Anyone else watching Grand Designs?

[WyrdHag]

I must admit I've not watched from the beginning but it's giving Archie's Castle from Balamory!

I can see why they bought the plot behind, both for access and somewhere to live ... but the time to complete was just ao long. I wonder, had they had the extra acre from the start whether they would have built the same house? Their decorating tastes changed in those 10 years, as did their requirements as a family.

It's a shame they didn't keep the old Driving Test Centre sign - but I loved how more Scots Jana sounded after 10 years.

I can also see why they bought it - Rory was also concerned that it could affect their ability to build their own home and ultimately they will have a modern three bed, a flat and an acre of garden near the sea in an Edinburgh suburb.

But...instead of having that home to raise their children the children have grown up in an overcrowded building site even if it had a tree house.

I was struck by the comparison with the couple who built a house on a tiny plot by a railway some years ago. Their planning and management of the project was just much more realistic and whilst it took them time then ended up with a lovely house for their children before the children were near grown up.

@C8H10N4O2 Yes, now that house (not very far from me, I pass it & as far as I can tell, they still live there) was very much “them”. To me, that’s the sort of approach that can be very successful when you don’t have a lot of money. It really demonstrated their creativity.

At the end of the show someone talked about them making a success of it, but how can you call forcing your children to spend their childhoods in a caravan and then tiny station house a success? If it was complete on their death beds does that count as a success?

There was a hilarious X thread about that one. Actually there have been some really good ones this series. Every box is being ticked and by now we all know which way it’s going to go.

Its always good to hear from someone who has seen one of the house in the flesh. They appeared in one of the catchup episodes and were still living there a few years back.

Overall many of the most successful builds have been the more modest endeavours by self builders who had put a lot of careful time and planning in and who were not unrealistic about the work they could do. That particular house took time but was never over ambitious in cost and the father was an amazing craftsman.

One of the early long term successes was that mini housing estate of self builders - all fairly modest but comfortable with most of the originals still living there 20 years on. The house build in "mum's back garden" with the mid century modern interior design was also not over elaborate and very carefully thought out - reminiscent of Seb and grandpa last week. The Hoff house was one of the more upmarket builds but also realistic for their budget and carefully planned.

Looking back, each series produces one or two of the less wild and more carefully thought through houses but its the lighthouses and castles which stick in my memory. I also think it should be compulsory watching for anyone with ambitious build hopes but picking out the successful builds of each series also teaches valuable lessons - the careful planning and realistic budgeting up front, pragmatic notions of their own skills and time and not assuming they can project manage building work without experience of building work are common themes. They could index all the episodes as "modest and achieved", "expensive and achieved", "still in progress..." and "fucking nuts"!

The immense castle on a hill build last year was totally bonkers. I wonder if they'll ever have enough money to complete it.