Episode 7 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, 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, architects Paul and Laurence are pushing ahead

with their pioneering factory-built house in Dorset.

Mono-pitched roof.

Big expanses of glazing on the south side of the building

that incorporate those views. It'll be a great space for them.

Ellie! Keep an eye on the boards.

But the winter weather puts the whole build in jeopardy.

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

but he's now ripped his exhaust pipe off.

And in Linlithgow, in Scotland,

a historic house gets a fabulous kitchen extension,

but there's trouble in store for architect, Chris Dinnis.

He's cut it in, which is wrong, he should have kept it out.

It's not quite how I drew them.

Eight years ago, recruitment company director Marcus Graziano

bought this dilapidated 1930s bungalow in Dorset for himself

and his growing family.

It was all about the location.

It was nice rural views, great countryside.

After years of saving and scheming, with planning in place

and the old bungalow demolished, Marcus has finally

put his plans to rebuild this ageing home into action.

What are you looking forward to most about this?

Er, watching it be knocked down.

To help him, he's enlisted the design expertise of architects

Paul Robinson and Laurence Bowen,

and what they're planning is no ordinary two-up two-down.

With a budget of £600,000, Paul

and Laurence are planning a bespoke house to be built in a factory

in Germany and then dropped onto the footprint of Marcus's old home.

The shell should take just five days to assemble

once it arrives from the continent.

None of them have done anything like this before,

but Paul's confident it's the way to go.

The prefabricated route is looking at methods of construction

off of site...that then a kit of parts arrive on site

and then bolted together so you get a waterproof shell relatively quickly.

It could be days rather than months.

But before the shell arrives, the foundations have to be laid,

and faced with the wettest winter on record, things aren't going to plan.

Ellie! Keep an eye on the boards.

During a build, the bit you can't control is the ground conditions.

Weeks of heavy rain have created a real issue

for head builder Barry Bacon.

He's trying to get the concrete foundations poured and set

before the house arrives in just eight weeks' time.

Keep it trapped in there, all right?

This part here has been really, really challenging, this.

We've had it collapsing and all sorts.

You can see where we're having to physically hold the clay boards in

as we pump the concrete in.

More rain is forecast.

If Barry doesn't get the foundations in before then,

the trenches could collapse completely.

Today he has 30 lorries of concrete arriving,

each weighing over 20 tonnes,

but it's not just the trenches that have taken a battering

from the British weather -

the access to the site has become his worst nightmare.

We've got a building site which is actually set

quite a long way off the main road.

We're using a private driveway, heavy lorries are pushing

through the road and disappearing into the mud.

As you can see, we're trying to fill up the ruts with concrete blocks -

anything just so the lorries can get traction

to get themselves up the drive.

We're starting to get problems now after ten.

I've got another 20 lorries to go for,

so 30 lorry loads over this... you know, we're struggling NOW.

So we're most probably going to throw almost

150 concrete blocks in the holes.

Hopefully it will eventually settle down.

Barry's emergency block road seems to be doing the job,

and the next few lorries wallow through the field of mud.

But as more trucks arrive, the blocks get pushed deeper

into the ground and become more of a hazard to the lorries than a help.

Have a run-up at it.

Here we go.

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

We had it going lovely until then.

But he's now ripped his exhaust pipe off.

I can actually see the concrete-lorry drivers -

because they own their lorries - refusing to come here,

so then we have got some interesting developments we've got to deal with.

Just keep going with the blocks there. We'll just build a concrete-block road.

Throwing all his men

and even more concrete blocks at the problem,

Barry finally manages to get the stranded truck up the drive

to deliver its load.

But just because it can get in doesn't mean it can get out again.

Oh, my God, he's going to get stuck.

Barry is forced into making a difficult decision.

We're going to call the pour off now.

It's causing too much damage, and I don't want it to get dangerous.

It's a house that will only take five days to erect,

but it won't go up at all if solid foundations can't be poured.

Tough day, very tough day.

First time I suppose I feel like I've been defeated,

even though, you know, these things come to try you.

One in eight homeowners choose to renovate or extend,

rather than move. That's exactly what husband and wife

Brian and Morag Grant have decided to do.

They live in the ancient Scottish town of Linlithgow,

and are battling with a historic house that's been

outgrown by their ever-increasing family.

We've currently got a three-bedroom house with three children.

We'd really like the children to have their own room each.

The girls are sharing at the moment and, with three growing children,

one bathroom is proving a challenge.

Brian and Morag are determined to keep the historic charm

of their property so have employed architects Chris Dinnis

and Carolyn Whiteford to design and supervise the extension.

When you're adding onto a property like that,

you can either go ultra-modern or try and do it in a manner

that you think it was always there,

and that's something that always appeals to me -

to try and make the whole working of the house and extension

perhaps what could have been originally, and visually also.

The brief was to get us at least one more bedroom

and increase the bathroom capacity, so I think we're...

The brief also was I've lived with a disaster of a kitchen

for 12 years and have desperately been wanting to replace it.

I foresaw that there seemed to be an opportunity to use

the half-landing of the existing house as an access

to a proposed two-storey development at the rear,

keeping within the existing eaves line of the main house.

And the garden has a fall from left to right.

I thought, if we can take advantage of that,

we could then get a two-storey element in the back

no higher than the existing eaves but with access from the middle landing.

The new two-storey extension will replace the old stone storeroom

to the rear, and contain an ultra-modern kitchen/diner,

with an en-suite master bedroom above,

accessed from the half landing.

The old kitchen will become another living room.

Morag and Brian have a budget of £150,000,

and Chris is hoping to have the build completed in 19 weeks.

The budget will cover the cost of all the building work,

a new kitchen and bathroom and the architect's design fees.

The builders have been on site for 14 weeks,

and the main super-structure is up.

For Morag, it's another step closer to her dream kitchen.

Oh, yes, I will be very glad to get a new kitchen.

This has been a thorn in my side

for pretty much the whole time we've lived here.

Just a nice bigger space

and drawers that work would be a bonus,

and ovens that display the temperature they're at

and things like that!

It'll be quite a nice novelty, actually.

But IT consultant Brian, who works from home,

is finding working in a building site somewhat challenging.

You can imagine sitting in here trying to do conference calls

and speak to people on the phone

while there's pneumatic drills just through the wall here -

it doesn't really help so it's...

yeah, it's a bit of a challenge.

But just when Brian thought the majority of the structural work

was over, 17 weeks into the build, he and Morag have decided

to go with a big alteration suggested by Chris and Carolyn.

We uncovered more space than we realised,

that because of the difference in level, there's actually

space in the eaves that we're going to utilise

to put part of the shower room upstairs into the eaves,

and put the little toilet in underneath

because that just helps the layout, then they can have

a much wider shower in the bathroom

and it helps the shape of the bedroom.

As I said, I'm quite a large chap so, you know,

getting more space is always a bonus for me, you know.

You can be looking at something for weeks

and then one day it just hits you in the head.

Oh, my God, that's it, of course. What on earth were you doing?!

And, you know, but you sometimes have to be there.

No matter how much drawing you do, discussion, until you're there

it doesn't necessarily... the light doesn't go on.

We're delighted, actually, with the decision to do that.

We think it will make a really positive difference to what we get

in the bathroom and bedroom upstairs.

One person who isn't so happy about the change is site manager Ross.

I would have liked to have not been carrying it out at this stage

but the architect, Christopher Dinnis,

is...quite adamant that he wanted us to open up into there,

which is fine. I mean,

he's only got the customers' best interests at heart

at the end of the day.

The job may sound small

but because of its position it's actually very complex.

So, the initial construction was to create a doorway here with

steps down leading from the existing landing into the new extension.

Um, this is the void that we've found

within the existing construction that we're looking to utilise

for the toilet.

Because the void space is in the eaves of the main house,

the access is incredibly difficult.

It's just there's not a lot of space to work in in here.

Working round the props and the oxter that's holding up...

well, WAS holding up the roof.

The space isn't just small, it also houses crucial roof supports.

It's pretty much an integral part of the structure.

The idea is to prop it up with the Acros, the weight is then transferred

onto them, then we can take this section of the wall down.

One mistake could see the whole roof collapse.

The house is over 100 years old

so removing the wall could uncover anything.

-There's quite a bit in...

-Take that, chuck that?

The steel's under there

and it's been pieced in with brick underneath, if you like.

It's reinforced with metal rods so we've got to...

And it's tied in under the brickwork

that's supporting the rest of the bathroom floor there

so we've just got to take it easy and try and get it out.

One false move could set the build back by weeks.

With the project due to complete in just 14 days, will Chris's new space

for the toilet see the budget and the schedule spiral out of control?

It's in there.

Back in Dorset, head builder Barry has made a difficult decision.

The lorries are just too heavy so what we're going to do is

we're going to pour the concrete - on the last three loads I've got -

on the floor, and we're going to go for four tomorrow.

Using the cement that's meant for the foundations on the driveway

is literally pouring money away.

The cost of cement has already rocketed by £15,000.

But with the house set to arrive in just six weeks,

time is not on their side.

While the foundation pour continues,

head builder Barry slips away for an important meeting

with architect Paul and their client, Marcus, at a nearby quarry.

Although the ultra modern pre-fabricated timber frame

is being constructed and shipped from Germany,

Paul's keen that the more traditional stone

being used on the new house should come from a much more local source.

Purbeck limestone has a superb reputation for wear and durability.

Stan Bonfield's family have been quarrying the stone

in the local area since 1651

and have been on this site for nearly 40 years.

It's an ongoing thing with restoration,

flooring and architectural work.

We've just done St Paul's cathedral, the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral.

But today, it's Marcus's new build that could be getting

the Purbeck limestone treatment.

I love that effect, but if we can make it even sharper...

-Yeah.

-You know, because that's what normally gets done,

that's what we've got to achieve.

-I think that's quite a nice mixture of stone sizes as well.

-Yeah.

-Probably not on this elevation, but on that side...

-Yeah, 60ml. Yeah.

This is close to what we're trying to achieve.

It's got the appearance of a dry-stone wall

but it's actually bedded in mortar, but the mortar is pushed back away

from the face of the wall so you get this...like dry-joint look, really.

But, yeah, it's almost there.

The only thing I'd probably do different is we're not going

to emphasise the corners so much as this is on here,

with these bigger stones, we almost want to keep that effect

and wrap it around the corners as well.

For Paul, the quarry trip has delivered

exactly what he'd hoped for.

As an architect, it's great

when you can keep things local or use natural materials.

It's more sustainable, you know, you're not trying to ship

something from either side of the earth to get it here.

And it's been an eye-opener for client Marcus as well.

We certainly want to use this for the external walling,

and the sizes of the various pieces of stone

and different combinations - so that's one question answered,

and then it's just where we're using it in other parts.

Will we use it on the flooring, or the window reveals or the stairs

or other places we hadn't thought about using it

so...food for thought.

Things may have gone well at the quarry,

but for Barry the visit has just been a welcome distraction

from the quagmire of a site he's battling.

In just six weeks it will have to take the weight of a 47-tonne house,

so there's no room for soggy foundations.

Stonework has also been integral to the build in Linlithgow.

Brian and Morag have spent around £15,000 on stone and masonry -

that's a whopping 10% of their total budget.

Unlike the house in Poole, they hope the stone will blend seamlessly.

The old...finishes on that line there,

you can see the line of the roof -

it finishes down here - and then all of this is new, from here onwards.

They've managed to cleverly cut costs by re-using

the sandstone from their original storeroom

and have sourced the remainder from a local merchant.

I think the stonemason Eric has made a fabulous job of it - I really do.

I would defy you to work out what was an old piece of stone

and what was a new piece of stone

round about it, I really would.

I think it's a real piece of craftsmanship, actually.

Everything's moving ahead with the rest of the project.

We just got the worktop today, actually,

so I've only seen it an hour ago.

Yeah, I just... I think it's fantastic.

When we moved into the house 12 years ago,

I said we'd need to replace the kitchen -

there was so many things wrong with it -

so 12 years later I've got my replacement,

so that didn't take long, did it?

And the stairs that will join the old house to the new kitchen

are also going in.

That's actually the first time... because the stairs just,

the stairs just came this week, so that's the first time

I've seen what it will be like coming in the house

to actually see all the way down and through,

so it looks quite good - very light and bright.

It's lovely. The view marred by many, many builders, obviously.

SHE LAUGHS

Chris and Carolyn are heading to site to inspect Ross's handiwork

with the removed wall and the expansion of the new en-suite.

Ah, there we are. That's it.

Brilliant.

You see the propping we've had to do here...

It's not been easy.

No, it's an awkward area, actually,

because you got sort of half-height spaces.

It's just trying to get a six-foot bricklayer up here

to fit in-between the spaces!

-It's a lot of space here, isn't it?

-It sure is.

So that's going to be all cut back?

Well, you can only go as far back as there.

That can be cut back.

Ah, sorry, it just needs to be cut back to the uprights.

That'll come down and that'll provide a foot inside there

to conceal the cistern at the back, so it'll just work in perfect.

Everything's going to plan inside,

but outside, Chris spots a problem with the stonemason's work.

He's cut it in, which is wrong.

He should have kept it out.

The actual stones I was wanting to be a bit bigger, but the mason

basically formed the seat for the cope stone to sit in,

so that is a lock, but my...

the way I've drawn it, I want it slightly bigger than that

because I just feel that it's going to tip out,

and also we need to just have it free

so that surface goes beyond the surface wall.

If it's not put right

it could cause serious problems with the house in the future.

What has happened,

the builders just finished the stone flush with the wall,

so the water's coming down there and it's running straight down the wall.

Now, that means all that section of wall

over the course of time gets damp,

so my putt stone is...

Really all that happens is... we actually continue

this last stone, and it comes beyond the wall, like that,

so the water comes down here

and then it drips free, so the wall below is dry.

It's just like having a good tailor do a good finishing stitch.

Whatever, you know, it's just the proper way to do it.

Stonemason Eric heads back to site to replace the putt stones.

I'm taking this skew putt out, which is here.

I'm going to replace it with a long one.

It's the architect's decision.

He's changed his mind.

It's not in his drawing, so it's obviously an extra.

He's come up with this decision in a latter stage.

Creating the new putt stone is a complex task

that will take time and money.

Eric trained to be a stonemason at the age of 15.

Now, some 49 years later,

he still uses traditional techniques as well as the power tools.

I'm stugging the face of this stone. It's very hard stone.

It's an old railway cope stone,

so it's been exposed throughout the years, and it's solid.

Actually, it's nearly like a granite so I can't use

the conventional stone-cutting tools so I have to use a heavy-duty.

It's to match in with the existing.

See, they've stugged that before. What they've done was,

rather than put a shiny face on it, which would take longer,

they would probably just take it and stug it, just to flatten it.

Having created the new putt stones, they're ready to be put in place.

Let's hope they're up to Chris's exacting standards.

Back at his practice, Chris is taking a break

from Morag and Brian's sandstone extension

to reflect on his 40-year professional anniversary.

Because everybody doesn't necessarily have that aspect

or ability or understanding of their environment, you know,

from a blank piece of paper, to see it evolve...

and that's something that I've been blessed with.

He runs his popular practice from his home,

alongside his colleague, Carolyn Whiteford.

I say to Carolyn in the morning sometimes -

I'll come downstairs - "Well, that's a heavy commute today.

"I'm really sorry I'm so late!"

I'll put that there.

This is our morning coffee break.

Well, we'll get out to my glory hole -

I think that's the only description of it.

And with retirement on the horizon, Chris is starting to feel

a little sentimental about his years at the drawing board.

This is where all the things you don't want to know about

get put away and forgotten.

Oops! This is something interesting.

These are drawings from literally the first year

I started my practice, which is now - believe it or not - 40 years ago.

You literally drew it all out.

Here you are. February 1974.

I think there's a great loss in architecture

because people aren't actually having to physically do a drawing.

And I think the computer is very clever but you actually lose

a lot of the creativity and spontaneity of architecture,

and I see more and more people coming into being architects,

who I don't think they should be there

because they don't understand,

and that's reflected in the buildings that are being built.

From chapels and churches to small huts and huge houses,

Chris has worked on over 1,000 commissions

throughout his career and is proud of every one of them.

Well, I think I've been very privileged to be an architect

in this city because there's so much good architecture in the city,

which is enjoyed by everybody

and I feel that perhaps I've made a little contribution,

but I'm sure it's not a majestic contribution,

but hopefully for the benefit of the citizens of Edinburgh,

in terms of domestic work.

Over the whole of Edinburgh I've had my little fingers

dabbling away at various points.

And his latest project in Linlithgow is finally finished.

Six weeks later, Chris and Carolyn are back

to check on the results of their design.

No sign of the builders, which is good news.

That IS good news.

See if they're in.

-Hello, Morag, how are you?

-Lovely to see you.

25 weeks ago, the Grants had a small stone storage room

on the back of the house.

Now they have a beautiful two-storey extension.

Chris and Carolyn's design has turned

a once-cramped and dated house into a spacious family home.

The Grants now have a huge kitchen/diner

and a sizeable master bedroom and en-suite.

-This is lovely.

-All remodelled and redecorated.

I like it.

That's really nice.

I think we originally had the shower was going to come here.

That would have created havoc fitting furniture around.

Yes, that's right.

Until we had the brilliant idea of looking in the old roof void.

Yes, absolutely.

No, the room would have been far less useable and successful

if we had indeed had that corner

having the en-suite, which is next door.

This is the piece de resistance, isn't it?

The recess in here, which works perfectly. It really does.

I mean, perfect. And then you've got a nice, wide shower

and a really nice bathroom space here with your own window

to look out of while you're having a shower.

I think that's great.

And Morag is especially pleased with one aspect of her re-vamped home.

My favourite part is definitely the kitchen, yes.

Yeah, I mean, I think we spend a good bit of time down here now,

which we didn't spend in the other kitchen,

so it's been the biggest change to the way we operate as a family.

The Grants have increased the footprint of their house

by nearly 40%, although the skill of stonemason Eric has meant

the new extension has blended seamlessly to the existing house.

Maybe it's not what you want

but a lot of people have said that they hadn't realised,

even walking up to the house, that there was an extension on the house

because the stonework ties in so well with the house as it was.

So it's a real artform to deliver that, and Eric did a fantastic job.

-Wonderful.

-It looks really well.

And it runs right up here, which is good.

There was one element of the stonework that Chris wasn't

so happy with -

the putt stone, which directs water away from the surface of the wall.

Today, he's finally going to see the replacement.

It's not quite how I drew them,

but on the other hand it's rather interesting, isn't it?

It's nice. It's a lovely colour of stone as well.

I like it.

It's a piece of creative interpretation -

that's what it is, and that's what I like.

That's brilliant. No, that's really nice.

I've always liked living here.

I've liked the house,

but was not happy with, particularly the old kitchen, which was

frankly falling apart, and just feeling that, you know...

the kids sharing bedrooms, so I'm delighted with what we've got now.

Still living where we were before, but we've got all this lovely space.

It makes me very happy. This house makes me very happy.

A thank-you from a client is almost worth more than a fee,

and in this case, just to see happy faces really gives us

a great boost and makes the whole job first-class and worthwhile.

Next time on Building Dream Homes -

in Glasgow, architect Gerry takes on a crumbling conservation project.

When we take away these horizontal

and vertical members, then there is a structural problem with the roof.

It essentially wants to collapse out the way.

And for Marcus, a visit to Germany

to see his house being made doesn't go quite to plan.

That's not good.