Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 2, Episode 16 - The Water Tower: Revisited - full transcript

It's been nearly three and a half
years since I was here last and I'm very

keen to see what they've done.

Hello, how are you? Long time no see.

How are you?

Very well. It's a very long time.

How are you?

Very good, thank you.

So, this is your bedroom wing.

I know it looks like
we've not done anything.

Yes.

Well, we have.



Yes, we've taken 12
tonnes of cast iron out

of here, the old
pipes and the gantries.

So, some progress.

Yes, indeed.

And the rest of the house?

Yeah, it's great.
It's a lovely place to

live. We feel really
comfortable here.

Oh, this is I remember it, but wow.
What a nice space, isn't it?

Yes, it's worked very nicely for us.

Isn't it just? It's like an advert.
Like an advert for a bank or a building

or something.

It's really nice.

It's not like an advert all the time.
The kids are around here.

Beautiful. I love the sofas.
They're very funky. Nice and soft.



Nice and soft.

I remember discussing this here.

Comfortable.

Yeah, exactly. The comfortable thing
versus the hard architect thing. You're

all living here
still, aren't you?

Yep.

Three kids. And where are they all staying?

They're in this room here.

In that little room there.
All three of them in one room.

Yeah.

Who are aged what now?

Eight, six and five.

Yeah. And you were kipping in the utility?

Yeah.

Yes.

For a short time. Very short time.

That didn't really
work very much, so

we're in the main
space, aren't we now?

Who's this?

Yes.

So, this beautiful, expansive,
open plan house is really a bed set.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, we don't see it anymore
as this sort of grand design. We see it

just as our home, so we put in
stuff that we want, stuff that we need.

Is it warm?

The underfloor heating's fantastic.

It's because it's such a
well-insulated building.

And there's no cold
spots. You can sit on

the floor and there's
no draught anywhere.

How's the bathroom?
Because you hadn't

finished the shower,
I think, had you?

Well, we still haven't
quite finished the

shower. We're nearly
there. We need to put

a tap on there and seal
it, and we're ready then.

I don't believe this.

We're hoping for it for Christmas.

Stop it.

How's the kitchen working out?

The kitchen's great. The kitchen,
and so being in the main space, I no

longer have to go

to the back of the house, you know,
to do my cooking, to like separate

myself from everybody
else. I can do it here.

Yeah.

Deb's is always in
contact with the kids,

which is part of the
original plan. I think.

They'll work very well.

Of course, the garden's
helped you, hasn't

it? Because it's
given you a bit of a bit

more space down here on the Internet,
because you always designed it so that

you could flow in
and out of the building.

Very nice and enclosed here.
So it's safe for the kids.

Yeah, very sunny.

And sunny and warm
in summer and secluded,

and I can imagine you're
using this quite a lot.

The trees have grown up particularly
well, and I think they've softened the

whole space, actually. It
makes quite a big difference.

This house has turned
from an uncompromising

concrete box into an
all-breathing, beautiful.

And

compromising concrete box into
an all-but-invisible and private home,

softened into the landscape

by the great earth wall, the planting
and the garden. The secret of the

internal design

is how it, too, has been softened, by
plants, possessions and furniture, by

the generous use
of wood that acts as a

visual bridge between
indoors and out, and of

course now by daily use.

And it's all a him to those two
very modern ideas, space and light.

I can't avoid this question.
Why haven't you done the water tower?

I think it's for a few reasons,
really, but to start with, you were so

exhausted having
done this build.

I think anybody that's
ever done this can

understand actually
how draining the process

is and how stressed
you get, and that once

you're in there, the
first thing you want

to do is to relax.

But what was it like
when you first moved

in? How did you
adjust to this space from

your previous house?

I really can't put my finger on what
it was, but I was very uneasy living

here for the.

First few weeks, even
to the extent that I

said to Andrew one
day, "What happens if

I can't live here?".

There was quite an
interesting thing that

happened at that
point. We had a break-in

and I thought, "Oh,
that's going to be it.

Debra's just going
to want to move now."

And it actually had the opposite effect.
Debra became very defensible about

the space and made
the space her own,

and so it actually
worked in our favour.

Are the planners putting any
pressure on you, or are the locals putting

pressure on you,

because part of the
agreement, part of the

consent for this place
is that you do work

on the tower and get it done?

Yes, I think some people have had
some concern that we were just building a

new building

and not doing anything
to the tower at all,

but that plainly isn't
the case, and we

only have half a building
here, and the tower

will form the other
half, and then we'll

really have the home that we want.

So have your ideas
changed about what

you're going to do
there in the meantime?

Yes, they have. I
think that's been the

good thing about it
as well, to see how it

works for us.

And are you still going
to arrange a bedroom

on each floor? Is
that how it works out?

Yes. One of the
problems we had before

was we weren't sure
which floor to put the

bathroom on. We
were going to have a big

bathroom. One floor
was going to be just all

bathroom. And now
we've decided that

we're just all going
to have an en suite.

Simple, and no doubt
more expensive as well.

Yes.

Well, I'm really
looking forward now to

doing the tower, built
up my energy around

it again. We've
changed a few things as

well, so I'm now
going to be doing a little

bit of engineering
again. We've changed

a few things as
well, so I'm now very

comfortable about
what we're doing. And

so I just want to
get in there and start

working on it now.

I really like the
process of having an

idea, having a concept
in your head, and

then translating it
onto paper, onto the

plans, going through
the process of the.

Planning permission,
then actually living

in it, building it
and living in it. And

sometimes we look around and think,
goodness me, this is here because we had

this idea.

When do you start on the tower?

This year we're looking to start just
before Christmas, probably November

time, and about six months of
work to build all the bedrooms.

So if I come, I can see you next
year, maybe in the Autumn this time.

We'll be done.

This build succeeded
because there were

three people who
really gave their all here.

There was Doug, the
project manager, there

was Andrew, the
architect, and there was.

Deborah, the client, and those are
the three cornerstones of really well-run

builds. But I now see that even the
best run projects can really take it out

of you.

I'm not surprised
it's taken Andrew and

Deborah this long
to gear up to tackling.

The beast. I take my hat off to
them for even contemplating it.