Sue & Tim/Marcus & Sholto The £100k House: The Final Fix

-Ambitious ideas...

-You want four bedrooms, don't you?

-Yeah. I want just four.

-I want six.

..the tightest of budgets...

Basically, we've got about ten grand left.

..and a need for inspiration...

I've not seen anything like this before.

..united each of the six projects Piers Taylor and I, Kieran Long,

followed on The House That 100K Built.

We're building walls.

Our self-builders created amazing houses,

but they weren't yet finished homes.

Being the type of house it is, the staircase is important.

So, now Piers is making a final visit

to tackle the remaining challenges.

So, that's a challenge, to get that without putting up a wooden shack.

With money tighter than ever,

this time, he'll need even more inventive solutions...

-Can you see it?

-Yeah.

-No.

..and to inspire them in fresh and unconventional ways...

That is impressive, isn't it?

..as, this time, they try to finish their homes for good.

Sue and Tim have a 40-acre farm in Somerset.

I love cows. They've been my life for the last 30 years.

Steady, big fella.

There's 14,000 happy hens.

Ooh, that wasn't very clever.

Both the cows and the hens have a decent home...

..but Sue and Tim don't.

They've been together nearly nine years and moved here six years ago.

All that time, they've been living in a caravan with their three dogs.

-Trailer trash.

-Trailer trash, you know, but, erm...

We've got everything you could possibly need, so...

-We haven't.

-What?

-We haven't got a bath.

-We haven't got a bath, no.

-Got to have a bath.

Well, we have got a bath, but it's got a hole in the bottom.

Building a house is a long-time ambition.

Now, with finances finally sorted,

they're ready to start on a field beyond the cowsheds.

-When we first got together, one of the things we wanted to do was build a house together.

-Yeah.

I'm quite practical, good with my hands. Sue's...

I can make a dovetail joint.

Better than yours.

They've set a limit on the budget of £100,000,

but there is none on their architectural ambition.

My godfather was an architect,

and so I had quite a lot of that influence

of talking about the modernist architects

and Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, but this is...

the Somerset version.

Having worked through the plans and the budget,

they're confident about building their home for £100,000.

But, it's wildly ambitious

compared with most of the projects we've followed.

Completing it won't be easy.

The two-storey farmhouse will be unashamedly modern.

A timber-clad first floor

will sit on top of a white-rendered ground floor.

The house will appear to float in midair,

thanks to a cantilever.

There will be two terraces,

which will make the most of the rural views.

Downstairs will be the working hub of the farm,

with a plant room, boot room, store,

farm office, two bedrooms and a bathroom.

Stairs will take you up onto a landing, then, around the corner,

the architect has outlined the main living area and pantry,

plus a large bedroom, dressing room and bathroom.

Building a home of this size

and complexity could easily cost £1,000 a square metre.

Sue and Tim are trying to do it for just over half that.

I'm on my way to meet them.

I want to understand how they plan to use their home

and why they're being so ambitious.

Tell me how this kind of box on another box design involved, then.

I wanted something to sort of challenge me, really.

And also we wanted to be upside down,

because we wanted to be up

to take advantage of the view.

Tell me how you imagine using these spaces that are proposed.

Was this part of the brief

or something that the architect just brought?

The only fixed point is the stairwell.

When we build, what we'll do is

we will build without any internal walls,

but what we'll do is we'll walk around and we'll say

"What do we want, actually?"

But I'm slightly surprised.

When you design a building, you design the plan of the building

-and you really haven't done it like that.

-Why would we do that, though?

Why? That's what we want.

If it is undefined,

then it's our living area,

rather than, "We're going into the sitting room, we're going into the kitchen, we're going into the..."

When it gets to that stage, we'll make the decision then.

Building without a firm plan is risky,

as it could end up costing them more in the long run.

But, despite the lack of an agreed final layout,

they're going for it.

We're building walls.

The ground floor is being built using around 700 blocks

made from recycled waste timber, mixed with cement.

They even come pre-insulated.

We chose this,

because we can put it up ourselves.

But Sue and Tim are not completely alone.

They've got Lee, a builder, working with them.

They've only budgeted to have him on site for four months.

With the structure going up,

it's vital Piers intervenes quickly,

using his architectural expertise to tackle their design decisions -

or lack of.

Nobody plays so fast and loose with a house

as they're building it, really,

except for the most experienced architect

after a lifetime of doing it.

But that's what Sue and Tim are doing now, with no training, ever.

Having turned their back on the layout suggested by their architect,

Sue and Tim now appear to have virtually no plans.

Piers want to help them imagine

what arriving into that first-floor space will be like.

For me, I think it would be a pretty amazing thing to arrive,

walk up and gradually, you know,

you see that fantastic view through there.

So, if you're going to take walls out,

it's kind of potentially that one.

But these were almost the only walls Sue and Tim wanted to keep.

And, at the moment, I mean, you arrive at a blank wall.

I mean, is this what you want?

-Because, you know, you could have anything.

-Haven't thought about it.

Yeah. It's your journey, but, for me, the overriding story here is you

leave all the grit of the farm and you come up to this beautiful box

that perches on the top and then you see this landscape.

You mean you come up and it gradually gets revealed

as you walk up?

And then you see that amazing light

and that light also floods down the stairs, you know, down below.

The staircase will become a dramatic gateway to the view,

once the wall's removed.

Sue and Tim then plan to lose all the other internal walls

except the bedroom wall.

The couple have made firm decisions on the exterior.

White render below,

and then, for the cantilevered first floor,

the same inexpensive timber they've used on their chicken shed.

This cladding costs just over £5 per square metre.

So, this is your boarding, isn't it?

And, clearly, this is a cheap material and, you know,

just because it's cheap and just because it's on this barn,

doesn't mean necessarily you need to use it.

Well, I like it. I do like it and...

-It was purely price.

-Yeah.

Using low-cost, rough materials on rural buildings

can help them fit well into their setting,

but this is a potentially crisp, modern home

sitting in the landscape.

Piers believes Sue and Tim can be far more ambitious.

This building is good, but, at the moment,

I feel it is too straightforward.

You know, when I think of white render,

I don't see material richness.

What we don't want to do is do anything with the finishes

that are going to detract from the line,

and I think that the white render is there to enhance the other stuff.

And if that is the case, I'm not sure that Yorkshire boarding

is the material that's special enough.

Oh, right.

Piers wants Sue and Tim to reconsider key design elements

before they go too far.

Piers has given us a lot of thought.

I think, possibly,

we thought we were being quite radical with our ideas,

but, actually, clearly not radical enough

and that's great, cos we don't actually want it to look like

every other modernist house that's been built in the last ten years.

I want to show Sue and Tim

how incredible the exterior of their house could be,

so I've arranged to meet them at a stunning contemporary home

in south London.

Sue and Tim are pushing ahead with their build,

but I really want to start challenging them now

on the detail of their house.

I want them to keep their aspiration super-high

and keep their sights on the architecture.

Good to see you, and welcome.

I'm so excited to show you this beautiful house.

The Tree House by McChesney Architects

will show them how an inspired combination of exterior materials

can achieve a stunning effect.

I think it's absolutely spectacular.

And shiny, which I love.

The sky in the reflection is magic, actually.

Isn't it just?

Valued at over £1.5 million,

it's in another league in terms of cost,

but the architectural trick produced by the opaque black glass

is priceless.

This reflectiveness really helps it somehow

melt into the beautiful landscape, doesn't it?

Just stunning.

That something so simple can be so clever.

Simple, but expensive.

This glass facade is built to a high specification.

Costs to achieve a similar effect

could easily run into hundreds of pounds per square metre.

The way that the glass reflects the outside world is amazing.

How we can do this on our budget will require some

pretty clever ingenuity, really.

It's three months since Sue and Tim began work

on their ambitious farmhouse,

and costs are spiralling.

Lift up the arm.

Done it.

The timber first-floor structure, which has been engineered off-site,

has cost them £22,000,

bringing their total spend to 60k.

Sue's now determined to find a cheap way to replicate the high-end

glass cladding she saw and has found an incredible online bargain.

I saw some glass for £90, the lot.

And it was so cheap, I thought, well, even if it doesn't work...

I'll have to make a big greenhouse or something out of it.

But contemporary homes aren't typically created

out of upcycled and salvaged materials.

Piers must get to site to see if the idea can work in reality.

Sue is amazingly resourceful.

She's gone and bought a whole stack of glass for less than £100,

but it's not enough to do

the whole of the outside of the building.

So, my question will be, how can she incorporate this into a piece

of architecture that is very, very carefully considered?

Because they haven't got enough glass

to clad the entire first floor,

Piers needs to find a clever way of using it.

This is one option of, you know, the timber and the glass

interspersed all the way around the building.

You'd paint the timber black and you paint the glass black,

but all you see is the subtle difference in texture,

and you would really unify the whole thing.

Right. So, what do you reckon?

I don't know.

I think by breaking up the glass, you do lose the drama

of the large expanse of reflection.

Piers goes back to the drawing board.

How about we use the big expanse of glass,

and we do something like this?

-That's glass, that's glass, that's obviously glass, that's glass.

-Mmm-hmm.

Where all the glass is in the middle, this band of glass,

with timber top and bottom.

-I mean, for me, it changes the look of the building completely.

-Yeah.

I like the flow going right away along the side of that building.

And, also, we'd have enough glass for it as well, wouldn't we?

Yeah, absolutely.

-I'm happy with that.

-Good. Me, too.

I like that look.

The exterior design is agreed and Sue puts the plan into action.

With her horsebox packed with glass,

she heads from Somerset to visit a glass-treatment company in Kent.

I have no idea whether I'm going to have 20 sheets of glass

or just a pile of fragments.

Sue's planning to have the glass painted black

and is having a test panel made up

to ensure she's happy with the colour and finish.

The glass is cleaned and then sprayed

with a resin-and-pigment mix.

She's negotiated a price of £35 per square metre.

Brand-new back-painted glass could cost at least double that.

We want to achieve that whole treehouse look that we saw

and fell in love with.

This'd be the colour that we've chosen for you.

Ooh, wow.

Aah, that's lovely.

So, that's the sort of reflective black you're going to get.

Lovely!

The glass looks great and, six months into the build,

a sleek modern home has started to emerge.

But, with only 22K left in the budget,

there's a massive setback

and all work has to stop.

There is an issue with the cantilever,

one of the defining features of the building.

It's moving.

Lee was looking at it all the time and saying, you know,

"It's moving, it's moving, it's moving."

It moved enough to actually be structurally unsound in the end.

The structure was bowing,

erm, and the deflection was up to 40 mil.

We've got to the point where we can't go any further,

because we can't put anything, more windows in upstairs

until we've got it secure structurally downstairs.

-So, we are in a bad situation, for sure.

-Yeah.

The cantilevered first floor will now need to be propped up

with steel supports, costing £2,000.

It's a bitter blow for the couple.

We are going to be over the 100,000.

I think we're in the 120s.

I suppose I failed, if you like,

cos, you know, I said you could do it for 100,000 and,

erm, I suppose I've failed.

But, in that respect,

yeah, I admit it.

Despite being at crisis point with the budget,

this pair are determined not to give up on their dream.

The structural steel supports arrive

and a tonne of metal has to be carefully fitted into place.

Whoa...there.

At least we've got something that can stand up straight.

And Sue pushes on with the cladding for the exterior.

Having decided to stain the Yorkshire boarding black,

she begins the mammoth task.

There's 300 boards this size,

and then I've got another 125 to do,

which is the full height of the cantilever.

It's all building to perhaps the most nerve-racking day so far.

It's finally time to fit the sprayed-glass panels

to the exterior of the house,

and there's no margin for error.

We've got exactly the right amount of panes of glass?

Yeah, and they're all different sizes.

There's no second chance, so...

It's about as bespoke as you can get, really.

The glass could look amazing -

if they get it right.

-OK.

-You tell me when.

-Up you go.

I have actually stopped breathing.

You realise that, don't you?

Sue and Tim have never shied away from the challenges

created by their high-end aspirations,

despite their low budget.

But can they really pull it off?

He's thumping the glass.

Aaah!

Sue and Tim set out to build a modern farmhouse

of astonishing architectural ambition,

and the structure and exterior alone

proved a mountain to climb.

Nearly a year after they started building,

Piers and I are back to see how far they've got.

Wow, it's so nice.

As soon as I came up the hill here, the first thing that struck me,

of course, was these expanses of glass

and the way that they reflect the sky.

And, Sue, I remember getting so excited with you about

-the Tree House, which was a wonderful moment, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

Something lit up in your mind.

I don't think you were expecting us

-to take that literally, were you?

-No.

-No.

It's just stunning the way the sky is reflected

and the tree is reflected.

The house we saw in London, it was all glass.

Here, we've had to use it strategically.

This amazing effect has been created with second-hand glass,

specialist painting and clever fixings.

High-end glazing systems

can run into hundreds of pounds per square metre,

but this works out at under 75.

This is a palette of materials that is quite a humble,

ordinary palette of materials.

The design is how those things come together.

It's the painstaking care around the edges of things.

-Absolutely.

-That's where design happens.

This is a beautiful, refined piece of architecture.

The major structural phase of the build

and some of the exterior are complete,

but there's still a lot to do.

How are the finances faring?

So, tell me how much you had in the budget to begin with

and how much you've spent so far on the build?

Well, the aim has always been to build the house for £100,000.

However, we have gone over.

We're around 135, but that includes money we've had to use to

rectify the problems and the issues we've had along the way.

So, how much you think it's going to take you to get you to the end?

To actually finish the build?

Probably 20,000 now would see us to the end.

Four months on and the exterior is nearing completion.

All the glass has now been fitted.

I love it.

I love it, because it's always different.

Sometimes, when you've got an amazing sunset,

you want to rush outside to not look at the actual sunset,

but look at the sunset reflected in the glass.

It is amazing.

But, the inside is nowhere near habitable.

Of course, Lee has finished now.

And given us a list of instructions

and we are now plodding our way through,

and then he will come back and build our kitchen for us.

The kitchen will make the house more liveable.

Equally important in this interior phase of the build

is creating a proper staircase.

Designed well, it could be a striking architectural statement inside,

just as the glass is outside.

Being the type of house it is, the staircase is important,

because it's the first thing you see when you come to the door and,

being an upside-down house, people will come straight upstairs.

As getting this part of the house right

is critical to the whole interior,

Piers has asked Sue and Tim to meet him in London.

He wants to show them how a staircase

can be a defining architectural feature in a building.

I think Sue and Tim have been a little bit lost

in, sort of, plasterboard world

and, actually, today I really want to re-inspire them

and get them to focus on the big architectural moves again.

Piers is taking them to Somerset House.

Inside this historic listed building lies an incredible modern staircase.

What do you think?

-That is impressive, isn't it? It looks like a spine, doesn't it? Spinal cord.

-It does.

-Like a series of vertebrae.

-Yeah.

The award-winning Miles Stair was designed by architect Eva Jiricna

and cost £1.6 million.

-It's got a lacy quality, actually.

-It does, yeah.

This central cylinder, with its steel mesh design,

looks very delicate,

but, in fact, is incredibly strong

and supports the cantilevered treads

made from high-performance concrete.

An elegant glass balustrade ties the whole thing together.

These are very particular materials.

I mean, polished stainless steel and white concrete.

They are fairly surgical, aren't they?

And very, very precise.

The central column spans five floors

and is constructed from 550 bent steel rods,

welded to circular bosses and linked by a series of steel plates.

The result looks like a delicate bicycle chain.

I think looking through this mesh is really beautiful

and I think you need to do something layered, too,

so it has structure on both sides.

Yeah. It's got to be elegant. This is subtle and elegant.

To me, its beauty is in its make-up and its structure.

I think, whatever you do, it needs to be a piece of architecture

that really takes in the entrance and the journey up

and the arrival into that beautiful upstairs.

-So it isn't just a stand-alone, beautiful thing, is it?

-No.

The views up and down are just spectacular.

OK, you need a staircase.

How about rods?

You get these very, very long pieces of steel

that go all the way down.

The key to Piers' design for the staircase

is having rods or wires that go from the ceiling of the first floor

down to the stair treads,

all lit from above by the existing roof light.

These rods go full height

and they form this balustrade.

-What do you think about that?

-Er, very dramatic.

You're going to have a slightly, sort of, cagey look.

Well, less of a cagey look than the staircase that we've just seen.

What they'll give you though is a beautiful play of light

on the material.

What it does do is it links dramatically the ceiling to the floor, if you like, the most.

Exactly, yeah.

Are we talking now steel rods? Are we talking acrylic rods?

They could be acrylic and then it isn't being in a cage of steel,

-it's being in a cage of light-filled tubes.

-Mmm.

I love the concept, I really do,

and I must admit I like the stairs going right to the ceiling,

and, at the moment, that's sitting with me quite well.

The idea's gone down well.

When building any staircase, professional expertise

and advice must be sought.

So, Sue and Tim will need more detailed working plans

that meet building regulations.

And they've only budgeted £2,000 for the project.

Keen on a full-height, steel-wire balustrade,

Piers suggests they start by visiting a specialist.

Gosh, look at the colours.

Wire rope comes in all sorts of thicknesses

and covered with different coatings.

I love that.

This steel rope is covered with red PVC

and costs around £2 a metre.

-What size is that?

-That's all six mil.

Six mil. That's quite big.

We've got three wires per step going up,

so it's going to be almost a wall of wire.

What would your recommendation be for us?

I would go for about a three-mil cable.

You'll get more light going through it.

Erm, it's a nice size.

Er, you'll get the effect.

It's easy to work with.

You don't need to get crazy tension into it.

Have you seen this? This is a stainless one.

Is that stainless with a plastic coating?

That's stainless with PVC coating, yeah.

Yeah. I think you're right.

I think this is the one I like.

Eventually, they select three-millimetre stainless steel cable.

With 300 metres, plus all the fixings, costing them £1,000,

half the budget's gone.

Four months after being inspired by their visit to Somerset House,

there's little sign of Sue and Tim's staircase.

Concerned that their quest for perfection is slowing progress,

Piers heads back, hoping to provoke some decisions.

I really love the way Sue and Tim mull over everything,

but, on the other hand, they have a tendency, dare I say,

to overcomplicate things,

and it means that they may never finish his house.

At the moment, the entrance to Sue and Tim's is quite abrupt,

because you come in and, bang,

right in front of you is the staircase,

and I think they need to do something that just increases

the sense of depth in the space.

And it might just be that the back wall becomes reflective.

But, it needs to be really simple, because the stair is the big investment.

-Hi, Sue. Hi, Tim.

-Hello, there.

-Look at that. I should have come earlier, given you a hand.

-Yeah.

Or maybe it's a good thing I didn't?

So now, there is a beautiful void where the new stair will go.

So, what about this? What about this whole wall and this whole space?

I mean, what's going in here?

My idea was to keep the palette as simple as possible,

because the staircase is the star of the show here.

I mean, my preference would be to have this white

straight up to the white.

And, then, the light will bounce about,

especially if we have the stringers coming down.

I agree that this could just be white,

but it could be reflective,

rather than matte white.

To give you the beauty of the shadows and everything else,

and provide a surface for the afternoon sun to hit.

The other thing - I mean, this basically is quite narrow -

and the other thing, making this reflective would give you

a bit more depth to this space.

So, when you come in, instead of the wall being here,

it'll be a bit more ambiguous, because it will be

a reflective surface and you'll see, again, some of the landscape in it.

Yeah. I'm just wondering whether

it would be a bit too barren.

But that will be...the stairs will be that thing.

Yeah, the stairs and the wires that are here,

and, erm, the landscape and light reflected in it.

Piers, don't get me wrong. I love the staircase

and I think the design of the wires is absolutely perfect.

My point, it's that sheer size of the wall

-that is worrying me.

-Yeah.

The staircase build is in danger of grinding to a halt,

as every aspect gets chewed over and over.

But Sue and Tim have commissioned steelwork for the stairs

from a local fabricator and Piers wants to check progress there.

-Great place.

-It is.

-Lovely.

-Hi, Nathan.

-Hi.

-How are you doing?

-This looks like a stringer.

-It is.

Part of the staircase that we're fabricating.

The idea now is to get that bolted to the wall and take

-all the steps down individually and have them welded in situ.

-Yeah.

At least that way we can get the steps accurate on site.

-And it's a little bit less unwieldy.

-Yeah.

Piers is reassured to find work is well in hand

and feeling positive.

Many people would have given up by now

and would have got fed up with all of the struggles to build

a house and probably finished it off in a really mediocre way.

But not Sue and Tim. They've carried on persevering.

They've carried on seeking extraordinary solutions

to all of the design issues in the house.

Sue and Tim's insistence on the extraordinary has often

cost them dear in time and money.

Over two years since they broke ground,

we have one final chance to see far they've got.

The bones of the staircase are fitted and the couple continue to

take whatever time they need to get beautiful results.

-It is extremely time-consuming.

-It takes, what is it, 20 minutes...

-To do each strand.

-To do each strand. It's got to be perfect.

There's 49 steel wires to go up this side

-and then there's another...

-49!

..49 on the side.

It's been a learning process,

but it's all taken that much longer than we thought it would do.

-But we want to make sure it's right.

-It will be all in the finishing.

There's a handrail to fit and work is needed to ensure the treads

and wires meet building regulations.

But with virtually cost-free old scaffold boards for treads

and £2,000 spent on steel and cables, this couple have pushed

the boundaries of low-cost building again.

Here, we've tried to have a feeling of the white wall

and the white coming out of the wall as if it's part of the wall.

The idea was that the white

would disappear into the white wall behind.

-And you'd be left with the wooden steps floating.

-Mm.

The anticipated total spend for this remarkable house

is still £135,000.

But the finish date remains an unknown.

-If you came back in ten years' time, we would still be...

-Not finished!

..not finished and we'd be arguing about things and talking them over.

But that's the way we are. We're enjoying the whole process.

If we'd wanted to build a house that we could have been in within

six months, I'd would have got a flat pack.

This build has always been about the journey,

the process of learning stuff, doing it right, not necessarily...

Because people constantly go on about, "When are you in?

"When are you in?" Being IN the house is not actually the goal.

The goal is the process of building.

Our second story is over 450 miles away, in Scotland.

Marcus and Sholto have been a couple for over a decade.

It was while on holiday away from their home in the south of England,

they realised a stunning area 40 miles east of Inverness

was where they wanted to spend the rest of their lives.

What we love about this area is it's beautiful.

Taking our dog for a walk,

you look around and you just stare at what we're actually living in.

It's absolutely amazing.

HE WHISTLES

But having searched for a home with generous spaces for entertaining,

they couldn't find anything on the market that fitted the bill.

We're not a traditional family.

We don't need the typical three-bedroom with bathrooms galore.

We need something that suits us, that friends and family

are comfortable to come and visit.

So they've decided to build the dream home

they promise themselves while going through difficult times.

I'd found out that I'd got end-stage renal failure.

I had a kidney and a pancreas transplant.

It just gave me a whole... new lease of life.

To have that chance to actually lead a normal life and also to give you

the gumption and the attitude and the confidence to try new things.

Using the proceeds from the sale of their home in Sussex,

they've spent £90,000 on a plot of land.

This leaves them with £100,000 for the entire build,

plus £15,000 contingency.

Sholto is going to project-manage the house

and be as hands-on with the build as he can be.

So hopefully that's going to save us a hell of a lot of money.

To keep costs down,

Marcus and Sholto have chosen an off-the-peg timber framed kit house.

The front facade has a gable ended double garage

and an ornate porch leading to an octagonal hallway.

Access to the main living area is through double doors.

The open-plan room has standard ceiling heights and finishes

and will act as the living, dining and kitchen area.

Access to the four bedrooms and the bathrooms

is back through the hallway.

It's a big and ambitious house, but I currently fail to see

the touches that will make it distinctly one for them.

The whole kit is costing £54,000 and is starting to arrive on site.

Hi, do you want to start bringing it up the hill now, please?

Sholto has never built a house before.

My God, look at this.

Yup, that's...that's quite a lot of house there. Bloody hell!

That's only the first load.

They've invested in a high-quality kit, which is almost a job lot.

It includes the frame and many other parts,

which should make budgeting the build far easier.

This is everything I've saved, that myself and Marcus have saved,

and earned and worked for and... for the last 11 or so years.

But having selected a design that would perfectly suit

a typical family, they're in danger of ending up with a home

that doesn't suit THEM.

Piers urgently needs to meet with the couple

and interrogate their plans.

Sholto has been immersed in the design process for months,

so Piers may have a battle on his hands.

It's a really good idea to use... to make a model.

And immediately I want to dive in and make changes.

Piers suggests they should rethink the number of bedrooms

and remove the hallway,

as both are reducing the generous open plan space they could have.

This is potentially a really clear and simple big barnlike space.

And you're compromising it, I think,

by putting these walls in that volume.

I think, as a key move, that wall needs to come back to here.

To me, it would make more sense, as well,

-because that living area would come out, wouldn't it?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

But his biggest alteration tackles that bog-standard ceiling.

I think it could be really amazing to live with these truss rafters

running through there and expose them.

The roof, I sort of... I can understand it...

-But...

-Let's look at it.

So that's the space in there that you've got, OK?

-But you could have a space that was you know, like that.

-Yeah.

It's more airy.

OK, my question to you is, if you're resisting it, is it a nicer space

with that like that or not?

-It's a nicer space, I agree with you there. It's...

-OK, stop there.

So why wouldn't you want to make that change?

-Yeah, I'm curious.

-Um...

Exposed truss rafters would be so unusual

and so provocatively different.

Really, really contemporary.

Piers' radical alterations could totally transform this home.

Removing the ceiling would have a cost attached,

but would greatly increase the sense of space in their open-plan

living area. It would prevent the interior they've chosen

feeling like a standard home

and instead would be dramatic and individual.

Removing the octagonal hallway and one of the bedrooms

would maximise the usable living space

and reduce costs by saving on walls and doors.

And I want Marcus and Sholto to seize this opportunity

to create an incredible home.

I'm taking them three hours across Scotland to an amazing house

which I hope will give them a vision of how theirs could be.

-What do you make of that?

-It's very striking in the landscape, isn't it?

It is, incredibly.

This highly individual home is the Black House,

by Raw Architecture Workshop,

on the west coast of Scotland, near Skye.

A staircase takes you up to a breathtaking open-plan space.

Wow.

This is where you start to see what it's all about up here, don't you?

Yeah. It's astounding, isn't it?

The whole wall, the whole facade of this room,

if you like, just throws you out into the landscape.

'It's the non-standard unpredictability of this room

'which makes it special.'

When you're up here, you realise you're in this double height space,

and that's given to you by the fact

that it's a completely truss-free volume.

It's beautiful. It literally takes your breath away.

Especially compounded with the views and everything.

Sholto already has a huge job ahead,

so he's in two minds about such a radical change of plan.

It's lovely, but love it, can't live with it.

To actually see the vaulted ceilings, how simple it was,

how it all came together,

gives us an insight into what our house could look like.

Marcus favours high ceilings. Sholto is unconvinced.

There's a critical decision to be made

and it'll define their interior.

It's November, a month since the house kit was delivered,

and the framework is now up.

Sholto is starting the huge job of cladding the house.

He is pressing on alone in an effort to eke out the tight budget.

Working on your own...

it takes three times as long to do the job because you

sometimes need two pairs of hands.

But looking into how much a simple labourer now wants for

a daily rate, I think, hang on,

that's a hell of a lot of money to pay someone for labouring.

The couple have spent three-quarters of their funds,

with just £28,000 left to complete the entire build.

To add to the pressure, Marcus rarely sees progress on site.

He's working full-time to support the build

and isn't as familiar with it as Sholto.

-Is that lamb's wool?

-No, it's just glass. It's glass fibre.

They've engineered the roof trusses so they can be on show,

but there is no definitive decision on whether to leave them that way.

The pair have opted for Piers' other suggestions,

to make the open-plan living area more dramatic.

They've had a rethink on the number of bedrooms

and removed the octagonal hallway.

We do like the space. We always wanted a big space, anyway.

It went from, originally, four bedrooms to two bedrooms

and this whole space,

which we really like.

Although he likes it, Marcus is worried.

The way I see it at the moment, it could become quite impersonal.

It could be...

..not homely. And I think that's one of the challenges we've got.

Sholto has a clear vision.

We're already working out the layout of the kitchen,

because I want to make that all from scratch.

You're saying, "I want to do this and I want to do that."

The way you work...

The way Sholto works is, he's here all the time, so he gets a feel

for what's actually happening and he's got a very creative mind-set.

And it all gets stored up.

Then, eventually, it will filter down to me.

-It does!

-No, it does. And then we discuss...

I come to you with a solution, rather than a suggestion.

Yeah, which is exactly the point I just made.

Right, so, yes, that's normally what happens.

With money running desperately short, it's crucial Piers helps

them come together to make some joint decisions and move forward.

The biggest decision being whether

to permanently expose the roof trusses.

I think at this stage of a building,

when money is tight and Sholto is just focused on doing his job,

which is finishing the building,

you just do what's available at a builders merchants

and you go through the motion of just making a house

that has conventional things in it.

They really need NOT to do that.

Piers' strategy is to persuade Sholto to go for

the full height ceiling and make savings elsewhere.

So what we want to do is see these trusses in this bit.

And then we're going to paint them white and the walls white.

So, no small ask, I realise that.

But I think it will be important to do.

He asks the builders to plasterboard one corner

and the full height ceiling

so Sholto and Marcus can experience the finished effect.

A couple of hours later, it's time to see if Sholto is persuaded that

keeping the full height ceiling is worth the extra £1,200 it will cost.

So this is now a finished bit of building.

-Which I think looks pretty amazing.

-Wow.

-It does.

Often there is just a detail that you hadn't even thought of before.

The truss is actually more defined because you've not got

the business end of the different coloured woods, the OSB

and everything else behind it.

Having now seen this,

it makes me 100% aware that this is right to make a sacrifice

and get this completely open and finished like this.

With the joint decision made to spend the extra on

the full height ceiling, they need to recoup costs where they can.

So Piers turns his attention to the kitchen.

Here, Sholto is interested in making an island out of concrete to

match the floor.

But he's nervous about the design and technique.

-We've talked about it quite a bit, actually, haven't we?

-Yeah.

At one stage we were thinking we could do a concrete pour,

which would be nice, but I think it might be...

with the floor, I think it might be a bit too much.

My prejudice would be that it would be concrete.

But because it's so cheap, it's so beautiful, it's so versatile,

it's so durable...

I've seen it done - really fantastic.

It might be fantastic,

but I think Sholto has got a massive task on his hands.

Concrete is challenging to work with

and getting the right finish is all-important.

I'm meeting Sholto at London's Southbank to show him

how concrete has been formed here

and how it's been used to create the architecture.

I mean, it is brave of you to tackle concrete.

It's not a material that's that popular in this country with a lot of people.

-What do you think about it?

-I always want to do something once

and that's it. That should be enough to last.

And I think concrete is a material that does last.

You can see that from the buildings here.

Concrete was chosen as the dominant material for these

1960s additions to the Festival of Britain site.

It unifies the range of buildings

and reflects their urban surroundings.

It's amazing here. You're just totally surrounded by concrete.

But you start to see the care with which this is all cast

and made, don't you?

Three joiners' workshops on site created the wooden formwork.

Much of the concrete was then poured in situ.

The patterns remain today.

Where it has weathered, you can still see the texture

-that was originally there.

-Yeah, it's very, very precise.

Like these planks, you know, where these boards have been cast against.

I really love that care and attention.

In a way, when you see concrete looking like this,

it's really more about carpentry than it is about concrete.

Absolutely. It's almost all down to the preparation work.

And the final action is the actual pour and the finger-crossing

and praying of us going to taking off the form.

Being concrete, once it's set, that's it.

The only way of getting it out is a sledgehammer and wheelbarrow.

So that does sort of fill me with a bit of dread.

Despite his trepidation,

Sholto presses ahead with formwork for the kitchen island.

Today is his first ever concrete pour.

Um...the most nervous day of the build, to tell you the truth.

Any mistakes made today will be set in stone.

Piers has come to ensure there aren't any.

-So you're going to make this, aren't you?

-Yes.

-I'm really longing to see the concrete go in.

-Yeah.

-I'm not.

I'm sort of dreading it, but the first...

-Because you only get one shot at it, don't you?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

I did have one of these go wrong, I have to tell you now.

Oh, thank you for that, Piers!

I think we had to break the whole thing out.

The ratio of cement to sand to aggregate and, critically, water,

affects how easy the concrete is to work with and its durability.

-A bit more?

-Yeah.

The island is a huge test for Sholto's home-made formwork.

It needs to hold over half a tonne of concrete.

Yeah, you can see, looking along it,

but that is bowing in the middle there.

And actually, what could happen, of course,

is that it could just give and you end up with

a sea of concrete on the floor and no island.

The formwork is under huge pressure from the concrete

and there's really no knowing if it will hold.

-Well, I can't wait to see it when the formwork is off and you've finish this.

-Nor can I!

With a lot more concrete to pour and then set,

Sholto will have to wait a few days before he'll know if it's worked.

Eight months after the house kit arrived on site,

Piers and I are back in Scotland to see if Sholto has managed to turn

this off-the-peg home into something unique for him and Marcus.

Oh, this is amazing! I mean, what an extraordinary space.

And totally unexpected from the outside.

The couple had the courage to veer away from the conventions

of a family home.

Overhead, they finally committed the time

and money to expose the trusses.

Daylight floods the stunning full height ceiling that came

so close to being covered up.

It's a good start to the day being bathed in sunlight.

You've taken a standard house, pretty much,

and, through a process of subtraction,

you've ended up with something that's completely non-standard.

-It's like living in a loft space, isn't it?

-Yeah, movable.

-Yeah.

-And undefined.

-The only thing that's fixed is that end.

The kitchen island was perhaps the element that allowed Sholto

to truly express his creativity.

How does this result feel to you?

The result, the end result, I'm happy with.

I actually left as this was bulging and threatening to fall apart

-and flood the floor.

-You left. It didn't fall apart.

I was back here very early the next morning to check that

I wasn't coming into chaos.

I mean, this thing feels amazingly permanent and durable.

I mean, this will be here for generations.

Whereas usually, low-cost buildings, you have things

that are so flimsy and fall apart as soon as you moved in.

Not this.

The island is a bargain.

At a total cost of £135,

it's about 85% cheaper than a mid-range manufactured island.

And Sholto has created something very personal.

The pair fell for this stunning landscape,

and the next major challenge will be creating

sympathetic outbuildings to sit alongside their home.

But how much has it cost to get to this point?

Our initial budget, er...

was £100,000.

We've brought the whole project in just under 130,000.

Spending the extra money, I think, we got a much more...

interesting house.

And it's exactly what we needed.

It's late autumn and five months since we last met Marcus and Sholto.

The larch cladding on the exterior of the property is starting

to weather and fade.

I think it's quite nice when you come out of the house

and you look back and some days, in some light, you just think,

wow, it's great to have that as our house.

They've now completed more of the house,

including both bedrooms and the bathroom.

But they've made some further changes, too.

Piers encouraged them to leave their ceiling rafters on show

but, having lived with it, they've changed their minds.

With the open beams, it wasn't

as intimate as we would have liked it to have been.

So they've plasterboarded and covered up the rafters.

But now we've done that, it's actually brought it in a bit.

It's become more cosy.

Piers is now on his way to north-east Scotland

to help them with their next project.

This time on the outside.

As part of the planning conditions,

Marcus and Sholto must build a wood store separate from the house,

and they've started on the concrete groundworks.

It has to be within a certain distance of the fence,

so far from the building.

It has to be a certain size - five cubic metres, to hold the wood.

So that's...a challenge to get that without putting up a wooden shack.

They've already changed one of Piers' big ideas.

So he has his work cut out to challenge the way

they think about this building.

People live in barns, people live in warehouses, people live,

all over the world, in big,

lofty spaces without resorting to putting a flat ceiling in.

And for me, that feels the last resort,

and it's almost something you wouldn't consider.

The wood store is the perfect opportunity to encourage

the couple to experiment with design again.

Piers is meeting them in the Loch Lomond

and the Trossachs National Park to show them a structure that

pushes the boundaries of design with its shape and bold use of materials.

However, it's not that easy to spot.

I brought you here

to show you a building that is amazing, and it's just down there.

You can see it if you look carefully.

-Can you see it?

-Yeah.

-No.

Designed and built by architecture students

Angus Ritchie and Daniel Tyler,

the Lookout appears like a mirage on the banks of Loch Doine.

I still don't know what it is as we approach it!

This futuristic cube is a cabin designed to encourage

visitors to the National Park to pause and take in the views,

whilst the mirrored surfaces reflect the surrounding vistas.

It's elusive and beautiful.

Intriguing, the shape and what's going on is what it could be.

So, close-up, what are your first impressions?

Firstly, wow, and secondly, when can we do part of the main house in it?

LAUGHTER

I like the way it sits in the landscape,

but I think it is also interesting to look at the actual construction.

It uses very simple technology.

I mean, this is just a timber stud frame.

The investment is in the finish.

Coming round this side, I think one of the best things is these

little recesses that really do encourage you to sit in it.

I mean, this is amazing.

It shows that your log store doesn't just need to be a log store.

I mean, it happens to maybe store logs,

but actually there is no reason why you couldn't do something like this.

Back on site,

Sholto sets to work creating his own interpretation of the Lookout.

As always, keeping costs down is essential.

He's sourced some softwood timber for just £100.

Viewing the Lookout, we saw how beautiful it was just sitting in

the landscape and I almost want to build something very similar here.

Four months on, the structure is ready for the finishing touches.

At nearly £300 per sheet, stainless steel is unaffordable.

Instead, Sholto is gambling on achieving a striking effect

with strips of larch and mirrored acrylic.

Are you using all different strips and things...

To get a different effect.

At one end it goes from thick to thin, so when you're standing across

the field and you're looking at it, wondering what this bizarre box is,

it just looks... Again, it's not quite uniform.

Building anything to sit well alongside their home

is a huge challenge.

They've backtracked on big design ideas once already.

Can they possibly deliver a structure that will add

to their home and landscape rather than compromise it?

On his final visit, Piers has no idea what to expect.

I'm back in Scotland and really excited to see what Marcus

and Sholto have made.

If I'm honest, I'm a little bit apprehensive

because they need to make something exquisitely beautiful

to work in this huge landscape.

They've got really good judgment,

but, at the same time, they are sometimes a bit unpredictable.

I think the last time that we met, Piers, on a rather sunny day,

you brought us to the edge of a field

to see if we could spot something.

-I did, yeah.

-This time around I think we've done the same to you.

Well, I can see your house and...

next to it there is a very ambiguous-looking object.

It looks like something very simple and very beautiful.

-I think we need to go down and have a closer look. Can we do that?

-Yeah.

-Definitely.

-Great.

Look at this! Wow! I love it!

It's great. And I love the reflective strip.

It takes you by surprise because you don't quite know what it is.

You don't know whether it's a piece of art or whether it's

-actually something practical or...

-It's worked better than expected.

-What about you, Marcus?

-What do you think of it?

-I absolutely love it.

I really love this reflection that you get,

because the landscape is very sort of...

you know, it's browns and greys, and this is so different.

Yet, actually, it's just reflecting the landscape back at you.

-It focuses your attention on what to look at.

-It does, doesn't it?

It does so much, this, doesn't it?

It's a windbreak, it's a log store, it's a seat, it's a thing of beauty.

-Thank you!

-I mean, you know, it's great!

After a build that's been at times incredibly stressful,

and then to leave all that behind and just have something

that's pure enjoyment, it grounds you again.

It actually makes you realise how...

..enjoyable the whole creative process is.

Marcus and Sholto have created something uniquely theirs.

For just £200, the mirrored acrylic gives beautiful crisp reflections.

Larch cladding and the other timber bring the total cost to around £500,

as everything else used was left over from the house.

For 500 quid, Marcus and Sholto have built something

really resourcefully, and they've built something that is well built.

It'll last and it's a thing of beauty.

Now, finally, to see

Sholto have a bit of fun with his log store is really wonderful.

'Next time, Heidi and Steven have a nightmare garden.'

Apparently, the area outside looks a bit like a bombsite.

'And Wajid and Anam struggle with their living room.'

Sometimes, we don't even use that part of the room.

'But can Piers inspire each couple...'

I brought you here to show you this amazing landform.

'..with one final fix.'

I'm still not convinced about circles, Piers.