Grand Designs - I have a stupid question

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.
 
gas is stored in tank, then depending on how remote you are water will cost around £30k, elec the same and phone line £10k.
 
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.
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That was fantastic. He grew not only his own food but his own house. :D
 
cheets64 said:
The Newport folly was looking good until they added that bathroom on top of the new build.
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This is another one that they made out was in the middle of nowhere. In reality there are about 4 houses around it and even a tennis court.

Randomly the guy goes to the same gym as me. :o
 
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 :mad:

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?
 
I'm not keen on mcloud tbh and the show really riles me at times. I really dislike it when the first person to get the boot is the Architect, So many time the end result has ended up looking totally wrong when they have tried to run it themselves.

Mcloud still always loves it though and goes on some sycophantic rant at the end which he neither writes himself nor understands.

I too hope he chokes on a wonky brick.
 
came in here to say i love grand desgins but hate mcloud. seems i already did :p 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 :/
 
Sic said:
That one was so annoying - really illustrated the futility of the whole process.

I love Grand Designs, but it's not what it used to be.
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Their houses usually look rubbish IMHO.

Regularly watch it and they always seem to put windows in places where you'd have to be spiderman to wash em.... also HUGE spaces in areas where the temperature is rarely above 5°C for 4 months at a time...

:o
 
I really enjoy Grand Designs but I have one major issue with the people on there: where the hell do they get all their money from?

It's often a couple in their early-30's, who are marketing managers, or design consultants, or life coaches, or some other wishy-washy, phantom career. Yet they manage to pull out over £1m+ just for a build.

Am I the only one who is baffled by this?
 
The majority of people on Grand Designs are complete and utter fools.

They don't hire architects, they don't hire project managers and just think "Oh I can do it myself". Invariably they end up making stupid compromises or making costly mistakes. Muppets.

It's their job to realise the initial vision of these people, within budget and on time.
Instead they constantly shift their specifications, implying it's less of a fully conceived dream / idea and more of a whim that they're too stupid to admit to.

Some of the houses END UP being very nice, but most of the time it would have been much better done if they had involved professionals. The one last night with the Saaf Afreekan and his dim wife in Spain was a prime example, harking back to the OPs original question of 'wtf do they get their utilities'.

Bunch of mugs.
 
Most of parcels with planning permission for new build have that permission because there is a possibility of having mains/electricity connected without affecting anything. As in - the reason why you can't get permission to build a castle on top of the hill in the middle of cumbria, despite the fact you can buy that land, is not because they don't like you to have a castle (unless of course it's labour council) but because they won't let you dig up area of natural beauty to have your water and/or "internetings" connected and asphalt over the forest so you can drive on daily basis to the nearest B road.

Omitting the costs is done on purpose, it's now done with all property/development shows - they learned hard lessons from previous series, which got syndicated all over the place and then phones ring off the hook with people asking how to buy parcel of land next to Richmond for £70,000 without realizing they are watching footage made in 1996 made for program to be released in 1999 which is now rerun on Discovery Kitchens and Toilets +3
 
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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.
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This is true, the guy that built the watermill is actually very close to a road, and has a couple of neighbours close by, but the way they shot it made it look like he was in the middle of a woods miles from anywhere.
 
Have you noticed that Kevin cannot make 100% eye contact when talking to someone, he always diverts his eyes and talks to their chest
 
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