Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 2, Episode 4 - The Isolated Cottage, Wales - full transcript
Where's your nearest neighbour?
Roughly, they're all a mile away.
It's so extreme, it's
like, you've got to be
here to sort of understand
how bad it can be.
The tree and the land
there has cracked and
will probably end up
against the house again.
I'm amazed to still find you here.
It's been going on a week now
and we're not allowed up to our house.
Building your own house
can be a real struggle.
A constant fight against rising costs,
even rising tempers.
But this week's build is all that and more.
It's a fight against the elements.
The couple I'm going
to meet have got a site
that's in a really
inhospitable climate,
and which is totally isolated.
There's not even a road there.
It's up that mountain.
The site is in the heart
of the Brecon Beacons National Park
on the border of England and Wales.
Adrian and Corinna are going to restore
a 300-year-old ruin.
To get to it is a 15-minute
drive up a dirt track.
How far can you see
from here on a good day?
On a good day,
supposedly you can see seven counties.
And from here I can
hardly see another house -
there's the odd farm on
the other side of the hill.
Where's your nearest neighbour?
Actually down through the trees there -
roughly they're all a mile away.
- That's amazing, isn't it?
- It's quite nice, yeah.
It's a long walk for a cup of sugar.
Is this your first home together?
CORINNA: It is.
ADRIAN: Yes.
So, all in all, I mean,
in every way, it's
going to be quite a
change for you, isn't it?
ADRIAN: Oh, very much so.
How you're going to live is going to be
very different.
If Corinna's very
lucky, we may even get
married, but I don't
know if you're that lucky.
No, probably not.
Go on!
Oh, my goodness.
What are you going to do with this place?
Well, we're hoping that
eventually it is going to
be rebuilt, as it formerly
stood, into a cottage.
How did you find it? I mean, were you
just walking along the path one day and...
ADRIAN: No, it's been in the family for...
- In your family?
- Yeah, my dad lived here.
His parents lived here.
So, basically, he was looking to sell it
and I couldn't let it go so I bought it,
sort of, five years ago when it came up
and it's taken us till now
to actually get organised.
- Get some planning permission.
- Why five years, though?
We're in a national
park, in the Brecon
Beacons National Park,
so we've got a problem.
They don't like many
buildings to be put up so...
They've just changed
the directive this year.
What does the new one say?
Basically, it's to bring former dwellings
back into use.
This one, for example?
It was perfectly written
for what we've got here.
And what they're going
to do is rebuild their ruin
into the cottage it was
when first built 300 years ago.
The walls and roof will
be rebuilt using original
materials that are just
lying around the site.
They're also building a
new kitchen extension
along the full length of
one side of the house.
Inside, the main
living space will be
open-planned with a
huge open fire atone end
and an exposed stone wall
leading to the new kitchen.
This will have
flagstone floors and an
oil-fired range which
will heal the whole house.
Upstairs, there's a master
bedroom, a bathroom,
and next to it, a small
second bedroom.
Adrian and Corinna will
need to be self-reliant.
They'll have no mains
water and no electricity.
They bought the house with 12 acres of land
from Adrian's father for £15,000,
and estimate that
the build will cost
£60,000, which is all
coming from a mortgage,
so the total cost of
the project is £75,000.
I mean, when some people say,
"I've bought a wreck,"
what they mean is they've bought a house
in a rather sad state of disrepair.
You have bought a wreck.
But it gives us a little bit of freedom
in what we've got afterwards, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Big old job.
Yeah, it's not for the faint-hearted.
What about the weather? I mean,
the weather here is not the kindest, is it?
No. Our main aim is to get the roof on
by at least the end of September -
there's no way we'll be up here on a roof
after that time.
Eight weeks isn't a long
time to build an entire
elevation in stone. Put
all the lintels in and er...
- No.
- ..get up to... to roof height?
Not at all, no, because there will be days,
as you can tell, where...
Middle of July now and it's not
exactly the most hospitable day, is it?
And moreover we're in the middle of July
and the work hasn't started yet.
I mean, there's no-one here.
- I'm sure they'll turn up sometime.
- When are they going to start?
I'm sure they will.
Adrian has found his builders,
but at the beginning of August
they're still tied up on another job
so he's decided to start work on site
without them.
ADRIAN: Now it's a reality,
and I don't like living in reality.
We've told everybody
what it should look like
and how it's going to
be and all the rest of it
and now it's... it's got
to end up that way now.
The first job is to repair the front wall
where four tons of stone
are supported by one worm-eaten oak lintel.
I take it that was a big one.
Adrian and his 15-year-old nephew have
to take down the masonry above the lintel.
It's a dangerous job. One push on the wrong
stone could bring the whole lot down.
ADRIAN: It's a funny feeling.
Just, like, having to start
to take it down, I suppose.
I quite like the charm of the
place as it is, is my problem.
I just...
I quite like showing people round my ruin
and telling all the tales.
I don't think it'll ever
be quite as good again.
The boys are supposed to be in Monday
and if they are, I'll still be quite happy,
we're not far off schedule.
Adrian has some free
time to work on the build.
The activity company he runs with
his brother is mostly busy at weekends.
ADRIAN: Mountain Mayhem basically suits me
down to the ground
cos that's what I do - that's what
I've always done - is drive cars,
anything I can get my hands on, fast.
Corinna works shifts
as a nurse which doesn't
give her much spare
time for the build.
CORINNA: Working here is my priority.
Weekends and things are spent up
at Mountain Mayhem,
and then any bit that's left over, really,
is spent up at the build.
♪ I see his glory in the...
CORINNA:
We haven't really got a home as such.
We're son of in between Adrian's parents
and my parents, so it's son of...
We're gypsies really,
aren't we, at the moment?
ADRIAN: For a long time now it's been...
an itching need to get out of home
and have what's...
Basically, to have a place of our own.
The builders are still tied up on
other jobs at the end of August
when the materials
for building up the waits arrive.
ADRIAN: That's officially the first lorry
that's ever got up here.
I think the coal lorry
once got to the end of the drive, but...
And there's never been
a wagon in here since.
So, yeah, may many more make it!
We have got worries cos it is very, very
steep. It gets very bad down these parts.
If it's not raining, it's snowing.
It's just so far out the
way that when you're up
here, well, there's no
place on earth like it.
But he's mad.
With a month to go
before the weather's likely to break,
Adrian decides to get started
without the builders,
even though he's never done
anything like this before.
ADRIAN: Summer's passing by so I decided
that it can't be that much to
building a wall so I started on it myself.
I started on it a couple of weeks ago, put
the lintel in, and built the wall on up.
As this is a listed building,
the Brecon Beacons
National Park insists that
it's rebuilt using
traditional materials.
Adrian's using the original stones
and a lime mortar,
which, unlike cement,
takes a few days to harden,
so if a stone looks out of place,
he can rearrange it the next day.
I just feel a lot better for it.
It doesn't bother me.
All the time I'm saving money.
I'm that tight, it son of suits me.
I almost don't want
them to come in now
because every day I'm
actually saving money.
CORINNA: I've got Country Living
and I just buy a few magazines every month
to, you know, to just get ideas really
for the house.
And, you know,
cut bits out that I particularly fancy.
And I keep them in folders,
and then I think, you
know, perhaps it'll help
me get ideas for the
kitchen or the dining room.
The outside I'll leave it to Adrian, but
the inside I think, yes, that's my domain.
But interior decoration
is still a long way off.
Corinna and her
brother are only just
starting to collect
the original roof slates
that are scattered about the land.
CORINNA: We're just measuring the tiles
and putting them into piles
so that they're son of at hand really
for the builders
and then they can pick out
whichever size they need.
It's the beginning of September,
and with four weeks to go before
Adrian's deadline for getting the roof on,
the builders have finally arrived.
Pete and Chris are experienced
in traditional building
and they're used to working
off the beaten track,
but this job goes beyond
anything they've done in the past.
We were talking to the farmer yesterday
and he reckons that when the rain runs
down the track, it just freezes solid,
and you don't get up here
in a four-wheel drive even, so...
We'll have to just wait and
see what happens, you know.
The summertime would be great,
but I don't know...
Would you get fed up of keep
going up and down that track every day,
you know, day in day out? But I
don't know, I think it's a lovely spot.
PETE: if the weather
does turn in the winter, it's...
CHRIS: I mean, let's be fair, he's got
no electricity up here yet. Or water. So...
I mean, I think if that's all done
and the generator's in and everything,
I think it might make life
a bit easier for 'em, but
until then, I think it's
going to be pretty tough.
All I can say is, I think he's got
a very understanding girlfriend as well.
KEVIN: Every piece of stone that's
going into this building is recycled.
Now that's not just for financial
or aesthetic reasons
or because the Brecon Beacons National Park
insists on it -
but really because there's no other option.
Every building in this valley was built
using local materials
because you just can't get big,
heavy lorries full of stuff up these hills.
So far, they've got enough stone on site.
There's a quarry up the hitt behind the
house where the stone originally came from,
so they shouldn't have
a problem if they run out.
So if you're short of stone,
if you need some more, you run out,
can you just nip up here and bowl some
down the mountain from the quarry?
Well, in theory, years ago,
you would have been quite happy to,
but the National Parks
wouldn't be quite as enthusiastic now.
Oh, what, they'd prevent you?
Well, yeah, it's... They own the mountain.
- Oh, so they own the quarry?
- Yeah, I mean...
But your house originally
came from the quarry.
The quarry hasn't been used since the 1930s
and is now completely overgrown,
but it does provide a stunning viewpoint.
Wow!
What a view, eh, isn't it?
Uh-huh.
- Fantastic. You can see miles, can't you?
- You can see a long way from here, yeah.
Dozens of counties, I should think.
It's very, very beautiful. Very wooded.
ADRIAN: Very much so, yeah.
- Rainbows.
You can lose hours on end
just sat there watching it go by.
If you were to have to buy stone
to rebuild your house
rather than using the stuffthafs sitting
there, how much would it be costing you?
Well, it would be roughly, what, £60 a ton.
Plus the cost of getting it up the hill.
The logistics of getting up it there is
worse than buying the materials, basically.
So you've got to use
what you've got on site?
Well, it makes a
lot more sense, yeah.
Bit of a dilemma, isn't
it, really? I mean, there
it is, it's a stone house,
built from this quarry,
you can't get the stone
from anywhere else,
but you can't use the
stone from this quarry.
- Yeah, that's erm... the usual sense.
- What happens if you run out?
We shouldn't. But...
But what happens if you do?
We'll have to... I
mean, we have all the
boundary walls, everything
else we've got to do,
and I'll have to have a word
with the National Parks.
They've finished building up the walls
by the end of September,
but the building's nowhere near watertight.
Then their worst fears are realised -
the heavens open. It rains for two weeks.
The oak roof trusses are ready,
but they cant get any
vehicle up the muddy
mountain track, let
alone eight tons of wood.
A break in the weather
lets the ground dry out a bit,
but even then there's only one way
to bring the trusses up.
The trusses have been cut
from newly-felled green oak.
Before the timbers
are set into the stone
watts, Pete distresses
them with a chain saw
to get a pit-sewn effect - that's
how they would have looked 300 years ago.
Hello, guys. How are you getting on?
- Good.
- Yeah?
- Working hard?
- As always.
Now, I remember you saying to me
that if you didn't get
the roof of the building
on by the end of September,
you were in trouble.
Now, I don't see a roof and it is the...
It is the 12th October.
So we're in trouble.
No, it's... What we're
going to do now, we're
going to put a ply
board... and put the roof up.
- You're going to cheat?
- Yeah, basically.
And just grab the weather
when we can to tile it.
So when does the roof go on, then?
Well, we've got one truss up. One.
- Well, one bit of...
- One bit of the truss.
One piece of wood.
I would give the boys
a few days and it'll...
Yeah? So it shouldn't
take too long to get it up?
- No, I would say...
- Providing you've got the weather?
Within a week you
should see a big difference.
We're going to get the tie beams on,
a couple of trusses,
get the pearlings on
and get it all raftered hopefully.
Can I mention budget? Do you have any idea?
Well, since we didn't start with one,
yeah, it's going well.
Yeah.
We haven't got a clue.
So, you're in a position where -
let me get this straight-
you've got no roof on?
No windows in, yeah?
A load of timber here outside getting wet.
It's October, winter's setting in now
already here in Wales.
Erm... it's been filthy weather this week.
You've had to lay the boys off
several days this week.
You need yet to determine
whether or not you can borrow
the mortgage that they say you can,
but that is dependent on the roof being on?
Yeah, that's about right.
You forgot Corinna's broken finger.
- Shut it in the gate.
- Oh, and you've broken your finger.
But with no roof, no money
and the prospect of a fierce winter,
how long can their optimism last?
It's November.
England and Wales have just experienced
the worst rainfall for a hundred years.
There's a fear that we could be looking
at more flooding in Wales early next week.
Many roads are still closed,
thousands of acres of land are underwater
and hundreds of households lie ruined.
Adrian and Corinna's worst nightmare
has come true.
They've got a moat.
But, it just doesn't seem to phase them.
So, the weather got
to you, then, didn't it?
It was wet, yes.
A bit.
A bit, yes.
And you've started terracing
the slope at the back I've seen?
ADRIAN: It seemed to come a little close
to the house perhaps.
KEVIN: Yeah, so did it
really, really affect you badly?
CORINNA: We thought
it would be ten times
worse than it was as it
had washed the drive.
KEVIN: You couldn't get the car up?
Couldn't get the car up and we thought
we wouldn't have a roof left, basically.
Did you have the boards on?
Were these boards already on?
- Luckily the boards weren't on.
- Weren't on?
So the wind could
literally go straight
through - that's the
only thing that saved it.
Did it slow you down a lot?
Well, it put us back a
week, didn't it, really?
Cos we didn't have any
movement at all for a week.
After being forced to
take another week off,
Pete and Chris are now in a race
to get the insulation and batons on.
The foil-faced insulation boards
are extremely effective -
they're strong and thin so they
can be built into the roof structure.
Was it my imagination or were the windows
going to be going in sometime recently?
We're looking at, I would say, a fortnight
now hopefully the front windows will go in.
Presumably now you
want to get this not only
watertight but also
reasonably airtight.
So you don't get snow blowing in, wind.
So that you can start doing internal work?
We're going to have to now... Priority will
be to make some covers for the windows
cos if the wind blows this way, now it's
covered in, it'll take the roof clean off.
Hey, hey! It'll be just like a big sort of
pump? It'll just pressurise the whole...
There's nowhere for it to go basically.
The pressure builds inside
and the roof takes off?
How is the extension?
Show me the foundations.
- We're really pleased with the extension.
- It's a lot bigger than we thought.
It's huge!
Is this where the Wall's going?
Or is this the stream?
It comes to here, does it?
This is the corner of the building?
That's the corner of the little bit
we're putting on. Back to the wall.
OK. Doing well, then?
CORINNA: Extremely.
ADRIAN: Progress.
When do you think you
are going to get it done?
If it'll stop the water running
in there for a start, it'll be...
Get the roof felted
and then we'll concentrate on this.
You might think that
Adrian's going to absurd
lengths building
his house where it is,
but it is the only way he can get a house
in the area where he grew up
and where his family
have lived for generations.
Round here, virgin building land
in the National Parks is just nonexistent
and as for the existing houses, well,
the locals just can't afford them any more.
Derelict ruins like this
one can go for £150,000,
if they've got planning
permission for rebuilding.
And once they've been restored,
a two-bedroomed period cottage
like Adrian's can be worth 250 grand.
Adrian took a huge risk
buying his ruin cheap
and gambling on getting
planning permission,
but once he got the go-ahead,
his property went from being worth £15,000
to £170,000 overnight,
but even if he does build
it up, I can? imagine what
it's going to be like to
live in such isolation.
So I went to see his father and his aunt
who were brought up there.
It's a pretty desolate place up
there now, isn't it? It's pretty wild.
Definitely so, yes.
Was it always like that
or was it a little bit more civilised then?
I mean, I think there was more people about
cos more people ran sheep on the mountain.
Did you not have electricity
there at the house?
No, never no electricity, no.
- And water supply was what?
- Well, we carried it in a bucket.
- There was a spring there.
- From the back of the barn.
Does it still have any appeal
getting up to that altitude?
Oh, I love to go up the mountain.
I always say I'd love
to live on top of the
mountain - there's
something lovely about it.
KEVIN: Adrian, it's in his blood,
do you know what I mean?
I mean, I can see why
he's attracted to the idea,
but do you think they
know what they're in for?
No, I don't think... No, I don't think so.
I don't think they do really,
but I suppose they'll get used to it.
They'll build it up now and they'll
get used to it perhaps, I don't know.
But it's a couple of coats colder up there
than what it is down with us, isn't it?
After the autumn floods,
December brings gale force winds.
They sweep across
South Wales at 97mph and
Adrian's track finally
gels the belier of him.
Pete and Chris who've had several
close calls driving up in Adrian's old car
are now unable to get
beyond the second field.
Ade always used to say, "Don't forget,
it gets a bit rough up here in the winter,"
but we've worked on
the side of a mountain
before but the road
was a bit different to this.
We've been having bets with
each other to see if we will make it
and Pete's usually
determined to get up here.
One morning, there was a tree across
the track and Pete decided to go round
and I jumped out to move the tree
and the next thing the car spun round
and was rolling down the bank,
so Pete just jumped out and let the car go.
- All right?
- Morning, Ade.
Nice driving, mate.
As you can see, we've
had a bit of a problem.
Lack of traction I take it?
Well, lack of track.
I tell you what, Ade,
that's happened overnight.
Yesterday, we could just straddle it
and get up, but now...
Not a lot left now is there?
No, I mean if this one don't get you,
there's a bigger hole up there
so... I think I'm going
to call it a day, mate.
- Right.
- See what you can do.
- We'll give you a shout.
- OK, mate. Cheers, Ade.
Adrian now needs to see if his quad bike
will make it up.
He has got permission
to build a drive, but
to lay down a permanent
one with heavy stone
would cost him £10,000 and for the moment,
that's out of his price league.
Right now, his priority is to see how much
damage the storms have done to his house.
Well, it looks like generally the house is
still standing which is the main concern.
The worst problem I can see
at the moment we've got
is the tree and the land there
has cracked again.
There's water running in the crack
so that's going to give way
and probably end up
against the house again.
There's nothing we can do to stop it
at the moment so that will be what happens.
This has got deeper
and has been running in the house,
but that's not a real problem -
obviously we could do without it.
But generally... it's looking reasonable.
Most reasonable builders
would have left this job by now.
Pete and Chris' loyalty
to Adrian is such that
they're prepared to be
ferried up on a quad bike
and left alone all day to work
in freezing temperatures.
Ade's been picking
us up in the morning,
bringing a couple of us
at a time up on the quad
and then we walk down
in the dark, basically.
At least they don't
have to tile the roof until
the spring and can
concentrate on the interior.
Pete distresses the upstairs floor joists
in the same way as he did the roof trusses
to give them that pit-sewn look
before putting them in.
The window openings are all boarded up
so it's dark all day
and they're relying on a small generator
to power their lights.
PETE: You don't think about the loneliness,
but when you're here, you're isolated,
and you know the next time you're going
to come back down is five o'clock,
so you've just got to put all your mind
into motivation to get the job done.
We've stuck at it, you know.
You've got to in this sort of situation.
But when you think
this property's been empty for 50 years,
you begin to realise
why it's so extreme up here...
CHRIS: We know why they moved out now.
It's the beginning of
January, and here in
the Brecon Beacons,
winter has truly set in.
But at least I haven't got to come up
on a quad bike today.
Pete and Chris are putting the windows in
and round the back I'm
helping Adrian rake out
the wall where the
kitchen extension will go.
This Wall's going to be
inside your kitchen, isn't it?
That's right.
And this is going to
be just exposed, is it?
To start off with.
If we don't like it, we'll plaster over it,
but it's easier to do it
the other way round.
Now when I came last, that footing
looked exactly the same as it does now?
- No, it was full of water last time.
- That's true, that's true, it has come on.
But you've still got
an awful lot more
building work to do,
haven't you, this winter?
There's a lot of building to do, yes.
So you've got an awful lot more work to do
with lime, with cement?
We're cheating on this. It's going to be
cement and breeze blocks and then...
- What the kitchen, here?
- Just this bit of extension.
You need an outer skin of stone, don't you?
There'll be an outer skin of stone
and there'll be lime mortar on the inside
plastered so you won't see it.
You'll do the conventional thing
and hide the breeze blocks?
Exactly, which hurls,
but budget doesn't allow us to...
To wall completely in stone.
Now these windows are going in, that should
make it a little bit more airtight inside?
Yeah.
And is it going to go
anywhere being oak? Does
it not warp, does it not
get the shakes a bit?
It's kiln-dried so there's
not a lot of moisture in it.
- It's not green, then?
- No, no.
- So it's not going to go anywhere.
- It shouldn't do.
He wants to get treatment on these
as soon as he can to stop...
This side catches the
weather so bad, you know,
that it's just going to be driving
against this wood all the time.
So how are you fixing them in, then?
We're using the expanding foam, which you
can put round. You can put some fixings in.
- The stuff that's up there?
- Yeah, yeah.
You're literally just
gluing it with foam?
Yeah.
- It's quite heavy.
- It's not light, is it?
That's it.
That's got a little sort of half-inch gap
on this side, is that...?
- Come to you a bit.
- Come this way.
Should be about a quarter of an inch,
should be.
That's about it. So just enough
to get the foam into that little gap?
It's very simple, isn't it?
A big old thick stone wall.
It is actually, yeah.
- Big old thick window, glue it in...
- Yeah. And hope.
They've boarded the floors upstairs
and put in the timber frames of the
stud watts between the bedrooms.
These are filled with the same
insulation board they used on the roof.
Adrian and Corinna have got through
half their mortgage
and despite not having started
the kitchen extension,
their ruin is beginning
to look like a house.
It's really coming together up here now,
now you've got this floor in,
do you know what I mean?
It makes all the difference
when you can walk about upstairs.
Exactly, you've got a
first floor in the building.
And through here's the toilet, bathroom?
Yeah, don't go to the bathroom.
We haven't put a floor in.
Great, isn't it, nice
open-plan bathroom in there.
This is bedroom and bathroom. We're going
to put some old oak stud in through there,
we're having a ceiling in the bathroom
to put the water tanks above,
and a couple of doors to get into there.
It has come on quite a long way, though.
I think putting the floor down
and putting the windows in
has made a huge difference to this space.
Very much so. It
literally... They come back,
the boys were back
on the 3rd or something,
and from that day I could see the actual
main structure was going to come together,
and today was the day the windows went in,
they finished the floor off,
and we've got the panelling, not quite
finished, but most of the panelling in.
So you can see the
rooms and everything else.
Are you hopeful that
progress cracks on?
Yeah.
As fast as it has over the past week?
The kitchen... is very small,
do you know what I mean?
With two blokes
working on there plus me
coming in, we're going
to make good progress.
Breeze blocks, you're going to knock up
in a couple of days.
Providing it doesn't freeze
and you have to knock it down?
Yeah, providing all the rest.
This is the kind of ideal house that
children draw, you know, really simple.
And putting in those windows today
reminded me just how simple, how
straightforward building a house can be.
Mind you, up here,
it really does need to be simple.
A few weeks ago, they couldn't even get men
up here, let alone materials.
And the worst winter
weather is still to come.
The calm after the storm.
Last night, torrential
rain flooded the site again
and gale force winds smashed down
the new wall of the kitchen extension.
Pete is having to start building it again
from scratch.
Morale was pretty low this morning
cos me and Chris came up here
and when we saw the damage,
it's just so soul-destroying really.
The wind got up in the afternoon,
but in the night it must have got worse
cos it did a lot of damage.
It knocked this wall down,
a piece of wood fell over and hit it
and we've got severe flooding
round the site as well now.
It was so extreme, you've got to be here
to son of understand how bad it can be.
Last night we lost nine pieces
of 8x4, 3" thick, insulation foam.
- I've seen one stuck in the fence.
- It's about a hundred quid's worth gone.
Hardly worth the effort.
Just found two more sheets
down in the gulley down there.
They're bigger than this,
but they're reasonably broken up,
and there's one a way down through trees
down there.
They are about,
but I don't think they're very valuable.
But it could be a lot worse.
We've still got a roof on there,
which would be a lot more worry
than a few sheets of foam.
In early February, it's colder than ever.
Conditions are now freezing, but the boys
are making good progress on the wall.
They're building a double skin of
breeze blocks with a cavity for insulation.
This will be faced with original stone,
so from the outside it'll took exactly
the same as the rest of the house.
It's icy underfoot and a 30-minute walk
to get up there.
How do you manage to do any kind of
concreting or cement work in this weather?
It's quite difficult, Chris, isn't it?
I mean, the frost this morning... It's
milder now, but the frost was appalling.
Yeah, it was quite a bad one this morning,
but we can put up with the frost.
It's just the wet weather that really holds
you back more than the frosty weather.
It just slows you down, really,
and just gets very messy.
CHRIS: Well, you can see what it's like.
On the whole, if you'd known
how it was going to be up here,
would you have said yes to the job
in the first place?
We were talking about that the other day,
actually, weren't we?
You never know
how these jobs are going to turn out
and when we came to see the job
it was in the summer.
Ade was very clever actually.
It was in the summer
and it was a lovely evening
we came up, had a little
walk up the mountain,
we thought, "Yeah,
we could live with this."
I thought it was a pipe dream,
I didn't think it would happen.
When he finally rung us up and said, "It's
going to happen," I was quite shocked.
Nay, stunned.
- So, you are behind, aren't you?
- Yeah.
By about how many weeks?
Oh, I dunno, I mean
up to Christmas, Ade
reckoned that we'd had
60 working days on it.
But how many weeks do you think there are
before you finish?
Er, well, I mean, I'm hoping in the next
three weeks to get the roof on this part,
we're hoping to do that, aren't we?
I would say... 10 to 12 weeks.
- Three months.
- Yeah.
Meanwhile,
Adrian's making a start on the interior.
He's found a highly fashionable
Belfast kitchen sink.
The sink's been in the field probably
for years now, feeding mineral supplements
sol presume we'll have to give
it a little wash before we use it,
but I'm sure it will be fine.
Ideal.
How much have you got set aside for
interiors? Have you got a budget for it?
No, not as such. We're gonna...
OK, are you going to have any money for it?
Hopefully, yeah. What we thought, we always
wanted to do the windows, the doors,
all that sort of thing right
because that's more difficult to replace
whereas the interior, I think,
as long as the kitchen's all put together,
we've budgeted a bit for the kitchen,
and the rest will come, really, I think.
But you've got some
stuff already, haven't you?
We've got bits and pieces.
Got rooms full at home with...
A sofa?
No, we haven't got a sofa. I've got
like china and cups and stuff like that.
- Anything to sit on?
- No, not yet.
So no budget for
furniture and no furniture?
No.
No, but a kitchen?
But a kitchen, and a table.
Well, that's something to put the cups on,
that's good.
All right, that's you done.
I can't believe that it's
never got you down.
I wouldn't say I haven't had my bad days,
but it's the guys up there
that have the real rubbish.
I'm going to live here,
I can keep my motivation up.
Some days it is... A
couple of weeks ago, very
bad weather, very bad
wind, I come up here
and the guys were very down in the mouth
and I was worried about losing my builders.
- Seriously?
- Yeah, I thought...
- They didn't say they were going to leave?
- No, but you could see it in their eyes!
Broken spirits for the
day and that concerns me
because who else do I get to finish off
half a project?
Well, the answer to
that is, of course, no-one.
At all. Because if they say,
"What happened to the last builders?"
"They couldn't put up
with the conditions" is
not a great advert
for the next guys, is it?
This is doing what? This is providing
your water supply, to the house?
This is for the builders, basically. This
is going to be our drinking water supply,
but obviously we
probably need to get rid of
some of the rubbish
before we start drinking it.
- And so you're going to pump it?
- It's going to be pumped back up.
What about the other services?
You're heating it with what?
We've had to compromise a little bit,
and we're going to heat with a Rayburn,
which does the domestic supply
and essential heating.
Yes, and that's powered by what?
And that's powered by oil.
Oil, and then under-floor heating?
- Under-floor heating.
- Powered by?
- The Rayburn.
- Oil?
And water from here and sewerage is...
a hole in the ground?
Yeah.
More or less. You're
putting in a septic tank?
Septic tank up the top.
They may not be able
to afford mains electricity,
but they are getting a telephone tine
laid up the mountain.
The reclaimed oak beams they'd ordered
for the extension root
turned out to be
completely rotten, so they're
waiting for replacements.
This time in new oak.
Meantime, they're plastering
and there's a palpable sense of progress,
but yet again, forces beyond their control
are about to intervene.
There are two more cases tonight
of foot-and-mouth in Wales.
A cattle farm in Llanddew has been affected
along with a sheep farm in St Mary's.
Foot-and-mouth has now hit
the Brecon Beacons, it's an exclusion zone.
That means that the
locals can carry on as
normal but we can't get
anywhere near the site.
But we have managed to get a camera
to Adrian and Corinna.
Well, as you can see from the sign,
foot-and-mouth is in Hereford.
We're having to do our own shooting
for the next however long this goes on
cos the team can't make it down.
We just thought that we'd show you
what was going on, really.
See the mountain today,
we've had a nice bit of snow,
and it's about -50 at
points, it's freezing.
And although it's a bit
of an ordeal to get here,
as soon as you do, you
know what it's all about.
There we go, home sweet home.
ADRIAN: In here, we've
got the main bedroom,
which has just been
virtually finished,
plastering in the end there.
It's about -4 in the house at the moment.
Now we're cooking lunch,
this is our Saturday lunch.
The weather is so cold
you can't use the cement.
Basically the water in the cement expands
and it crumbles, so it's no good.
Same with the lime.
So we've called a halt to it at the moment,
but there's plenty to get on with
in the house so it's no disaster.
CORINNA: It's absolutely
freezing up here at the moment.
It's too cold, it's not
even snowing any more.
Even our drinks are freezing over. Look!
The room today now is actually looking
quite good,
it's looking like there is an end to it and
that we will actually live here one day.
ADRIAN: Today I finished putting the bleach
on the fungus on the boards.
The oak arrives that we've been waiting for
to put the kitchen roof on,
on Monday about dinner time
so hopefully the boys will probably go on
plastering Monday,
it'll take me all day to get it down here.
And then from there on, they'll be,
weather permitting,
putting the roof on, or the beams up,
ready to put the roof on the kitchen.
Two weeks tater, at the end of March,
they're hit by the worst news yet.
Foot-and-mouth is suspected on Adrian's
cousin's land that surrounds the house.
And until it's investigated, no one,
not even Adrian and Corinna
can go anywhere near the site.
It's a £4,000 fine if we're caught
the other side of this gate.
They were talking...
I think my truck is impounded
because it was, basically,
sat in there when they
come out last time, so I
haven't driven that since.
Yeah, there's my cousin
from the house at the
bottom, he's allowed
to go around the farm,
but he's not allowed out and we're
not allowed in, so that's the situation.
Well, the house
was motoring along
reasonably well. Well,
for us it was, anyhow.
We got the rafters on the roof,
we've got our green
oak in, which we hadn't,
and were pleased
with the way that went.
Basically we were a day away
from making it dry.
After a week, the decision is taken to cull
the sheep and disinfect the land.
Now there's no telling when they'll
be allowed back up to the house.
Mother Nature has thrown virtually
everything she's got at this project:
driving winds, rain, bitter
cold, landslides, floods,
and just when Adrian and Corinna
thought that things couldn't get any worse,
along came foot-and-mouth.
Now, because of that it's been nearly four
months since I was last able to come here
so I'm wondering...
are they now finally on the home stretch?
- Hello, you two.
- Hello.
I'm relieved to see you haven't
been culled. How are you?
- I'm fine.
- How are you?
- Well.
- You look extremely well.
Like to make the effort.
Yeah, and your house looks almost finished.
Almost, yeah.
But you're still here,
and still fighting and still building?
We'll make it now.
There's light at the end of the tunnel.
- What? Next week, week after?
- Yeah, soon.
It looks great, and you've cleared
out the floor, I can see slabs of stone.
Original.
Are they staying or
not? What are you doing?
They're coming up
for the under-floor
heating, then they're
going into the kitchen.
You're recycling them on site.
What will this be?
- This will be oak flooring.
- Nice.
And you've put in a table and chairs,
very sweet of you to furnish it.
Even though you haven't got a front door,
or windows.
This is going to be one big living space.
You're going to have a
staircase going up here, isn't it?
ADRIAN: The spiral stairs going there.
And the plaster is very rough cut
at the moment, what is it? Is it lime?
Again it's lime plaster.
- You've got hair in it.
- Chinese goat's hair.
Of course, nothing but the best for you.
And you leave all the
oak - the lintels and
the oak frames of the
windows, and the bench,
that all gets exposed, left as it is.
- And the fireplace?
- As it is.
Yeah, it's great.
Now when I was here last, your kitchen...
- Wasn't a kitchen.
- Wasn't a kitchen, it was foundations.
- It's moved on.
- Has it?
You can't really cook
your dinner there yet.
What a lovely home.
This is what it's all about.
This has gone in, you've got a roof on it.
A roof, it's dry.
And this is your kitchen/what?
Utility? What's happening here?
CORINNA: No, dining room.
Right, so why's the
dining table in there, then?
It's a bit uneven.
OK, so that goes over here, yeah?
Next door, some of the walls are plastered,
some are exposed, what happens in here?
In here, this will be left as stone,
and this one, and the exterior walls.
So that's these three?
Yeah, those three will
be plastered apart from
the bit round the bake
oven which will be left.
- Ah, sweet, that's nice.
- Very.
You've plastered these
panels, it looks like
some merchant's house
interior from the 1450s.
It's remarkable.
Have you stained this oak?
CORINNA: Yes, yes.
Now why have you done that?
Did you want it a darker old-world colour?
Yeah, just a bit darker than it was so
we just stained it and then oiled it back.
- It's like a natural stain.
KEVIN: Yeah, it's very subtle.
Much more like how the house
would have been when it was first built.
When it was first built
rather than 50 years ago.
Or even 100 years ago.
You see the wall plates
running round the whole building.
So you see the structure of the building
wherever you look.
It is all exposed.
So it's very honest
in that way, isn't it?
And this fireplace, it's very...
God, this is extraordinary. This
plaster is weird, it looks 500 years old.
It's bizarre.
So the principle reason for using
these materials is cos they're practical?
And since you have them and they look so
good, you may as well leave them exposed?
ADRIAN: Exactly.
CORINNA: Definitely.
So your spare bathroom
and your spare bedroom/junk room
is going to be through there, yeah?
That this house should resemble
a medieval one is no coincidence.
It's been rebuilt,
plastered and finished
using ancient building
techniques and materials
that tend a simplicity
and honesty to the house.
This is no-frills farmhouse architecture.
Timeless, practical, durable.
If you were to do it again,
would you do it exactly the same way?
Yeah, I would actually, yeah.
Knowing what you've learned
over the past year though, you know.
I wouldn't do it in the
winter again, but yeah,
the build I would do, the
way it's been built then,
I would do the same thing.
When you're living here and it's all done,
you're still going to have to
cope with that hill, coming home?
- Every evening?
CORINNA: Every evening.
What happens if say, in December, Corinna,
you're doing a night shift,
you finish at one in the morning,
you know, icy, fog, bit
of snow, hail, terrible
visibility, you've
got to get up the hill,
how are you going to manage,
now that you've crashed the Subaru?
I can always buy another Subaru.
It's never been a real issue,
I mean, yeah, you have bad winters.
I mean, I look forward
to looking out the window
and "God, we can't go anywhere,
what a bummer."
Do you know what I mean?
What's the problem?
Yeah, but when that's
nine or ten months of
the year, that must get
you down, doesn't it?
From now on, how long do you think
it's going to be before you finish?
Say October time, I'd be hopeful.
I wouldn't want to do another winter.
You don't want to do another winter,
I'm thinking what happens if you have to?
Well, no, because we can get it watertight,
realistic by October, we can.
I've heard that somewhere before!
If you're going to borrow any more money,
how much do you need?
We think we're about 10 to 15 short,
to finish the structure.
So £75,000 for the structure, all in.
It's going to be worth £250,000,
£400,000, I don't know?
It's a very, very
tempting idea, isn't it, that
you could sell it and
double your money instantly?
What do you buy back?
We could never buy this back.
I have enjoyed every single trip to
this site even in the depths of winter.
I mean, this view,
the location, this house
are all things that many
people would kill for.
Whether you'd go through what they've been
through is another matter, of course,
but then again Adrian and Corinna
are pursuing a very special dream here.
The chance to stay in the valley where
their families have lived for generations.
They're building a dream home in a
place where they feel they really belong.
Very much different
from last time I seen it.
Is it really?
Roughly, they're all a mile away.
It's so extreme, it's
like, you've got to be
here to sort of understand
how bad it can be.
The tree and the land
there has cracked and
will probably end up
against the house again.
I'm amazed to still find you here.
It's been going on a week now
and we're not allowed up to our house.
Building your own house
can be a real struggle.
A constant fight against rising costs,
even rising tempers.
But this week's build is all that and more.
It's a fight against the elements.
The couple I'm going
to meet have got a site
that's in a really
inhospitable climate,
and which is totally isolated.
There's not even a road there.
It's up that mountain.
The site is in the heart
of the Brecon Beacons National Park
on the border of England and Wales.
Adrian and Corinna are going to restore
a 300-year-old ruin.
To get to it is a 15-minute
drive up a dirt track.
How far can you see
from here on a good day?
On a good day,
supposedly you can see seven counties.
And from here I can
hardly see another house -
there's the odd farm on
the other side of the hill.
Where's your nearest neighbour?
Actually down through the trees there -
roughly they're all a mile away.
- That's amazing, isn't it?
- It's quite nice, yeah.
It's a long walk for a cup of sugar.
Is this your first home together?
CORINNA: It is.
ADRIAN: Yes.
So, all in all, I mean,
in every way, it's
going to be quite a
change for you, isn't it?
ADRIAN: Oh, very much so.
How you're going to live is going to be
very different.
If Corinna's very
lucky, we may even get
married, but I don't
know if you're that lucky.
No, probably not.
Go on!
Oh, my goodness.
What are you going to do with this place?
Well, we're hoping that
eventually it is going to
be rebuilt, as it formerly
stood, into a cottage.
How did you find it? I mean, were you
just walking along the path one day and...
ADRIAN: No, it's been in the family for...
- In your family?
- Yeah, my dad lived here.
His parents lived here.
So, basically, he was looking to sell it
and I couldn't let it go so I bought it,
sort of, five years ago when it came up
and it's taken us till now
to actually get organised.
- Get some planning permission.
- Why five years, though?
We're in a national
park, in the Brecon
Beacons National Park,
so we've got a problem.
They don't like many
buildings to be put up so...
They've just changed
the directive this year.
What does the new one say?
Basically, it's to bring former dwellings
back into use.
This one, for example?
It was perfectly written
for what we've got here.
And what they're going
to do is rebuild their ruin
into the cottage it was
when first built 300 years ago.
The walls and roof will
be rebuilt using original
materials that are just
lying around the site.
They're also building a
new kitchen extension
along the full length of
one side of the house.
Inside, the main
living space will be
open-planned with a
huge open fire atone end
and an exposed stone wall
leading to the new kitchen.
This will have
flagstone floors and an
oil-fired range which
will heal the whole house.
Upstairs, there's a master
bedroom, a bathroom,
and next to it, a small
second bedroom.
Adrian and Corinna will
need to be self-reliant.
They'll have no mains
water and no electricity.
They bought the house with 12 acres of land
from Adrian's father for £15,000,
and estimate that
the build will cost
£60,000, which is all
coming from a mortgage,
so the total cost of
the project is £75,000.
I mean, when some people say,
"I've bought a wreck,"
what they mean is they've bought a house
in a rather sad state of disrepair.
You have bought a wreck.
But it gives us a little bit of freedom
in what we've got afterwards, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Big old job.
Yeah, it's not for the faint-hearted.
What about the weather? I mean,
the weather here is not the kindest, is it?
No. Our main aim is to get the roof on
by at least the end of September -
there's no way we'll be up here on a roof
after that time.
Eight weeks isn't a long
time to build an entire
elevation in stone. Put
all the lintels in and er...
- No.
- ..get up to... to roof height?
Not at all, no, because there will be days,
as you can tell, where...
Middle of July now and it's not
exactly the most hospitable day, is it?
And moreover we're in the middle of July
and the work hasn't started yet.
I mean, there's no-one here.
- I'm sure they'll turn up sometime.
- When are they going to start?
I'm sure they will.
Adrian has found his builders,
but at the beginning of August
they're still tied up on another job
so he's decided to start work on site
without them.
ADRIAN: Now it's a reality,
and I don't like living in reality.
We've told everybody
what it should look like
and how it's going to
be and all the rest of it
and now it's... it's got
to end up that way now.
The first job is to repair the front wall
where four tons of stone
are supported by one worm-eaten oak lintel.
I take it that was a big one.
Adrian and his 15-year-old nephew have
to take down the masonry above the lintel.
It's a dangerous job. One push on the wrong
stone could bring the whole lot down.
ADRIAN: It's a funny feeling.
Just, like, having to start
to take it down, I suppose.
I quite like the charm of the
place as it is, is my problem.
I just...
I quite like showing people round my ruin
and telling all the tales.
I don't think it'll ever
be quite as good again.
The boys are supposed to be in Monday
and if they are, I'll still be quite happy,
we're not far off schedule.
Adrian has some free
time to work on the build.
The activity company he runs with
his brother is mostly busy at weekends.
ADRIAN: Mountain Mayhem basically suits me
down to the ground
cos that's what I do - that's what
I've always done - is drive cars,
anything I can get my hands on, fast.
Corinna works shifts
as a nurse which doesn't
give her much spare
time for the build.
CORINNA: Working here is my priority.
Weekends and things are spent up
at Mountain Mayhem,
and then any bit that's left over, really,
is spent up at the build.
♪ I see his glory in the...
CORINNA:
We haven't really got a home as such.
We're son of in between Adrian's parents
and my parents, so it's son of...
We're gypsies really,
aren't we, at the moment?
ADRIAN: For a long time now it's been...
an itching need to get out of home
and have what's...
Basically, to have a place of our own.
The builders are still tied up on
other jobs at the end of August
when the materials
for building up the waits arrive.
ADRIAN: That's officially the first lorry
that's ever got up here.
I think the coal lorry
once got to the end of the drive, but...
And there's never been
a wagon in here since.
So, yeah, may many more make it!
We have got worries cos it is very, very
steep. It gets very bad down these parts.
If it's not raining, it's snowing.
It's just so far out the
way that when you're up
here, well, there's no
place on earth like it.
But he's mad.
With a month to go
before the weather's likely to break,
Adrian decides to get started
without the builders,
even though he's never done
anything like this before.
ADRIAN: Summer's passing by so I decided
that it can't be that much to
building a wall so I started on it myself.
I started on it a couple of weeks ago, put
the lintel in, and built the wall on up.
As this is a listed building,
the Brecon Beacons
National Park insists that
it's rebuilt using
traditional materials.
Adrian's using the original stones
and a lime mortar,
which, unlike cement,
takes a few days to harden,
so if a stone looks out of place,
he can rearrange it the next day.
I just feel a lot better for it.
It doesn't bother me.
All the time I'm saving money.
I'm that tight, it son of suits me.
I almost don't want
them to come in now
because every day I'm
actually saving money.
CORINNA: I've got Country Living
and I just buy a few magazines every month
to, you know, to just get ideas really
for the house.
And, you know,
cut bits out that I particularly fancy.
And I keep them in folders,
and then I think, you
know, perhaps it'll help
me get ideas for the
kitchen or the dining room.
The outside I'll leave it to Adrian, but
the inside I think, yes, that's my domain.
But interior decoration
is still a long way off.
Corinna and her
brother are only just
starting to collect
the original roof slates
that are scattered about the land.
CORINNA: We're just measuring the tiles
and putting them into piles
so that they're son of at hand really
for the builders
and then they can pick out
whichever size they need.
It's the beginning of September,
and with four weeks to go before
Adrian's deadline for getting the roof on,
the builders have finally arrived.
Pete and Chris are experienced
in traditional building
and they're used to working
off the beaten track,
but this job goes beyond
anything they've done in the past.
We were talking to the farmer yesterday
and he reckons that when the rain runs
down the track, it just freezes solid,
and you don't get up here
in a four-wheel drive even, so...
We'll have to just wait and
see what happens, you know.
The summertime would be great,
but I don't know...
Would you get fed up of keep
going up and down that track every day,
you know, day in day out? But I
don't know, I think it's a lovely spot.
PETE: if the weather
does turn in the winter, it's...
CHRIS: I mean, let's be fair, he's got
no electricity up here yet. Or water. So...
I mean, I think if that's all done
and the generator's in and everything,
I think it might make life
a bit easier for 'em, but
until then, I think it's
going to be pretty tough.
All I can say is, I think he's got
a very understanding girlfriend as well.
KEVIN: Every piece of stone that's
going into this building is recycled.
Now that's not just for financial
or aesthetic reasons
or because the Brecon Beacons National Park
insists on it -
but really because there's no other option.
Every building in this valley was built
using local materials
because you just can't get big,
heavy lorries full of stuff up these hills.
So far, they've got enough stone on site.
There's a quarry up the hitt behind the
house where the stone originally came from,
so they shouldn't have
a problem if they run out.
So if you're short of stone,
if you need some more, you run out,
can you just nip up here and bowl some
down the mountain from the quarry?
Well, in theory, years ago,
you would have been quite happy to,
but the National Parks
wouldn't be quite as enthusiastic now.
Oh, what, they'd prevent you?
Well, yeah, it's... They own the mountain.
- Oh, so they own the quarry?
- Yeah, I mean...
But your house originally
came from the quarry.
The quarry hasn't been used since the 1930s
and is now completely overgrown,
but it does provide a stunning viewpoint.
Wow!
What a view, eh, isn't it?
Uh-huh.
- Fantastic. You can see miles, can't you?
- You can see a long way from here, yeah.
Dozens of counties, I should think.
It's very, very beautiful. Very wooded.
ADRIAN: Very much so, yeah.
- Rainbows.
You can lose hours on end
just sat there watching it go by.
If you were to have to buy stone
to rebuild your house
rather than using the stuffthafs sitting
there, how much would it be costing you?
Well, it would be roughly, what, £60 a ton.
Plus the cost of getting it up the hill.
The logistics of getting up it there is
worse than buying the materials, basically.
So you've got to use
what you've got on site?
Well, it makes a
lot more sense, yeah.
Bit of a dilemma, isn't
it, really? I mean, there
it is, it's a stone house,
built from this quarry,
you can't get the stone
from anywhere else,
but you can't use the
stone from this quarry.
- Yeah, that's erm... the usual sense.
- What happens if you run out?
We shouldn't. But...
But what happens if you do?
We'll have to... I
mean, we have all the
boundary walls, everything
else we've got to do,
and I'll have to have a word
with the National Parks.
They've finished building up the walls
by the end of September,
but the building's nowhere near watertight.
Then their worst fears are realised -
the heavens open. It rains for two weeks.
The oak roof trusses are ready,
but they cant get any
vehicle up the muddy
mountain track, let
alone eight tons of wood.
A break in the weather
lets the ground dry out a bit,
but even then there's only one way
to bring the trusses up.
The trusses have been cut
from newly-felled green oak.
Before the timbers
are set into the stone
watts, Pete distresses
them with a chain saw
to get a pit-sewn effect - that's
how they would have looked 300 years ago.
Hello, guys. How are you getting on?
- Good.
- Yeah?
- Working hard?
- As always.
Now, I remember you saying to me
that if you didn't get
the roof of the building
on by the end of September,
you were in trouble.
Now, I don't see a roof and it is the...
It is the 12th October.
So we're in trouble.
No, it's... What we're
going to do now, we're
going to put a ply
board... and put the roof up.
- You're going to cheat?
- Yeah, basically.
And just grab the weather
when we can to tile it.
So when does the roof go on, then?
Well, we've got one truss up. One.
- Well, one bit of...
- One bit of the truss.
One piece of wood.
I would give the boys
a few days and it'll...
Yeah? So it shouldn't
take too long to get it up?
- No, I would say...
- Providing you've got the weather?
Within a week you
should see a big difference.
We're going to get the tie beams on,
a couple of trusses,
get the pearlings on
and get it all raftered hopefully.
Can I mention budget? Do you have any idea?
Well, since we didn't start with one,
yeah, it's going well.
Yeah.
We haven't got a clue.
So, you're in a position where -
let me get this straight-
you've got no roof on?
No windows in, yeah?
A load of timber here outside getting wet.
It's October, winter's setting in now
already here in Wales.
Erm... it's been filthy weather this week.
You've had to lay the boys off
several days this week.
You need yet to determine
whether or not you can borrow
the mortgage that they say you can,
but that is dependent on the roof being on?
Yeah, that's about right.
You forgot Corinna's broken finger.
- Shut it in the gate.
- Oh, and you've broken your finger.
But with no roof, no money
and the prospect of a fierce winter,
how long can their optimism last?
It's November.
England and Wales have just experienced
the worst rainfall for a hundred years.
There's a fear that we could be looking
at more flooding in Wales early next week.
Many roads are still closed,
thousands of acres of land are underwater
and hundreds of households lie ruined.
Adrian and Corinna's worst nightmare
has come true.
They've got a moat.
But, it just doesn't seem to phase them.
So, the weather got
to you, then, didn't it?
It was wet, yes.
A bit.
A bit, yes.
And you've started terracing
the slope at the back I've seen?
ADRIAN: It seemed to come a little close
to the house perhaps.
KEVIN: Yeah, so did it
really, really affect you badly?
CORINNA: We thought
it would be ten times
worse than it was as it
had washed the drive.
KEVIN: You couldn't get the car up?
Couldn't get the car up and we thought
we wouldn't have a roof left, basically.
Did you have the boards on?
Were these boards already on?
- Luckily the boards weren't on.
- Weren't on?
So the wind could
literally go straight
through - that's the
only thing that saved it.
Did it slow you down a lot?
Well, it put us back a
week, didn't it, really?
Cos we didn't have any
movement at all for a week.
After being forced to
take another week off,
Pete and Chris are now in a race
to get the insulation and batons on.
The foil-faced insulation boards
are extremely effective -
they're strong and thin so they
can be built into the roof structure.
Was it my imagination or were the windows
going to be going in sometime recently?
We're looking at, I would say, a fortnight
now hopefully the front windows will go in.
Presumably now you
want to get this not only
watertight but also
reasonably airtight.
So you don't get snow blowing in, wind.
So that you can start doing internal work?
We're going to have to now... Priority will
be to make some covers for the windows
cos if the wind blows this way, now it's
covered in, it'll take the roof clean off.
Hey, hey! It'll be just like a big sort of
pump? It'll just pressurise the whole...
There's nowhere for it to go basically.
The pressure builds inside
and the roof takes off?
How is the extension?
Show me the foundations.
- We're really pleased with the extension.
- It's a lot bigger than we thought.
It's huge!
Is this where the Wall's going?
Or is this the stream?
It comes to here, does it?
This is the corner of the building?
That's the corner of the little bit
we're putting on. Back to the wall.
OK. Doing well, then?
CORINNA: Extremely.
ADRIAN: Progress.
When do you think you
are going to get it done?
If it'll stop the water running
in there for a start, it'll be...
Get the roof felted
and then we'll concentrate on this.
You might think that
Adrian's going to absurd
lengths building
his house where it is,
but it is the only way he can get a house
in the area where he grew up
and where his family
have lived for generations.
Round here, virgin building land
in the National Parks is just nonexistent
and as for the existing houses, well,
the locals just can't afford them any more.
Derelict ruins like this
one can go for £150,000,
if they've got planning
permission for rebuilding.
And once they've been restored,
a two-bedroomed period cottage
like Adrian's can be worth 250 grand.
Adrian took a huge risk
buying his ruin cheap
and gambling on getting
planning permission,
but once he got the go-ahead,
his property went from being worth £15,000
to £170,000 overnight,
but even if he does build
it up, I can? imagine what
it's going to be like to
live in such isolation.
So I went to see his father and his aunt
who were brought up there.
It's a pretty desolate place up
there now, isn't it? It's pretty wild.
Definitely so, yes.
Was it always like that
or was it a little bit more civilised then?
I mean, I think there was more people about
cos more people ran sheep on the mountain.
Did you not have electricity
there at the house?
No, never no electricity, no.
- And water supply was what?
- Well, we carried it in a bucket.
- There was a spring there.
- From the back of the barn.
Does it still have any appeal
getting up to that altitude?
Oh, I love to go up the mountain.
I always say I'd love
to live on top of the
mountain - there's
something lovely about it.
KEVIN: Adrian, it's in his blood,
do you know what I mean?
I mean, I can see why
he's attracted to the idea,
but do you think they
know what they're in for?
No, I don't think... No, I don't think so.
I don't think they do really,
but I suppose they'll get used to it.
They'll build it up now and they'll
get used to it perhaps, I don't know.
But it's a couple of coats colder up there
than what it is down with us, isn't it?
After the autumn floods,
December brings gale force winds.
They sweep across
South Wales at 97mph and
Adrian's track finally
gels the belier of him.
Pete and Chris who've had several
close calls driving up in Adrian's old car
are now unable to get
beyond the second field.
Ade always used to say, "Don't forget,
it gets a bit rough up here in the winter,"
but we've worked on
the side of a mountain
before but the road
was a bit different to this.
We've been having bets with
each other to see if we will make it
and Pete's usually
determined to get up here.
One morning, there was a tree across
the track and Pete decided to go round
and I jumped out to move the tree
and the next thing the car spun round
and was rolling down the bank,
so Pete just jumped out and let the car go.
- All right?
- Morning, Ade.
Nice driving, mate.
As you can see, we've
had a bit of a problem.
Lack of traction I take it?
Well, lack of track.
I tell you what, Ade,
that's happened overnight.
Yesterday, we could just straddle it
and get up, but now...
Not a lot left now is there?
No, I mean if this one don't get you,
there's a bigger hole up there
so... I think I'm going
to call it a day, mate.
- Right.
- See what you can do.
- We'll give you a shout.
- OK, mate. Cheers, Ade.
Adrian now needs to see if his quad bike
will make it up.
He has got permission
to build a drive, but
to lay down a permanent
one with heavy stone
would cost him £10,000 and for the moment,
that's out of his price league.
Right now, his priority is to see how much
damage the storms have done to his house.
Well, it looks like generally the house is
still standing which is the main concern.
The worst problem I can see
at the moment we've got
is the tree and the land there
has cracked again.
There's water running in the crack
so that's going to give way
and probably end up
against the house again.
There's nothing we can do to stop it
at the moment so that will be what happens.
This has got deeper
and has been running in the house,
but that's not a real problem -
obviously we could do without it.
But generally... it's looking reasonable.
Most reasonable builders
would have left this job by now.
Pete and Chris' loyalty
to Adrian is such that
they're prepared to be
ferried up on a quad bike
and left alone all day to work
in freezing temperatures.
Ade's been picking
us up in the morning,
bringing a couple of us
at a time up on the quad
and then we walk down
in the dark, basically.
At least they don't
have to tile the roof until
the spring and can
concentrate on the interior.
Pete distresses the upstairs floor joists
in the same way as he did the roof trusses
to give them that pit-sewn look
before putting them in.
The window openings are all boarded up
so it's dark all day
and they're relying on a small generator
to power their lights.
PETE: You don't think about the loneliness,
but when you're here, you're isolated,
and you know the next time you're going
to come back down is five o'clock,
so you've just got to put all your mind
into motivation to get the job done.
We've stuck at it, you know.
You've got to in this sort of situation.
But when you think
this property's been empty for 50 years,
you begin to realise
why it's so extreme up here...
CHRIS: We know why they moved out now.
It's the beginning of
January, and here in
the Brecon Beacons,
winter has truly set in.
But at least I haven't got to come up
on a quad bike today.
Pete and Chris are putting the windows in
and round the back I'm
helping Adrian rake out
the wall where the
kitchen extension will go.
This Wall's going to be
inside your kitchen, isn't it?
That's right.
And this is going to
be just exposed, is it?
To start off with.
If we don't like it, we'll plaster over it,
but it's easier to do it
the other way round.
Now when I came last, that footing
looked exactly the same as it does now?
- No, it was full of water last time.
- That's true, that's true, it has come on.
But you've still got
an awful lot more
building work to do,
haven't you, this winter?
There's a lot of building to do, yes.
So you've got an awful lot more work to do
with lime, with cement?
We're cheating on this. It's going to be
cement and breeze blocks and then...
- What the kitchen, here?
- Just this bit of extension.
You need an outer skin of stone, don't you?
There'll be an outer skin of stone
and there'll be lime mortar on the inside
plastered so you won't see it.
You'll do the conventional thing
and hide the breeze blocks?
Exactly, which hurls,
but budget doesn't allow us to...
To wall completely in stone.
Now these windows are going in, that should
make it a little bit more airtight inside?
Yeah.
And is it going to go
anywhere being oak? Does
it not warp, does it not
get the shakes a bit?
It's kiln-dried so there's
not a lot of moisture in it.
- It's not green, then?
- No, no.
- So it's not going to go anywhere.
- It shouldn't do.
He wants to get treatment on these
as soon as he can to stop...
This side catches the
weather so bad, you know,
that it's just going to be driving
against this wood all the time.
So how are you fixing them in, then?
We're using the expanding foam, which you
can put round. You can put some fixings in.
- The stuff that's up there?
- Yeah, yeah.
You're literally just
gluing it with foam?
Yeah.
- It's quite heavy.
- It's not light, is it?
That's it.
That's got a little sort of half-inch gap
on this side, is that...?
- Come to you a bit.
- Come this way.
Should be about a quarter of an inch,
should be.
That's about it. So just enough
to get the foam into that little gap?
It's very simple, isn't it?
A big old thick stone wall.
It is actually, yeah.
- Big old thick window, glue it in...
- Yeah. And hope.
They've boarded the floors upstairs
and put in the timber frames of the
stud watts between the bedrooms.
These are filled with the same
insulation board they used on the roof.
Adrian and Corinna have got through
half their mortgage
and despite not having started
the kitchen extension,
their ruin is beginning
to look like a house.
It's really coming together up here now,
now you've got this floor in,
do you know what I mean?
It makes all the difference
when you can walk about upstairs.
Exactly, you've got a
first floor in the building.
And through here's the toilet, bathroom?
Yeah, don't go to the bathroom.
We haven't put a floor in.
Great, isn't it, nice
open-plan bathroom in there.
This is bedroom and bathroom. We're going
to put some old oak stud in through there,
we're having a ceiling in the bathroom
to put the water tanks above,
and a couple of doors to get into there.
It has come on quite a long way, though.
I think putting the floor down
and putting the windows in
has made a huge difference to this space.
Very much so. It
literally... They come back,
the boys were back
on the 3rd or something,
and from that day I could see the actual
main structure was going to come together,
and today was the day the windows went in,
they finished the floor off,
and we've got the panelling, not quite
finished, but most of the panelling in.
So you can see the
rooms and everything else.
Are you hopeful that
progress cracks on?
Yeah.
As fast as it has over the past week?
The kitchen... is very small,
do you know what I mean?
With two blokes
working on there plus me
coming in, we're going
to make good progress.
Breeze blocks, you're going to knock up
in a couple of days.
Providing it doesn't freeze
and you have to knock it down?
Yeah, providing all the rest.
This is the kind of ideal house that
children draw, you know, really simple.
And putting in those windows today
reminded me just how simple, how
straightforward building a house can be.
Mind you, up here,
it really does need to be simple.
A few weeks ago, they couldn't even get men
up here, let alone materials.
And the worst winter
weather is still to come.
The calm after the storm.
Last night, torrential
rain flooded the site again
and gale force winds smashed down
the new wall of the kitchen extension.
Pete is having to start building it again
from scratch.
Morale was pretty low this morning
cos me and Chris came up here
and when we saw the damage,
it's just so soul-destroying really.
The wind got up in the afternoon,
but in the night it must have got worse
cos it did a lot of damage.
It knocked this wall down,
a piece of wood fell over and hit it
and we've got severe flooding
round the site as well now.
It was so extreme, you've got to be here
to son of understand how bad it can be.
Last night we lost nine pieces
of 8x4, 3" thick, insulation foam.
- I've seen one stuck in the fence.
- It's about a hundred quid's worth gone.
Hardly worth the effort.
Just found two more sheets
down in the gulley down there.
They're bigger than this,
but they're reasonably broken up,
and there's one a way down through trees
down there.
They are about,
but I don't think they're very valuable.
But it could be a lot worse.
We've still got a roof on there,
which would be a lot more worry
than a few sheets of foam.
In early February, it's colder than ever.
Conditions are now freezing, but the boys
are making good progress on the wall.
They're building a double skin of
breeze blocks with a cavity for insulation.
This will be faced with original stone,
so from the outside it'll took exactly
the same as the rest of the house.
It's icy underfoot and a 30-minute walk
to get up there.
How do you manage to do any kind of
concreting or cement work in this weather?
It's quite difficult, Chris, isn't it?
I mean, the frost this morning... It's
milder now, but the frost was appalling.
Yeah, it was quite a bad one this morning,
but we can put up with the frost.
It's just the wet weather that really holds
you back more than the frosty weather.
It just slows you down, really,
and just gets very messy.
CHRIS: Well, you can see what it's like.
On the whole, if you'd known
how it was going to be up here,
would you have said yes to the job
in the first place?
We were talking about that the other day,
actually, weren't we?
You never know
how these jobs are going to turn out
and when we came to see the job
it was in the summer.
Ade was very clever actually.
It was in the summer
and it was a lovely evening
we came up, had a little
walk up the mountain,
we thought, "Yeah,
we could live with this."
I thought it was a pipe dream,
I didn't think it would happen.
When he finally rung us up and said, "It's
going to happen," I was quite shocked.
Nay, stunned.
- So, you are behind, aren't you?
- Yeah.
By about how many weeks?
Oh, I dunno, I mean
up to Christmas, Ade
reckoned that we'd had
60 working days on it.
But how many weeks do you think there are
before you finish?
Er, well, I mean, I'm hoping in the next
three weeks to get the roof on this part,
we're hoping to do that, aren't we?
I would say... 10 to 12 weeks.
- Three months.
- Yeah.
Meanwhile,
Adrian's making a start on the interior.
He's found a highly fashionable
Belfast kitchen sink.
The sink's been in the field probably
for years now, feeding mineral supplements
sol presume we'll have to give
it a little wash before we use it,
but I'm sure it will be fine.
Ideal.
How much have you got set aside for
interiors? Have you got a budget for it?
No, not as such. We're gonna...
OK, are you going to have any money for it?
Hopefully, yeah. What we thought, we always
wanted to do the windows, the doors,
all that sort of thing right
because that's more difficult to replace
whereas the interior, I think,
as long as the kitchen's all put together,
we've budgeted a bit for the kitchen,
and the rest will come, really, I think.
But you've got some
stuff already, haven't you?
We've got bits and pieces.
Got rooms full at home with...
A sofa?
No, we haven't got a sofa. I've got
like china and cups and stuff like that.
- Anything to sit on?
- No, not yet.
So no budget for
furniture and no furniture?
No.
No, but a kitchen?
But a kitchen, and a table.
Well, that's something to put the cups on,
that's good.
All right, that's you done.
I can't believe that it's
never got you down.
I wouldn't say I haven't had my bad days,
but it's the guys up there
that have the real rubbish.
I'm going to live here,
I can keep my motivation up.
Some days it is... A
couple of weeks ago, very
bad weather, very bad
wind, I come up here
and the guys were very down in the mouth
and I was worried about losing my builders.
- Seriously?
- Yeah, I thought...
- They didn't say they were going to leave?
- No, but you could see it in their eyes!
Broken spirits for the
day and that concerns me
because who else do I get to finish off
half a project?
Well, the answer to
that is, of course, no-one.
At all. Because if they say,
"What happened to the last builders?"
"They couldn't put up
with the conditions" is
not a great advert
for the next guys, is it?
This is doing what? This is providing
your water supply, to the house?
This is for the builders, basically. This
is going to be our drinking water supply,
but obviously we
probably need to get rid of
some of the rubbish
before we start drinking it.
- And so you're going to pump it?
- It's going to be pumped back up.
What about the other services?
You're heating it with what?
We've had to compromise a little bit,
and we're going to heat with a Rayburn,
which does the domestic supply
and essential heating.
Yes, and that's powered by what?
And that's powered by oil.
Oil, and then under-floor heating?
- Under-floor heating.
- Powered by?
- The Rayburn.
- Oil?
And water from here and sewerage is...
a hole in the ground?
Yeah.
More or less. You're
putting in a septic tank?
Septic tank up the top.
They may not be able
to afford mains electricity,
but they are getting a telephone tine
laid up the mountain.
The reclaimed oak beams they'd ordered
for the extension root
turned out to be
completely rotten, so they're
waiting for replacements.
This time in new oak.
Meantime, they're plastering
and there's a palpable sense of progress,
but yet again, forces beyond their control
are about to intervene.
There are two more cases tonight
of foot-and-mouth in Wales.
A cattle farm in Llanddew has been affected
along with a sheep farm in St Mary's.
Foot-and-mouth has now hit
the Brecon Beacons, it's an exclusion zone.
That means that the
locals can carry on as
normal but we can't get
anywhere near the site.
But we have managed to get a camera
to Adrian and Corinna.
Well, as you can see from the sign,
foot-and-mouth is in Hereford.
We're having to do our own shooting
for the next however long this goes on
cos the team can't make it down.
We just thought that we'd show you
what was going on, really.
See the mountain today,
we've had a nice bit of snow,
and it's about -50 at
points, it's freezing.
And although it's a bit
of an ordeal to get here,
as soon as you do, you
know what it's all about.
There we go, home sweet home.
ADRIAN: In here, we've
got the main bedroom,
which has just been
virtually finished,
plastering in the end there.
It's about -4 in the house at the moment.
Now we're cooking lunch,
this is our Saturday lunch.
The weather is so cold
you can't use the cement.
Basically the water in the cement expands
and it crumbles, so it's no good.
Same with the lime.
So we've called a halt to it at the moment,
but there's plenty to get on with
in the house so it's no disaster.
CORINNA: It's absolutely
freezing up here at the moment.
It's too cold, it's not
even snowing any more.
Even our drinks are freezing over. Look!
The room today now is actually looking
quite good,
it's looking like there is an end to it and
that we will actually live here one day.
ADRIAN: Today I finished putting the bleach
on the fungus on the boards.
The oak arrives that we've been waiting for
to put the kitchen roof on,
on Monday about dinner time
so hopefully the boys will probably go on
plastering Monday,
it'll take me all day to get it down here.
And then from there on, they'll be,
weather permitting,
putting the roof on, or the beams up,
ready to put the roof on the kitchen.
Two weeks tater, at the end of March,
they're hit by the worst news yet.
Foot-and-mouth is suspected on Adrian's
cousin's land that surrounds the house.
And until it's investigated, no one,
not even Adrian and Corinna
can go anywhere near the site.
It's a £4,000 fine if we're caught
the other side of this gate.
They were talking...
I think my truck is impounded
because it was, basically,
sat in there when they
come out last time, so I
haven't driven that since.
Yeah, there's my cousin
from the house at the
bottom, he's allowed
to go around the farm,
but he's not allowed out and we're
not allowed in, so that's the situation.
Well, the house
was motoring along
reasonably well. Well,
for us it was, anyhow.
We got the rafters on the roof,
we've got our green
oak in, which we hadn't,
and were pleased
with the way that went.
Basically we were a day away
from making it dry.
After a week, the decision is taken to cull
the sheep and disinfect the land.
Now there's no telling when they'll
be allowed back up to the house.
Mother Nature has thrown virtually
everything she's got at this project:
driving winds, rain, bitter
cold, landslides, floods,
and just when Adrian and Corinna
thought that things couldn't get any worse,
along came foot-and-mouth.
Now, because of that it's been nearly four
months since I was last able to come here
so I'm wondering...
are they now finally on the home stretch?
- Hello, you two.
- Hello.
I'm relieved to see you haven't
been culled. How are you?
- I'm fine.
- How are you?
- Well.
- You look extremely well.
Like to make the effort.
Yeah, and your house looks almost finished.
Almost, yeah.
But you're still here,
and still fighting and still building?
We'll make it now.
There's light at the end of the tunnel.
- What? Next week, week after?
- Yeah, soon.
It looks great, and you've cleared
out the floor, I can see slabs of stone.
Original.
Are they staying or
not? What are you doing?
They're coming up
for the under-floor
heating, then they're
going into the kitchen.
You're recycling them on site.
What will this be?
- This will be oak flooring.
- Nice.
And you've put in a table and chairs,
very sweet of you to furnish it.
Even though you haven't got a front door,
or windows.
This is going to be one big living space.
You're going to have a
staircase going up here, isn't it?
ADRIAN: The spiral stairs going there.
And the plaster is very rough cut
at the moment, what is it? Is it lime?
Again it's lime plaster.
- You've got hair in it.
- Chinese goat's hair.
Of course, nothing but the best for you.
And you leave all the
oak - the lintels and
the oak frames of the
windows, and the bench,
that all gets exposed, left as it is.
- And the fireplace?
- As it is.
Yeah, it's great.
Now when I was here last, your kitchen...
- Wasn't a kitchen.
- Wasn't a kitchen, it was foundations.
- It's moved on.
- Has it?
You can't really cook
your dinner there yet.
What a lovely home.
This is what it's all about.
This has gone in, you've got a roof on it.
A roof, it's dry.
And this is your kitchen/what?
Utility? What's happening here?
CORINNA: No, dining room.
Right, so why's the
dining table in there, then?
It's a bit uneven.
OK, so that goes over here, yeah?
Next door, some of the walls are plastered,
some are exposed, what happens in here?
In here, this will be left as stone,
and this one, and the exterior walls.
So that's these three?
Yeah, those three will
be plastered apart from
the bit round the bake
oven which will be left.
- Ah, sweet, that's nice.
- Very.
You've plastered these
panels, it looks like
some merchant's house
interior from the 1450s.
It's remarkable.
Have you stained this oak?
CORINNA: Yes, yes.
Now why have you done that?
Did you want it a darker old-world colour?
Yeah, just a bit darker than it was so
we just stained it and then oiled it back.
- It's like a natural stain.
KEVIN: Yeah, it's very subtle.
Much more like how the house
would have been when it was first built.
When it was first built
rather than 50 years ago.
Or even 100 years ago.
You see the wall plates
running round the whole building.
So you see the structure of the building
wherever you look.
It is all exposed.
So it's very honest
in that way, isn't it?
And this fireplace, it's very...
God, this is extraordinary. This
plaster is weird, it looks 500 years old.
It's bizarre.
So the principle reason for using
these materials is cos they're practical?
And since you have them and they look so
good, you may as well leave them exposed?
ADRIAN: Exactly.
CORINNA: Definitely.
So your spare bathroom
and your spare bedroom/junk room
is going to be through there, yeah?
That this house should resemble
a medieval one is no coincidence.
It's been rebuilt,
plastered and finished
using ancient building
techniques and materials
that tend a simplicity
and honesty to the house.
This is no-frills farmhouse architecture.
Timeless, practical, durable.
If you were to do it again,
would you do it exactly the same way?
Yeah, I would actually, yeah.
Knowing what you've learned
over the past year though, you know.
I wouldn't do it in the
winter again, but yeah,
the build I would do, the
way it's been built then,
I would do the same thing.
When you're living here and it's all done,
you're still going to have to
cope with that hill, coming home?
- Every evening?
CORINNA: Every evening.
What happens if say, in December, Corinna,
you're doing a night shift,
you finish at one in the morning,
you know, icy, fog, bit
of snow, hail, terrible
visibility, you've
got to get up the hill,
how are you going to manage,
now that you've crashed the Subaru?
I can always buy another Subaru.
It's never been a real issue,
I mean, yeah, you have bad winters.
I mean, I look forward
to looking out the window
and "God, we can't go anywhere,
what a bummer."
Do you know what I mean?
What's the problem?
Yeah, but when that's
nine or ten months of
the year, that must get
you down, doesn't it?
From now on, how long do you think
it's going to be before you finish?
Say October time, I'd be hopeful.
I wouldn't want to do another winter.
You don't want to do another winter,
I'm thinking what happens if you have to?
Well, no, because we can get it watertight,
realistic by October, we can.
I've heard that somewhere before!
If you're going to borrow any more money,
how much do you need?
We think we're about 10 to 15 short,
to finish the structure.
So £75,000 for the structure, all in.
It's going to be worth £250,000,
£400,000, I don't know?
It's a very, very
tempting idea, isn't it, that
you could sell it and
double your money instantly?
What do you buy back?
We could never buy this back.
I have enjoyed every single trip to
this site even in the depths of winter.
I mean, this view,
the location, this house
are all things that many
people would kill for.
Whether you'd go through what they've been
through is another matter, of course,
but then again Adrian and Corinna
are pursuing a very special dream here.
The chance to stay in the valley where
their families have lived for generations.
They're building a dream home in a
place where they feel they really belong.
Very much different
from last time I seen it.
Is it really?