Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 3, Episode 2 - The Water Works, Derbyshire - full transcript
You could get an entire
house into this space.
I'm very tired. We're constantly tired.
We just, we can't shake off the
tiredness either,
can we? You go to
bed on a night and even
after a good night's
sleep, you still wake
up tired.
Imagine living in the middle of
nowhere with views across open country
streets, with people
across open countryside, a few acres
of woodland, imposing gates, a sweeping
drive. And imagine
what kind of house
that would be. Would it
be a Georgian rectory
or a medieval manor
or this?
Leanne Smith and Chris Jones came
across this unique and rather imposing
building, which
was a former waterworks, and have
made the brave decision to convert it into
their dream home. More
of a nightmare, really.
Good grief. One huge space.
Yes, yes.
My God. You could get an entire
house into this space, couldn't you?
That's right, yes.
What are you going to do with this?
It's just going to be left open.
Nice and airy.
That's your front door?
That's the original doors
that we're hoping to keep.
So how on earth are you going to
live in this? What are you going to do to
it to make sense of it?
Well, we're going
to just try and zone it
out to maybe like a
dining area, maybe like
a games pool table or something.
Close the TV area, maybe a workstation
somewhere. Just
see how it goes, really.
It doesn't daunt you.
Yes.
It does daunt you.
And they've every reason to be daunted.
This is a mammoth project. This
building is nearly
three times the size
of an average house,
and it has no services.
Off the main area,
there are three smaller
derelict rooms. Otherwise,
it's just a massive
ex-industrial shell.
The building was constructed in 1938
as a water treatment works. Chris and
Leanne planned to
turn it into a home with
a vast living area.
They'll keep the double
height ceilings
throughout and leave the central
atrium, which is over 20 foot high. They're
going to subdivide
the large space at one end to make
four bedrooms. The old two storerooms
will become bathrooms
and a space at the rear will be
divided to form a large kitchen and study.
But perhaps the most
exciting feature will
be the reinstatement
of the 29 large steel
windows around the building.
The light will transform
the space. It's an
enormous project
for anyone to take on.
So, who have you got
working on this massive project?
We've got Chris's dad helping us out.
Chris's dad?
Yeah.
Just doing a bit here and there.
And who else have you got
on this massive building project?
Ourselves.
We're doing a little bit here and there.
Yeah.
Have you got the stamina to do this?
I mean, it does seem like an enormous
undertaking.
Yes.
Oh, definitely.
No doubt about it. Definitely.
This is by no means
a big budget project.
Chris and Leanne paid
40,000 for this place
before it had planning
permission. They're
spending only 95,000
on the conversion. And
with a small contingency,
the total is around 145 grand.
It's now November, and they plan
to be moved in just in time for the
beginning of summer in June.
If ever there was a
couple with more vision
than money, it's Chris
and Leanne. They are.
going to have to be so creative on
their budget to get this place finished
and habitable by
the summer, despite their minimal approach.
And they have a vast mausoleum
of a building to contend with.
Chris and Leanne
found this epic building
set in four acres of
land whilst driving by
one evening, and
they spent the last three
years trying to buy
it. The buildings had
been left to rot by the water board
after new technology made it obsolete.
It was full of tons of
cast iron tanks when
they bought it. It's
really not surprising
that it had been
abandoned for 30 years.
A lot of people looked at it and
think it's too big for a house. We didn't.
We looked at it and we saw our
house. So we decided to go for it.
To save money, they haven't employed
an architect, and they'll be doing most
of the work themselves.
It's a massive undertaking.
When they found it, the property had two
separate leases and
a covenant, which restricted its use
to a waterworks. The purchase was
fraught with problems.
There were two very frustrating years
of very complicated legal negotiations
dealing with solicitors
that were incredibly
slow. There were
some really frustrating
times looking
back now. There haven't been any
tears yet, but it's been close a few times.
Chris and Leanne run a successful
mail order record business. They have no
experience of
this kind of massive challenge, but
they seem prepared to take anything on.
It would be no fun
at all if you could just
write a blank check
out to some architect
and say, "Build me a
house. Here's £500,000.
It'll come back in six
months." That's not.
really what we're about. So it makes
it more of a challenge, I think, doing
it on a tight budget.
For Leanne, it's more of a teenage dream.
It is something I was
interested in, probably
from being about the
age of 16. And then when.
it came the time to
sell our first house,
we decided we wanted
somewhere bigger. It.
was only then, really, I mentioned
it to him. I said, "Well, why don't we
consider, instead of
just buying another
house, why don't we
consider building one?"
They may have
struggled for three years to
get this far, but it's
nothing compared to
what flies ahead.
The first job is to
remove all the rotting
plaster off the vast
expanse of wall. This
is the mother of all DIY projects.
It's really tough physical work, and
Chris is doing it
all by himself, using every spare
hour he can get away from his business.
Some of it comes off
easy, then you hit a
patch that's rock hard,
and you can spend
two hours doing
just a little bit. So, it's
either way, but at
least you can see what
you've done at the end of the day.
Chris can do the hard graft inside,
but they need experts to fix the roof.
Absolutely flat
roofs are notoriously difficult to seal.
This one gets sheets of insulation
and a thick rubber
membrane glued across the
entire 4,000 square
foot surface. Trouble
is, the glue needs to set.
So, when's it going to be finished?
We're hoping a day of bay.
Which is quite quick.
Around the roof.
But it is now the end of November
and... The weather's getting worse.
Yeah, because you
can't work when it's frozen.
No, we like to be plus five degrees
for the glues to be guaranteed.
Oh my goodness.
It's really not the best
time of year to be
doing this job, is it?
No, but people don't
like waiting till summer.
A week later and the weather breaks,
so the roofers have stayed at home. No
such excuse
for Chris, who's still got
to fight through the plaster.
Chris has just done a
cup of coffee to warm
up. It's absolutely
freezing this morning.
Really icy and frosty.
And it's so cold in here now.
It's supposed to wait seven and a
half kilos, but it feels much heavier than
that when you've
been doing it all day.
If I had to spend over a month
chindling hard-set plaster off 200 square
metres of wall with a heavy
machine, I'd be in casualty.
But Chris just keeps on going.
Chris and Liam were supposed to
be holidaying in Hawaii this Christmas.
Instead, they're braving the
sub-zero temperatures on site.
I really do admire this
couple's dedication.
While most people are
warm at home, enjoying
the festive season,
this pair are hard at
work in this cold, concrete ice bog.
Well, it's boxing day today,
and we decided to have a day off.
We were planning on going down to
the house, but we've just been so busy
with it lately.
It's just nice to have a day off.
We've just had a lazy day at home.
We spent some time
looking at the budget and
going over the figures
and what's happened
so far, and just
catching up on things
really. It's just been
nice to have a day off.
The plaster's finished on January the 1st.
A break in the weather means work
can continue on
the roof, and the new
year brings a fresh
injection of funds.
Hopefully, this is our check.
The next payment on the mortgage.
I better open it now.
Yes.
It's really hot.
A nice big fat juicy check. £47,000.
Sounds a lot of money, doesn't it?
It is a lot of money,
but it won't last long.
The first thing they decide to spend
the money on is getting all those
bricks that Chris has
exposed to sandblasted.
This is a specialist process which
will reveal their inherent colour.
After grafting solidly for nine weeks,
the building's been stripped bare.
I'm intrigued to hear what
they're going to do with it.
We've been busy in sign.
Haven't you just?
These walls look very different.
Yes, yes.
Very clean. They're very clean.
They're not at all dusty either.
No, they're sandblasted.
We're really pleased with the results.
It's brought them up fantastic.
We love the colours.
Yeah, the mortar's good. It's terrific.
The first concrete blocks are
being laid to make the bedrooms.
As for the walls in the main living
space, there still seems an awful lot of
work to me.
You've got a lot of concrete
this end, haven't you?
There's a lot of lintel
and a lot of columns.
Yes, there are.
What are you going to do with those?
We're going to leave them.
Are you?
We love them as a feature.
I think they're great.
That's terrific out there because
you've got the yellow bricks, haven't you?
That's right.
That's all going to stay just as it is.
Yes, just exactly as it is.
There's a fantastic piece over in
the corner which you must look at.
This one here?
This one here where the... It's like
a sense of pebbled beech, isn't it?
Yes, it's great. I love
it. All the surfaces
come away and
left all these pebbles.
It's the original structure,
the fabric of the building.
This is what makes the building what it is.
And that's what I love about it.
It just adds character to the building.
I like Chris and Leanne's
approach to this place.
It's very practical,
very appropriate
because they're
taking industrial design
and industrial building
methods and applying
them to a big old
industrial building.
The trouble is it is so big that
everything they do takes much longer than
they thought it would.
At the moment, all they've really
done is scratch away at the surface.
Literally.
The weather is so bad today.
We just thought about staying at
home while they were just staying in bed
but it's not really an option.
Chris Jones and Leanne Smith are
taking on the biggest DIY job ever.
Bang in the middle of the British winter.
And whilst they've
come a long way, they've
still gone a long,
tough journey ahead.
It's February and because of the
weather, all work on the exterior of the
building is put on hold.
But turning this huge industrial
shell into a home involves literally
thousands of individual jobs.
And Chris and Leanne have to be
on top of each and every one of them.
What we've found
is every single job is
far more complicated
than you first think.
Every job needs doing
first and it can't happen.
So at some point you've got to make
a decision what you're going to do.
Yeah, you've got to prioritise things,
haven't you, and think through the
process of what's got to happen.
And sometimes it's not always ideal, is it?
Sometimes you've got to
compromise and think, well, we'll
have to do that job and then do that job.
To one side of the building is a huge
double doorway that Chris and Leanne
want to close up to
complete their bedroom area.
The cheap option is to
block it up and render it.
The expensive and more challenging
option is to find bricks that will match
the originals.
Chris and Leanne
have decided on the
expensive option to
go with the building.
They could have just
blocked up that opening
with some grease
blocks and render it.
In fact, they're having 800 bricks
specially made to match the texture, the
size and the colour of the originals.
They've found a company that specialise
in not only mass produced bricks but
handmade ones too.
A special mould has been made to
replicate the original brick size and it'll
take this man only a couple of days
to hand-made Chris and Leanne's 800
bricks.
But to slow that process
down, I'm going to have a go.
I've just thrown it in the hole, yeah?
Well, it's so... Now you
bang it, bang the box.
What do I do, just bang it?
Watch your fingers, watch your fingers.
Now you've got the pretty top of your bow.
Stop laughing at me.
Now just flip the top off.
Finger?
Yeah, put your sand off there, look.
Oh, yeah, sprinkle sand, yeah.
It's like making cakes, isn't it?
I like that.
Here's your board. No, turn it over
because it's the smooth side, look.
Right, tip it over.
Tip it over onto the board, yeah?
Yeah, let the bottom drop away.
Ah ha, thank you.
Now you've got to lift that up
with that underneath, that's it.
Right, onto here.
Flip that out.
Now then, let's see if it comes out.
There you are.
Then I lift my little...
Look at that, it's all right,
it's all right, there's no holes.
That's absolutely brilliant.
I don't think I could make
500 of those, maybe five.
Once so carefully
shaped, the bricks have
to be dried out and
cooked up in a kiln,
at temperatures exceeding
a thousand degrees.
Three weeks later, the
bricks are ready to go.
It's time to find out
how close the match is.
Hello.
Hello.
I've bought you bricks.
Oh, fantastic.
A whole lorry and trailer full.
Excellent. Oh wow, great.
Look at this, isn't it beautiful?
Oh, they're great, yeah.
The colour.
They're really good.
It's not the colour of the dirty bricks
here, but it's the colour that they
would have been when they were newer,
so actually it's quite
a good match, isn't it?
Yes, yes.
Yeah, yeah, something like that, I guess.
Oh, that's a really good match.
Same size.
Same size.
Oh, that's a really good match.
Same scarf, yeah.
They've done it really, really well.
Now, an extra little something. Look.
Oh wow.
You do this yourself.
Oh, initials.
Of course, it's all my own work.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Sort of.
We thought the letters, the initials
would be really good because it's like
the L&C waterworks, you know.
Brilliant, yeah.
It's got this kind of
institutional... Oh, that's exciting.
We'll have to finish this
year though, won't we now?
Thank you.
Yes, two thousand.
Come on, we've got another month left.
Yeah.
Chris and Leanne aren't trained builders,
so they're subcontracting the more
specialist jobs.
A family friend is building the internal
block walls and they're beginning
to take shape.
The dividing wall between the kitchen
and study has been finished and one of
the bedrooms is almost complete.
But the roof is still leaking.
A four-week job is now
into its fifteenth week.
We've been struggling because of the
weather, having to get rid of the water
and dry it out.
It takes us all for a day to dry it,
then we've got to put the insulation
down, dry that out, put the sheets down.
And then it rains and
it's absolutely hellfire.
But we're going there now.
We've not got a lot to do.
End of the week, I hope.
It's not just the weather
that's a nightmare.
Managing a project on this scale
would test a seasoned professional.
After a hard day's graft on site, all
the organisational jobs keep Leanne
working deep into the night.
It's complicated, isn't it?
Trying to compare quotes from different
companies on heating when I know
absolutely nothing about heating systems.
I'm not a plumber or a...
And they're just so
complicated to figure
out and to work out
what's the best price.
They send you a
quote and then there's
so many things that
they don't include.
This is extra, that's extra.
Things that should be included.
The pipe from the boiler to the manifold.
Oh, that's extra.
Why don't they include it if you need it?
It's an absolute nightmare, this.
Fifteen weeks after it was started,
the roof is finally finished and covered
in a protective layer of gravel.
And after months of working in the
dark, the moment of truth has come.
They're opening the windows.
This will utterly change
the feel of the interior.
It'll bring the building alive again
and give Chris and Leanne their first
real glimpse of how their home will look.
I'm really excited at the moment, yeah.
Major things are happening now,
so it's a really exciting time for us.
It's fantastic being able to see
outside and the light in here already.
We've just got one out and
the light's changed it completely.
That's one window out,
but as with everything
on this build, there's
a lot more to go.
Twenty-eight to be exact.
To help finance this build, poor
Chris is having to sell his prized Jaguar.
So why go through all this sacrifice?
I think it's just
moving in and just
living in the location
as much as anything.
It's just great when you pull off
these country roads until that drive with
all the trees.
It's just the type of place that you
couldn't even dream of owning, really.
Steel windows are famous
for being drafty and cold,
but the same manufacturer that
made the original windows 64 years ago
now have a double glazed and
insulated version that Chris has made.
Everything seems to
be happening at once at
the moment, and it's
really hectic, isn't it?
We don't seem to have
enough hours in the day.
We're always phoning people, meeting
people down here, organising things.
It's really hectic at the moment.
Throughout this build, Chris's dad,
Bill, has been down on site at weekends
trying to help out where he can.
I think he's doing right, I think.
I think he's keeping it in the old
style, but his living room is going to be
the biggest thing I've
ever seen in my life.
I mean, this is incredible.
I think I'll just put it down into
two or three different rooms.
The windows are in, the dividing
kitchen is in, and the kitchen is in.
The windows are in, the dividing
kitchen wall is up and painted, and the
bedrooms are nearly built.
But I can't wait to see what one of
the biggest living rooms in Britain will
look like now it's been opened up.
Hello? Hello? Hiya. How are you?
Fine, thank you. Good to see you.
Great, this is
completely different from
when I saw it last.
It's radically different.
The outside, funnily enough, the
breeze blocks are gone and it looks far
less imposing.
The building actually looks smaller.
But in here, it looks bigger than it was.
It looks bigger, isn't it?
Even though you've done some of the
block work here and actually started to
divide it in half, it still seems bigger.
It's got a totally different feel
about it now. It feels quite strange.
We knew it would make a really big
difference putting the windows in, but to
actually see them in now, it's
made a tremendous difference.
To be able to see out on
all the breeze and things.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
Yeah, there's also the beauty of it.
In the outside as well, it's kind of
bringing the building back to life.
Before it was all blocked up and
closed up, shut up, very different, very,
you know, shut down almost.
It's like putting the
soul back into the
building, isn't it?
Giving it eyes again.
And the overall wall finish, I mean
the overall finish to the space isn't
going to be much different
to how it is now, is it?
No, not really.
No, it's pretty much... The
bricks and the concrete.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But it will soften it up. By the time
we get the nice new floor in here and
the furnishings.
I mean, at the moment, it
looks quite cold and quite hard.
Yeah.
But by the time you
get furnishings in here...
It's going to be the contrast
of the new and the old.
That's right.
Thank goodness this
place no longer looks
like a mausoleum.
It's a bus garage now.
Anyone else would react to
the vast space by slapping out
walls and smoothing all the
surfaces, but not Chris and Leanne.
Their raw empty look is a brave step.
But will it work?
Chris and Leanne sure are struggling
to complete this vast project on their
tiny budget.
But in many ways, the building's
helping them. Not least because it was
built so well in the first place.
I mean, this structure is so
strong that it's virtually bomb-proof.
And not only that, but curiously, for
a building that was put up to house
machinery, it's remarkably
well finished on the inside.
I mean, all that oak joinery and this
terrazzo, which is made out of marble.
So why did they go to such pains?
Buildings like Chris and Leanne's
inherited a tradition of care and detail
from the Victorians, who paid great
respect to the design and construction
of the first waterworks.
It was a new industry that was
keen to make its Mark. And whilst the
buildings were constructed
beautifully, there was no clear style.
Victorian pumping stations resembled
anything from town halls to temples to
country houses.
But all that changed in the early
20th century, when a great British
architect turned his attention
to public utility buildings.
Giles Gilbert Scott was an architect
who brought a new, and for the first
time relevant style of
architecture to industrial buildings.
In London, his two most famous power
stations are Battersea and Bankside,
which is now the Tate Modern.
Their design is monumental,
almost brutally simple.
They were hints to
their function, and they
were a revelation to the
waterboard engineers.
Here, for the first
time, was a type of
utility building that
celebrated progress.
And it was a style that they could copy.
As a result, dozens of miniature
Bankside and Battersea sprang up all over
the country in the 1930s, just
like Chris and Leanne's place.
Today, many of them have fallen out
of use, and the problem in converting
them is how do you
take on one of these
fugs of a building and
turn it into a home?
Chris and Leanne's solution to
that problem is intriguing. Big unusual
spaces call for big unusual decisions.
We've had a bit of a crazy
idea on where to do the ceilings.
It was inspired by a recent trip to a
restaurant we went to, and they've
taken old American newspapers
and pasted them on the walls.
And that gave us the idea of
doing it with music magazines.
You're going to cover your ceiling
with old copies of New Musical Express.
Possibly.
A sort of rock memorabilia ceiling.
Yeah, kind of.
What about the data? What are you
going to do with that? Because you've got
lots of paint samples here.
We have.
You're going to paint that out like
the one you've done in the bedroom.
That's right, yeah.
We're thinking of black at the moment.
Well, I think we've pretty much
decided on black, haven't we?
We've tried lots of colours out.
Again, we've been really undecided.
But it's very black.
To be honest, I
wasn't totally convinced
at first. Chris
suggested the black.
And I thought, oh no,
black will be far too dark.
But when we actually
painted it on, I really liked it.
Okay, the newspaper idea is
like sort of wallpapering the ceiling.
The black dado and red brick could
look maybe classical, almost Pompeian.
I love what they're doing to the
outside of this place, but inside the weird
ideas just keep coming.
Chris has had the crazy idea of
putting a mini in here, haven't you?
Yeah, a real mini.
A car, yeah.
What we're thinking of doing is
cutting the top off, cutting the roof off.
And putting like a desktop on it.
So having like a roof.
Of course.
Make like a really big desk.
If Chris wants to
butcher a mini, he needs
to body snatch one
from a mini graveyard.
So Chris, I understand what you're doing.
I don't necessarily understand why.
Why a mini?
Why a car?
Why a mini?
Well, it's just a classic car, isn't it?
It's a classic design.
It's nice, small, compact.
It's just the right size for what we want.
Now, what are you
going to do with it though?
I'm going to take the top off
from about this sort of level.
Make it smooth to that level.
Put a chunk of wood on the top.
Turn it into a desk.
You're bonkers, aren't you?
A pair of you.
I think it'll look great.
It'll look great when it's done.
It'll look great, yeah.
Well, it'll look fantastic when it's
done, but it's just like getting there.
It's a lot of work, isn't
it, just to get a table.
I mean, you could just do the usual thing.
Get a pair of old filing cabinets and
just put a plank of wood or a old door
across the top.
We could have just gone and bought a house.
That's been done before though, hasn't it?
We're not doing this to be easy.
Something different.
No, I know.
Ludicrous flights
of fancy apart, they
still face the daily
grind of this project.
Chris is back to
shipping class, this time
from over 400 square
metres of ceiling.
I've got a bit of a problem
with one of the fingers.
It sticks a little bit like that
in the morning sometimes.
That's from using a breaker to use the...
to get the plaster off.
I have to straighten it up
sometimes, but then it's okay.
It's actually about doing this for
the first few minutes and then your...
your arms and your
neck starts to wake a bit.
There's a stretch in, but you sort of...
you get through that barrier and
you're okay. You can do it all day.
When we go home at night, him and
Leanne very often carry on painting while
as long as they can, you
know, nine, ten o'clock at night.
I mean, you can do that
when there's only two of you.
There's just the two of them,
no children, no dogs to look after.
And this is what they want to see
done, so it's what you would do.
Chris and Leanne's commitment to
this project is obsessive and passionate.
Now the days are getting longer, I
wonder how long they can sustain it.
It is much easier to get on and
do jobs when the weather's nice.
And of course, lighter nights.
We find now that we can come
down for a couple of hours after work,
you know, do a bit
more painting. It all
helps, but it's very
tiring at the moment.
There's so much to be done and
we're eager to get on and get it done.
The four bedrooms
have now been built
and already there's
a distinction between
old industrial and their
new industrial look.
This one's hated it.
It is, we've managed to get
some decorating done in here.
I know the finish is fantastic.
We can move into this one shortly.
And the breeze block then, unpasted.
Yeah, just as it is.
Painted over.
And what have you done in the day though?
You've painted it gloss grey.
Yes, I have, yeah.
We've tried several
paint effects out on here.
We tried some
matte emulsion, but
it was too flat, it
wasn't really a effect.
So we went with the
gloss, I really like the finish.
So this room, by the time you get
your floor down, that's sort of more or
less it, isn't it?
It is, yeah.
Got all your face fixing
and wiring ready to go.
Yeah.
We're pleased with how it's turned
out now that the block work's finished.
I really love the results.
Now, where does that all mean
that you are in terms of budget?
We've just asked for our final
payment, haven't we, from the bank.
Yeah, of?
Of £11,000.
And what about the Jag, because
you're selling the car as well, aren't you?
Yeah, that's for sale at the moment, yeah.
You haven't sold it yet?
Not yet, no, I'm still trying.
That's fairly crucial to
be able to sell that, isn't it?
It is, yeah.
It strikes me that £11,000, £16,000,
you've got the floor to do, is that
coming out of that as well?
Or is that already allocated, is that
part of your... No, that's coming out.
That's a huge area to cover.
And you've got the decorating,
the furnishing, second fix.
Yeah.
Light switches, all that
kind of stuff to buy and put in.
Yeah.
And you are doing,
of course, a huge
amount of the work
yourself, aren't you?
That's right, yeah.
Yeah, we are.
The luxuries of a bathroom
and kitchen are a long way off.
Chris and Leanne still have
another epic DIY job to tackle.
Well, I'm not looking forward to the
living room ceiling, just because it's
such a big area.
But it's got to be done,
and it will get done.
Chris has made a start on
this 4,000 square foot ceiling.
But it's back-breaking work.
And worst of all, it needs two coats.
And after the ceiling,
there's a mind-numbing
queue of jobs
waiting to be done.
To save money, Chris
and Leanne even prepare
for the underfloor
heating themselves.
I'm very tired. We're constantly tired.
We can't shake off the
tiredness either, can we?
You go to bed on the night, and
even after a good night's sleep, you still
wake up tired.
It took Chris and Leanne
three years to get this place.
They've been working
solidly on it for eight months.
They have no social life, no time off.
And still, they keep going.
We tend to come home,
eat, usually something
quick to take away,
or a pizza, don't we?
Because we just don't have
much time to cook these days.
Yeah, and then... And we tend
to just crash out, really, don't we?
Early night, usually, isn't it?
Yeah.
I'm ready for the next day.
But I can really see the end now,
and I'm thinking about moving in,
physically packing boxes and moving in.
Yeah, I think I'm still taking it more
a day at a time, and just seeing,
being more practical.
Seeing what's actually got to be done.
As soon as we get that floor laid down...
In the kitchen.
...with crack tape...
In the bathroom.
...there's not... In
the en suite bathroom.
Yeah, but in the
whole scheme of things,
what we've done...
In the front door.
All right, point taken.
And the lights.
Need some lights.
Yeah.
As soon as we've done all
that, we can start painting again.
Chris and Leanne planned long
and hard for this project, but I think the
scale of it has surprised even them.
It's now August, and they're still not in.
A delay in fitting the
underfloor heating
has knocked them two
months off schedule.
But the good news is that the fixtures
and fittings are beginning to arrive.
Seems like there's everything
happening today. Everything's happening at
once, isn't there?
It's a bit hectic,
because we've had
to change one or
two things, and it's...
...you've got to make some instant
decisions at the moment just to get
everything done.
Makes you hate to spin a bit, really.
They've decided to lay
all the floors themselves.
All this DIY work is
beginning to pay dividends.
The money they're
saving allows them to
splash out in a luxury
kitchen and bathroom.
Looking good, isn't it?
It looks really big, doesn't it, now?
That's in position.
It's the beginning of September, and
they've finally reached the point where
they can open up the front
doorway and put on the doors.
This is the final symbolic act of
kindness to the building, and a great
moment for them.
Try and split the helmet.
I've only got this one, then. Yes.
Have a look. Turn round and have a look.
Don't look from there, now.
Finishing touch. I
think it looks grand,
doesn't it? Very
grand from back here.
Yeah.
Oh, it looks good. Come here.
Great.
I feel like crying.
I always thought that this project
would overwhelm Chris and Pierre.
Today's November
the 5th. It's almost
a year since they
started, and they're in.
I'm so excited to see how it's turned out.
Hello.
Hiya.
Very nice to be able to use the front door.
It is, isn't it? How are you?
It's nice to meet you.
How are you?
Hello there. How are you?
Great. Very well.
My goodness me.
What an extraordinary space. It's
where we're 12, isn't it? It's where we're
really welcome.
It is transformed. It looks so exciting.
I mean, every time
I've seen this place, it
was just like a big
heap of plaster done.
It now looks like a really
big, exciting space to play in.
It's great. We're absolutely thrilled
with it. Absolutely thrilled with...
And you've been here how long?
We moved in 10 days ago.
I bet you can't stop jumping
off a dungare, do you?
We're just sort of getting
used to it really, aren't we?
We are, yes.
We're still working here, so
there's bits and Bobs to finish off.
But it looks so lived in.
It looks so finished.
And this is nice.
It's kind of strangely
appropriate in this room.
The red and black. It's your kind of
colour scheme, isn't it, in this place?
Yes, it's the colours that
we've used throughout.
What I wasn't quite expecting to
see was all of this stuff, all this kind of
very luxy, deluxe, contemporary living.
It's very nice, isn't it?
Very nice.
And look at this.
This has worked really well.
When did this come?
It's great, isn't it?
We only took delivery
of that yesterday evening.
You were right.
I'm so pleased you did, though.
It's worked really well.
What they've done here.
Yeah, we've been a bit of a
body fella and a re-spray does.
That's right, yeah.
It actually looks remarkably
smaller than I expected in this room.
Yes.
It's a full-size car.
Okay, so mini, but it's a full-size car.
You could have
put a Chevrolet in
here and it would
have fitted, wouldn't it?
Yeah, we thought about that.
Of course you did.
Chris and Leanne have cleverly made
sense of this vast space by dividing it
up with furniture and oversized
statement pieces at that.
Anything smaller would get lost.
Mercifully, this place is
no longer a mausoleum.
All these installations give it the
feeling of a, well, a sort of domestic
Tate gallery.
And like the architects of that
cavernous space, Chris and Leanne have
personalised individual walls and
ceilings with large areas of flat colour.
But the kitchen's altogether more domestic.
This is real glamour, yeah?
It's lovely, isn't it?
I expected, with all that industrial
look out there and then kind of
installations, I expected a kind of
weird installation kitchen, you know?
Right, oh no.
Built out of bits of old rubbish.
This is where we've really
treated ourselves, haven't we?
And very sleekly finished.
Some great gadgets.
Wide hob and wide drawers.
Oh, self-closing as well.
Wow, it's just like a Bentley door.
It's nice, isn't it?
You can feel the
quality in that, can't you?
And we have some
other ginsomelons here,
like this little coat
hat that we have.
Oh, a elephant hat.
That's great for like washing vegetables.
Or parties, yeah, just regular.
But the whole thing has this very
kind of finished, sharp, contemporary,
very almost minimal look.
Is that what you're after?
Yeah, that's exactly what we were after.
The kitchen's much more sleek and
glamorous than the main living area.
But there is still that cleverly referenced
tension between the new domestic
use of the room and the bare
functionality of the old building.
There's lots of gadgets
and all the usual toys.
But let's face it, they've earned them.
They deserve some luxury and amusement.
And the kitchen's not the only place
where they've indulged themselves.
Is this your, um, en suite?
No, this is the main bathroom.
I don't believe this.
This is extraordinary.
This is like your kitchen,
but five times as glamorous.
Is this limestone?
It is, yeah.
It's phenomenal.
It's like going to a
kind of ten-star hotel.
Absolutely, we're at it before, isn't it?
Absolutely breathtaking.
And then we've got the
main bedroom through here.
Which is, of course, uh, black.
Black, yes.
Oh my goodness.
Look at this bed.
This looks like a kind of
five thousand pound monster.
But it's not, is it?
Have you made this?
Yeah, we've made it.
I designed it and Chris built it.
Chris and his dad built that together.
I like the fact you've
incorporated the lighting into it.
And underneath.
And the bathroom, although that's
also another, um, huge indulgence.
We've got a great wet room in there.
So you have!
No expense spared.
Well, we've tried to get a
decent quality in there, yeah.
We've gone for no fittings,
haven't we, in the bathroom?
Yeah, but it's more than that.
You've gone for a bit of glamour
and a bit of... Yes, we have.
And a bit of pampering, dare I say it.
I've had to sell the jacket
in this, so don't forget.
I think it's a fair trade.
The spare bedrooms are treated sparingly.
What's old is kept old and respected.
What's new is made obviously new.
I have to take my hat
off to Chris and Leanne.
They've become builders,
architects and interior designers.
What I admire most about this project
is how light-handed they've been in
repairing the building.
The additions and changes are all
reversible and they've been made with
modern materials.
The repairs to the original building
have been an act of selfless love.
As further homage to the old waterworks,
they've even incorporated bits of
its functioning guts
in their interior design.
And remember, they've put their entire
lives on hold to get this mother of a
DIY project finished.
Chris, throughout this build you have
been so consistent, very calm, very
collected, you know.
No outbursts of emotion.
I just wonder whether there's a maelstrom
underneath the surface.
No, I think we've been
pretty steady through it.
Perhaps we've been confident
throughout that we'd get through it and
confident in if we hit
any problems, we've
always got the
equity to get out of it.
I'm thinking in terms
of just the sheer
volume of work you
both have had to do here.
Has it not, I mean, it must have
at times got you really down.
Sometimes it has been hard to keep
motivated, especially working the really
cold winter months.
And over the new year, coming down
here with three jumpers and a coat on to
do some work, you
really have to motivate
yourself to get out
of bed in the morning.
But we have enjoyed it, haven't we?
Yes, plus we knew it.
We knew it would be worthwhile in the end.
Their industrial look was a brave
design choice, motivated primarily by
budget, but also by a
dream of spacious loft living.
It wouldn't be my first choice on
top of a windy hill up north, but Chris
and Leanne are in love with it.
And it cost them just 150 grand.
Have you had it valued?
Not since we've
completed, but we had
it valued not quite so
long ago, didn't we?
And we were given a figure of
somewhere in the region of £353,75.
Which would be a net profit of
something like £200,000, which isn't a bad
return for a year's work, is it?
Yeah, it's okay, yeah.
But it's selling our cars, doesn't it?
It does, doesn't it?
I think what you've got is, you know,
in terms of pounds per square foot
spent on this place, it's incredibly cheap.
And was there no point at which
you said to yourself, in the process of.
doing this place up, you kind
of felt this is just not worth it?
No.
Oh no, absolutely not. We've had
highs and lows without a doubt, but not
once have we had that thought. Never.
This is a dream for us, this is our
dream house, and that really does.
motivate you. It might sound a
bit of a cliché, but it really does.
Plus we've invested everything
we've got and more into it.
Yeah.
So, you've got to finish, haven't you?
That's part of it. We have to finish,
you know, whatever it takes, we'll finish.
This is the story of two unlikely
heroes and their rescue of a building from
the brink of oblivion.
With little money, no professional
help, and absolutely zero experience.
And yet, despite all these incredible
odds, through sheer determination,
really, they've won the day.
They've got exactly what they want.
And I think it's what
the building deserves.
house into this space.
I'm very tired. We're constantly tired.
We just, we can't shake off the
tiredness either,
can we? You go to
bed on a night and even
after a good night's
sleep, you still wake
up tired.
Imagine living in the middle of
nowhere with views across open country
streets, with people
across open countryside, a few acres
of woodland, imposing gates, a sweeping
drive. And imagine
what kind of house
that would be. Would it
be a Georgian rectory
or a medieval manor
or this?
Leanne Smith and Chris Jones came
across this unique and rather imposing
building, which
was a former waterworks, and have
made the brave decision to convert it into
their dream home. More
of a nightmare, really.
Good grief. One huge space.
Yes, yes.
My God. You could get an entire
house into this space, couldn't you?
That's right, yes.
What are you going to do with this?
It's just going to be left open.
Nice and airy.
That's your front door?
That's the original doors
that we're hoping to keep.
So how on earth are you going to
live in this? What are you going to do to
it to make sense of it?
Well, we're going
to just try and zone it
out to maybe like a
dining area, maybe like
a games pool table or something.
Close the TV area, maybe a workstation
somewhere. Just
see how it goes, really.
It doesn't daunt you.
Yes.
It does daunt you.
And they've every reason to be daunted.
This is a mammoth project. This
building is nearly
three times the size
of an average house,
and it has no services.
Off the main area,
there are three smaller
derelict rooms. Otherwise,
it's just a massive
ex-industrial shell.
The building was constructed in 1938
as a water treatment works. Chris and
Leanne planned to
turn it into a home with
a vast living area.
They'll keep the double
height ceilings
throughout and leave the central
atrium, which is over 20 foot high. They're
going to subdivide
the large space at one end to make
four bedrooms. The old two storerooms
will become bathrooms
and a space at the rear will be
divided to form a large kitchen and study.
But perhaps the most
exciting feature will
be the reinstatement
of the 29 large steel
windows around the building.
The light will transform
the space. It's an
enormous project
for anyone to take on.
So, who have you got
working on this massive project?
We've got Chris's dad helping us out.
Chris's dad?
Yeah.
Just doing a bit here and there.
And who else have you got
on this massive building project?
Ourselves.
We're doing a little bit here and there.
Yeah.
Have you got the stamina to do this?
I mean, it does seem like an enormous
undertaking.
Yes.
Oh, definitely.
No doubt about it. Definitely.
This is by no means
a big budget project.
Chris and Leanne paid
40,000 for this place
before it had planning
permission. They're
spending only 95,000
on the conversion. And
with a small contingency,
the total is around 145 grand.
It's now November, and they plan
to be moved in just in time for the
beginning of summer in June.
If ever there was a
couple with more vision
than money, it's Chris
and Leanne. They are.
going to have to be so creative on
their budget to get this place finished
and habitable by
the summer, despite their minimal approach.
And they have a vast mausoleum
of a building to contend with.
Chris and Leanne
found this epic building
set in four acres of
land whilst driving by
one evening, and
they spent the last three
years trying to buy
it. The buildings had
been left to rot by the water board
after new technology made it obsolete.
It was full of tons of
cast iron tanks when
they bought it. It's
really not surprising
that it had been
abandoned for 30 years.
A lot of people looked at it and
think it's too big for a house. We didn't.
We looked at it and we saw our
house. So we decided to go for it.
To save money, they haven't employed
an architect, and they'll be doing most
of the work themselves.
It's a massive undertaking.
When they found it, the property had two
separate leases and
a covenant, which restricted its use
to a waterworks. The purchase was
fraught with problems.
There were two very frustrating years
of very complicated legal negotiations
dealing with solicitors
that were incredibly
slow. There were
some really frustrating
times looking
back now. There haven't been any
tears yet, but it's been close a few times.
Chris and Leanne run a successful
mail order record business. They have no
experience of
this kind of massive challenge, but
they seem prepared to take anything on.
It would be no fun
at all if you could just
write a blank check
out to some architect
and say, "Build me a
house. Here's £500,000.
It'll come back in six
months." That's not.
really what we're about. So it makes
it more of a challenge, I think, doing
it on a tight budget.
For Leanne, it's more of a teenage dream.
It is something I was
interested in, probably
from being about the
age of 16. And then when.
it came the time to
sell our first house,
we decided we wanted
somewhere bigger. It.
was only then, really, I mentioned
it to him. I said, "Well, why don't we
consider, instead of
just buying another
house, why don't we
consider building one?"
They may have
struggled for three years to
get this far, but it's
nothing compared to
what flies ahead.
The first job is to
remove all the rotting
plaster off the vast
expanse of wall. This
is the mother of all DIY projects.
It's really tough physical work, and
Chris is doing it
all by himself, using every spare
hour he can get away from his business.
Some of it comes off
easy, then you hit a
patch that's rock hard,
and you can spend
two hours doing
just a little bit. So, it's
either way, but at
least you can see what
you've done at the end of the day.
Chris can do the hard graft inside,
but they need experts to fix the roof.
Absolutely flat
roofs are notoriously difficult to seal.
This one gets sheets of insulation
and a thick rubber
membrane glued across the
entire 4,000 square
foot surface. Trouble
is, the glue needs to set.
So, when's it going to be finished?
We're hoping a day of bay.
Which is quite quick.
Around the roof.
But it is now the end of November
and... The weather's getting worse.
Yeah, because you
can't work when it's frozen.
No, we like to be plus five degrees
for the glues to be guaranteed.
Oh my goodness.
It's really not the best
time of year to be
doing this job, is it?
No, but people don't
like waiting till summer.
A week later and the weather breaks,
so the roofers have stayed at home. No
such excuse
for Chris, who's still got
to fight through the plaster.
Chris has just done a
cup of coffee to warm
up. It's absolutely
freezing this morning.
Really icy and frosty.
And it's so cold in here now.
It's supposed to wait seven and a
half kilos, but it feels much heavier than
that when you've
been doing it all day.
If I had to spend over a month
chindling hard-set plaster off 200 square
metres of wall with a heavy
machine, I'd be in casualty.
But Chris just keeps on going.
Chris and Liam were supposed to
be holidaying in Hawaii this Christmas.
Instead, they're braving the
sub-zero temperatures on site.
I really do admire this
couple's dedication.
While most people are
warm at home, enjoying
the festive season,
this pair are hard at
work in this cold, concrete ice bog.
Well, it's boxing day today,
and we decided to have a day off.
We were planning on going down to
the house, but we've just been so busy
with it lately.
It's just nice to have a day off.
We've just had a lazy day at home.
We spent some time
looking at the budget and
going over the figures
and what's happened
so far, and just
catching up on things
really. It's just been
nice to have a day off.
The plaster's finished on January the 1st.
A break in the weather means work
can continue on
the roof, and the new
year brings a fresh
injection of funds.
Hopefully, this is our check.
The next payment on the mortgage.
I better open it now.
Yes.
It's really hot.
A nice big fat juicy check. £47,000.
Sounds a lot of money, doesn't it?
It is a lot of money,
but it won't last long.
The first thing they decide to spend
the money on is getting all those
bricks that Chris has
exposed to sandblasted.
This is a specialist process which
will reveal their inherent colour.
After grafting solidly for nine weeks,
the building's been stripped bare.
I'm intrigued to hear what
they're going to do with it.
We've been busy in sign.
Haven't you just?
These walls look very different.
Yes, yes.
Very clean. They're very clean.
They're not at all dusty either.
No, they're sandblasted.
We're really pleased with the results.
It's brought them up fantastic.
We love the colours.
Yeah, the mortar's good. It's terrific.
The first concrete blocks are
being laid to make the bedrooms.
As for the walls in the main living
space, there still seems an awful lot of
work to me.
You've got a lot of concrete
this end, haven't you?
There's a lot of lintel
and a lot of columns.
Yes, there are.
What are you going to do with those?
We're going to leave them.
Are you?
We love them as a feature.
I think they're great.
That's terrific out there because
you've got the yellow bricks, haven't you?
That's right.
That's all going to stay just as it is.
Yes, just exactly as it is.
There's a fantastic piece over in
the corner which you must look at.
This one here?
This one here where the... It's like
a sense of pebbled beech, isn't it?
Yes, it's great. I love
it. All the surfaces
come away and
left all these pebbles.
It's the original structure,
the fabric of the building.
This is what makes the building what it is.
And that's what I love about it.
It just adds character to the building.
I like Chris and Leanne's
approach to this place.
It's very practical,
very appropriate
because they're
taking industrial design
and industrial building
methods and applying
them to a big old
industrial building.
The trouble is it is so big that
everything they do takes much longer than
they thought it would.
At the moment, all they've really
done is scratch away at the surface.
Literally.
The weather is so bad today.
We just thought about staying at
home while they were just staying in bed
but it's not really an option.
Chris Jones and Leanne Smith are
taking on the biggest DIY job ever.
Bang in the middle of the British winter.
And whilst they've
come a long way, they've
still gone a long,
tough journey ahead.
It's February and because of the
weather, all work on the exterior of the
building is put on hold.
But turning this huge industrial
shell into a home involves literally
thousands of individual jobs.
And Chris and Leanne have to be
on top of each and every one of them.
What we've found
is every single job is
far more complicated
than you first think.
Every job needs doing
first and it can't happen.
So at some point you've got to make
a decision what you're going to do.
Yeah, you've got to prioritise things,
haven't you, and think through the
process of what's got to happen.
And sometimes it's not always ideal, is it?
Sometimes you've got to
compromise and think, well, we'll
have to do that job and then do that job.
To one side of the building is a huge
double doorway that Chris and Leanne
want to close up to
complete their bedroom area.
The cheap option is to
block it up and render it.
The expensive and more challenging
option is to find bricks that will match
the originals.
Chris and Leanne
have decided on the
expensive option to
go with the building.
They could have just
blocked up that opening
with some grease
blocks and render it.
In fact, they're having 800 bricks
specially made to match the texture, the
size and the colour of the originals.
They've found a company that specialise
in not only mass produced bricks but
handmade ones too.
A special mould has been made to
replicate the original brick size and it'll
take this man only a couple of days
to hand-made Chris and Leanne's 800
bricks.
But to slow that process
down, I'm going to have a go.
I've just thrown it in the hole, yeah?
Well, it's so... Now you
bang it, bang the box.
What do I do, just bang it?
Watch your fingers, watch your fingers.
Now you've got the pretty top of your bow.
Stop laughing at me.
Now just flip the top off.
Finger?
Yeah, put your sand off there, look.
Oh, yeah, sprinkle sand, yeah.
It's like making cakes, isn't it?
I like that.
Here's your board. No, turn it over
because it's the smooth side, look.
Right, tip it over.
Tip it over onto the board, yeah?
Yeah, let the bottom drop away.
Ah ha, thank you.
Now you've got to lift that up
with that underneath, that's it.
Right, onto here.
Flip that out.
Now then, let's see if it comes out.
There you are.
Then I lift my little...
Look at that, it's all right,
it's all right, there's no holes.
That's absolutely brilliant.
I don't think I could make
500 of those, maybe five.
Once so carefully
shaped, the bricks have
to be dried out and
cooked up in a kiln,
at temperatures exceeding
a thousand degrees.
Three weeks later, the
bricks are ready to go.
It's time to find out
how close the match is.
Hello.
Hello.
I've bought you bricks.
Oh, fantastic.
A whole lorry and trailer full.
Excellent. Oh wow, great.
Look at this, isn't it beautiful?
Oh, they're great, yeah.
The colour.
They're really good.
It's not the colour of the dirty bricks
here, but it's the colour that they
would have been when they were newer,
so actually it's quite
a good match, isn't it?
Yes, yes.
Yeah, yeah, something like that, I guess.
Oh, that's a really good match.
Same size.
Same size.
Oh, that's a really good match.
Same scarf, yeah.
They've done it really, really well.
Now, an extra little something. Look.
Oh wow.
You do this yourself.
Oh, initials.
Of course, it's all my own work.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Sort of.
We thought the letters, the initials
would be really good because it's like
the L&C waterworks, you know.
Brilliant, yeah.
It's got this kind of
institutional... Oh, that's exciting.
We'll have to finish this
year though, won't we now?
Thank you.
Yes, two thousand.
Come on, we've got another month left.
Yeah.
Chris and Leanne aren't trained builders,
so they're subcontracting the more
specialist jobs.
A family friend is building the internal
block walls and they're beginning
to take shape.
The dividing wall between the kitchen
and study has been finished and one of
the bedrooms is almost complete.
But the roof is still leaking.
A four-week job is now
into its fifteenth week.
We've been struggling because of the
weather, having to get rid of the water
and dry it out.
It takes us all for a day to dry it,
then we've got to put the insulation
down, dry that out, put the sheets down.
And then it rains and
it's absolutely hellfire.
But we're going there now.
We've not got a lot to do.
End of the week, I hope.
It's not just the weather
that's a nightmare.
Managing a project on this scale
would test a seasoned professional.
After a hard day's graft on site, all
the organisational jobs keep Leanne
working deep into the night.
It's complicated, isn't it?
Trying to compare quotes from different
companies on heating when I know
absolutely nothing about heating systems.
I'm not a plumber or a...
And they're just so
complicated to figure
out and to work out
what's the best price.
They send you a
quote and then there's
so many things that
they don't include.
This is extra, that's extra.
Things that should be included.
The pipe from the boiler to the manifold.
Oh, that's extra.
Why don't they include it if you need it?
It's an absolute nightmare, this.
Fifteen weeks after it was started,
the roof is finally finished and covered
in a protective layer of gravel.
And after months of working in the
dark, the moment of truth has come.
They're opening the windows.
This will utterly change
the feel of the interior.
It'll bring the building alive again
and give Chris and Leanne their first
real glimpse of how their home will look.
I'm really excited at the moment, yeah.
Major things are happening now,
so it's a really exciting time for us.
It's fantastic being able to see
outside and the light in here already.
We've just got one out and
the light's changed it completely.
That's one window out,
but as with everything
on this build, there's
a lot more to go.
Twenty-eight to be exact.
To help finance this build, poor
Chris is having to sell his prized Jaguar.
So why go through all this sacrifice?
I think it's just
moving in and just
living in the location
as much as anything.
It's just great when you pull off
these country roads until that drive with
all the trees.
It's just the type of place that you
couldn't even dream of owning, really.
Steel windows are famous
for being drafty and cold,
but the same manufacturer that
made the original windows 64 years ago
now have a double glazed and
insulated version that Chris has made.
Everything seems to
be happening at once at
the moment, and it's
really hectic, isn't it?
We don't seem to have
enough hours in the day.
We're always phoning people, meeting
people down here, organising things.
It's really hectic at the moment.
Throughout this build, Chris's dad,
Bill, has been down on site at weekends
trying to help out where he can.
I think he's doing right, I think.
I think he's keeping it in the old
style, but his living room is going to be
the biggest thing I've
ever seen in my life.
I mean, this is incredible.
I think I'll just put it down into
two or three different rooms.
The windows are in, the dividing
kitchen is in, and the kitchen is in.
The windows are in, the dividing
kitchen wall is up and painted, and the
bedrooms are nearly built.
But I can't wait to see what one of
the biggest living rooms in Britain will
look like now it's been opened up.
Hello? Hello? Hiya. How are you?
Fine, thank you. Good to see you.
Great, this is
completely different from
when I saw it last.
It's radically different.
The outside, funnily enough, the
breeze blocks are gone and it looks far
less imposing.
The building actually looks smaller.
But in here, it looks bigger than it was.
It looks bigger, isn't it?
Even though you've done some of the
block work here and actually started to
divide it in half, it still seems bigger.
It's got a totally different feel
about it now. It feels quite strange.
We knew it would make a really big
difference putting the windows in, but to
actually see them in now, it's
made a tremendous difference.
To be able to see out on
all the breeze and things.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
Yeah, there's also the beauty of it.
In the outside as well, it's kind of
bringing the building back to life.
Before it was all blocked up and
closed up, shut up, very different, very,
you know, shut down almost.
It's like putting the
soul back into the
building, isn't it?
Giving it eyes again.
And the overall wall finish, I mean
the overall finish to the space isn't
going to be much different
to how it is now, is it?
No, not really.
No, it's pretty much... The
bricks and the concrete.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But it will soften it up. By the time
we get the nice new floor in here and
the furnishings.
I mean, at the moment, it
looks quite cold and quite hard.
Yeah.
But by the time you
get furnishings in here...
It's going to be the contrast
of the new and the old.
That's right.
Thank goodness this
place no longer looks
like a mausoleum.
It's a bus garage now.
Anyone else would react to
the vast space by slapping out
walls and smoothing all the
surfaces, but not Chris and Leanne.
Their raw empty look is a brave step.
But will it work?
Chris and Leanne sure are struggling
to complete this vast project on their
tiny budget.
But in many ways, the building's
helping them. Not least because it was
built so well in the first place.
I mean, this structure is so
strong that it's virtually bomb-proof.
And not only that, but curiously, for
a building that was put up to house
machinery, it's remarkably
well finished on the inside.
I mean, all that oak joinery and this
terrazzo, which is made out of marble.
So why did they go to such pains?
Buildings like Chris and Leanne's
inherited a tradition of care and detail
from the Victorians, who paid great
respect to the design and construction
of the first waterworks.
It was a new industry that was
keen to make its Mark. And whilst the
buildings were constructed
beautifully, there was no clear style.
Victorian pumping stations resembled
anything from town halls to temples to
country houses.
But all that changed in the early
20th century, when a great British
architect turned his attention
to public utility buildings.
Giles Gilbert Scott was an architect
who brought a new, and for the first
time relevant style of
architecture to industrial buildings.
In London, his two most famous power
stations are Battersea and Bankside,
which is now the Tate Modern.
Their design is monumental,
almost brutally simple.
They were hints to
their function, and they
were a revelation to the
waterboard engineers.
Here, for the first
time, was a type of
utility building that
celebrated progress.
And it was a style that they could copy.
As a result, dozens of miniature
Bankside and Battersea sprang up all over
the country in the 1930s, just
like Chris and Leanne's place.
Today, many of them have fallen out
of use, and the problem in converting
them is how do you
take on one of these
fugs of a building and
turn it into a home?
Chris and Leanne's solution to
that problem is intriguing. Big unusual
spaces call for big unusual decisions.
We've had a bit of a crazy
idea on where to do the ceilings.
It was inspired by a recent trip to a
restaurant we went to, and they've
taken old American newspapers
and pasted them on the walls.
And that gave us the idea of
doing it with music magazines.
You're going to cover your ceiling
with old copies of New Musical Express.
Possibly.
A sort of rock memorabilia ceiling.
Yeah, kind of.
What about the data? What are you
going to do with that? Because you've got
lots of paint samples here.
We have.
You're going to paint that out like
the one you've done in the bedroom.
That's right, yeah.
We're thinking of black at the moment.
Well, I think we've pretty much
decided on black, haven't we?
We've tried lots of colours out.
Again, we've been really undecided.
But it's very black.
To be honest, I
wasn't totally convinced
at first. Chris
suggested the black.
And I thought, oh no,
black will be far too dark.
But when we actually
painted it on, I really liked it.
Okay, the newspaper idea is
like sort of wallpapering the ceiling.
The black dado and red brick could
look maybe classical, almost Pompeian.
I love what they're doing to the
outside of this place, but inside the weird
ideas just keep coming.
Chris has had the crazy idea of
putting a mini in here, haven't you?
Yeah, a real mini.
A car, yeah.
What we're thinking of doing is
cutting the top off, cutting the roof off.
And putting like a desktop on it.
So having like a roof.
Of course.
Make like a really big desk.
If Chris wants to
butcher a mini, he needs
to body snatch one
from a mini graveyard.
So Chris, I understand what you're doing.
I don't necessarily understand why.
Why a mini?
Why a car?
Why a mini?
Well, it's just a classic car, isn't it?
It's a classic design.
It's nice, small, compact.
It's just the right size for what we want.
Now, what are you
going to do with it though?
I'm going to take the top off
from about this sort of level.
Make it smooth to that level.
Put a chunk of wood on the top.
Turn it into a desk.
You're bonkers, aren't you?
A pair of you.
I think it'll look great.
It'll look great when it's done.
It'll look great, yeah.
Well, it'll look fantastic when it's
done, but it's just like getting there.
It's a lot of work, isn't
it, just to get a table.
I mean, you could just do the usual thing.
Get a pair of old filing cabinets and
just put a plank of wood or a old door
across the top.
We could have just gone and bought a house.
That's been done before though, hasn't it?
We're not doing this to be easy.
Something different.
No, I know.
Ludicrous flights
of fancy apart, they
still face the daily
grind of this project.
Chris is back to
shipping class, this time
from over 400 square
metres of ceiling.
I've got a bit of a problem
with one of the fingers.
It sticks a little bit like that
in the morning sometimes.
That's from using a breaker to use the...
to get the plaster off.
I have to straighten it up
sometimes, but then it's okay.
It's actually about doing this for
the first few minutes and then your...
your arms and your
neck starts to wake a bit.
There's a stretch in, but you sort of...
you get through that barrier and
you're okay. You can do it all day.
When we go home at night, him and
Leanne very often carry on painting while
as long as they can, you
know, nine, ten o'clock at night.
I mean, you can do that
when there's only two of you.
There's just the two of them,
no children, no dogs to look after.
And this is what they want to see
done, so it's what you would do.
Chris and Leanne's commitment to
this project is obsessive and passionate.
Now the days are getting longer, I
wonder how long they can sustain it.
It is much easier to get on and
do jobs when the weather's nice.
And of course, lighter nights.
We find now that we can come
down for a couple of hours after work,
you know, do a bit
more painting. It all
helps, but it's very
tiring at the moment.
There's so much to be done and
we're eager to get on and get it done.
The four bedrooms
have now been built
and already there's
a distinction between
old industrial and their
new industrial look.
This one's hated it.
It is, we've managed to get
some decorating done in here.
I know the finish is fantastic.
We can move into this one shortly.
And the breeze block then, unpasted.
Yeah, just as it is.
Painted over.
And what have you done in the day though?
You've painted it gloss grey.
Yes, I have, yeah.
We've tried several
paint effects out on here.
We tried some
matte emulsion, but
it was too flat, it
wasn't really a effect.
So we went with the
gloss, I really like the finish.
So this room, by the time you get
your floor down, that's sort of more or
less it, isn't it?
It is, yeah.
Got all your face fixing
and wiring ready to go.
Yeah.
We're pleased with how it's turned
out now that the block work's finished.
I really love the results.
Now, where does that all mean
that you are in terms of budget?
We've just asked for our final
payment, haven't we, from the bank.
Yeah, of?
Of £11,000.
And what about the Jag, because
you're selling the car as well, aren't you?
Yeah, that's for sale at the moment, yeah.
You haven't sold it yet?
Not yet, no, I'm still trying.
That's fairly crucial to
be able to sell that, isn't it?
It is, yeah.
It strikes me that £11,000, £16,000,
you've got the floor to do, is that
coming out of that as well?
Or is that already allocated, is that
part of your... No, that's coming out.
That's a huge area to cover.
And you've got the decorating,
the furnishing, second fix.
Yeah.
Light switches, all that
kind of stuff to buy and put in.
Yeah.
And you are doing,
of course, a huge
amount of the work
yourself, aren't you?
That's right, yeah.
Yeah, we are.
The luxuries of a bathroom
and kitchen are a long way off.
Chris and Leanne still have
another epic DIY job to tackle.
Well, I'm not looking forward to the
living room ceiling, just because it's
such a big area.
But it's got to be done,
and it will get done.
Chris has made a start on
this 4,000 square foot ceiling.
But it's back-breaking work.
And worst of all, it needs two coats.
And after the ceiling,
there's a mind-numbing
queue of jobs
waiting to be done.
To save money, Chris
and Leanne even prepare
for the underfloor
heating themselves.
I'm very tired. We're constantly tired.
We can't shake off the
tiredness either, can we?
You go to bed on the night, and
even after a good night's sleep, you still
wake up tired.
It took Chris and Leanne
three years to get this place.
They've been working
solidly on it for eight months.
They have no social life, no time off.
And still, they keep going.
We tend to come home,
eat, usually something
quick to take away,
or a pizza, don't we?
Because we just don't have
much time to cook these days.
Yeah, and then... And we tend
to just crash out, really, don't we?
Early night, usually, isn't it?
Yeah.
I'm ready for the next day.
But I can really see the end now,
and I'm thinking about moving in,
physically packing boxes and moving in.
Yeah, I think I'm still taking it more
a day at a time, and just seeing,
being more practical.
Seeing what's actually got to be done.
As soon as we get that floor laid down...
In the kitchen.
...with crack tape...
In the bathroom.
...there's not... In
the en suite bathroom.
Yeah, but in the
whole scheme of things,
what we've done...
In the front door.
All right, point taken.
And the lights.
Need some lights.
Yeah.
As soon as we've done all
that, we can start painting again.
Chris and Leanne planned long
and hard for this project, but I think the
scale of it has surprised even them.
It's now August, and they're still not in.
A delay in fitting the
underfloor heating
has knocked them two
months off schedule.
But the good news is that the fixtures
and fittings are beginning to arrive.
Seems like there's everything
happening today. Everything's happening at
once, isn't there?
It's a bit hectic,
because we've had
to change one or
two things, and it's...
...you've got to make some instant
decisions at the moment just to get
everything done.
Makes you hate to spin a bit, really.
They've decided to lay
all the floors themselves.
All this DIY work is
beginning to pay dividends.
The money they're
saving allows them to
splash out in a luxury
kitchen and bathroom.
Looking good, isn't it?
It looks really big, doesn't it, now?
That's in position.
It's the beginning of September, and
they've finally reached the point where
they can open up the front
doorway and put on the doors.
This is the final symbolic act of
kindness to the building, and a great
moment for them.
Try and split the helmet.
I've only got this one, then. Yes.
Have a look. Turn round and have a look.
Don't look from there, now.
Finishing touch. I
think it looks grand,
doesn't it? Very
grand from back here.
Yeah.
Oh, it looks good. Come here.
Great.
I feel like crying.
I always thought that this project
would overwhelm Chris and Pierre.
Today's November
the 5th. It's almost
a year since they
started, and they're in.
I'm so excited to see how it's turned out.
Hello.
Hiya.
Very nice to be able to use the front door.
It is, isn't it? How are you?
It's nice to meet you.
How are you?
Hello there. How are you?
Great. Very well.
My goodness me.
What an extraordinary space. It's
where we're 12, isn't it? It's where we're
really welcome.
It is transformed. It looks so exciting.
I mean, every time
I've seen this place, it
was just like a big
heap of plaster done.
It now looks like a really
big, exciting space to play in.
It's great. We're absolutely thrilled
with it. Absolutely thrilled with...
And you've been here how long?
We moved in 10 days ago.
I bet you can't stop jumping
off a dungare, do you?
We're just sort of getting
used to it really, aren't we?
We are, yes.
We're still working here, so
there's bits and Bobs to finish off.
But it looks so lived in.
It looks so finished.
And this is nice.
It's kind of strangely
appropriate in this room.
The red and black. It's your kind of
colour scheme, isn't it, in this place?
Yes, it's the colours that
we've used throughout.
What I wasn't quite expecting to
see was all of this stuff, all this kind of
very luxy, deluxe, contemporary living.
It's very nice, isn't it?
Very nice.
And look at this.
This has worked really well.
When did this come?
It's great, isn't it?
We only took delivery
of that yesterday evening.
You were right.
I'm so pleased you did, though.
It's worked really well.
What they've done here.
Yeah, we've been a bit of a
body fella and a re-spray does.
That's right, yeah.
It actually looks remarkably
smaller than I expected in this room.
Yes.
It's a full-size car.
Okay, so mini, but it's a full-size car.
You could have
put a Chevrolet in
here and it would
have fitted, wouldn't it?
Yeah, we thought about that.
Of course you did.
Chris and Leanne have cleverly made
sense of this vast space by dividing it
up with furniture and oversized
statement pieces at that.
Anything smaller would get lost.
Mercifully, this place is
no longer a mausoleum.
All these installations give it the
feeling of a, well, a sort of domestic
Tate gallery.
And like the architects of that
cavernous space, Chris and Leanne have
personalised individual walls and
ceilings with large areas of flat colour.
But the kitchen's altogether more domestic.
This is real glamour, yeah?
It's lovely, isn't it?
I expected, with all that industrial
look out there and then kind of
installations, I expected a kind of
weird installation kitchen, you know?
Right, oh no.
Built out of bits of old rubbish.
This is where we've really
treated ourselves, haven't we?
And very sleekly finished.
Some great gadgets.
Wide hob and wide drawers.
Oh, self-closing as well.
Wow, it's just like a Bentley door.
It's nice, isn't it?
You can feel the
quality in that, can't you?
And we have some
other ginsomelons here,
like this little coat
hat that we have.
Oh, a elephant hat.
That's great for like washing vegetables.
Or parties, yeah, just regular.
But the whole thing has this very
kind of finished, sharp, contemporary,
very almost minimal look.
Is that what you're after?
Yeah, that's exactly what we were after.
The kitchen's much more sleek and
glamorous than the main living area.
But there is still that cleverly referenced
tension between the new domestic
use of the room and the bare
functionality of the old building.
There's lots of gadgets
and all the usual toys.
But let's face it, they've earned them.
They deserve some luxury and amusement.
And the kitchen's not the only place
where they've indulged themselves.
Is this your, um, en suite?
No, this is the main bathroom.
I don't believe this.
This is extraordinary.
This is like your kitchen,
but five times as glamorous.
Is this limestone?
It is, yeah.
It's phenomenal.
It's like going to a
kind of ten-star hotel.
Absolutely, we're at it before, isn't it?
Absolutely breathtaking.
And then we've got the
main bedroom through here.
Which is, of course, uh, black.
Black, yes.
Oh my goodness.
Look at this bed.
This looks like a kind of
five thousand pound monster.
But it's not, is it?
Have you made this?
Yeah, we've made it.
I designed it and Chris built it.
Chris and his dad built that together.
I like the fact you've
incorporated the lighting into it.
And underneath.
And the bathroom, although that's
also another, um, huge indulgence.
We've got a great wet room in there.
So you have!
No expense spared.
Well, we've tried to get a
decent quality in there, yeah.
We've gone for no fittings,
haven't we, in the bathroom?
Yeah, but it's more than that.
You've gone for a bit of glamour
and a bit of... Yes, we have.
And a bit of pampering, dare I say it.
I've had to sell the jacket
in this, so don't forget.
I think it's a fair trade.
The spare bedrooms are treated sparingly.
What's old is kept old and respected.
What's new is made obviously new.
I have to take my hat
off to Chris and Leanne.
They've become builders,
architects and interior designers.
What I admire most about this project
is how light-handed they've been in
repairing the building.
The additions and changes are all
reversible and they've been made with
modern materials.
The repairs to the original building
have been an act of selfless love.
As further homage to the old waterworks,
they've even incorporated bits of
its functioning guts
in their interior design.
And remember, they've put their entire
lives on hold to get this mother of a
DIY project finished.
Chris, throughout this build you have
been so consistent, very calm, very
collected, you know.
No outbursts of emotion.
I just wonder whether there's a maelstrom
underneath the surface.
No, I think we've been
pretty steady through it.
Perhaps we've been confident
throughout that we'd get through it and
confident in if we hit
any problems, we've
always got the
equity to get out of it.
I'm thinking in terms
of just the sheer
volume of work you
both have had to do here.
Has it not, I mean, it must have
at times got you really down.
Sometimes it has been hard to keep
motivated, especially working the really
cold winter months.
And over the new year, coming down
here with three jumpers and a coat on to
do some work, you
really have to motivate
yourself to get out
of bed in the morning.
But we have enjoyed it, haven't we?
Yes, plus we knew it.
We knew it would be worthwhile in the end.
Their industrial look was a brave
design choice, motivated primarily by
budget, but also by a
dream of spacious loft living.
It wouldn't be my first choice on
top of a windy hill up north, but Chris
and Leanne are in love with it.
And it cost them just 150 grand.
Have you had it valued?
Not since we've
completed, but we had
it valued not quite so
long ago, didn't we?
And we were given a figure of
somewhere in the region of £353,75.
Which would be a net profit of
something like £200,000, which isn't a bad
return for a year's work, is it?
Yeah, it's okay, yeah.
But it's selling our cars, doesn't it?
It does, doesn't it?
I think what you've got is, you know,
in terms of pounds per square foot
spent on this place, it's incredibly cheap.
And was there no point at which
you said to yourself, in the process of.
doing this place up, you kind
of felt this is just not worth it?
No.
Oh no, absolutely not. We've had
highs and lows without a doubt, but not
once have we had that thought. Never.
This is a dream for us, this is our
dream house, and that really does.
motivate you. It might sound a
bit of a cliché, but it really does.
Plus we've invested everything
we've got and more into it.
Yeah.
So, you've got to finish, haven't you?
That's part of it. We have to finish,
you know, whatever it takes, we'll finish.
This is the story of two unlikely
heroes and their rescue of a building from
the brink of oblivion.
With little money, no professional
help, and absolutely zero experience.
And yet, despite all these incredible
odds, through sheer determination,
really, they've won the day.
They've got exactly what they want.
And I think it's what
the building deserves.