Episode 4 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 ground-breaking 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, blueprints

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.

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, it's inspection time at the upside down house in Wales,

both for architect Chris...

I haven't been here for a few weeks.

..and for owner Marianne.

It's the first time she's been back on site after months of ill health,

but will she like what she sees?

I want her to love it as much as I do, basically.

And in Dunblane,

a dilapidated old mill is being restored to its former glory.

You can either just leave it, you can forget all about it,

or possibly put a glass floor in there.

But there's bad news in store for architect Bobby

when the building inspector pays a visit.

Well, the meeting wasn't satisfactory.

In the Vale of Glamorgan, Marianne and John are building a brand-new

hi-tech home right next door to their existing Welsh long house.

Their dream was to create a future-proof home.

Marianne took control to make sure that dream would become a reality.

I'm telling you what I want.

You tell me what I need to achieve what I want and how much it costs.

Helping them to bring their dream to fruition

is local award-winning architect Chris Loyn

and project designer James Stroud.

And what they've come up with together is stunning.

With a budget of £842,000 - £660,000 for build costs

and a further £180,000 for fittings and fees - they are creating

a two-storey upside down house,

rammed with technology and cutting-edge design.

Its simple steel frame construction means the whole build is only

scheduled to take ten months.

Up to now, Marianne has been a driving force behind the project.

Then over here...

Just before we leave this, I think we should have a TV point there.

OK.

We may never use it but it's best to put it in.

OK.

But on Boxing Day, six months into the build, disaster struck.

She was taken into hospital with a potentially life-threatening infection.

She's been the principal contact through the whole of the project,

and so it is a shame now where we're, you know,

ploughing towards the end of the project that she can't be

involved as much as she'd like to be.

It's February. Marianne has been in hospital for eight weeks,

and the home she is paying almost a million pounds for

is taking shape without her.

The windows and roof have been installed

so the building is watertight and ready for its next layer - elements

that will see the house blend into the beautiful Welsh countryside.

The walls are being clad with specially treated timber...

The only tricky bit is when you get to the windows.

You've got to start cutting the shape around the window.

And the roof is being transformed into a living garden,

with a flowering plant, sedum.

It does change the roof from being a completely paved area to a garden,

a roof garden. You know, it's a much more enjoyable sort of environment.

Today, in the absence of Marianne keeping an eye on site,

architect Chris has come to inspect the project.

This will be the first time he's seen the house

with its walls and windows in, giving the full impact

of the double height space he designed.

I'm fine.

I haven't been here for a few weeks

and now we've got the envelope sealed,

so I'll be interested to see how it feels as an enclosed space.

Oh, yeah!

Now that's what you kind of live and hold in your mind

but you can't draw something like that.

Good morning! I am fine! How are you?

This is feeling very nice. Yeah, man!

-Love this.

-Yeah, it's great.

-Doesn't it work?

-It's great.

Imagine artwork along that wall.

The light dropping down on it.

It'll be super.

Out there - glass of wine, gin and tonic?

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

and not just do it for others.

In my dreams!

Another special aspect of the house's future-proof design

is that there's space to have a lift.

Marianne and John were going to install it in years to come

but Marianne's illness has changed their minds.

We're now going to put this lift in at this stage

whereas before it was sort of future proofing the house,

and this was just going to be a store cupboard

until such time as you needed it.

Just cut the floor out and in goes the shaft -

it's all been sized accordingly -

and we do that a lot in our new well-off houses

and it just seems to be totally sensible.

A sleek modern lift at an additional cost of £14,000

has been put on fast track order.

It's March. Marianne has been in and out of hospital since Christmas

and she's finally coming home. She's wheelchair bound and she's

already said she wants to inspect the site as soon as she gets back.

Today is one of those moments where she will see,

if you like, for the first time what's kind of been in our heads

for a lot longer.

Chris and James may be happy with progress,

but their client has spent the past 20 years dreaming about the house

and the past six months overseeing the build.

She's invested her money, her hopes and her vision

so she may have other ideas.

I'm very excited because I haven't been in the house

since before Christmas, so although I've seen stills

and Jon's shown me pictures and it looks great,

I haven't actually seen it myself, so I really want to go in there.

In Dunblane, north of Stirling, Darren and his wife Linda

are also about to embark on a project in their garden.

We've been in here for about three years.

It's a new build.

Part of the garden is the old mill.

The house was built on the founds of the mill partially,

and there was a ruin in the garden

and the developer had some ideas about it.

We didn't want it to be knocked down,

or a walled garden as was suggested initially,

and we thought why not just restore it? Restore it.

The architect Darren and Linda have chosen to help them

convert the mill is Bobby Halliday, who has run

his award-winning architecture firm for the last 30 years.

There's kind of one thing that is really important

and you need an ideas hat.

Both well known and respected in the local area,

helping clients see their dream homes realised is Bobby's passion.

The mill was a very simple building. Four walls, no roof,

and what we had to do really was just provide the client

with a family room, a games room, a TV room,

so really it was an additional element to the main house.

So we've opened this gable up, we have a glass balcony,

we have very big sliding doors and we have a small set of French doors

with a Juliette balcony upstairs.

On the ground floor, the design is an open-plan space

with a smallish kitchen come bar,

and upstairs we have guest living accommodation.

The build is scheduled to take nine months.

Darren and Linda have a budget of £100,000,

to cover the complete restoration of the ruined mill

into family accommodation,

a new kitchen and architect's fees to design and oversee the build.

The old trusty boots. They're always wet, they're always damp.

They never seem to get a chance to dry out.

Morning, Darren, how are you?

Good to see you, yeah, we're great.

The build has been under way for a month.

The roof is up and today, Bobby and colleague Geoff,

have arrived for a site visit.

So this is the old mill house.

The walls, as you can see, were existing

and are in pretty good condition. Things are looking good.

Bobby is particularly excited about today's visit

as a surprising discovery has been made underneath the site.

Under here somewhere, there is the remnants

of an old cast iron water wheel.

So we are quite intrigued to find out what happens.

The old water wheel was unearthed when the ground was being dug

to put in the utilities for the new conversion.

We'll manage. We'll manage.

At least it's not a big chasm or a big gorge we are going to fall down.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

Its discovery has put Bobby's creative mind into overdrive

and he can't wait to get a closer look.

Darren, I mean there are two ways of looking at this.

You can either just leave it, you can forget all about it,

or you could certainly tidy up the walls and possibly put something

in your deck rather than the steel.

You could possibly put a glass floor in there.

Have you got a budget for that, Bobby?

A budget? I would've thought to clean all this up, tidy it up,

I would've thought maybe £1,000 worth of pointing

and cleaning it out, but the glass floor I would've thought

would have cost you about maybe £2,500 for a piece of glass.

I know it's a lot of money, but what a feature that would give.

The build costs of around £100,000

are likely to be pushed higher by the discovery of the wheel.

Bobby is hoping Darren will think it worth it.

How many houses round about this area have

the old remains of a water wheel?

-It's fantastic.

-It's in your back garden, you know.

But Bobby and Geoff's post-site visit high doesn't last long.

Bobby is very hands on with his projects and, as the architect,

one of his responsibilities is to satisfy building control.

The building inspector for this project

has thrown a spanner in the works, and it's a big one.

The building inspector sent us a letter

and he wanted a few items clarified,

and one of the items that required clarification was

what was in the mill in the sub-floor area

prior to the concrete floor being laid.

The inspector believes that the concrete floor may have been laid

on top of the rotting timber of the old roof.

He wants proof that isn't the case. This is disastrous.

All work has to stop while investigations are carried out.

If the inspector is right, it could be game over.

Back in the Vale of Glamorgan,

project designer James has been living and breathing Marianne

and Jon's ultra-modern future-proof house.

I can imagine the fire, the Christmas tree, the lounger,

the music, the light.

What we've done here is introduce a seat into the shower enclosure.

We've suggested to Marianne that it's quite good for ladies

when they want to shave their legs or something in the shower.

Eight weeks ago, Marianne was taken ill,

and has had an extended stay in hospital.

She's back and desperate to see what she's been missing.

It's a problem with my hip, really, but other problems

manifested themselves when I went into hospital.

I'm still on treatment and I'm not going to be able to walk

until I have another operation, and I don't know how long that will be.

It is completely frustrating, completely and utterly frustrating

that I cannot get in there,

but at the moment, the way it is, I don't think it's worth pushing.

Right, so the steels are somewhere. You can't see them any more.

Her husband Jon's been in the driving seat

while Marianne's been away.

I've been in charge.

Well, this is why everything is making such good progress.

Jon is quite happy to relinquish his duties as soon as Marianne is back.

So you've got something like that, yeah? These are your wardrobes.

Yeah.

I think we're going to have to do without the TV -

that's the simplest thing.

Do you have a view on it, Jon?

What we're talking about is, when you're in bed here, right?

Are you bothered about having a wall of curtains along here?

No.

Great, decision made.

Yeah, OK. Fine.

The lift that she and Jon thought would be installed in years to come

has been put in early and is now ready for Marianne to use.

It's a glass mirrored box.

It's very stylish. You know, the idea is to walk past it

and it looks like a part of the furniture, if you like.

You wouldn't think you actually had a lift in your home.

It's a tense day for James.

Well, I just want to make sure it looks as nice as it can

when Marianne comes up, so...

Marianne hasn't been in her new home for over two months.

Now she's finally heading in with her son and daughter

to see what progress has been made.

I want her to love it as much as I do, basically.

Here we are. Into the front room.

Into the room. Oh, great.

Hey, this is a nice space, isn't it?

Oh, isn't it fabulous? Oh, it's just great.

-Do you want to see the bedrooms?

-Yeah, go on.

If you want to see them, yeah.

You see, everywhere is wide enough for you to get in.

Yeah, it's great.

And she can use her fabulous glass-fronted lift

for the very first time.

Is it for four people, normally, do you know?

I don't know what the maximum capacity is.

OK.

What I'm worried about is will it take all the wine?

Right, stop before you get the view. I want to see your face.

OK.

Oh, this is amazing, isn't it? Oh, I can't believe it.

We knew what the view was like but it is unbelievable.

Seeing her new home in the flesh is a big relief to Marianne,

and an even bigger one for James who's put his heart and soul

into the project while she's been away.

I think she's pleased, yeah.

I think it's fab, yeah. I think it's really good, yeah.

And big changes since I last saw it, so, no,

I'm really pleased with it. It's great.

It is an exciting job

and obviously you get to share it with colleagues and you get

to share it with the guys on site, but it is really nice to be able

to sort of give Marianne a tour round

and talk about all these things that we may have discussed

in the house, but not in the flesh,

and it's really nice then.

It's a treat for me as much as it is for her.

-But it's lovely, isn't it?

-I'm glad you like it.

In Scotland,

architect Bobby is working on the restoration of a ruined mill.

It's great to be back here.

But today he and his colleague Ali are heading to a project

they're particularly proud of -

an extension on a Victorian house in Bridge of Allan.

That overhang looks really good.

Like the mill, the challenge here was to design a space that was

modern and contemporary but remained in keeping with its surroundings.

That's the first time probably since the project started that

we've actually stopped and paused and studied them, and you think,

"Oh, yeah, that's what we had to do to get that lintel in there.

"That's what we had to do to get that steel beam in there."

Wow.

Owners John Quinn and wife, Anne, endured six months without a kitchen

while the old conservatory was dismantled

and their £200,000 extension was built.

We're delighted with it

and everybody that comes into the house is very, very impressed.

We've introduced a couple of beams and a couple of split levels

and those two items actually visually separate the accommodation.

Knocking down the wall to the dining room makes the whole

living space open plan, one of Bobby's signature looks,

as well as lots of hi-tech, high impact wow factors.

We like to take the old-fashioned houses,

the conservation of these houses,

we like to use stone, we like to use slate

and I really feel that here we have connected this new piece

of house sculpture with the old Victorian house.

Back in Dunblane, Bobby's going to have to bring all of the same skills

to bear on his latest project, overseeing the conversion

of Darren and Linda's old mill.

He's been hit by a major problem with the building inspector

who's concerned that prior to Bobby taking on the build,

the mill's original timber roof might have fallen into the ruin,

and has been left to rot under the new concrete floor,

making it unsafe.

Bobby's found some evidence that he hopes will help his case.

I've actually got a nice photograph here of the mill.

You can see the four walls, there's no roof on the building.

Inside, it's basically just vegetation.

Now, this vegetation would have been all scraped away

and I'm pretty sure when the digger was in there scraping it,

if there was any timber in there, then he would have

noticed the timber and it would have been chucked out.

But it's plainly obvious to me that the roof has been removed.

That's not going to stop the project coming to a conclusion.

It's just a hiccup and it's a hiccup that we need to get through.

Bobby heads to site and it's eerily quiet.

All work has had to stop

until Bobby can allay the fears of the building inspector.

So far it's been shut down for two weeks, costing Darren,

the client, both time and money.

Bobby needs to look at the site, as he has to work out where to

drill an inspection hole for the building inspector.

Nope!

Going through the slab is really difficult, it's really messy.

You're going to puncture the damp proof membrane -

that's the polythene film which is underneath the concrete.

I really don't want to go down there. That's a last resort.

There's a nice shaft in there that used to house the old wheel.

Now, that's ideal because we can go down there,

or someone can go down there, and basically core cut a hole

with a machine straight through the underbuilding which is underneath

this wall and hopefully get into the area underneath the concrete slab,

shine a torch in, get a trowel in there, bring some of this stuff out,

get in so far and hopefully we don't discover any wood.

A week later, and a decision has been made to drill

an inspection hole in the wall of the wheel shaft -

exactly what Bobby was hoping for.

They want the hole to be nearly a metre square,

so they'll be able to go in.

It'll be probably quite long. A couple of metres long.

So as I say, we really do want to make sure that we are positive

that the site's in the condition it should be in.

But it's a massive undertaking.

The building inspector needs to be able to climb in

under the concrete floor.

Owner Darren is overseeing the work.

Charged with the job of drilling the hole is John.

I reckon the wall's about a metre thick, so we're about halfway.

I feel bad about actually knocking a hole in the wall,

such an ancient building.

Aye, it's a shame.

But the thick ancient walls are putting up a fight...

Solid. Absolutely solid.

Thicker than I expected and harder going than I expected as well.

Once they've broken through,

the worst thing they could find is rotting timbers.

It takes several hours, but eventually...

Yay! I broke through so there's your roots.

They've been here for ages and I'm glad.

All I need to do is widen the hole now and expose it all

but it looks fine.

It could be good news for Darren...

Well, the guys have dug though.

That's a few hours now that we've been digging

and we've been quite happy with finding

just basic building material,

just soil and really what we knew we would find.

But just when it seems there's light at the end of the tunnel, an on-site

meeting with the building inspector leaves Bobby in an even bigger hole.

Er, well, the meeting wasn't satisfactory.

It didn't go too well.

The building inspector noticed another area

in the wheel lade, that he suggested that we make another hole.

It's bad news for both architect and client and, worse still,

it delays the project even further.

Disappointing. We were hoping for some kind of resolution today,

just so we can move the whole thing on.

The building control officer was obviously looking for a little bit more investigation.

Obviously, we feel that's been done. We're not really sure

what any further investigation is going to prove,

so, yeah, it's just disappointing.

They're left with no option but to drill a second hole

and hope it convinces the building inspector

that the ground underneath the mill is safe.

What's the saying, Geoff? TGI Friday!

Just a few days later, Bobby is back in the office

preparing for his final showdown with the building inspector.

Darren has dug the second hole and Bobby has the photos.

This is a vertical piece of corrugated steel in the mill lade.

It's obviously been there for many years, and we can see soil here,

we can see underbuilding bricks, blocks that have been

used to upfill to the concrete floor levels.

So again, there are no timber materials in here.

If the new hole doesn't satisfy the building inspector

then the project could stall for good.

It's a delicate situation for Bobby to manage.

With an anxious client and concerned building inspector to deal with,

he's stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Darren, I think, is worried because he basically wants to start

work, construction work again on the project.

But we have done all that we can do.

Bobby and Geoff head to site with the project on a knife edge.

It's been seven weeks since work stopped on-site

and it's D-Day for the build.

A couple of hours later, Bobby has some news for client Darren.

Geoff, I'll just give Darren a phone right now and just let him

know what the position is.

That was a tight call down there, I'll tell you.

Oh, Darren, things are good. The building inspector just left.

You'll be pleased to hear that he's given you the go-ahead

to proceed with building operations again.

If you just leave it to your architects,

then everything will be fine, OK?

Six weeks later and Bobby and Geoff are heading back

to visit the converted mill,

to see if all the hard work and stress has paid off.

The crumbling ruins of the old mill have been transformed

into a handsome living space.

The empty old shell now houses a kitchen diner and a pool table.

And in the lounge area, the French doors look out

onto the stream and garden.

The two areas are separated by a stunning feature fireplace.

A floating staircase leads up to a new bedroom and bathroom.

Seeing the mill finished is a big moment for Bobby and Geoff.

-It's great. How are you guys?

-We're good. How are you?

Just fantastic. I'm even better that I've walked in here.

This is just brilliant. This is just jaw dropping. It's fantastic.

-It looks awesome.

-We're delighted.

-It's a fun room, family room.

This is it. This is exactly what it says on the tin.

It also could easily be accommodation, granny flat.

This could easily be a kitchen and lounge, bedroom upstairs.

So it'll hopefully be an asset to the house as well.

This is just a really nice studio.

A really nice feeling about it.

And just when you come in those sliding doors,

you see that amazing tree.

It's almost like a tree house to some extent.

Well, there's a touch of that when you look out.

You actually feel as if you're up in the tree.

You're part of it as opposed to... It's also quite nice when you're

downstairs as well. Just that vista down the stream is fantastic.

You feel like you're part of it,

you are not detached from it. You are very much in that area.

The project is a success

but for Bobby there is still some unfinished business.

Underneath here, we have the famous mill lade.

I would still like to try and persuade Darren and Linda to open up

a section of this deck and replace it with a piece of glass.

Just go beyond the call of duty

and just do a little bit of extra work in here.

You know, that's the thing actually that will make the project

an award winner, I think, just by opening this up.

That might happen in the future, but for now,

Darren and Linda are very happy with the new addition to their home.

I think we'll use it more than we anticipated. I think originally

we felt it would have been like an annex, granny flat,

but I think we'd probably use this at nights

more than we felt we would.

Our daughter has got her eye on it already!

In the last few days since it's been finished, I feel like it's

my husband next door, because he's always here!

Next time on Building Dream Homes -

at a build in the New Forest,

things go awry for architect Wendy.

A few changes that we've made...

If I'm honest, I'm a bit disappointed with.

And in Wales, getting Marianne and John's home finished

is down to the wire.

Well, we're trying to prevent, I guess, a death by a thousand cuts.

You know, something not quite right here,

something not quite right there, all add up to be a bit of a mess.