From one of everybody's favorite episodes (also of Kevin McCloud's himself, he told me) of Grand Designs. If you can get the series, do so. This house was all built by hand in the middle of the woods, with all wood and hay blocks. He only got building permission because he already was the caretaker for the woods.
I've seen a few episodes of that. It's amazing the amount of debt some of those people go into to realize their dream home. If I lived in England I wouldn't go near a listed building, though. I remember this one where a couple were renovating an Elizabethan farm house, and the lengths they had to go to were ridiculous.
ReplyDelete"It's amazing the amount of debt some of those people go into to realize their dream home."
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more, it's sometimes staggering.
In the UK there are a lot of old barns converted into houses. My dad, who grew up on a farm and was a builder and bricklayer until he retired still says,"Once a barn, always a barn"
ReplyDeleteI agree. Not only do you get a home with no foundations, an impractical layout and restrictions on where your windows are, but you pay extra for the privilege!
Madness!
Good point.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated to this house, though, which was built from scratch.
Whoops! I forgot to say that barn conversions are like the listed buildings Dave Nielson wrote about above, in that they are very expensive but often not very practical.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated to this house, though, which was built from scratch.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, but I was just talking about the show in general.
I liked this clip so I downloaded the episode. I can see why it's a favorite. I loved that house and things really worked out well for him in the end. Not a bad way to make a living, and a very beautiful place to live (not just the house but the view). I liked that the budget was much more reasonable than most of the extravagant monstrosities other people on this show have built. (That's not really a critcism, as I like seeing those projects come together.) Even the addition he added on after kid #2 looked like it fit, like it had been planned that way.
Yes, this cottage was really brilliantly done all the way through.
ReplyDeleteI liked the guy who was building it. Although living unconventionally he's extremely hardworking and not an annoying hippy type. He's a "business hippy" sort of this dude:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mxelbu6PRg&feature=related
but without the drugs.