Page 1 of Anyone see Grand Designs tonight on C4?

The house they had (with the funky balcony) was the one that nVidia rented out to demonstrate the Microsoft XP Media Center Edition PC (amongst other things), which we went to and kicked games journos butt. :)

The balcony is really funky, solid glass, disconcerting when you step out onto it for the first time. :o

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DVD REVIEWER

Yeah I saw it, but the open plan design of their home cinema (light infiltration) and the lack of `soft` furnishings (to dampen the sound) would have made it pretty crap. I`d still give my right arm for it though...nice pad! :D

Pity £34,000 doesn`t buy you a cooker that works properly!

I thought it looked good, but wouldn`t want to live there. TBH I`ve seen nicer.

I did chuckle a bit when I saw that the planners had said the wall had to come down (although I thought the bricks matched pretty well and the neighbours were a bit OTT).

Really enjoy this series and last night`s was very good. Loved the house, but if I had paid 34 bags of sand for a cooker it`d work first time or go back!

I reckon if they`d at least made the LFO feel a little more involved they may not have had as much trouble. We didn`t really get to see the LFO`s side of the argument. The impression I got was that they were being arty ponces and complaining for the sake of it. What the couple did to the building is better than it being propped up by rusty supports for years before it finally fell down.

Nick

But if you are happy to spend £1.2 million on your house, you would have thought you could at least have got the bricks to match on the outside. To be honest they struck me as being a bit selfish, not caring waht it looked like from the outside just how OTT the inside was. I didn`t like it at all - it was not on a `domestic` scale. The damn dining table looked like the conference room at work.

I also found it odd that as it was meant to be an advert for her architectural practice, she said that it had gone 100% over budget - don`t think i would employ her on my projects, and most of our clients would go mad if we lost control of the purse strings like that, especially when things didn`t work!

UC
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...some kind of superstar*

Must admit I thought the LFO were a bunch of upper class twits who were unjustified in their complaints. I also thought the fletton brick were not a bad match - even if they had have got the London stocks they probably would not have matched the weathered ones.

Regarding the budget being blown well what do you expect from a load of architects? If the budget had have been a primary concern then they should have employed a suitably qualifies QS. But speaking as a qualified QS I am glad that money was not a concern and that they did not use a QS as they finished product was uncompromising and a unique representation of the architect`s vision. I would dread to think what they would have ended up with had they under gone a value engineering exercise on the design. Furthermore didn`t they blow a lot of the budget on the legal fees anyway?

Great programme though from C4.

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....even if they had have got the London stocks they probably would not have matched the weathered ones.

they should have got second hand bricks that would ave been a much closer match. They would have cost more, but maybe they could have saved on the cooker? :o I mean, the thing doesn`t even work!

UC
_____________________
...some kind of superstar*

I love this programme :) the last series was excellent. As for this property, well, i agree with what most people have said already. It was a wonderful design that if i was staying in for a visit i would think wow!! but I wouldnt want to live there. Its nice that an old building was getting a new lease of life but i did think the couple were a bit selfish in their attitudes especially the bloke. Having said that the LFO (or whatever) definately came across as a load of upper class dinosaurs opposed to change!! And i`m sorry but 34k for a cooker is obscene, its just the worst sort of status symbol, for that price i`d want the damn thing to do the shopping and cook my bloody tea for me!!! ;)

My favourite prog from the last series was the one where the bloke lived out in the woods and built a house there almost totally out of what he could claim from the woods :)

Does anyone know if they had to rebuild the wall in the end? I know they were appealling against the refusal of the retrospective planning permission. Has anyone heard anything?