Anyone watch last Wednesday’s Grand Designs?

[TheGander]

The one where they knocked down a 1920s castle and started building a “ 21st century castle” on the site? Even though they already lived in a beautiful timber clad house in a beauty spot? Sold their house, London flat, raided mothers pension fund, borrowed, and kept going with the build, sinking million after million into it? It’s now for sale £7 million. Jaw dropping stuff.

Greed? To show off? Because they can?

There was a mega GD near the ILs. The guy was very flamboyant and filled with self confidence. In the end he refused to admit the total cost. He had an ever-extending budget of £4 million. He would just say it had gone over that.

He tried to sell it for £5 million. Then down and down and down. last time I saw it on the market he was trying to get under £ 2 million for it. Not sure if then sold. It may have done.

Such vitriol towards this couple. I thought Piers was great - open and transparent, a serial entrepreneur, maintained great relationships with contractors, and clearly had a great relationship with his wife and mum. Yes - he has a shed load of money and an incredible appetite for risk. That’s not a personality flaw anywhere other than mumsnet. I think when finished, it will be amazing. The British just love to talk down people who dare to have money and do something interesting with it.

I take your point @fufulina and didn’t intend this thread to be an attack on the owners. I was trying to understand the mentality, and also the financial transactions that underpin such a high cost project, as it is way outside my non risk taking, public sector worker mentality. But that said, there surely is an element there of foolish escalation of build and costs.

@fufulina but it wasn’t interesting? With that budget they could have built a truly remarkable piece of architecture that complemented the landscape and pushed the boundaries of sustainable design for example.

instead it ended up being a huge financial black hole of a vanity project.

we watched the Viking house one after this with Pep and the contrast was really stark.

Ahh now this makes a bit more sense. I did think they were a strangely matched couple!

Possibly you are right.

awful house and what a waste of money - all those things they had to sell when they had a gorgeous house already!

It looks like a council building with a multi story car park!

I was trying to understand the mentality

Taking risk is a lot easier when there is a safety net.

Yes but it looks like they have ripped right through the safety net. They have been unable to finish the build and their creditors are calling the loans back in, as far as I can see.

I thought they seemed like a nice couple, but the project was ridiculously extravagant and the end result (so far) not at all to my taste. I remember my kids building something similar in early Minecraft. I was surprised Kevin seemed to like it.

At one point Piers said something along the lines of him not realising how big it would be. I mean … mock something up with bricks and string if you can’t visualise it!

And the “test house”? At first I thought literally a prototype (a few walls, maybe it becomes the garage). But they built a whole house … so I thought clever, use the profit from it to fund the next stage of the build. But no, they made a half million pound loss on the test house 😱

Ment genuinely rather than flippantly, if I were him I’d have a genuine worry that the airing of that program would undermine the confidence of investors in any of my other projects.

Yes but it looks like they have ripped right through the safety net. They have been unable to finish the build and their creditors are calling the loans back in, as far as I can see.

But they won't have lost everything, it's likely there is more family money somewhere.

The inside is absolutely beautiful, the outside is a monstrosity 😱

We can’t know that. And if there was more
family money, why is it on the market?

I wish Grand Designs would feature more interesting builds that are “normal” family size in scale. Absurd vanity projects such as this or other bland open plan boxes have no merit whatsoever apart from car crash TV.

Does anyone remember the house built out of polystyrene then coloured in terracotta paint? That was years and years ago. A woman who owned a beautiful Victorian manor house decided she needed to live in a house made of highly flammable plastic foam.

I agree. Some projects that are more relatable would be welcome.

😱

• We can’t know that. And if there was more family money, why is it on the market?*

At some point you have to cut your losses, I very much doubt they will be living in poverty

After this one I watched the log cabin in Wales where they spent about 300k and it was a) finished and b) sooooon much nicer. The contrast was insane.

But that’s the YSP. It’s grand designs, not just random self builds. There are plenty of other property shows that feature less ambitious builds.

It's giving me Minecraft vibes and the inside is pretty high-end ordinary considering it's a 'castle'.

*USP 🙄

I think sometimes people get caught up in a sunken cost fallacy with projects like this. They know they should have stopped ages ago, but they didn't, and the further that they go past the point that they should have given up the harder it is to give up.

He has already spent his mums pension, can't imagine she has anything left to give!

It was good to see something different than the ubiquitous clad house with tin roof like most mother episodes. Sad as it was for the lady who died I didn't think that build was at all interesting. At least this couple did something original. They clearly have a shit ton money, good for them.

Are you kidding? Didn’t you see the house she was living in? That was just one of her pension pots. She’ll have a shit load of bond income and rental income as well.