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00:05While building a dream house is for some many others are transforming existing homes
00:16smashing down walls ripping out kitchens and digging up gardens as they reimagine
00:25their homes as places to live work and thrive it's gonna be a bathhouse why not
00:32hey bathrooms are the hardest thing to renovate I'm gonna die before we move
00:40into this house I'm Anthony Burke a professor of architecture and I'm interior
00:47designer Yasmeen Janine and in each episode of this new series of grand
00:52designs transformations every single person has kind of said you're crazy we
00:57follow the makeover masterminds behind two very different projects I do question
01:03the stupidity of doing something like this okay this is good in this episode in
01:13the Melbourne suburb of Mulgrave I can't help but feel I'm in a dollhouse a mid
01:18century makeover with a Spanish external a Japanese interior is rather jarring don't
01:24you think puts a novice DIYer through his paces that does look a bit wide doesn't
01:29it half the time I don't really know what I'm doing so hopefully it all works out
01:32but will their Easton transformation how come the gap is wider here than it is
01:37there end up going south slow me down the mystics everything takes time everything takes money and
01:45they're things that we're slowly running out of and I'm in Tassie what a great spread you've got here
01:51it's so picturesque we're a pair of hopeless romantics I just fell in love with it from the
01:56get-go pour their passion into transforming a crumbling old glass house the da Vinci code of
02:02architecture for Tasmania we just have to figure it out chasing parts around the world we might
02:08have some leftover fingers crossed to see it sparkle again building it back up a little sign of a screw
02:15hole gives us the clue of how to stitch it all back together but will it be the fairy tale
02:21ending
02:21they imagined this is now when you're sitting in any room all right slightly terrifying
02:46tasmania's south arm peninsula a treasure box of natural beauty 25 minutes southeast of Hobart
02:55Lily's coming to say hello it's here that recently married architect Richard
03:00and medical researcher Alice are in their happy place
03:06living on Alice's gorgeous sheep and alpaca family farm in Sandford
03:14we tend to spend most of our time together I would say yeah we do you know always doing
03:19something outside good connection to nature look at this a couple of peas in a pod living the good
03:27life that one is definitely ready I think through our passions for gardening we've always gone for
03:34walks in botanical gardens we had just fallen in love with so many glass houses it's been blown away
03:40by the practicality and their functionalities are just so impressive for the time for Victorian gentry
03:50owning a glass house was a real flex to show off exotic species like pineapple plants and peach trees the
03:58thought I know where there's where there's a building like this in a state of decay decay it's downright decrepit
04:07this 140 year old faded gem on a prominent farming family estate in the northern Midlands had 10-year-old
04:15Richard
04:15spellbound I can remember the building as a child you know running around in the garden you could barely see
04:20the
04:21structure it was covered in a ball of ivy I do remember that moment of you know pushing open the
04:27door
04:28abandoned pots dead plants scattered around it was something it always had that secret garden vibe really intrigued me
04:34I just fell in love with it from the get-go the charmer and what it could be we thought
04:40this could be a
04:41mad idea but how about we make contact and see if we can restore it and what do you know
04:47happy for
04:48history to live on it was gifted to them already heritage listed permission to move it was granted in
04:552022 our glass houses originally from the UK built in the late 1800s by company Thomas messenger and co and
05:04then shipped to Australia as a kit the original flat pack without the original instructions which sounds
05:11like a disaster and only only two-thirds of the pieces sounds like the ultimate flat pack hell once
05:22catalogued they loaded everything bar the bricks into a couple of utes ready for the nerve-racking two-hour
05:31journey home it was a very hairy trip down the Midland highway halfway down I heard two screws fall out
05:38of
05:38something so it was a quick pull over to see where those pieces were but I think that's all we
05:43lost
05:44it's very much a passion project my brother said it only takes one madman to pull off something like
05:50this I think two mad people part mad part old-fashioned romantics forensically piecing the fragile Meccano set
06:02come giant jigsaw puzzle back together it's going to be a real mind-bender Richard Alice how are you
06:11thank you very much what a great spread you've got here it's so picturesque all that's missing is a
06:16glass house well here's the spot this is it right you know the glass house of course I think vegetables
06:22growing your own food absolutely also you know we sort of thought of it as being a nice dining space
06:28oh that's interesting so it's not a dirty space as such it's actually you're gonna have to make
06:32it clean enough that you can set the table where we're hoping it can be as flexible yes it's gonna
06:37change things quite a bit it's a real it's a real addition so what am I imagining great Gatsby meets
06:42Victoriana I think that's the plan something like that yeah yeah yeah first the old red sandstock brick
06:49base measuring six by six and around 800 millimetres high will rise once again next the delicate and
06:58detailed timber framework will be pieced back together complete with cast-iron brackets hinges
07:04and winders supporting a beautiful ventilation system opening like a butterfly and the cast-iron
07:11hydronic heating system to create a tropical climate will be overhauled finally with the original glass
07:18missing 500 replacement panes will be hand cut and installed at a dining table for 12 chandelier
07:28and of course plenty of pots for growing and the magic is complete hopefully sitting light and in
07:36harmony with its already picture-perfect surrounds when we pulled it apart each piece had to be in a
07:44certain spot so we could be able to reassemble it back together I can imagine it's going to be quite
07:48challenging to put back together it's a kit yes there's a system involved here we just have to
07:53figure it out yeah like what started as a little humble little glass house is suddenly becoming the
07:58da Vinci code of architecture for Tasmania you know sort of getting this whole actually how much of it
08:03was in this condition I would say about 50% is probably unsalvageable okay or lost I mean it is
08:10a
08:11folly so you don't have to do this but how long is it going to take you to put the
08:14whole thing back together again
08:16we're aiming for between six to eight months so I actually thought you're going to say the whole
08:21thing's done and dusted in a month because it's a kit we've got all the bits we've got to do
08:24a little
08:24bit of cleaning up I suppose you're giving yourself a lot of latitude here for things to go wrong we
08:29definitely are how much you're going to spend 25,000 okay a lot of like evenings in the shed and
08:35what
08:35could go wrong it's gonna just snap right back together again that's what we hope yeah there's a
08:44reason the glass house has sat abandoned derelict and in a million pieces on a far-flung farm for
08:51the last 50 years and that's because it's at the point of no return or is it the old ruin
09:00captured
09:00Richard's imagination as a little boy let's hope that he and Alice have the skills the patience
09:07and the finances to give it a fairytale finish eight months on the only action on site is a shy
09:19platypus nosing around in the shallows work and the endless cleaning of the brick foundations for the
09:27glass house still back on the old farm is taking forever we have actually said to the family that
09:37we're having Christmas in the glass house this year so we definitely need to have have it finished by
09:43then Christmas dinner in the glass house that's another eight months away at least today's a push
09:52in the right direction oh this is a bit exciting I know so exciting to make sure the structures on
09:59solid ground the footings are being dug for the concrete pour in a few hours it's always a risk of
10:05what we'll find hopefully no floating boulders in here we've looked at this spot for so long that was a
10:15big concern as if we actually put it in the right place yeah and the relationship with the house and
10:21the water hey how big's your truck oh do you think you can back it in under that casuarina that's
10:34looking looking pretty hairy that was so straight into the trench definitely here now we're not moving
10:48it concreter Matt Whitehouse gives it two thumbs up it's gonna fit into their block and existing house
11:01really well so it'd be nice to see it sitting on the landscape overlooking the water and yeah see
11:06the building in its former glory be a bit of a timeless piece really it's all nice and solid for
11:13the brick foundation to go on but yeah everything going well going to plan well not quite getting
11:21those brick foundations to site is proving quite tricky the five pallets hoping to get them delivered
11:28from Launceston to Hobart and so far Richard's been hitting walls how much are you thinking what's
11:34what's the estimate a little bit higher than what we were expecting and let me go and have a look
11:43at
11:43the budget but it's not really what we're after to be honest with quotes coming in around two and a
11:48half grand for the 150 kilometer trip it's bad news for their tiny 25k budget you're a little bit stressed
11:56after that one you know we were hoping to get the bricks here in the next week or so but
12:01doesn't
12:01look like it's going to happen we're sort of stuck you know we need those bricks for the for the
12:07brick
12:07ladder start the footings are being poured another hill to climb across the strait in Melbourne another
12:22architect Louis Sorrentino is also taking on his own project want to get back to Louis might have
12:30Italian roots but he certainly gets a kick out of the Orient I've always had a fondness for Japan
12:41it's always fascinated me I'd started karate when I was very young when I met Laura I finally had the
12:47chance to visit the country for the first time and did not disappoint the food the lifestyle the
12:53architecture it was all an inspiration presented so well I don't want to disrupt anything we stayed
12:58in a Japanese in a Ria Khan and we just loved the idea of having it be all timber and
13:05so warm and big
13:06sliding doors and you open up into a nice Japanese garden I had never stayed in a Ria Khan before
13:13so
13:14when I saw that I was like wow I would love to have something similar but their plans to build
13:19their own Japanese inspired home took a huge hit just weeks before their wedding in 2022 I had gone
13:27in for surgery and they had to remove my thymus and so when they came back and tested it come
13:34back with
13:35Hodgkin's lymphoma and it sort of put a pause on our life I couldn't work I'd be home and Laura
13:42would
13:43have to basically look after me for that whole entire time it was hard to see Lewis going through
13:51that but I just try to make him you know be positive and you know that we would you know
13:55we'd get through
13:56it together after months of treatment rest and finally remission Lewis was well and they were back on
14:07track buying their first home together this three-bedroom Spanish inspired do or upper on 670
14:15square meters for nine hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars in Mulgrave in Melbourne southeast
14:21oh maybe don't look at that and don't really look at that either the home is a combination of sort
14:31of
14:31Spanish architecture with the arches also mid-century it is a 70s home it's a bit of a mishmash of
14:37styles
14:38so I think it's it's a nice creative challenge for us creative challenge it's a lot more than that so
14:50what the
14:50experience to you know roll up my sleeves get a little bit dirty and hopefully learn a few you
14:55know new skills by the end of it and definitely have a different perspective of in architecture
15:03now that's brave it's one thing to come up with the design another thing all together to jump on the
15:12tools and let's face it giving this little Hacienda a Japanese makeover it's quite a bit of work yeah
15:20yeah and once you come in you'll see there's a lot more work to do is not the easiest or
15:26most obvious
15:26of projects just watch your step I can't help but feel I'm in a dollhouse yeah I haven't been in
15:33a
15:33original 70s home in so long and I forget the proportions are really quite different from today so
15:39much smaller and narrower and yeah typically a block like this you'd see it knock down start
15:45again maximize the site because you've got so much land actually around quite a small dwelling what
15:50are your plans I think in terms of the proportions we are sort of keeping that scale we want to
15:56encourage you know that intimate warm cozy feeling but just make it a little bit more contemporary
16:03contemporary but with a Japanese edge the Spanish facade will stay but a terrazzo veranda will pave the
16:10way inside to the rich textured minimalism of Japan with a liberal dose of the earthy tones of the 1970s
16:18think a blend of terracotta red pressed brick tiles and black butt timber on the floors with beautiful
16:25spotted gum plywood panels on feature walls and the ceiling the main living area will get a size
16:32injection with a large sliding door bringing light and connection to the garden while the kitchen will
16:37feature marble and timber for an earthy but high-end and timeless look bathrooms will be covered in moss
16:44green and white Japanese mosaic tiles like much of the work in the house to be done by rookie tradie
16:51lewis and various family members with the help of his trusty friend the internet for a relatively
16:58modest home it's a unique and ambitious fusion of mediterranean and oriental design
17:06with a spanish mission external a japanese interior is rather jarring don't you think
17:12being a mid-century home we're trying to sort of retain that 70s palette rather than the spanish or
17:20japanese philosophy um we're just taking elements from both that kind of having a medley of both
17:27right and do you have a time that you're trying to get in and have it finished i think well
17:32sooner
17:32the better because once we finish everything um feel like we're not living in a construction site we're
17:39living in our home so i'd say around six months um and this is you guys doing the work for
17:45six months
17:46yeah yeah do you think that's realistic uh it's it's going to be a challenge for sure a lot of
17:53youtube
17:54videos a lot of how to yeah um learning as i go so how's the budget looking what are you
18:00working with
18:00to get this all done we're looking at around a hundred thousand dollars that's very very small
18:07um we we are keeping track of the budget um are you taking care of that yes i love a
18:12good spreadsheet
18:12so i am all over that um but you know there's so many things that we don't want to compromise
18:17on
18:17like the timber the tiles we want to get make sure that we're getting good quality materials i like it
18:23the the quality versus the quantity you're keeping it small you're selecting really good finishes
18:29and well you're doing a lot of it yourself that's why it's helping the budget isn't it
18:33yeah but um i can't wait to see the outcome yeah i think us too yeah
18:38the plan is for lewis and laura a full-time contract manager to live in the house and tackle
18:45the reno after hours and on weekends they're nothing if not ambitious
18:51well they're having a go mid-century spanish mission japanese and all for a tiny 100k
19:01they're mad i'm rooting for them but they're mad all right you guys ready to work
19:13the plan might be for a spanish japanese fusion but the muscle is all italian
19:18just pull it all the way out lewis's brother alex brother-in-law michael and dad tony
19:27but the problem with a mid-century house is the mid-century flooring oh no it's got vinyl underneath
19:35the whole floor you've got another vinyl flooring underneath this
19:41it's definitely glued to the concrete sticky you can feel under your feet to make the floor level with
19:51new tiles planned for the kitchen and dining room the lino has to go this is the equivalent of the
19:59sledgehammer approach but with a spade it's going to take ages
20:14down in tasmania six months off the christmas deadline
20:18it's also slow going restoring the 140 year old glass house come dining space
20:25but they have had a breakthrough in how to put it all back together
20:31turns out they're not the only glass house geeks
20:35it's been an absolute game changer finding this original 1880s messenger and co brochure it's shown
20:41us so many elements of the glass house that are missing or have been missing for quite a long time
20:47so i'm trying to piece together based off images in that brochure and remnant pieces of timber
20:55trying to crack the original 140 year old code and then interpret that into something we can use
21:00throughout this process of putting it back together this is one of the corner posts that sits on top of
21:06the brickwork looking at average measurements of that profile and then converting those through to drawings
21:13which can then go to the joiner and he can accurately copy and replicate them
21:19it's quite a surreal process going into this much detail on a building that i first saw when i would
21:24have
21:24been 10 years old it's kind of brought another level of understanding and joy to that 10 year old
21:30dream the building has sat there quietly for so long you really don't want to rush in and
21:36lose part of that detail or that magic in its restoration
21:42finding the original brochure is a vital tool to draft the glass house back into reality
21:49now it's over to joiner scott merritt to hopefully bring it to life
21:54these two rafters are we able to do anything with those yeah so we can actually rip that back through
21:59there and take all that off and glue them back on so it's all in one place oh wow all
22:04of the rafters
22:05are salvageable that's fantastic from there up is totally salvageable in fact 45 of the roof can be
22:13saved by patching old with new yeah that's great but below the roof none of the timber can be preserved
22:20and needs to be recreated we're working through it and yeah a little sign of a screw hole gives us
22:27the clue of how to stitch it all back together yes yeah they'll be all numbered you've created a
22:32modern-day system of what they had originally it's highly skilled work so far costing close to 8k of
22:39their 25k budget but money's not their biggest worry i'm still concerned i think have we been thorough
22:48enough with the detective work but you can't rush these projects because you might miss one key
22:53telltale detail there's always an element of human error i hope that it can be ironed out on site if
22:59there is back on the farm two months after the concrete pour the original bricks have finally been
23:07transported for just four hundred dollars now they can get this very fragile very complex little
23:15structure off the ground but that won't happen in a hurry first they need a lime render lesson in the
23:22shed from expert michael power the cement is too strong for the break the brick is a soft break so
23:28we need something sensitive let's do it three parts sand for one part quick lime and then we add the
23:38water yeah
23:39you can keep going others
23:44just leave it mix and when it's cool we'll take it out of the mixer
23:48but not until it's slow cooked for around four hours for the type of wall you have you're going to
23:55need a
23:56a fair bit sounds like they'll need more than just a couple of batches for the brickie in two days
24:01i think we've got a a big a big weekend of cooking lime mortar ahead
24:12brickie matt rosendale is helping richard get down to business on site another mortar delivery oh thank you
24:20it's coming out of the ground it's great yeah originally it was built it was on a flat site so
24:25yeah you know we're doubling the height in this corner of brickwork yeah we cooked up this idea
24:31over three years ago and finally seeing it coming out of the ground seeing these old
24:36old reds being relayed it's just fantastic really gives us a good idea of of how it's going to look
24:44in
24:47the end in terms of timeline we sort of um you know we're taking about a week now to lay
24:52the bricks
24:53and then they'll need they'll need four weeks to cure before we can put any any of the timber work
24:58on
24:58top of them so working it all out that's five weeks but it will all be for naught if jack
25:06frost has
25:07his way we had our first frost of the of the winter last night so we need to stop the
25:13water in the mortar
25:14from freezing if the water freezes the mortar expands and then blows the brickwork apart a bit of
25:20stress there until tomorrow fingers crossed they can breathe a sigh of relief in the morning
25:33and speaking of relief there's none of it on site up north in victoria now two months into their six
25:41month hundred thousand dollar transformation there you go lewis and laura are taking up skilling
25:48to a whole new level how's it going in here well i'm hoping we can start in the corner here
25:55and just
25:55get full tiles right through otherwise there's going to be a lot of cut tiles yeah that's going
26:02to take me forever a small mosaic tile is a great choice to add interest for a bathroom this size
26:09but they'll only be as good as the tyler who lays them how come the gap is wider here than
26:15it is there
26:16yeah i've just realized that the angle from the wall is not even on both sides so i'll leave these
26:23tiles
26:23off and then take the angle out bring it forward a little bit which is a little bit annoying yeah
26:31because i don't have to waterproof this part again yeah that's right you're not happy yeah he's not
26:38happy do it again it's not just the bathroom that's getting the diy treatment so yeah this is the spotted
26:47gum timber where you profile it to whatever finished size that you guys need out of it cool lewis is
26:53taking
26:53on the daunting task of designing and building the kitchen some plans yeah i've got some plans i can
26:58show you what it's going to look like starting with ordering the timber trim that will surround the
27:02kitchen cabinets this is the first time building an actual kitchen uh feeling a little bit nervous
27:12about it if i get it wrong i'll be losing money and also a lot of time wow they look
27:19so good yeah the
27:20colour looks really nice just hope i've calculated the lengths correctly to make sure lewis has roped
27:28in carpenter brother alex for a trial assembly of the kitchen cupboards i told him to um get a cabinet
27:35maker he doesn't want to listen to me uh he wants to try and do it himself it's just going
27:42to be a
27:42challenge so we'll see how he goes um no we've got a small cupboard oven small cupboard 450 cup this
27:52one
27:54yeah but that might be overhead um it doesn't have legs on either that does look a bit wide doesn't
28:01it
28:02it's sort of coming together very slowly because at the moment it's all just on paper
28:09to be honest half the time i don't really know what i'm doing so yeah hopefully it all it all
28:15works
28:15out what isn't working out for laura
28:24is living on a building site
28:28so dusty in here there's mess everywhere like tripping over ourselves tripping over all that stuff
28:33we had to move things from one room to the other then use that room then put everything back in
28:39there so we're just getting a bit much and like probably easy if we just moved out
28:48down in tassie good news first the frost didn't freeze the mortar so the bricks haven't cracked
28:55how much holes gosh matt's done a good job with the bricks the bad news after 38 batches of mortar
29:03and a week of laying the brickie had to stop unfortunately we were 50 bricks short yeah two
29:10and a half thousand fifty short the two courses here in the bottom of the heating trench so we'll have
29:15to source those yet another delay three months from christmas at least the timbers back from the joiner
29:23but what the glass house gods giveth they also taketh away we've got a bit of a problem here
29:31because uh we're missing a whole lot of hinges we won't be able to hinge these windows unless
29:36this is sorted and being you know we want it to be a functional space as well so yeah so
29:41we we need
29:42this to work there are people that restore these these brands so we might need to reach out here
29:47so it's a call from the apple isle to the emerald isle oh we're on to alexander downs director of
29:57an
29:57irish company specializing in glass house restoration so they're messenger hinges obviously yeah messenger
30:04glass house and we're um we're working on a bunch of them here in dublin oh wow still extremely expensive
30:12yeah you're talking thousands so basically we didn't have them at all and we had a cut number
30:17of things cast in the uk so we have them now but we got a few extra so yeah i
30:23am hopeful that we might
30:24have some um left over for you guys oh fantastic fingers fingers crossed thank you bye
30:31um what are the chances with just two months left till christmas turkey in the glass house
30:36he is hoping the luck of the irish comes through
30:45up in mulgrave the dust and chaos have forced lewis and laura to move out of their spanish japanese
30:52work in progress and ian with lewis's brother alex
30:59who's full of practical solutions yeah you know when you're talking about feng shui you're talking
31:04about the energy flow everyone knows that you shouldn't face the door with your feet so it's
31:09directly in line with the bed so i'm hoping to just move it from here to here which side of
31:15the bed do
31:16you sleep on this is laura's side so you don't really care no no we're gonna miss her feet it's
31:21you sure yeah i just think that it's a lot of work for not a whole lot
31:30the fact of the matter is if they want to be in there in three months they've got bigger fish
31:35to
31:35fry than energy flow and i'm keen to see where they're at so the last time i was here we
31:41were
31:41in a fully intact kitchen and now we're down to the bare bones so does that mean you've like fully
31:47moved out now yeah we did have to move out there's no ceiling and there's insulation dust everywhere
31:52so definitely did not want to be living here during this period um but there is a bigger reason that
31:57we can't live here look laura is pregnant whoa yeah how exciting congratulations thank you so much it
32:04is very exciting yeah wow so that has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works in terms of
32:09timelines and
32:10yeah budget and yeah yeah just more pressure on me that's fine just to get it all done in time
32:16well i also um am pregnant as well oh my gosh congratulations thank you thank you exciting and
32:24terrifying yes i know the feeling yeah um so are we still thinking the same time frames now things need
32:30to speed up a little bit more so the timeline has sort of shrunk down a little bit we do
32:34want to move
32:34back in into a livable state we're looking at about another two months whoa okay so that's eight
32:41weekends it's not a lot of you and laura's out of the picture maybe eating some cupcakes yeah i'll
32:48still be doing work on the weekend but we've got some trades coming in through the week which will
32:52have an impact on the budget but um yeah i think we can get it done in time and have
32:59the baby arrive
32:59in a nice beautiful home wishful thinking it is a little bit it sort of has to be done yeah
33:05these
33:07two are seemingly undaunted by whatever challenges come their way kitchens bathrooms babies and that's
33:15all in one piece all in one piece yeah but with just eight weeks till they want to move in
33:19everything
33:20and i mean everything needs to go to plan including fitting these giant sliding door into their lounge room
33:29builder kai is not making any promises a little bit too tight so what we're thinking of doing
33:35is coming through just coming through the garage door we've just taken taking this door frame here
33:40ideally yeah it should fit well hopefully because it's not coming through the front door either so
33:44it's either that or we're going over the neighbor's fence oh no
33:52it's going to be tight
33:58i'm nervous i hope they fit through the garage door
34:03i can't watch three mil it's going to be bloody tight
34:19i'll just move that roller
34:30yay it fits i'm happy i was like not breathing and then it went through and i was like
34:37i can now i'm leaving
34:44despite some breakthroughs on site having a baby is a game changer
34:50and time and money are growing tighter by the day
34:55i feel like everything's going a little bit slower and probably not progressing as well as we would
35:01hope so um a little bit stressful at the moment there's still quite a bit to do
35:06that's cute um baby and also getting additional help to get completed in time is really um
35:16sort of blowing the budget out at the moment so that's another thing that's sort of putting a lot
35:21pressure on us so many things to wash
35:33while the scale and the nature of these projects are poles apart
35:38both lewis and richard are architects tackling unexpected reinventions preserving the past with a
35:45modern twist so we're revisiting a great project where a mishmash of errors and ideas came together the hard way
35:55think miami meets sankilda oh i can't wait to see this the last time i was here a couple of
36:03years back
36:06now of course there will be a door here yes a mint door actually architect henry and wife
36:12jemma's dream to transform a drab 1930s apartment block into a miami oasis was barely more than a
36:20building site yes welcome to our living area sorry to say the pool's not much to look at but how
36:26it's
36:27changed i'm so chuffed to see it finished what an entry huh this is very mid-century right why coming
36:35in across a little bridge and meeting some green and i can see the palm out the back so already
36:41getting a
36:41lot of sort of miami vibes it is gorgeous now this was a nod to the art deco period where
36:49the house
36:49originated we're back in the 30s we are yeah and instead of being molded in plaster it's in concrete
36:55and it's really come up a tree it's really committed it really is it makes a big statement
37:01and i'm interested to see how he delivered the bathroom and where are we now far east yes yeah i
37:07mean henry loves to travel yeah so a lot of his inspiration came from all over the globe including
37:12far east asia so that's three styles already yeah we're in danger here of getting like a little bit
37:17unbalanced don't you think are you worried about that well we're going to even it out here okay with
37:22a fourth welcome to the 70s as we walk through the corridor what he's done really well yeah is the
37:29colors have deepened so the baby blues have turned navy yeah the pinks and peaches have turned rust yeah
37:35but then you look over here yeah and the materiality takes you back to that asian reference
37:41the side detail here with the tiered marble face yeah again looking back at the deco period that's
37:47right yeah there's definitely a lot of thought gone into everything here nothing is unintentional
37:52everything is balanced so all these little connections are being made the blue carpet here links
37:57us directly to the pool yeah so now that inside outside thing comes back again and suddenly we're
38:01back in the 50s and i just have to say let's go out the back this is like a pool
38:09party waiting to
38:10happen isn't it the palm the big green the nice blue but then i look back here and i see
38:15blacks and
38:16whites and this has sort of a vague japanese feel about it to me so i suppose this is one
38:20of those
38:21examples where all those influences from around the world all those travels and things become a kind of a
38:26a memory book or something and you want them around you you want them in your life so you bring
38:30them
38:30into the architecture lewis is an architect yeah and i worry that in his project he's going to get
38:36bunkered down in all the little details and just not get to that finish line well richards an architect
38:42also trying to recreate the glass house to the letter it's dripping in intricate details and i'm concerned
38:49if he doesn't let go of some of them it could remain a pile on the ground i love this
38:56place and i think
38:56the outcome's amazing but i know the struggles to get here i'm so nervous lewis is going to fall into
39:02the same trap will he get to this stage back in mulgrave despite being desperate to start nesting
39:16they've missed their eight week deadline and now the only time frame that matters
39:22is six weeks till the baby's born slowing me down domestics it's all hands on deck at the moment
39:32it's a little bit of pressure to get everything done and move in soon despite the stress all the pieces
39:40of lewis's vision are starting to take shape it's the best part seeing all the finishes um being put
39:46together yeah come up it's a natural spotted gum that's rolled like a ply so you get this really
39:54nice wide grain japanese architecture is always using timber inside um so all the panels just bring so
40:03much warmth to the spaces it's looking good while lewis's flat chat on site for laura it's all about
40:14getting ready for the baby but that's not her only concern lewis was diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma
40:24i think we're both aware of just making sure that he's not pushing himself too hard and make sure
40:30that he's taking breaks when he needs to but then also on the other side i'm constantly pressuring him
40:35to get things done before the baby comes so it's a difficult balance i'm trying not to let that stress
40:41me out too much there's a race to the finish in tassie as well alice and richard are just two
40:55weeks
40:55off their christmas deadline for their glass jewel box the base complete with the last 50 bricks now
41:02begging to resemble its former self but first there's 500 secondhand panes of glass to wash and cut
41:16luckily richard's a dab hand at it after being taught by his grandfather as a boy
41:21which is really paying off now all of the ridge panes or the panes on the roof have what is
41:28called a
41:29beaver tail which when they're all overlapped it funnels the water to run down the center of each
41:35line of panes away from the timber mullions to stop them from getting weathered one big concern is we
41:42have to do a lot of the glazing in stages because of the low tolerance of the pain widths the
41:48main
41:48glass cutting we'll need to wait until the glass house is erected before we know those tolerances and
41:53can cut all the pains i don't want to think about how long this is all going to take
42:03but he's about to find out finally after two years of planning and with the initial framework up
42:11hopefully the mesh of the new one and the old timber can pull it all together and it will all
42:15work
42:16well this was the moment they're ready to tackle the 750 piece structural jigsaw puzzle with alice's
42:23dad john and brother william yeah so we've got to get these in the right spot and they really do
42:28need to be millimeter perfect they're the glazing bars that hold all the panes in place we need to
42:33get one of these rafters on to hold all of these in place all right that goes in there and
42:41you've just
42:41got to try and line them up a little bit i don't think that's that that's not that piece that
42:51angle
42:51is going the wrong direction when you're trying to line it up do you think that means the pieces
42:56are out of order this is nowhere near sitting in any groove no i'm just looking at that slightly
43:04terrifying yep the 140 year old glass house seems to be holding on to a few secrets this doesn't fit
43:14either richard far out really doesn't does it this one's got about a 10 mil gap in it as well
43:21i'm
43:22wondering if the new glazing bars they're slightly too long we we had it all remade in sections and
43:30were never dry fitted together all as one building and that's new that's new we think we might have
43:35taken a perfect average for the new timber but it could be five ten mil out this is everything they'd
43:44feared and if they do crack it there's still a mountain of glass to cut and fit into the frames
43:51with christmas just 12 sleeps away until this is all fixed and all screwed together we're not glazing
44:03yeah it'll be a very fine line if we make it in there for christmas
44:07we're going to be down to the wire i think
44:22three years ago richard and alice full of wonder disappeared down the rabbit hole
44:29slavishly taking on perhaps the greatest folly of all time here we are the anticipation is killing
44:37me the risk has always been that the glass house will be singing out of tune with its already harmonious
44:44surrounds there it is just up on the hill it's looking like they've got the frame up that's impressive
44:54the little glass house lives again
45:07richard alice congratulations welcome i mean what i really want to know is did you make it in for
45:13christmas almost unfortunately not we were very close though we're about two weeks off yeah yeah
45:19we had everything but the glass we actually finished glazing last night um so
45:27it's a lovely little picture that you've painted here it really does sit very nicely with things
45:31i mean at that last moment when you were putting it all together some of those pieces just weren't
45:36fitting there was a real kind of tussle going on what was the solve uh shortening sections of timber
45:42it was it was just tweaking okay i mean these things are rare now even in the uk there aren't
45:47that many left right no about 90 have disappeared yeah yeah and we now know why
45:53because they're so fragile or so complicated or both both yeah yeah and so many man hours going into it
46:00is it going to survive the weather here in tassie you know thomas messenger it's an english company
46:05so designed for snow designed for hail yeah i don't even want to think what a hailstorm would
46:09okay let's not talk about that no don't go there can we have a look oh please please come and
46:13have a look
46:16welcome to our tropical paradise not a phrase you hear in tasmania no very often right definitely not
46:23i tell you what the temperature difference straight off the bat it must be 10 degrees warmer in here
46:27it is very from outside right now so it's already working it's doing its job yeah so pineapples in
46:33here that's the challenge oh that is a challenge yeah i think we just want to do a little bit
46:37of
46:37everything we wanted to grow our vegetables use it as a functional dining space as well so functional
46:43but fun yeah yeah a little glass house like this sort of showing off all this fabulous engineering all
46:48these great cast iron rods in here things like the the crank that opens the vents up here the glass
46:54that should be up there that's not there so you haven't finished yet have you we're waiting on two
46:59awnings the two butterfly awnings on the top and then the the actual glass comes up yes yeah yeah did
47:05the hinges arrive from ireland they're in the post so no no they're on the way they're on the way
47:12yeah
47:13until then we're nailed shut and the heating system heating system is almost in come autumn and winter
47:19yeah the plans to fire up the little boiler outside yeah so water just flows through the pipes and the
47:24heat radiates off the pipes and the glass house keeps it keeps the heat in it's all basic physics
47:29doing the job yeah thermos siphoning oh thank you architect you were waiting for a moment to drop that
47:36word yeah it feels fantastic standing here i gotta say i think i want one i don't have the space
47:41for it
47:41i think i have to make the space for it somehow yeah now i'm under its spell just as richard
47:47was
47:48all those years ago richard for you it was a 10 year old's memory of running around on a farm
47:54and
47:55alice this is now part of your family's history there's something very special about that bringing
48:00back something from my memory that was so far asleep it's amazing that it's the same building you've
48:06saved it from oblivion that in its own right is a fabulous thing yeah we're very happy yeah yeah
48:12you started dismantling this about three years ago yeah it did take significantly longer than we had
48:17first thought but having that time i think has enabled us to find all these little details that we
48:22needed to get it to this state so let's then talk about how much it costs because i think i
48:27recall you
48:28giving me a 25 000 number well we actually weren't too far off okay yeah within kui i think a
48:35couple of
48:35one or two thousand over over this is more or less the price of an agricultural shed and it's so
48:41much more though in what it's offering you the environment history i think it's a bargain we do too
48:48the one thing i would say is no cricket on the driveway definitely no cricket fingers crossed for
48:54no hail storms either definitely welcome you're here i'm so thrilled for these guys what a fairy tale ending
49:07oh wow it's even better than i thought as far as labors of love go this couldn't have been more
49:15painful or demand any more forensic dedication oh definitely couldn't have put it up without you both
49:21oh thank you thank you it's people like richard and alice whose passion to preserve the past
49:27it'll come alive end of the journey illuminates what's possible for the rest of us yeah it's really
50:02special
50:04and laura have ended up with their spanish mission japanese ryokan mashup in the year since they started
50:11building there have been a few curveballs one that weighed in six weeks back at 3.1 kilos
50:19doesn't sound to me there was much time left over to finish the house okay well the house itself is
50:26still presenting very much spanish mission but those beautiful red terracotta tiles and the warmth that's
50:34exuding from that new timber front door makes me very excited about what's inside
50:44hello hi laura this is amazing you must have heard me gushing about it before i entered come on in
50:51oh
50:52i can't wait to see good to see this is a completely different house are you absolutely loving it yes
51:01obsessed we're very happy yeah but more importantly you had a baby yes we had a baby well i look
51:08forward
51:08to meeting him maybe later absolutely you get to meet him later but let me get back to this because
51:12if anybody knows me i love a good entry because it needs to speak about what the rest of the
51:16house is
51:17going to unveil as you walk through it right was it always your intention to make this feel so so
51:23warm
51:24when you really walked in really cozy having the the connection to the the outside and having those
51:29bricks sort of flow throughout the house just tying it all together yeah it's working like a dream
51:35yeah well we're really excited to show you so come through let's see
51:41from what was once a quirky little house this place has had a massive injection of cool this
51:49timber just draws you in doesn't it it's everywhere this is such a far cry from where we were when
51:55you
51:55guys started the ceiling's taller you've got more light coming in through more glazing what a transformation
52:03we love it we love just sitting in here i love feeding the baby in here
52:07each timber has its own sort of purpose so you've got the spotted gun ply yeah for the walls that
52:13lead
52:13you in you've got the direction of the line board coming in to this living space you've got the
52:18verticality of the timber battens they all speak a different language but marry so beautifully together
52:24and all this beautiful natural light pouring in from those three big sliders which were hell to get in
52:31here but look how much they give back to this room incredible what's most surprising is it all looks
52:41very finely crafted an almost unbelievable result for a couple of novice tradies
52:49i remember this kitchen pretty vividly it was dark and dingy sorry and it had some red formica
52:57countertops maybe but what a far cry this is from that yeah it feels so much warmer it feels like
53:07we're
53:07back in japan at a ryokan with all the timber it's just a nicer space and the red it's still
53:13there
53:14just not as prominent yeah i think that's the genius of this space
53:19they're not rewriting the history of the house just reworking the good bits
53:28the arches the earthy mid-century tones and materials which all works very well with the japanese
53:37minimalism what a difference a year makes even lewis's tiling looks on point
53:47so you guys finally made it 12 months you on site every day we did have a lot of help
53:53um but we got
53:55there in the end and it all happened just before the baby so yeah i love the way that it
54:00came together
54:01and exactly how we kind of envisioned it really yeah money wise you had a relatively small budget
54:08did you stick to the hundred thousand we didn't of course i think in the end we spent about 135.
54:17like for the outcome that's incredible yeah how big is this house 100 square meters
54:23so you're looking at just over thirteen hundred dollars a square meter which is roughly half of what
54:30i would normally spend for a project like this yeah that's ridiculous yeah it's it's crazy but it
54:36could not have been done without all the help that we had especially from our family otherwise it
54:41definitely would be way too expensive for us what do your hands look like they're a little bit rough
54:46but um there's always paint on his hands always something there's yeah yeah they're a bit of you
54:51you know they're tradie hands now yeah
55:10thanks everyone for your help could not have done it without you thanks alex michael dad
55:15it's been a long year but we got there so thank you very much
55:23after all they've been through and all they've achieved they really are miracle workers
55:29hello speaking as someone who's pulled off a bit of a miracle themselves this year
55:35this is my little addition i'm impressed this is our baby oh hello oh my god so cute hopefully he
55:42gets a little bit more hair but mine didn't come with a house so you guys gonna try for number
55:47two maybe
55:48or not anytime soon
55:54yeah
55:57lewis and laura had a vision not only could they see past this dated facade they imagined a beautiful
56:05blended japanese spanish hacienda and made it happen add to that a baby and they've created the perfect
56:14family unit in a perfect family home now that is an epic transformation oops
56:25almost forgot the baby
56:36that was the final episode of grand designs transformations next week it's time to hit the
56:42beaten track to see unique australian towns in new back roads
56:46you
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