Grand Designs new series.....

the house was ok. Not sure I'd be a keen neighbur with bright white walls looking at me.

Glad she thought of storage as you never see wardrobes or anything like that in other people's plans.

Wasn't keen on him though and felt he resented her a bit for doing so much labour. O/h decided he'd been told not to speak on camera.

You could tell Kevin liked this one. Especially more than last week where he clearly wasn't keen
 
This has been a very poor series of GD. What happened to doing up ancient castles, old water mills etc etc... Now it's just new builRAB, albeit new ideas but not really 'grand' designs.
 
LHR Terminal 5 is all these half-filled in open ceilings as well and it just looks rubbish. Hope that wasn't one of your designs :D. I quite liked the floating ceiling panels she had had put in but the cable tray was a disaster, whenever I see this in a shop ceiling, no matter how neatly cut and polished they make it, it just screams "cheap fitout" to me. Same in her stealth house, it doesn't look industrial in a good way, it looked like the temporary stuff they do on London Underground tube platforms to re-route all the cables while the walls and proper ducting are being refurbished.

I was also surprised at her going on about it being the first passive/airtight house in Britain? I am sure such a thing has been on Grand Designs before? Also my friend is buying a new build flat in East London that I'm certain is the same, it has got some fancy Swedish boiler that barely heats or something like that as part of the whole passive design.
 
Gooby, that man must have amazing qualities that he kept well and truly hidden from us! Surely nobody would stick with someone so selfish otherwise, however pretty the eventual outcome.
 
I liked the look of the house but as usual my practicality steps into place. Imagine being the window cleaner, its not like they can afford one for a while anyway the way they were spending.

gARDEN looked lovely and the decking area. All that wind up their though howwwwl howwwl howwwwl. Also rats will get under that decking to live with the large holes under it.

Too practical for my own good.

My favourite one ever was that carpenter who lived in the forest. And made his house from trees and everything was eco friendly. Mmmm
 
I agree. It was a shocking mess, probably because the bloke was deaf to everybody else's input. The interior of the guildhall was the only good part, even though they'd ripped most of the history out. The stained glass window was tacky and awful. I noticed they didn't bother with a full tour of the upstairs of the barn conversion as it was clearly very unsatisfactory. Amazing they only realised how pokey the bedrooms were when it was nearly finished.

Kevin usually manages to say good things about buildings after they are complete, even if he had doubts before, but on this occasion there was nothing good to mention. Compared to the beautiful eco-house built by the widowed mother the other week this was a triumph of bad taste.
 
I think their house had no boiler at all. There was a wood burner in the red wall, but that was it. No gas or oil services to heat, hence "passive"

The thing about exposed ceilings is that people think they are cheaper but they are not. When a shop puts in a ceiling all that space above it is unpainted, and all the cable trays are dull metal. When the ceiling is omitted, the extra decoration, finishing and increased spec of ductwork usually equals the cost of the ceiling.

In the case of this house, you then have to add in suspended acoustic ceiling panels else the whole thing would echo like a, well a concrete bunker. Thats how they like it, so fair play to them.

I don't buy into the whole man-made global warming thing at all, but I am keen to minimise fuel costs solely to avoid paying taxes and all that money to fuel companies who raise their prices in an instant but still take 3 months to drop them.
 
That's exactly what I thought when I saw it last night. I'm sure there was another Passivhaus on Grand Designs. I certainly remember that they didn't even have a letter box as it would compromise the airtightness of the building. Perhaps the other one didn't pass the Passivhaus test.

I can't imagine living in a house which is airtight. Even though the temperature and air would be controlled, I'd still feel stifled!
 
Good grief, I'd plain forgot about the garage!.

I cant remember anything in Kevins end piece about it, or any VT, but if I blinked and missed it, would someone set me straight?.
 
Loved the house. Amazing how a bit of white paint on the bricks managed to make it look like it had been there for years and was a restoration rather than the brand new build that it really was.

It's always good when they actually condider beforehand the fact that they actually have to live in these places when they are complete.

The homely ones always turn out way better than the bold design of bold eco statement ones.
 
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