We're featuring on Grand Designs next week 🎥

[thefoxesmaltings]

16 hours ago, Gone West said:

Well done on producing a stunning house. I thoroughly enjoyed watching GD for once.

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed the build.

[thefoxesmaltings]

14 hours ago, Post and beam said:

Under budget and under time. Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

[thefoxesmaltings]

3 hours ago, ProDave said:

Just watched it, (rarely watch commercial television live)

 

Under budget, under time and no major problems.  Kevin was having to dig deep to find any tiny little problem to highlight no matter how small.  A model of just how to do a self build, and a great result.  

 

Of course it only went so well because of all the expert advice and encouragement from Buildhub.

Thank you so much. We did mention how helpful the forums and social media have been, but didn't make the cut.

I think we'll do some sort of Q&A on here or 'Ask me anything' as there's so much that get's missed during a 47 minute highlight reel of a 18th month build.

[thefoxesmaltings]

2 hours ago, Thorfun said:

Great job! Missing loads of details of your build journey in the show but I read those on Instagram so no big deal. But I guess they’ve only got 45mins to fill and half of that is Kevin prattling on. 😂

Thank you! It sort of felt like it was over before it started, watching it live yesterday. I suppose that's because we've been living and breathing it for 18 months.

[thefoxesmaltings]

1 hour ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Just watched it - you two did a grand job. Mind-blowing effort 👌 

 

Thank you so much!

[Kelvin]

What’s great was finding that local builder guy to help you. He came across brilliantly well. 
 

Like you the thing I found hard in our build was not knowing what I didn’t know so you easily get caught out with stuff. Plus all of the energy sapping time wasting balls ups done by others that you are left to resolve. The worst one of those for us was the ducting for the electrical cable from the kiosk to the house. Groundsworker didn’t use a coupler to join the two bits of duct together and just used tape. This split apart when the trench was backfilled. When I came to feed the SWA cable through it got stuck. Unfortunately this was all behind our retaining wall so under several hundred kg of gravel that I had to dig out by hand trying to find what the problem was. Complete waste of two days to resolve something that should have been a few hours work max. 

[Francis McAleavey]

I have just watched the episode. 

 

Incredible job you both have done! It looks amazing. Happy new home.

[Huckleberrys]

Just watching it now, I really like a lot of your paint finishes, how was that achieved with the not a flat colour look? Lovely house. You have done a great job.

[thefoxesmaltings]

23 hours ago, Francis McAleavey said:

I have just watched the episode. 

 

Incredible job you both have done! It looks amazing. Happy new home.

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed.

[thefoxesmaltings]

10 hours ago, Huckleberrys said:

Just watching it now, I really like a lot of your paint finishes, how was that achieved with the not a flat colour look? Lovely house. You have done a great job.

Thanks very much. It's a limewash paint - shame they didn't cover it more in the episode really. From - you apply it by painting in 'clouds' and it forms a textured look. Tutorial here: - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8jGL1mKxlI/

[Huckleberrys]

16 minutes ago, thefoxesmaltings said:

Thanks very much. It's a limewash paint - shame they didn't cover it more in the episode really. From - you apply it by painting in 'clouds' and it forms a textured look. Tutorial here: - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8jGL1mKxlI/

Hi, yeah my wife found it on your Instagram earlier when I told her about it. Thanks

[zzPaulzz]

Finally got to watch the show. One of the best GD episodes ever.  Under budget and ahead of schedule so it CAN be done.  I’ve been following your Instagram channel from the early days so I have an idea what you’ve gone through to get to this point. Well done. 

[thefoxesmaltings]

8 hours ago, zzPaulzz said:

Finally got to watch the show. One of the best GD episodes ever.  Under budget and ahead of schedule so it CAN be done.  I’ve been following your Instagram channel from the early days so I have an idea what you’ve gone through to get to this point. Well done. 

Thanks so much Paul. If you've been following from the early days on our Instagram you'll no doubt have a sense of the things we had to throw ourselves into in order to bring it under! Thanks again.

[Russdl]

Just watched it.
 

I’m completely puzzled as to why planning decided it should short of replicate a building that wasn’t there and, by the looks of it, hadn’t been there for very many years.
 

You obviously satisfied that seemingly weird request and produced a beautiful house.
 

Quiet frankly I wish my wife hadn’t watched that Grand Designs! I’ve been fending off numerous questions tonight regarding how you did it so quickly, so well, and so under budget. Thanks!

[Mike]

Zara, Giuliano, congratulations!

 

Just watched the programme and you did a cracking job. It's rare to see a GD episode that goes so smoothly! I was impressed to see how you got stuck in, even though that was a crazy way to get the slates up to the roof. And great that you had Jim's assistance - he looked like a real asset. I only spotted one thing that I'd change, but will keep it to myself. I hope you get some doors soon (if you don't already have them) and that you have a wonderful time living there :)

[Russdl]

20 minutes ago, Mike said:

I only spotted one thing that I'd change, but will keep it to myself.

That can’t be legal!!!
 

Let me just check the BuildHub T’s&C’s…

 

 

[Russdl]

Oh. Nothing there re ‘keeping secrets’

[thefoxesmaltings]

9 hours ago, Mike said:

Zara, Giuliano, congratulations!

 

Just watched the programme and you did a cracking job. It's rare to see a GD episode that goes so smoothly! I was impressed to see how you got stuck in, even though that was a crazy way to get the slates up to the roof. And great that you had Jim's assistance - he looked like a real asset. I only spotted one thing that I'd change, but will keep it to myself. I hope you get some doors soon (if you don't already have them) and that you have a wonderful time living there

Thanks Mike, glad you enjoyed, and appreciate your kind words - yes, it was a bit of a desperate time having only the weekend to do it before Monday! We soon realised that there is this conveyor belt system which can do this as well, but c'est la vie. Jim was great. We do now have some doors - arrived and were installed a couple of weeks after the final filming

[thefoxesmaltings]

10 hours ago, Russdl said:

Just watched it.
 

I’m completely puzzled as to why planning decided it should short of replicate a building that wasn’t there and, by the looks of it, hadn’t been there for very many years.
 

You obviously satisfied that seemingly weird request and produced a beautiful house.
 

Quiet frankly I wish my wife hadn’t watched that Grand Designs! I’ve been fending off numerous questions tonight regarding how you did it so quickly, so well, and so under budget. Thanks!

Yeah it was a strange one. It existed on the historical maps, but you are right. Was completely left to ruin by 1900. There was only a few old footings which we managed to dig up. It satisfied the planners, so we didn't complain!

Ha! - I do apologise. But appreciate your kind words and sentiment.

[Stonehouse]

Enjoyed the show and the final reveal. Well done looks amazing! 
 

I’m going to visit Turners next week for our TF. Helen did mention they did your house the day before the episode. I take it you would recommend them. They came across well in the show also. Looks like you got additional insulation to the super advanced wall?

 Would be interested to know more details on the build. A Q&A would be good!