Grand designs - new series 2021

[Adrian Walker]

40 minutes ago, patp said:

Architects, in my opinion, only really care about the visual impact on the street scene. That comes first and they fit everything else into it.

 

Our architect placed our bungalow, on a plot with no restrictions to it, so that the rooms all faced North and East while the hallway windows faced South and West! He was more concerned with kerb appeal than giving us heat and light and views from our habitation spaces. When we pointed this out he said "oh you could turn it around but it would mean driving up to the rear of the house rather than the front". So? 

 

This goes for so many people that they design and build a home to impress other people.

 

 

IMHO the architect was thinking about his 10% of build cost fee!!

[Ralph]

54 minutes ago, patp said:

Architects, in my opinion, only really care about the visual impact on the street scene. That comes first and they fit everything else into it.

Some architects do yes. Our first one was insistent on having the big windows facing south because that's the convention and it's also the side people arrive at. Problem is that it's also looking across the field to the farmers industrial barns.  He had only a few small windows looking at the view which was what we bought the plot for. We just could not make him understand that we wanted to sit looking out across this in the evening. 

Second architect was an entirely different experience. 

 

[Redoctober]

Just caught up with this particular episode and I have to say I loved the place.

 

For me, the interior design changed it from being a "sculpture," into a family home. Yes the figures involved are beyond most peoples scope BUT, here was a guy who COULD afford to do things and the project, more or less demanded the fixture and fittings they invested in. Imagine our horror if they had installed a Billy basic kitchen etc. 

I'm grateful that such a project had the right person behind it  - Again so many people set out with grand intentions but unfortunately their budgets don't match their ambitions. Here was a guy who could deliver on all fronts. Fair play I say.

 

That said, why on earth was there no shower room in the gym!!!

[Makeitstop]

4 hours ago, Ralph said:

Some architects do yes. Our first one was insistent on having the big windows facing south because that's the convention and it's also the side people arrive at. Problem is that it's also looking across the field to the farmers industrial barns.  He had only a few small windows looking at the view which was what we bought the plot for. We just could not make him understand that we wanted to sit looking out across this in the evening. 

Second architect was an entirely different experience. 

 

 

What a magnificent scene

[Ralph]

37 minutes ago, Makeitstop said:

What a magnificent scene

Thanks, it makes the last few years of build worth it.

[Haylingbilly]

How many square meters do you think it is - I am thinking 350 max with maybe 150 for the garage. Still must be something like £5000 - £8,000 a sqm build cost. Also wonder if the £2.5m includes professional fees and landscaping....   

[Haylingbilly]

55 minutes ago, Makeitstop said:

 

What a magnificent scene

 

5 hours ago, Ralph said:

Some architects do yes. Our first one was insistent on having the big windows facing south because that's the convention and it's also the side people arrive at. Problem is that it's also looking across the field to the farmers industrial barns.  He had only a few small windows looking at the view which was what we bought the plot for. We just could not make him understand that we wanted to sit looking out across this in the evening. 

Second architect was an entirely different experience. 

 

breathtaking

[Haylingbilly]

2 minutes ago, Andy brown said:

How many square meters do you think it is - I am thinking 350 max with maybe 150 for the garage. Still must be something like £5000 - £8,000 a sqm build cost. Also wonder if the £2.5m includes professional fees and landscaping....   

Just seen on the huxshard website that the roof of the house is 400sqm and the roof of the garage is 108sqm

[Ferdinand]

14 hours ago, Ralph said:

Some architects do yes. Our first one was insistent on having the big windows facing south because that's the convention and it's also the side people arrive at. Problem is that it's also looking across the field to the farmers industrial barns.  He had only a few small windows looking at the view which was what we bought the plot for. We just could not make him understand that we wanted to sit looking out across this in the evening. 

Second architect was an entirely different experience. 

 

 

Big windows facing South are surely old convention?

 

Perhaps we all need moats and drawbridges ? ?

[gc100]

On 03/09/2021 at 08:54, Makeitstop said:

Not convinced it'll settle and level out enough over time to be markedly better than it looked in the programme.

 

I appreciate the issues are many in "why" it happens, and also, that even the best installers cant necessarily say what (if any) single or combined reasons have lead to the effect on a specific job. My thinking was more that, on spending £500k on a cladding job, I'd be disappointed to see it as widespread and obvious across the entire structure. I'd have imagined the team behind the designing and installation could have considered a solution that reduced / removed the potential of such an unpleasant outcome.

ah yes I do kind of agree with you on that. I’m not sure with vertical the canning will go. My roof is only 19degree pitch so gravity is basically making it flat again. 

Edited September 4, 2021 by gc100

[Onoff]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Perhaps we all need moats and drawbridges ? ?

 

Just bfo gates! 

[Lorenz]

5 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Perhaps we all need moats and drawbridges ? ?

Would they get planning? Braylsham did, but was that a special case?

 

[Onoff]

Only just looked at this build.

 

Thing Tom Sharpe wrote a book about it...

 

Best solution would be a MOAB. 

[Ferdinand]

Watched the episode, and I quite like the house. In the landscape it reminds me of Stonehenge.

 

I'm not quite clear where the 400 square meters went, except that the corridor is about 12-13% of the space.

 

I'm quite appalled by the waste, however - throwing away more glazing units than were installed is shocking.

 

And by the rather chaotic budget. Suspect they could have kept 95% of the attraction and only used 60% of the budget.

 

[AliG]

Just watched this after reading the thread.

 

Lovely house in my opinion, but crazy spend and budgeting. Reminded me of a public building like the Scottish parliament in terms of being a statement as much as a house.

 

Straight off you would probably have expected at least £300k for the cladding as well as towards £100k for the kitchen and £100k for the glazing. That is more than half the original budget. I do hope that in situations like this the architect fee is fixed according to the original budget. That is what we have done, he has complained about this on occasion.

 

It shows what worried me when we built our house, which is that as things get more interesting and bespoke the cost goes up exponentially. I just couldn't bring myself to spend the kind of money some of these small features would require.

 

They said there was 1350sq metres of cladding, I suspect that is the roof and walls. £400sq metre seems high, I would expect more than normal zinc cladding due to the shapes involved but not three times more.

 

I liked the look of the kitchen (the kind of dark colours I would have if not married) but not the price. The price will to a large extent have been driven by the Gaggenau appliances. 4x Gaggenau ovens at £2500-5k, wine cooler £4k, dishwasher £2k, fridge freezer £6k, downdraft extractor £3k, hob £2k. So there is around £30k before you have even started. Still looked more like an £80k kitchen. Despite Kevin's excitement, Dekton is no more expensive than quartz.

 

I didn't know what to make of the couple. The guy was more affable and less arrogant than I expected. Came across a lot better than infamous Clinton from a few years ago. I couldn't understand how little input they seemed to have into the build, especially as he was involved in construction and they were basically living on site.

 

Indeed the gym clearly should have had a shower room.

 

I really liked the internal doors and frames, did they look like Deuren or similar?

[patp]

What year was it finished? It was a while ago, now, I seem to remember. Kevin McCloud did not seem to have heard of the Dekton worktop material. I, personally, did not rate the kitchen it seemed a lot of money for a galley kitchen unless I missed something.

[Lesgrandepotato]

Love this build with Olaf. What a place. Loved the previous one as well, but this one is art on a budget and it rings much more true to me. 

[DragsterDriver]

On 14/09/2021 at 22:32, Lesgrandepotato said:

Love this build with Olaf. What a place. Loved the previous one as well, but this one is art on a budget and it rings much more true to me. 

the state of the brickwork, I nearly fell off the sofa ?

[Adam2]

Any of you seen the Chichester episode of last week? All looks pretty amazing but no matter how much work he did himself and how smart they were about using their money £658K...really? 70K on windows alone??? Is this 658 budget possible

[Happy Valley]

10 minutes ago, Adam2 said:

Any of you seen the Chichester episode of last week? All looks pretty amazing but no matter how much work he did himself and how smart they were about using their money £658K...really? 70K on windows alone??? Is this 658 budget possible

 

A simple answer is no. Material prices have increased dramatically and I would have thought that at least another £100k would need to be added today. The budget did not include the plot which was around £850k iirc

[Haylingbilly]

13 hours ago, Adam2 said:

Any of you seen the Chichester episode of last week? All looks pretty amazing but no matter how much work he did himself and how smart they were about using their money £658K...really? 70K on windows alone??? Is this 658 budget possible

I think there were certain things missing out of that build cost such as landscaping, and anything else they could think of until they came down to a figure they thought was close enough to their original budget. Must have been a £1m build cost including landscaping. Don't forget the £10k on trees, car park/tennis court, £70k on pond etc etc! Reckon it was £658k for the shell.

[James Newport]

13 hours ago, Adam2 said:

Is this 658 budget possible

Yeah, totally. Once you've mastered making light fittings out of sushi matts anything is possible.

[markc]

10 minutes ago, James Newport said:

Yeah, totally. Once you've mastered making light fittings out of sushi matts anything is possible.

Absolutely, the sushi mats made the build viable

[Adam2]

3 hours ago, markc said:

Absolutely, the sushi mats made the build viable

 

Ahh I knew I was missing something. This (sushi school)will bring our budget back on track. Or maybe Aliexpress instead seeing as I'm short on time.

 

Came across as a great couple and expect they'll have an amazing time living there

[Russell griffiths]

Did you see that bloke unload those trees, 

i wanted to climb in the telly and karate chop him in the throat.