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Grand Designs (2025) S27 E06 Wirral Revisit 2025
Transcript
00:00this elegant structure was heavily inspired by the medieval bridges of Switzerland it's in the
00:12Wirral though in the northwest of England not exactly where you'd expect to find it but it
00:16goes to show doesn't it that quality and imagination will always sing out and you know
00:21the people of Birkenhead here really love it I suppose the modern equivalent is sort of
00:26from under taking say a mid-century modern timber box you know something that's cantilevered and
00:33elegant and and placing it on the side of an old bungalow amidst some midwardian houses I mean
00:40what's wrong with that who would object to that turns out a lot of people in 2016 Stuart and Rosie
00:49decided to rip apart their 1960s dormer bungalow it's been a wonderful home but it's a crummy house
00:55and instead build an entirely different home it's gonna be timber clad it's a big bold shape but big
01:03and bold didn't go down well it looks like a giant garden shed I hate it they even questioned their
01:12own taste at the moment not 100% sure about it if I'm honest a taste for industrial steelwork and bare
01:20blocks paint it no I prefer stuff a bit more finish in the end it was all more stripped back than they
01:28wanted you just went to your brother's bedroom through the wall I still wonder if the project
01:33ever got finished whatever finished means do you know it's been nine years since I last saw Stuart and
01:45Rosie the house at that point was well it looked finished on the outside but inside it was far from
01:52done and they were camping in amongst the stud work wow it'll be really exciting to go back and see how it
01:59is now whether or not the sedum roof has grown whether or not that cantilever looks as good as it did then
02:04whether whether the building has settled down into where it is but first here's their story
02:11this is the Wirral Peninsula a quiet and
02:41polite corner of Britain near Liverpool it's a land of traditional architecture pitched roofs and
02:48pre 21st century housing some 1800s some 1920s and 30s some post-war like this place that Stuart and
02:59Rosie treasurer have lived in for the last five years it's been a wonderful home but it's a crummy
03:04house it's a three-bedroom dormer bungalows built in the 60s quite cheaply just a basic box just put up
03:12I think it was built on spec there's no insulation there's cracks in the floor the layouts really bad
03:17for us so Stu's not actually able to walk past here yeah it's ever so small the little ugly duckling is
03:25ready to be turned into something better yes so Rosie and Stuart have moved into rented accommodation
03:33with their kids Molly and Ben while they perform a shocking act of vandalism they're knocking the
03:43pitched roof off their old house and transforming it into something striking and modern no going back
03:52now it's all got quite real all of a sudden we're not going to try and copy a historic house I'm not
03:59going to try and build a 30s style house you know we need to build something that's of now I think I
04:03feel that quite strongly you know this is proper seaside suburbia beautiful 1920s arts and crafts houses
04:16which have been cherished and looked after and maintained there's nothing radical here
04:22there's somebody is trying to do something here though the bungalow has been reduced to a roofless
04:32husk ready for a 21st century building to rise from its bones this is the posh bit of the world
04:40looking down over the water yeah but it was till we moved in anyway we've lowered the tone slightly
04:45and now we're aiming to put it back up you're going to bring it up again what is it that you're going
04:51to do we're now taking this ground floor plan and building straight up from it which is the lowest cost
04:57where we can get volume upstairs it's going to be timber clad it's going to be white render yeah it's a
05:02big bold shape so how much bigger then is the new building than the old one well the old one was about
05:08a hundred square meters downstairs 50 square meters upstairs this new one is going to be about 140
05:13square meters just upstairs and the downstairs we're already adding about another 50 so so all
05:18together again it's a lot bigger it's 300 square meters yeah yeah I'm more or less the same footprint
05:24you look always unsure are you still tentative about this we can't quite believe we're finally doing it
05:31that's mainly the thing their architect Stephen Bromelow has devised a design that will double the size
05:37of Rosie and Stuart's old bungalow and reuse their walls and foundations this is what their old bungalow used
05:44to look like having decapitated it a pair of hefty steel columns get craned in to hide behind the perimeter
05:52wall these will support a fake cantilever an overhang at one end of the new 21st century first-floor box
05:59sitting on top of the old ground floor walls built in block work it'll get super strong joists chopped
06:05off with a sloping rubber roof the outside of this spanking new top floor will be insulated and clad
06:11with a rough textured heat treated timber the pre-existing ground floor walls meanwhile will receive a coverall
06:18coat of render inside Rosie and Stuart plan to leave their home in the raw rock work walls and ceiling joists will be exposed
06:27the old ground floor will become a more open space with a lounge office cluster of service rooms including a pantry and a large
06:36kitchen dining room to be furnished in no small way with units chairs and tables made by Stuart upstairs the new box will be built to modern building regs and contain the private rooms to bed and the
06:36rooms for the children with bathrooms opposite to ensuite guest rooms and a master bedroom outside Rosie and Stuart are planning eventually to build a garden room come study a quiet adult space to connect to the house
06:43Stuart and Rosie's design ambition is dazzling the house will look like half a million pounds worth of work but they've only got a hundred and fifty grand plus
06:50a twenty five thousand pound contingency to do it where's that money come from it's
07:19from it's remortgage and savings we're going to try and get the interiors done
07:24for on a good day we think maybe 10,000 on a bad day we think or 20 30,000 you
07:30know we don't quite know and it's going to be a bit of a succulency approach
07:33not 10 not if you want to put flooring down if we can build a lot of the stuff
07:37ourselves we will save a serious amount of money there
07:40Stu and Rosie are also hoping to save money on finishes by not having any we
07:47like the sort of slightly raw slightly paired back you know but industrial ish
07:52look yeah not to a sort of stupid degree but I don't want to just cover
07:56everything in plastic and polish it sanded scaffold planks here and there
07:59yeah yeah yeah yeah and also cladding if we if we can buy enough of it we can
08:04also use that internally I think that looks great we really are talking super
08:07budget here we are you haven't got much money it's a great reservoir you've got
08:11his time well we've got enthusiasm and we've got energy and you know we've got
08:15people who help us out we'll we'll get it done given their overall budget of a
08:21hundred and fifty grand I hope so they're radically remodeling their old
08:25home into a sharp-edged piece of contemporary architecture that will
08:29deliver double the space you may be asking how come Rosie and Stuart can
08:34build the house is such a ridiculously small amount of money and the answer
08:38partly is that they're not completely destroying the old house they are
08:42retaining their foundations and the ground floor walls the technical term for
08:47this is the creative reuse of buildings or bungalow gobbling
08:56in December the gobbling begins in earnest the main contractor Graham is
09:02running the first half of this two-part project 80% of the budgets going on the
09:07first phase we're here to get the shell ready for Rosie and Stuart and get it
09:13wind and weather tight and then we hand over to Stu to fit out
09:21today marks the arrival of the steel supports it will sneakily hold up the
09:26apparent cantilever that is the first floor overhead the steels are getting it
09:33bolted together and then lifted as an assembly to put into place the scaffold
09:37poles in the way there's traffic roaring past so this crane drivers got his work
09:41cut out as far as I can tell this is the first time we've had to crane something
09:44over the big sandstone wall and I'm very fond of this sandstone wall they'd best take
09:50care then this is like watching builders banner it's delicate and precise work
10:07after three hours the steel frame is up hidden behind a high stone wall it neatly represents the
10:24ingenuity that may yet become this project's hallmark it's not a true cantilever to actually
10:30engineer that as a proper cantilever building would be enormously expensive from the road it'll be a little
10:36trick that it looks it looks more expensive than it is let's put it that way hopefully what we're
10:42showing here is that you can actually build something large and modern and striking on a
10:47similar price so something that isn't like a developer box you know and we'll end up with
10:51something great for a similar price of something mediocre to build their house for a hundred and
10:58fifty grand Stuart and Rosie have to drive costs down and get maximum value for minimum spend
11:05they think they found a way to do that with the interior
11:10they're fans of what you'd call industrial chic marrying the economy and glamour of the worker day
11:23this restaurant in Liverpool has exposed ducts and worn stairs the charms of a no-frills narrative
11:33of an industrial past but this floor is actually pretty good we didn't know about this place until
11:41a friend told us you know we should come here because it basically looks inside like like we
11:46keep talking about how we want our house to be I like this metal stuff yeah there's quite a few things
11:52here that float our boat really here they've probably taken a perfectly nice shop and then
11:58ripped it all out to make it look like this except they didn't everything here has been newly put in
12:04hundreds of thousands of pounds had to be spent to artifice this stripped back industrial atmosphere
12:10from scratch adding pipes and factory lighting Stuart and Rosie plan to mimic this style
12:16by spending as little as they can they're hoping to cut costs further by making many of the fittings and
12:26furniture themselves in the workshop they use to run their gift-making business we're able to use the
12:32skills that we've got and the machinery that we've got to help the house mommy if you've got the dispatch
12:37thing you revolve I have darling obviously the world is full of wooden benches and wooden tables but
12:42um I don't want any of those I want something that I'm going to create myself I know it might
12:48even be out of the off cuts of cladding I might make stuff out of that Stu's frugal and creative
12:54approach extends right through this project from recycling their old bungalow to building in simple easy
13:00materials three months in the first floor extension is going up in block work it's standard
13:10straightforward and inexpensive with the budget being so tight we needed something that was quick
13:16it's cost effective and was readily available the block works enabled us to get the outside and in
13:23sky skin up quickly and and on budget the block work may be quick and cheap but
13:30it turns out the whole project is more expensive than Rosie and Stuart expected we're realizing we
13:37were a little bit naive and thinking that we could scrimp on the materials we're up second the insulation
13:42so we're just kind of adjusting that to how it should have been probably from the start we know
13:47we're slightly over still waiting for a few quotes to come back in so we don't quite know where we're how
13:53over we're going to be how they deliver an architectural wonder on a tiny budget no one knows not even them
14:01Rosie and Stuart's a hundred and fifty thousand pound budget bungalow gobble is no-nonsense and no frills a
14:18major part of their pound saver industrial aesthetic goes into the building in the form of their roof
14:24joists downstairs the joists will have to be boarded and plastered for fire wrecks but upstairs they'll be
14:31left utterly naked they're actually attractive things I think you know they're a nice interesting design
14:38they're geometric they're open they're modern looking they're cool you know they're a nice thing you
14:44mentioned this to anyone in the building trade that is look at you like that but they are don't you
14:49think they're nice no you don't okay Graham's not the only one who's questioning Rosie and Stu's
14:56aesthetic choices the difficulty I have is understanding just what this is going to feel
15:01like whether it's going to seem unfinished whether they're rough and ready approach in the end doesn't
15:07just look well rough Stuart and Rosie Stuart particularly seem magnetically attracted to
15:17the unfinished they even want to clad the outside of their home in raw wood
15:22they've all come to the Netherlands to look at the rough timber they want to use as cladding it's a
15:43processed softwood that is pickled in acid and then heated to become a hardwood it's going to be such a
15:50key part of how the house looks we really want to make the right decision don't we because otherwise
15:55it's not going to look how we want it to that's right when sanded treated and processed the pickled
16:02wood looks like this Stuart and Rosie of course want to extract it from the process earlier pulling
16:09the wood out before it's processed means they'll get it cheaper for eight grand instead of twelve but
16:16the downside to this is that the wood is stacked and separated with sticks Rosie and Stu's new home
16:22will be clad with the stick marks still visible those stick marks are so prominent those are really
16:28quite noticeable I'm okay with wanting it to be natural and as unprocessed as possible but I
16:36still like it to look finished yeah they wanted rough industrial cladding and they've got it
16:44meanwhile back on the Wirral the insulation for outside the walls and roof has arrived and it's cost an
16:55additional 2,000 pounds ingeniously though Stuart and Rosie have managed to save about that amount in the
17:01way they've built the roof structure I can think of no better example of how Stu and Rosie are taking
17:07this kind of pragmatic approach to saving money than the shape of this roof the fact that it's sloped
17:12a conventionally if you were to slope a roof you'd sit your joists on top of your wall like that and
17:21then on top of those you'd then form rather expensive triangular shape piece of timber skin there and
17:31that would provide you with your fall your slope in this case about three degrees which is enough to
17:36to take the water off the roof what they've done here brilliantly is with Graham work out the fact that
17:43if you take your joist you actually get the factory to cut it at a slight angle and then you build your walls
17:55to slightly different heights you get your slope without even trying you know NASA spent untold sums on
18:08developing a ballpoint pen that would write in space and the Russians use pencils get the point
18:14it's economy not necessity that's the mother of invention now the roofs on the modern form of
18:24this building is already starting to show itself off in among its traditional neighbors but the
18:30interior is going to need all the beauty it will get especially with all those exposed joists and bare
18:36block work walls I mean to me that is a beautiful wall it's really nicely done it's an attractive
18:41material it'll go a bit lighter obviously when it dries out but it's okay I don't automatically just
18:46want to cover that over paint it no good for you lovely I prefer stuff a bit more finished but
18:53leaving everything exposed may be an aesthetic choice but I'm not sure it's making things cheaper doing
19:02this kind of nice simple you know sparse look adds cost that we didn't really expect so for example all
19:08these little nice OSP panels in the ends all have to be custom made custom fitted yeah measured and
19:14individually installed so that's added time and added cost so has it really saved us money doing this I
19:19doubt it it gets worse outside as the cladding arrives and the first boards go up everyone's expressing their doubts
19:30thoughts where's Rosie is she down there how does it look from the ground very striking you can see the
19:39stick marks yeah Rosie's worried the marks draw further attention to an already bold building in a very
19:46traditional area I'm really honest I'm struggling slightly with the sticker marks still I understand why
19:56they're there I understand it's part of the natural process but at the moment it looks a bit stripy to
20:03me I'm hopeful that when it's trimmed off and finished at the bottom that I will learn like it because at
20:10the moment I'm not 100% sure about it if I'm honest neither unfortunately as some of the neighbors
20:16already a few are starting to mutter about the strange wooden box that's risen from behind the stone wall
20:22it's not kept the local character it isn't part of the local vernacular it is different with timber
20:27and I'd think it perhaps might have been better if we actually had a had a fixed roof so Pat what
20:34do you think of this this house if you hadn't have told me it was a house I would think it was office
20:41an office block I'm not keen on it I'll be honest there at this moment in time you're entitled to
20:47your opinion but just quite blend in no with the area come and look on the door look round because
20:54if you don't like it on the outside you're probably going to be a pulled on the inside well maybe we
21:00have to wait till it's finished yeah well it's always a good rule of life isn't it wait till
21:05it's finished before making a judgment yes yes wait till it's finished yeah and see what it's like then
21:11all local eyes from local people are focused on the great wooden wonder box rising in the
21:33Wirral five months in the windows are going in so far Rosie and Stuart have saved where they can to
21:44build within their 150 grand budget but mindful of local feeling this time they're not trying to
21:50save money they've dipped into their contingency and spent more we made the decision to upgrade them
21:59in the original spec we were having gray new PVC windows and then pretty much everyone that we
22:05spoke to said the design of your house would look much better if you could do aluminium windows so we've
22:11braced ourselves and done the aluminium changing the windows is costing an extra eight grand I've been
22:20quite tense about the windows because it is by far the most expensive single thing that you know that
22:25we've put in there in the house a generous nod out of respect to the design the environment and local
22:31feeling great but I feel the building needs to do more if it really wants to feel properly rooted in
22:37and part of this place so what they're going to do well they've set it of course already low and behind the red
22:45wall I think I'd be very tempted to try and take one of these colors perhaps one of these pale creams here
22:52and apply that to their masonry ground floor just in order to help the things settle to make it look
22:58like it's part of a sequence of buildings here that have stepped up the hill through the centuries
23:08by spring the place is watertight and in another radical pound-saver exercise Stuart and Rosie are no
23:14longer paying 900 pounds a month in rent they've moved into their half-finished home we're now in we've
23:21spread out and we're just sort of camping out up here really now that Graham the contract is finished
23:26Stuart and Rosie deliberately slow things down at their woodworking business to focus on site first
23:32up is the downstairs plumbing lashed up this toilet it's in a bit of a temporary plumbing fixture I'm
23:38just sort of you know plumbing it together in a nice haphazard way this was always the plan you
23:45know we'd use Graham to do as much as we could of the of the big stuff you know roof walls windows all
23:50that kind of thing and the idea is that we moved back in and did the rest ourselves to obviously
23:54save the cash and to to do it how we wanted to do it they've got three grand set aside for heating
24:05which is enough to buy an underfloor system but not enough to pay for someone to install it that is
24:11going to do a presentation come on we've decided the way that we can make it affordable is that we
24:16we fit it ourselves so this will go about there and it's some holidays and the children are going
24:24to help us these are to hold the underfloor heating pipe and you basically just click it in between
24:29these castellations it does just look like we're standing around you know making the children work
24:33doesn't it I'm all right with that yeah spurred on by the children's enthusiasm and energy within a
24:48couple of weeks the upstairs has fully evolved it's become a surreal self-contained apartment open plan
24:57basket oh open plan toilet that's nice there's only stud work dividing the rooms up here oh well I like
25:05the way you just did that you just you just went to your brother's bedroom through the wall when this
25:11wall is eventually skinned out you'll think to yourselves you know I can't walk through walls
25:15anymore exactly Benny meantime is inhabiting another world half in his room and half in his sisters it's
25:23it's more fun for some of us than others yeah like this does dad snore yes can you hear it's
25:30presumably from around the corner you can hear everything yeah without going into details full
25:37open plan living is obviously awkward but at least it's given the kids a chance to get used to their
25:42parents bold tastes and the children were gonna have ceilings but they've both decided they quite like
25:48their joists now Molly really likes her block work wall we've you know converted her it's a style
25:53triumph that you persuaded them that it's worth keeping this is propaganda design that takes advantage
26:00of young minds outside Rosie and Stewart have however failed to change the minds of some of the neighbors
26:10I hate it I hate it and I don't know anybody who likes it you come up the road and it's like a smack
26:19in the eye you see this wooden shack in front of you it looks like a giant garden shed
26:26we haven't gone out to build this house to provoke a reaction have we no not at all it just feels like
26:35we've almost the way it is at the moment doesn't do it justice for people to decide what they think
26:39I guess we'd like it to look its best so that then any comments that made are at least made in an
26:45informed way Rosie and Stuart have decided to spend nine grand on an innovative spray render for the
26:53bottom of the building made principally with ground cork it has many advantages not least in tying the
27:00building into its setting and the render has a partner in crime another surface treatment to help the
27:08house much better to its setting it's lovely it's just gorgeous I've never seen a sedum roof so rich
27:15so diverse so full of different species it's just brilliant so it's a little slice of heaven isn't it
27:21it really really is although it feels like a luxury it'll make us smile every single day this is kind of
27:27another example of you trading up isn't it yeah this was our treat gang premium yeah how much is that
27:3430 pounds a square meter they're not light how you gonna get them up there oh my lord how you gonna get
27:40them up there we'll find out of the scaffolding we'll find a way ready take it up look so Rosie Stuart and
27:54Rosie's mom get to work put in the swing of it now how do you like it it's so much nicer and more tactile
28:09to actually have it is awesome
28:10you want to do a pile on them I'll be fine
28:20having upgraded the insulation windows and now the green roof in total Rosie and Stuart have spent
28:30a hundred and forty seven thousand so far they've now got just 28 grand left in the bank to complete
28:38the house and for day-to-day living and now an unmovable deadline looms mid-october we have to stop the
28:45house and we have to focus on the business because that's our busiest time of year it needs us to to
28:50have a good Christmas under pressure to finish and get back to earning money Rosie and Stuart are pulling
28:59out all the stops but pressures no hindrance to creativity in their wood workshop Stuart's come
29:07up with a brilliant low-cost idea for the staircase we've decided we're gonna create it out of 25 mil
29:14plywood on our CAD system we design all of the things that we're going to cut and then it's just a matter of
29:17telling the computer to cut out the shape if we get this right it should be a fantastic freestanding
29:22rock-solid box of plywood what I'm thinking of doing is designing a wavy pattern so the sheets
29:28actually lock together in that sense in September Stuart's experimental plywood staircase is starting
29:38to come together oh there's a staircase oh it's a jigsaw it's a staircase and it's a jigsaw I love
29:47that joint beautiful and it's only cost them 600 quid at the beginning of their project Stuart and
29:55Rosie planned an extreme naked industrial interior bare block and exposed ceiling joists but now I can see
30:03plaster you were not intending to skim it the nice man that did our render and he did the ceilings
30:09well I'm quite like those do you think you could do some of the walls as well and then we can come
30:14back tomorrow afternoon join me to do that I'm like can't think of a reason why not yes surprised
30:18ourselves at how much we like the fact that it just looked almost like a finished room yeah not only
30:25does it feel a finished room it also feels like a deliberate purpose-built home that is you know from
30:29you as opposed to another building which has been knocked around a bit yeah kind of ties it all back
30:34doesn't it but having plastered doesn't mean they've relinquished their ambitions for industrial chic
30:41for the dining room they found a rough ready and free way of making furniture these are our old first
30:50floor floor joists so we kept these in the garden carefully we knew we're going to do something with
30:56them and here we are finally doing something with them so we're just going to start building some
31:00bookcases and shelves and storage units that kind of thing Stu and Rosie also have a stylish factory
31:12finish plan for one of the walls in their family lounge they're going to clad it with leftover pickled
31:17wood these are off cuts of cladding we tried it vertically and horizontally we didn't think we'd like
31:24horizontal yeah but we do it looks like it more than the vertical yeah it looks less like exterior cladding
31:30that reminds me of outside that is that's very smart though is what you get then is the vertical lines of the
31:37stick stick marks stick marks yeah where it was stacked that's right that's very pretty it looks
31:43like some kind of interference pattern inside so the sticker marks that I didn't like externally I'm fine
31:47with inside because I didn't want on the outside them I didn't want it to look like a stripey house
31:53did I a bit like a zebra you didn't want anybody to not like your house on there so you want didn't
31:58want to stand up I didn't say that I didn't want anybody to look like my house on the outside because I
32:03can't control that which is a you know another topic starting to twitch slightly don't twitch well
32:16this project is not going where I thought it would I think Eva Stuart and Rosie is surprised
32:21at just how polished it's turning out to be come my final visit in the autumn how are you feeling both
32:30we are exhausted I think we worked hard to try and make it look good the house seemed sharp and
32:36clean although a little pink and fresh so what had been the response from the neighbors have you had
32:42many comments less now than when it first went up all good then at least outside am I allowed in
32:48but what about indoors this is very very good indeed Stuart and Rosie had proved me wrong I had
32:58questioned their choices oh and Joyce look but I was charmed by the pound-stretching semi-industrial world
33:06they had made the curtain rail is genius this is metal tube 25 mil steel tube galvanized from
33:13the scaffolders from the scaffolding suppliers yeah it's absolutely in the spirit of the building very
33:18nice the kitchen followed the same ethos marrying the love for the rough with their love for budget I'm
33:24looking at this thinking you know you might spend 15 20 grand on your kitchen lesson too even the
33:32kids showed early promise of self-built construction talent you two are exemplary builders I mean I've
33:38never seen ever guys your age contribute so much we couldn't have asked for more helpful little beings
33:44to be honest but upstairs was still very much unfinished only stud walls separated the spaces oh
33:50own plan toilet that's nice and the bathrooms were down to their bare bones it's easy to see all the
33:57things that you haven't done and sometimes it's a good idea to just stop and say actually do you know
34:01what we've done quite a lot in less than a year Rosie Stewart Molly and Ben all had a whirlwind of a
34:08year building and moving back into a house that was now over double the size getting the project this
34:13far had been nothing short of commendable but they still had a long way to go
34:22so Rosie and Stewart have been living in their house for nearly a decade so surely by now they must have
34:28finished what about all that idiosyncratic furniture made out of scaffolding can't wait to see if they've still got that
34:43the beautiful seaside suburbia that is the Wirral Peninsula is a natural home for pointy-roofed traditional
34:54homes I've come back to visit a family who chose in 2015 to try something a little different well it's
35:03going to be back here after nearly what ten years thing about this house that Rosie and Stewart built was
35:09that it was quite disruptive here in the world and yet approaching it I don't see what the fuss was
35:19about I really don't the semi cantilevered box now sits much more comfortably among its older neighbors
35:27this house was never intended to stick out it just needed an age-old ingredient time to silver it down
35:35well that is better than when I last saw it the cladding is really beautiful though but I look at
35:44that house next door which is a hundred years older well then all the detailing on this the colors the
35:51textures everything sort of takes its cue from this older building it looks like a sort of distilled version
35:57of it I always thought it was subtle and I think it's subtler than ever hey hello good to see you
36:09how are you very well how are you hello Rosie very good to see you you haven't changed either of you a
36:15bit thank you very much market we'll take that yeah this though I mean it's subtler yeah it's weathered
36:20down really well the okoya timber is remarkable are you always a little unsure about those stick marks but
36:26they faded beautifully I really love it now when it first wound up people were like oh my god it's
36:30so yellow I think the general comedy is your house doesn't look as bad now that's what I think it was
36:35a big change and that took a while for people once they realized we weren't putting a pitch roof on it
36:39they kind of understood that it was the shape it was going to be and it's of its time it is the outside
36:43was sort of like this last time I saw you but the inside was just crazy I mean have you done more we're
36:50nearly nearly nearly finished aren't we come on that come and have a look yeah I'd love to see that there's promise
36:57oh
37:02ah oh
37:06this is beautiful the hallway has been smartened up into what now seems a proper welcome
37:13this is not as I remember this was all done in plywood this hallway yeah well covered it over and
37:19used the same wood as outside so this is the okoya cladding it's great yeah you're a bit hooked on this
37:23aren't you we are there's more oh and this wasn't done there is a new office space where once there was an
37:32unfinished storage space whose office my office it says so that your coach yes so I work with senior
37:39leaders to help them motivate and retain their top talent which I can do from here which is really
37:44lovely to be able to do in such a nice environment yeah what are you doing Stuart we used to have a
37:48little shop that quiet and right down really I've turned my attention to building type jobs instead
37:52yeah sitting room yeah oh yeah this is a little oh this is very full the sitting room has now been
38:00completely overtaken this has changed a lot by a world of sound so this room is sort of yeah come a music
38:08room so my dad was a massive CD collector oh really it was his sort of life's work and when
38:13he died we couldn't bear to break it up and what about all the recording kit yeah we lost my dad fairly
38:18recently too and this is some of his stuff he was a high five buff you know the old phrase about books
38:21do you furnish a room I kind of think these days CDs and albums furnish a room and they kind of tell
38:27the world about who we are even the stick marks of the pickled wood walls seem to echo the notation of
38:33music they're like musical staves there's a beat running through the wall which is kind of quite appropriate
38:37now isn't it for the content I'm gonna say that was intentional yes I'm pleased you picked up on
38:41that word through here is the kitchen change much has that evolved kitchens pretty much the same I
38:47think Rosie and Stuart's homemade scaffolding kitchen is still there a mark of its success and it's now
38:53joined by a new smartly clad opening I mean it's a bar it's got twinkly lights and everything well
39:00what's this through here this is this is a completely new room there is a new extension
39:06topped with a cedar roof it was always planned as a family space to complement the smaller music room
39:13it now completes the house so I come down here pick out my drink and descend the staircase into a light
39:23bright splendid space beautifully done it's come out really well what do you use the room for growing
39:30up lounge kids use it quite a bit for parties as well well if you would wouldn't you I would because
39:34it's the decks just out there and the garden is beautiful the garden functions as an extension of
39:40the interior it has grown-up furniture as well as some wilder components a bit like Glastonbury I
39:47mean come on you you've built this for your children I'm afraid they reach the age suddenly you know
39:52the alcohol flows talking of which seem to be still holding my imaginary drink indeed you'd like
39:58an imaginary top-up yeah thanks so much oh this is so much nicer now you've got this lovely crafted
40:05handra Stewart and Rose's industrial tastes are still there upstairs is all galvanized galore I got a
40:14minute when you're gonna finish the ceiling that's done you like it it's very practical install things up
40:20there skis if it's with the the wood and the bit industrial we can at least all agree on how
40:27beautifully the cedar roof has aged this is like a little forest connecting to the foliage beyond yeah
40:34I love the cedar room beyond the lounge landing lies promise of plasterboard and privacy just
40:40clocking rooms because all of this was you're camping we were camping yes what's this room now spare room so
40:46you've finished the spare room which means you've finished all of them we finished all of them yeah we
40:49have oh nice here upstairs there are now five and finished bedrooms with doors that close and there
40:57are bathrooms and not a stud wall in sight Molly and Ben's rooms suggest they share their parents taste
41:04for sterling board ah and even this room is finished your bedroom yeah ignoring the inevitable homemade
41:11scaffolding bed the view from Stewart and Rose's window is of another sedum roof oh my goodness that
41:18see them out there is much brighter and greener and fresher like it's just been recently laid it has just
41:22been recently okay yes the kids did that actually a couple of weeks ago what they so when we fitted this
41:28dear and I were clearly in charge and the children helped and when we fitted this the kids were clearly in
41:33charge and Stu and I helped so the balance of power has shifted they have opinions and they're getting
41:38skills they're getting dangerous I find that really interesting because you actually have produced a
41:44generation of people in your family with practical hands-on skill sets which is rare I think they also
41:51recognize if they want to live in a nice house it's only reasonable they contribute and when we were
41:57building the extension and we were talking about what a nice room is going to be you could see them
42:00thinking I want some of that that's great I'm willing to help because I want that result Molly
42:05and Ben were just seven and ten when their parents built their house nine years on I wonder how they
42:11reflect on that frenzied year congratulations on coming through this process relatively unscathed you
42:17seem like normal human beings thank you very much yeah I'll take that like to think we are what do you
42:21remember about the project when your parents were in the throes of it we don't remember all of it but we
42:25remember bits and pieces it happened like gradually but all of a sudden you realize you were kind of
42:30you're in the middle of this project and it's quite cool seeing all these rooms get put up around
42:34you and we were there and it was really cool to see it all coming together I think I want to know
42:38about this power struggle right look seem to have the pair of you taken over the responsibility of
42:44jobs yeah well especially given they've now got dodgy physically especially Molly she's stepped up and
42:50can do quite a lot more than we used to be able to power tools anything vaguely dangerous I'm quite
42:56interested excellent excellent I think we've been very lucky to be able to do this whole thing as a
43:01family I've enjoyed the fact that we're so close together working on this yeah it's nice that when
43:06we're around in this space we can look around and think oh I helped with that we did all that
43:11together and oh yeah we did all this so yeah building a house can be such a difficult even
43:18alienating experience for a household this family show me that you can not only get through it but
43:24thrive in the process to become stronger than ever you've had this opportunity to work alongside your
43:32children to work and build this alongside them with them to the extent that they've taken over
43:38bits of the project mmm and that is for parents quite a privilege we couldn't have done it without
43:46the kids you just couldn't have done it without kids I think it just makes you really tight because
43:50you go through such a lot together taking this approach so of doing it slowly and then moving in
43:57when it was nowhere near finished hmm and then taking what another nine years yeah to get to
44:04this point yeah we've made better decisions by living in it and letting it evolve around us
44:09being able to just do it room by room on our own time scale you can just do it exactly as you want
44:14it without having to worry about the initial spec you thought of two years ago we wouldn't have got it
44:18well done it wouldn't have been right for us in the end what's really clever here is that you've got
44:22the quality and you said actually it doesn't matter about the time because we want the quality we want the
44:27thing we want and and and we're prepared to spend time doing that I genuinely enjoy the process of
44:32the design the build the construction coming to fruition I would do it again it's not really a
44:38conversation we've taken too far together but I'd do anything again with Stu excellent canal boat
44:45Rosie and Stuart strategy of building gently with intention and patience has given them not just this
44:58adaptable modern home but a feast of memories that binds together everyone living here I do like this place a lot
45:09it is it is a slow house it's the product of a slower process of more contemplation it's a building which has been able to
45:19flex and grow and change according to the different needs the changing needs over time of the people that use it and the
45:27the building as a result is not that demanding I mean so often I say to people get the house done move in and you can crack on with your
45:36lives but of course as John Lennon said life is what happens to you while you are too busy making other plans that didn't happen here
45:44this is a building which respects relationships respects emotions respects the sacred value of everyday life
46:06back in 2019 Greg and Georgie had grand plans oh it's big for this dilapidated barn this is now
46:14our forever home isn't it but there were serious health challenges for both of them to contend with
46:19who both have brain tumors and problems looked at every turn not even budging we're 50 mil out
46:24flip it so six years later I'm back it's really grown into something quite special
46:44so
46:48you
46:52you
46:54you
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