.

Those poor kids.

I thought it was hideous looking from the outside. What were they thinking. The trip to get the tiles was ridiculous. Very self-indulgent and the poor girls. One left having to sleep in the lounge!

There is a Grand Designs thread running on Mumsnet at the moment.
You are not alone in your views @Fifiesta