DRUNKNORGY

WTF, that house was built by a building company passed down through generations with all of the contacts and experience handed on a plate to them. I've no objection to people helping their kids out in this way, but it could have just as well been built by Barrats or Bloor Homes with all of the regular company employees lending their weight to meet the deadline. All of the other builds i've seen have wrestled with contractors not turning up etc, etc. If they were in the real world, it would have cost 50-60 k more and wouldn't have been built in 16 weeks. Your missing the point we are attempting to make (I did line the double Belfast Sink BTW).

[Edited by DRUNKNORGY - 10/2/2003 1:11:00 PM]

WISHING

Or was it an advert for 'daddy's' Company.
Oh and amazingly the husband (AKA WET W4NK) work for the local council !!!!! handy for planning !

TopBanana

Bit of a passenger isn't he? Can't believe they got planning permission there! Wonder why

unclebuck

F**kin annoying. I looked into this after reading about it in Home Building Magazine. Asked for a quote from Boarder Oak (daddy's company) and it came in at 82K compared to their 50K. And that wasn't the whole lot either [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

My cousin is doing this my other cousin is doing that, and of course daddy is really running it. That muppet bloke is just a passenger.

Spoilt fekin waster BRATTS [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

UD[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Apparition

Well I only saw the end of it just now...but I love the house .....and all for 130k ! **** I am sooooooooooooooogreen with envy.

WISHING

The hard work they both put in to it.... the diserve it. Phaaa !

DRUNKNORGY

I wasn't the only one to notice this then
That budget was a load of bollox, Their old man bought the whole field. Their new neighbours will be subsidising the price of their 'knockdown' cost building plot and I bet their plots will be half the size.

Load of crap and have spoilt what I thought was a good series.

Spoon

Never saw it but a friend of mine in the next village has got a Border Oak house, looks nice too but he had a real game with them trying to rip him off for extortionate amounts for what amounted to a few quid at a builders merchants.

As he is a designer/builder himself he only bought the essentials and sourced the rest himself for a fraction of the cost.

SUNDAY DRIVER

So basically its a crime to:
a)Your father to own a construction company and build their son/daughter a house at cost price,
b)Your father to own some land and sell you a site cheap,
c)Have cousins who work in the building game,
d)Work for the council,

Anything else.. drive a Zafira without actually having any children?...

RON

Not a crime to do/have any of that, but it's a bit misleading to let the whole country think that they could do the same, and then maybe sell the place for double, it didn't even really suit the area either, surely they could hasve done a better job of making it look old, the roof tiles could have been hand made new, not reclaimed factory made, they were dull and boring, a bit like the couple that 'did' it really, I'm not jealous (sp) I've built my own place, but I did it a bit different, I did most of it, not pay (or not) someone else to do it!!!

AndiThompson

Spent all that effort trying to stop it looking like an executive home, was anyone thinking what I was when they showed it finished?

Alpine99

too much envy on here tonight.. The place was lovely and i would hope I could help my daughter out in a similar way in future.. Is it strange to help your family out??

image doctor

lol @ envious little fools!

id

medders

Some may be envy, but I think they should've mentioned the fact that an "ordinary" person couldn't build a house like that for that price.

Did leave a bit of a sour taste, although the house was very nice (well, it was downstairs)

WISHING

The house was ok... but the whole program was miss leading.

Good luck to them, but dont try and fool the british public on national television, that all !

DRUNKNORGY

My point wasn't envy, I was just annoyed that after following the rest of the old series and being a bit of a fan of it, most consisted of real people in real circumstances. If they had gone massively over budget, her old man would have bailed them out (she already said that). The materials in the kitchen and the bathrooms were a serious amount of wedge and no one will convince me that anyone without their connections/family help would be able to do that without spending 50/60k more IMO.
Connecting mains services up to a new house in a field is seriously expensive as well.

I just don't like people trying to blow smoke up my ***

[Edited by DRUNKNORGY - 10/2/2003 9:42:41 AM]

[Edited by DRUNKNORGY - 10/2/2003 9:45:50 AM]

davegtt

I usually watch this program but didnt last nite, decided to laugh at Eddie murphy in dr doolittle but it went off at 9:45 sso I watched the last 15 mins off it and didnt realise that daddy helped out so much, I heard he designed the house and drew the front porch bit... that was it, heard they bought the land for 50k which I thought was cheap and built the house for 65k but went about 20k over budget... still bl00dy cheap I though, how'd they manage that, g/friend was sucked in big style from it but now I see why they managed it if daddie did it all and bought it all providing planning permission etc.... bl00dy stupid. trying to fool the nation into what sort of house you can build at that price

Alpine99

I don't think they tried to fool anyone particularly. It wasn't like they kept it a secret who was working on the project. At one point the woman listed everyone who was working at the house at that moment and named the relation they were to her.. there was only one who wasn't related.

Fair cop..if you or I were to do it, it would be more.. I took that as a given that her own family would be working at cost... Probably why it got finished on time as well... they had profitable work to get on with...

medders

True they did say their names, but they didn't say if the work was done free or not. And they listed how much it cost at the end giving the impression they had paid for everything........
Agree with the kitchen comment. That was a handmade kitchen if ever I saw one.

I'm having a relatively small single story extension and a new kitchen. Their house allegedly cost little more........

Just spoiled the series IMHO

The Zohan

So what if their parents helped out, if i am in that position when i am older then i would do the same.
So what if he was a bit of a wet, does not make hime less deserving.
so what if they are going to make money on their property. It is one of the few things we can these days.

Best of luck to them, i wish i had had the same help but i do not feel any envy towards them 'cause i didn't.

Grand Designs is a great show, just because things went to plan and they had help all the way along is their good fortune and did not make it any less appealing to me.

Nice house as well.

Gordo

Nice porch but looked like a scratty little house to me, anyway. They can have it.

HumptyDumpty

seems like there's a lot of jealousy on this board???

WISHING

Yes, Have to say the porch was very nice.

unclebuck

Exactly. The whole thing had a bad smell to it. Grand Designs let themselves down on this one. Can help thinking there was some kind of bung to get this on as an elaborate advertisement for Boarder Oak.

As I say I was quoted 35K more for the same design *without* the utility room or the porch or the roof tiles or grounwork. The programme was a misleading destortion of reality.

The only thing these supposed 'people with a grand vision' actually contributed to the whole process was to design a door knocker Even that needed 'improving' by the local smithy.

UB

corradoboy

The house - I liked it. It did end up being quite "executive" in style, but I think that it reflected their rather bland personalities. Reminded me of that advert with the cars in the rain, "I want to be an individual ! "
The people - He was a wet sap allowing her to walk all over him. And she came across as a spoilt workshy daddy owns the company brat.
The outcome - Financially they did extremely well, but then again, rich kids usually do with all the "assistance" they get. Stylewise - Very nice, but nothing special. I'd have it for £130k.
The program - Superb, always watch it. Yes sometimes the house or the people irritate me. But we can't all have the same tastes or personality.
Envy - A little, but in a good way. My favorite scenario (being a tight@r53d Yorkshireman) is to get a lot of product for little outlay, and that's exactly what they did, and good luck to them. I wish I had the opportunity, ***** and connections to do it myself. Maybe one day.......soon.

Alpine99

I'm sorry but I don't know what point you are trying to make.. They had it easy so they don't deserve it??

IMHO the series tends to be about properties that are either radical in design or have some unusual build features / materials. They were using some innovative build techniques to achieve a fairly traditional look. I thought they pulled it off well and it would look a whole lot better when the oak matures.

LAst week the people who had their house underground didn't do the work themselves and it wasn't their design. The architect came up with the plans and they signed the cheques. Fundamentally I don't see the difference apart from the family help this couple received.

He 'seemed' a chinless wonder, she 'seemed' a little spoiled. So what? This had no bearing on the house being produced.

HumptyDumpty

wonder if she gives good head

SUNDAY DRIVER

Maybe he had no interest in building whatsoever and let his wife and her family get on with it so that he could concentrate on his 500bhp scoob project?

corradoboy

Nope, definately bores. All i recall seeing in that 1/2 garage come woodstore was a manky old Ford Foisty and a people carrier (yawn). If he was into Scoobs it'd have had a door, an alarm, a rottweiller, a...............

Boss Hogg

Sunday Driver - LMAO!

He's a married man, so it's highly likely that he thought 'f*ck the house, let her choose everything then if it all goes **** up I won't get sh*t for it - and I'll book that TEK3 remap while she won't notice....'

AND he's probably knobbing some bird at work, as his missus looked a bit, well....inbred.

Good lad.