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GrandDesigns S27E06 Wirral Revisit 2025

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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 the money come from it's
07:09million pounds worth of work but they've only got 150 grand plus a 25,000 pound contingency to do it
07:18where's that money come from it's remortgage and savings we're going to try and get the interiors
07:24done for on a good day we think maybe 10 000 on a bad day we think oh 20 30 000 you know we don't
07:31quite know and it's going to be a bit of a suck it and see approach not 10 not if you want to put
07:35flooring down if we can build a lot of the stuff ourselves we will save a serious amount of money
07:40there stew and rosie are also hoping to save money on finishes by not having any we like the sort of
07:47slightly raw slightly paired back you know industrial-ish look yeah not to a sort of stupid
07:54degree but i don't want to just cover everything in plastic and polish it sanded scaffold planks here
07:59and there yeah definitely yeah plenty of those and also cladding if we if we can buy enough of it we
08:04can also use that internally i think that looks great we really are talking super budget here
08:08we are you haven't got much money it's a great reservoir you've got his time well we've got
08:12enthusiasm and we've got energy and you know we've got people who help us out we'll we'll get it done
08:19given their overall budget of 150 grand i hope so they're radically remodeling their old home into
08:26a sharp-edged piece of contemporary architecture that will deliver double the space you may be asking how
08:33come rosie and stewart can build their house to such a ridiculously small amount of money and the
08:38answer partly is that they're not completely destroying the old house they are retaining the
08:43foundations and the ground floor walls the technical term for this is the creative reuse of buildings or
08:51bungalow gobbling
08:52in december the gobbling begins in earnest the main contractor graham is running the first half of
09:03this two-part project 80 of the budget's going on the first phase we're here to get the shell ready for
09:11rosie and stewart and get it wind and weather tight and then we hand over to stew to fit out
09:18that's what we're doing today marks the arrival of the steel supports that will sneakily hold up
09:26the apparent cantilever that is the first floor overhead the steels are going to get bolted together
09:34and then lifted as an assembly to put into place the scaffold poles in the way there's traffic roaring
09:39past so this crane driver's got his work cut out as far as i can tell this is the first time we've had
09:43to crane something over the big sandstone wall and i'm very fond of this sandstone wall they'd best
09:50take care then
09:53i'm going to line up roughly at the end of the building squeak yeah
09:58this is like watching builders ballon
10:05it's delicate and precise work
10:07down down we're over now blimey they've done well haven't they sure they've done really well
10:18after 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
10:42shown here is that you can actually build something large and modern and striking on a similar price
10:48so something that isn't like a developer box you know and we'll end up with something
10:51great for a similar price of something mediocre
10:57to build their house for a hundred and fifty grand stuart and rosie have to drive costs down
11:02and get maximum value for minimum spend they think they found a way to do that with the interior
11:17they're fans of what you'd call industrial chic marrying the economy and glamour of the workaday
11:23this restaurant in liverpool has exposed ducts and worn stairs the charms of a no-frills narrative
11:33of an industrial past
11:38but this floor is actually pretty good we didn't know about this place until a friend told us you
11:42know we should come here because it basically looks inside like like we keep talking about how we want our
11:47house to be i like this metal stuff yeah there's quite a few things here that uh that floats our boat
11:55really here they've probably taken a perfectly nice shop and then ripped it all out to make it look like
12:00this except they didn't everything here has been newly put in hundreds of thousands of pounds had to
12:06be spent to artifice this stripped back industrial atmosphere from scratch adding pipes and factory lighting
12:14steward and rosie plan to mimic this style by spending as little as they can
12:22they're hoping to cut costs further by making many of the fittings and furniture themselves in the
12:27workshop they use to run their gift-making business we're able to use the skills that we've got and the
12:33machinery that we've got to help the house mommy have you got the dispatch thing you revolving i have
12:38darling obviously the world is full of wooden benches and wooden tables but um i don't want any
12:45of those i want something that i'm going to create myself i know it might even be out of the offcuts
12:49of cladding i might make stuff out of that stew's frugal and creative approach extends right
12:56through this project from recycling their old bungalow to building in simple easy materials
13:01three months in the first floor extension is going up in block work it's standard straightforward and
13:11inexpensive with the budget being so tight we needed something that was quick it was cost effective
13:18and was readily available the block works enabled us to get the outside and in sky skin up quickly
13:25and uh and on budget the block work may be quick and cheap but it turns out the whole project is more
13:32expensive than rosie and stewart expected we're realizing we were a little bit naive in thinking
13:39that we could scrimp on the materials we're up specking the insulation so we're just kind of adjusting
13:44that to how it should have been probably from the start we know we're slightly over still waiting for a
13:49few quotes to come back in so we don't quite know where we're how over we're going to be
13:55how they deliver an architectural wonder on a tiny budget no one knows not even them
14:11rosie and stewart's 150 000 pound budget bungalow gobble is no nonsense and no frills a major part of
14:19their pound saver industrial aesthetic goes into the building in the form of their roof joists
14:25downstairs 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
14:37design they're geometric they're open they're modern looking they're cool yeah they're a nice thing
14:44you mentioned there's the only one in the building trade that has looked at you like that
14:48but they are don't you think they're nice no you don't okay graham's not the only one who's
14:55questioning rosie and stew's aesthetic choices the difficulty i have is understanding just what this
15:00is going to feel like whether it's going to seem unfinished whether their rough and ready approach
15:06in the end doesn't just look well rough
15:10stuart and rosie stuart particularly seem magnetically attracted to the unfinished
15:18they even want to clad the outside of their home in raw wood
15:24they've all come to the netherlands to look at the rough timber they want to use as cladding
15:43it's a processed softwood that is pickled in acid and then heated to become a hardwood it's going to be
15:50such a key part of how the house looks we really want to make the right decision don't we because
15:55otherwise it's not going to look how we want it to that's right when sanded treated and processed
16:02the pickled wood looks like this stewart and rosie of course want to extract it from the process earlier
16:09pulling the wood out before it's processed means they'll get it cheaper for eight grand instead of
16:1412. but the downside to this is that the wood is stacked and separated with sticks rosie and stew's
16:21new hoe will be clad with the stick marks still visible the stick marks are so prominent those are
16:28really quite noticeable i'm okay with wanting it to be natural and as unprocessed as possible
16:35but i still like it to look finished yeah they wanted rough industrial cladding and they've got it
16:48meanwhile back on the wirral the insulation for outside the walls and roof has arrived
16:54and it's cost an additional 2 000 pounds ingeniously though stuart and rosie have managed to save about
17:00that amount in the way they've built the roof structure i can think of no better example of
17:05how stew and rosie are taking this kind of pragmatic approach to saving money than the shape of this roof
17:11the fact that it's sloped conventionally if you were to slope a roof you'd sit your joists on top of your
17:19wall like that and then on top of those you'd then form a rather expensive triangular
17:28shape piece of timber skin there and that would provide you with your fall your slope in this
17:33case about three degrees which is enough to to take the water off the roof what they've done here
17:40brilliantly is with graham work out the fact that if you take your joist you actually get the factory
17:48to cut it at a slight angle
17:51and then you build your walls to slightly different heights you get your slope without
18:02even trying you know nasa spent untold sums on developing a ballpoint pen that would write in
18:10space and the russians use pencils you get the point it's economy not necessity that's the mother of
18:18invention now the roofs on the modern form of this building is already starting to show itself off
18:26in among its traditional neighbors but the interior is going to need all the beauty it will get
18:33especially with all those exposed joists and bare block work walls i mean to me that is a beautiful wall
18:39it's really nicely done it's an attractive material it'll go a bit lighter obviously when it dries out but
18:44it's uh okay i don't automatically just want to cover that over paint it no good for you lovely
18:51i prefer stuff a bit more finished but leaving everything exposed may be an aesthetic choice
18:59but i'm not sure it's making things cheaper doing this kind of nice simple you know sparse look
19:06adds cost that we didn't really expect so for example all these little nice osp panels in the ends
19:10all have to be custom made custom fitted yeah measured and individually installed so that's added
19:15time and added costume so has it really saved us money doing this i doubt it
19:23it gets worse outside as the cladding arrives and the first boards go up everyone's expressing their
19:30doubts where's rosie is she down there how does it look from the ground very striking
19:36you can see the sticker marks yeah rose is worried the marks draw further attention to an already bold
19:45building in a very traditional area i'm really honest i'm struggling slightly with the sticker marks still
19:54i understand why they're there i understand it's part of the natural process but at the moment
20:01it just looks a bit stripy to me i'm hopeful that when it's trimmed off and finished at the bottom
20:07that i will then like it because at the moment i'm not 100 sure about it if i'm honest
20:14neither unfortunately are some of the neighbors already a few are starting to mutter about the
20:18strange wooden box that's risen from behind the stone wall it's not kept the local character it isn't
20:24part of the local vernacular it is different with timber and i'd think it perhaps might have been better
20:29is we actually had a uh had a fixed roof so pat what do you think of this this house well if you
20:38hadn't have told me it was a house i would think it was office an office block i'm not keen on it
20:44to be honest at this moment in time you're entitled to your opinion but it doesn't quite blend in no with
20:51the area come and look on the door and look around because if you don't like it on the outside you're
20:56probably going to be a pull on the inside well maybe we ought to wait till it's finished yeah
21:03well it's always a good rule of life isn't it wait till it's finished before making a judgment yes
21:07yes wait till it's finished yeah and see what it's like then
21:28all local eyes from local people are focused on the great wooden wonder box rising in the wirral
21:34five months in the windows are going in
21:41so far rosie and steward have saved where they can to build within their 150 grand budget
21:47but mindful of local feeling this time they're not trying to save money they've dipped into their
21:52contingency and spent more
21:54we made the decision to upgrade them in the original spec we were having
22:02gray u pvc windows and then pretty much everyone that we spoke to said the design of your house
22:07would look much better if you could do aluminium windows so we've braced ourselves and done the
22:13aluminium changing the windows is costing an extra eight grand i've been quite tense about the windows
22:21because it is by far the most expensive single thing that you know that we've put in there in the house
22:27a generous nod out of respect to the design the environment and local feeling great but i feel
22:33the building needs to do more if it really wants to feel properly rooted in and part of this place
22:40so what they're going to do well they've set it of course already low and behind the red wall
22:45i 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
23:13stuart and rosie are no longer paying 900 pounds a month in rent they've moved into their half-finished
23:18home we're now in we've spread out and um we're just sort of camping out up here really now that
23:25graham the contract is finished stuart and rosie deliberately slow things down at their woodworking
23:30business to focus on site first up is the downstairs plumbing lashed up this toilet it's in a bit of a
23:37temporary plumbing fixture i'm just sort of you know plumbing it together in a nice haphazard way
23:44this was always the plan you know we'd use graham to do as much as we could of the of the big stuff
23:48you know roof walls windows all that kind of thing and the idea is that we moved back in and did the
23:53rest ourselves to obviously save the cash and to to do it how we wanted to do it
23:57they've got three grams set aside for heating which is enough to buy an underfloor system but not
24:08enough to pay for someone to install it daddy's going to do a presentation come on we've decided
24:14the way that we can make it affordable is that we we fit it ourselves so this will go about there
24:19the numbers are upside down and it's summer holidays and the children are going to help us
24:25these are to hold the underfloor heating pipe and you basically just click it in between these
24:29castellations it does just look like we're standing around you know making the children work doesn't it
24:33i'm all right with that yeah there we go
24:39spurred on by the children's enthusiasm and energy within a couple of weeks the upstairs has
24:50fully evolved it's become a surreal self-contained apartment open plan basket oh open plan toilet that's
24:58nice there's only stud work dividing the rooms up here oh well i like the way you just did that
25:07you just you just went to your brother's bedroom through the wall when this wall is eventually
25:11skinned out you'll think to yourselves you know i can't walk through walls anymore exactly benny meantime
25:19is inhabiting another world half in his room and half in his sister's it's it's more fun for some of
25:24us than others yeah like this does dad snore yes can you hear it's presumably from around the corner
25:30you can hear everything yeah without going into details there's no secrets
25:34full open plan living is obviously awkward but at least it's given the kids a chance to get used
25:42to their parents bold tastes and the children were going to have ceilings but they've both decided
25:47they quite like their joists now molly really likes her blockwork wall we've you know converted her
25:52it's a style triumph that you persuaded them that it's worth keeping
25:58this is propaganda design that takes advantage of young minds
26:04outside rosie and stewart have however failed to change the minds of some of the neighbors
26:12i 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
26:34we've almost the way it is at the moment doesn't do it justice for people to decide what they think
26:40i guess we'd like it to look its best so that then any comments that made are at least made in an informed
26:45way rosie and stewart have decided to spend nine grand on an innovative spray render for the bottom
26:54of the building made principally with ground cork it has many advantages not least in tying the building
27:00into its setting and the render has a partner in crime another surface treatment to help the house
27:09much better to its setting it's lovely it's just gorgeous i've never seen a sedum roof so rich so
27:15diverse so full of different species it's just brilliant so it's a little slice of heaven isn't
27:21it it really really is although it feels like a luxury it'll make us smile every single day this
27:26is kind of another example of you trading up isn't it yeah this was our treat going premium
27:33yeah how much is that 30 pounds a square meter they're not light how are you going to get them
27:38up there oh my lord how are you going to get them up there we'll find onto the scaffolding we'll find a way
27:45ready
27:48let's take it up
27:53so rosie stewart and rosie's mum get to work
27:59got in the swing of it now
28:02how do you like it i love it this is so much nicer and more tactile to actually have it is awesome
28:11line on daddy
28:18you want to do a pile on them i'll be fine
28:23having upgraded the insulation windows and now the green roof in total rosie and stewart have spent
28:30147 000 so far they've now got just 28 grand left in the bank to complete the house and for day-to-day
28:39living and now an unmovable deadline looms mid-october we have to stop the house and we have to focus on
28:46the business because that's our busiest time of year it needs us to to have a good christmas
28:51under pressure to finish and get back to earning money rosie and stewart are pulling out all the
28:59stops but pressures no hindrance to creativity in their wood workshop stewart's come up with a brilliant
29:08low-cost idea for the staircase we've decided we're gonna create it out of 25 mil plywood on our cad system
29:15we design all the things that we're going to cut and then it's just a matter of telling the computer
29:18to cut out the shape if we get this right it should just be a fantastic free-standing
29:23rock-solid box of plywood what i'm thinking of doing is designing a wavy pattern so that
29:28sheets actually lock together in that sense
29:30in september stewart's experimental plywood staircase is starting to come together
29:40oh there's a staircase oh it's a jigsaw it's a staircase and it's a jigsaw i love that joint
29:49beautiful and it's only cost them 600 quid at the beginning of their project
29:55stewart and rosie planned an extreme naked industrial interior bare block and exposed ceiling
30:01joists but now i can see plaster you were not intending to skim it the nice man that did our
30:08render he did the ceilings well i'm quite like those do you think you could do some of the walls as well
30:12and then we can come back tomorrow afternoon do you want me to do that i'm like can't think of a
30:16reason why not yes we kind of surprised ourselves at how much we liked the fact that it just looked
30:22almost like a finished room yeah not only does it feel a finished room it also feels like a deliberate
30:27purpose-built home that is you know from new as opposed to another building which has been knocked
30:32around a bit yeah kind of ties it all back doesn't it but having plaster doesn't mean they've relinquished
30:39their ambitions for industrial chic for the dining room they found a rough ready and free way of making
30:46furniture these are our old uh first floor floor joists so we've kept these in the garden carefully
30:55we knew we're going to do something with them and here we are finally doing something with them so
30:59we're just going to start building some bookcases and shelves and storage units that kind of thing
31:09stew and rosie also have a stylish factory finish plan for one of the walls in their family lounge
31:15they're going to clad it with leftover pickled wood these are off cuts of cladding we tried it
31:21vertically and horizontally we didn't think we'd like horizontal yeah but we do it looks like it more
31:26than the vertical inside it looks less like exterior cladding that reminds me of outside that is that's
31:34very smart though because what you get then is the vertical lines of the stick stick marks yeah where it
31:39was stacked that's right that's very pretty it looks like some kind of interference pattern inside
31:45so the sticker marks that i didn't like externally i'm fine with inside because i didn't want on the
31:50outside them i didn't want it to look like a stripey house did i a bit like a zebra you didn't want anybody
31:56to not like your house on the outside you didn't want to stand out i didn't say that i didn't want
32:01anybody to not like my house on the outside because i can't control that
32:04which is a you know another topic yeah sorry that's a nerve you just starting to twitch slightly
32:13don't twitch
32:14well this project is not going where i thought it would i think even stuart and rosie is surprised
32:21at just how polished it's turning out to be
32:27come my final visit in the autumn now how are you feeling both we're exhausted i think we worked hard
32:33to try and make it look good the house seemed sharp and clean although a little pink and fresh
32:38so what had been the response from the neighbors have you had many comments less now than when it
32:44first went up all good then at least outside am i allowed in of course but what about indoors
32:52this is very very good indeed steward and rosie had proved me wrong i had questioned their choices
32:59oh and joyce look but i was charmed by the pound-stretching semi-industrial world they had made
33:07the curtain rail is genius this is metal tube 25 mil steel tube galvanized from a scaffolding
33:13from the scaffolding suppliers yeah it's absolutely in the spirit of the building very nice their
33:19kitchen followed the same ethos marrying their 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 less than two
33:30that's my girl even the kids showed early promise of self-built construction talent
33:35you two are exemplary builders i mean i've never seen ever guys your age contribute so much
33:42we couldn't have asked for more helpful little beings to be honest but upstairs was still very
33:47much unfinished only stud walls separated the spaces oh open plan toilet that's nice and the bathrooms
33:53were down to their bare bones it's easy to see all the things that you haven't done and sometimes it's a
33:58good idea to just stop and say actually do you know what for quite a lot less than a year rosie
34:05stuart molly and ben all had a whirlwind of a year building and moving back into a house that was now
34:10over double the size getting the project this far had been nothing short of commendable but they still
34:17had a long way to go so rosie and stuart have been living in that house for nearly a decade so surely
34:27by now they must have finished what about all that idiosyncratic furniture made out of scaffolding
34:34can't wait to see if they've still got that
34:48the beautiful seaside suburbia that is the wirral peninsula is a natural home for pointy roofed
34:54traditional homes i've come back to visit a family who chose in 2015 to try something a little
35:02different well it's going to be back here after nearly what 10 years thing about this house that
35:08rosie and stuart built was that it was quite disruptive here in the world and yet approaching
35:16it i don't see what the fuss was about i really don't the semi-cantonevered box now sits much more
35:25comfortably among its older neighbors this house was never intended to stick out it just needed an age
35:32old ingredient time to silver it down well that is better than when i last saw it the cladding
35:41is really beautiful now when i look at that house next door which is a hundred years older well then all
35:48the detailing on this the colors the textures everything sort of takes its cue from this older
35:55building it looks like a sort of distilled version of it i always thought it was subtle and i think
36:01it's subtler than ever hey hello good to see you how are you very well how are you hello rosie
36:13very good to see you you haven't changed either of you a bit thank you very much we'll take that yeah
36:18this though i mean it's subtler yeah it's weathered down really well the okoya timber is remarkable are
36:23you always a little unsure about those stick marks but they faded beautifully i really love it now when
36:28it first wound up people were like oh my god it's so yellow i think the general comedy is your house
36:32doesn't look as bad now that's what i think it was a big change and that took a while for people
36:37once they realized we weren't putting a pitch roof on it they kind of understood that it was the shape
36:41it was going to be and it's of its time it is the outside was sort of like this last time i saw you
36:45but the inside was just crazy i mean have have you done more we're nearly nearly finished oh come on
36:52that come and have a look i'd love to see that there's promise oh oh
37:06this is beautiful the hallway has been smartened up into what now seems a proper welcome
37:14this is not as i remember this was all done in plywood this hallway yeah well covered it over and
37:19use the same wood as outside this is the aquatic cladding it's great yeah you're a bit hooked on
37:23this aren't you we are there's more oh and this wasn't done there is a new office space where once
37:31there was an unfinished storage space whose office my office it says so that you're a coach yes so i work
37:39with senior leaders to help them motivate and retain their top talent which i can do from here which is
37:43really lovely to be able to do in such a nice environment yeah what are you doing steward we used to have a
37:48little shop that quietened right down really i've turned my attention to building type jobs instead
37:53yeah 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
38:08a music room so my dad was a massive cd collector oh really it was his sort of life's work and when he
38:13died 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 sort of his stuff he was a high five buff you know that old phrase about books
38:21do furnish a room i kind of think these days cds and albums furnish a room and they kind of tell the
38:27world about who we are even the stick marks of the pickled wood walls seem to echo the notation of music
38:33they'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 going to say that was intentional yes i'm pleased you picked up on
38:41that good through here has the kitchen changed much has that evolved kitchen's pretty much the same i
38:47think rosie and stewart's homemade scaffolding kitchen is still there a mark of its success
38:53and it's now joined by a new smartly clad opening i mean it's a bar it's got twinkly lights and
38:59everything and what'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 you would wouldn't you i would because
39:34it's the deck's 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 mean
39:47come on you you've built this for your children i'm afraid as they reach the age suddenly you know
39:52the alcohol flows talking of which seem to be still holding my imaginary drink indeed
39:57would you like an imaginary top-up yeah i would thanks so much oh this is so much nicer now you've
40:04got this lovely crafted handrail steward and rose's industrial tastes are still there upstairs is all
40:11galvanized galore hang on a minute when are you going to finish the ceiling that's done you like it
40:18it's very practical you can store things up there skis yeah it fits with the the wood and the bit
40:24industrial we can at least all agree on how beautifully the sedum roof has aged this is
40:30like a little forest connecting to the foliage beyond yeah i love the sedum room beyond the lounge
40:37landing lies promise of plasterboard and privacy just clocking rooms because all of this was
40:42you're camping we were camping yes what's this room now spare room so you've finished the spare
40:46which means you've finished all we've finished all the room yeah we have oh nice here upstairs
40:52there are now five finished bedrooms with doors that close and there are bathrooms and not a start
40:59wall in sight molly and ben's rooms suggest they share their parents taste for sterling board
41:05ah and even this room is finished your bedroom yeah ignoring the inevitable homemade scaffolding bed
41:12the view from stewart and rose's window is of another sedum roof oh my goodness that sedum out
41:18there is much brighter and greener and fresher like it's just been recently laid it has just been
41:22recently made okay yes the kids did that actually a couple of weeks ago what they so when we fitted this
41:28stew and i were clearly in charge and the children helped and when we fitted this the kids were
41:32clearly in charge and stew and i helped so the balance of power has shifted they have opinions
41:38and they're getting skills they're getting dangerous i find that really interesting because
41:42you actually have produced a generation of people in your family with practical hands-on skill sets
41:49which is rare i think they also recognize if they want to live in a nice house it's only reasonable
41:54they contribute and when we're building the extension and we're talking about what a nice room is going
41:59to be you could see them thinking i i want some of that that's great i'm willing to help because
42:03i want that result molly and ben were just seven and ten when their parents built their house nine
42:09years on i wonder how they reflect on that frenzied year congratulations on coming through this process
42:15relatively unscathed you seem like normal human beings thank you very much yeah i'll take that
42:19like to think we are what do you remember about the project when your parents were in the throes of it
42:24we don't remember all of it but we remember bits and pieces it happened like gradually but all of a
42:29sudden you realize you were kind of you're in the middle of this project and it's quite cool seeing
42:33all these rooms get put up around you and we were there and it was really cool to see it all coming
42:37together i think i want to know about this power struggle right like seem to have the pair of you taken
42:43over the responsibility of jobs yeah well especially given they've now got dodgier physically especially
42:49molly she's stepped off and can do quite a lot more than we used to be able to power tools anything
42:54vaguely dangerous i'm quite interested excellent excellent i think we've been very lucky to be able
42:59to do this whole thing as a family i've enjoyed the fact that we're so close together working on this
43:05yeah it's nice that when we're around in this space we can look around and think oh i helped with that
43:10oh we did all that together and oh yeah we did all this so yeah building a house can be such a
43:17difficult even alienating experience for a household this family showed me that you can not
43:23only get through it but thrive in the process to become stronger than ever you've had this opportunity
43:30to work alongside your children to work and build this alongside them with them to the extent that
43:38they've taken over bits of the project and that is for parents quite a privilege we couldn't have done
43:46it without the kids you just couldn't have done it without the kids and i think it just makes
43:49you really tight because you go through such a lot together taking this approach though of
43:55doing it slowly and then moving in when it was nowhere near finished and then taking what another
44:01nine years yeah to get to this point yeah we've made better decisions by living in it and letting
44:08it evolve around us being able to just do it room by room on our own time scale you can just do it exactly
44:13as you want it without having to worry about the initial spec you thought of two years ago we
44:17wouldn't have got it well done it wouldn't have been right for us in the end what's really clever
44:21here is that you've got the quality and you said actually it doesn't matter about the time because
44:25we want the quality we want the thing we want and and and we're prepared to spend time doing that i
44:30genuinely enjoy the process of the design the build the construction coming to fruition i would do it
44:37again it's not really a conversation we've taken too far together but uh i'd do anything again with
44:42stewart excellent canal boat hold my canal boat
44:52rosie and stewart's strategy of building gently with intention and patience has given them not just
44:58this adaptable modern home but a feast of memories that binds together everyone living here i do like
45:08this place a lot it is a slow house it's the product of a slower process of more contemplation it's a
45:17building which has been able to flex and grow and change according to the different needs the changing
45:22needs over time of the people that use it and the building as a result is not that demanding i mean
45:32so often i i say to people get the house done move in and you can crack on with your lives but of course
45:37as john lennon said life is what happens to you while you are too busy making other plans that didn't
45:43happen here this is a building which respects relationships respects emotions
45:50respects 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 lurked at every turn not even budging we're 50 mil out
46:25so six years later i'm back it's really grown into something quite special
46:49so
46:56so
46:58you
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