Grand Designs - I have a stupid question

thepharcyde · 15 Feb 2009 at 20:36

NathanE said:
I don't like it when the show ends without them telling you how much the house cost to build. Like the other week all they said was "erm we haven't added it up yet.. sorry". But even the better ones always seem to be rather coy about it. Like coming up with the cost per meter and crap. Wtf? Just tell us the damn total figure

It makes the show completely pointless to a lot of people IMO. What point is there watching a show when you don't know if a house like it is achievable in your lifetime?

The castle cost £1m prior to any work, they told you that. If you believe you can achieve this benchmark, the rest is redundant? It's Grand 'Designs'. I know my academic ability will never come close

Pinter75 · 15 Feb 2009 at 21:06

I think a lot of people get their cash from silly mortgages.

Did you notice that the couple who built or re-did that folly (castle thing)? The show gave the impression that they were minted and money was no object. As the build went on, there were more than a few references to cost effective cut backs and changes.

If you literally had a pile of cash to build your dream home, you would not start making savings on roofs etc, unless you were borrowing up to your eyeballs...

Me thinks that the credit crunch may have started to take it's effect on Mr and Mrs Big city. He was in banking IIRC, probably wished he never built that pile now ;-)

Also a lot of people may get inheratance.

Most of the prev series have made a thing about the mortgage on the property, and what it is valued at after it is finnished.

Builing a house is wuite cheap, it is the land that hurts the budget.

Hence Location, Location, Location (no not the other show)

The next grand designs, if there is one will be 2 up 2 downs ;-)

Also Kevin has gotten cooler, now he is sporting lamb chops.

Brokeback · 16 Feb 2009 at 01:25

I lived in a very old remote 'house' for 20 years, parents still live there and I spent many a day waist deep in mud digging up burst water pipes

but as far as I know the phone line doesn't cost anything to maintain no charges when the line gets repaired

Helium_Junkie · 16 Feb 2009 at 11:46

Von Luck said:
Kevin McCloud rocks, as does Grand Designs.

Would agree that this series has been a bit weak so far. Best episode ever was the woodsman who built his house himself from wood and straw bales.

He was pretty inspirational.
First time in 10 years he'd had hot water from a tank, not a kettle.
And the house was great! Didn't fancy the internal colour, but the construction was very impressive.
I missed the beginning, did he own all that woodland?

LOAM · 16 Feb 2009 at 12:04

tang0 said:
lol wtf is a zard please

Li(zard) Ref David icke ref Magick

WillyNelson · 16 Feb 2009 at 12:19

Helium_Junkie said:
He was pretty inspirational.
First time in 10 years he'd had hot water from a tank, not a kettle.
And the house was great! Didn't fancy the internal colour, but the construction was very impressive.
I missed the beginning, did he own all that woodland?

I think it was gifted to him by the forestry commission. There was a clause that should he ever leave, the house would have to be demolished.

Very inspirational, I loved the way it was constructed.

bam0 · 16 Feb 2009 at 13:03

Helium_Junkie said:
He was pretty inspirational.
First time in 10 years he'd had hot water from a tank, not a kettle.
And the house was great! Didn't fancy the internal colour, but the construction was very impressive.
I missed the beginning, did he own all that woodland?

I also loved that one, did you see the follow up where a couple of years later he'd put in the upper floor, had a really nice garden, found a wife and had a child? The whole thing looked idyllic and apparently he had permission to extend it.

cu3ed · 16 Feb 2009 at 15:51

"andy" said:
came in here to say i love grand desgins but hate mcloud. seems i already did ooops

i just dont the way he seems to think he knows better than everyone and that his ideas would be better than the person doing its dream

the one with the boat home was amusing , where he used loads of scrap and it looked a bit trashy. then no one would give him a space to park it :/

Well to be fair, hes usually right all of the time, and remember, when he doubts their plans, finish or what they are doing at the time, he telling them this 2 years ago, to have that much foresight goes to show he really has an idea what hes on about.

yermum · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:15

I would love to see how the one in London with the sliding roof is now and whether the mature couple in the Huf Haus are still with us.

Every time we watch this program, my beloved OH always says "That's great, but who's going to clean the windows?" IIRC there was one house with self cleaning windows, but that was the only one.

Jingo... · 16 Feb 2009 at 17:03

Kevin McCloud is indeed a moron.

When visiting my old University he insisted on lecturing us for nearly 2 hours on the importance of green design. He was really shoving it down our necks and stating how it was our responsibility for the future world how green design must be implemented at every given oppurtunity despite costings as money was "irrelevant".

Personally, I don't fully agree with the sustainability of a design that costs triple and has to be demolished/renewed after 30 years but that is another debate.

Then following the guest lecture, the hypocrite proceeded to loudly complain about his 'poor appearance fee' and then drive off in his 5.0 litre Range Rover Sport.

Helium_Junkie · 16 Feb 2009 at 17:05

I dont really watch it for Kevin McCloud, more interested in the buildings

NeighbourOnHill · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:30

Pinter75 said:
They do and it costs loads.

Some look like they are in the middle of nowhere, but last week there was a guy who had loads of planning trouble, when a neighbour complained of overlooking. The entire show gave the impression that he built it miles from anyone else. I think that sometimes it is cleverly shot to protect the privacy of any neighbours, giving the impression that it is remote.

Hello All - we are the neighbours of the Chilterns Water Mill that Pinter is (very perceptively) talking about. to see how perceptive - please take a look at our blog at www.neighboursinthewoods.blogspot.com

If you have any questions I'll try and answer them - but do please bear with me as I have quite a bit of forum hopping to do at the moment....

thanks for looking

The Neighbours

ash_scotland88 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:35

I understand your annoyance at having a house built so close and intrude on your property so much.
But whats with the annoyance/complaints against ch4 and grand designs?

cheets64 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:47

It looks high but my house is over looked by 4 homes that face on to the back.

It looks like their is no problem with sunlight, is your home single story or double?

Jez · 17 Feb 2009 at 23:09

The only utilities which remote houses take is power and phone. Both of which are simply strung up over poles and are routinely provisioned for single or very few installs miles from anywhere.

My old house had off grid water, sewage, oil tanks etc. The only utility bills were phone and electric.

NeighbourOnHill · 17 Feb 2009 at 23:22

ash_scotland88 said:
I understand your annoyance at having a house built so close and intrude on your property so much.
But whats with the annoyance/complaints against ch4 and grand designs?

If you check out some of the vitriol on some of the other forums (see the Nemesis republic blog linked to from my blog for a list) you might understand better. Notice also how most people did a serious j-turn once they saw our pics.

Its nice to see that you guys in here are a lot more laid back about the whole thing...

FrostedNipple · 17 Feb 2009 at 23:35

NeighbourOnHill said:
Hello All - we are the neighbours of the Chilterns Water Mill that Pinter is (very perceptively) talking about. to see how perceptive - please take a look at our blog at www.neighboursinthewoods.blogspot.com

If you have any questions I'll try and answer them - but do please bear with me as I have quite a bit of forum hopping to do at the moment....

thanks for looking

The Neighbours

OWNED

chrisd · 17 Feb 2009 at 23:44

NeighbourOnHill said:
Hello All - we are the neighbours of the Chilterns Water Mill that Pinter is (very perceptively) talking about. to see how perceptive - please take a look at our blog at www.neighboursinthewoods.blogspot.com

That is pretty shocking.

Pinter75 · 18 Feb 2009 at 01:06

NeighbourOnHill said:
Hello All - we are the neighbours of the Chilterns Water Mill that Pinter is (very perceptively) talking about. to see how perceptive - please take a look at our blog at www.neighboursinthewoods.blogspot.com

If you have any questions I'll try and answer them - but do please bear with me as I have quite a bit of forum hopping to do at the moment....

thanks for looking

The Neighbours

Holy Hell it was worse than I thought!

When I watched the program and all the planning trouble came up, I was very sceptical about why.

I see no neighbours, that house is miles away from anywhere, on a hill somewhere!

As I said the program does give the impression that some of the houses are in the middle of nowhere. The program did make the neighbours (you guys) look like a right PITA, if they only showed the location in full context it would have avoided the viewer being left scratching their heads, and wrongly feeling sorry for the guy building his house.

BTW is it as orange as it looks on TV?

Also Chris Ostwald is not very good at planning permission related tasks ;-)

He admits not getting planning permission... http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/oct/04/urbandesign.arts

NeighbourOnHill · 18 Feb 2009 at 01:14

BTW is it as orange as it looks on TV?

The colour is the least of our problems, but to answer your question:

TV does not do it justice - you have to be here to witness the full majesty of what someone elsewhere described as "a 60 ft oompa loompa looming over the fence". We have truly been Tango'ed...