Did anyone watch Grand Designs last night?

> terribley energy inefficient.

rich people, i have decided, don't care. if they can afford the bills it's ok for them to use as much as they like, they feel. for all of us who bother to recycle there's someone like my boss who drives a hummer.

The other insufferable couple were the ones (well, come to think of it, they were all insufferable) who decided to build a New England clapboard (or whatever) house in Sussex and the bloke built his own fireplce and it looked like a bloody great Babapapa in the corner.

The only ones who weren't entirely insufferable were that Pet Shop Boys bloke and his boyfriend and they were only bearable because they were subjected to homophobia (or so they thought, sadly we didn't get to see any of it).

I would like just a little wooden house.

The folks who renovated the 19th C. house in Leith were nice.

I also remember a guy who made a house out of straw in France? He was a nice down to earth chap, and his house ended up looking grebt.

AND a dumb waiter - not only that but a HEATED dumb waiter!!!

Next week, a foolish man builds his house upon the sands.

I missed the ones with nice people, I was in a state of seethe.

And then they conned her out of £300000.

Very poor.

Did anyone else see that "How To Rescue A House" on BBC2 earlier in the evening? THat was even sadder? It was supposed to be about buying and restoring derelict listed properties. And in the end, the couple missed out on the house they fell in love with because it was sold to a developer who was going to use the land to build TEN NEW HOUSES and not bother with restoring the listed house.

Did Kevin look supercilliously at them, and point this out?

they also seemed to have dumbed the program down a lot. in the first series they'd've explaned how the laser guided plumbline thing worked. see also: scrapheap challenge.

i dont get it

they also had a space age staircase of glass planks poking out of the wall (cantilevered) and it looked like they were going to have no banister for a while. in the end they had a glass wall boxing the stairs in in place of a banister and (hopefully) stopping young children from falling off the sides and caving their heads in.

the aquarium was impressive.

and the laser plumbline was more of a laser measuring thing complete with it's own tripod, for locating walls and beams and stuff to within a 3mm tolerance (which sounded low but which is quite high for this kind of stuff)

The staircase without a ballustrade I find more worrying, though. I'm an adult, and I'd have THE FEAR walking up one.

saw the second of the Castleford regeneration programs last night (missed the first). was depressing. people not listening to people, vandalism, bribery, ugly monoliths...

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv/kevin-s-big-town-plan/?intcmp=docpage_box3

this motherfucker tonight made my blood boil, i fervently hope he's penniless, miserable alone and itchy tonight wherever the fuck he is

just awful. kevin mcloud is a better man than me.

awful awful awful, right down to the martyred siege mentality so prevalent amongst the most shining examples of celtic tiger idiocy. I couldn't even enjoy the inevitable, seething as i was in a mental red mist of 'I'M PAYING FOR THIS YOU PRICK I'M PAYING FOR THIS YOU PRICK' i may write to the producers demanding a less sympathetic summation from a finnish economist

the irish guy was a bit ridic - basically eschewing plans and drawings in favour of blarney.

i did like the plywood box house, specifically the way they had a laser cutter on site and could tweak things as required (fortunately given that they'd overlooked stuff. lol, fine art students...)

his sunday night show is a bit of fluff though, the kind of thing dick strawbridge would present...

otm the plywood was neat

sunday night show is increasingly icky. dogshit and deer brains tonight.

horrible woman

(also My Floating Home)

5 minutes into yesterday's and the guy seems like a cock

No double entendre but he grew on me

yeah.

nice enough house but fuck a pointless cantilever.

tinie tempah doing a good job on Extraordinary Extensions despite the odd premise - he seems to know his stuff and is affable. quite fetching pink titles too.

Rotten pick for house of the year

watched this last night and, yeah, the winner seemed to be really nothing special.

liked the one in the scottish highlands, or would've if they'd've just left it as the one long part and not added the two other wings.
(wasn't that featured on the short lived show about prefabs that ch4 did, with the presenter who died before the series was finished?)

is this the same one? tamar
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/impossible-builds/on-demand/64660-001

vs assynt:
https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-house-of-the-year/2021/house-in-assynt

It was on at least one other show but im going to haev to check re the specifics

new series tonight.

(australian series on thursday as well, a contiuation of the fashion of more4 showing aus versions of all the english favourites: big brother, bake off, married at first sight, lego challenge...)

watching this now. 5 minutes in: "it'll be a nightmare if it costs that much"...

30 minutes in and the Latvian constructors have taken the money and run.

and the entire thing done for 2 people, one of whom works away for months at a time.

australian show was better last week - quadraplegic making a single-level earth house.

but the uk one this week more up my street - modular

Thought postman Kevin was Russ Abbott at the start there

i have annoyed my other half by yelling "you're gonna get live-ins" at every shot of a shed on a truck

Kevin enthuses about a bronze light switch that you can toggle with your elbow. but it sticks out about an inch and it's going to catch on everything for years to come.

Love it when Kevin McCloud is like "great architecture can change the world, it can light up our hearts, a home can show us how to love & how to live" at the start of Grand Designs & then the episode is about the cruelest & most delusional man you've ever seen in your entire life

— Mike Townsend (@townsendyesmate) January 6, 2024