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GrandDesigns S27E07 Sevenoaks Revisit 2025

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00:00If Against All Odds is one of the leitmotifs of this programme then there is one episode
00:09from 2021 that perhaps is riskier than all others. It involved a decrepit old building
00:18that was in dire need of repair, a young married couple whose relationship had been forged amidst
00:25serious illness and for whom they felt at least time was short and a young fledgling self-builder
00:32who wanted to build a refuge for his wife. It is one of the most poignant and powerful stories
00:40we've ever told. Newlyweds Greg and Georgie had grand plans for this dilapidated barn in
00:49George's parents garden. This is now our forever home isn't it? But there were some serious health
00:55challenges for both of them to contend with. Having a brain tumour was one of the best
01:00kick up the arses I've ever had. I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour when I was 10
01:05and since then I've had about 90 skin cancers. Problems lurked at every turn. Not even budging.
01:11As they wrestled the barn into something beautiful and inspiring. We're 50 mil out. Flippin' that.
01:17We've had a real real crisis with the pitch of the roof. And it was barely finished when they moved in.
01:27Greg and George's project was extraordinary and I'm very keen to get back and see how life in the
01:34barn has been treating them. But first, here's their wonderful story.
01:46What are you boys doing Christmas?
02:03Greg from Kent is a pub landlord.
02:05My father and I we basically took over the local pub. It had been derelict for a little while and we
02:12felt it was right to save it from developers. He project managed the renovation of his local five
02:18years ago. And it was a real pleasure actually restoring and bringing the pub back to its former
02:24glory. I mean this place wouldn't have worked or existed if it wasn't for the customers who come
02:28through. And we have such a great crowd in here. Nine years ago, Greg had a brain tumour from which
02:35he thankfully recovered. And it was through his illness that he also met his partner, Georgie,
02:41on a charity sailing trip. The couple married last year after a pretty high adrenaline proposal,
02:46a hundred metres up. Greg sponsored to do a abseil down in Spinnikata in Portsmouth. I was going to go
02:53along and sort of support him and take some photos above. I just got down on one knee and asked her to
03:01marry me. And she said to the guy, harness me up, I'm going to abseil down the tower. So we did it in
03:10tandem. Complete adrenaline. For the past year, the newlyweds have been living with George's folks,
03:16Julie and Tom, in the Kent countryside. When Greg and I got married, Greg moved into
03:22this annex with me, which is attached to my parents house. It has been nice to be able to live near
03:27my parents and have support when I haven't felt well enough, which has been amazing. Georgie,
03:34who's an artist, has been in treatment for most of her life. I was diagnosed with a malignant brain
03:40tumour when I was 10. Then when I was 20, I had thyroid cancer as well. And since then I've had about 90
03:46skin cancers, which were ongoing. So it's quite a long, long road of about 23 years really.
03:53Meeting Greg was, it was amazing because we had this lovely connection and we both
03:58had an understanding and what it's like to, to, you know, to be really unwell.
04:06Now, Greg and Georgie are about to begin an exciting new chapter of their lives together.
04:11By giving this rundown barn in George's parents garden, a new and ambitious lease of life.
04:22Now I just feel, okay, I've beaten cancer. I can do anything. I can really,
04:28I can, I can build a house. That's fine. Easy. Yeah.
04:31You know, and actually be a little bit further away from the in-laws possibly.
04:35Hello. Hello. Georgie, Kevin, how are you? Hi, nice to see you. Hello.
04:47It's a fine old timber building. It reminds me a little bit of farms that you see in the Alps or rural France.
04:54My grandparents had it built 35 years ago for the dairy herd. Like these doors. Do these stay?
05:00Yeah, we're going to keep them. Seriously? Yeah. What, with a big glazed wall behind them? Yeah. Oh, yes.
05:06Oh, oh, it's big, isn't it? So do you keep this timber frame? Yeah, so we're going to strip all the cladding off.
05:15And what's the big idea? We're doing split levels. Yeah, so we've got like a big cube in the middle,
05:20so all the bedrooms have got four bedrooms all around the side and then in the middle is going to be a cube,
05:26which is dug down. Are you doing a lot of this yourself? Yeah. Yeah, Craig's going to do a lot.
05:30Majority of it, I would say. Anybody who sells bills discovers how extraordinarily demanding it is,
05:36much more so than they ever thought it would be, how emotionally draining it is and how physically
05:41tiring. So I look at you guys and you know you've got your regime of hospital visits and treatments
05:47and side effects and so on. I'm just thinking you've got to surely have some kind of way of being
05:53able to deal with this, because otherwise it's going to get on top of you. Well, we're hoping to
05:57do it in a year. Mm-hmm. So if we can do it in a year. That's one way of dealing with it, is to get
06:01it over and done with. My pub, we had to do quite a lot of work there, take the whole roof off and
06:05everything. And I cope with that, so that was maybe the first stepping stone. And this is now
06:12our forever home, isn't it? Yeah. It's an incredible thing. This is a very special building,
06:16actually. There were times when I was so ill that the goal of the day would be to walk down here and
06:22had to sit outside the barn and sort of, that's the only energy I had really. So it has a lovely
06:29atmosphere in it and it's sort of lovely being able to look over the field. And I'm very lucky to be
06:36invited into it. Yes. You also have a tremendous responsibility here. What George has just described
06:44is a very powerful personal relationship with a building and a corner of this place. And what
06:52you've got to do is somehow deliver an enlarged kind of richer version of it almost. Yeah. No pressure then.
07:02A local architect, Mike Kainer, has drawn up Greg and Georgie's vision for the barn. It's only 35 years
07:08old, but bizarrely, planning says they can't replace it. It's in a conservation area, so it has to be
07:13conserved as if it were ancient. Starting with the timber frame, which has to remain standing right
07:21through the construction. Their first task will be to carefully strip off the cladding, number each piece
07:28and store it safely on site to be refitted all over again later on. Then the existing thin concrete
07:34floor will need to be removed and excavations dug. At this point, if they're really unlucky,
07:40they may need to underpin, reinforce the concrete supports of the existing timber posts before they
07:45can then pour a web of foundations for a new slab. Even then, the building won't be structurally sound
07:52until Greg figures out how to repair all the timber posts that are rotten at the bottom. Next, a new steel
07:59roof that will incorporate new roof lights will go on, followed by thick insulation and then the original
08:04cladding reapplied to the barn. There'll be an eco-heating system and on top, a huge solar array
08:11for clean electricity. On the inside, a small hall will lead to a somewhat cavernous room, a vaulted,
08:19single-storey living space with bifault doors that will offer organised views of the fields and
08:24countryside beyond. Incorporated at one end will be the kitchen and table, each accompanied by a
08:31specifically shaped window to deliver a particular view from that place. In the heart of the building,
08:38they'll fit a semi-enclosed volume they're calling The Cube, a steel-framed split-level structure with a
08:44snug sunk below floor level in order to accommodate a mezzanine space above, which will serve as George's
08:50craft workshop. You'll get up there via a steel staircase, designed, and for that matter, welded by
08:57Greg. A U-shaped corridor will surround The Cube and give on to a variety of smaller enclosed rooms,
09:04two generous bedrooms and one for Greg and Georgie, a bathroom, a guest bedroom, and a utility room.
09:12These are two inexperienced self-builders with health issues going it alone, and this is a mighty
09:18big space which is going to demand huge inputs of energy, imagination, and ingenuity.
09:23For starters, just look at the state of the timber posts.
09:28Not much left of it? No, there isn't, is this? How soft is it? Oh man, alive. Oh no,
09:34it's just like blemange. Oh wow, so this is ex-timber and is now just adding an amazing amount of
09:41expense and difficulty to the project, isn't it? Ah, it's totally bonkers. Greg might have cut his teeth,
09:48project managing a pub renovation, but that is nothing compared to this. What is your budget?
09:54Ah, 250,000. It's pretty tight, it's very tight. Where's the cash come from? Ah, I'm financing it with
10:02some savings and a family loan. The barn itself is actually on my parents' land, so they're very kindly.
10:09Great. It's a wedding gift really? Yes. What happens if you realise actually you haven't got enough to
10:16finish? What's the back-up plan? The back-up plan? Yeah, what is the plan? Is there a back-up?
10:20Mmm, there isn't actually completely a plan B yet. Yeah. Greg and Georgie have 250,000 pounds
10:32to convert a building measuring roughly 250 square metres. Now, by anybody's scale, it's not enough.
10:39The average shelf builder would need twice or three times that to do what they want to do. So what's
10:46going to happen? Well, either they're going to go bust, or the building's not going to get finished,
10:52or both, or they're going to have to be amazingly resourceful.
11:02Of course, it would have been a lot easier to simply knock the existing barn down and start
11:06again from scratch. Instead, the painstaking conservation of the timber frame starts with the
11:13removal of 1,500 sections of pine cladding that Greg must carefully number up, store safely on site,
11:20and reapply to the building later on. Unfortunately, it'd be nice just to leave it as it is,
11:25but we have to take it all off because we've got to insulate. Also, we have to get a digger in between
11:32the main uprights to excavate the new foundations. Thankfully, there is enough in the budget to pay
11:39just one man. Greg's mate Sam, a former shepherd, will be helping out for the duration of the project.
11:46Nice to be involved with it from start to finish. It's going to be interesting. I know I'm going to
11:49learn a lot from Greg as well. It's really helpful having Sam to help. You do need all hands on deck for
11:55this to work, and I've been helping where I can. I wish I could do a bit more, but energy-wise, I have
12:01to be a bit careful, but the view is incredible now, so seeing the panoramic view, I'm getting very excited now.
12:10Greg and Sam's next task is less straightforward. They have to remove the barn's concrete floor so new
12:16foundations can be done. Greg is a rookie digger driver, but a highly inventive one who has devised a new
12:23concrete busting technique. Rodeo digging. Not even budging. Maybe you're right Sam, maybe we need a
12:30smaller bucket. With a smaller bucket attached and Sam at the controls. Yeah, that's coming on. They can
12:37refine the art of cowboy building. It's a very big job for just two of us, but we seem to be doing all right.
12:44Both me and Greg work well together, so that always makes it a bit easier as well.
12:48Yeah. Once the old concrete's cleared, Greg can hand over to a specialist ground worker, Paul,
12:57who has to install much deeper and reinforced foundations. New footings on an empty plot for
13:03a building this size might cost 20 or 30 grand. Here, delicately working around and reinforcing the
13:09base for this existing structure, while keeping it all up, will cost a lot more.
13:13It's coming in at about £80,000. That's a lot of money and it's a big hit really.
13:2180 grand is a third of Greg's entire budget. And the foundations could end up costing even more,
13:30depending on the depth of the concrete pads that support each timber column.
13:34The worst case scenario is actually that we have to underpin all of the main pillars,
13:41which is where we actually have to dig under the existing pads, which aren't big enough,
13:45and join them and put steel and concrete in, in a very slow, tedious process,
13:53which is a lot of hard work and cost a lot of money.
13:55Their structural engineer, Ben Tubb, is on site to assess the depth of the concrete that sits beneath the
14:01timber columns. So our best result is that Ben says, look, we don't have to underpin any of the
14:06pre-existing pads. The following day, they head off to find out whether they'll have to spend an
14:13extra 20 grand on underpinning. Quite confident that we're going to get a good result, but you never
14:19quite know. Hi guys. So the pads, you've got to underpin those. Is that underpinning under some of them?
14:31Or is that all them? In most cases, I would imagine.
14:36Yeah. Yeah.
14:40This is awful.
14:43It's not good news. We've got to underpin. It's going to make a big difference to the time and cost as well.
14:50Greg and Georgie have hardly begun, and yet the planning requirement to keep the frame standing
14:56means their foundations alone are swallowing nearly half their budget. How on earth are they going to
15:01get out of this hole?
15:14Greg and Georgie have only been going for six weeks, and already their groundwork costs have escalated to
15:20around £100,000 on a £250,000 budget. Have you got any more buckets?
15:26No. So Greg's made the unenviable and perilous decision to part ways with the professional
15:32groundworkers and do the job himself. Could have done without the rain today.
15:37With his mate Sam and George's help, of course. Sam, how much would you pay for a machine that could do this?
15:42A lot. We're actually a couple of weeks behind. I haven't done this kind of work before. Yeah,
15:47it's just a lot of pressure on my shoulders, really. I don't think anybody quite prepares you for how
15:54stressful it can be. We're having to underpin and put lots of these big metal 20mm dowels in
16:02underneath the pads, and then we're digging in from each side to meet in the middle, and it's been a
16:07nightmare. It's just pure flint. We've spent two days just trying to dig one of these.
16:11Yeah, it has been frustrating, and it feels like it's dragging a bit now.
16:18If only planning had let them demolish the 35-year-old structure and rebuild it from scratch,
16:23they could have avoided all this. But if this is what Greg needs to do in order to craft a new
16:29home for his beloved wife, then so be it. His remarkable drive comes from the toughest of life
16:36experiences. Having a brain tumour was one of the best kick up the arses I've ever had, you know.
16:42I just remember in that hospital bed, I was just weighing up all the things that I hadn't done
16:49in life and how I wanted to cross them all off. And one of them was to build a dream home. There's
17:01no way I'd be here doing what I'm doing now if I hadn't got ill and hadn't met George. And I just want
17:10to show people that I'm well again, you know, and I'm able to do this.
17:17Thanks to Greg's extraordinary energy and drive, two months into the project.
17:24I think I can see it coming down the road.
17:28The trenches are finally ready to be filled with concrete.
17:32And having completed so much of the groundwork themselves, miraculously they've spent not a
17:37penny more than the original 80 grand they budgeted. It's a remarkable achievement.
17:43But Greg's already moved on to the next challenge, getting a rotten oak tree next to the barn felt.
17:49He'll use the timber to craft some furniture for the new house.
17:54Wow! Given just how much Georgie and Greg have been through, it's comforting for them to know
18:00their new home will be next door to Georgie's parents, Tom and Julie.
18:05We are sort of here on hand if ever, God forbid, there was a hiccup on the health front.
18:10Well, we're sort of here to, you know, to rally around.
18:12Do you fret for their health, as it were, for the stress levels of the project as you go through?
18:19Of course, anything can happen to either of them.
18:22We've had months and years and, you know, heartache and tears and, you know, terrible times, real
18:27anxiety about the future for Georgie particularly. And it will always be like that.
18:32Greg can be quite gung-ho, but that's one of the sort of joys of seeing
18:36someone who's beaten where he's come from and what he's doing now.
18:40Um, but they've got to be very, they've got to be careful about what they do.
18:47Careful, yes, and extremely resourceful. There's 170,000 pounds left,
18:53yet the barn's still not structurally sound, thanks to 10 badly rotten timber posts that need repairing,
18:59as ever, cheaply. But wait, Greg's already come up with a solution.
19:06I think this is great. A massive collar in two pieces, which fits around the post,
19:10means you don't have to cut these. It's great. I mean, it's a huge cost saving.
19:15It's a nice straightforward solution and it's all from you. So it better work.
19:19Yeah. I love it. It's proper self-build, self-designed, self-engineered. Great.
19:24Greg never shies away from a challenge. The next one being laying a 250 square meter
19:32block and beam floor. And there's some serious confusion as to which of the 70 concrete beams
19:39goes where. Oh, where's Wally? 18? Oh yes, that goes along that far edge of the snug.
19:46Nothing's numbered up or labelled to how it is on the floor plan. And I've never laid a floor before.
19:53It just seems crazy. They all seem to be cut slightly differently as well.
19:59It would have been so much easier if I just labelled them up properly. We're just having to
20:02scratch our head over it at the moment and try and decipher the plans.
20:07They do eventually figure out the positioning of the beams, but Greg's inexperience is leading to
20:13more problems. Sods and all, when we were doing the drainage, we didn't know
20:17that this beam was going to be quite so far over here. There's a soil pipe in the way,
20:22but Greg has an unorthodox solution.
20:28With the merciless swathe of the angle grinder.
20:32A week later, the concrete subfloor is in.
20:35That is a big achievement. Feet on solid ground now.
20:43But some challenges just can't be overcome. Looming large over this project is the ongoing
20:50health of Georgie, who has some unsettling news.
20:53I found skin cancer. I think it's probably about seven or eight at the minute. You sort of think
21:03you're doing, yeah, in a quite good phase of everything going just about okay, and then you get
21:08another sort of hit really. So it's quite tiring. You have to dig deep one day at a time. And that's sort of,
21:16I'm just so thankful for every day and time with Greg and things. And I think that just keeps
21:23keeps you going and having a really supportive family and really does help.
21:28Georgie will need to go for more treatment, which only adds to Greg's determination to get this house
21:35built quickly. The sooner we complete this project, the sooner we can kind of start enjoying the precious
21:42time that we have together.
21:43Four months in and Greg's steel shoes are being fitted snugly to the rotten timber columns.
21:52He's now ready to begin work on the central showpiece of this home.
21:57It's the cube, a two-storey steel structure with a sunken snug downstairs below floor level
22:03and a mezzanine platform above for Georgie.
22:08It's not central.
22:09Sam's cousin is here to help. And Sam's dad,
22:13Cullum, who fabricated the steel down the road for 8,000 pounds.
22:17It's slung the wrong way round, isn't it?
22:20Thanks to Cullum's expertise, the steel structure springs up in no time.
22:24But yeah, I can get an idea already of the height, the height of this new floor.
22:29This is our legal height for building trial. It feels like our head height clearance is very tight on the top.
22:36Unless there's at least two metres clearance from the first floor to the ridge of the roof,
22:42building control will not sign off George's workshop upstairs as a habitable space.
22:46I don't know if I've got my two-metre headroom from the centre point.
22:50If it's not right, Cullum will have to remake the steelwork, which of course will cost.
22:57No-one wants that. And there is a problem.
23:01So, we're 50 mil out.
23:03Flippin' heck.
23:04What a bitch.
23:06Four frantic and stressful months have passed in this sleepy corner of Kent.
23:20Which ways?
23:22Up.
23:25And Greg and George's steel frame is annoyingly just too big to allow the first floor to be a habitable space.
23:32It's such a small error, but it's just, we won't hit regulation head height on the top.
23:40But Greg is unfazed. To meet building wrecks, he's going to try a cheap and cheerful alternative
23:47to remaking the steel frame, by remaking the foundations instead.
23:51To take it all apart now, just so that we can peel back this plastic, get to the pads,
23:56which it's going to go into, and we're going to have to take 50 mil off them.
24:00Still, we're not professionals, we don't do this, and...
24:06It's your job, mate.
24:08What am I doing?
24:11Sometimes I think Greg's a little bit out of his depth, but he's the customer, you can advise, can't you?
24:18After just three hours of grinding the pads down, and another two hours of reassembling the structure...
24:26Oh, you little bastard.
24:28..the building control moment of truth.
24:30Woo-hoo!
24:31Four millimetres.
24:32He got away with it by four mil.
24:38You've got to hand it to Greg. He is entirely out of his depth, but he is so energetic and so resourceful.
24:45So you've just made the pad shorter?
24:47We just made the pad shorter, yeah.
24:49Given that you're a novice builder, I think we've got to let you have that one.
24:52So what happens to that extent?
24:53The whole roof is coming off.
24:54It's all coming off.
24:55Oh, yeah.
24:56I'm hoping you're going to say you're going to take it off in sections and work across it,
25:00rather than strip the whole thing and leave it all exposed.
25:05Well, it probably will be going in one go.
25:08I want to keep the building as dry as possible for as long as possible.
25:11Well, I know what you mean, but, um, yeah, we'll be fine.
25:15It'll be a quick transition.
25:18I look forward to seeing that.
25:19But they don't start to peel off the enormous roof until mid-September.
25:26Exposing a timber structure like this in the wetter, colder months isn't ideal.
25:31Just as well, Greg's brought on board two mates, both carpenters, to help with the installation of the new roof.
25:42You're my human forklift.
25:43Of course, you can only afford to keep Ollie and Jez on for a few days each,
25:47the idea being they teach Greg the ropes and then he and Sam complete it by themselves.
25:52Yeah, when Greg first told me about this project, I thought, okay, are you biting off more than you can chew or,
25:58you know, how are you going to go about it?
26:01And then I saw the plans and things and it was exciting to see.
26:05Greg's very into doing challenges and testing himself as much as he can,
26:10even if he doesn't have a clue what he's doing, which is great fun to see.
26:14Oh, there goes the pencil on.
26:15I think Greg was a little bit optimistic.
26:16I don't know if he thought three or four weeks to get the roof on.
26:19It's just a big area, a lot of material to be bumped around, so that's just going to take time.
26:24Oh, what a dream.
26:25Like a glove.
26:30But three weeks later, as autumn sets in, Greg and Sam hit a problem.
26:36The roof isn't steep enough to accommodate the skylights.
26:41As you can see, we're only halfway there, really.
26:44We've had a real, real crisis with the pitch of the roof.
26:47The windows, you needed a 15-degree pitch to be installed.
26:51It turns out we've only got 11 degrees, so we're four degrees off being able to install these windows.
26:56It's been the most stressful part of the project so far,
26:58thinking that we're going to have to take apart the roof, really.
27:01Dismantling the entire roof and rebuilding it at a steeper pitch will take months
27:06and cost maybe £20,000. Terrible news on a project where every penny counts.
27:12I just like to kind of hand this roof problem over to a professional roofer,
27:17but then I look at the budget and I just realise I can't, I can't even start contemplating
27:2210,000, 20,000 over to someone else.
27:27Greg has no choice but to doggedly work through every problem.
27:37His determination is matched by George's dignity.
27:41She stoically suffers the treatment for her skin cancers.
27:44For her, delays on site are just part of a bigger picture.
27:48Originally, we'd be in by about March, but it's probably going to be summertime now.
27:53You know, we don't want to push ourselves to the extreme and not sort of completely going to burn out.
28:00And that's, you know, we both have to look after our health.
28:03And some of the treatment I'm having at the minute is quite painful as well.
28:06So nowadays, it's quite a struggle really with all the health things that we're both dealing with.
28:13And Greg's juggling a lot with the pub as well.
28:16So he's doing two jobs really at once at the minute.
28:20He's working really hard and I'm very, very proud of him.
28:26Four weeks on and Greg, the master improviser,
28:30has at last figured out a way of not rebuilding the entire roof.
28:34He's only going to rebuild the top third of it where the roof lights sit.
28:39So I spent almost a day ripping down bits of six inch timber into furring strips
28:45to give us the extra four degrees on the pitch of the roof.
28:50So we've now got our windows in at 15 degrees, just quite a bit more work.
28:57Oh, this is a nice piece.
29:00Amazing, you just take off a few layers and it's just beautiful.
29:03Come the new year, the big picture windows have been installed
29:07and Greg and Georgie are ready to start refitting the original pine cladding on the barn.
29:12It's painstaking. Each of the 1500 planks has to be scraped and sanded
29:18and after being fitted, stained and oiled several times.
29:21Already you can just see how beautiful this wood is, gosh.
29:28Stunning, beautiful grain coming through.
29:31It's actually quite an important job because this will be here for the next
29:34however many years we are going to be here for, for the rest of our lives.
29:39I never in my wildest dreams believed the timber was going to be as nice as it is.
29:45It's, it's looking better than I remember actually. Really, really happy. It's beautiful.
29:52OK, and then...
29:55Yet, miraculously, given all they've been through, they've been able to still clutch onto 80,000 pounds
30:03to transform this basic shell into their new home.
30:12Or so they thought.
30:16Just as the project appeared to be turning a corner, Greg and Georgie learned some shocking news
30:21about the company supplying their eco-heating systems.
30:25I got a phone call saying that our renewable energy company has actually gone under.
30:34And it's very alarming because we've got huge deposits actually with them.
30:39So it's just over, about, over 5,000 pounds that we've lost.
30:45I think we're going to have to claw back a bit because of, because of this.
30:48It's a lot, a lot of money with our small budget, you know, with this. So yeah, a really big blow.
30:56Their new home isn't going to have the air source heating they wanted.
31:00They'll have to find a more modest solution.
31:02Regardless, Greg starts boarding out the vast interior with timber a year since they set out
31:10on this project, a point at which they were supposed to be moving in.
31:15But then, as the coronavirus crisis threatens further delays,
31:20what Greg's most anxious about, it turns out, is Georgie.
31:24I'm really, really worried for our safety, but mainly Georgie's,
31:29uh, due to the fact her past medical history, the weak immune system and, uh, respiratory
31:36problems she's had. I'm really, um, yeah, terrified.
31:42It was a nerve-wracking time, especially for Greg and Georgie.
31:47So it was an enormous relief a few months later to see where they'd got to with the
31:52transformation of the former dairy barn.
31:55Oh, that is wonderful.
32:01Greg and Georgie had, thank goodness.
32:04Hello. Hi.
32:05This is extraordinary.
32:07Moved into their safe haven.
32:09We've actually accomplished it, and I'm amazed that we've managed to do it, really.
32:12The once-tired pine cladding had been lovingly oiled and finessed.
32:17The new steel roof that caused Greg so much stress also seemed so slick.
32:23And inside, the double-height living space was something of a revelation.
32:28This is very beautiful. Exquisite set of spaces.
32:32There may have been bedrooms still to complete, an all-important utility room to install,
32:37as well as a load of landscaping to figure out in the garden.
32:41But at least they were in.
32:43We've both been given a second chance in life and what we've both been through.
32:48This building will hopefully improve our new life, and we start the next chapter, really.
32:53It was all so promising.
32:56But how did that next chapter turn out?
32:59I had to come back to find out.
33:02Greg and Georgie just about got over the finishing line five years ago,
33:06so it's going to be very exciting to go back and to see the building matured and settled into that
33:13corner of the field there. But there were some bigger questions too. I mean, has that building
33:19nurtured them? Has it provided everything they'd hoped for, particularly for their health?
33:25Yes. And, of course, has the excitement of living next to the in-laws rubbed off yet?
33:30In this idyllic corner of the Kent countryside near Sevenoaks,
33:47it's five years since Greg and Georgie moved into their new home.
33:52So, how's that formerly dilapidated dairy barn in Georgie's parents' garden looking now, I wonder?
33:59This is all reassuringly familiar. There's the red brick house of Georgie's parents,
34:05Tom and Julie. The grey annex, which, actually, that's a new colour that's been rebuilt and added to.
34:10Heavens, there's change there. That's where Greg and Georgie used to live.
34:15And then, there it is. That is really good.
34:20Thanks to some clever planting, the barn's properly tucked into the landscape now.
34:31The maturing trees and lawn suggest a cleared woodland glade.
34:35The building itself is, of course, still the star of the show, with the welcome addition of a solar panel array.
34:44It doesn't really look like an agricultural barn anymore, more like a really well-considered single-storey house.
34:54It's really grown into something quite special.
34:58But what I really want to know is how Greg and Georgie are doing.
35:04Oh, hi.
35:05Hi, Kevin. How are you doing?
35:07I'm really good.
35:08Good to see you, mate.
35:09How are you, Greg? How are you?
35:10Very well.
35:11Hello, Georgie.
35:11Hi, nice to see you. How are you doing?
35:13You look amazing.
35:14Thank you very much.
35:15I've been giving them this lovely new hair, which is from a wonderful charity.
35:19Oh, no.
35:19Yes, so my hair all fell out.
35:21It's amazing, the piece.
35:23It's been a bit of a tough time, hasn't it, really?
35:26It has.
35:27I've had quite a major operation since I last saw you five years ago, and back on a lot of chemotherapy treatments.
35:33So, um...
35:33What, right now?
35:34Yes, I'm on it at the minute.
35:35Quite a strong dose of it, so, um...
35:37So that's a heavy load.
35:38It's a heavy load.
35:39Well, that's something coming from you, because the one thing that this entire project has exuded is this
35:45amazing kind of energy and positivity.
35:47So for you to say that it's been tough is...
35:50That's...
35:50That means it's been tough.
35:52It has, yeah.
35:53But there's something incredibly restful and peaceful about this building.
35:56I don't know what it is, but you can just shut the world away and just enjoy the building for what it is.
36:01Yeah.
36:02Can we go around the front?
36:03Given how tough things have been, thank goodness Georgie and Greg have had this safe haven for rest and comfort.
36:10Yeah.
36:11Ah, just as I remember,
36:15It's just as sharp.
36:17It's actually beautiful.
36:18At every turn, there's you guys.
36:22It's really nicely done.
36:24The double-height living space still packs quite a punch.
36:28The kitchen is spacious.
36:29Openings connect to landscape.
36:33The board-marked concrete fireplace is terrific,
36:36as is the furniture crafted from the felled oak outside, or by Greg, who's never stopped working on the project.
36:46So, this room here is accessible toilet.
36:50Yeah.
36:51Wheelchair friendly.
36:52And we've got a utility room.
36:54Oh, hello.
36:55Well, it's nicely done.
36:57It's a proper utility.
37:00Really, really good.
37:01He's now also fabricated a new steel handrail up to George's craft space.
37:06I think it's wonderful that you pick up the tools, you have a go, and that's the only way you improve, isn't it?
37:12I mean, you know, when you did that fireplace, that was the first time you'd cast concrete, wasn't it?
37:17It was, yeah.
37:18First time of board marks.
37:19Just amazing to be able to then stretch it and push it and learn, and then, before you know it, you become an expert.
37:26And that's what this whole building speaks of, you know.
37:28Using the oak from the garden, I've now built a nice little bench down there, and yeah, we've truly made it our own.
37:35Yeah.
37:37That painting wasn't here last time.
37:39No, that's actually me.
37:40I had an exhibition a month ago.
37:43Lots of acrylic and colours.
37:44This is beautiful.
37:45Oh.
37:46It's like looking into a dream.
37:49You can tell my favourite colour is blue.
37:50You know, love, love, love, love with blues and golds and whites.
37:53Amazing.
37:54So this is a...
37:55Something you've taken up.
37:57It's very different to the craft work you were doing.
37:58Yeah, so I was doing, like, needle polishing before and also other crafting, but then I just got really into
38:05canvases and acrylics.
38:07That's a development I hadn't seen coming, that through illness and treatment and everything else,
38:13the barn has nurtured in Georgie a passion for painting.
38:16But nurturing is what this home's all about.
38:21It turns out one of the previously unfinished ensuite bedrooms...
38:25Oh, I love the bathroom.
38:26That's all wheelchair accessible, yeah?
38:28Greg has transformed into a retreat for their friends going through serious illness.
38:32Just having a space where people can call their own for a weekend and just come and do whatever they
38:39want or do nothing at all.
38:40And actually, the opportunity to come away and simply be is a really important one.
38:46If you're going through treatment or therapy and you just need some quiet time, that's magical.
38:51We know what it's like when you're recovering and we like to look after people because we know
38:57how awful it can be and how rough times are, so that was always a thought to sort of be able to,
39:02you know, help host for people and, you know, look after other people like we've been looked after.
39:08Staying here proved a lifeline for Jodie and Satch a few years ago when Jodie was seriously ill.
39:16It was quite a scary time, so coming here was a real escape for us.
39:22It provided the respite that we needed. I think just mentally and physically we were exhausted.
39:29Just there's this calmness that speaks Greg and Georgie all over it when you walk into the house and
39:34when we stayed in the room in particular. It's an amazing thing you could sort of palpably sense
39:39that. Absolutely, and I think it's even more extraordinary that Georgie's still undergoing
39:45treatment and she's still doing all of these things yet they've still opened up this space to
39:49others who need it. Other big changes have happened since I was last here. After completing the barn,
39:58Greg's next project was up at the main house, separating off the annex and extending it for
40:04George's parents who were downsizing. So you probably don't even recognize it, Kevin, but
40:10this is our old flat. It's all one space, wasn't it? It was, yeah. And then a bedroom out the back.
40:15You didn't have any bifold doors then? No, no. And this wall you've taken out then? Yeah,
40:19that's all new and then with infill and block work. There's actually a lot of masonry and knock
40:25throughs and supporting stuff which I never had to do on mine. Given that you've divided the house that
40:30was here into two properly now, have you had to move services? Yeah, services had to be split and
40:37we've had to do four separate block-ups to the main house in order to rejig it and I think we're on
40:43about six different levels if you go through the building. It's good quality. This is lovely. How
40:48long did it take? This project took about a year actually. That's a lot of work here though, a lot of
40:54puzzling. Yeah. It's a lot of head scratching to get it right. Yeah. So you've done that, you've done
41:00this, what next? Well, I actually start my brother's extension on Monday. So, you know, keep it in the
41:06family, friends and family. But yeah, I enjoy building. I find it quite kind of therapeutic and
41:12creative in the same way, so. Yeah. Naturally, the in-laws, Tom and Julie, are delighted with the results.
41:21Greg, we had absolute faith in and has delivered, you know, better than we thought, to be honest.
41:27We've loved having them next door. We've got our other daughter and son-in-law living our side,
41:34so we're sandwiched in between the two of them. Every single day I'd look out and I think
41:40this couldn't get better really, you know, to have them all so near. And I suppose it's a reassurance
41:46too if Georgie's there alone. You know, she can see our lights on and it just means that we're
41:51we're connected in a way that's sort of natural but comforting as well. Familial bliss clearly is
41:58attainable. You just have to build your in-laws a new home. So you're super busy, you've got the pub
42:04to run, you're building, you're having a treatment plan, you're painting, you're doing your craft.
42:09I don't understand where you find the energy, the physical energy to do all this. Because it's
42:14been so many years for me, it's been nearly 30 years of treatment and operations. You know,
42:20when you're right down in the hole, you just don't think you can scramble out again. You sort of,
42:25you make the most of all the opportunities and, you know, every day is special. You just have to
42:30just carry on really. Yeah, and I think we're both just very driven as well. So
42:35Yeah. Doing a lot of things works well for us. Yeah. I suppose many of us take a lot of things
42:41for granted. Health, wellbeing, time, energy. You don't take it for granted because you know that
42:49it's precious. Make a small difference maybe in what you do and to spread your time kind of
42:55generously and just offer something to other people. That gives great joy.
43:01Mm. Having a home where we can be inclusive and just invite people and sort of to enjoy the space
43:09as well. So it's not just for us, it's for other people as well. Yeah. What are the functions that
43:15is served other than as a house? So we've hosted village drinks parties here. We've had big barbecue
43:25parties. I had an exhibition with 130 people that came to see my artwork. Anything else?
43:31Oh, I run my art courses up. So you run them upstairs here? Yes, yep.
43:35Respite Centre. Respite Centre. We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of people who've been
43:40through this building for one reason or another, whether for health or social reasons or educational
43:47reasons. It's a very, very generous, adaptable building then, yeah? That's remarkable.
43:54So, because what you're doing is slightly unusual and because your circumstances are slightly unusual,
44:00how do you figure out where you're going next? We definitely don't have it mapped out.
44:04Oh. Um, I think it's probably a bit like our building, uh, technique where we just try and
44:11do it week by week and month by month, but we definitely haven't got any long-term plans as such. I
44:18think the only thing we are certain on is that this is a home for life and we will be here forever
44:24more. Yeah, we will. Yeah. I don't think I've ever met a more inspirational couple than these two,
44:33who've built an inspiring safe haven for the future here against the greatest of odds.
44:43I think there are two qualities that we all want for ourselves and for those we love. One is health,
44:50one is happiness. And if you've ever had to deal with a serious illness or a prolonged program of
44:57medical treatment, you'll know how fragile health is. If you've ever pinned all your hopes and desires
45:04on some kind of future event, then you'll know also how fleeting and fragile happiness is. So how do we
45:14find these two qualities in the world? Well, I think Georgie and Greg, I think they've cracked it.
45:20They've demonstrated that by creating and doing and making and then sharing what they make with
45:31their friends and their families and their loved ones, by being generous in spirit, that that's where
45:40health and certainly happiness lie. And this building, if it's anything, goodness me,
45:45it's an amplifier for those qualities, for the positivity of two extraordinary people.
46:04Next week, Grand Design's House of the Year returns. Oh, heavens. Fantastic view. That could be the
46:11Mediterranean. It was like building a ship in a bottle. What is that? It's like one of those kind
46:16of things at the dentist. We've come to lunar space module. It was a giant step for Suffolk.
46:22Join us as we bring you this year's pinnacle of house building evolution.
46:33Support information for the issues raised can be found online at channel4.com forward slash support.
46:40And as he said, highlighting homes that have stunned and wowed you, me and our Kevin,
46:46new Grand Design's House of the Year starts at 8 next Wednesday.
46:50Next tonight, heartbreak in the cruelest form. It's the Trespassers series finale.
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