Episode 12 Building Dream Homes

Across the nation, architects are building, designing and transforming the homes we live in.

One day, I'm going to live in a house like this

and not just do it for others.

We're following some of those

leading the way in groundbreaking design.

Their jaw would drop if they saw that.

I can't believe it.

We'll be with them every step of the way as they battle with

builders, blue prints and the clients who hire them.

You've got a very strange understanding of the word today.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

That's not good.

-It's like working with the Chuckle Brothers.

-Ho, ho, ho!

We're with them as they draw on their seven years of training

to solve everyday problems...

Quick word in his ear, make sure there's no more mishaps.

He's come in on an angle and ripped up the road,

but he's now ripped his exhaust pipe off.

Oh, man!

I've said many prayers.

That's amazing.

That's a pretty incredible difference, isn't it?

The fixings alone cost 17 grand.

..all in the name of making the properties we dream of a reality.

Today, architect Bobby Halliday faces challenging deadlines

and last minute crises as he juggles ten bespoke houses that

all need to finish on time.

Yesterday, this was built, it was looking fantastic.

HAMMERING

Unfortunately, there was an issue.

And architect David has to step in when an Edwardian townhouse

extension in Edinburgh threatens to overwhelm a young family.

I'm absolutely terrified of living in this house for the next six months.

The house-building industry is back in business,

growing at its fastest rate in more than a decade.

In Stirlingshire, local architect Bobby Halliday

forged his reputation on bespoke new builds and ambitious extensions.

I want to put something cool in here, something snazzy.

His latest project is a much bigger beast.

He's converting an old farm steading into ten new homes.

The project here is to renovate where possible,

but, in actual fact, all of the steading has had to be demolished.

Three years ago, he spotted the potential of this old farm steading.

You can see Stirling Castle in the background on the eastern

side of the steading, you can see the Wallace Monument,

so it's a really nice location.

Bobby drew up plans, convinced an investor to come on board,

and 12 months ago the build started.

The houses are at different stages, meaning Bobby is dealing with

deadlines...

They have to move in. Failure is no option.

..disasters...

If I can't get it done tomorrow,

the house won't get a completion certificate.

We can't issue the completion until that is done.

..and the new home owners wanting to move in.

-Excellent. Thank you, Bobby.

-You're welcome.

-That's great.

This development is hugely ambitious, with a large farmhouse

and nine smaller units, each with a unique layout and demanding owner.

Bobby is involved at every step of the way as architect

and project manager.

The budget for the construction is £2 million.

That's in addition to the £400,000 cost of the plot.

Once finished, the properties will sell for between £165,000

and £600,000.

They've set themselves a target of just 18 months to get all

houses built and hopefully turn around a £500,000 profit.

So the programme really is to get these houses,

get the purchasers in really every three weeks.

As architect, Bobby likes to find a buyer for his houses as early

into the build as possible

so that he can design the property around his client's needs and wants.

And that's exactly what he's doing for Brendan Emery

and his Indonesian wife Rosella, proud new owners of Plot 6.

We're at Stirling Castle which is the best view

for my new building, which is just fantastic.

It's putting the roots down, really.

This is where we want to build a family home for me

and my wife and any future new family that come along,

and we couldn't have got a better location if we tried.

Brendan met his wife Rosella whilst they were working for the same pharmaceutical company in Indonesia.

Romance blossomed and they were married last June.

She's now living here full-time

and she's taking her time to settle in, but she's getting used

to the climate - coming from tropical Indonesia to very chilly Scotland

is quite a culture shock, never mind the language or the accent,

but, yeah, she's really looking forward to living here as well.

I think she's really looking forward to getting into a new house

and putting her mark on it.

After coming over to see the empty plot of land, Rosella has had

to go back to Indonesia to work out her contract and organise her visa

and won't be back for the first six months of the build, leaving Brendan

and Bobby with the responsibility of creating the perfect marital home.

Currently looking at the plans for Brendan and Rosella's house,

one requirement of Brendan's was that he needed a study

so we've given him a nice small study and we've still managed

to give them three double bedrooms with a main bathroom and an en-suite.

It looks great.

So far, Brendan and Rosella's house is still in the structural

stage of the build with the bespoke interior work still to be started.

Brendan's come to meet Bobby on site to check on progress.

-All the windows and doors are now all in.

-Excellent.

All the partitions are in and most of the partitions are all sheeted with plasterboard.

Fantastic.

This is a nice double bedroom.

-This is going to be your office.

-Yep.

-Study in here.

That's looks great. The door looks brilliant.

That's the doorway here that we actually saw outside which looks fantastic.

You can actually see the view that you'll get. And you can see the castle.

That was a good choice putting that there.

-I think this is a great idea.

-Yeah, brilliant idea.

Being able to walk through the rooms of the house is a big step forward

for Brendan, but it's not just his opinion that's going to matter.

Yeah, really pleased, and my other half, she's in Asia

at the moment so she's not seen this since it was really just a shell,

the foundations so a few pictures, a few e-mails will update her.

Yeah, keep her going.

Brendan may be happy, but Indonesia is a long way from a cold,

muddy building site in Scotland.

His new wife was last here in the summer.

It's now mid-winter and she's only seen images of the building.

When she does arrive, disaster strikes for Bobby.

Brendan and Rosella decide the kitchen is in the wrong place

and everything has to be dismantled.

Yesterday, this was built. It was looking fantastic.

Unfortunately, there's an issue.

Liz and Bruce Casely bought their three-storey, Edwardian townhouse

in Edinburgh two years ago.

Now, they've decided to extend out into the garden

and install a new, bigger, state-of-the-art kitchen.

This is a wonderful house.

We've got lots and lots of space but the kitchen area just doesn't

work so we can't have two or four children having dinner together.

You're always in the way in the kitchen and so opening that out and

making a new modern area is really key to really enjoying the house.

The idea behind the project really

is to make some more family living space

in an old, Victorian, terraced house.

The couple have chosen Edinburgh-based, award-winning architect

David Blaikie to design their new kitchen and extension.

Effectively, it's reorganising the back,

the ground floor back areas of a three-storey, terraced house.

What the client is after is to combine the existing kitchen

with the existing dining area...

..open up through the back elevation of the house to the back

wall of the house, extend out in this area and then it was

thought that we should actually push out, further out into the garden

with this, what we're calling the winter garden so it's

an unheated, fully-glazed external space which looks down the garden.

Liz and Bruce are expecting to pay around £200,000 for their new

kitchen and glazed garden room extension,

£46,000 for the kitchen, £154,000 to cover the cost of all

the building work, total decoration and the architect's design fees.

It will take six months to complete.

It should be a relatively straightforward project,

but David's clients are at loggerheads over the build.

There's an element of uncertainty, I think, about how,

in what shape or what form the project is going to move

forward so we just need to discuss whether it's all going to be done

in one go or trying to look at splitting it down into two phases.

On a project like this,

all the major building works would normally be completed before

the most expensive fixtures and fittings, like the kitchen,

are put in, to avoid any damage to the final finishes,

but Liz has other ideas.

I'm absolutely terrified of living in this house

for the next six months with builders and dust and dirt,

and with two small children,

I'm hoping to be away as much as possible.

She wants to get her kitchen up and running before any of the other work

is done to cause minimum disruption to her and her family's life.

I like the idea of getting the first bit done so that we can use

the kitchen, whereas the other part of the work will just take so much longer.

You know, doing it in two phases, it will take overall longer

and there probably are additional costs.

I suppose I'm slightly concerned about the fact that we start

the project, we do first half in the kitchen

-and all the men go off site.

-Yeah.

And then it's a hassle to get them

all back on and get everything all finished off, so do you just

take the pain in one fell swoop rather than doing it in stages?

No, the point is, is if we do this all in one go,

this will all be out of action for six months.

With a stalemate on how to proceed,

David needs some kind of a solution if he's even to start the build.

-What happens if we were to do the whole lot, OK?

-Hmm.

Day one, the builders come in and they come in and they knock down

-the wall here, they put some plasterboard up or whatever across here.

-Yep.

The kitchen man comes in, installs the kitchen. OK?

We can now use our kitchen and the men can start working out here.

That wasn't the way that we talked about it before.

I know, but I'm just thinking why can't you do it that way around?

So it's effectively a two-phase project in one phase?

-Right.

-Yep.

It's not the normal order of a contract

but there's nothing to say it can't happen in that way.

A compromise has been reached.

Liz's hi-tech kitchen will be created first with

the extension being built around it,

shielded by a partition. It's an expensive way of doing it,

and there are risks that the new kitchen could get damaged but Liz is happy.

That was an interesting sort of contrast between the practical

look at how it works

and the more sort of nurturing, caring aspect of how the project might work.

The compromise that we've reached, I think, is probably the right one.

The day has finally come for the building work to start.

A team has arrived to remove the old kitchen which is being recycled.

Bruce has been called away abroad on business.

Liz decides to beat a hasty retreat to her parents

and leave the builders to it.

We need to be out of here

because it is going to be mental for the next two weeks.

They're knocking out the back wall and I really don't want to be

here with the two children so we thought we'd head off

down to the coast and come back and hopefully be in a better place.

The family may have escaped for now but when they return,

their decision to stay in the house whilst work is carried out

looks like it might be coming back to bite them.

For Liz, her new kitchen can't come soon enough.

It would just be nice to get out of this room.

We find that we are doing everything in here.

Playing with the kids, watching television in the evening, cooking.

It's like living in a bedsit.

In Stirlingshire, the big day has arrived for Bobby and Brendan.

Rosella has flown back from Indonesia

and will be seeing her new home for the first time since it

was just a set of muddy foundations three and a half months ago.

Hey, how are you?

Hi. I'm good.

It's good to see you. It's good to see you.

Brendan has put his heart and soul into the build

and hopes his wife likes it as much as he does.

-Wow.

-So here we are.

It's great. This is my drawers.

Yours or mine?

It looks totally different. It's been three and a half months.

We will be getting them to put the lights in for each...

Yeah, the lights will go up.

Yeah, he'll cut that and put in little downlights.

It's a huge move for Rosella,

but the building seems to have the seal of approval Bobby hoped for.

All she saw the last time was the concrete slab, and now she's come

back to Scotland. I just get the impression that she's bowled over.

Every time I come in, it still blows me away.

The staircase is in, the walls in, the heating is in.

It's now the fun stuff really, picking the tiles

and doing the decor. Yeah?

Yeah. Yay, that's my part.

Rosella and Brendan's house is moving forward at a great pace.

Donald, are you OK?

The underfloor heating and screed poured floor have been laid

and the fantastic new kitchen is in, or at least it was.

This lot here is Brendan's kitchen.

Until yesterday, this was built. It was looking fantastic.

HAMMERING Unfortunately,

there's an issue, which you can hear in the background.

The kitchen is too far forward by around 300mm,

so Brendan was adamant that that size had to be... The position

of the worktop had to be moved back to allow his dining room in.

It's one of these things.

You know, the client really gets what he wants

so we had to dismantle it yesterday.

It's a difficult job.

Plumber Monty has to relocate the water supply from under

the island but with Rosella's requested underfloor heating system

buried under inches of screed, he's having to rely

on a combination of deduction and guesswork to avoid puncturing it.

It's warm here.

It gradually gets colder so that tells me that there will be

pipes up here, but I can't imagine they would be running

close to the water services so...

It takes two days to dismantle the kitchen, dig up the floor

and move the island.

But for Brendan, it's worth the extra time and hassle.

-Let's go. That's much better, isn't it?

-Yeah.

You've got that extra foot now.

It was like a foot over here so if you can imagine

the dining room table and chairs would be kind of there so it would have

meant that the breakfast bar stools would've kind of been too close.

I think because you spend a lot of time and energy

putting it together you feel like you're just being pernickety

but actually it's quite important, so it's good to have it come back.

-Happy, Mrs Emery?

-Yes. You can see from my face.

After getting married a year ago,

buying the house off-plan six months ago,

five months of building work, ripping the kitchen out

and moving continents, it's the big day.

Come on, guys, let's celebrate!

Brendan and Rosella finally get the keys to their new home.

The modern kitchen is striking and because they moved the island,

there's plenty of space for the dining table.

The feature curved wall links the kitchen and sitting room.

Upstairs, there are four bedrooms, one en-suite and one bathroom.

-That's for your fridge.

-Thank you.

And this is for you. OK? Everything is done.

My job is finished.

So, it's really up to you guys just to live in here

and live happily ever after.

And, erm. It's cool, it's good. It's real big smiles!

This is my wardrobe.

That's a good view.

That's an awesome view.

I feel very grateful. The house is just beautiful.

Brendan has done many things to make our life become more beautiful.

He works so hard to make this.

It's hard to describe. I'm sorry.

It is emotional because it's been a project that we've dealt

with for over a year, you know.

It's more than what we expected, so it's just huge credit to Bobby and his team.

I am ecstatically happy that it's turned out really, really well.

It looks great, these people are really happy. I think it's a happy ending.

Another happy client

and another property signed off on Bobby's steading.

In Edinburgh, architect David Blaikie is working

on the renovation and extension

of a three-storey town house for Liz and Bruce.

One of the key features of their build

is the glass winter garden room which will push out into their garden and bring light

and warmth into the building.

Just down the road is one of David's former clients

and an example of exactly what David can deliver.

Margaret, hi. Thanks very much.

Owners John and Margaret Tiller bought the two-bed, ground-floor

flat six years ago when they downsized

from a large house in North Berwick.

The glass box request from the client, you know,

from the first meeting we've created that.

We haven't made it a complete glass box

because there's too much heat loss during the winter

and too much heat gain during the summer,

so we've kept the solid, insulated roof

but to compensate for that, we introduced this glazing slot up here

which allows the light to flood in and to be reflected in and filtered

in at different times of the day and different times of the year.

The build cost around £150,000 and has given John

and Margaret their dream home.

Something that I say to clients a lot when I'm in the early

stage of projects is that I would like to give them something

that every day they walk into it and they say, "Yeah, this is good."

Well, you've succeeded.

A few doors along, Liz and Bruce Caseley's glass extension

is still a long way off.

It's been two weeks since work started.

Going against convention, Liz was determined to have her new

state-of-the-art kitchen installed before the main extension,

but husband Bruce convinced her to tackle both parts at the same time.

With Liz and the kids staying at her parents', Bruce has just

returned home from a two-week business trip and is seeing the extent of the

build and meeting lead contractor Brian for the first time.

-Wow.

-Hi, I'm Brian.

I realise we have met. I saw you once before. In there, right.

I've literally just flown in from Hong Kong this morning.

-I've been away for two weeks. Any problems so far?

-No, I never have problems.

All good. I'm now back living here.

-On that side of the house. Thank you.

-No problem.

Brian may be a man of few words but he makes up for it with action.

He and his men have already taken down several massive

supporting walls to the building and installed seven steel beams

and six upright supports to ensure it doesn't collapse.

We put the beam up this morning and then inserted the pad stone

and we've made it secure and now what we're doing is we're tying it in up above

the beam now, so when that all sets, it will be structurally sound again.

It'll be solid.

With the steels in, the builders now remove sections of the outside wall

to create the new opening for the extension which will be built later.

Architect David and his colleague

stop by to see how work is progressing.

So you reckon Monday this wall will be down? On Monday, Tuesday.

OK, I think that's fantastic progress from a week and a half ago.

The next stage is to remove the wall dividing the original kitchen

and dining room.

David's design stipulated that the cornice work should be

preserved which is making the job trickier for the builders.

We took extra special care cutting the line in there when we were

going across the plaster and made sure we didn't damage it in any way.

It's not just a simple case of leathering it.

You can't hit it too hard otherwise the whole thing might fall with it.

A day later, the dividing wall is down just in time

for Liz's return home from her parents in Kent.

The change is incredible.

We've gone up which has given us an awful lot of space

and a real feeling of light.

Obviously opening up the back here is just fantastic.

The opening at the back of the house will lead into the new extension.

-Very good. Cornice still in one piece?

-Yep.

-Incredible.

It's a pretty substantial bit of engineering, isn't it?

The steelwork that's in there is holding up

the two storeys above it and is also helping hold up

the stonework in the houses to both sides of it as well so there

are three properties that that steelwork is helping to support at the moment.

Now that all the structural steelwork is in

and the openings have been formed, the electrician and the plumbers

and the plasterers will come in next and make good that whole space.

Get all the services in ready for the kitchen to be fitted

and then there's a temporary hoarding that is going to

infill that gap there, and that will allow the guys to continue

constructing the second part of the project

while the client is cooking in her new kitchen, so everybody is happy.

With the build well on its way,

David can turn his attention to the actual kitchen

Liz and Bruce have ordered from bespoke kitchen designer Malcolm.

The average spend on a new kitchen is £8,000,

but Liz and Bruce have bought a handmade kitchen costing £46,000.

The decisions that we're making now we wouldn't normally make

until nearer the end of the project,

but because of the way this project is organized and because Liz

wants the kitchen installed and up and running at a much earlier

point in the project, so it is sort of turned on its head in many ways.

Malcolm's team has assembled the kitchen in the workshop

so David can see how it's shaping up.

One of David's requests is for blue LED ribbon lighting

all the way around the units to give them the illusion of floating.

But the plan seems to have changed.

Do you really want it underneath?

I just think, you know, the purity of this thing on the wall,

you know, it's got wall all round about it.

Of course this was how I'd originally done it

and then I changed it.

I still don't understand why you changed it!

I wasn't about, I was away skiing when you...

Exactly, well because we're going to have LEDs - one under each

one of these, I really thought it was a bit of overload.

It just strikes me that it should really have...

you should really continue, even if it's just the warm white.

This means a lot to David.

OK, all right. I'll do it.

Go on. It will look much better.

It would be much better.

-Liz will be over the moon.

-Good.

Meanwhile, Liz is getting to grips with her temporary kitchen

in the corner of her living room.

I've got the fridge out in the corridor and microwave,

toaster, kettle, coffee machine - essential - and a jug of water.

Basically managing from that.

But the brand-new kitchen that Liz has been dreaming of is

tantalizingly close.

So, the sun's out now and the kitchen is going to

be in by the weekend, or at least usable by the weekend.

The floor looks fantastic in there

and we're excited about it all coming together finally.

Outside, the build is at the halfway stage,

but the kitchen going in is a major milestone.

David is back to cast his architectural eye over it.

The dark dining room and kitchen have now been combined

to form this large, open-plan kitchen diner.

With its stone work tops, handmade units and David's

strips of LED blue lighting, it's everything Liz and Bruce wanted.

Is it working well?

-All good so far as you can probably see.

-Good.

It's been a long trip, a long journey to get here.

But as of last weekend, we've actually had a working

kitchen which is absolutely fantastic.

All the modern technology including running water which was

quite a novelty for us

and now we've got all of this and it's really, really quite something.

This lighting around the wall units across here works incredibly

well visually, and then the row of bright LEDs underneath just

gives you a really good working surface across there.

It's really impressive at night when it's dark outside

and you're sitting at the dining table

and up here on the units you just have the blue LED lights on there.

It does look like the cabinet's floating.

I pressed hard with the kitchen designer to make sure that

the blue light went right the way around it because originally, it was

just going to be up the sides, over the top, and down again.

But I think to get that full graphic sort of image, I think it

had to come back underneath so I'm glad we bullied him into doing that.

But I think your big light fitting that you've chosen is

really dramatic. It really fills the space well, doesn't it?

Yeah, we're really pleased with it.

It doesn't give off enough light, but it does look lovely.

Yep, no, I think to have got from where we started to this,

you know, halfway through the project is fantastic.

The new kitchen cost £46,000

and there's still another £154,000 to finish the extension.

Liz and Bruce still have many more weeks of living

on a building site but the end result will be their dream home.

All in all, I think we are delighted with it and I can't

wait to see the finished...well, see and use the finished article.

Next time on Building Dream Homes - in Stirling, architect Bobby takes

on a client whose obsession for four wheels is taken to the extreme.

He just loves his cars.

I love cars. Absolutely love them.

This originally was partly a bedroom facing Stirling Castle.

When the granite floor is down, this will be one posh garage.

And a cottage renovation hits a stumbling block

when the local planning officer pays a visit.

I think we need fewer roof lights

-and I think we need to reduce them in size as well.

-Sure.