So what do we think


Did the builder and his wife make a terrible mess of the layout?

Did they deserve a medal for sheer hard work and persistence?

Was Kevin even more supercilious than usual?

Would you want to live in it?

Would you want to swim in the pool?

Was the dome over the tower really so awful?

I think Kevin is really getting rather up himself with the assumption that nobody can possibly do anything without hiring on an architect.

That said, I think that the swimming pool, whilst a nice idea, looked hideous confronting the entrance like that.

They would have been better off concealing the pool as a surprise and adding in a sun pipe to light it naturally.

It was a crying shame they covered over those beautiful balconies. My own choice would have been for rooms incorporating the balconies looking down on a lovely large double height Atrium.

The dome room made a lovely Solar from the inside... and the shape of it worked with the tower... but it just did not look right in clear plastic... had he found a way to tint the glass / plastic so that it looked white from the outside but was clear from the inside, then it would have looked fab.

Doing all that work and stripping the place down before even owning the place? INSANE!!!

Ary.

The idea for the swimming pool was nice, but, yes, natural light could have been piped in, couldn't it. Shame they didn't do the mural, which could have been really effective.

I wonder, myself, how they'll be albe to afford to heat the place in deepest winter. I know they had proper radiators in, but the cost.....

But it just goes to show what can be achieved with the right mind-set.

Darn it - I paused this on my hard drive so was watching on time delay. Then 'cos two other recordings came on, it leapt on to the very last minute thus meaning I missed all the shots of the finished place! To make things worse, E4 claimed to be showing it but then it turned out to be an older episode!

Anyway - Kevin was out of his depth here. the bloke just wanted to provide for his family the best quality of life he could. This wasn't about grandiose designs needing architects, it was about a fundamental human need to do the best for your family that you can whilst cutting your coat according to your cloth. Good for him I say and good for grand designs for showing an alternative to the normal 'high end' projects.

I thought it was a great Grand Designs. I thought the guy did really well. The thing the "experts" seem to forget is that these are not public buildings - the only people they need to satisfy internally are the people who have to live in them, which was clearly the case here. I loved the mezzanines in the bedrooms over the en-suites - a great use of space. And I thought the dome was a fine addition. The tower was much uglier without it, and at least they will be able to update it at some stage, when they can afford to do something more costly. But in the meantime, it serves the purpose, and because it is mostly clear plastic, it is mostly unobtrusive. Can't see what all the fuss was about!!

So, if you are reading this Dean, good on you - I thought it was a good conversion and I hope you have success in your future work as a result of it.

Well said Reeny. I always watch Grand Designs and much prefer it to any programmes about buying houses. However, sometimes I think we need a reality check when folk in the UK are obsessing over designer tiles and such like whilst at the same time a large part of the world's poplulation live one family to a room and wash with river water out of a bucket.

Missed it on Wednesday and as Reeny says, they bizarrely showed another recent episode - which I had already seen - on E4 on Thursday instead

I wouldn't have done it like that, however it is not my house. I normally like Kevin, however he seemed to be focusing on the arctitectural loss rather than on the real interest - a hard working, determined family on a really tight budget (as opposed to a £200k tight budget for a house filled with Italian tiles, German kitchens, hit tub and 7 bedrooms!)

I was really impressed by Dean's determination to create a much needed, larger family home. I am sure that if it had been Kevin's project it would have been completed at four times the cost, and yes, I probably would have preferred it but as someone has already said on here, it is not a public building - it is a home. For the family in that home it is perfect.

Well done Dean for creating a family home fit for his family.
The comments from 'the sofa' have no idea of the reasons behind his decisions. I am sure they were based on time and money and it is his families choice what colour to paint the bedrooms. I am sure half of the population have pink walls for their girls. Who wouldn't paint a childs bedroom their favourite colour. A stupid comment.
Good on you Dean.

quote:

I think Kevin is really getting rather up himself with the assumption that nobody can possibly do anything without hiring on an architect.

Architect's have 7 years training! The layout of that place was an abomination. You can't renovate or build sucessfully without an architect - it is building suicide. Maybe if it's a conservatory or a garage but NOT a listed building. They would have got through planning much faster with good plans and an architect sensitive to their needs and those of the building. Kevin knows his stuff, he's seen it so many times.

They were a lovely family though and i hope they're enjoying their home.