Kevin McCloud follows people as they build their dream house, often focusing on modern design, energy efficiency, maximizing space and views.
Genre: Documentary, Reality-TV
Cast:Kevin McCloud , Jeremy Till , Robert Gaukroger , Deborah Sheridan-Taylor , Tom Raffield , Milla Gaukroger , Danielle Raffield , Sarah Wigglesworth , Rob Roy , Andrew Teilo , Chris Ostwald , Sean Simon , Jonie Broom , Kevin McCabe , Natasha Cargill , Lucas Cargill , Harry Anscombe
A couple in Newhaven face a race against time as they build their dream home on a windswept cliff-top site in time for the birth of their baby.
Kevin travels to Oxfordshire to meet the Randolphs, who built their first house 10 years ago and now, in their 70s, have decided to do it all again.
Kevin travels to Brighton to meet a co-operative of ten young families, including ex-travellers and single parents, who are building both their own and each others homes.
Deborah Mills and architect Andrew Tate converts an old water tower in Amersham to a new stylish home.
Rob Roy builds an environmentally friendly home in Suffolk.
Gavin Allen and Jane Fitzsimons converts an old chapel to a modern living.
Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth tries to build a house out of sandbags and straw in Islington.
Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood build a glass and steel home in Doncaster.
Farnham, 2001 First Broadcast 1am Tue 17 Jul 2001 Kevin McCloud meets a woman determined to build the house of her dreams, an enormous Georgian-style mansion in Farnham, against all the odds.
New England style-kit house, Sussex Duration 48:54 First Broadcast 1am Tue 24 Jul 2001 Kevin McCloud follows the construction of a New England style-kit house built on the Sussex Downs that was bought and designed entirely on the internet.
Chris and Jill Heleine gives a deserted textile mill a light, modern interior through military operation like organization.
Kevin McCloud follows the construction of a New England style kit house built on the Sussex Downs that was bought and designed entirely on the internet. Mild language
Rupert and Julie Upton builds an experimental idea of a cross-shaped house made of oak and glass.
A group of 11 men and women will build their own, and each other's, homes. Dispite no previous knowledge of the trade.
Sarah Jordan and Coneyl Jay wants to build their own hi-tech modern house in northern London. However, the plans must be approved by the council to allow building in the predominately Edwardian street.
Martin and Sue are using old English building techniques including a traditional thatched roof to rebuild two South Devon linked barns from the 1600s and 1850 respectively into a liveable home.
Kevin travels back to Doncaster to catch up with self-builders Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood and their futuristic glass and steel house in a suburb of Doncaster.
Kevin McCloud travels to Suffolk to revisit a couple who dreamed of building a 100% environmentally friendly house.
This show takes place in the Lot region of France. A British couple, Mark and Debbie, with a young daughter Tilly, build a house that is insulated by straw bales. Mark is a writer and he has designed an office with beautiful views where he hope he will obtain lots of inspiration to write. Their budget is tight and for the first year they live in a caravan (trailer) on site, but the next winter proves to be too unkind, so they have the stress of finding somewhere else nearby to live while the building continues. Neither of the couple have any experience in building but the husband took a one week course about straw bale building.
A group of people learnt on the job while building their own subsidised housing in Brighton, UK in S02e06. Kevin revisits the street to see the finished, furnished houses.
Kevin McCloud revisits a group of people in a Brighton co-operative who are building their own homes and the homes of their neighbours
Kevin McCloud revisits Tony and Sharon who fell in love with a completely dilapidated Georgian home in London and undertook the challenging task of restoring it to its former glory.
Kevin McCloud catches up with Deborah and architect Andrew who designed an 'invisible' house which blended in with the earth banks of the surrounding reservoirs
Kevin McCloud travels to South Devon to revisit Sue and Martin whose dream was to create a family home using old English building techniques.
Kevin McCloud joins a Peterborough couple as they seek to realise their Grand Design of a very modern home in a traditional woodland setting.
Kevin McCloud meets a couple who have their hearts set on converting a disused industrial waterworks in the Chesterfield countryside into their dream home.
Kevin McCloud meets a couple who have their hearts set on converting a disused industrial waterworks in the Chesterfield countryside into their dream home.
Philip and Andrea Traill have ambitious plans for their Grade Two Listed Victorian timber-clad barn but their plan to combine traditional and ultra-modern design causes some headaches.
Tom and Judy set out to build an ambitious house - a symphony of angles, glass walls and exposed steel, with a dramatic inverted roof.
After 10 years of living in a small house in east London, John Flood and Eleni Skordaki hankered after modern, open-plan living. They didn't want to move, so they decided to give their Victorian terrace home a radical redesign.
Helen Gould and Phil Reddy wanted their home to make the most of spectacular views, but they also wanted it to be ecologically friendly. Their solution was to build an earth-sheltered home, with most of the house built into the hillside.
Kevin McCloud travels to Hereford to meet a very young couple who are building their first home, in the center of an ancient village, surrounded by beautiful medieval cottages.
Kevin McCloud revisits the improbable Islington home of two architects who built their avant-garde north-east London house out of straw bales, springs, nappy cladding and silver tin
Kevin McCloud catches up with a couple he met some years when they set about the task of converting a disused electricity substation in Sunderland into a four-bed family home
Kevin McCloud revisits retired couple Denys and Marjorie Randolph from Berkshire, who had decided to embark on their final building project, a brand new, green oak, barn-style house
Architect Louise and banker husband Milko Ostendorf convert a Victorian violin factory in built-up London into a luxury home, but neighbours London Festival Orchestra start a bitter battle over incorrectly-coloured bricks in a shared wall.
Kevin McCloud visits and revisits 4 years later to see how a senior couple orders from Germany a specially designed house to be delivered in sections to their site in England. The site originally had their other home on for 40 years. The new home will be built in the factory in Germany and erected on site in 6 days. After erection the interior be be finished within a few months. The couple will live on site in a caravan during the build.
Kevin McCloud meets a couple who have spent 15 years planning their dream home - an exotic and inspired wooden-framed house - but is the New Forest ready for such a Grand Design?
Ruben and April are climbers based in Ediburgh. They buy and gut an old stone schoolhouse, creating a restored period house on the outside with a huge open plan apartment style interior.
David and Anjana live in a tiny coach house with a huge backyard. They propose to build a large modern house curved around a protected chestnut tree. To save money Anjana will be the project manager.
Former Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins and his partner Darron have spent years dreaming of building a controversial seaside modernist, Bauhaus-inspired white cube for them and their C20th pop culture collection.
Kevin McCloud follows a couple who have found a plot with a view to die for on the west coast of Scotland. The trouble is, they are not sure what kind of house they want.
Kevin returns to see whether the couple's solo attempts to transform a wreck of an old stone building in Leith, with no previous building experience, has been successful.
When Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe began looking for a house to buy in London they soon realized that the only affordable option was to build one themselves.
A couple are determined to restore and renovate a grade 2 listed Elizabethan farmhouse. They must protect unique features and save the building after terrible depredations by the death watch beetle.
John, a carpenter, rolled his sleeves up and decided to build a house for his family with his bare hands.
Kevin McCloud revisits Louise and Milko Ostendorf, whose project to convert an old violin factory in the heart of London into a luxury home resulted in a bitter battle with their neighbours over a jointly-owned wall.
Kevin McCloud meets Pat Becker, who lives in a large Georgian house in Devon. But now that her family have flown the nest, she's building a new home at the bottom of the garden.
Kevin returns to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed.
Thomas and Dervla O'Hare are building a spectacular split-level home cascading down an almost vertical hillside in Belfast. But is their vertiginous grand design a step too far?
Kevin McCloud meets Julie and Mark Veysey, whose Grand Design is a stunning Miami-style beach house on a beachfront plot overlooking the south Devon coast
Andrew Teilo and Lowri Davies want an eco-house in the Welsh countryside. Their wishes and their architect's evangelical eco insistence create a steep learning curve for all trades and a dramatic break between clients and architect.
Kevin meets Jim and Simone Fairfull, who are building a spectacular light-filled glass pavilion floating over a private loch in Scotland
Kevin McCloud meets Jane and Robert Ellis who are planning a mouth-wateringly contemporary conversion of a 300-year-old barn into a stunning modern home using steel and glass
World travellers Theo and Elaine are building a cedar-clad ecologically-friendly three storey cedar-clad cuboid house with materials coming from America, Canada and Europe and finding that adds to the complications of building a home.
Kevin McCloud meets Denise and Bruno Del Tufo, who have ambitious plans for a concrete water tower sitting in their back garden, with a strict budget of £250,000
This house is in Creuse France, in the centre of the country. It was originally used as a house for the French Resistance folk, so the Germans bombed it. In November 2004 they have enough renovated to open 2 rooms for paying guests.
The journey moving the family, including their two young sons, Fabian and Felix, from South London to a renovated 300-year-old farmhouse in Les Gets was to have its ups and downs.
Kevin McCloud meets Peter and Christine Benjamin who live in an Edwardian manor house but have decided to downsize and build a smaller home in the grounds
Kevin meets Jim and Simone Fairfull, who are building a spectacular light-filled glass pavilion floating over a private loch in Scotland
A heroic battle to save a crumbling, romantic 14th-century castle in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales
After a couple watched their thatched home burn they discovered that their insurance had lapsed. Despite their loss they decide to restore their historic home together with a new modern annexe.
Social workers Sze and Chris can't afford a home for themselves and their children. They decide to buy a barge and plan to convert it to a self-sustainable houseboat using recycled materials and no design plan.
Katrin and James are renovating a grand old Bournemouth hotel-turned-apartment building penthouse. When James leaves Katrin to manage the project she deals with irate neighbours and begins to make her own mark on the project.
Kevin revisits Andrew and Lowri Davies who embarked on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales.
Builder Dean and wife Hilary convert a Georgian listed church into a bizarre family home around a hydrotherapy pool. Dean is determined to follow his own plans without an architect despite Kevin McCloud's representations.
Two pilots design and have built, a 21 st century large home but in the 1930s Art Deco style. They know what they would like on the outside, but had not thought through much of the inside. On a flight to Miami while working, they tour the Miami Beach area Art Deco buildings for inspiration and return to England armed with many ideas to include in their house. Kitchens in the 1930s were not very stylish and were kept out of sight in the back of homes. Our couple work with the cabinetmakers to make a beautiful kitchen with many curves in the style and using Walnut and Burr Maple. There is one feature that they had not planned on, but the builders said it had to be included, which is not in keeping with this Art Deco style.
Engineering whiz Monty Ravenscroft built an extraordinary experimental home in Peckham.
Kevin revisits Tony and Jo, musicians with Scottish Opera, who had long dreamed of a home in the countryside.
Kelly and Masoko Neville build a straw bale insulated house on the Cambridgeshire Fens, which is the term applied to the flat area in the middle of East Anglia. Kelly builds most of it himself, as he has amazing carpentry skills. They install a 20 amp windmill outside and Masoko cultivates a vegetable garden which yields lots of veggies. After 20 months Kevin McLoud revisits to find it 95% finished and it has many beautiful and unique facets like hand carved doors.
Kevin McCloud meets a couple who bought a ruin and moved to Italy in 1999, hoping to start work building their dream home in Tuscany.
Kevin meets master carpenter Bill Bradley and his wife Sarah, whose plan is to build two identical timber houses in south London, selling one to finance the building of the other.
Architect Tim and shopaholic Zoe live in a Cheltenham regency terrace, but want something more efficient. They decide to beat local restrictions for a new house by going down one storey and then building up -- in their own backyard.
Henry Chopping plans to write a new chapter in the laws of architectural geometry by building his new house with decagon shaped rooms.
An architect plans to build a new house for his family using only white materials.
Jo and Shaun Bennett want to build an Addams Family style Gothic house with a £400,000 budget.
Pru and Richard Irvine plan to build a bespoke family home in the Midlothian countryside, but the plot of land is an old industrial site with lime kilns and they come with conditions.
Bath may be famous for its Georgian architecture, but Tiffany Wood and her husband Jonny have chosen it as the location to build themselves a striking Modernist home.
Kevin McCloud revisits artists David Westby and Leonie Whitton three years after they bought an olive farm in the Puglia region of Italy and planned to convert it into a home on a budget of £25,000.
Kevin McCloud drops in at John and Terri Westlake's self-built, contemporary wooden home, which has a wall made entirely of glass and great views across open countryside near Peterborough.
Kevin revisits David and Greta Iredale, who replaced their original house which they designed and built themselves with a German built, precision engineered Huf Haus.
Kevin McCloud revisits Philip Trail and his wife Angela who moved to stress-free Surrey and renovated a 150-year-old threshing barn after Philip was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Five years on, Kevin McCloud goes back to the wilds of Cumbria to see how the Reddy family have adapted to their ecologically sound earth-sheltered home.
In Maidstone, Jean and Bill Letley, a septuagenarian couple plan a highly contemporary bungalow complete with underfloor heating and prototype steel foundations.
Ian and Sophie Cooper convert an industrial wreck in Somerset.
After 17 years living away from home, banker Dean Berry and his wife Sarah returned to Newport in South Wales to convert a Victorian Folly.
Richard and Sophie plan to build an Eco house on a concrete slab, it will contain 4 bedrooms. The home will have a parabolic arch roof. They bought a lot in Kent for £350,000 which included a house which they will knock down. They will live in a caravan while they build.
Darren Howarth and his partner live in Brighton. They are selling their house to live in Brittany France. They are using as many recyclable products as possible mainly used car tires.
Farmer Andrew Ainslie and his artist wife Meryl attempt to build a glass and engineered timber farmhouse that blends agricultural functionality with a modern flair in the middle of their 700 acre dairy farm located in the rolling caulk hills of Wiltshire.
A couple wish to build a modern minimalist large family home in Kent from components from several suppliers that built the parts off site.
A large home is being built in the Lake District. There is a courtyard in the centre with 3 bedrooms surrounding it. They run into huge debt, so end up deciding to open a B& B to help pay the debts back.
A Building Contractor and his wife who is a Nurse, build a large modern 6 bedroom house on a hill in Brighton. It has an amazing view and the owner has many ambitious design ideas including huge curved glass expansive windows. He lives next door and needs to renovate and sell the house on the other side of the plot. Everything starts out wonderfully, even though he has just had a double hip replacement. But other health problems loom, along with the housing market to deflate.
Eight years ago Alex and Cheryl Reay left London for a new life in the New Forest.
Jim Fairfull was out fishing with a friend when he came across a beautiful, secluded loch.
Kevin returns again to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed.
Lincoln Miles and his wife wish to convert a 1970s bungalow into a 3 part home with studios, and with one 3 storey tower as a private retreat for themselves. The land is a country setting surrounded by woods, on the Isle of Wight. They wish to use unique materials like a yogurt and cows dung siding wash and scorched Larch wood.
Getting planning permission to build in open countryside is almost impossible, but Helen and Chris have achieved it. Both architects, they decided to move out of London and build their own home in the middle of the Cotswolds countryside.
A recently widowed mother of two children builds a modest, contemporary home on a tight budget in Suffolk.
Kevin McCloud follows the progress of Simon Bennett and his wife Jill as they try to restore two timber-framed barns in Suffolk.
Jonathan and Lindsay want to build a house that's exciting to look at, cheap to run, and ecologically sound.
Kevin meets interior designer Kathryn Tyler, who has decided the best way onto the property ladder is to design and build her own house in her parents' back garden in Falmouth.
Alan Dawson has spent 22 years planning his house. He is going to build all the components in his factory and plans to erect it on site in 5 days. He is hoping that this will provide a fresh direction for his business, hit by recession.
This episode shows how a family builds a unique Geodesic dome rooved house on Lake Windermere in the beautiful, if rainy, Lake District of England. They encounter many problems including running out of funds.
Kevin returns to Brittany to see how the earth-sheltered home has worked out for Daren and Adi.
Kevin returns to London to see if Bill has completed the two timber and glass houses.
Kevin returns to Belfast to see how the vast hillside villa has worked out for Thomas and Dervla.
Kevin McCloud returns to see the Sampson family in France.
Kevin is in Amersham for a second update on a project taken on by Deborah and architect Andrew.
Kevin revisits Pru and Richard Irvine, who built a bespoke modern home on an old industrial site complete with lime kilns. Eighteen months on, has this giant of a house settled in to its surroundings?
Kevin visits Stefan and Annia as they convert a mill cottage into a very large house by joining two cottages with a building that uses a lot of metal and glass. The cottages are made of original stone. The couple take 5 years and counting to build this house and the budget is overrun 3 times over. While this building is going on the family grows by two more.
Penny and Paul Denby are knocking down their million pound house to build a contemporary large home in London, the tripe glazed windows alone cost £200,000 and they had a new-on-the-market special coating to help heat retention in winter and dispersal of heat in summer.
Kevin follows the progress being made as Tim and Philomena O'Donovan, convert a lifeboat station in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, into a contemporary home.
A couple with one child restore a 500 year old barn on their parent's farm, to live in and have their Art studios integrated into this 7000 sq ft space.
A couple wish to build a home for the family from recycled materials, with no budget in mind or real deadline. The owner does most himself, but does get occasional help from friends who may be expert in their field. The show ends with only the frame and main roof in place, so there is much left still to do He is even making his own windows and staircase etc so everything takes a long time. 4 years go by, and still unfinished. The site has beautiful views. The couple think that another year will see the end of this project.
A young Stone Mason and his partner buy and restore an old 19 th century Silver Mine Engine House in Cornwall to live in. They paid £200,000 for the property and only have £100,000 borrowed from the bank to restore it.
A couple with two children build a 3 storey house with a large basement in London. It is situated at the end of a Mews housing row and there is a railway line at the back of the house. The house has many colours in it and the woman dreamt of a disco floor in the basement.
Kevin revisits a couple who are building near Lake Windermere in the Lake District. He runs out of money, but is lucky and a woman helps them out. After completion they realize that they better open up a luxury B &B to earn money to repay their debts.
Richard, an architect, and wife Sophie want to build a house that is eco friendly and has a giant brick arch that is the backbone of the building. While the build progresses they will live on site in a caravan (mobile home). This is a fairly rural site in Kent SE England. The build takes a year longer than planned and £200,000 more expensive, but the final product is magnificent. Two children are born in the time between when Kevin first meets them and when he makes the revisit.
Kevin revisits Denise and Bruno Del Tufo who six years ago set about transforming a concrete water tower in their back garden into an avant-garde contemporary home.
Kevin McCloud revisits Alan and Judith Dawson in west Cumbria, where they began constructing a prefabricated home in 2009.
A couple wish to build a modern minimalist house in Kent. The wife becomes the Project Manager whilst also looking after two children. Although they order components that are built offsite and some from Continental Europe, they have many companies supplying each part. Like many new builds they end up taking extra time.
Entertainer Sean Simon rescues a derelict folly castle in Ireland with plans to make it his home while (sort of) following local regulations for buildings of such historical importance.
Two retired women act as patrons to a business that is using their home as a prototype for new building techniques. A machine on site cuts the buildings walls to specs, saving on transportation costs, and the men running the company do not charge for their expertise as a trade off for the experience and control of building a home in this new way.
Minimalist couple Mary Martin and Carl Turner attempt to carry out their version of building a sustainable, zero-carbon glass house.
A couple buy, then demolish, an old boathouse on the Thames with plans to build a modern home which will clash with the traditional surrounding homes, alienating their neighbors.
Two men buy a derelict Victorian water tower and convert it into a luxurious home for themselves, topped by a magnificent sitting room with 360 degree views of London from the tower's former metal water tank.
A couple buys a ground floor studio and an extensive underground warren of rooms with plans to make it a sumptuous home. While the husband works to pay for it, his interior decorator wife manages the project to turn crumbling squash courts, underground pools and falling-down corridors into a below-ground home.
Instead of the normal white stone cottages of this area, a couple build a wooden clad house with a grass roof and outbuildings that blend in with the landscape.
Film props buyer Tracy Fox and scenic artist husband Steve want to build an "urban shed" out of corrugated cement fiber board and twenty foot panels of polycarbonate sheeting.
The presenter revisits the 1970s converted bungalow on the Isle of Wight where Lincoln Miles and his wife wished to use unique materials to the build which includes a 3 story tower that reaches the treetops.
Kevin catches up with Claire Farrow and Ian Hogarth who began a wild journey in 2010 to create d the ultimate fun family home, right in the heart of London, including a dance floor, dj booth and sauna.
Braintree (revisited) . Freddie Robins and Ben Coode-Adams leave their cramped London flat to take on the conversion of a 500 year old timber framed barn in Essex where they plan to live and each have an artist's work studio in this 7000 sq ft space. They have a daughter called Willa.
The Hedgehog Self Build Co-op consists of Ten couples /17 adults who build ten homes as a co-operative, they each commit to build for 30 hours each per week for two years, None of them have any experience in building, and they are living in mobile homes temporarily. The Co-op is situated just outside of Brighton in East Sussex on the south coast of England. The houses are all bungalow style and detached. In 1999 the build cost of each was £60,000 each, plus the land cost. They were built through 1998.
With two active boys in a house sized for newlyweds the Harry's need a bigger house. But with none available in their home town of Throne they buy a dilapidated 1920's theater to turn into a house. Retaining the facade and other highlights their architect friend intends to build out their home with board marked concrete inside and out.
For a decade Jonathan Broom has dreamed of building his own home in London. Meanwhile he lived with his wife and now two children in a one room apartment they planned to rent for six months. But at last they found an oddly shaped, overgrown, vacant lot and have an ambition plan to develop every inch of it and a little bit more.
A young couple wanted to change a 1960s bungalow into their dream house near York, Yorkshire, but once they move into the bungalow they find it will be cheaper to start a new build. So they sell the bungalow and rent it back to live in while they build a new house on the 2 acre sub divided lot. They have a £400,000 budget and they finish the home in 7 months.
Afghanistan war veteran and triple amputee John White wants to build a new house that better accommodates his physical limitations. But he has no intention of sacrificing style for ergonomics so the ergonomics have to be stylish.
Marta and Colin McKinney plan to build a house on their private airfield so they can live where they practice their vocation/avocation of operating a flying school. They even hope to use their house as a control tower. Aside from money, wind and storms, the biggest architectural challenge is designing a house that looks like a home but also looks at home on an airfield.
Tamay and Nigel Hussey decide to renovate and change a house from a 1960s forester's lodge in the woods to a Japanese design in the Wye Valley in Monmouthshire, Wales. Tamay is from Japan and wishes to integrate some Japanese features into the design.
Ben and Rachel Hammond plan to turn a drab vicarage into a modern house that better compliments the church and surrounding park. But getting the city planners to go along is a bit of a challenge.
Kevin McKay is Britian's leading proponent of the ancient building material; cob. With five cob houses under his belt he now plans a 10,000 square foot cob estate, larger than all the houses he'd built before, combined. And the house will be built with the clay excavated for the basement.
Looking for a change of scenery, Londoners Phil and Mike are smitten with a farm in Newbury. But the old farm house has got to go because they refuse to give up living in a modern house. To pay for it they have to become profitable farmers because, by law, they have to work the farm which means giving up their previous jobs and the associated incomes. Maybe brewing a certain popular British beverage will provide extra income since the tortoise collection certainly won't help.
Kevin re-visits a house in the Andalusian hills, built as a retirement home for Gill and Hilary, a pair of British people. An 8 acre site cost only £35,000 back in the early 2000s. One of the couple is an architect but he passed the job onto his son. The site is really rural and beautiful. It is 9 years later that Kevin re-visits the home, but sadly Gill has since died.
The host revisits Lucie Fairweather who were going to build a modest Scandinavian style house near a 1960s housing estate with her Architect husband Nat McBride. Since the last visit Nat had been very ill and had died, leaving a young wife and 2 very small children. After a delay due to the death, Lucie decided to start the house along with Nat's friend who is also an architect. This is in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The home is a clever, beautiful and practical plan, which should be adopted in profusion.
Rob Hodgson and Kay Ralph plan to build a very modern white home on a cliff top in North Wales. This cliff is eroding and once they start the project a very bad storm washes away up to 15 hears of normal erosion. They feel that the cliff will outlast their lifetime and that seems to be all they worry about.
Rebecca and Gregory attempt to transform a single storey bungalow into a cutting edge home in Cornwall, on a budget originally of £80,000. The house is set on top of the original cottage ground level. The top level is clad with black stained timber.
Peter Berkin has a problem. His hobbyist ambitions have outgrown his workshop which can't accommodate the airplane he's building. But that's not his problem. He'll just build a bigger workshop. The problem is he needs a house to go with it. Or is that another project for his hobby. Which will he finish first; house, workshop or airplane?
Just because people have lived in shipping containers from time to time doesn't mean they're architecturally desirable. Patrick Bradley disagrees. But the location he plans to build on is naturally beautiful and requires a home much more beautiful than a lowly shipping container.
Tracy and Steve Fox have rehabilitated and sold several houses in the course of their lifetimes. Finally they're ready to build their own home. They plan an urban industrial style using conventional cinder block covered with corrugated cement fiber and polycarbonate. What could be cheaper. As it turns out, just about anything else.
Planning constraints arise when Natasha tries to build a periscope-shaped house.
Dreaming of a river front house Andy Bruce has finally found a house he can afford. But it's not the greatest. It's terribly run down because it's on an island in the Thames that is totally submerged every now and then. But does Andy walk, or should I say swim, away. No. He'll just build a house the floats.
Kevin visits Denny and Doug who, on a whim, paid 36,000 Euros for a bombed out manor house in Creuse, France. It was a centre for resistance workers during WW2, so it was destroyed by the a Germans and has remained so until the early 2000s when they bought it. Then Kevin revisits the house in ten years' time to discover it it truly finished and running as a guest house. The village loves the finished project and the couple finally marry there.
Kevin McCloud returns to a unique Japanese-Welsh fusion home in the Wye Valley.
Kevin McCloud returns to Devon for an update on one of the most inspirational builds he has ever witnessed.
Kevin McCloud returns to Lambourn Valley in the Berkshire Downs to see how Rupert and Julie Upton have fared since the building of their dream home was completed.
Kevin McCloud looks at the challenges of self-building in the UK's most remote places.
Kevin McCloud reveals how self-builders in the suburbs are transforming this most maligned of residential environments.
Kevin McCloud looks at the challenges of self-building in the countryside.
Clinton is a perfectionist who just isn't satisfied with the magnificent house he built two years ago. He has an ambitious dream for his next house. But perfect dreams are nothing if not expensive. So will his new house be close enough to perfect that Clinton doesn't need to build a third.
Architect Ben Hebblethwaite agrees to design a house for his uncle James Strangeways. But James is an avid boatman who prefers living on his seven boats to a house on land. So the question is, can Ben design a house where James feels comfortable enough to actually live in it? Maybe a house that feels a bit like a boat?
After surviving a cerebral hemorrhage and coma Bram Vis and his wife Lisa have decided to build a seven thousand square foot house that has everything they could possibly want. The modern design is centuries ahead of any other house on the island but promises to be magnificent. Let's hope they can afford it.
Here's a a dream house for a Troglodyte or latent Neandethal; a cave. Angelo Mastropietro plans to convert a cave, last inhabited a few decades ago, into a home fit for a hobbit though he intends some of the furniture such as a sofa, bath and shelves to be cut into the rock. But the project is little more than a vague mental vision, except for a chalk drawing on the wall, so we'll see.
Michael plans to repair and convert an abandoned blacksmith's forge and add a new construction extension as his first solo architectural job, a house for his wife Michele and their new baby. If that sounds ambitious his budget is a miserly GBP 150,000 including a mortgage. But not to worry. He'll do much of the heavy, heavy lifting himself.
Londoners Ed Verslace and Vicky Anderson who long for life in the country have fallen in love with a cow-shed in Somerset with a magnificent view for their new home. Besides the house they want to operate a microfarm with pigs and chickens so Chef Ed can butcher and cure his own meats while Vicky offers Pilates classes in her home studio. One problem; the shed looks like it barely survived that last apocalypse. Another, they plan to physically build the house themselves and know nothing about home construction. But the Internet will provide all the training they need, right?
Many of Kevin's subjects strive to blend their homes into the environment. Stephen Yeoman and Anita Findlay intend to build a house that will radically contrast with the environment and the local architecture. Further they chose the most prominent lot in the town and rusty steel for cladding that could very well look, well, horrible.
Andy and Nicola buy an old house on an island on the River Thames for £350,000, in Buckinghamshire. It is a 220 ton amphibious house. Kevin returns there to see if it has been a success. They had to dig to 5 metres to make the footings due to it being on a riverbank.
Kevin McLoud returns to North Cornwall to see Rebecca Sturrock and Gregory Kewish's Grand Deaign.
Jon and Noreen take on an epic self-build, creating a modern tree-house on a half-acre site in the heart of a Gloucestershire town.
Matt and Sophie want to build a giant family house of fun with secret dens, a fireman's pole and a James Bond room. Kevin can't wait to see the final outcome.
Tom and Danielle Raffield use their steam-bending skills to build a wavy wooden house in Cornwall, full of amazing twisty furniture. But with only £100k, have they taken on too much?
Architect David Parsons has designed a sleek, black house hidden away in an idyllic Essex woodland. But will having no windows on two sides make this dream home into a bunker?
Paul Rimmer has worked with bricks for 40 years renovating Victorian houses in Bolton. But now he plans to hand-build a state-of-the-art wooden home. If his funding holds up that is.
Simon and Jasmine Dale want to build a three bed home on a hill with only £500 in the bank. And be self-sufficient in five years. Can it be done?
Mark and Candida Diacono want to build a house in their orchard to better operate it as a business and to provide a number of community services. They also require a barn to serve as a winery but both buildings will have roofs with shapes reminiscent of a plow blade. They have a tight schedule of just 5 months to meet the requirements of their agricultural business.
Rosie and Stewart have a pretty badly built 1960's bungalow. The want a new house but have hardly any money, even with a mortgage. So they are going to bungalow gobble and build a second floor on their current house. Still, their budget is very tight. But they are creative masters at cutting costs.
A private chef and a pilates instructor decide to convert a concrete cowshed into a home with what they've learned from the internet.
Mark Edwards and Paeey Telay Mark prefers period architecture while Penny finds it monotonous and loves modern. Can they build a house together? Surely Kevin won't encourage harmonious compromises.But eventually, money is always the biggest challenge.
An architect and his wife plan and do much of the actual building of a shed-like home outside Belfast.
Chris and Kayo live in a nice house in Hertfordshire. The only problem is it's adjacent to a secluded vacant lot that attracts youths engaged in disruptive behavior. Their solution is to buy the lot and build a house on it. Then they discovered it's an historic site with a multitude of restrictions.
In the beautiful Blackdown Hills, engineer Stephen and horticulturalist Elizabeth are building one of the most ambitious homes ever seen on the show, inspired by a shell.
Fred and Saffron build a home in the Peak District on a 30 degree slope, with the top floor in plain sight and two post-industrial style floors buried into the thick limestone below.
Joe and Lina's clever space-saving build may be the smallest two-bedroom house you're allowed to build in London, but it'll be stylish, low-budget, and theirs - not a landlord's.
Ten years in the making, Ed and Rowena Waghorn's handcrafted wood and clay house is the longest running Grand Designs ever. Is it finished and is it a masterpiece?
Kevin meets Mimi and Jaime Fernandez who are converting a listed folly in Buckinghamshire into a family home. The folly is built on an ancient Saxon burial ground and throws up some macabre surprises.
Harry and Briani want to build a house that echoes the house on the American movie, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Harry is a TV journalist and has a Production Company but wants to move from London to Padstow, Cornwall and open a 2 nd office there. They buy a former dairy farm for £490,000 and start the build. It takes 8 months longer and costs £200,000 more than they had budgeted.
This episode takes place in Richmond, London where a young couple with 3 children want to build a home with natural materials that will help their children with their allergies. Dust free concert floors, bamboo carpeting, non off gassing cabinets.
Steph Wilson and husband Alex try to build a contemporary farmhouse on her grandfather's old farmland. But lack of money leads to a long spell in a caravan and a total re-design.
Twin brothers in England's steel center buy an abandoned concrete yard behind the homes they are renting, with plans to build themselves two houses. Their designs incorporate local steel and are raised to take advantage of the view of a mill pond behind their planned homes, which they also purchased. One brother is married and the other divorced, but acquires a girlfriend and her children during the three year build (mostly spent in trying to line up finances and builders on their small budget.)
A married couple buy and demolish a house in order to build another. The husband is a deep sea diver who has always loved the look and feel of concrete. His dream house is to be made entirely of concrete using a formulation from a Swiss firm that has never been used in constructing a family home. Having to go away for work periodically, his wife oversees the project at times. The result is a stark building with few windows.
Andy and Jeanette plan a precarious cliff-top build on the west coast of Scotland. There are battles with extreme weather, budget overruns, and a sudden emotional shock.
An engineer and a textile industry expert plan to build a new house right on top of a sheer 100 foot cliff in the SW of Scotland. They own two beautiful Newfoundland dogs.
Kevin McCloud meets entrepreneur Paul Wilkinson and his wife Amy, who are building a giant new home on a 16-acre plot in Lincolnshire.
Design engineer Mark Butler is paralyzed from the waist down and needs a cutting-edge, wheelchair-friendly family home.
Richard and Felicia almost singlehandedly turn an underground water reservoir in the Humber Estuary into a family home, and then a life threatening illness strikes.
Cancer survivor Dad divides out the home into a number of interconnected units in a horse-shoe layout for his family.
A plan to build an art deco lighthouse, with an additional wing and infinity pool.
There aren't many people in Britain who can say they own their own airfield. But Flying Instructor Colin MacKinnon and his partner Marta Briongos are part of the very select few. Their plan is to build an incredible metal sculptural home next to the runway, designed by one of Scotland's most eminent architects and inspired by aircraft hangars.
Justin plans to restore a neo-Gothic cemetery keeper's lodge in south-west London and convert its toilet block into a luxury extension complete with a moat and swimming pool. But can he keep his budget under control?
Kevin meets Greg and Georgie who plan to convert a cavernous, dilapidated, 35-year-old barn in Georgie's parents' garden in Kent into a peaceful safe haven. But the building work soon squeezes their budget.
Nathan and Amye are building a cathedral-like home modelled on local Dutch barn houses with a sleek twist and a 5000-tile armadillo roof. But the pressure mounts for project manager Nathan.
Energy conservationist Andrew plans to build a radical, self-heating home by storing the warmth of the summer sun into insulated earth banks. But will this gigantic thermal experiment work?
Leigh and Richard plan to transform a derelict 17th-century flour mill, full of rotten timbers and riddled with structural cracks, into a warm, contemporary, four-floor, three-bed home
Kevin McCloud revisits Adrian and Megan, whose dream home in East Sussex became a nightmare. With the house now fully complete, what is living in a cutting-edge concrete bunker really like?
Joe and Claire hope to create 'one of the greatest homes on the planet', that looks like a huge piece of art, with 34 enormous angled zinc shards. But the expensive build faces mind-boggling problems.
Master carpenter Olaf faces the biggest challenge of his career: creating an oasis for himself and his partner Fritha on a tiny slice of land in Sussex near a mainline railway and A-road
Iain and Jenny plan to build an enormous black, minimalist, rectangular building in the middle of a country estate in the dramatic Scottish countryside. But what will the neighbors say?
Kevin McCloud meets widowed teacher Gretta, who is making a fresh start in rural Cambridgeshire with a Malaysian-inspired burnt wood and glass home being designed by her nephew Carlos and project managed by her brother-in-law Fernando - despite his lack of building experience. However, as site clearance begins, so does the Covid-19 pandemic - and family harmony is tested when an apple tree much loved by Fernando is condemned for removal by Gretta.
Kevin McCloud meets architectural designer Dan and interior designer Nina, who want to build a sleek, unique family house. But the plot they have bought, near a beautiful estuary in West Sussex, is dominated by a swampy pond that they are unable to fill in. Instead, they plan to make it central to their design, turning the pond into a biodiverse waterscape, and then floating their house above it. It's a challenge for anyone - but to save money, Dan is doing it largely himself, despite his limited experience with new builds.
Kevin McCloud meets Cumbrian couple Rob and Ruth, who have bought a 200-year-old former blacking mill and plan to slot in an entirely new, timber-clad structure within its walls, giving the impression that it is peeping out from the original ruins. But the original building is a scheduled monument and Historic England inform them it is too dangerous to repair, giving them no choice but to painstakingly rebuild the ancient mill around their new structure.
