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00:00They say it's the little things that mean the most and in this series we're taking that to heart.
00:09We're stepping into a world where cherished places from the past are brought back to life in miniature.
00:16It's like being detectives isn't it?
00:18From family homes.
00:20I just miss it so much.
00:22To grand public buildings.
00:24This building was so magnificent.
00:27I found my identity there.
00:29Each tiny model tells a big story.
00:32It's a beautiful project because it's all about love.
00:36The craft and skill of our team of miniaturists.
00:39I'll make it happen.
00:41Perfect.
00:42Shines through in every delicate detail.
00:48Oh it's fabulous.
00:50Oh my goodness.
00:52I don't believe this.
00:54Oh my gosh.
00:56It's fantastic.
00:58And while our models may be tiny, the memories they stir are immense.
01:03Welcome to the marvellous miniature workshop.
01:07We're back at the workshop and buzzing with activity.
01:22Each brush stroke reviving places that people hold dear.
01:28A family home is more than just walls and windows.
01:34It's where all of life's milestones happen.
01:37From first steps to final goodbyes.
01:40So what if you could make a model of the very place that holds all of those memories?
01:46Visiting us today, our husband and wife Katie and Lee from Bedfordshire.
01:52Over the next few weeks, we'll recreate a place that was central to their family's story.
01:58But first, let's find out why it means so much to them.
02:02Katie Lee, welcome.
02:07Come in, come in.
02:09How are you?
02:10Hello.
02:11Very good, thank you.
02:12Now, I believe you've got a very special place that's close to your heart that you'd like recreating.
02:17Is that right?
02:18Definitely.
02:19We'd love to have a model of the farmhouse where we met that was our first home.
02:23Already, this is very romantic and lovely.
02:26You two, couple of lovebirds.
02:28Well, come on.
02:29We need more details and we need to go and meet Ethan.
02:31He's fantastic.
02:32Come this way.
02:39Here to bring home the perfect model, masterful miniaturist Ethan.
02:44Nice to meet you both.
02:45Hello.
02:46Before he gets cracking, he needs to know what he's going to be tackling today.
02:48So, tell us all about this beautiful farmhouse that means so much to you, please.
02:52Well, Hollyhill Farmhouse was where we met 21 years ago.
02:56A grade two listed farmhouse.
02:58Look.
02:59It's incredible.
03:00Very nice, isn't it?
03:01It's beautiful.
03:02It has a special place for us in our hearts.
03:05So, you lived there and how did you meet Lee?
03:07Yeah, he lived there too.
03:08Right.
03:09But it was converted into flats downstairs and upstairs and I was there first,
03:13for a couple of months on my own.
03:15Yeah.
03:16And Lee moved in with two friends upstairs.
03:18Okay.
03:19And had you spied this hot young chap who was living above you?
03:22I would let my dog out at night time.
03:24Yeah.
03:25And so she met Katie before I did.
03:27Yes, he had to keep coming round to get the dog back, so.
03:30Lovely.
03:31How romantic.
03:32This is so cute.
03:33Train the dog well, haven't you?
03:34Yeah.
03:35So cute.
03:36We got married and had a reception there.
03:38Wow.
03:39So, come on.
03:40Wedding photo.
03:41Let me see.
03:42Let me see the dress.
03:43Oh, look.
03:44And in front of that beautiful window.
03:45Yeah.
03:46We did love that door.
03:47Look at you two.
03:48You look beautiful.
03:49I do.
03:50Thank you, Katie.
03:51We then had our daughters, which were born there as well.
03:55Oh, let's see the girls, so.
03:57Oh, look.
03:59So, these are your twins.
04:00Yeah.
04:01Beautiful daughters.
04:02Look.
04:03It looks like the house is witnessing all these events.
04:05Yes, yeah.
04:06It's just in the background of, you know, these huge milestones.
04:09It's like the storyboard of your life, basically, isn't it?
04:12Yeah.
04:13Yeah.
04:14My dad passed away while we lived there.
04:16He loved the house.
04:17And in the garden, there's a beautiful yew tree.
04:20And I scattered some of his ashes around it,
04:22because I knew how he loved it so much.
04:24And at that time, I thought I was going to be there forever.
04:27Gosh.
04:28So, having him close was important to me.
04:30But we had to move on about 15 years ago, unfortunately.
04:34That's so difficult, isn't it, when you have to leave a place
04:36and leave a little bit of your dad behind.
04:38I'm so sorry.
04:39Yeah.
04:40Ethan, what are you thinking?
04:41Are you worried about anything that you see on the photos?
04:43Are you going to recreate this?
04:45It's a big responsibility.
04:46But it's such a lovely place for you too.
04:48And it's an honour to be able to sort of recreate it.
04:50Are there any sort of key elements that you'd want to see included?
04:53I think it's mainly the front door.
04:55Front door, yeah.
04:56And the fan light.
04:57Have you done a lot of window stuff before?
04:59I've done bits and pieces with windows.
05:01This is new to me.
05:02So, I haven't done anything like that.
05:04It's the focal point of the house.
05:05Yeah.
05:06It's the middle of the house.
05:07OK, OK.
05:08And with the fan light and everything and the double doors.
05:10Gosh, yeah.
05:11Those doors were always open in the summertime.
05:13Oh, nice.
05:14Yeah, yeah.
05:15When you stood at the front door, because it was slightly elevated,
05:17you had the whole view of London.
05:18Is it just near Enfield, is that right?
05:20OK, so not that far from London?
05:22No.
05:23Yeah, it's just inside the M25.
05:24And if you can incorporate the...
05:26There's an arch just in front where we're standing in the wedding picture.
05:29OK.
05:30Which the roses...
05:31Oh, yes, there.
05:32...came around.
05:33Lots to incorporate and, yeah, a lot of memories sort of tie back into it.
05:37It's an incredible place and I'll try my best to do you proud.
05:41Well, that house is always in our hearts anyway, so to have it in front of us every day would
05:45just be amazing.
05:46So lovely.
05:47Good luck.
05:48Ethan gets straight to work modelling the house with 3D computer software.
06:01And he's in no doubt which part of the building to focus on.
06:05So the front of the house was really beautiful for them and I want to recreate it as accurately
06:09as possible.
06:10The key features for this are going to be the fan light which sits above the door, the windows
06:14and the brickwork which covers the whole face of the building.
06:17So I've left the front doors open on the model because they used to keep them open during
06:21the summer so they could look over the garden, but also so we can look into the actual house
06:25and visualise what it used to be like and really just sort of see themselves back in the house.
06:32Ethan begins by laser cutting the walls of the Victorian farmhouse.
06:38He glues the panels together, then roughs up the laser etched brickwork pattern with a wire brush
06:45to make it look weathered. Piece by piece he assembles the roof structure, joining the laser cut timbers with glue and holding them in place with nails until they dry.
06:57I've got a mixture of engineering which is more modern techniques with the traditional painting and that sort of thing.
07:03So it creates really realistic models.
07:07Next, Ethan sprays the entire structure with primer and covers the walls in the soft greyish yellow of London stocks.
07:16Then hand paints individual bricks in subtly different shades.
07:24It takes five hours but gives the farmhouse the feel of a home that stood for generations
07:31and recalls the place Katie and Leigh still feel drawn to.
07:43Katie and Leigh now live over an hour's drive from Hollyhill Farm, but they still visit the house at least once a year.
07:51Oh, it's lovely being here again, just to see it.
07:56The house brings back such lovely memories. It really does.
08:01Every house has a feeling, doesn't it, when you go in. The minute I walked into this place, I just fell in love with it.
08:07Yeah, I agree.
08:10It's just such a shame to see it like this now.
08:12Katie and Leigh's old home is now completely derelict, and on this visit, it looks particularly sad.
08:23It's all boarded up as well. It wasn't like this when we came last.
08:28Oh, such a shame. You can't see the lovely windows or the door.
08:32Look at the state of it.
08:33Quite a shock just seeing it like this.
08:34It is. I wasn't expecting it to look like this now.
08:38The features that we loved, they're just all hidden.
08:42It's horrible, isn't it, being so close. It's like, you could almost walk through that door and go back to what we had.
08:50But we can't.
08:58I do miss it so much.
09:05Katie and Leigh spent six happy years at the farm.
09:08But suddenly, 15 years ago, their life here came to an abrupt end.
09:15The lease was passed to a new farmer who decided that he wanted to move into the house for himself.
09:20And that's when we were given our notice to move out.
09:24And, oh, my God.
09:27I mean, the shock was horrific.
09:30Gut-wrenching.
09:34We thought, this is our life here.
09:36And that was taken away from us.
09:41They never learned exactly what happened.
09:44But no one else ever moved in.
09:46It's sat empty ever since.
09:47It's just sat there.
09:53Wasted.
09:55When I look at it, I just think of the girls when they were younger, running up and down the hallway.
10:00That lovely, wide hall with their little legs.
10:03It's so sweet.
10:05I just love this place so much.
10:07We haven't been here for 15 years, but to me, it feels like yesterday that we moved out, being back here again.
10:13It just holds so many memories.
10:14I just love this place so much.
10:15I just love this place so much.
10:21I mean, we haven't been here for 15 years, but to me, it feels like yesterday that we moved out, being back here again.
10:36It just holds so many memories.
10:44When I look at it, it's the memories that I see.
10:48I don't see those boarded up windows.
11:03Fortunately, back in the workshop, Ethan's Hollyhill Farm isn't going to have boarded up windows.
11:08Which means he needs to make seven perfect Victorian sashes.
11:14I want to recreate it as accurately as possible, bringing together that real brickwork, the various windows.
11:20Each one has been laser cut with frames just a single millimetre thick.
11:25He layers front and rear panes, gluing one above the other to give the look of a sliding sash.
11:32It's a nice thing to recreate on the miniature scale.
11:34He adds crisp white sills and carefully glues in sheets of perspex as glass.
11:41Every tiny frame is then fitted into place.
11:47A vital window into the past for Katie and Lee.
11:53That picture we took of our wedding reception day.
12:01In that front door, we always had it open in the summer.
12:05I remember having lots of pictures taken at that front door.
12:09Not only was this house the backdrop to many of Katie and Lee's happy milestones, it also helped them through some of their darkest times.
12:21One of the scarier things that happened while we were living here was Lee being unwell.
12:26I found out I had kidney failure.
12:30I was down to 20% kidney function.
12:34Katie had fallen pregnant.
12:36I had no idea how I was going to cope.
12:40And then out of the blue, I got a phone call and they said to me, we might have a kidney for you.
12:45And it changed my life, really.
12:49Those few months when the girls were young and you were recovering, it was hard.
13:06We went through a lot, didn't we?
13:08But being here made it so much easier, I think.
13:12It was such a great place just to recuperate.
13:16I don't think we were going to ask for a better place.
13:26Being in a place you love.
13:28Anything that's bad isn't as bad.
13:31No.
13:33Even though we went through a lot, I don't think there's any, there's no bad memories that I associate with this house.
13:38At all.
13:39There was nothing but good things.
13:43To have a model of it that we can just put up on our shelf.
13:47And it would just bring memories every time we see that model of the happy times.
13:57A small but meaningful consolation for Katie and Lee, Holly Hill Farm is being returned to its prime in miniature.
14:16And Ethan is now restoring the most important window of all.
14:21So I'm currently cutting plastic, which is going to be the window in our fan light.
14:26Fan lights are fan shaped windows which sit above the doorways in many early Victorian and Georgian houses.
14:33I've now got a water activated sticker, which I'm going to slide onto the plastic to transfer the fan light pattern.
14:43Once you get the first bit, it grips and then it's fine.
14:47So I'm now placing that fan light that I've created into the pre-made frame to get that really distinctive fan light look.
15:00And then we've got the final fan light, which looks awesome. I'm a fan of it.
15:10With a light touch, tiny 3D printed handles are added to the external doors.
15:17Look at that. That's awesome.
15:20Ethan lays strips of ultra thin etched MDF across the roof, creating a perfectly scaled tile effect.
15:29He finishes with a row of ridge tiles.
15:32And once it's all been painted grey, carefully fits the whole thing onto the model, raising the roof miniature style.
15:40Ethan fits the drain pipes and guttering, made from tiny lengths of polystyrene rod.
15:47Then he 3D prints and paints, welcoming miniature lanterns for either side of that all-important front door.
15:55I just think it's a really lovely detail.
16:00So far, so good.
16:02But Ethan still needs to inject some personal touches into this model.
16:07So I'm off to meet the two people who probably know more about Katie and Leigh's memories of the house than anyone else.
16:19Hello girls!
16:21Their twin daughters, Elise and Emily.
16:24Elise and Emily, am I right?
16:26I'm Sarah, lovely to meet you.
16:28I'm super excited to hear all about Holly Hill Farm.
16:32So your parents were living there when you girls were born?
16:37Yeah, we lived there for two and a half years and then we had to leave.
16:41So we were only, like, just two when we left.
16:44So I don't really have many memories of it, but definitely kept alive with the stuff our parents tell us.
16:49Yeah.
16:50We see it over a year.
16:52It's just driving past.
16:54It's on the way to our grandma's house, so we just, like, pop in and have a look around.
16:59Obviously we can't go inside, but just have a look around the grounds and seeing how the garden changes as well.
17:04Obviously Holly Hill Farm is super important to your mum and dad.
17:06Is it important to you girls?
17:08Yeah, well we've actually used it in a lot of our artwork and I've also used it in my GCSE art.
17:13Come on, have you got some? Let me see.
17:17I feel like a proud mother.
17:19You'd have got some extra daughter points for this, Emily, wouldn't you?
17:22Oh, wow.
17:23So there's the hallway, that's amazing.
17:26What have we got here?
17:27This is in the snow.
17:28It looks like, you know, the movie The Holiday.
17:31I keep expecting Cameron Diaz to go trotting past.
17:35That's absolutely beautiful.
17:37This is my GCSE work from the front and then that sign is also at the start of the drive.
17:44So why did you decide to feature Holly Hill in your GCSE art?
17:49Well, I just, I was trying to, like, find, like, a building that I could, like, draw and paint and that was the first thing that came to my mind.
17:56And often when we do, like, stuff for art they want something quite personal and something that's meaningful for you and that definitely is.
18:04Oh, well it's lovely.
18:06Gosh, you're so talented.
18:08So I think we've definitely established that Holly Hill is hugely important to you girls.
18:13When you think about Holly Hill, what do we definitely need to feature?
18:17What can we not leave off this little miniature model?
18:20There was a yew tree in the garden.
18:23So it was, like, this big tree here.
18:26It's quite, like, a huge feature.
18:29Yeah.
18:30Because it also has our grandad's eyelashes skirted around the bottom of it.
18:35I spoke to your mum about this.
18:36She did say about this.
18:38And we didn't have such a clear shot of the tree.
18:41So this photo is super helpful.
18:43Yeah.
18:44In the hallway there were these big bouncers that we used to go in, like, every night.
18:50Because the hallway was so big it was the perfect place for them.
18:53Look at you two little cuties.
18:55So you'd just be constantly bouncing around?
18:57Yeah. I think that the bouncers that are in there would be a really lovely feature to include into the model.
19:02Yeah.
19:03I think that would be such a lovely surprise.
19:05Yeah, something that they're not expecting.
19:07Girls, how are you with secrets?
19:09I think I'm pretty good.
19:11I think you don't say anything to your mum and dad.
19:14Yeah, yeah.
19:15So that when we unveil the model...
19:16I get a surprise for them.
19:17Yeah.
19:18It would be so cute.
19:19I would love that.
19:20All of this has been so helpful.
19:22I'm going to take it all to Ethan, who will be thrilled.
19:24Yeah.
19:25Forward slash really annoyed.
19:26They've got loads of extra work to do.
19:27Well, I think it would be amazing because you could sort of like restore it how it used to be.
19:31Okay.
19:32We'll do our best.
19:41Ethan wastes no time putting the twins' suggestions into practice.
19:45And he's keen to give the majestic yew tree a bit of a twist.
19:50He wants it to glow.
19:52So he's designed an LED light to fix inside the glass trunk.
19:56He sticks steel wires to the transparent tube, twisting them together.
20:01And coating them with a thick glue to create gnarled branches.
20:06Then he sprays them a rich, dark brown.
20:10All the colours really do bring it to life.
20:13He applies white crackle paste, which splits when dry to create a bark-like texture.
20:21Then he paints the trunk different shades of brown to add depth and realism.
20:25And finally, he presses green sponge pieces onto the branches as leaves.
20:34Ethan has used Katie and Lee's wedding photo to copy and laser cut the rose arch next to the front door.
20:41He uses acrylic paint to make it look like wrought iron, before wrapping a miniature vine around it and painting yellow and red roses down the sides.
20:53I think that's going to be a focal point and just a great way to bring it all together.
20:57Ethan wants Katie and Lee to catch a glimpse of family life inside the model too.
21:05I've also left it open so we can look in and see what it would have been like.
21:08He paints the hallway in a soft yellow to match the photographs.
21:13Then creates a beautiful period archway with decorative moulding, before wiring the whole house with lights, including a tiny pendant in the hallway.
21:24With the entrance complete, he's ready to add that secret personal detail the twins have suggested.
21:29So I'm going to include the baby bouncers in the hallway for a little surprise detail for Katie and Lee.
21:36I understand this is a really key memory for them when the twins were younger and it was a really happy time for the family in that house.
21:43The hangers are laser cut from a thin laminate and painted yellow.
21:50Ethan then hand cuts blue PVC into thin strips to create the straps.
21:57The key parts of the baby bouncer are the yellow hanger on top and the blue straps which hang down both sides.
22:03So creating that on a small scale is pretty tricky, but I'm finding a way where I can wrap around this blue plastic,
22:09around a little laser cut hanger which I've made to create the same effect on a tiny scale.
22:20I'm using this UV light to cure the glue which is going to bond the plastic to the hanger.
22:26I've got to add some baby holders on the bottom and then some straps going from the hangers to the ceiling
22:32and then I'll get these added to the model and then we're all sorted.
22:36Perfect.
22:37It's been a month since Katie and Lee first came to us hoping for a model of their beloved Holly Hill Farm.
22:51And now it's time to find out if Ethan has hit a home run.
22:56Here we come.
22:57Come in, it's a big day.
23:02Oh, my God.
23:04I don't know who's more nervous.
23:06How are we doing?
23:08I'm nervous myself.
23:11It's a big deal, isn't it? Here we go.
23:13It's massive.
23:14You look emotional already, Katie.
23:16It hit me as soon as I came round the corner.
23:19It just means so much, this place.
23:22Go on.
23:24So many huge moments in your lives happened at Holly Hill Farm.
23:28They did.
23:29Yeah?
23:30Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
23:31Seeing a brand new Holly Hill Farm, hopefully.
23:34Ethan, how are you feeling?
23:36Has this been a tough build for you?
23:37I'm as nervous as you are.
23:39No, it has been a tough build.
23:41It's combining all the photos and your memories and it clearly means so much.
23:45Getting that all together has been tricky, but it's been fun.
23:48And I can't wait to see you guys' reactions.
23:51Yeah, I can't wait to see it.
23:53I think we ought to reveal Holly Hill Farm, so...
23:57Here we go.
23:58Here we go.
24:06Is that a lock seat?
24:10Wow.
24:11It's beautiful.
24:13It's better than what I remembered it as.
24:15It is.
24:16It's just amazing.
24:19It's so lovely.
24:21Oh, you're very good, isn't it?
24:22Thank you, thank you.
24:24Ethan has restored Holly Hill Farm to its former glory, just as Katie and Lee remember it.
24:31From the hand-aged Victorian brickwork to the rose-covered arch and the elegant fan-light window above the front door.
24:40Every detail has been carefully recreated.
24:42Oh, it's just amazing.
24:45It just looks so beautiful.
24:47It looks even better than I remember it.
24:49He's done a really beautiful job, so...
24:51Oh, I know.
24:52The light round the door, everything.
24:54Yeah.
24:55The archway.
24:57And the hallway.
24:58It's like, I just want to go in.
25:00You can get closer.
25:01Do you want to have a...
25:03We don't have the budget for that.
25:04You can't do that.
25:05You can't do that.
25:07Beside the farmhouse rises the majestic yew, their family tree in every sense.
25:14There's a tree as well where your dad's ashes are.
25:17Yeah.
25:18I know, and the fact that that's lit up as well, that makes it look even more special.
25:21It's like my dad's making it glow.
25:22Yeah, that's what I wanted, yeah.
25:23A tree of life.
25:24Yeah.
25:26Through the open front door, Ethan's model offers a glimpse inside, where family life once unfolded.
25:34You've even got the hallway down the head.
25:36Oh, wow.
25:37We always had the front doors open, so that's how it always was.
25:42Because we just loved being out in the garden and looking back at this beautiful house.
25:47Oh, God, that really is amazing.
25:50It's even got the hall table and a picture of the girls on the table.
25:53You've got your wedding photo in there as well.
25:56It's a little riff.
25:58So, your lovely girls, Emily and Elise, they told me all about a special detail.
26:02Now, if you have a look, really look down the corridor there, can you see?
26:08Oh, my God!
26:11Oh, it's got no bouncers.
26:13No.
26:14Yeah, right at the end.
26:16They used to hang in these little bouncers in the hall.
26:18Oh, God.
26:19And jump up and bouncing when they were babies, and they used to love them.
26:22They used to do it every evening.
26:24I can't believe that.
26:26Oh, bless them.
26:28Oh, wow, that's so cute.
26:29That is just so lovely.
26:32Are you still going to drive the girls up on a yearly basis?
26:36We don't need to anymore. We've got this.
26:37No. Yeah.
26:38It's beautiful.
26:41Time to find out what the twins make of Ethan's efforts.
26:45Come on in, come in.
26:48Hi, how are you? You all right, Emily and Elise? Come in, come in, look.
26:52Wow.
26:54It's amazing.
26:55Yeah.
26:56What do you think?
26:57Yeah.
26:58Looks like there's people living in it.
26:59Yeah, it's absolutely amazing.
27:00Definitely, like, captures it as well.
27:03Yeah.
27:04Lovely.
27:06Well, well done, it looks great.
27:07Because it was boarded up when we saw it last, and now it's got lights on.
27:10Yeah.
27:11It's just like, oh, my God.
27:13That's how I remember it.
27:15Ethan is extremely talented.
27:17The detailing was amazing.
27:19It just really made it look real as though we were really there.
27:24It's exactly what I wanted.
27:25It's so much better than I ever imagined.
27:27It's beautiful.
27:28It's like our family is complete again now.
27:30We've got the farm back.
27:31So, to have it at home, where we can see it all the time, it just completes us now.
27:36So, I couldn't give you the keys to the actual house, but I have got keys here to the model.
27:41So, if you plug those in the back.
27:43Yeah.
27:44And that'll switch the lights on.
27:45Give it a twist.
27:46Give it a little.
27:47All the lights come on.
27:48So, wow.
27:49Oh, that's lovely.
27:50All yours.
27:51Thank you so much.
27:52No worries.
27:53No worries.
27:54Forever this time.
27:55No.
28:23Bye.
28:24Bye.
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