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00:00If Against All Odds is one of the leitmotifs of this programme,
00:07then there is one episode from 2021 that perhaps is riskier than all others.
00:15It involved a decrepit old building that was in dire need of repair,
00:20a young married couple whose relationship had been forged amidst serious illness and for whom
00:27they felt at least time was short, and a young fledgling self-builder who wanted to build a
00:34refuge for his wife. It is one of the most poignant and powerful stories we've ever told.
00:42Newlyweds Greg and Georgie had grand plans for this dilapidated barn in Georgie's parents garden.
00:51This 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 and
01:05since 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.
01:16Flip it back. We've had a real real crisis with the pitch of the roof. And it was barely finished when
01:23they moved in. Greg and George's project was extraordinary. And I'm very keen to get back
01:33and see how life in the barn has been treating them. But first, here's their wonderful story.
01:48What are you boys doing Christmas? Greg from Kent is a pub landlord.
02:06My father and I, we basically took over the local pub. It had been derelict for a little while and
02:11we felt 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 he
02:35thankfully 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 an abseil down in Spinnickata in Portsmouth.
02:52I was going to go along and sort of support him and take some photos above.
02:56I just got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. And she said to the guy,
03:04harness me up, I'm going to abseil down the tower.
03:09So we did it in tandem. Complete adrenaline.
03:13For the past year, the newlyweds have been living with Georgie'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.
03:33Georgie, who's an artist, has been in treatment for most of her life.
03:38I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour when I was 10. Then when I was 20, I had thyroid cancer as
03:44well. And since then, I've had about 90 skin cancers, which are ongoing. So it's quite a long,
03:50long road of about 23 years, really. Meeting Greg was amazing because we had this lovely connection
03:57and we both had an understanding of what it's like to, you know, to be really unwell.
04:06Now, Greg and Georgie are about to begin an exciting new chapter of their lives together
04:12by giving this rundown barn in Georgie's parents' garden a new and ambitious lease of life.
04:20Now I just feel, OK, I've beaten cancer. I can do anything. I can really,
04:28I can build a house. That's fine. Easy.
04:30Yeah. You 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.
04:48It's a fine old timber building. It reminds me a little bit of farms that you see in the Alps
04:53or rural France. My grandparents had it built 35 years ago for the dairy herd.
04:58Like these doors. Do these stay? Yeah, we're going to keep them. Seriously?
05:02Yeah. What, with a big glazed wall behind them? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
05:05Oh. Oh, it's big, isn't it? So do you keep this timber frame?
05:13Yeah, so we're going to strip all the cladding off. And what's the big idea?
05:16We're doing split levels. Yeah, so we've got, like, a big cube in the middle.
05:20Nice. So all the bedrooms have got four bedrooms all around the side,
05:24and then in the middle is going to be a cube which is dug down.
05:27Are you doing a lot of this yourselves? Yeah. Yeah, Craig's going to do a lot.
05:30The majority of it, I would say. Anybody who sells bills discovers how
05:34extraordinarily demanding it is, much more so than they ever thought it would be,
05:38how emotionally draining it is and how physically tiring.
05:42So I look at you guys and, you know, you've got your regime of hospital visits
05:46and treatments and side effects and so on. I'm just thinking,
05:49you've got to surely have some kind of way of being able to deal with this,
05:54because otherwise it's going to get on top of you.
05:56Well, we're hoping to do it in a year.
05:58So if we can do it in a year... That's one way of dealing with it,
06:01is to get it over and done with. My pub, we had to do quite a lot of work there,
06:04take the whole roof off and everything. And I cope with that,
06:07so that was maybe the first stepping stone. And this is now our forever home, isn't it?
06:13Yeah. It's an incredible thing. This is a very special building, actually.
06:17There were times when I was so ill that the goal of the day would be to walk down here
06:22and had to sit outside of the barn and sort of... That's the only energy I had, really.
06:28So it has a lovely atmosphere in it and it's lovely being able to look over the field.
06:33And I'm very lucky to be invited into it.
06:37Yes. You also have a tremendous responsibility here.
06:43What George has just described is a very powerful personal relationship
06:47with a building and a corner of this place.
06:51And what you've got to do is somehow deliver an enlarged kind of richer version of it, almost.
06:58Yeah?
06:58Mm. Yeah.
06:59No, no pressure then.
07:02A local architect, Mike Kaner, has drawn up Greg and Georgie's vision for the barn.
07:07It's only 35 years old, but bizarrely, Planning says they can't replace it.
07:11It's in a conservation area, so it has to be conserved as if it were ancient.
07:15Starting with the timber frame, which has to remain standing right through the construction.
07:23Their 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.
07:33Then the existing thin concrete floor will need to be removed and excavations dug.
07:38At this point, if they're really unlucky, they may need to underpin,
07:41reinforce the concrete support of the existing timber posts,
07:45before they can then pour a web of foundations for a new slab.
07:50Even then, the building won't be structurally sound until Greg figures out how to repair
07:54all the timber posts that are rotten at the bottom.
07:58Next, a new steel roof that'll incorporate new roof lights will go on,
08:02followed by thick insulation and then the original cladding reapplied to the barn.
08:06There'll be an eco-heating system and on top, a huge solar array for clean electricity.
08:14On the inside, a small hall will lead to a somewhat cavernous room,
08:18a vaulted, single-storey living space with bifold doors that'll offer organised views
08:23of the fields and countryside beyond.
08:27Incorporated at one end will be the kitchen and table,
08:30each accompanied by a specifically shaped window to deliver a particular view from that place.
08:36In the heart of the building, they'll fit a semi-enclosed volume they're calling The Cube,
08:42a steel-framed, steep-level structure with a snug, sunk below floor level,
08:46in order to accommodate a mezzanine space above, which will serve as George's craft workshop.
08:52You'll get up there via a steel staircase, designed, and for that matter, welded by Greg.
08:58A 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,
09:17and this is a mighty big 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. See, there isn't, is this? How soft is it? Oh, man, alive.
09:33Oh, no, it's just like blemange. Oh, wow. So this is ex-timber and is now just adding an amazing amount of expense
09:41and difficulty to the project, isn't it? Ah, it's totally bonkers.
09:45Greg might have cut his teeth project managing a pub renovation, but that is nothing compared to this.
09:52What is your budget? 250,000.
09:55It's pretty tight. It's very tight. Where's the cash come from?
09:59Er, I'm financing it with some savings and a family loan.
10:05The barn itself is actually on my parents' land, so they're very kindly... Great.
10:09It's a wedding gift, really? Yes.
10:12What happens if you realise actually you haven't got enough to finish?
10:16What's the back-up plan? The back-up plan. Yeah, what is the back-up plan?
10:20Is there a back-up... There isn't actually completely a plan B yet. Yeah.
10:25Greg and Georgie have 250,000 pounds to convert a building measuring roughly 250 square metres.
10:36Now, by anybody's scale, it's not enough. The average shelf builder would need twice or three times that
10:43to do what they want to do. So what's going to happen? Well, either they're going to go bust,
10:48or the building's not going to get finished, or 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 again
11:06from scratch. Instead, the painstaking conservation of the timber frame starts with the removal of 1500
11:15sections of pine cladding that Greg must carefully number up, store safely on site, and reapply to
11:21the building later on. Unfortunately, it'd be nice just to leave it as is, but we have to take it all off
11:27because we've got to insulate. Also, we have to get a digger in between the main uprights to excavate
11:35the new foundations. Thankfully, there is enough in the budget to pay just one man. Greg's mate Sam,
11:42a former shepherd, who 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
11:54for this to work, and I've been helping where I can. I wish I could do a bit more, but energy-wise,
12:01I have to be a bit careful, but the view is incredible now, so seeing the panoramic view,
12:06I'm getting very excited now. Greg and Sam's next task is less straightforward.
12:14They have to remove the barn's concrete floor so new foundations can be dug. Greg is a rookie
12:19digger driver, but a highly inventive one who has devised a new concrete busting technique,
12:25rodeo digging. Not even budging. Maybe you're right Sam, maybe we need a smaller bucket.
12:31With a smaller bucket attached and Sam at the controls. Yeah, that's coming on.
12:37They can refine the art of cowboy building. It's a very big job for just two of us,
12:42but we seem to be doing all right. Both me and Greg work well together,
12:46so that always makes it a bit easier as well.
12:51Once 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
13:08the base for this existing structure, while keeping it all up, will cost a lot more.
13:14It's coming in at about £80,000. That's a lot of money and it's a big hit really.
13:21£80,000 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.
13:56Their structural engineer, Ben Tubb, is on site to assess the depth of the concrete
14:00that sits beneath the timber columns. So our best result is that Ben says,
14:04look, we don't have to underpin any of the pre-existing pads.
14:08The following day, they head off to find out whether they'll have to spend an extra 20 grand on underpinning.
14:16Quite confident that we're going to get a good result, but you never quite know. Hi guys.
14:23So the pads, you've got to underpin those.
14:29Is that underpinning under some of them or is that all them?
14:33In most cases, I would imagine.
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 get out
15:02of this hole?
15:14Greg and Georgie have only been going for six weeks and already their groundwork costs have escalated
15:20to around a hundred thousand pounds on a 250 grand budget.
15:24Got any more buckets? No.
15:27So Greg's made the unenviable and perilous decision to part ways with the professional ground workers
15:33and do the job himself. Could have done without the rain today.
15:37With his mate Sam and George's help, of course.
15:40Sam, how much would you pay for a machine that could do this?
15:42A lot.
15:44We're actually a couple of weeks behind. I haven't done this kind of work before.
15:47Yeah, it's just a lot of pressure on my shoulders really.
15:51I don't think anybody quite prepares you for how stressful it can be.
15:56We'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
16:06and it's been a nightmare. It's just pure flint.
16:09We'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
16:27in order to craft a new home for his beloved wife, then so be it.
16:33His remarkable drive comes from the toughest of life experiences.
16:37Having a brain tumour was one of the best kick up the arses I've ever had.
16:41You know, I just remember in that hospital bed, I was just weighing up all the,
16:47all the things that I hadn't done
16:52in life and how I wanted to cross them all off.
16:57And one of them was to build a dream home.
17:00There's no way I'd be here doing what I'm doing now if I hadn't,
17:05if I hadn't got ill and hadn't met George. And I just want to show, show people
17:13that 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.
17:31And having completed so much of the groundwork themselves, miraculously,
17:36they've spent not a penny more than the original 80 grand they budgeted. It's a remarkable achievement.
17:42But Greg's already moved on to the next challenge, getting a rotten oak tree next to the barn felt.
17:48He'll use the timber to craft some furniture for the new house.
17:54Wow!
17:55Given just how much Georgie and Greg have been through, it's comforting for them to know their new home will be next door to Georgie's parents, Tom and Julie.
18:04We 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 round.
18:12Do you fret for their health, as it were, for the, 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.
18:27Real anxiety 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 somebody who's beaten away,
18:38he's come from and what he's doing now. But they've got to be very, they've got to be careful about what they do.
18:43Careful, yes, and extremely resourceful. There's £170,000 left, yet the barn's still not structurally sound,
18:56thanks to ten badly rotten timber posts that need repairing, as ever, cheaply.
19:01But wait, Greg's already come up with a solution.
19:05I think this is great. A massive collar in two pieces, which fits around the post, means you don't have to cut these.
19:11It's great. I mean, it's a huge cost saving.
19:13It's a nice, straightforward solution, and it's all from you. So it's better work.
19:20Yeah. I love it. It's proper self-build, self-designed, self-engineered. Great.
19:25Greg never shies away from a challenge.
19:29The next one being laying a 250 square metre block and beam floor.
19:35And there's some serious confusion as to which of the 70 concrete beams goes where.
19:40Oh, 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.
19:51And I've never laid a floor before. It just seems crazy.
19:56They all seem to be cut slightly differently as well.
19:59It would have been so much easier if I just labelled them up properly.
20:02We're just having to scratch our head over it at the moment and try and decipher the plans.
20:06They do eventually figure out the positioning of the beams, but Greg's inexperience is leading to more problems.
20:14So it's a lot when we're doing the drainage, we didn't know that this beam was going to be quite so far over here.
20:20There's a soil pipe in the way, but Greg has an unorthodox solution.
20:24With the merciless swathe of the angle grinder.
20:32A week later, the concrete subfloor is in.
20:37That is a big achievement. Feet on solid ground now.
20:40But some challenges just can't be overcome.
20:47Looming large over this project is the ongoing health of Georgie, who has some unsettling news.
20:53I found skin cancer. I think it's probably about seven or eight at the minute.
21:03You sort of think you're doing, yeah, in a quite good phase of everything going just about okay,
21:07and then you get another sort of hit, really. So it's quite tiring.
21:12You have to dig deep one day at a time, and that's sort of...
21:16I'm just so thankful, yeah, for every day and my time with Greg and things.
21:20And I think that just keeps you going and having a really supportive family, and it really does help.
21:29Georgie will need to go for more treatment, which only adds to Greg's determination to get this house built quickly.
21:36The sooner we complete this project, the sooner we can kind of start enjoying the precious time that we have together.
21:46Four 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 the Georgie.
22:08It's not central.
22:10Sam's cousin is here to help, and Sam's dad, Cullum, who fabricated the steel down the road.
22:16For eight thousand pounds.
22:18It'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 of this new floor.
22:28So this is our legal height for building control.
22:33It 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 Georgie's workshop upstairs as a habitable space.
22:47I don't know if I've got my two metre headroom from the centre point.
22:51If it's not right, Cullum will have to remake the steel work, which of course will cost.
22:57No one wants that.
23:00And there is a problem.
23:01So we're 50 mil out.
23:05What a bitch.
23:16Four frantic and stressful months have passed in this sleepy corner of Kent.
23:21Which way is up?
23:22And Greg and George's steel frame is annoyingly just too big to allow the first floor to be a habitable space.
23:34Such a small error, but it's just, we won't hit regulation head height on the top.
23:41But Greg is unfazed.
23:43To meet building wrecks, he's going to try a cheap and cheerful alternative to remaking the steel frame,
23:49by remaking the foundations instead.
23:51To take it all apart now, just so that we can peel back this plastic,
23:55get to the pads which it's going to go into,
23:58and 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,
24:15but he's the customer, you can advise, can't you?
24:18After just three hours of grinding the pads down,
24:23and another two hours of reassembling the structure...
24:26Oh, you little bastard!
24:28...the building control moment of truth.
24:30Woohoo!
24:30Four millimetres!
24:32He got away with it by four mill!
24:38You've got to hand it to Greg.
24:39He 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 next then?
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
24:59and work across it rather than strip the whole thing...
25:03...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...
25:13Yeah, we'll be fine.
25:15It'll be a quick transition.
25:16I look forward to seeing that.
25:21But 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.
25:34Just as well, Greg's brought on board two mates, both carpenters,
25:38to 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,
25:49and then he and Sam complete it by themselves.
25:53Yeah, when Greg first told me about this project, I thought,
25:55well, OK, are you biting off more than you can chew?
25:58Or, you 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,
26:08even if he doesn't have a clue what he's doing, which is great fun to see.
26:13Oh, there goes Vincent. I 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,
26:22so that's just going to take time.
26:23Oh, what a dream. Like 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,
26:53so 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'd 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...
27:20I can't even start contemplating £10,000, £20,000 over to someone else.
27:27Greg has no choice but to doggedly work through every problem.
27:37His determination is matched by Georgie'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.
27:54You know, we don't want to push ourselves to the extreme and not sort of completely
28:00going to burn out. And 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 there are days when 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.
28:24Four weeks on and Greg, the master improviser, has 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.
28:37So I spent almost a day ripping down bits of six-inch timber into furring strips to give us the extra
28:47four degrees on the pitch of the roof. So we've now got our windows in at 15 degrees, just quite a bit more work.
28:57Oh, this is a nice piece. Amazing, you just take off a few layers and it's just beautiful.
29:03Come the new year, the big picture windows have been installed and Greg and Georgie are ready
29:09to start refitting the original pine cladding on the barn. It's painstaking. Each of the 1500 planks
29:16has to be scraped and sanded and after being fitted, stained and oiled several times.
29:21Already you can just see how beautiful this wood is. Gosh, stunning, beautiful grain coming through.
29:31It's actually quite an important job because this will be here for the next however many years we
29:36are going to be here for, for the rest of our lives.
29:41I never in my wildest dreams believed the timber was going to be as nice as it is.
29:46It's looking better than I remember actually. I'm really, really happy. It's beautiful.
29:52OK, and then... Yet, miraculously, given all they've been through, they've been able to still
30:00clutch onto £80,000 to transform this basic shell into their new home.
30:06..or 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.
30:24I 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.
30:40So it's just over £5,000 that we've lost.
30:44I 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.
31:03Regardless, Greg starts boarding out the vast interior with timber
31:08a year since they set out on 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,
31:30due to the fact her past medical history, the weak immune system and respiratory problems she's had.
31:38I'm really, um, yeah, terrified.
31:41It 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.
32:04Hi.
32:05This is extraordinary.
32:07Moved into their safe haven.
32:09We've actually accomplished it.
32:10And 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.
32:27This 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
33:12settled into that corner of the field there.
33:15But there were some bigger questions too.
33:17I mean, has that building nurtured them?
33:20Has it provided everything they'd hoped for, particularly for their health?
33:26And, of course, has the excitement of living next to the in-laws rubbed off yet?
33:43In 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.
34:02There's the red brick house of Georgie's parents, Tom and Julie.
34:06The grey annex, which, actually, that's a new colour that's been rebuilt and added to.
34:10Heavens, there's change there.
34:12That's where Greg and Georgie used to live.
34:15And then, there it is.
34:18That is really good.
34:24Thanks 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.
34:41With the welcome addition of a solar panel array.
34:46It doesn't really look like an agricultural barn anymore.
34:49More like a really well-considered single-storey house.
34:54It's really grown into something quite special.
34:59But what I really want to know is how Greg and Georgie are doing.
35:04Oh, hi.
35:05Hi, Kevin.
35:06Hello.
35:06How are you doing?
35:07I'm really good.
35:08Good to see you, mate.
35:09How are you, Greg?
35:09How are you?
35:10Oh, very well.
35:11Hello, Georgie.
35:11Good to see you.
35:11Nice to see you.
35:12How 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.
35:19Yeah, so my hair all fell out.
35:21It's amazing, the piece.
35:23Isn't it?
35:23It's actually been a bit of a tough time, hasn't it, really?
35:26It has.
35:27Because I've had quite a major operation since I last saw you five years ago,
35:30and back on a lot of chemotherapy treatment.
35:32What, right now?
35:34Yes, I'm on it at the minute.
35:35It's quite a strong dose of it.
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
35:43has exuded is this amazing kind of energy and positivity.
35:47So for you to say that it's been tough, that 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.
36:03Given 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, it's just as sharp.
36:16It's actually beautiful.
36:18At every turn, there's you guys.
36:21It's really nicely done.
36:23The double-height living space still packs quite a punch.
36:28The kitchen is spacious, openings connect to landscape.
36:33The board-marked concrete fireplace is terrific, as is the furniture crafted from the felled oak outside.
36:41All by Greg, who's never stopped working on the project.
36:45So this room here is an accessible toilet.
36:50Yeah.
36:51Wheelchair friendly.
36:52And we've got a utility room.
36:54Oh, hello.
36:55Oh, it's nicely done.
36:58It's a proper utility.
37:00Really, really good.
37:01He's now also fabricated a new steel handrail up to Georgie'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.
37:17First 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.
37:25Mm-hmm.
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, that painting wasn't here last time.
37:39No, that's actually me.
37:40I had an exhibition, um, 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, like in blues and golds and whites.
37:53Amazing.
37:54So this is a...
37:55Something you've taken up, very, it's very different to the craft work you were doing.
37:58Yeah, so I was doing, like, needle polishing before and all sorts of other crafting things,
38:02but then I just got really into canvases and acrylics.
38:07That's a development I hadn't seen coming.
38:10That through illness and treatment and everything else,
38:13the barn has nurtured in Georgie a passion for painting.
38:18But 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.
38:34Just having a space where people can call their own for a weekend
38:37and just come and do whatever they want 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.
39:00So that was always the thought to sort of be able to, you know, help host for people
39:04and, you know, look after other people like we've been looked after.
39:07Staying here proved a lifeline for Jodie and Satch a few years ago when Jodie was seriously ill.
39:17It 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.
39:33When you walk into the house and when we stayed in the room in particular.
39:36It's an amazing thing. You could sort of palpably sense that.
39:39Absolutely. And I think it's even more extraordinary that Georgie's still undergoing treatment.
39:45She's still doing all of these things, yet they've still opened up this space to others who need it.
39:53Other big changes have happened since I was last here.
39:56After completing the barn, Greg's next project was up at the main house,
40:01separating off the annex and extending it for George's parents who were downsizing.
40:07So you probably don't even recognize it, Kevin, but this is our old flat.
40:12It was all one space, wasn't it? It was, yeah.
40:14And then a bedroom out the back. You didn't have any bifold doors then?
40:16No, no. And this wall you've taken out then?
40:19Yeah, that's all new. And then with infill and block work, there's actually a lot of masonry and
40:24knock-throughs and supporting stuff which I never had to do on mine.
40:28Given that you've divided the house that was here into two properly now, have you had to move services?
40:34Yeah, services had to be split and we've had to do four separate block-ups to the main house in order to
40:41re-jig it. And I think we're on about six different levels if you go through the building.
40:46It's good quality. This is lovely. How long did it take?
40:50This project took about a year, actually.
40:53That's a lot of work here, though. A lot of puzzling.
40:55Yeah. A lot of head-scratching to get it right.
40:57Yeah. So you've done that, you've done this. What next?
41:01Well, I actually start my brother's extension on Monday, so I keep it in the family, friends and family.
41:07But yeah, I enjoy building. I find it quite kind of therapeutic and creative in the same way.
41:14So, yeah.
41:15Naturally, 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.
41:26We'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.
41:37Every single day, I'd look out and I think, this couldn't get better, really, you know,
41:42to have them all so near. And I suppose it's a reassurance, too, if Georgie's there alone.
41:48You know, she can see our lights on and it just means that we're connected in a way that's sort of
41:52natural but comforting as well. Familial bliss clearly is attainable.
42:00You just have to build your in-laws a new home.
42:01So you're super busy, you've got the pub to run, you're building, you're having a treatment plan,
42:07you're painting, you're doing your craft. I don't understand where you find the energy,
42:12the physical energy, to do all this.
42:14Because it's been so many years for me, it's been nearly 30 years of treatment and operations.
42:19You know, when you're right down in the hole, you just don't think you can scramble out again.
42:23You sort of, you make the most of all the opportunities and, you know, every day is special.
42:29You just have to just carry on, really.
42:31Yeah, and I think we're both just very driven as well.
42:34So doing a lot of things works well for us.
42:38Yeah. I suppose many of us take a lot of things for granted. Health, well-being, time, energy.
42:46You don't take it for granted because you know that it's precious.
42:50Make a small difference, maybe, in what you do and to spread your time kind of generously.
42:56And just to offer something to other people, that gives great joy.
43:01Mm. Having a home where we can be inclusive and just invite people and enjoy the space as well.
43:09So it's not just for us, it's for other people as well.
43:13Yeah. What are the functions that you just served other than as a house?
43:18So we've hosted village drinks parties here. We've had big barbecue parties.
43:26I had an exhibition with 130 people that came to see my artwork.
43:30Anything else? Oh, I run my art courses up.
43:33So you run them upstairs, here? Yes, yes.
43:35Respite centre. Respite centre.
43:37We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of people who've been through this building
43:41for one reason or another, whether for health or social reasons or educational reasons.
43:47Mm-hm. It's a very, very generous, adaptable building then, yeah?
43:52Mm-hm. That's remarkable.
43:55Because 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?
44:02We definitely don't have it mapped out.
44:04Oh.
44:05I think it's probably a bit like our building technique, where we just try and do it week
44:11by week and month by month, but we definitely haven't got any long-term plans as such.
44:17I think the only thing we are certain on is that this is a home for life and we will be here forevermore.
44:24Yeah, it will.
44:26Yeah.
44:26I 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.
44:39I think there are two qualities that we all want for ourselves and for those we love.
44:49One is health, one is happiness.
44:52And if you've ever had to deal with a serious illness or a prolonged program of medical treatment,
44:57you'll know how fragile health is.
45:00If you've ever pinned all your hopes and desires on some kind of future event,
45:08then you'll know also how fleeting and fragile happiness is.
45:12So how do we find these two qualities in the world?
45:17Well, I think Georgie and Greg, I think they've cracked it.
45:22They've demonstrated that by creating and doing and making and then sharing what they make
45:31with their friends and their families and their loved ones,
45:33by being generous in spirit, that that's where health and certainly happiness lie.
45:44And this building, if it's anything, goodness me,
45:47it's an amplifier for those qualities, for the positivity of two extraordinary people.
45:59Next week, Grand Design's House of the Year returns.
46:08Oh, heavens. Fantastic view. That could be the Mediterranean.
46:12It was like building a ship in a bottle.
46:14What is that? It's like one of those kind of things at the dentist.
46:17We'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.
46:29Support 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 cabin,
46:46new Grand Design's House of the Year starts at 8 next Wednesday.
46:50Next tonight, heartbreak in the cruelest form.
46:53It's the Trespassers series finale.
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