Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - The Chapel, Cornwall - full transcript
Gavin Allen and Jane Fitzsimons converts an old chapel to a modern living.
This week, new meets old, as we
see a state-of-the-art chapel conversion
here in the Tamar Valley,
a hidden corner of the countryside
where Devon meets Cornwall.
You could say that this part of
the country is a well-kept secret.
It's quiet and exceptionally beautiful.
It's away from the main tourist
routes and hasn't seen the property
development that much of
Devon and Cornwall have.
Gavin Allen and Jane Fitzsimons
live in Birmingham and are a typical
professional couple.
They both work long hours spending
their time in the office or on the road.
Gavin, who's Cornish born and bred,
is a senior management consultant and
spends his time moving
from one client to the next.
Jane, who's
pregnant with their first
child, is originally
from Northern Ireland.
She's a sales manager for a technology
company and divides her time between
her clients and the Birmingham office.
They own this house
in Birmingham where
they've been living
together for eight years.
They plan to continue living here
for the duration of the build whilst
visiting the site every other
weekend to keep an eye on progress.
Although they'd wanted
to move to the south west
for some time, they
couldn't find the right house.
Then they found
this disused Methodist
chapel which they
bought at a local auction.
The plan is to move here
and eventually work from home.
Hi guys, how are you?
Not too bad.
Great, nice to see you. How's the baby?
Yeah, fine I think.
It's still in there which is good.
Fantastic place, absolutely beautiful.
It is nice, especially on a clearer day.
It's a bit misty.
Well yeah, but nevertheless
it really is fabulous.
These are your front door keys?
This is, eh?
I don't believe it, look at that.
That's what you get when you buy a house
like this. Look at that, solid.
Shall we go in and have a look?
Yeah. Oh look, how old is it, the place?
Built in 1907.
Oh right, so it's relatively new really.
Yeah.
As churches go.
This is basically as we found
it, nothing's been changed.
Wonderful huge space, isn't it?
Yeah.
That's what appealed to us when we
first saw it was these sort of beams and
just the whole feeling
of light and space really.
What are these strange
white things on the walls?
The hands. This is to help with I
think controlling the damp. Basically you
turn it on, the air sort of actually
comes up and circulates around the
building, helps carry the heat.
So if it isn't cold
enough in January
in the middle of a
service, you just...
They're not paying attention,
they're not concentrating.
This side of the building is going to
be accommodation, but this side is
going to be open so we can
see all the way up to the roof.
Fantastic.
A lot of glass.
A lot of glass.
It's going to be a very light
house when it's done, isn't it?
Well it's because the view is one of
the best things about here as well as
the space inside the building.
So it seems we're all
shaped to block the view out.
Oh look, should we go downstairs?
You say that the space extends
right under the main floor?
Yeah.
Good, great.
These cobbles.
Yeah.
They're fantastic.
Yeah.
What are you going to keep them?
I'm going to keep them and either
use them in some of the other flooring
area where the garden's going
to be or potentially even in walls
or whatever, but we're definitely
going to keep them and use them.
Okay.
This has been used as what,
a garage or something, has it?
No, a play school.
Oh my God.
As you can see from
the paintings on the walls.
Cornish play school.
They bring them up tough, don't they?
It's a really exciting space, isn't it?
It is with so much...
Show me through here.
You said that there
are three voids in here.
Yeah.
What, the outside?
Very much like
this, but I think it's
the structure of
walls for the outside.
But we can't get in then?
Not at the moment.
Not at the moment.
But we will do
because we're having
sort of doors put in
either side and rooms.
It's great this. It's kind of
very cool, isn't it? Very still.
Yeah.
Good for a wine cellar.
Don't start things now.
We've got enough to think about
without paying for a wine, haven't we?
I think we'll need a copious
amount of wine after we take for this.
So you don't need a
cellar for that then, do you?
Although the interior will change
completely, the outside will only have new
windows added and a sun deck offering
magnificent views of the Tamar Valley.
Inside the main body of the chapel,
some of the floors will be removed
giving a clear view from basement to roof.
One side of the space will be left
open and the other will have a grand
staircase leading up to a block of
bedrooms and a library and office.
There will also be an indoor
sunken garden beneath the stairs.
The old Sunday School will become
the main living area and above that will
be the master bedroom.
The brief is to create a light,
spacious interior without altering the
original shell of the chapel.
The chapel and land cost £83,000.
They've arranged a mortgage of
£120,000 to cover the cost of the build.
For you Gavin, is
there a sense of coming
home? Is it a sense
of coming full circle?
I suppose so, it's quite a
romantic way of putting it.
But I never really liked living away
from home. I feel quite an attachment
to the area.
The difference for me, I call
Birmingham home, you call Cornwall home.
So that's a slight
difference in feeling.
Your father lives ten
minutes down the road.
Yeah, that's handy.
My brother lives in Plymouth as well.
It is nice being able to do this.
So had you thought of self-build?
We'd started to look into it but
probably not in that much detail.
So it was a bit of an impulse decision
when we saw it and we thought we'd go
to the auction and just say,
well what the hell, you know.
How did you choose an architect?
How did you get hold of one?
We saw...
I think we saw about eight in the end.
It was between him
and sort of one other
guy, we were very
torn between the two.
We just felt that David in the end
was the one that we felt we could
probably have arguments with
and still get on with at the end.
When you see some of David Shepherd's
work, it's not hard to see why Gavin
and Jane chose him.
He built this house
overlooking the Plymouth Sound.
Where possible, he likes
to use local materials.
Outside, the house is made from
local stone, cemented together using the
Clay dug from the foundations.
The interior uses local timber, which
combined with metal fittings and a
large glass roof, give the house
a strong contemporary look.
The most striking feature is
the indoor garden and stream.
A selection of desert plants, surrounded
by rammed earth walls, give it an
almost Mexican feel.
Not only was David architect, but
he also project managed the build,
something that he plans
to do for Gavin and Jane.
So effectively, they're
putting the whole
build, including the
finances, in his hands.
I visited him at an artist
studio he's recently converted.
How much is trust important
to you in working with a client?
Paramount importance.
Trust because you're
dealing with someone's money.
They're almost a life savings.
I mean, the biggest investment that most
people make in their
life is in their house.
And you're responsible for hundreds
of thousands of pounds, literally.
And always feel rather humble
dealing with that kind of money.
I mean, it's not probably not a huge
amount of money if you're working on
stock exchange.
But it's someone's
personal money that they've
saved really hard
for, worked hard for.
And you've got to
convert that into a built
product they'll also
be very pleased with.
Why are you being
Mr. Project Manager on the job?
I don't consider myself a project manager.
I consider it just as being an
extension of my job as an architect.
So for you it's a natural extension
of that. Do you do that every time you
work on a project?
More often not. Because particularly
in this part of the world, people have
a reasonably limited budget.
And therefore, if you're employing
other consultants on a project, it could
become prohibitive.
And it gives me total control as well
of what is being done and to whom we
are going to for various tenders.
One of Gavin and Jane's concerns
was radon, an underground gas found
particularly in granite.
It can permeate into buildings through
their foundations and in concentrated
amounts it may cause lung cancer.
First readings show the levels
are over the accepted limit.
If it's confirmed, a ventilation
system will need to be installed to suck
the gas out of the house.
This will cost £2,000.
But it's better to be safe than sorry.
Particularly, shortly afterwards,
Jane gives birth to their first child, a
boy called Sam.
This is the cause of all the problems.
Sam arrived, was it, 11.47 on Tuesday?
He came actually a wee girlie and
came home yesterday afternoon.
I spent most of the
time luckily asleep since
then, which we're
really relieved about.
But he's totally oblivious to it,
he doesn't give a stuff, does he?
Somebody else that are bothered about it.
As project manager, one of David
Shepherd's first jobs is to arrange the
building contractor.
With them on board, the first
thing to do is to tear out all existing
unwanted features in the chapel.
It will prepare the
way for the new design,
but also gets to the
heart of the building
and make sure it's
in good condition to
provide a solid base
for the new house.
It's the equivalent of building
the foundations in a new build.
The demolition has revealed the
enormous amount of unused space that David
intends to incorporate in the new house.
Now the basement is exposed, he
takes the opportunity to check the plan for
a radon barrier with
the building inspector.
And what I'm slightly concerned about
is your radon requirements in so far
as radon barriers and things like that.
There aren't any.
There aren't any?
Not for a conversion, no.
Oh right.
If you're replacing all the floors, we'd
normally recommend you put radon in
at that stage, but there's
no requirement to do it.
Not having to install major radon
defences will save money, but for caution
they're still going to install
a basic protection system.
There's basically three levels.
Gavin and Jane are making their
first visit since demolition began.
They can really
start to appreciate the
size of the house
they will one day live in.
I think once the stairs are in the
middle there, it's going to make a real
big feature of something.
It's going to be brilliant.
I think our bedroom's going to be huge.
Just try and have a picture of that
better now above here.
Because obviously the
roof's been taken out.
Gavin and Jane are keen to get an
update from David as to how the two major
parts of the build, the staircase
and the windows, are progressing.
David has had an idea to make the
banisters out of glass, but although
dramatic designs are
one thing, cost is another.
We've got a preliminary price.
It's going to cost you probably, including
the glass handrails, which have to
be in laminated glass, and then all the
spaces as well.
It's going to cost about 8,000.
And what was it we
had in the budget for it?
Five and a bit I think.
But that's an estimate.
Is that an estimate
based on somebody
just looking at it?
No, from the drawings. In their
experience they could give you a reasonable
quote.
Just because we've saved some
money on the radon, I don't want
to think we're just going to
burn it up on something else.
No.
I understand things do cost money,
but you understand what I'm saying?
Yeah.
If I'm saving money I want to see it
in my pocket rather than it going on to
another contractor, if I can.
Yeah.
So that's 18 grand for the windows.
And what are we going to do?
24.
24.
Which is pretty good.
Is that down to, obviously it's
a simpler design now as well.
Yes it is.
It's a combination of the two then really.
I'm going to be really boring now.
Coming back to the cost again then.
The original 24,000 was
just for the carpentry was it?
Correct.
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
So that is a like for like?
That's right.
Cool.
Yeah.
It's got glazing.
I know.
I'll bore you to death if
I'm not asking you about it.
I have to now.
I can't sleep at night.
Once we've actually clarified all
the costs both for the stair and the
windows, then we'll know exactly
how much we got left in the pot.
It's difficult because I'm left with
the job of being like a QS as well, as
well as the contracts manager,
as well as the architect it seems.
So it's going to take
a bit of time to get
all that together, but
we can save money.
I know that.
And we're starting to do it tomorrow.
I mean we know what
figure we got to work
to and that's the
most important thing.
This build is altogether
rather complicated.
It combines a very
adventurous design
with an old building
and on a tight budget.
And David's got two hats to wear.
He's responsible for all the
creative input and for the financial and
project management.
What with Gavin and Jane determined
not to overspend, I'd say he's got a
very tough job.
Any bids at all on 17750?
At 17750, it's hard sir.
18?
At 18,000.
18250.
At 18250.
Against you sir?
At 18250.
Gavin and Jane bought the chapel
at an auction like this one in Plymouth.
At 18500 the starter.
At 18500, 18750.
Auctions are not for everybody.
You've got to think fast and
make decisions under pressure.
One false nod could be a fatal mistake.
However, if you can keep your head,
then you could find yourself coming away
with your dream home and at a bargain.
23.
23.
44.
44,000 pounds.
44,000 pounds a bid.
People are wary of auctions with good
reason, because you can run the risk
of either ending up with a property
that's nothing but problems or one you
didn't even want in the first place.
But they do have their good points.
They're quick, you can move in just
four weeks after the gavel goes down,
and by avoiding the estate
agent they're cheaper too.
Mike, how easy is it to
buy a property at auction?
Very easy.
Very easy indeed.
It's a very simple and clinical
operation, but it does mean that you've got
to prepare for yourself very well indeed.
Because once the gavel goes down
you can't come back to the owner or to me
and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't
realize there was dry rot," or, "I didn't.
realize the extension had
got no planning consent."
You ought to know these things.
You ought to have found
them out before the auction.
The most important thing is
you've got to be a cash buyer.
Because once the gavel goes down
you've got to pay a 10% deposit today, and
within four weeks you've
got to pay the balance.
If you don't, just as in private treaty
sales, you've got penalties, which
can mean that you can lose
your deposit if you don't get it right.
What techniques do you use as
an auctioneer to get the bidding up?
Let me tell you.
An auctioneer, the
only qualifications
really for an
auctioneer is two years.
at RADA, because most of it is the
technique of trying to persuade the
audience that you have a bidder
when in fact you haven't got a bidder.
Now we're here, 29,000
I have over here, 29,000.
But once I get up to the
reserve price I mustn't do it.
Right.
And therefore it's
open to the market,
open to what is
happening in the room.
If you think that buying an auction is
for you, then remember three things.
First, get your money
sorted out well in advance.
Second, make sure
that you know the
property and you know
everything about it.
And third, know your
limit and don't bid above it.
Gavin and Jane did have a survey
before they bought the chapel, although it
was just a basic one.
But old buildings are always unpredictable,
as Andy McGoldrick, who runs the
building company, knows all too well.
Not quite the same.
On the whole the project's gone very well.
We're pretty much on budget and
on programme.
Is it reasonable to assume that when
you work with an old building you are
going to find hidden things?
I mean there are going to be forms
of damp and a few structural problems
that you can't describe.
Very much so, yeah.
It's one of the risks you stand.
The standards that the modern buildings are
made to these days are obviously far
superior because they know all about
things like damp and
dry rot and all the rest of it.
So they're designed now
to the newer buildings.
But with an older building such
as this, whilst it's got tremendous
character and lovely old stone and
all the rest of it, the big danger is you
don't know what you're going to find.
With demolition underway they
discovered a big problem. A steel lintel
supporting an entire
structural wall has
corroded beyond use
and needs to be replaced.
It's too early to tell how expensive
this will be, but the build presses on.
This morning we're off to pick up the
timber for the long-awaited staircase,
which is the centrepiece of the design.
David does like to use local materials
and the staircase is no exception.
It's going to be made out of Douglas
fir that's grown in woodland just
minutes away from the chapel.
I hadn't expected the staircase to be
so massive. I mean look at the size of
these timbers, they're huge.
But by the end of the day they're
going to be completely unrecognisable.
Once the bark has been cut off,
the wood is sawn into blocks that will
become the steps.
With the skin off you can really
appreciate the beautiful colour and the
grain of the Douglas fir.
And with a bit of planing these
beautiful great lumps will be ready to be
put into the staircase.
It took the sawmill weeks to find trees
tall enough to make these supporting
beams for the staircase.
They stand at over 30 feet.
Back at the chapel the builders are
working on the internal walls, putting
up the frames of the bedrooms
that will be behind the stairs.
It's full of scaffolding.
It's three months since the build started.
The timber has been cleaned,
revealing it in all its glory.
Gradually the house is starting
to resemble the end product, but
with scaffolding it's almost
impossible to tell what goes where.
Gavin and Jane had to do
their best to explain it to me.
The verticals are going to
go all the way up to the roof.
So what's the hole?
That's the dungeon.
So what's down below?
There's a playroom down below?
Yes, there's a playroom.
It's going to be fully
sealed so we can flood it.
You can just watch it stand here
and, like the Titanic, watch it fill up
with water.
How child-friendly is
this house going to be?
We are going to have to invest in a
number of stair gates, I think, bearing
in mind where all the angles of the
stairs come from and things like that.
Would you just come and explain
this to me, because I'm still not quite
convinced as to how the
stairs are going to work.
Okay.
It's quite tricky we describe this,
but basically the stairs start in the
basement down below us there and
basically open outwards towards the front
and back of the
building to this level that
we're actually on
where the bedrooms are.
And it's a platform at that level.
And then they go back in and join
up at the next level of the bedrooms.
Like a big diamond?
Like a big diamond, yes.
Okay, so it's not that
difficult structurally?
No.
And where's baby sleeping?
In the room just here
on our left-hand side.
What, just on the right?
Just here?
Generally, is the build
going as you expected it to?
Well, the quality of the work
so far appears to be pretty good.
You know, we're pleased with that
and the speed. I mean, they're really
cracking through it.
So you're on schedule?
Yeah, we're on schedule,
yeah, at the moment.
So how's the financial side of things?
Unfortunately, we're slightly over of
where we'd like to be at the moment
due to some unforeseen circumstances,
like replacing some joists and some
damproofing and the things we had to do.
But we're hoping to get some of that
back at the next stage of the project.
And if we can't get all of it back,
then obviously we're just going to have
to try and find some extra funds.
Okay, but is that going to be a
problem, finding extra money?
Well, it depends how much we
have to find, but we've got some ideas.
So who's organising the finances?
Who's running the finances of the project?
We are now, aren't we?
Well, Dave is doing obviously the
day-to-day management, but when it comes
down to it, the ones that really
care about the money is us, obviously,
because it's our money.
So we're working very
closely with David on that.
So are you happy?
I mean, I'm happy
with the quality of the
work and the speed
that they're doing it.
I guess the thing that always causes
stress, certainly causes stress, I
think about Gavin and I, it's
obviously the money side of things.
And I think I'll feel a lot better once
we've done the windows and the
stairs, because they're sort of big
chunks of the money we've got to spend.
And then I'll sort
of feel we've got the
biggest amount of
cash out of the way.
Do you feel you've spent a lot already?
We feel we've spent a lot.
We've spent a lot, but we're
still a long way away, aren't we?
Yeah.
It feels.
In the new year, one of those big
chunks, the staircase, starts to go in.
The staircase that's coming in
now is an incredibly strong visual and
structural part of the building.
It's linking the rooms on the
ground floor and upstairs, but it's also
linking this open space
here and the closed
spaces, which are the
bedrooms over there.
And it's going to turn it
from a building into a house.
Is that a bit tight still?
Do you want to take a bit more off?
Yeah.
Ready? Hold it.
Okay.
Because of the early overspend,
Gavin and Jane have taken control of the
money management, formulating
spreadsheets at home in Birmingham and
communicating with
David over all build costs.
They are skilled in financial management,
but it's going to be hard to claw
back some of the overspend that
this old building has caused them.
The major problem with converting
an old building is that you can't plan for
all those hidden faults
until you start building.
You can have a contingency fund, but
that can easily get swallowed up in all
the things you
don't see, things like
keeping the building
standing and waterproof.
Before work started, these basement
walls, which support the whole building,
were totally concealed, so it was
impossible to tell that they were leaking
water badly.
Or that the entire ground floor needed
to be replaced because of dry rot.
And to cap it all, the steel lintel that
was here that supported this huge
wall had to be ripped
out and replaced
by this concrete one
at enormous cost.
In fact, when the last invoice came
in, Gavin and Jane found the lintel
ended up costing £6,500, meaning
the unforeseen costs have totalled
£20,000, a huge sum that has
soaked up all their contingency fund.
Part of the problem is their mortgage.
It's paid in four stages at agreed
points in the build.
The £20,000 overspend has meant
that without getting a short-term loan,
they won't have the money to
progress to the next stage of the build.
This in turn would mean that they'd
be unable to get the next payment from
the mortgage company.
More importantly, Gavin and Jane
have analysed the budget in detail and are
concerned that even more
overspend is inevitable.
Stopping the project has
now become a very real option.
I would describe it as very,
very, very stressful at the moment.
And it feels very much like we're
under continual pressure because the
decisions we have to
make are very difficult ones.
And as a Cornishman, it's affecting
my pocket, which always stresses me.
I mean, we're sort of thinking
that if there was any sort of build, it's
like a game of poker or something,
you know, and at the moment the stakes
are getting nearly a
little bit too high for us.
And that's where we've got to try and
get somewhere where, you know, we've
got the right balance.
I think we're at the point at the moment
where if somebody said to me, came
up to me tomorrow and said, you
know, I'll take it off your hands, I would
just say, take it.
But I know at the moment we're going
through a real low and I've got to try
and keep it in perspective, but that's
certainly how I feel at the moment.
It's one extra thing that I
think I could do without.
You know, once we see an end in
sight, whatever that end is, it's going to
be a lot better.
But at the moment
we don't know what it
is and it makes it
very hard to deal with.
It's not worth going through what we're
going through now because there's so
much more at stake than just a chapel.
Things like, the
things that are at stake
are Sam's future, my
future, Jane's future.
Ever having the time to enjoy it
because we're going to be working all the
hours, god sent, until we're 65.
And it's, I mean, there always has
been, there was an excitement about it,
there still is an
excitement about it, to
a certain extent
about what it could be.
But there are things that
aren't worth giving up for it.
Walking around the site, there's
a palpable air of tension here.
Gavin and Jane are in Plymouth
today meeting David Shepherd, trying to
decide how and if the build will proceed.
Gavin and Jane are trying to
hammer out a revised budget with David
Shepherd, so they can get an
increased loan from the mortgage lender.
For now there's enough money to
keep the workers on site for three weeks.
They're putting all their efforts into
finishing the staircase, which, as a
crucial part of the structure,
must be completed.
David believes the staircase will
raise the value of the building and help
to get the extra money.
It's now almost completed. As the
steps climb higher, the design can at last
be appreciated.
But on a day that
should have been a
celebration, news about
the new loan arrives.
It's Monday evening and I'm in Birmingham.
Now, on Friday Gavin and Jane
received a phone call from the building
society to say that they would not
stump up all the money that Gavin and
Jane needed to complete the build.
Now, this could throw the whole thing
into jeopardy. However, this morning
there was another phone call which
could be a reprieve. Who knows? I've come
to find out.
So Jane, what has happened?
It's more like what hasn't happened.
It's been pretty awful actually.
As you know, we had applied to the
building society for more money because
of the unexpected things
that came up and whatever.
How much money?
That's a huge amount.
We got the, or I got the call Friday
afternoon at quarter to five on the M40
on the way back from a training
course to say basically that they couldn't
give me the 54.
So, of course, you can imagine at
quarter to five on a Friday you can't do
anything about it until Monday morning.
So it's been quite a tense weekend.
Now, I've come all
this way this evening
because you've had
another phone call.
I called them this morning. They
basically agreed to release a total of 157
and a half.
So you're how much short of what you need?
Sixteen thousand.
And that's to do the whole thing?
Yeah.
So what are you going to do?
Not do the whole thing.
Exactly. Exactly.
So we already had sort of pre-empted,
we might get all the money, so we've
already sort of put
together a short list
of things potentially
we could cut out.
So why has it gone so far over? Because
you've overspent 20, okay, that's 15
more than your reserve, but you're
asking for an extra 54,000. Why so much?
The rest of it basically comes out
from things that were under budgeted is
what's behind it.
We've gone through the spreadsheet
in real detail with both the builders and
David and everybody else involved.
We found out that basically the
engineers that we got in to budget it, I
think what they did
was basically use
standard values from
the reference paper.
Basically they didn't
take into account the
complexities involved
in an old building.
So the windows were, as you know,
it was going to be a big part of the
budget, were probably under
budgeted by about just under 10,000.
The stairs were under budgeted as well.
All the big bits that we knew were
going to cost were under budgeted.
Gavin and Jane worked out with David
Shepherd that the combination of overspend
and under budgeting means they
need 54,000 more to complete the build.
The mortgage lender's final offer is
38,000. They now have to work out how
they can lose the 16,000 from their
build budget, which means some very
serious penny pinching.
Now last time I came down to the
chapel you weren't there, you were in a
heavy meeting all day with David.
So how is your relationship with him now?
Is it strained?
It's different obviously, it started
off and that we're so actively involved
with the finance now, it is a
different sort of relationship.
It's still very open and it's still
very clear because it's got to be if we
want to get through
this and he is totally
committed to helping
us get through it.
I mean he knows that we started it
together and we've got to end it together
as well, you know,
for better or worse.
But I feel the marriage
has risen away.
So you've had lots of frank discussions?
Oh yes, very heated discussions,
emotional ones, from both sides. But you've
got to do that to get through it.
So is it no longer your grand design?
Has it turned into a nightmare?
A grand folly. Yes and no. David
keeps trying to gee us up again by telling
us how wonderful the stairs look and
stuff and at the moment I really don't
give a toss what they look
like to be perfectly blunt.
You know, in one way if somebody
came to me tomorrow and said, "We'll take
this off your hands," I'd be quite pleased.
Gavin and Jane have obviously got
a lot on their plate but of course David
Shepherd's also involved so I've come
to Plymouth to see him to get his side
of the story.
So far you've been the architect and
you've been the project manager on the
job. Do you think
that the two jobs are
exclusive, that one
person can't do both?
Yes, it's the answer to that.
And the reason being is that we did look at
the possibility of having a quantity
surveyor and his role is to monitor the
costings of the project.
I'm in fact doing that job. Although
we're trained to actually monitor
costs, perhaps not in the degree that
one should. And hence that's why the.
quantity surveyor is a quantity
surveyor and I'm an architect.
How has your relationship changed
with them through the building, through
this crisis?
Like a kind of marriage. We've had
incredible disagreements and particularly
the meeting that we had that went
on all day and some of the night.
That put a great deal of pressure on
them more than me, I think, purely on
the basis that they drove all the way
down from Birmingham, stayed with me
all day and drove all the way back.
Whilst Gavin and Jane attempt to
resolve the finances, they've ordered work
on site to halt. Andy McGoldrick
decided it would cost more to move offsite
and back again, so he's taken a risk
and kept work ticking over in the hope
that money will come soon.
Typically, where money
is concerned, Gavin
and Jane waste no
time in sorting it out.
So we'll go ahead then to get the money
that we need. Great! Okay, well that's
good news. I'll have to tell Gavin
obviously when he gets in. So thanks.
for that.
What I'll do is give you a call over
the next day or so so we can start
arranging how we move forward.
Thanks a lot. Bye.
So that was good news anyway. As you
know, we had problems with our original
lender, it was a building society, in
that they basically couldn't give us
the rest of the money that
we needed to finish the project.
So we really had no other route to
go but to find another lender to get the
money. So we've been talking to
various banks and building societies and we
just found out that the bank that
we've gone for can actually give us the
money we need.
So, which is brilliant.
So we've got the
money to move forward
now. That's good.
Now they have the extra £54,000,
Gavin and Jane have decided no building
work will be given clearance until
they have got full quotes. They hope this
will prevent any further
unexpected overspend.
Well if there's still big amounts as
we said in the letter, we won't just
ride off and stay on until we know
what the overall cost is and we've got
quotations to back it up.
We'll go with that.
We should end the rest of those tomorrow.
By the end of the week.
Hours after the meeting, urgent
work is underway, fixing the roof and
putting new Velux windows in place.
Because the mortgage valuation placed
more emphasis on the stairs than the
roof, the builder's
been back to front. The
roof leaked and some
steps became mouldy.
If you're choosing a mortgage,
remember that the surveyor is the key to
releasing your funds. He must
understand what you're trying to do.
For example, Gavin and Jane had decided
not to build the decking in order to
cut back on overspend.
The new surveyor, recommended by
David, pointed out that for a build cost of
under £3,000, £7,000 would
be added to the building's value.
Some quotes still have not come in.
And without them, Gavin and Jane won't
release the money. For Andy McGoldrick,
director of the building firm, the
delays are proving frustrating.
How's it all going Andy,
because you haven't finished yet?
It's going smoothly, but then again
you always get problems. Each building,
each job has its own individual problems.
You were just brought in to do, first
of all, the ground works, weren't you?
And your role has increased and increased
until finally you've emerged as it
were as a third member of the group.
There's the architect, there's the
client, there's you. What are the key
things that you need out of these people?
Communication and trust, undoubtedly.
In a nutshell, those two items.
Did you find the
experience of not
being there until the
last lap frustrating?
Yes, very much so. It was a very
difficult line to tread. We're used to
having almost complete autonomy.
You land on sites, you get the spec, you've
got the drawings, you
know exactly where
your responsibilities
do and don't lie.
This has been more of a learning
experience all the way, because you don't.
want to tread on the architect/client
relationship. But there are also times
when you, you know, will one of you
please make a decision? So yes, it has
been frustrating.
So what's your story so far?
Insofar as what?
Insofar, this troubled build.
Well it has been in
trouble, but not anymore.
How long will it take?
Reasonably so, I'm just a bit concerned
about timing. We're obviously going
to go over time and it's going to
take a few more weeks before we get it
sort of complete,
particularly with the
major structural
problems we had initially.
And we've always been trying to retrieve
that position, which seems to be an
upending, non-ending struggle.
The build is also late because the
last quote for plumbing doesn't arrive
until early May. At last the build
can continue at full speed. The heating
and electrics are underway and all
the window frames have been completed
except for the master bedroom windows
where the holes are still being made.
To begin with, this chapel was going
to be finished by Christmas. Then it
was going to be ready in March.
We're now at the end of May.
Now this project has always been
very ambitious and the design is very
exciting, but it is running five months
behind schedule. So it's time to see
how far they've got.
Hi there.
Hi.
How's it going?
How's it going?
Great.
It's looking around, not
hugely finished where
I'm standing, but it is
pastored, you know?
It's pastored, isn't it?
The windows are about to go in.
Yeah.
Yeah?
Show me the rest of the house.
Show me what condition that's in.
Well, this is more like it, isn't it?
This is a transformation.
It's come on quite a bit, hasn't it?
It's fabulous.
Yeah, it looks almost finished. Is it?
No.
It's an easy answer.
No, we've got a lot to do yet.
I mean, it should be at least another
couple of weeks, don't you think?
Well, at least, yeah. I don't care
anymore, really. As long as it comes in,
you know, and we're not
destitute for the rest of our lives.
Yeah. I mean, but it does work, doesn't it?
I mean, it's a stunning design,
there's no doubt.
And the stairs are amazing.
Yeah.
They completely make the space,
and it's light. It's much lighter than when
I saw it last before the glazing went in.
Yeah.
And that's made a big
difference to having clear
glass. It works beautifully.
Show me the garden.
Okay.
Oh, this is nice. This is sort
of gently sloping away, isn't it?
It's pretty, isn't it?
Yeah. And the streptococcus is fantastic.
It's a flower.
Isn't that? The colors are beautiful.
And even though it's sunken, it must
get a fair bit of light because you've
got these windows
all the way around
it, and the door there
when that's open.
And you've got these
four skylights as well.
Yeah.
They must blast it
with quite a lot of light.
Yeah. That's what they're there for.
Really? That's where you put the garden?
Yeah.
It works beautifully.
This is your heavenly garden.
Yeah.
This is as heavenly as
it's going to get, I guess.
Can I have a look around
the rest of the house?
Yeah, go ahead.
Is that all right?
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks.
I'll take a look around.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Even when the banisters are in, I
wonder how practical these stairs will be
for a young child.
Despite the size of this house, I can't
get over how small the bedrooms are.
I suppose architects so often consider
bedrooms as secondary spaces.
But I prefer myself to have a bedroom
that's large enough to throw your
clothes on the floor and have a cupboard.
I can understand a baby's room
being small, but surely not the master
bedroom that's positioned
over the open plan living room.
This room, yeah, it isn't the largest
room in the house. I'd have thought
for your master bedroom you'd
have created this huge space.
Well, we probably would have liked
everyone, ideally, but the reason it's
the size it is, is we couldn't have
the floor any lower because of the
heights of the windows down below.
Right, that's this, yeah.
So that reduces usable
space. And we had to
have this wall here
because of the divide.
Behind you, yeah, between the main.
So this is basically the size we had.
And we did give sort of, one of the
clear instructions we gave to David
at the start was not to cut across any
of the chapel windows.
But I still think it was going to
be a workable room anyway.
And the view makes up for it.
And the view's just wonderful. I mean,
just waking up in the morning looking
down the valley, it's going to be lovely.
The office space is open and light.
And just seeing how the living room,
kitchen and great hallway work together
makes me appreciate the tremendous
space this house has.
Converting any older building inevitably
involves some kind of compromise.
And in a typical chapel conversion,
you find the building chopped into
layers so that you get
large rooms with low ceilings.
But you also get to see the windows
sliced through by all the floors.
Now, David's solution to this is
to divide the building vertically.
Which means that although you do
get small little rooms over on that side of
the building, you do get to see large
windows here, plus you get a sense of
all that soaring height.
On the whole, I think it's
a pretty good compromise.
But I still have one more question
about the design of the building.
Come and show me the playroom.
OK.
Yeah, Sam's little room down here.
Where we're walking, this used
to be a great black void, didn't it?
I do, yeah.
I remember, we saw it.
It's now, it's the opposite of that.
It's like a dungeon.
It's wonderful now.
This is a very decent sized
room, isn't it, to contain him in.
He's playing down here,
you're upstairs reading the paper.
He falls over or tries
to climb out the window.
What are you going to do?
Because you've got to run all the
way down the other end of the house, all
the way down here, over your gravel drive.
Sort of a self-healing
kind of problem, innit? By
the time we get there,
he'll probably be all right.
You've installed a fireman's pole.
Oh, we just lean over and shout at him.
Say, "Hey, shut up.
We're trying to read the paper."
Yeah.
How many kids have you had before?
None.
We may never have any more again.
If we could be far enough away,
we might not even hear him anyway.
You hope.
I think this house is beautiful.
I have nothing else to
say, really, other than that.
I think it really is beautiful.
I was just wondering
how you both feel about it.
I was wondering when the
question was going to come.
A very short interview.
Happy with the house, I guess.
Yeah, happy with the
house, not with the process.
The design bit was fine.
That all went well in that we gave
David criteria and, you know, I think he
did an excellent job with trying to
sort of achieve the design criteria.
The issue was the
cost criteria and that's
where I guess it all
started to crumble.
Here you were in Birmingham.
He was down here running this job.
Designing it for a period.
For a period.
Do you think the fact that you
were that far away made a significant
difference?
Didn't help?
Yes, because we didn't have a
decent project manager down here.
With the benefit of hindsight, what
advice could you give to somebody who
was coming into the same situation as you?
Direct communication is the key thing.
We deal directly with Andy McGoldrick.
And if there's something that
we don't know, we ask him.
And we get to the point where you
actually know what, specifically what the.
answer is that you're looking for.
We're not building people, so how we
ask a question needs to be interrogated
so you get to the bottom
line of what we're after.
I think interview a load of architects,
which is what we did. I think it's
the right thing to do.
Interview them and if you shortlist,
go and see the work they've done.
And speak.
Speak to the people who they've done it to.
Because again, we would definitely
have had a different picture if we'd
spoken to the house that David took us to.
Because we know they went
significantly over budget as well.
Effectively taking references.
And what kind of preparation did
you do before you engaged David?
In terms of what?
Well, in terms of, I don't know,
understanding about how to go about having
a house built, for example.
Well, we'd got some of the building
magazines and stuff, that home building
one that was quite useful.
Because that does
a lot of case studies
and things. We went
through a lot of that.
I contacted some
of the architects, the
RBA and stuff, and
asked their advice.
I mean, did none of them mention
the fact that to have an architect also
work as your project
manager is not a good idea?
Actually, no.
No, they don't actually
specifically say that.
You have to go with, at some
point you have to make a decision.
And we did that.
And it was a wrong one as it turned out.
Gavin and Jane spent £83,000 on the site.
So far, the build is £54,000 over
budget, with costs coming to £174,000.
The total is £257,000.
But it does look as though it will
be financially worthwhile, as early
estimates put the final value of the
chapel between £260,000 and £300,000.
But of course, building your own
house is about more than money.
In a nutshell, two
words, a project manager.
You need some kind of interface
between the architects, that's what I want.
it to look like, the clients, that's
what I can afford to build, and the
builder, that's what
can physically be done.
Would you do it again? Would you
project manage a job like this again, as
well as design it?
Do you think that the work is...
You always called it project management,
but I always say it's architecture.
It's always having control
to be the lead consultant.
That's important. That's important
one for the overall aesthetic, for the
overall detail, for the overall
comprehension of the building.
It's not a project manager,
that is the architect's job.
How much do you think the dream's
going to be in the end compromised, if at
all, by what's happened?
I think, like with most bad things,
you end up getting over it. I'm not
overjoyed, because we're still half way
through it and there's loads of things to.
do.
And too much has happened to be overjoyed.
I think once the builders go, and
we can actually sort of be in it properly
and it's a home, everything's in, not
unless you've fully decorated it, but
we've got enough in it
that we feel it's a home.
Then we can start to enjoy it.
There's no doubt in my mind
that Gavin and Jane should
have employed a full-time
project manager on this build.
But the great irony of self-building is
that you never really understand how
to build a house until it's over.
It's a complicated Jigsaw of skills,
design, communication and trust.
So you do need all the
professional help you can get.
But it's you that keeps the Jigsaw
together, which means being on top of
everything and everyone.
Ultimately, only you can
drive your vision forward.
Next week, I'll be following two young
architects, Sarah Wigglesworth and
Jeremy Till, who'll
be building their own
experimental house in
North London, out of straw.
see a state-of-the-art chapel conversion
here in the Tamar Valley,
a hidden corner of the countryside
where Devon meets Cornwall.
You could say that this part of
the country is a well-kept secret.
It's quiet and exceptionally beautiful.
It's away from the main tourist
routes and hasn't seen the property
development that much of
Devon and Cornwall have.
Gavin Allen and Jane Fitzsimons
live in Birmingham and are a typical
professional couple.
They both work long hours spending
their time in the office or on the road.
Gavin, who's Cornish born and bred,
is a senior management consultant and
spends his time moving
from one client to the next.
Jane, who's
pregnant with their first
child, is originally
from Northern Ireland.
She's a sales manager for a technology
company and divides her time between
her clients and the Birmingham office.
They own this house
in Birmingham where
they've been living
together for eight years.
They plan to continue living here
for the duration of the build whilst
visiting the site every other
weekend to keep an eye on progress.
Although they'd wanted
to move to the south west
for some time, they
couldn't find the right house.
Then they found
this disused Methodist
chapel which they
bought at a local auction.
The plan is to move here
and eventually work from home.
Hi guys, how are you?
Not too bad.
Great, nice to see you. How's the baby?
Yeah, fine I think.
It's still in there which is good.
Fantastic place, absolutely beautiful.
It is nice, especially on a clearer day.
It's a bit misty.
Well yeah, but nevertheless
it really is fabulous.
These are your front door keys?
This is, eh?
I don't believe it, look at that.
That's what you get when you buy a house
like this. Look at that, solid.
Shall we go in and have a look?
Yeah. Oh look, how old is it, the place?
Built in 1907.
Oh right, so it's relatively new really.
Yeah.
As churches go.
This is basically as we found
it, nothing's been changed.
Wonderful huge space, isn't it?
Yeah.
That's what appealed to us when we
first saw it was these sort of beams and
just the whole feeling
of light and space really.
What are these strange
white things on the walls?
The hands. This is to help with I
think controlling the damp. Basically you
turn it on, the air sort of actually
comes up and circulates around the
building, helps carry the heat.
So if it isn't cold
enough in January
in the middle of a
service, you just...
They're not paying attention,
they're not concentrating.
This side of the building is going to
be accommodation, but this side is
going to be open so we can
see all the way up to the roof.
Fantastic.
A lot of glass.
A lot of glass.
It's going to be a very light
house when it's done, isn't it?
Well it's because the view is one of
the best things about here as well as
the space inside the building.
So it seems we're all
shaped to block the view out.
Oh look, should we go downstairs?
You say that the space extends
right under the main floor?
Yeah.
Good, great.
These cobbles.
Yeah.
They're fantastic.
Yeah.
What are you going to keep them?
I'm going to keep them and either
use them in some of the other flooring
area where the garden's going
to be or potentially even in walls
or whatever, but we're definitely
going to keep them and use them.
Okay.
This has been used as what,
a garage or something, has it?
No, a play school.
Oh my God.
As you can see from
the paintings on the walls.
Cornish play school.
They bring them up tough, don't they?
It's a really exciting space, isn't it?
It is with so much...
Show me through here.
You said that there
are three voids in here.
Yeah.
What, the outside?
Very much like
this, but I think it's
the structure of
walls for the outside.
But we can't get in then?
Not at the moment.
Not at the moment.
But we will do
because we're having
sort of doors put in
either side and rooms.
It's great this. It's kind of
very cool, isn't it? Very still.
Yeah.
Good for a wine cellar.
Don't start things now.
We've got enough to think about
without paying for a wine, haven't we?
I think we'll need a copious
amount of wine after we take for this.
So you don't need a
cellar for that then, do you?
Although the interior will change
completely, the outside will only have new
windows added and a sun deck offering
magnificent views of the Tamar Valley.
Inside the main body of the chapel,
some of the floors will be removed
giving a clear view from basement to roof.
One side of the space will be left
open and the other will have a grand
staircase leading up to a block of
bedrooms and a library and office.
There will also be an indoor
sunken garden beneath the stairs.
The old Sunday School will become
the main living area and above that will
be the master bedroom.
The brief is to create a light,
spacious interior without altering the
original shell of the chapel.
The chapel and land cost £83,000.
They've arranged a mortgage of
£120,000 to cover the cost of the build.
For you Gavin, is
there a sense of coming
home? Is it a sense
of coming full circle?
I suppose so, it's quite a
romantic way of putting it.
But I never really liked living away
from home. I feel quite an attachment
to the area.
The difference for me, I call
Birmingham home, you call Cornwall home.
So that's a slight
difference in feeling.
Your father lives ten
minutes down the road.
Yeah, that's handy.
My brother lives in Plymouth as well.
It is nice being able to do this.
So had you thought of self-build?
We'd started to look into it but
probably not in that much detail.
So it was a bit of an impulse decision
when we saw it and we thought we'd go
to the auction and just say,
well what the hell, you know.
How did you choose an architect?
How did you get hold of one?
We saw...
I think we saw about eight in the end.
It was between him
and sort of one other
guy, we were very
torn between the two.
We just felt that David in the end
was the one that we felt we could
probably have arguments with
and still get on with at the end.
When you see some of David Shepherd's
work, it's not hard to see why Gavin
and Jane chose him.
He built this house
overlooking the Plymouth Sound.
Where possible, he likes
to use local materials.
Outside, the house is made from
local stone, cemented together using the
Clay dug from the foundations.
The interior uses local timber, which
combined with metal fittings and a
large glass roof, give the house
a strong contemporary look.
The most striking feature is
the indoor garden and stream.
A selection of desert plants, surrounded
by rammed earth walls, give it an
almost Mexican feel.
Not only was David architect, but
he also project managed the build,
something that he plans
to do for Gavin and Jane.
So effectively, they're
putting the whole
build, including the
finances, in his hands.
I visited him at an artist
studio he's recently converted.
How much is trust important
to you in working with a client?
Paramount importance.
Trust because you're
dealing with someone's money.
They're almost a life savings.
I mean, the biggest investment that most
people make in their
life is in their house.
And you're responsible for hundreds
of thousands of pounds, literally.
And always feel rather humble
dealing with that kind of money.
I mean, it's not probably not a huge
amount of money if you're working on
stock exchange.
But it's someone's
personal money that they've
saved really hard
for, worked hard for.
And you've got to
convert that into a built
product they'll also
be very pleased with.
Why are you being
Mr. Project Manager on the job?
I don't consider myself a project manager.
I consider it just as being an
extension of my job as an architect.
So for you it's a natural extension
of that. Do you do that every time you
work on a project?
More often not. Because particularly
in this part of the world, people have
a reasonably limited budget.
And therefore, if you're employing
other consultants on a project, it could
become prohibitive.
And it gives me total control as well
of what is being done and to whom we
are going to for various tenders.
One of Gavin and Jane's concerns
was radon, an underground gas found
particularly in granite.
It can permeate into buildings through
their foundations and in concentrated
amounts it may cause lung cancer.
First readings show the levels
are over the accepted limit.
If it's confirmed, a ventilation
system will need to be installed to suck
the gas out of the house.
This will cost £2,000.
But it's better to be safe than sorry.
Particularly, shortly afterwards,
Jane gives birth to their first child, a
boy called Sam.
This is the cause of all the problems.
Sam arrived, was it, 11.47 on Tuesday?
He came actually a wee girlie and
came home yesterday afternoon.
I spent most of the
time luckily asleep since
then, which we're
really relieved about.
But he's totally oblivious to it,
he doesn't give a stuff, does he?
Somebody else that are bothered about it.
As project manager, one of David
Shepherd's first jobs is to arrange the
building contractor.
With them on board, the first
thing to do is to tear out all existing
unwanted features in the chapel.
It will prepare the
way for the new design,
but also gets to the
heart of the building
and make sure it's
in good condition to
provide a solid base
for the new house.
It's the equivalent of building
the foundations in a new build.
The demolition has revealed the
enormous amount of unused space that David
intends to incorporate in the new house.
Now the basement is exposed, he
takes the opportunity to check the plan for
a radon barrier with
the building inspector.
And what I'm slightly concerned about
is your radon requirements in so far
as radon barriers and things like that.
There aren't any.
There aren't any?
Not for a conversion, no.
Oh right.
If you're replacing all the floors, we'd
normally recommend you put radon in
at that stage, but there's
no requirement to do it.
Not having to install major radon
defences will save money, but for caution
they're still going to install
a basic protection system.
There's basically three levels.
Gavin and Jane are making their
first visit since demolition began.
They can really
start to appreciate the
size of the house
they will one day live in.
I think once the stairs are in the
middle there, it's going to make a real
big feature of something.
It's going to be brilliant.
I think our bedroom's going to be huge.
Just try and have a picture of that
better now above here.
Because obviously the
roof's been taken out.
Gavin and Jane are keen to get an
update from David as to how the two major
parts of the build, the staircase
and the windows, are progressing.
David has had an idea to make the
banisters out of glass, but although
dramatic designs are
one thing, cost is another.
We've got a preliminary price.
It's going to cost you probably, including
the glass handrails, which have to
be in laminated glass, and then all the
spaces as well.
It's going to cost about 8,000.
And what was it we
had in the budget for it?
Five and a bit I think.
But that's an estimate.
Is that an estimate
based on somebody
just looking at it?
No, from the drawings. In their
experience they could give you a reasonable
quote.
Just because we've saved some
money on the radon, I don't want
to think we're just going to
burn it up on something else.
No.
I understand things do cost money,
but you understand what I'm saying?
Yeah.
If I'm saving money I want to see it
in my pocket rather than it going on to
another contractor, if I can.
Yeah.
So that's 18 grand for the windows.
And what are we going to do?
24.
24.
Which is pretty good.
Is that down to, obviously it's
a simpler design now as well.
Yes it is.
It's a combination of the two then really.
I'm going to be really boring now.
Coming back to the cost again then.
The original 24,000 was
just for the carpentry was it?
Correct.
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
So that is a like for like?
That's right.
Cool.
Yeah.
It's got glazing.
I know.
I'll bore you to death if
I'm not asking you about it.
I have to now.
I can't sleep at night.
Once we've actually clarified all
the costs both for the stair and the
windows, then we'll know exactly
how much we got left in the pot.
It's difficult because I'm left with
the job of being like a QS as well, as
well as the contracts manager,
as well as the architect it seems.
So it's going to take
a bit of time to get
all that together, but
we can save money.
I know that.
And we're starting to do it tomorrow.
I mean we know what
figure we got to work
to and that's the
most important thing.
This build is altogether
rather complicated.
It combines a very
adventurous design
with an old building
and on a tight budget.
And David's got two hats to wear.
He's responsible for all the
creative input and for the financial and
project management.
What with Gavin and Jane determined
not to overspend, I'd say he's got a
very tough job.
Any bids at all on 17750?
At 17750, it's hard sir.
18?
At 18,000.
18250.
At 18250.
Against you sir?
At 18250.
Gavin and Jane bought the chapel
at an auction like this one in Plymouth.
At 18500 the starter.
At 18500, 18750.
Auctions are not for everybody.
You've got to think fast and
make decisions under pressure.
One false nod could be a fatal mistake.
However, if you can keep your head,
then you could find yourself coming away
with your dream home and at a bargain.
23.
23.
44.
44,000 pounds.
44,000 pounds a bid.
People are wary of auctions with good
reason, because you can run the risk
of either ending up with a property
that's nothing but problems or one you
didn't even want in the first place.
But they do have their good points.
They're quick, you can move in just
four weeks after the gavel goes down,
and by avoiding the estate
agent they're cheaper too.
Mike, how easy is it to
buy a property at auction?
Very easy.
Very easy indeed.
It's a very simple and clinical
operation, but it does mean that you've got
to prepare for yourself very well indeed.
Because once the gavel goes down
you can't come back to the owner or to me
and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't
realize there was dry rot," or, "I didn't.
realize the extension had
got no planning consent."
You ought to know these things.
You ought to have found
them out before the auction.
The most important thing is
you've got to be a cash buyer.
Because once the gavel goes down
you've got to pay a 10% deposit today, and
within four weeks you've
got to pay the balance.
If you don't, just as in private treaty
sales, you've got penalties, which
can mean that you can lose
your deposit if you don't get it right.
What techniques do you use as
an auctioneer to get the bidding up?
Let me tell you.
An auctioneer, the
only qualifications
really for an
auctioneer is two years.
at RADA, because most of it is the
technique of trying to persuade the
audience that you have a bidder
when in fact you haven't got a bidder.
Now we're here, 29,000
I have over here, 29,000.
But once I get up to the
reserve price I mustn't do it.
Right.
And therefore it's
open to the market,
open to what is
happening in the room.
If you think that buying an auction is
for you, then remember three things.
First, get your money
sorted out well in advance.
Second, make sure
that you know the
property and you know
everything about it.
And third, know your
limit and don't bid above it.
Gavin and Jane did have a survey
before they bought the chapel, although it
was just a basic one.
But old buildings are always unpredictable,
as Andy McGoldrick, who runs the
building company, knows all too well.
Not quite the same.
On the whole the project's gone very well.
We're pretty much on budget and
on programme.
Is it reasonable to assume that when
you work with an old building you are
going to find hidden things?
I mean there are going to be forms
of damp and a few structural problems
that you can't describe.
Very much so, yeah.
It's one of the risks you stand.
The standards that the modern buildings are
made to these days are obviously far
superior because they know all about
things like damp and
dry rot and all the rest of it.
So they're designed now
to the newer buildings.
But with an older building such
as this, whilst it's got tremendous
character and lovely old stone and
all the rest of it, the big danger is you
don't know what you're going to find.
With demolition underway they
discovered a big problem. A steel lintel
supporting an entire
structural wall has
corroded beyond use
and needs to be replaced.
It's too early to tell how expensive
this will be, but the build presses on.
This morning we're off to pick up the
timber for the long-awaited staircase,
which is the centrepiece of the design.
David does like to use local materials
and the staircase is no exception.
It's going to be made out of Douglas
fir that's grown in woodland just
minutes away from the chapel.
I hadn't expected the staircase to be
so massive. I mean look at the size of
these timbers, they're huge.
But by the end of the day they're
going to be completely unrecognisable.
Once the bark has been cut off,
the wood is sawn into blocks that will
become the steps.
With the skin off you can really
appreciate the beautiful colour and the
grain of the Douglas fir.
And with a bit of planing these
beautiful great lumps will be ready to be
put into the staircase.
It took the sawmill weeks to find trees
tall enough to make these supporting
beams for the staircase.
They stand at over 30 feet.
Back at the chapel the builders are
working on the internal walls, putting
up the frames of the bedrooms
that will be behind the stairs.
It's full of scaffolding.
It's three months since the build started.
The timber has been cleaned,
revealing it in all its glory.
Gradually the house is starting
to resemble the end product, but
with scaffolding it's almost
impossible to tell what goes where.
Gavin and Jane had to do
their best to explain it to me.
The verticals are going to
go all the way up to the roof.
So what's the hole?
That's the dungeon.
So what's down below?
There's a playroom down below?
Yes, there's a playroom.
It's going to be fully
sealed so we can flood it.
You can just watch it stand here
and, like the Titanic, watch it fill up
with water.
How child-friendly is
this house going to be?
We are going to have to invest in a
number of stair gates, I think, bearing
in mind where all the angles of the
stairs come from and things like that.
Would you just come and explain
this to me, because I'm still not quite
convinced as to how the
stairs are going to work.
Okay.
It's quite tricky we describe this,
but basically the stairs start in the
basement down below us there and
basically open outwards towards the front
and back of the
building to this level that
we're actually on
where the bedrooms are.
And it's a platform at that level.
And then they go back in and join
up at the next level of the bedrooms.
Like a big diamond?
Like a big diamond, yes.
Okay, so it's not that
difficult structurally?
No.
And where's baby sleeping?
In the room just here
on our left-hand side.
What, just on the right?
Just here?
Generally, is the build
going as you expected it to?
Well, the quality of the work
so far appears to be pretty good.
You know, we're pleased with that
and the speed. I mean, they're really
cracking through it.
So you're on schedule?
Yeah, we're on schedule,
yeah, at the moment.
So how's the financial side of things?
Unfortunately, we're slightly over of
where we'd like to be at the moment
due to some unforeseen circumstances,
like replacing some joists and some
damproofing and the things we had to do.
But we're hoping to get some of that
back at the next stage of the project.
And if we can't get all of it back,
then obviously we're just going to have
to try and find some extra funds.
Okay, but is that going to be a
problem, finding extra money?
Well, it depends how much we
have to find, but we've got some ideas.
So who's organising the finances?
Who's running the finances of the project?
We are now, aren't we?
Well, Dave is doing obviously the
day-to-day management, but when it comes
down to it, the ones that really
care about the money is us, obviously,
because it's our money.
So we're working very
closely with David on that.
So are you happy?
I mean, I'm happy
with the quality of the
work and the speed
that they're doing it.
I guess the thing that always causes
stress, certainly causes stress, I
think about Gavin and I, it's
obviously the money side of things.
And I think I'll feel a lot better once
we've done the windows and the
stairs, because they're sort of big
chunks of the money we've got to spend.
And then I'll sort
of feel we've got the
biggest amount of
cash out of the way.
Do you feel you've spent a lot already?
We feel we've spent a lot.
We've spent a lot, but we're
still a long way away, aren't we?
Yeah.
It feels.
In the new year, one of those big
chunks, the staircase, starts to go in.
The staircase that's coming in
now is an incredibly strong visual and
structural part of the building.
It's linking the rooms on the
ground floor and upstairs, but it's also
linking this open space
here and the closed
spaces, which are the
bedrooms over there.
And it's going to turn it
from a building into a house.
Is that a bit tight still?
Do you want to take a bit more off?
Yeah.
Ready? Hold it.
Okay.
Because of the early overspend,
Gavin and Jane have taken control of the
money management, formulating
spreadsheets at home in Birmingham and
communicating with
David over all build costs.
They are skilled in financial management,
but it's going to be hard to claw
back some of the overspend that
this old building has caused them.
The major problem with converting
an old building is that you can't plan for
all those hidden faults
until you start building.
You can have a contingency fund, but
that can easily get swallowed up in all
the things you
don't see, things like
keeping the building
standing and waterproof.
Before work started, these basement
walls, which support the whole building,
were totally concealed, so it was
impossible to tell that they were leaking
water badly.
Or that the entire ground floor needed
to be replaced because of dry rot.
And to cap it all, the steel lintel that
was here that supported this huge
wall had to be ripped
out and replaced
by this concrete one
at enormous cost.
In fact, when the last invoice came
in, Gavin and Jane found the lintel
ended up costing £6,500, meaning
the unforeseen costs have totalled
£20,000, a huge sum that has
soaked up all their contingency fund.
Part of the problem is their mortgage.
It's paid in four stages at agreed
points in the build.
The £20,000 overspend has meant
that without getting a short-term loan,
they won't have the money to
progress to the next stage of the build.
This in turn would mean that they'd
be unable to get the next payment from
the mortgage company.
More importantly, Gavin and Jane
have analysed the budget in detail and are
concerned that even more
overspend is inevitable.
Stopping the project has
now become a very real option.
I would describe it as very,
very, very stressful at the moment.
And it feels very much like we're
under continual pressure because the
decisions we have to
make are very difficult ones.
And as a Cornishman, it's affecting
my pocket, which always stresses me.
I mean, we're sort of thinking
that if there was any sort of build, it's
like a game of poker or something,
you know, and at the moment the stakes
are getting nearly a
little bit too high for us.
And that's where we've got to try and
get somewhere where, you know, we've
got the right balance.
I think we're at the point at the moment
where if somebody said to me, came
up to me tomorrow and said, you
know, I'll take it off your hands, I would
just say, take it.
But I know at the moment we're going
through a real low and I've got to try
and keep it in perspective, but that's
certainly how I feel at the moment.
It's one extra thing that I
think I could do without.
You know, once we see an end in
sight, whatever that end is, it's going to
be a lot better.
But at the moment
we don't know what it
is and it makes it
very hard to deal with.
It's not worth going through what we're
going through now because there's so
much more at stake than just a chapel.
Things like, the
things that are at stake
are Sam's future, my
future, Jane's future.
Ever having the time to enjoy it
because we're going to be working all the
hours, god sent, until we're 65.
And it's, I mean, there always has
been, there was an excitement about it,
there still is an
excitement about it, to
a certain extent
about what it could be.
But there are things that
aren't worth giving up for it.
Walking around the site, there's
a palpable air of tension here.
Gavin and Jane are in Plymouth
today meeting David Shepherd, trying to
decide how and if the build will proceed.
Gavin and Jane are trying to
hammer out a revised budget with David
Shepherd, so they can get an
increased loan from the mortgage lender.
For now there's enough money to
keep the workers on site for three weeks.
They're putting all their efforts into
finishing the staircase, which, as a
crucial part of the structure,
must be completed.
David believes the staircase will
raise the value of the building and help
to get the extra money.
It's now almost completed. As the
steps climb higher, the design can at last
be appreciated.
But on a day that
should have been a
celebration, news about
the new loan arrives.
It's Monday evening and I'm in Birmingham.
Now, on Friday Gavin and Jane
received a phone call from the building
society to say that they would not
stump up all the money that Gavin and
Jane needed to complete the build.
Now, this could throw the whole thing
into jeopardy. However, this morning
there was another phone call which
could be a reprieve. Who knows? I've come
to find out.
So Jane, what has happened?
It's more like what hasn't happened.
It's been pretty awful actually.
As you know, we had applied to the
building society for more money because
of the unexpected things
that came up and whatever.
How much money?
That's a huge amount.
We got the, or I got the call Friday
afternoon at quarter to five on the M40
on the way back from a training
course to say basically that they couldn't
give me the 54.
So, of course, you can imagine at
quarter to five on a Friday you can't do
anything about it until Monday morning.
So it's been quite a tense weekend.
Now, I've come all
this way this evening
because you've had
another phone call.
I called them this morning. They
basically agreed to release a total of 157
and a half.
So you're how much short of what you need?
Sixteen thousand.
And that's to do the whole thing?
Yeah.
So what are you going to do?
Not do the whole thing.
Exactly. Exactly.
So we already had sort of pre-empted,
we might get all the money, so we've
already sort of put
together a short list
of things potentially
we could cut out.
So why has it gone so far over? Because
you've overspent 20, okay, that's 15
more than your reserve, but you're
asking for an extra 54,000. Why so much?
The rest of it basically comes out
from things that were under budgeted is
what's behind it.
We've gone through the spreadsheet
in real detail with both the builders and
David and everybody else involved.
We found out that basically the
engineers that we got in to budget it, I
think what they did
was basically use
standard values from
the reference paper.
Basically they didn't
take into account the
complexities involved
in an old building.
So the windows were, as you know,
it was going to be a big part of the
budget, were probably under
budgeted by about just under 10,000.
The stairs were under budgeted as well.
All the big bits that we knew were
going to cost were under budgeted.
Gavin and Jane worked out with David
Shepherd that the combination of overspend
and under budgeting means they
need 54,000 more to complete the build.
The mortgage lender's final offer is
38,000. They now have to work out how
they can lose the 16,000 from their
build budget, which means some very
serious penny pinching.
Now last time I came down to the
chapel you weren't there, you were in a
heavy meeting all day with David.
So how is your relationship with him now?
Is it strained?
It's different obviously, it started
off and that we're so actively involved
with the finance now, it is a
different sort of relationship.
It's still very open and it's still
very clear because it's got to be if we
want to get through
this and he is totally
committed to helping
us get through it.
I mean he knows that we started it
together and we've got to end it together
as well, you know,
for better or worse.
But I feel the marriage
has risen away.
So you've had lots of frank discussions?
Oh yes, very heated discussions,
emotional ones, from both sides. But you've
got to do that to get through it.
So is it no longer your grand design?
Has it turned into a nightmare?
A grand folly. Yes and no. David
keeps trying to gee us up again by telling
us how wonderful the stairs look and
stuff and at the moment I really don't
give a toss what they look
like to be perfectly blunt.
You know, in one way if somebody
came to me tomorrow and said, "We'll take
this off your hands," I'd be quite pleased.
Gavin and Jane have obviously got
a lot on their plate but of course David
Shepherd's also involved so I've come
to Plymouth to see him to get his side
of the story.
So far you've been the architect and
you've been the project manager on the
job. Do you think
that the two jobs are
exclusive, that one
person can't do both?
Yes, it's the answer to that.
And the reason being is that we did look at
the possibility of having a quantity
surveyor and his role is to monitor the
costings of the project.
I'm in fact doing that job. Although
we're trained to actually monitor
costs, perhaps not in the degree that
one should. And hence that's why the.
quantity surveyor is a quantity
surveyor and I'm an architect.
How has your relationship changed
with them through the building, through
this crisis?
Like a kind of marriage. We've had
incredible disagreements and particularly
the meeting that we had that went
on all day and some of the night.
That put a great deal of pressure on
them more than me, I think, purely on
the basis that they drove all the way
down from Birmingham, stayed with me
all day and drove all the way back.
Whilst Gavin and Jane attempt to
resolve the finances, they've ordered work
on site to halt. Andy McGoldrick
decided it would cost more to move offsite
and back again, so he's taken a risk
and kept work ticking over in the hope
that money will come soon.
Typically, where money
is concerned, Gavin
and Jane waste no
time in sorting it out.
So we'll go ahead then to get the money
that we need. Great! Okay, well that's
good news. I'll have to tell Gavin
obviously when he gets in. So thanks.
for that.
What I'll do is give you a call over
the next day or so so we can start
arranging how we move forward.
Thanks a lot. Bye.
So that was good news anyway. As you
know, we had problems with our original
lender, it was a building society, in
that they basically couldn't give us
the rest of the money that
we needed to finish the project.
So we really had no other route to
go but to find another lender to get the
money. So we've been talking to
various banks and building societies and we
just found out that the bank that
we've gone for can actually give us the
money we need.
So, which is brilliant.
So we've got the
money to move forward
now. That's good.
Now they have the extra £54,000,
Gavin and Jane have decided no building
work will be given clearance until
they have got full quotes. They hope this
will prevent any further
unexpected overspend.
Well if there's still big amounts as
we said in the letter, we won't just
ride off and stay on until we know
what the overall cost is and we've got
quotations to back it up.
We'll go with that.
We should end the rest of those tomorrow.
By the end of the week.
Hours after the meeting, urgent
work is underway, fixing the roof and
putting new Velux windows in place.
Because the mortgage valuation placed
more emphasis on the stairs than the
roof, the builder's
been back to front. The
roof leaked and some
steps became mouldy.
If you're choosing a mortgage,
remember that the surveyor is the key to
releasing your funds. He must
understand what you're trying to do.
For example, Gavin and Jane had decided
not to build the decking in order to
cut back on overspend.
The new surveyor, recommended by
David, pointed out that for a build cost of
under £3,000, £7,000 would
be added to the building's value.
Some quotes still have not come in.
And without them, Gavin and Jane won't
release the money. For Andy McGoldrick,
director of the building firm, the
delays are proving frustrating.
How's it all going Andy,
because you haven't finished yet?
It's going smoothly, but then again
you always get problems. Each building,
each job has its own individual problems.
You were just brought in to do, first
of all, the ground works, weren't you?
And your role has increased and increased
until finally you've emerged as it
were as a third member of the group.
There's the architect, there's the
client, there's you. What are the key
things that you need out of these people?
Communication and trust, undoubtedly.
In a nutshell, those two items.
Did you find the
experience of not
being there until the
last lap frustrating?
Yes, very much so. It was a very
difficult line to tread. We're used to
having almost complete autonomy.
You land on sites, you get the spec, you've
got the drawings, you
know exactly where
your responsibilities
do and don't lie.
This has been more of a learning
experience all the way, because you don't.
want to tread on the architect/client
relationship. But there are also times
when you, you know, will one of you
please make a decision? So yes, it has
been frustrating.
So what's your story so far?
Insofar as what?
Insofar, this troubled build.
Well it has been in
trouble, but not anymore.
How long will it take?
Reasonably so, I'm just a bit concerned
about timing. We're obviously going
to go over time and it's going to
take a few more weeks before we get it
sort of complete,
particularly with the
major structural
problems we had initially.
And we've always been trying to retrieve
that position, which seems to be an
upending, non-ending struggle.
The build is also late because the
last quote for plumbing doesn't arrive
until early May. At last the build
can continue at full speed. The heating
and electrics are underway and all
the window frames have been completed
except for the master bedroom windows
where the holes are still being made.
To begin with, this chapel was going
to be finished by Christmas. Then it
was going to be ready in March.
We're now at the end of May.
Now this project has always been
very ambitious and the design is very
exciting, but it is running five months
behind schedule. So it's time to see
how far they've got.
Hi there.
Hi.
How's it going?
How's it going?
Great.
It's looking around, not
hugely finished where
I'm standing, but it is
pastored, you know?
It's pastored, isn't it?
The windows are about to go in.
Yeah.
Yeah?
Show me the rest of the house.
Show me what condition that's in.
Well, this is more like it, isn't it?
This is a transformation.
It's come on quite a bit, hasn't it?
It's fabulous.
Yeah, it looks almost finished. Is it?
No.
It's an easy answer.
No, we've got a lot to do yet.
I mean, it should be at least another
couple of weeks, don't you think?
Well, at least, yeah. I don't care
anymore, really. As long as it comes in,
you know, and we're not
destitute for the rest of our lives.
Yeah. I mean, but it does work, doesn't it?
I mean, it's a stunning design,
there's no doubt.
And the stairs are amazing.
Yeah.
They completely make the space,
and it's light. It's much lighter than when
I saw it last before the glazing went in.
Yeah.
And that's made a big
difference to having clear
glass. It works beautifully.
Show me the garden.
Okay.
Oh, this is nice. This is sort
of gently sloping away, isn't it?
It's pretty, isn't it?
Yeah. And the streptococcus is fantastic.
It's a flower.
Isn't that? The colors are beautiful.
And even though it's sunken, it must
get a fair bit of light because you've
got these windows
all the way around
it, and the door there
when that's open.
And you've got these
four skylights as well.
Yeah.
They must blast it
with quite a lot of light.
Yeah. That's what they're there for.
Really? That's where you put the garden?
Yeah.
It works beautifully.
This is your heavenly garden.
Yeah.
This is as heavenly as
it's going to get, I guess.
Can I have a look around
the rest of the house?
Yeah, go ahead.
Is that all right?
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks.
I'll take a look around.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Even when the banisters are in, I
wonder how practical these stairs will be
for a young child.
Despite the size of this house, I can't
get over how small the bedrooms are.
I suppose architects so often consider
bedrooms as secondary spaces.
But I prefer myself to have a bedroom
that's large enough to throw your
clothes on the floor and have a cupboard.
I can understand a baby's room
being small, but surely not the master
bedroom that's positioned
over the open plan living room.
This room, yeah, it isn't the largest
room in the house. I'd have thought
for your master bedroom you'd
have created this huge space.
Well, we probably would have liked
everyone, ideally, but the reason it's
the size it is, is we couldn't have
the floor any lower because of the
heights of the windows down below.
Right, that's this, yeah.
So that reduces usable
space. And we had to
have this wall here
because of the divide.
Behind you, yeah, between the main.
So this is basically the size we had.
And we did give sort of, one of the
clear instructions we gave to David
at the start was not to cut across any
of the chapel windows.
But I still think it was going to
be a workable room anyway.
And the view makes up for it.
And the view's just wonderful. I mean,
just waking up in the morning looking
down the valley, it's going to be lovely.
The office space is open and light.
And just seeing how the living room,
kitchen and great hallway work together
makes me appreciate the tremendous
space this house has.
Converting any older building inevitably
involves some kind of compromise.
And in a typical chapel conversion,
you find the building chopped into
layers so that you get
large rooms with low ceilings.
But you also get to see the windows
sliced through by all the floors.
Now, David's solution to this is
to divide the building vertically.
Which means that although you do
get small little rooms over on that side of
the building, you do get to see large
windows here, plus you get a sense of
all that soaring height.
On the whole, I think it's
a pretty good compromise.
But I still have one more question
about the design of the building.
Come and show me the playroom.
OK.
Yeah, Sam's little room down here.
Where we're walking, this used
to be a great black void, didn't it?
I do, yeah.
I remember, we saw it.
It's now, it's the opposite of that.
It's like a dungeon.
It's wonderful now.
This is a very decent sized
room, isn't it, to contain him in.
He's playing down here,
you're upstairs reading the paper.
He falls over or tries
to climb out the window.
What are you going to do?
Because you've got to run all the
way down the other end of the house, all
the way down here, over your gravel drive.
Sort of a self-healing
kind of problem, innit? By
the time we get there,
he'll probably be all right.
You've installed a fireman's pole.
Oh, we just lean over and shout at him.
Say, "Hey, shut up.
We're trying to read the paper."
Yeah.
How many kids have you had before?
None.
We may never have any more again.
If we could be far enough away,
we might not even hear him anyway.
You hope.
I think this house is beautiful.
I have nothing else to
say, really, other than that.
I think it really is beautiful.
I was just wondering
how you both feel about it.
I was wondering when the
question was going to come.
A very short interview.
Happy with the house, I guess.
Yeah, happy with the
house, not with the process.
The design bit was fine.
That all went well in that we gave
David criteria and, you know, I think he
did an excellent job with trying to
sort of achieve the design criteria.
The issue was the
cost criteria and that's
where I guess it all
started to crumble.
Here you were in Birmingham.
He was down here running this job.
Designing it for a period.
For a period.
Do you think the fact that you
were that far away made a significant
difference?
Didn't help?
Yes, because we didn't have a
decent project manager down here.
With the benefit of hindsight, what
advice could you give to somebody who
was coming into the same situation as you?
Direct communication is the key thing.
We deal directly with Andy McGoldrick.
And if there's something that
we don't know, we ask him.
And we get to the point where you
actually know what, specifically what the.
answer is that you're looking for.
We're not building people, so how we
ask a question needs to be interrogated
so you get to the bottom
line of what we're after.
I think interview a load of architects,
which is what we did. I think it's
the right thing to do.
Interview them and if you shortlist,
go and see the work they've done.
And speak.
Speak to the people who they've done it to.
Because again, we would definitely
have had a different picture if we'd
spoken to the house that David took us to.
Because we know they went
significantly over budget as well.
Effectively taking references.
And what kind of preparation did
you do before you engaged David?
In terms of what?
Well, in terms of, I don't know,
understanding about how to go about having
a house built, for example.
Well, we'd got some of the building
magazines and stuff, that home building
one that was quite useful.
Because that does
a lot of case studies
and things. We went
through a lot of that.
I contacted some
of the architects, the
RBA and stuff, and
asked their advice.
I mean, did none of them mention
the fact that to have an architect also
work as your project
manager is not a good idea?
Actually, no.
No, they don't actually
specifically say that.
You have to go with, at some
point you have to make a decision.
And we did that.
And it was a wrong one as it turned out.
Gavin and Jane spent £83,000 on the site.
So far, the build is £54,000 over
budget, with costs coming to £174,000.
The total is £257,000.
But it does look as though it will
be financially worthwhile, as early
estimates put the final value of the
chapel between £260,000 and £300,000.
But of course, building your own
house is about more than money.
In a nutshell, two
words, a project manager.
You need some kind of interface
between the architects, that's what I want.
it to look like, the clients, that's
what I can afford to build, and the
builder, that's what
can physically be done.
Would you do it again? Would you
project manage a job like this again, as
well as design it?
Do you think that the work is...
You always called it project management,
but I always say it's architecture.
It's always having control
to be the lead consultant.
That's important. That's important
one for the overall aesthetic, for the
overall detail, for the overall
comprehension of the building.
It's not a project manager,
that is the architect's job.
How much do you think the dream's
going to be in the end compromised, if at
all, by what's happened?
I think, like with most bad things,
you end up getting over it. I'm not
overjoyed, because we're still half way
through it and there's loads of things to.
do.
And too much has happened to be overjoyed.
I think once the builders go, and
we can actually sort of be in it properly
and it's a home, everything's in, not
unless you've fully decorated it, but
we've got enough in it
that we feel it's a home.
Then we can start to enjoy it.
There's no doubt in my mind
that Gavin and Jane should
have employed a full-time
project manager on this build.
But the great irony of self-building is
that you never really understand how
to build a house until it's over.
It's a complicated Jigsaw of skills,
design, communication and trust.
So you do need all the
professional help you can get.
But it's you that keeps the Jigsaw
together, which means being on top of
everything and everyone.
Ultimately, only you can
drive your vision forward.
Next week, I'll be following two young
architects, Sarah Wigglesworth and
Jeremy Till, who'll
be building their own
experimental house in
North London, out of straw.