canalsiderenovation Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 This is definitely a niche question, but has anyone been on any house related renovation programmes, or knows of anyone that has and would share their experiences - good, bad etc If you had the opportunity would you? Curious if they are worth applying, you frequently see adverts after some of the shows on TV encouraging you to apply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney12 Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Do you want children (or more children)? I’ve not seen one episode of Grand Designs where a partner doesn’t get pregnant ? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canalsiderenovation Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 8 minutes ago, Barney12 said: Do you want children (or more children)? I’ve not seen one episode of Grand Designs where a partner doesn’t get pregnant ? ? Let me be clear it would be impossible for that to happen, infant a miracle! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) There are threads somewhere, and various people have. You will get some dealings with the star, but mainly with reps, you may get some good ideas, but may have to mess your schedule around to cope with them, and they will not usually give you money. eg Grand Designs. IMNVHO you need to be sure that your project is going to work, and probably know what you want to do with it. I would say that the biggest downside, and perhaps the best programmes for *them*, are catastrophes; you do not want to be that chap with the barge that floated away and was discovered on a beach in the Thames Estuary, or the one with the bee-in-his-bonnet about Geodesic Domes in the Lake District. The people who have benefited from Grand Designs are those who leverage it into projects or a career, or sell their houses for yonks more money, or people who run B&Bs. I think that the chappies with the Ancient Monument Tower in Yorkshire did well for their B&B, and there was one who built in the Isle of Wight and I think doubled his money quickly - but he bungalow gobbled in the middle of a forest on a posh bit outside town (classic project anyway so may have doubled in any case); helped his career as a project-designer. That was the one with the eccentric but immensely likeable artist partner who put yoghurt (or it may have been horse-poo) on the corrugated cladding to make it grow lichen; it didn't. On a canal you may get the rest of the packet of wafers that Kevin McLoud uses to build a model of the canalside piling ?. Get the ice-cream in. Do you have a B&B market for 3 men in boats? More seriously, some of the programmes are really good, and the people likeable. But go in with your eyes open, and your agenda written down on a piece of paper first so you can stand your ground, and the image you want to project. Approach it like an unpaid TV professional, and make sure you communicate what you want to communicate, that you have scoped out at a project level stuff that could seriously undermine you (I would not do anything with suspected Unknown Unknowns such as bleeding edge tech.), and that any disasters are endearing not embarrassing. Someone posted that their architect had an increased-fee clause if it was on TV. F Edited January 8, 2019 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 My mother in law knows someone who's build was on GD, and she has mixed views about it. They did get some discounts from suppliers, in return for their products being in the show, but they lost at least a day's work every time there was a shoot during the build, so overall her view is that it wasn't worth it, financially. She also mentioned that in the final session a lot of her stuff was moved out, so the GD team from Boundless could "dress" the house to make it look better on TV. Her view now is that she'd not do it again, as on balance, the hassle was more than any possible saving they may have made from discounts. Someone else here reported that either their builder or their architect wanted to increase their fee if the build was going to be on TV, on the basis that they would lose time/have to give free time for filming sessions. I've done some non-building related TV work, and in general it doesn't pay well, if at all. An episode of Scrapheap, for example, pays "staff" (rather than team members, who don't get paid anything other than expenses) around the minimum wage - IIRC they paid me around £300 for around 40 hours work, including one 15 hour non-stop day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 49 minutes ago, canalsiderenovation said: ? Let me be clear it would be impossible for that to happen, infant a miracle! That rules you out of being selected then! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 All TV programmes have an agenda. And it won't be yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I was asked but refused and thank goodness I did....would have made great TV to have all that trauma broadcast but would have tipped me over the edge having the world (not just BH) watching the debacle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canalsiderenovation Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 That's really useful, it wouldn't be Grand Designs, it isn't 'grand' or 'unusual' enough! Definitely do research then, sounds like there aren't many perks as such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I did contact channel 4 suggesting a “Green designs” programme a few years ago as it is a popular subject among us self builders. My build would have been no good for TV as it was on budget, Windows arrived on time, and there was no Agro with the architect! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 6 hours ago, canalsiderenovation said: Definitely do research then, sounds like there aren't many perks as such. We visited Richard Hawkes PH when it was being built and filmed for Grand Designs. He said they didn't get paid for the filming but he did get a lot of freebies from phase change wall panels to PVT on the roof. It seemed as though he was using his house as a test bed for different technologies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvincentd Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 9 hours ago, joe90 said: My build would have been no good for TV as it was on budget, Windows arrived on time, and there was no Agro with the architect! Irrelevant...they'll invent a catastrophe regardless. As a photographer i've used several GD houses that are now available as shoot locations and every owner i've spoken with has said this. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sjk Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 11 hours ago, recoveringacademic said: All TV programmes have an agenda. And it won't be yours. This!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 (edited) Personally I would never go on a show. A former boss once invited a journalist to follow my team around as we designed an electronic product. Was meant to be a serious article and the journalist seemed fine, but in the published article they twisted everything to make it seem like there were loads of problems and wrote about nonexistent personality clashes and arguments. Was given a headline similar to "Five go mad in...". Total stitch up. Boss later apologised to the team and took us all out for a meal. Grand Designs isn't too bad but you might find yourself on the self build equivalent of Jeremy Kyle. Be prepared for the producer to be really nice during recording but the editor then twist things any way the want to make the story more interesting. Minor problem you have with the builder or trade might get blown out of all proportion. You might find yourself portrayed as being fussy/stupid/skinflint/unreasonable etc and they will run the clip three or four times during the programme. If it's not you then they may pick on your builder or his team making them less willing to help with snagging or maintenance. Be warned. Edited January 9, 2019 by Temp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canalsiderenovation Posted January 17, 2019 Author Share Posted January 17, 2019 Grand designs would definitely not be us - it's not quirky enough, nor do we have a Grand Designs budget! I'd be worried as every project I've seen ok TV goes massively over budget.... Or perhaps they just add this in for dramatic effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recoveringbuilder Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 1 hour ago, canalsiderenovation said: Yes but the amazing thing is they always manage to miraculously find more money! I was asked by someone a couple of months ago if we were going to be on budget, the answer to which was we’ll need to be there is no more money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 On 08/01/2019 at 10:27, joe90 said: My build would have been no good for TV as it was on budget, Windows arrived on time, and there was no Agro with the architect! You would be portrayed as the big bad landowner riding roughshod over the planning regs, alienating the poor neighbours and decimating the outstanding beauty of the countryside in your status tractor ? ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canalsiderenovation Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 16 hours ago, Christine Walker said: Yes but the amazing thing is they always manage to miraculously find more money! I was asked by someone a couple of months ago if we were going to be on budget, the answer to which was we’ll need to be there is no more money! Exactly! How do people 'find' an extra £50k....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 4 minutes ago, canalsiderenovation said: Exactly! How do people 'find' an extra £50k....? Well I am the master of that. We started our build not expecting to get beyond a bare frame until the old house sold. But it didn't. So far we have got to a habitable, but not finished house. The shortfall has been: Rent the old house so so far £20K in rental income. Wait until I was 55, then transfer one small pension into a drawdown fund and take the tax free 25%. The rest remains there but will be taxable so I am trying not to draw on it yet. I had a small inheritance. Buy materials as we earn the money, which is one reason it is taking so long. And the big one has to be because I have done so much myself a conservative estimate suggests I have saved £30K in labour costs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 We went about £18k over budget in terms of cash spend, and probably another £20k over from all the labour I put in, because we hadn't got the money to pay tradespeople to do the work (which wasn't part of the original plan). Overall we probably went about £38k over budget, allowing for the value of my labour. The problem with going over budget when you just don't have the money is that it really does drag out the build for a long time, which then ends up increasing your costs even more, just from things like insurance, travel to and from the site, and even council tax towards the end, when you can't put off having to pay it any longer. It's a bit of a vicious circle, and looking back I think I'd have been better just trying to find a way to borrow some more money to fund the build and probably finish it at least a year or so sooner. We'd have then been able to sell our old house earlier, to pay of any loan and replenish our savings, as well as having saved a year or so's worth of council tax, insurance, travel costs etc, which probably added up to a wasted £3.5k or so, all told. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivienz Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 I'm in the final stages of my project with trades doing the majority of the work. Even so, it's crazy busy and you often feel like your head is going to burst with the amount of detail and activity. Having to dance to the tune of a TV production at the same time, who have no interest in things going smoothly for you, is a step way too far in my view. I would question your objectives - do you want to be on telly or have a lovely house without inviting additional stress and hassle. I can't see that they compatible objectives. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 A friend of a friend is a freelance sound engineer and worked on a few of the property shows a while back (may have been the Sarah Beeney ones). He was quite straight forward - they're entertainment / drama shows, if you're not being naturally entertaining / dramatic then they'll make sure what goes on screen comes across that way. Most of them adhere to the 3 act play formula: act 1 establishment, act 2 cliff hanger, act 3 resolution. Grand Designs is very predictable on this front, even if the act 2 'drama' is very tenuous. On a related note, I read recently that the US apprentice production team had a terrible time with Trump. They'd have filmed all the task footage and prepared a report for Trump with a shortlist of who cocked up and should be fired. He never read the notes and arbitrarily chose someone from the loosing team even if they'd done well. Cue the editing team frantically re-cutting the footage to make that person look stupid and the rest good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canalsiderenovation Posted January 20, 2019 Author Share Posted January 20, 2019 Lots to consider and think about. Builder, architects etc are very keen, strangely even though it would put pressure on them re timescales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 Worth also bearing in mind that there will probably be endless repeats for years afterwards, so you can find that you carry on getting a bit of attention for a long time after the show is first broadcast. My wife hates the attention we still get from my most recent bit on TV (which was over ten years ago), as some of her colleagues and friends inevitably mention when they've seen an old re-run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 @canalsiderenovation I think you should go on TV if only so we can all be ridiculously nosey about your build plus you can come on here afterwards and try to persuade us that you’re not the monster / idiot or whatever that the TV company made you out to be ?? Wonder if you get censored until the programme was aired meaning you couldn’t come on a public forum like this and ask for advice on stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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