Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 2, Episode 2 - The New England Gable House, Sussex - full transcript

I think it was a sort of
fantastical dream and I

thought I'm just going
to see if it's possible.

I came to this country to travel.

I didn't expect to meet someone, fall
in love, get married and build a house.

Your idea of a prefab building
may be something like this...

but the instant home
now comes in all shapes and sizes.

Like convenience foods,
these are convenience houses,

and some of the more hi-tech elements,
like these bathrooms,

are being used more and more
on cutting-edge builds.

This week, I'm meeting a couple
of newlyweds, Jane and Willem,

who are convinced that a ready-made home is
the short cut to their 21st-century dream -



a dream which was bought
and designed on the Internet.

And where else is this 21st-century,
email-designed house being built,

but in the heart of West Sussex.

So how on earth
did you find this site?

I was looking for a derelict property.

I decided that was the only way
I was going to find a countryside plot

and it came from a local estate agency.

So you pulled the finance together
just like that?

Money came from -
yeah, big mortgage - frightening mortgage,

and I write books,
so there was a deposit

from a book that I'd
written which was the...

- You had a cash lump sum you could donate?
- Yeah.

So when did you buy this place?

It was just over two and a half years ago.



- Right. And you've recently got married?
- Yes, in August.

- So you bought this as a single woman?
- I did. Crazy dream...

Fortunately, I've found the right person
to share it with.

You were in your mid 20s then -
three years ago.

What on earth kind
of possessed you to

suddenly decide to
build a house at that age?

I think it was a sort of fantastical dream.

I'd done a couple of loft interiors
in a loft development in London

and I loved the drama of
expressing yourself in internal space.

It had sort of grown from that and I thought

wouldn't it be fantastic
if you could just

create your entire
nest, inside and outside.

And I thought,
I'm just going to see if this is possible.

The plan is to demolish this '70s chalet

and replace it with a brand-new house
that Jane is ordering from America.

The house is being prefabricated in Boston

by American kit house company
Acorn and Deck House.

Jane's been able to keep in touch
with the design using the Internet.

She was already a year into her project
when she met her husband Willem.

Does this feel
as though it's going to be your home?

Do you feel as though
you've had an input?

Absolutely.

I mean, it was a little
tricky in the first case

because she had
established relationships with

the builders and the
architects and so on.

She also has more
time to deal with the

project. But emotionally
I'm connected to it.

Tell me about the house you're
going to build. It's not this bungalow?

It's not. No. It's an American-style house.

It's open plan,
quite a lot of double height space,

a lot of quite dramatic,
sort of glamorous internal architecture.

All in the middle of West Sussex.

There's some lovely cottages here
but nothing like that?

That's true,
but I think it's a well-sheltered site

and I think if you can't build
a bit of slightly dramatic architecture

in a one-off, sheltered, semi-rural
location, then where can you?

Yeah.

- What's it going to look like?
- It's all in here.

- Yeah, and I made a model.
- Under this hat.

Under this hat lurks...the house.

- There's the inside.
- You're outrageous.

You've put the carpet
in and a pot plant as well.

When I was making it, I began to realise
just what a volume of space this was.

It's like a sort of big
internal climbing frame?

Yeah.

And what's this area here?

Actually, the deck is a new addition.

We received a rather generous sum of money
from my father as a wedding gift

and I thought, "I know
exactly where to spend it."

So it is very much an American home.

Are you hoping you will feel
as though you're in America?

Well, one of the first places I
ever travelled to was New England

and I feel in love with the architecture
10 years ago.

Jane's house will have
trademark New England features

like timber decking, painted cedar wood
cladding and oversized windows.

Built into the sloping site,

the living area features
a vast double-height

ceiling with views
across the North Downs.

As it leads down into the dining room,

the space opens out
to an American-style open-plan kitchen.

Rather than cramming in individual rooms,

Jane's gone for all-out luxury with split
levels and generous proportions throughout.

Above the spare bedroom,
Jane's planned an indulgence suite,

complete with walk-in wardrobe,
master bedroom

and a spa-like bathroom
decorated in thousands of Moroccan tiles,

trawled from a recent trip to Marrakesh.

A spiral staircase
leads up to the galleried study -

a crow's-nest which overlooks
both the entire house and the views beyond.

You must be running
pretty tight, aren't you,

building a house this
generous, this big.

- Yeah.
- Money must be an issue, yeah?

Yeah, it has been.

The sort of project amount we've got
is about 250.

- That's the total build, is it?
- Including land.

- Including the land? OK.
- Land was 100 so that was a big whack.

- And what's your contingency?
- It's about 10%.

Where will you live
while you're building this?

In a flat in London.

So, what's the deadline
for this wonderful fantasy?

Well, we're hoping, next
August, to have a party

which will celebrate one
year of being married.

There may be no paint on the walls but...

- There'll be a roof on?
- There will be a roof on. I hope so.

Jane bought her plot two years ago
for £100,000.

The KR cost £60,000.

And construction will be another £50,000.

She's also set aside £40,000
for fitting out the interior,

making a total of £250,000.

Finding a virgin plot of land in the middle
of the English countryside to build on

is almost impossible.

What Jane's done is buy a plot on which
there was already a building - a bungalow.

Now, the trouble with that
is that you pay for it three times.

You pay for the land, you pay for
the bungalow that you don't want,

and you also pay for the demolition -
and that's what's going to happen today.

Today, the adventure begins...
and Jane's on her own.

Willem is working on a project
that has to be delivered at lunchtime

so this is the day he couldn't take off-
there was no option.

It took two and a half years
to get to where we are today.

Various delays with planning.

Just a question of coaxing the planners
into what we wanted to do.

But, at last, two and a half years later,
it's all gone and we have a view.

It's almost slightly surreal,
the fact that at last...

It's been such a virtual dream for so long

and now there's real rubble and machinery
and noise and chaos.

Today really feels like the beginning.

I see the finished house.
I take walks around it in my imagination.

But today other people can see
what we're preparing for so long.

It's been carried around in people's heads
and all of a sudden it's real.

Importing a house from America
calls for strict scheduling -

the kit's arriving in exactly five weeks.

The man responsible
for ensuring everything's ready in time

is local builder Chris Merchant Lane.

My role on the site is
to organise the trades

that will come in to
construct the house.

In my 25-year career
as a builder, I've

never actually put up
a timber-framed house.

It's going to be an interesting
experience - learn something new.

Kit houses are prefabricated in factories.

The walls are made in sections
out of basic softwood frames.

All the dimensions of the panels
are all set by computer.

The frames are then cut to size,

nailed together

and then strengthened with a skin
of rigid board made from wood pulp.

Even doors and windows
can be preinserted into the walls.

This way, an entire house
can leave in one container.

And Jane's container
is now on the high seas.

There's no changing the delivery date now.

Chris has just three weeks
to clear the site and lay foundations,

but our English weather isn't helping.

On the Friday we started to dig,
it rained at lunchtime -

torrential rain -
and that put paid to that day's work,

and the trenches we'd dug caved in,
filled up with water.

Saturday we came back
to continue the excavation

and weren't able to cos
the site was still too wet.

Since then, we've
been lucky. It's been dry

weather and we've
been able to get on with it.

The timber kit gets fixed
onto a flat concrete raft

which in tum sits on
these concrete footings.

Getting them poured
is Chris' first milestone.

This is what they call
a bottoming out party.

But it's something of a hollow victory.

Chris has got one week to get
everything ready before the kit's arrival.

There's still drains to install,

retaining walls lo build
and the concrete plinth lo pour.

I have a deadline which
I'll try and meet and

if I can't...you've
given it your best shot.

And we're going to work
Saturday and Sunday.

The ship docks at Felixstowe

and a mere 24 hours before the kit arrives
on site, the concrete is barely hard.

But Chris can relax - the
Americans are coming.

The American coming over to assist
us with the construction is a good thing.

He'll be here to assist us
in the main construction of the house.

That will be the wall panels,
flooring and the roof.

Once he's done that, then we're perfectly
capable of putting the rest together.

This is the Boston company's
first project in the UK.

They're sending in
two of their most experienced men,

Jim Cram and Peter King.

Peter's taught local teams of builders
the American way of putting up houses

in Japan, Argentina and Korea -
now it's Britain's tum.

I feel incredibly moved, actually.

It's like a very significant realisation
of a rather fantastical dream.

It's kind of unremarkable from the outside

and sort of what it
represents internally-

it's like a sort of nest
arriving on wheels.

I sort of didn't...

I never thought it wouldn't come
but I can't really believe it's here.

I've been imagining it for so long.

Everything they'll
need to build their house

is contained in these
two 40-foot Tony toads -

wall panels, window
sections, doors, stairs,

cladding - even
a giant tin of paint.

Even with the Americans' expert direction
and all hands on site,

it'll take the best part of
the day to unpack the kit.

Every piece of this 3-D jigsaw is numbered

and it's vital they're stacked in the order
that they'll be assembled.

But as night falls,
they're still unloading.

It's well into the night
before they can say goodbye to the lorry.

So, three years after Jane found the site,
the great day has finally come.

The house arrived yesterday,
on the back of a lorry,

and the guys spent all night unloading it.

Today, they're going to start building it
out of these 6,000 pieces of wood.

Under the Americans' direction,
Chris' men start putting the kit together.

First to go up are the comer sections.

Having cut out the model and seen drawings,
what's it like seeing it in the flesh?

It's absolutely incredibly surreal
and extraordinary and wonderful.

An amazing day.
Yeah, what more can I say?

We went off to lunch and when we came back,
the whole kitchen was there.

Have you had any
sleepless nights over it? ls

there anything that
worries you about it all?

My worry has sort of...
I mean, my worry has gone,

which was concerns
about just getting

everything in in time
for the kit turning up,

so in a sense, now that
we're over that hurdle,

I think the sleepless nights
will probably abate a bit.

So...are you meant to
be putting the kitchen up?

Well, I'm avoiding heavy
lifting today, actually.

- Why?
- Oh, we moved so much stuff yesterday.

But you are, aren't
you, getting involved?

Yeah. Absolutely.

Being involved in constructing the house
as much as I can is important to me

because I was left out
of the loop, you know,

Jane went so far with this project
before she met me,

and we were engaged and married.

So actually being hands-on
in the construction is important.

But in terms of the overall build,

I suppose you can say
the house is Jane's conception.

So which bit of it is yours?

Which bit of it do you feel
you're able to appropriate?

- The kitchen is mine.
- Really?

- Yeah, absolutely.
- You designed that?

Well, I'm the cook,
so I basically need to design my own space.

Now, you've got the flat in London,
which you're going to keep,

so is this going to be a
kind of a weekend retreat

or do you see it becoming
a permanent home?

- Yeah, I do.
- You do?

Yeah, we both do. This is a home for life.

We'll be raising children here.
We'll be living here. Yeah, absolutely.

- Jim, what's your job here?
- I'm the export manager at Deck House.

So what does that mean?

We're located outside of Boston

and we build houses and ship them all over
the United States.

I'm the one responsible for shipping them
outside of the United States.

How do you get away with putting up an
American building in the middle of Sussex?

Well it's wasn't too far into this project
that I learned about planning,

and planning is a very
real thing in the UK.

And what about things like... American
weatherboarding and typical details,

roofs - have you had to change those?

The weatherboarding stays.
We have permission for it.

But the roof definitely had to be changed
and we'll use local English tile.

So when it's going to be ready, then?

In just two and a half to three weeks,
we should have the shell up.

A week after that, we'd
like to see the roof on.

So it's on and weather-tight
in just a four-week period of time.

This would be by Christmas?

Christmas would be good.

Jim can afford to be confident -
he's going home in two days -

but Peter's got to stay
and show the British

builders how to
put the kit together.

How does a building like this work?

You've got a big concrete plinth to begin
with, but how do you put the walls up?

Well, it's a panellised system.

These wall sections
come mostly in four-foot

sections, and some
in two-foot sections.

- The windows are already installed.
- Dead easy. They're quite short - small.

- You can manhandle them easily.
- Yeah, some of them are.

These are the shorter ones.

- The very tall ones will be a challenge.
- Yeah.

Is it normal to do this kind of thing -

to come over and spend this amount of time
on a project abroad?

Yeah. Acorn almost always
send someone over to a foreign site

because people have different habits
in how they approach a building project.

So what's it like
working with British builders?

Oh, it's very nice. We can speak the same
language so we have one thing in common.

Well, I hope it's not the only thing
they have in common.

British chippies
don't even seem to use the same tools.

You may be wondering
why a timber building like this

doesn't just get blown away in the wind,
and the answer is...this.

It's the builder's equivalent
of the AK47, and...

...it does this.

Straight into the concrete.

And this lot are leaving nothing to chance.

The Americans
are even bringing their own nails.

However, Peter's nail gun
is the only one on site.

The British carpenters' tack of experience
with timber construction is showing.

The crew here isn't
as set up for timber

framing or stud framing
as an American crew.

We don't have many air tools.

We don't have any pneumatic guns,
which would be very common.

No builder would drive a nail by hand
in the States if they could avoid it.

In the next three weeks, Peter's aiming
to have the entire shell of the house up,

as well as training the British carpenters.
I think that's a tall order.

It's moved a little bit slower
than I would have liked.

That's just because
there's fewer people and

fewer carpenters than
I usually work with.

But we're making good progress
and it's coming along pretty well.

Peter's obviously a good teacher.

The ground floor takes ten days,
but the second level goes up in only three.

Tom is the main carpenter on site.
He'll take over when Peter leaves.

In all, the timber frame
takes just three weeks to erect.

Compared to more conventional building
methods, that may seem very quick -

but it's taken a week longer
than the Americans predicted

and there's still the roof,
doors and external cladding to go on.

The roof alone
is taking twice as long as expected.

This is Monday
and I'm leaving on Friday.

If it's not done then,
Tom gets to finish it.

It's just like a great big stud-work house
with ply on the front.

It's a lot easier because everything,
all the panels, are numbered

and you just put it all together in the
right order and make sure they're level.

Well, Peter didn't meet his deadline

and it takes Tom another week to finish the
roof trusses and complete the framework.

It looks as though
they will be here for their

first wedding anniversary
next year, but...

with the Americans safely home,

with the British winter to come
and with British contractors lined up,

who knows?

The worst may be yet to come.

Interesting times ahead.

It's six weeks since construction
of Jane and Willem's kit house began.

The Americans have now left

and it's up to the British
to carry the project through to completion.

Goodness!

Well, that's...

That's extraordinary.

- So the Americans delivered their promise?
- Yes.

They've put you up a house.

- Our stately home.
- When did they go?

When? Peter left a week and a half ago.

And has it all collapsed into confusion
since then?

No.

Are there things that you've changed,
as it were?

We're putting in a few extra windows
that we ruled out to save some money.

They're on the plan,
but we decided to put them back in.

Here, here, here and here - four windows -
so when you come in on the entry level,

you immediately get
four framed pictures of the view.

So we're putting them in again.

And putting all these things back -
the windows and so forth -

has that changed the budget?
Are you spending more money?

Actually, yes, we are spending a bit more.

The extra windows
have cost about £1,000,

and in a project that's
really stretched us,

it didn't seem something
worth economising on.

But you haven't met
any British electrician or plumber yet.

We've got a big lump set aside
for British services.

Building this American
house in Sussex may be

a first-time experience
for everyone involved,

but prefab construction's been around
for a while.

One of its earliest incarnations
was as post-war emergency housing.

We moved in on the 10th December, 1946.

And we were absolutely thrilled with it.

I will never leave here unless I'm forced
to. They would have to carry me out.

I love it.

I wouldn't swap it for Buckingham Palace,
even if they included the Queen.

Prefab is now the fashionable choice

and it's come a long way
since the humble wartime bungalow.

Nowadays, most new builds incorporate
some prefab components -

timber wall panels, for example,
which are in virtually every new home -

and the more exciting ones even have
funky clip-on bathrooms.

If you're going to self-build,
I can't think of a quicker way to do it.

This high-spec bathroom pod, for example,

is simply craned into position
and plugged into the services on site.

Abroad, the prefab industry is booming.

In Japan, houses are
usually built in factories,

but they're
tailored to individual

specifications which you
can order in showrooms.

Scandinavia rolls
out ecologically-sound

houses in industrial-scale
production lines.

White the Netherlands produce
entire streets in days.

Teams of builders
construct prefabricated shells

and the roofs are craned in
to unfold into position.

In the States, nearly all new builds
use prefabricated materials -

from entire wall panels...to
entire house shells.

The prospect of importing a ready-made home
is now a viable reality,

but buying a house from a company 3,000
miles away isn't entirely straightforward.

Local planning restrictions have meant

Jane isn't able lo use
the flexible wooden

American shingles the
roof was designed for.

The British tiles she's chosen are rigid
and they have to interlock precisely.

The tiles don't fit like
they're supposed to fit.

And we've had to pack them up -

we've had to jiggle them about
all over the place -

top to bottom, side to side.

But it's going on.

They're going on, but very slowly.
Slower than expected.

Jane's agreed a fixed-price
deal with the roofers

so, no matter how long the job takes,
she won't be losing money.

Let's put it this way. We were...

It should have taken us just under 20 days
and we were 43 days

and we still haven't quite finished yet.

There's nothing wrong with the product.
It's just the roof was...

not the right roof for the tiles.

Jane, I want to talk long and hard
about this roof, which I'm sure you love.

Yes, I do.

The tiler said that this
was horrific to put on.

It turns out that he did
have some difficulties.

So who spec'd this roof, then?

Well, in fact, we talked
it through with them

but it was just... I
think it's a new product.

I love it because it was affordable
and it's a clay tile

and I never thought that I'd end up
with a clay tile.

- But it's the colour of slate.
- It is.

Why have you gone for
grey? Why not the local

vernacular dark brown,
dark reddish colour?

I think the the whole project
is not about vernacular.

It's not Sussex vernacular.
Nor is it American.

And it's not trying to be.
Nor is it trying to be completely American.

It's its own thing.

And I think this works
for me with the cedar.

Because it's built
into a sloping site, the

whole house isn't fully
visible from the road.

But what you do see from the road
is the roof covered in black clay tiles

that ironically took like
they might be concrete.

It's a surreal thought that four months ago
this house already existed

but only in a virtual reality -
it was designed on the web.

And maybe it's because of that,

maybe it's because of the quality
of the graphics packages on computers,

or maybe it's just because
it's an American house -

but to my mind it just looks odd here.

With the roof finally
tiled and the framework

wrapped, all that's
left to do externally

is clad the house in the distinctive
New England, painted weatherboarding.

The interior is just beginning to take
shape. Chris can? afford to slow down.

Like the roofers, he's
on a fixed-price deal,

so any overrun means
he'll be out of pocket.

Yes, I'm interested in buying
a number of tumbled marble floor tiles...

The pressure's on Jane too.

With a project that moves as fast as this,

she's got her work
cut out choosing and

ordering all the interior
fixtures and fittings.

Thank you very much. OK. Bye-bye.

It's March now and it's
just four months since

Jane and Willem saw their honeymoon project
arrive on the back of that lorry.

And already their dream
kit house is watertight

at a time when most
self-build projects are

still lurching from one
disaster to the next.

Now, the builder's own schedule
gives them just four weeks

to get the whole project completed
and all but habitable,

which means that it won't be very long

before the happy couple
are stepping over the threshold.

This is very, very different to when
I saw it last. You've got stairs in?

We have stairs and we have edges.
It's no longer an X-ray house.

You have a roof as well,
which is a big difference.

- And plasterboard. It's all...
- It's all happening.

- Looking this way...
- Yes?

All this wood and all this detailing.

I remember you saying
you wanted to have this big view.

I wouldn't have wanted to have a big glass
wall because I think once it's finished,

this is going to seem like
a big expanse of glass as it is.

- It works for me.
- It is your home, after all, not mine.

Upstairs?

- This is the bathroom?
- This is.

- Lovely high ceiling and what's this?
- This is... This is an indulgence.

- It's a big tub.
- Big double bath tub.

Big double bath tub!
Not my colour, dark blue.

Oh, I love it. I think a big white bath
would have looked like a mortuary.

- With this?
- Yes.

That's not a shower head.
That looks like a garden sieve.

On a scale to equal the bath, really.
The bathroom is on a scale with the house.

The whole house is a kind of
a large statement, isn't it?

- It's kind of quite assertive.
- Yes.

Yes, I think if you're going to
do something like build a house,

you have to invest your personality in it
and express yourself.

Does the house truly
reflect your personality?

It feels fantastic.

I mean, it feels sort of even better
than I could have imagined.

It was interesting -
last weekend we were here -

and it began to feel not so much like
an architectural experiment or a house,

but like my home, like our home,
and it really works.

Everything you say about it tells me about
your personality, but does Willem figure?

This is us. It's the
internal space that you

create together that
becomes your shared home.

So has building a house
turned you into a different woman?

I mean, has it empowered you?

It has empowered me.

It's made me realise that um...

I can manage... I can manage
a project like this, in a sense.

I would never have imagined
I would be so organised.

I used to be chaotic and cluttered.

And now I'm quite organised
and I have flow charts and, you know...

When I first met Will and Jane, they
described this as their honeymoon project,

something that they
would want to do together

even though it did originally start out
just as Jane's idea.

And yet, I never get to see Willem.

I mean, he must have been here once
in all the time that I've visited the site.

So whose project is it?
I mean, is it still Jane's baby?

And how does Willem feel about it?

Willem's got a full-time
job in London working

as a graphic artist for
a website design firm.

So how does he keep in touch?

I get updates from her.
I get download sessions when I get home.

What do you discuss?
What do you talk about?

I mean, every aspect of the build.

I come home and we talk house
and we get all the issues sorted out

and we make calls if we need to and so on.

And then that's over and we can
just sort of relax and be husband and wife.

- Jane's, like, carrying this...house.
- Like she would carry a child?

Like she would carry a child.

And I have a traditionally fatherly role
in that I am fairly detached.

Is it your dream, then,
as much as it is hers?

It's clearly something
that she's passionately wanted?

Obviously not.

So what is, then?

What is?

Well, I came to this country to travel,
essentially, I guess.

I didn't expect to meet
someone, fall in love,

get married and build
a house. Certainly not.

- But are you happy with all that?
- Absolutely.

The build is now running
four weeks behind schedule.

The longer Chris remains on site,
the more money he loses.

So has it gone well? I mean, are
you pleased with the build so far?

The only thing I'm not happy with is the
information I was given by the Americans -

in the time it would
take to put the kit up.

It's probably taken another eight weeks
beyond what they indicated,

even me allowing for it taking longer.

Right. Who's paying
for the extra time that

it took to put up the
kit in the first place?

In short, I am because I had a
contract price with Jane to put the kit up,

so any overrun is down to me.

- Does that hurt a lot?
- It is at the moment. Yes.

But it's nothing I can't manage.
You know, I can get over it.

And you just swallow this as part
of your professional... pattern of life?

Yes, absolutely. Well put.

So what else have you got to do?

I have to waterproof the front walls.

I have to build a chimney.

I have to finish the plastering,
the bulk of which should be done this week.

Backfill the site. Make
two drain connections

and put the guttering
up and then I'm finished.

And I'll be out of here in a month.

Perhaps it's not surprising
this project is late.

It's a pioneering American build, of which
Chris naturally had no previous experience.

But the end's in sight for him.

After he leaves, it'll be entirely down to
Jane and Willem to finish their house.

It's now six months since this project
started and Chris is still building.

He's been here eight weeks longer
than he scheduled,

and don't forget he's
on a fixed-price deal.

Yet, I thought the point about kit houses
is that they're supposed to go up quickly.

So what's gone wrong?

The frame has been
much more complicated to do

and much more time consuming
than we were led to believe originally.

The Americans seem to have
this great enthusiasm for these buildings

and they sort of said they could wind it up
from start to finish in four weeks

and I've since discovered that
that's just to put the external frame up.

That's not to do all the other
bits and pieces that go with it.

Jane's devised a cunning method
of mixing plaster with paint pigment.

This way, the vast walls
will be coloured as they're plastered,

saving Jane and Chris time and money -
at least in theory.

The drawback with this method is
that you get beautifully finished surfaces,

but before the builders leave.

But leave they do, and the finishing
is now purely in Jane and Willem's hands.

Now, at last, Willem's
getting really stuck in.

He's even building
the central feature of the living room -

a fireplace he's designed himself.

And he's using his graphic skills

to design a pattern for the bathroom tiles
which they bought in Morocco.

We were on holiday in Marrakech
about a year ago.

What they actually do
to make these intricate mosaic tiles

is they just bake full-size ones
and they then chisel them up.

We saw these and
thought they were absolutely

fantastic and that we
could use them full size.

So we imported, I think,
about 2,500 of them -

20p each!

Something similar here
would be probably close to about £2.

But perhaps there's a reason
why they're only 20p.

There's a big selection process in
that a lot of them, as they're hand made,

are just too messy to use.

At the last minute, Jane has decided
she doesn't like the red tile particularly,

and as the shower was going to be
basically red, yellow and green,

we've had to make a lot of amendments.

Obviously, I can't nip back to Marrakech
and top up the tile stock.

Jane's also saving on bathroom fittings.

She's bought some
cheap brass taps and lights

and is having them copper plated
so they'll look expensive.

By buying these discounted fittings,

we've ended up saving
probably in the order of about £500.

Cos taps are incredibly
expensive. I had no idea.

And another inexpensive option is a flat
pack kitchen for their flat pack home -

which, of course, takes almost as long
to construct as the entire house.

But outside, the
house still isn't finished.

There's one classic
American feature to add -

the decking, which is a present
from Willem's father in New Zealand.

So where's your
decking going to go? Here?

It is. It's here.

Is this it here?

- No.
- No. Too noisy.

It's huge.

I think this will be a
project in several stages.

OK.

- Stage one is?
- Stage one is the decking,

as it was our wedding present
and the wood is sitting there.

- That is going to happen?
- That is.

Then the project works this way
down the garden.

Into the sort of wilderness of beautiful...

Railway sleeper sort of walks around.

And ponds and water. What's the
cost of all this - the decking and...?

We've got £5,000 at the moment
to spend on landscaping,

which is not going to
buy us a fraction of this.

I think we'll do lots of it ourselves.
If we... I think we'll have to.

The decking goes up in a couple of days

and it inspires them
to raid their cash reserves for the garden.

We always had a contingency
in the budget

but it was always in our minds
we would use it for furniture.

That was it, if it was left.

Then we got completely
carried away out here

and we thought, "Can
always get furniture."

So the digger returns to site to do some
major landscaping and build some tenaces.

We're onto the fun stuff now.

There's a week to go
before their first wedding anniversary

and Jane and Willem
are putting all their

energy into getting the
house finished by then.

We're both completely exhausted.
It's only to be expected.

I can hardly speak.

The party does feel like
an additional pressure.

But it's a galvanising pressure and it
kind of gives that last bit of momentum.

It's been a year since
the crack American

team descended on
this sleepy Sussex village

with their email-designed kit house.

But, for the last three
months, Willem and

Jane have been working
alone on the project.

Frankly, it's only because of their
commitment and their passion about it

that they've got thing finished in
time for their first wedding anniversary.

So, their marriage has held together.

Let's see if the house does.

- Hiya.
- Hi, Kevin.

- Jane, how are you?
- Very well.

- You sound a bit croaky.
- I am a bit croaky.

Oh, wow!

Everything...all mixed together.

- It's a personal statement.
- But you are really finished, aren't you?

- It's exactly like the model.
- More or less.

Will, how are you? All right?

- Yeah. How are you?
- Great. Well, this is your kitchen?

This is all new. I haven't
seen any of this before.

Cos it works very well here, you know.

This is a great success, isn't it,
this big double window?

- I love that.
- Brings so much light in.

And the floor's great. Is this marble?

- It's under-floor heated. Feel the warmth.
- I can't believe it.

It's throughout the house.
What are you most proud of here?

Well, I just think the layout, actually.

It's got the triangle
between the sink and the fridge.

The magic cooking triangle.

What, the cooker...fridge...sink.

He just revolves at high speed. Exactly.

I think the kitchens a great success.

What else is you in the house?

Well, what's extremely me
is that big fireplace over there.

Yeah, I did clock that when we came in.

Oh, yeah.
Do you know, Willem, I really like this.

- I think it's great.
- Oh, I'm glad you do.

It's kind of big, groovy, organic...

- There's been mixed reactions to this.
- I bet.

- It's not to everybody's taste.
- Especially purple.

Particularly since it's probably the size
of most people's living rooms.

I think it's pushing the wall out.

- The major piece of furniture...
- ..is the day bed.

It's not really a day bed.
It's more like a grown-up playground.

I think of it
as a kind of romper area.

So this is the guest
bedroom, isn't it, in here?

Through the stained-glass door.

We're using
it as a meditation room.

Yeah, great.

- Escape from everything.
- Escape from everything!

That's why you come down here.

- This looks nice.
- It's more contemporary.

It's beautiful, isn't it?
A very nice little bathroom.

- And up to...?
- The indulgence zone.

Everything in this house
is an indulgence zone.

Blimey!

What a full-on room!

It's a strong
statement of individualism.

Yeah, you said it in one.

With a fantastic view.

But this bath, you know...

Now the tiles are in,
I have to say it's a bit better, isn't it?

But this is a triumph.
Where did you get these bowls from?

Bowls are from Morocco,
Chinese sideboard from a junk shop.

Mirror from Venice
and you've had this coppered.

Now, the shower,
which was just a box when I saw it last...

I think that is a triumph.
That is beautiful.

And what's that shower like?

Look at it. And look at the water.

Rippling on the copper.
What a great thing.

Talk about indulgence, eh?

Of every kind.

And this is Moroccan.

It's Chinese.

It's English. Bit of Venetian thrown in.

It's Egyptian, American...

Doing something like this, you can
just pull together all the things you like.

Through the Mogul doors...
into a Mogul bedroom.

Woah!

Great bed. Beautiful colour, isn't it?

And that lovely voile hanging above it.

And I thought the sitting room was red.

I love sleeping
in this kind of colour.

It was really pale to begin with
and I couldn't sleep properly.

I was a dictator about that, wasn't I?

Where do you get dressed?
Where are all your things?

We wanted to keep this empty
so that you really can switch off

and we've got a walk-in wardrobe or closet.

- Oh, through here?
- Yeah.

It's vast. You could live in here.
It's a complete room.

Yeah, well,
one of us has got rather a lot of clothes.

One of us has
got rather a lot of shoes.

One of you has got a
lot of everything, actually.

Fantastic view!

- Isn't it? I keep coming back to that.
- It is.

I can't ever
stop looking at it.

What an extraordinary
place to build a house.

- It's a view to die for.
- Absolutely.

And you've got a view
into the building as well.

But the big surprise of the house
has been just how high up you are.

Cos I just didn't have any conception

of just how big the volume was going to be

until the floors began to go in.

Well, congratulations,
cos very few people meet their deadlines.

So, now, to be perfectly blunt about this,
how much has the whole thing cost you?

It's cost about 265 to 270.

And how much have you spent
over your original budget?

We've spent about 20 more.

Where did the money come from?

I did a book this year
and I'm about to do

another one, so there's
money that's come in.

In one pocket...

- And out the other. Exactly.
- What next?

I feel like there's been three of us
in this marriage.

The house has been
the Camilla Parker Bowles

of our relationship
in the last 12 months.

I feel for so long it's been borrowing
more of me than I really want to give it,

for longer than the
project takes, so it'll just

be great to actually
learn to live in the space.

You were very, very feisty to take it on

and design it over the net
and do all the things you did.

Mmm... I think it's partly...

Partly not really appreciating
quite the enormity of what you're taking on

is why people can dream big shiny dreams.

You wouldn't be so eager to get into it
if you're a real pragmatist.

And has it cemented your relationship?

- Completely.
- Yeah.

It's been a sort of...

It's been a question of
renegotiating the dream

and waiting for that moment when Will would
seize it and feel as involved as I,

and I couldn't wait for that moment.

I had to run to catch up, but once I caught
up and caught on, I was with the project.

It's got my blood and sweat and tears,
literally, in this building

and um...it's our place
completely and utterly.

When I first met Jane,

I thought to myself, "Here is a woman
who is pushing herself beyond the limit,

who's buying a kit house in a box

that will look like something from Legoland
in the middle of the Sussex countryside,

and who is building
her vision, her way,

despite her new and
very much loved husband."

But I have been trumped.

Now that the landscaping's
finished, this house

actually looks better
than many I can think of.

And Jane has carried it off with
huge flourish and no little talent.

She's even released her grip on her dream
in order to include Willem,

so that the place
actually now does feel like their home.

For someone who's never built before,
that's some class act.