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Original poster

I hate these Grand Design Houses

126 replies

pushchair · 28/01/2009 22:02

They all seem to be hard glass and steel with no clutter or 'normality' Where are the magazines,tissues,toys,books even. The couples are all really demanding and perfectionist.GAH

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paolosgirl · 29/01/2009 14:56

Did anyone see the eco barge

So off the wall it made for viewing from behind the safety of a cushion only!

Katisha · 29/01/2009 15:11

Struck me that even last night's couple had gone off it by the end. At one point she was saying she needed to get her her passion for it back or something. Not sure if she did.

TheThoughtPolice · 29/01/2009 15:45

oh god pg, that barge was hideous, wasn't it ? What was the bloke thinking ???

paolosgirl · 29/01/2009 16:27

I know! I mean, there's green and then there's green...I've just had another look at the website and it says that the barge was never completed . Wonder what happened to it?

TheThoughtPolice · 29/01/2009 16:53

I suspect it was left to rot in some grim boatyard

minko · 30/01/2009 10:38

Going back to Peckham, I enjoyed that one. Mainly cos Monty was a bit of a fox... there was quite a lot of gratuitous topless building work too. Mmmm, that's all I remember about it now!

billysitch · 30/01/2009 11:36

It sank probably

helips · 31/01/2009 11:22

I'm afraid the barge didn't sink, It's moored up where I live in Southend-on-sea! It is an ugly monstrosity and wish that someone would sink it!! It has been there for years, always in the same place and not sure if anyone lives there still.

Kimi · 31/01/2009 11:33

I love counting how many times the bloke says "bespoke"

AccidentalMum · 31/01/2009 12:50

I was once in a ski chalet for a week with the Violin Factory lady and yep, she did talk like that with her friend all the time. And they had Veuve Clicquot with dinner every night

paolosgirl · 31/01/2009 12:58

How did you resist the urge to push her down the mountain?! Was Mr Violin Factory there or had she locked him in his library for the week?

So the barge is still there, helips? Do you know what happened to the couple who built it?

AccidentalMum · 31/01/2009 19:14

No Mr VF, she had stayed on for a further week on the spur of the moment after they had spent new year there and more

MrsJamin · 31/01/2009 21:36

I finally watched all of this episode this morning, I too thought they mentioned 'the architects' way too much - it's almost like they had no ideas of their own - and I thought they were meant to be creative arty types?! I just kept saying at the TV at the end "where's the baby?!" - from the finished product you just couldn't tell a child lived there, it looked so cold and unwelcoming. I don't think the woman was joking about not hearing the cries through the pull-across door! Let's hope next weeks offers a nicer self-builder story. We should do GD cliche bingo- pregnancy, bespoke, architects, kevin looks skeptical, thinks they underbudgeted, etc.

MrsJamin · 31/01/2009 21:39

Radio Times review for next week:
"Kevin McCloud can't contain himself; Chris Ostwald's self-build house - based on a picture of an American water mill he spotted on a yogurt pot - is "a bonkers folly". He's right. It's a water mill where there's no water, set high on a hill in the Chilterns. What's even more alarming is that enthusiastic amateur Chris is building the kit-form house by himself. But the timber is swollen and distorted after it's been stored in a barn for nine months. And then, a council planning officer turns up unannounced. Gripping stuff, as always." Ooh this sounds better, chilterns are near me too.

paolosgirl · 31/01/2009 22:03

Ahh, this is more like it, MrsJasmin

Stayingsunnygirl · 31/01/2009 22:28

Apart from the things already mentioned here, what gobsmacked me about this week's episode was the window on the staircase that allowed them to look into the guest bedroom (from the staircase that the guests were barred from by a glass barrier).

How can they imagine that their guests are going to feel about their hosts being able to look in and watch them sleeping/dressing/having sex?? And when Kevin asked them about this, they said that 'privacy was provided by the trapdoor' (cue demonstration of the, as previously mentioned, potentially lethal trapdoor) - but that provided privacy for them, not their guests!!!

Tinker · 31/01/2009 23:50

I thought the Herefordshire con cottage made it clear that it was all new-build and out of a box. That's how I remembered the programme.

This week's was awful. I thought the woman looked increasingly stressed whenever money was mentioned. It was started and planned pre-credit crunch and then finished post start of crunch with a new baby. She was worried. Also didn't like her "keep the baby's cries away" comment (but then I'm a mnetter so wouldn't would I )

My real favourite was the French manor house. That was a real labour of love adn looked great. Please don't anyone tell me that was all smoke and mirrors as well.

Tinker · 31/01/2009 23:54

Forgot the intro to this programme - they were supposed to be "passionate about design"? Would love one where they say "Actually, I'm a bit half-hearted about design"

MrsJamin · 01/02/2009 06:15

Yes Tinker exactly, it was a bit hypocritical to harp on about loving design when they didn't actually design the bulk of it, the architects did.

Katisha · 01/02/2009 09:47

Even with mega tidying up for the cameras and Kevin's final visit, I still don't believe anyone was actually living there...

MrsSeanBean · 01/02/2009 09:58

I always wonder how much these people get paid for participating in the programme.

Like a previous poster, I also wonder how these relatively young people have such vast sums to spend. Surely GD can't pay that much though?

I don't think I could bring myself to invite Kevin into open up my grandly designed home for the nation's critical viewing, even if it did have an orange kitchen (shudder inducing memories of the 70s) and strageically placed lemons.

duchesse · 04/02/2009 17:44

I heard a rumour that GD pays hardly anything- something like £500. Which only goes to fuel my suspicion that most GD couples are looking for the publicity so that they can resell the house as soon as Kevin's DMs and puffa jacket are off the premises. I bet you most of those houses are on the market within the year. I loathe most of the GD couples. The only ones I've ever really warmed to were the bender in the woods bloke, that old lady in Devon and the mad Yorkshire castle couple.

Gunnerbean · 04/02/2009 18:10

I used to rather enjoy "Grand Designs" once but it's all getting rather tedious and predictable now.

You just know what's coming don't you?

An impossibly middle class IT consultant, his freelance journalist wife and their two children named Noah and Kitty, a plot of land in the wilds of North Yorkshire (or somewhere similar), a steel framed structure with floor to ceiling glass everywhere which is 10 inches thick and has been stretched to make it curve and has been manufactured at vast expense Belguim. Everything inside as far as the eye can see handcarved out of aged green oak imported from Finland. A roof covered in 10 milllion slate tiles, yards of underfloor heating, a mimimalist kitchen and Kevin McCloud announcing at the end of it all that it's a truly awe inspiring, and impressive "space".....

Yawn.

Original poster
pushchair · 04/02/2009 18:26

You have it exactly Gunnerbean
Akshuly I know a couple who are maybe going to be on GD! They are not flashy. Wonder how it will be handled.

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Original poster
pushchair · 04/02/2009 21:04

Anyone watching tonight?

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