Grand Designs’ infamous ‘lighthouse’ finally sells after years of turmoil

11 comments

1. Didn’t that episode end in divorce mid way through?

2. I’m not sure if this is a pure sign I’m a psychopath but this sort of episode of Grand Designs are my absolute favourite.

   The Icarus-esque vanity projects. The bigger the car crash……the better.

3. I recently saw this episode.

   It’s an impressive building, but the guy lost everything to get it done. He poured all his money into it, which wasn’t enough. He took out huge amounts as loans. In the end, his wife left him and by the time it was done he couldn’t afford to keep it.

   >The reduction followed the discovery of serious structural issues with an older driveway built in the 1960s, which serves the adjoining annexe, “The Eye.”

   >The collapsing edges made it unsafe to use and caused multiple sales to fall through. Owner Edward Short even considered borrowing £2 million to repair the drive before a buyer was found.

   Considering a huge part of the cost was making it so the main property would continue to stand, and be accessible, as the cliffs eroded below, not reinforcing the other driveway seems like an oversight.

   Edit: if anyone fancies watching the episode, [Channel 4 have uploaded it to YouTube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWjAGTx-nsU&ab_channel=Channel4Homes)

4. Is this the guy who ran some dance label or something?

   Seemed blinded by pride, or stubbornness

5. OK. So we all know that when you’re on Grand Designs Kevin carries on with the partner, while the guy builds the house working long hours and absolutely destroying his body. This is why they always have a new born or one on the way in the segment where he pops back to see how they’re getting on. The guy building the house obviously isn’t doing it, he’s using all of his energy building a house by his damn self.

   My question is this: why you *purchase* a Grand Design house second hand, does Kevin show up to try it on with your partner as part of the deal?

6. If he’d just built a slightly less ridiculously huge house, he’d probably have saved his marriage and relationship with his kids and actually got to live in the house at the end of it all. The final result was certainly striking but it was VAST, far more than a family of four needed.

7. I used to train submarine crews and when the boat got a defect at sea, we had nothing to do but sit in the mess and drink tea whilst they fixed / attempted to fix it. Entire months of my life are just lost to time, like a memory black hole of monotony and boredom. But sometimes, I see something and get a flashback. This picture on this posts thumbnail is one.

   About 25 of us sat for days at sea watching the entire collection of Grand Designs. This is the only one that stands out; the sheer ridiculousness of it. The age difference of his kids throughout the programme.

   I was sat cuddled into a manky cushion bored out of my mind when I watched it. Drinking endless tea and just waiting for my next meal or bedtime.

   Id like to say good times but it was mostly boredom with very slight, tiny elements of horror.

8. Is it mean of me to hope the buyer demolishes it and builds something more sensible? 😁

9. It’s very telling of the series that there are bingo cards and drinking games, including such favourites as no planning permission, two weeks in and three weeks behind schedule, the wife getting pregnant, the project going wildly over budget, firing the project manager, running out of money, house isn’t watertight, live in a caravan, demolish the old family home…

10. You’d have to be barmy to buy something so clearly close to impossible to sell.

11. The exterior looks like the 2000s slop all over London

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