The Big Build - Cumbria DIY SOS

As a parent, you want to do the best you can. And we're not in a position to do that.

We're in Cumbria to help a family in desperate need...

You just can't see a way out of it. It's got to that stage now.

We're getting emotional because it means a lot.

..who have a little boy that wasn't supposed to survive.

Because of his condition they told us he may not live.

That's it.

Noah has defied every expectation of him.

Amazing!

To think this little boy has been through

so much in his short life, and he's just so happy, so smiley.

But now the family are trapped in a house that's hurting their son.

I'd love for him to be, to be able to get from room to room.

But you can't. It's horrible.

It's an awful thing.

It's a 280-year-old wreck.

Every single room has had a different problem.

And it's going to push every one of us.

It's like pulling a thread on a jumper,

it just keeps on going.

We have the usual suspects with us,

but being so rural, are we going to find enough people to help us out?

That's handy. Are you doing anything?

ALL: No!

-Can you help us out?

-ALL: Yes!

This is DIY SOS: The Big Build!

THEY CHEER

Oh, beautiful boy.

Rob and Michelle Wall live in Cumbria with their 15-month-old son, Noah.

Jumpy arm!

And Michelle's daughters Ali and Steph from a previous marriage.

Always wanted to be a dad, and this one saying "Dad" is just incredible.

But this longed-for little boy has defied all the odds to be here.

At their three-month scan, Michelle and Rob had news every parent dreads.

The nurse was really nice very chatty,

and then all of a sudden she started going quiet,

and it was silence, and we looked at each other and we kind of...

My stomach churned.

You know when somebody's like that and they've stopped talking, you know...

What's wrong?

"I'm just going to go and get someone," she said, "I need them

"to double-check something."

And then they confirmed what they saw,

they said it was severe spina bifida.

Spina bifida is a fault in the development of the spine

while the baby is in the womb.

It meant Noah's spine was split open, and the prognosis wasn't good.

Because of his condition they'd told us, "He may not live."

They couldn't say, you know, whether it be 20 seconds, 20 minutes, 20 years.

We just wanted this baby so much.

It was loved.

We knew we would do whatever needed to be done for this baby to be happy.

Because of the bleak prognosis, Rob and Michelle made a heartbreaking

decision no parent should have to face, plan their child's funeral.

We sat in the funeral parlour,

Michelle pregnant with Noah inside, and Noah had hiccups.

That's it.

It's like I'm going back.

Incredibly, Noah survived the birth and multiple surgeries, but

he's paralysed from the chest down and it's likely he'll never walk.

That's Noah's scar. It goes quite...

goes to the top of his bum there, look.

Shortly after his birth the family got even more devastating news.

A cyst whilst he was in the womb had caused catastrophic damage

to his brain, and only 2% remains.

Noah has only got a very tiny piece of brain which runs just at

the front here, and the rest of his head is actually filled with fluid.

So to only have a really tiny piece of your brain, and do

the things that you do is pretty amazing.

-IN BABY TALK:

-Amazing.

Yes.

Despite this enormous hurdle, Noah is confounding all expectations. The

doctors can't say exactly how, but he can see, hear and communicate.

He's just so curious about everything, it's fascinating.

Light...light.

He's saying, "Look, look light," it's just unbelievable.

It's never a dull day with him around, he's always happy,

he's always smiling.

I love you!

And the fact Noah's paralysed hasn't stopped him trying to move about.

This is the latest thing that we're doing, isn't it?

Excuse me, what are you doing?

But there's a huge threat that could halt Noah's development,

there are only two rooms finished and habitable enough for him

to spend any time in.

The bedroom he shares with his parents and the front room.

The rest of the house is dangerous and no place for a child.

Things fall down from the ceiling, you can

see down to bare plaster, there's open pipe work, no heating

in here whatsoever. Concrete falls, not a nice environment, really.

We have to do this every day,

The wall being bare brick, it just falls off.

Cleaning up is always tiring but it has to be done. Noah could

have breathing problems in the future.

Rob and Michelle bought the house before Noah came along,

but a host of unexpected problems with the 280-year-old

property soon used up their savings.

Now with a severely disabled child to support

the dream of a family home has become a nightmare.

Things kind of ground to a halt, and this is sort of the stage

we're at now. It's not progressing, it's bogged down, we've no money.

Without insulation, the kitchen got down to -19 degrees

centigrade in the winter and with Rob's modest income from working

in a factory, he's been forced to scavenge wood to heat the house.

Our main source of heating in the house is a wood-burner stove and an

open fire. It's not efficient, it's the option we have, really, because

we can't afford any different way of heating the house at the moment.

But the most distressing thing for Rob and Michelle is the thought

that, as Noah will end up in a wheelchair,

he won't be able to live a full life in this house.

There's no way he can get around.

He'll become a prisoner in his own home.

As a parent you want to do the best you can as a parent,

and we're not in a position to do that.

It's got to the stage now there's no light at the end of the tunnel

and, you know, what do you do next, where do you turn?

I suppose the main thing at this stage is to find out what

we can actually do for Noah, so what is it you need doing?

So when Noah's in a wheelchair he can access rooms,

he can access the garden.

Erm, just do the normal day-to-day stuff.

-It's important for his development as well.

-Yeah.

We don't know what he's going to be capable of, the small

amount of brain he's got, we don't know..

-At the moment he's coming on fantastically.

-He is, isn't he?

Brilliant, he's bright, he's cheerful, he's always happy,

but we don't know what the future holds, so we have to prepare ourselves for the future.

-So who knows what you can achieve, little man.

-I know.

-All the guys will be outside, come and introduce Noah to them before...

-Yeah.

..before you head off. That be all right?

'So, we've got a load of trades...'

You all right, young man?

..'and, of course, a few familiar faces.

'There's Chris, the prince of plaster.

'Billy, the prince of darkness.

'Jules, the man mountain.

'And Mark, the molehill.'

We up for it, definitely?

ALL :Yeah.

All right, let's go and do it, then, shall we?

THEY CHEER AND CLAP

'There's a wreck of a home that needs their help,

'and the wreck of the team are getting stuck in already.

'Look at the state of them.

'We need a plan, what's the plan?

'Designer and architect extraordinaire, Charlie Luxton,

'is the man with the vision. Yes, Charlie looks like a hippy,

'he's been known to hug a tree, and he's evangelical about green living.'

What's the key thing about this build when you come to design it?

There's two things. One is getting round the house,

I suppose that's the first thing that is very specific to this

family is to try and move around with Noah. As he gets older

and bigger, you know, the parents are going to struggle to get him around.

So the idea of making a house that he can move around in,

hopefully on his own, that's critical,

so the lift, the hoists, being able to get him to the loo

and stuff on the ground floor, that's really important.

It's all about self-respect, isn't it? Yes, you've got

disabilities in the family, but if you can try and normalise

your existence that seems to be a reasonable aspiration, doesn't it?

The second thing is the house is just absolutely freezing.

Making the house really warm is really important.

'He's going to talk about insulation again, isn't he? I can feel it coming on.

'The family have struggled on through winters with only the most

'basic of heating from an inefficient boiler and an old solar panel.'

This kitchen they had at -19 in there.

It's what your freezer works at at home.

So if you put the bread out on the side and went in to warm up,

the bread would have been frozen by the time you got back.

It was un-insulated, it's got three external walls and an un-insulated roof.

So we're now trying to get a bit of a solar system which is

really old and weird, a bit of a boiler system tied into some other

bits where they had nothing, so we're just trying to make it work.

-Right.

-And the main thing we're doing is actually insulating the roof,

completely re-insulating all the loft area, because all

the heating they are producing is going straight out the roof.

All right, so how much are we going to save them

by the time we've thermally insulated this thing,

are we going to halve their bills, what we going to do?

We're not really going to save their bills,

because, and it's very important this, because they don't heat the

house, they heat it with firewood and they don't have a warm house.

So what we're going to do is hopefully their energy bills

will stay the same, but they'll have a warm house.

See, a lot of people would claim that they were going to save money,

not us, we'll tell the truth. We're not going to save them

any money at all, and we're proud of it.

'Nothing like pride in your work, is there(?)

'What will make us proud if we can pull it off is what this

'house is aiming to look like in just nine days' time.

'Right, here we go - the kitchen will become somewhere the family

'want to spend time. with safe space for Noah to enjoy.

'All the floors will be levelled for wheelchair access.

'And the new sensory playroom will have state-of-the-art

'technology for Noah to develop and flourish.

'A new lift will lead upstairs to the fully accessible family

'bathroom, which will be just across the hall from Noah's new bedroom.

'Now, up in the loft we're creating new bedrooms for the girls,

'and because Charlie Luxton is our designer, the whole

'building will be squeezed full of insulation to keep the family warm.

'It's a massive amount to do in little more than a week,

'and we've rarely worked on a house as old as this,

'so who knows what antiquated horrors lurk beneath the surface?

'Oh, there's one.'

Hiya.

This is Sandy, this is Alan. Sandy is going to take charge.

Thank goodness for that.

So are we going to get this done, you reckon? There's a lot to do

and the plasterers are going to be chasing you round.

Excuse me, can you tell him I've come up with a few ideas,

-haven't we, while we've been going round?

-One.

-One, one idea?

I told a lovely joke, didn't I? I was walking down the street

and this guy threw a bottle of milk at me, and then

he started throwing grated cheese at me and I thought, "How dairy!"

"How dairy".

HE LAUGHS

"How dairy".

Don't you understand it?

'We really shouldn't let him out in public, should we?

'Right, back to the job in hand.

'Now, Charlie, as I've mentioned, loves insulation and he's got

'an enormous list of insulation to fit. He's going to need a wingman,

'someone who'll really buy in into this eco malarkey. Yeah, not him.'

He's off.

'Chris, believe it or not, a safe pair of hands.'

Give me that list, I will guard it with my life.

Yes, that's...yeah...

As he dropped it...

In a puddle! Yeah, you guard it.

I'll guard it with my life.

"Yeah, what could possibly go wrong(?)

'That's warmth under way, now for the access.

'But the problem is that when they built this

'house in the 1730s nobody was thinking about fitting a lift shaft.'

What's the problem?

The lift is going up in this corner...

-Yeah, it's...

-..But this steel is in the way.

The opening needs to be much bigger than that.

What's that holding up?

Well, obviously, these short ends of floor joists go onto this wall, so

really what we'd have to do is move that steel back that way.

'Now, steels are put into buildings to support something important,

'even if they're rusty like this one. This tiny bit of metal is

'holding up the bathroom, so moving it is a huge deal.'

We're going to have to literally rip out all the wiring,

all the plumbing, replace all the floor joists and take that steel.

Take a line of bricks off the top of the wall so that you can get

a wall plate in because the joists are going to be deeper and you can't

make the ceiling any higher in the room above, so it has to come down.

All because this steel is here, and if it was here we'd be fine.

This could be a job breaker, this one.

'We've got to figure out a solution for the lift,

'and for a very good reason.'

We've got to make the house flow for Noah. We've got

to get him through all the downstairs of the house with his

wheelchair, and we've got to take him up in the lift. That wheelchair

has got to be able to move around on that top floor cos he's got

to have full use of the house. We don't want to just take him and

put him in one area in the house, we want him to be in the house

with his whole family, moving around and enjoying the company.

But, a house this age, it's all on different levels,

it's all higgledy-piggledy, it's sank a wee bit that way,

it's going a wee bit this way. It's an old house.

I'd rather have this than a nice modern house.

Look at the character and... it's beautiful.

'Right now, it's pretty ugly.

'Not the builder, the building, Well, both, really.

'We're breaking this building apart

'and uncovering some nasty surprises along the way.

The whole of the landing is slanted.

Whole bottom chunk of that chimney is sitting on a 1½-by-1 baton.

The floor level is lower than the soil outside,

so all this is being taken out and removed from the building

just to stop the building being damp inside.

This big A-frame, effectively holding the roof up,

is sitting on the tiny wooden lintel. It's a bit rotten

and a little bit undersized, I'd say.

Something is nesting up there.

Every single room has had a different problem.

I'm not even joking, you can actually see next-door.

Whoa!

I do love this idea that they used to build things really

well in the olden days.

It's like no, no, no!

'But it's not only the bad stuff we're discovering.

This is an 18th-century coaching inn,

'and some of the things we've found have been proper little treasures.'

There's a very ancient abbey up the road from here, about 600 yards,

and if you go in the entrance porch way, there's a whole

load of these exactly like this, and it's because when all of the

monastery that surrounded it sort of fell apart, everybody

in the village came and helped themselves to all the stonework to

build all these houses and gardens and everything else. Not recently.

We're talking about over the last 400-500 years. It's beautiful.

'We're trying to make the most of not only the garden

'but the surrounding views, so a little bit of surgery is required.'

The plan here is to take out all of the tree line along here

because there's a field of horses in the background here, which is

a much lovelier thing for Noah to look at rather than just

a hedgerow. So if we chop it back, they'll get a better view

and a nicer garden to sit in during the summer.

'And, to make the most of that view, we're putting

'a window into the kitchen wall, although it's such

'a bag of old biscuits, I'm worried it's going to fall down.'

Nice.

'We're still scratching our heads about what to do to sort out this

'lift shaft situation so Russell, the building inspector, is happy.

'Time for some bold creative flair.'

-We've got a steel here which we'd like not to move.

-Yes.

And we have a stairwell and lift to get in, so my view is,

because the stairwell is narrower, we take the stairwell up,

the bottom of the stairwell up here and...

-Oh, no...

-..Then we turn left, and we take that bit of wall out.

Why don't we, cos that is probably strong enough?

If we put a wall in from here, a supporting stud into here,

cos we're putting some stairs here anyway.

But you can't run it to here, Charlie.

Yeah, but then the point is, if you put a wall to here,

suddenly that beam is spanning, half of what it's doing,

something about an eighth-less load or whatever it is,

a quarter of the load, and suddenly it will be strong enough.

That's a rubbish idea, the building inspector will never go for that!

What about this, what about this?

Structural stud wall half the span of this beam, and suddenly it's strong enough?

Yeah, fine.

'I knew he'd go for it. I hate it when Charlie's right.

'But up in the loft, where the girls will have their new bedrooms,

'he's definitely messed up.'

Can you see how dark it is in here? It's ridiculously dark.

'And, having lost the last argument, I'm going to make

'the most of this. Charlie has now started to rip out perfectly

'good-looking plaster. Chris will not be happy.

'What kind of eco madness is this?'

Hang on a second, guys, just hold for a second.

They've taken all the plasterboard, haven't they?

Well, that's the problem, all these houses done in the '80s,

they look all fine, they've all got nice plaster,

but it's just not warm enough, so it's all got to be re-done.

-Right.

-Not enough insulation behind.

You've sort of become Captain Insulation,

-it's normally him doing this.

-No, I'm with him all the way on this one, mate.

You used to take the Michael out of him for all his thermal thingy whatsits.

Never, never a cross word said against Charlie Luxton.

Mate, it's a no-brainer, ain't it? The more insulation you put in,

the less energy, the less heat you have to put into the property

keeps your fuel costs down.

Yes, but you're now taking down all the stuff that's already plastered...

They're professionals, they'll knock it through in no time!

-They'll eat it.

-You're going to have all this done and thermally insulated and cleared out?

As long as we don't get in the way, basically.

Well, you can't talk enough about insulation, could you?

The hours just fly by(!)

You see, what it's all about, the more you put in...

'No, you CAN talk too much about insulation,

'and I've already had enough.

'But there is a determination to make this work,

'and it's for a little boy who's pretty determined himself.

'When physio, Jo, first met Noah a year ago,

'he could barely hold his head up. After intense work from Jo

'and his parents, Noah's potential has far exceeded what anyone thought

'was possible when they discovered he only had 2% of his brain.

'It's really quite incredible.'

And he obviously loves his swimming.

Did we kiss the fishy? He loves it, yeah.

Considering the prognosis and the fact they said so little of

his brain was active, that he seems like a perfectly normal boy, up

to speed with any other kid of his age, it's extraordinary, isn't it?

His first scan was... yeah, wasn't very good.

-Catastrophic, really, wasn't it?

-It was.

He seems entirely with it and awake

-and aware and engaging and sings and communicates and...

-Absolutely.

Yeah, he does. He smiles and then

everybody's with him, aren't they, really? He's just lovely.

-Aren't you?

-There he is, exactly on cue, very well done.

How suited to his development was life at home?

It was getting more difficult cos as he develops, his needs increase.

Noah's now, he's just beginning to explore a little bit,

he's just getting a bit of independent mobility

with his rolling and pulling himself along,

so very soon that was going to be impossible in the house as it was.

Do you have a wish list for the house, what would be ideal for Noah?

A house that's completely geared

so he can independently get himself around, so he can access everything

that any other child of his age would need to.

So if we give him flat floors throughout, a lift between floors,

how much does that make a difference to Noah going forward?

A huge, a huge amount.

If those things weren't done now, then he would be stuck.

You seem entirely at home in the water,

but then with a name like Noah, you ought to be, really, I suppose.

You should be, shouldn't you? You should be.

'So we know what Noah needs -

'safe space to develop and continue confounding expectations.'

And with all these wonderful blokes to help,

we're leaving no stone unturned.

It might seem like a lot of effort,

but everybody wants to go the extra mile for Noah,

and for one of our boys, this is personal.

Bill, you love at the beginning when you get a chance to meet the family.

What did you make of them this time round?

I was very surprised, I was very surprised

because I know about spina biferous children, and I know about...

Well, my niece had a funeral for her spina bifida baby

because it was so bad,

and I was worried and thought, "Oh, this baby is going to be just..."

-Struggling a lot.

-A lot, really bad,

I thought, "Is it worth it when she had the chance to lose it?"

But when I met little Noah,

I thought, "Yeah, I can see why she fought..."

..why she fought and said to the doctors, "I want my baby,"

cos he's absolutely bonny, and he's responded to everything.

You're going to be a mess when we show this off, aren't you?

-You're going to be in bits.

-It's, erm...

Well, that's what we're here for, ain't it?

That's what we're here for, to help people who really need us.

We're all starting to realise

how much Noah and his family have struggled in this house.

It does kind of break your heart a little, you know,

to see...I don't know, people in that situation.

Well, I've got four kids and they're all healthy

so I couldn't imagine how they've lived in this with a disabled child,

so must be very, very difficult.

And there's a lot of guys here who know how tough it is to be a dad

when you can't give your family what they need.

I get quite emotional trying to understand

what this guy has gone through,

and you don't get your time back with your children,

so for him to be stuck in here trying to do it all himself,

I don't think you can quite imagine what it must be like.

These magnificent builders have worked like Trojans today,

and the progress that's been made is astounding.

Charlie Luxton's still deeply in conversation about insulation,

lots of insulation already in,

new stud work, electric's in.

Considerable changes here, obviously,

with the old staircase coming out, the wall taken down,

change in the doorway there.

Window turned into a door, door turned into a window,

all this room has been sorted out,

and we have this lovely picture window

now looking out into the garden.

So, 350 man hours we've put in today.

All the major structural stuff's done.

Two days' worth of materials gobbled up today.

-Problems found.

-Problems solved.

And we've even now got a garden and a view

onto ponies frolicking in the field. What more could you want?

Good to finish the day on a high,

especially when you start the next day on a low.

No, not Mark's dancing.

-Don't panic!

-Who was panicking?

We've got the scaffolders turned up this morning,

where one of the windows is going to come out,

the wall's all collapsing,

so this man here is going to build some scaffolding for us,

so we can support the whole building.

Aye, we'll build a 30-foot hold on the other side

then we'll beam onto the roof - well, not touch the roof,

but beam over them to get the extent of the window over for you.

-Grand.

-All right, pal?

Absolutely brilliant. Thanks, mate, for your help.

That was last-minute. He just popped in at the last minute and sorted the whole thing out.

That window up there has to go from there to there

and then like that, OK?

And the reason why, it's not design, it's for practicality,

because inside the bathroom, the bath is going to rise up and down,

so we've had to move the window

because the bath would have come up past the window.

There's also going to be a hoist system to be able to move him across

the bathroom and set him down,

changing mat, just, life is going to get a little bit...

All this is to make their life a wee bit easier.

More than a wee bit easier -

it means Noah gets to have independence in his home.

Charlie's other big improvement for the family

is keeping the house warm.

The winter nights must just fly by for his wife.

Anyway, he's got himself a disciple. Meet Thermo Fred.

So what sort of, erm, insulation is this?

K18. Yes, this goes over the studs

to stop the split between your insulation.

-Why do you have that?

-It bridges timbers cos it's a cold spot.

-Is that right?

-Yeah.

Fred, Fred! Stops you repeating thermal bridges.

And it also stops you repeating thermal fridges.

-Yeah. You've got to take it seriously if you're going to do it.

-Oh, yeah.

'I'm finding this very odd.'

Hang on, what's he doing up here?

Coming to join in with the saving of the planet.

-How is it going with the saving of the planet?

-It's going very well.

There's a lot of, a lot of insulation.

It's like being in a space shuttle.

I've never, there's half a lorry load of insulation

gone into this lot, seriously.

I think your love for insulation is waning.

-It started out very...

-No, no!

-How many different types of insulation

are we using in the building?

We're using a sheet material at 75 mil,

a sheet material at 100 mil,

a sheet material at 40 mil,

insulated plasterboard,

two different types of rolled insulation...

-Three different types of rolled.

-Three different types

-of rolled insulation...

-And the multi-foil, and the multi-foil.

-Four!

-No, and I've just ordered some space therm for behind the pipework

-in the kitchen.

-No! No!

-Why not?

-Because it's really, really expensive, it's £90 a sheet.

Just lag the pipes.

We're getting about a third of a sheet.

But who can afford that?

This is my ongoing problem with the whole saving-the-planet stuff,

right, seriously, only rich people can afford to cut their costs

by putting all the expensive insulation in.

-Lag it!

-Lag it with cheap stuff!

-Lag it.

What happened to Thermo Fred?

No, I'm with you!

LAUGHTER

I'm there. Mate, I'm there.

You're on the wrong side of the fence at the moment.

Look, I agree with you it's a good idea to save money

by insulating your place and saving fuel and saving the planet,

-but nobody can afford it.

-Can I just make a point?

Can I just say, can I just say...

We're not paying for it, it's been donated.

Yeah, but that's not the point.

Because you need to follow what we do,

and we're encouraging you to do stuff, and can you afford it?

The answer is no.

Only rich people can afford to cut their bills.

Hear, hear!

Thank you! That's from a builder over in the corner, "Hear, hear"!

-What do you reckon?

-Fair comment, yes.

-What do you reckon?

-Aye...

-He's just come for the lunch, so...

-Yeah, yeah.

LAUGHTER

The problem is, right, the whole thing is a mess,

and the people that are going to sort it out are going to be builders

understanding it, builders getting better, builders really knowing

what they're doing, like these guys here, they're doing a fantastic job

insulating all through here, an amazing job, and they understand it.

You're the dinosaur now, Nick. That's the problem, mate.

APPLAUSE

Well put, Charlie.

Thanks, but I need to, I need to lie down now.

Charlie Luxton for president.

Dinosaur, what did he mean by that, dinosaur?

His heart is in the right place, though. It's insulated, too.

This house needs that kind of TLC.

Getting Noah back into a really warm environment is important,

but not just for Noah.

She hides it well, but Michelle is also disabled.

She's struggled with lifelong painful arthritis

which makes looking after Noah...

That hurt.

..even more difficult.

I've got arthritis in my left hip, both ankles.

That's got a replacement elbow in there,

and I've had three knee replacements as well.

Steph and Ali do everything they can to help.

The support from the girls has been incredible.

I couldn't wish for better.

But day-to-day tasks with Noah in a house as bad as this...

Ow!

..are increasingly difficult.

She doesn't complain about her pain,

but a lot of the time you can see she's in pain, and you can see

she does limp more on certain days.

She's got a bad limp cos she's got the new knee in there,

and it's not going to get any better,

so she may well end up in a wheelchair herself.

But there's always that thing in the back of your mind,

well, what about the future?

Someone who knows that well is family friend Tara.

I've got arthritis too and I don't know how she does it.

I mean, I struggle to lift my little girl.

Thankfully, my little girl can walk and Noah can't.

Well, there's that as well, isn't it?

But with us doing all this work, what difference do you think

it will make for their lives going forward and for the future?

This is their future. They need this house for Noah,

because they don't know what he's going to need when he's older,

and it makes me really, really emotional,

because this cannot happen to a nicer family.

And I'm not allowed to paint so I thought I'd bring cake.

-Oh, that's lovely, thank you.

-Sorry.

It all helps. No, it all helps.

Tara didn't only bring treats, though.

She also brought the sunshine.

How's your thermal levels doing?

Oh, mate, everyone's up there naked, it's that hot.

Yeah, let's not see that.

Though not these guys,

they're helping to bring the sunshine inside.

What a difference that makes, look at that.

And we're going to have another one over there.

Ah, there's something about the sunshine that's sent

everyone into a silly mood of loveliness.

One, two, three, hup!

Could do with that, couldn't I?

Can you see anything?

I can, yeah.

Whoo!

There's a lot of love in the room, a little bit too much for my liking,

but there is still work going on. Inside, Jules has got on top

of that lift shaft that was causing us so many headaches yesterday.

Above it is where the new bathroom will be,

and the good news is that the new window is in,

so everything else is bad news.

So, what, there's a difference of about three inches in the floor?

This side's higher, that side's lower.

Three inches?

The boys have got to rip all this floor out to try

and get it level, cos we're putting a semi-wet room up here,

so we've got to get the floor as level as possible, cos we don't want

a big puddle in the corner. There's three inches difference in the floor.

You've had your work cut out, this room, haven't you?

It's been a nightmare from start to finish, this room.

First it started as a window,

then we dropped the ceiling cos the joists were running the wrong way.

So they were running the wrong way,

cos we had to get these big joists here in.

-To take the hoist.

-To take the hoist in.

So this joist and that one means that the hoist can run

across the room to the bath.

Yes. So the floor is next, it's plaster boarding.

-Plasterers are in tomorrow.

-Are they?

-Yeah.

-Nice

Good. Well done. Keep smiling.

I'm trying.

Downstairs, Charlie's ignored all my advice

and put in that fancy insulation behind the pipework.

Nick was having a go at me

saying what are you getting this in for, that's a waste of time,

but this is the most important bit to lag, isn't it?

Anything that's on an external wall, that's not on a cavity wall,

there's no insulation in between the two.

So getting it in behind that pipework is absolutely spot on.

Plainly, you cannot get enough insulation.

Yes, but it's still too expensive.

With this new heating system, though, the family won't have

to scavenge wood and freeze in the winter any more.

But we're also giving them wood burning fires

and Charlie is concerned about exactly what's going

to go up in smoke.

So this is your parents' house?

This is my mum and dad's house, I was born here.

-Brought up here.

-Yep.

-Wow.

-48 years ago.

-OK, family home.

-Yeah, family home.

So where's the wood? Round the back, is it?

-Yeah, down in the back garden.

-Let's have a look.

Now the big problem with open fires is they're just,

A, they're so inefficient.

They're sort of 15-20%, something like that efficient,

and then you've got a great big hole,

and when it's not got smoke going up it,

it's got all the hot air of the house.

Stripping all the air out of the house, yeah.

But a lot of this doesn't look like great burning wood, does it?

I mean, this has got varnish on it. Are you burning all of it?

Yeah, it will all get burnt.

Anything with paint or varnish on, we've got an open fire

so we burn it on there. Wood burners, the metal pipes

really get messed up with all the treated stuff,

so anything without treatment on, we'll burn on the wood burners.

But if you're burning this on an open fire, you know,

some of the fumes is going into the house.

-Yeah.

-That's not great, is it?

No, it's not. It's needs must at the moment.

You don't really feel you have an option other than to burn that?

No, you do what you've got to do.

Heat is the main thing for us at the moment.

If there was a way of making it easier or better,

it would be very much appreciated.

I tell you what, I'd be really happy if we could do this for you

and you don't burn anything with paint.

You only burn virgin wood.

That would be a deal I'd really like to make with you.

Well, I'll make that deal.

OK, we get a warm house, you only burn untreated wood.

Brilliant.

But that's not the easiest promise to keep.

We're over halfway through the build

and there's an enormous amount to do.

Tomorrow is going to be crunch day.

Morning! Beautiful, sunshiny day in Cumbria.

We're loving being here and it's plastering day.

This weather is absolutely ideal for it,

but how many plasterers will turn up?

Well, there's an easy answer to that.

There's a swarm of them, or is it a spread?

We've got about 16 plasterers and not enough area for them ready,

so I need to run around today and feed plasterboard

for the guys to plaster.

Brilliant.

We thought we were going to have a nice little easy day today,

didn't we, Tone, but all of a sudden, the plasterers have turned up

and it's mayhem.

Yep, they've started at the top of the house in the lofts

and are headed downwards fast,

straight towards the choke point in the build.

Hive of activity here, this is the kitchen,

and this has to be plastered this afternoon.

Are we happy, boys?

Yeah.

Are we going to have it or what?

Definitely.

That's what we like to hear. Positivity.

Outside, the weather is getting hotter, which means with all

the insulation, inside is getting hotter too,

but everyone's sticking to it.

Everyone's staying there and getting on with the work.

Well, almost everyone.

Our little brother Charlie Luxton.

Rumour has it that the reason you're out here

is cos it's too warm in the house.

It's not, it's cos I tried to get up the stairs, right?

Yeah, and you couldn't get between the walls..

-Stop stirring!

-And you couldn't get between the walls

-because there was so much...

-Cos it was so hot,

I couldn't break through the heat layer!

Luckily, the Cumbrian tradesmen are made of stronger stuff.

The very sweaty plasterers have made it all the way down to the kitchen.

This is where we wanted to be, kitchen skimmed today,

kitchen fitters in tomorrow.

And despite the impressive heat and the bouncy music,

the brilliant tradesmen of Cumbria have sweated their way through it.

Good, innit?

Excellent job, thank you very much, gentlemen.

APPLAUSE

It's a sunny weekend in the British countryside,

yet we've got a building site full of trades working for free.

The local community's come out in force here.

Some of them turned up just for a couple of days

and they've stayed the whole time. For me, that's just great.

Salt of the earth, these people, and I'm very proud to be part of them.

Do you know what, Mark? So are we all.

You've got friends that you'll probably get for life now.

It's not just about this here, it's about in the future

for us lads and all. You know, if somebody needs a bit of something,

we can say, "We can help you with that."

It's a completely different vibe than any other site

you'll ever work on.

Oh, yes. The best building site we've been on.

-Really?

-Yeah, definitely.

You think about doing your job for a completely different reason

-than everyday work.

-Yeah.

Cos a lot of us, we knew there were problems,

but you know, we didn't know how many problems they actually had,

so the more that you get to know a little bit about the family,

the more that you want to sort of get stuff done for them and that.

People always say that there's no community left any more,

but you only have to look around at what's going on here,

and this will have been done by not us, but by you lot.

This is her community coming together around her, and doing this.

As the week's progressed,

the pride in what I'm doing has become more apparent,

because you know that you're going to make a difference to this family.

And it's a family that's had a lot to deal with.

As well as looking after Noah, Michelle spends a lot of time

campaigning for spina bifida awareness,

in the hope that other families don't have to face

the same situation.

It's clear she's carrying a huge weight on her shoulders.

You're an incredibly driven person, aren't you, with Noah

and with the charity work that you do. Why is that?

Someone should have told me and they didn't.

Told you what?

That I should have taken folic acid three months before pregnancy

and I could have reduced Noah's spina bifida by 72%.

So you feel responsible?

Yeah, I do. I feel really guilty that Noah is like that.

But millions and millions and millions of people have been born

before people knew about folic acid.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, and if it's a fact, it's a fact,

but it's not your fault.

I won't ever get a chance to make it right...

so then I've got to tell everyone every day.

But there has to come a point where you have to stop blaming yourself,

because it doesn't benefit in any way at all, does it?

It will get easier. Time.

You have the most beautiful boy.

Thank you.

But you do, don't you, and you know you do.

He's gorgeous. I love him so much.

Which is why he's doing so well.

Well, I'll make you a deal then. We will hand you back a house

that will have all the things you need to go forward

and to give Noah every opportunity, if you'll stop blaming yourself

for something that you couldn't have done anything about

in the first place, cos you've got to stop doing that.

It seems like a fair deal.

Can I have a day off then?

Having this house finished will hopefully let Michelle and Rob

look forward to a brighter future with Noah.

And it's a really good sign that the kitchen fitters have made it in.

Even our Achilles heel is on the mend.

We are in the bathroom,

which has been probably the most difficult room in the house

to complete. Boys have been in here, I won't tell you how long,

but you're nearly on your way out now, aren't you?

The doorway's there and I'm working that way.

And good old Charlie, he's come up with a really simple solution

to tile the bathroom really quickly.

Thanks, Charlie!

Yeah, good luck with that, mate!

It's going to be a long night

but this house is about to start looking like a home again.

Morning!

Hard to believe he's 64, isn't it?

Where better to be than sitting here kicking my heels

on a dry stone wall in Cumbria admiring the countryside,

and pondering the fact that we can turn up to somewhere

as rural as this, and sparsely populated, and stick our hands up

and say, "Can anybody help us?"

And 60 people turn up every day to perform a minor miracle

and turn this house around for a very lovely family,

and do you know what?

I think we're in with a very good chance of pulling this one off.

The thing that will turn this from a house into a home

is a little splash of colour.

I wonder what scheme the eco-warrior will go for?

Yeah, green.

Of course it's green, it's always green.

Charlie, where are you? Charlie.

-Here.

-Charlie, where are you?

I'm sorry, I lost you against the wall then.

So this is the colour for the wall here, is it?

Why can't we just, for once, just go for a like a proper out there...

Ooh. That's loud, isn't it?

It's a colour.

Look at that hot pink.

There's quite a lot of memories of this kitchen

as being cold and inhospitable,

so we're trying to move away from that as much as possible,

so you've got the hot, warm red on this side,

and if you actually look, these are warm greys.

There's a little bit of pink and warm grey and all of the colour,

so it does feel like a really nice, warm, inviting room.

There's quite a feminine side to you, isn't there?

You're in touch with your colours and your emotions and things.

Are you a man who cries in a rom-com?

Yeah, I do.

And now you love him even more, don't you, ladies?

And all the blokes are going, "What a wuss."

We're sprinting to the finish now - well, wheezing towards the finish -

and out the back our outstanding and creative garden designers

have come up with an ingenious way to make the outside

wheelchair friendly, too.

-It's all-weather..

-It's artificial grass,

and it's nice and soft for a little kid to go on.

Do you get that sort of, if you fall on it, do you get those burns?

You don't. You do on the short stuff, but on this you don't.

-So Noah will be all right crawling round on this.

-Yeah.

-A few thousand plants over there as well.

-Aye.

And I hear you've gone off the colour of the shed.

Yeah. A bit bright,

so I think they're going to match it with the reveals on the windows.

All these people that have volunteered to come and do the work,

have come and done the work and then gone,

"That's not good enough,"

so they've asked us to get a different colour paint

to do the reveals around the windows and to redo the shed.

Yeah, so the reveals around the windows will match the shed,

-just to try and link it in, it was just standing out...

-Perfectionists.

-Yep.

-It's not just doing it and getting away with it, is it?

No, you've got to do it right.

You've got to do it right, cos at the end of the day,

it's not our garden.

These lot have got to live with it.

We can walk away and not look at that, they have to live with it.

It's a lovely thought, and they all go the extra mile.

From the start, our aim has been to get this house warm.

I think Charlie sorted that problem,

and to give Noah and Michelle independence throughout the house.

The lift is being wired up, the mechanical bath is here, and...

Ta-da!

Look at that.

Now, see, the trick with this is,

despite the massive weight that's being held by this,

I can with one finger...

Look, I can move him about, take him into the bathroom.

And one thing we're really excited about

is some cutting-edge technology for Noah's sensory playroom.

Noah, when he's in here and playing on the floor,

is able to interact with the floor

and it will move and change as a result.

Look, watch this, look.

So we've got a swimming pool, look at that.

In terms of child's development and the ability to play and engage,

everything is possible. It's fantastic.

And thanks to the hard work of a selfless local community

of tradesmen, tradeswomen and suppliers, this is

a stunning home purpose-built for Noah and his family.

Nine days ago, this house was a crumbling wreck

barely fit to live in.

It was cold, dusty and making the family ill.

For a little boy with a host of challenges, but a boundless spirit,

it was seriously threatening his development.

I just want to give him the best that I possibly can, and I can't.

It's OK.

It was one of the oldest houses we'd ever taken on

and it threw up problem after painful problem.

It's been a nightmare from start to finish, this room.

But a remarkable team of trades...

..buoyed by a pride in their community...

We're all together for one reason, really.

You know that you're going to make a difference to this family.

..worked their socks off for a little boy in desperate need.

And now this house is finally a home

where Noah can live the life he deserves.

The kitchen is now a bright and airy space, where the whole family

can spend time together around the new handmade oak table.

We've provided an ingenious snug area

so Noah can play safely while his family are around him.

The kitchen leads onto the new wheelchair friendly garden,

with soft areas for Noah to play.

And raised flower beds that Michelle and Noah will both be able to reach.

The new sensory room is designed to make sure Noah has every tool

he needs to flourish.

From toys to aid him as he gets bigger,

to cutting-edge interactive technology

to encourage his continued development.

Those rickety old stairs have been replaced.

The new hi-tech lift means Noah and Michelle

can have independence through the house.

And it leads to the new fully accessible family bathroom.

The girls both have their own grown-up rooms

where they get a bit of luxury and space to be independent young women.

Oh, and Noah's new bedroom is waiting for him when he's ready.

This house is now a beautiful and functional home

where the whole family can blossom together.

If you're ready, open your eyes.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

My God.

Wow.

I've lost all sense of where I am.

Kitchen, darling.

There's the beam, the old beam.

All this for us.

It's incredible.

It's amazing.

Not only do you have a window, you have a view.

We'll be able to see the horses.

Noah will love that.

-It's absolutely beautiful.

-It's amazing, it really is amazing.

Handmade table made by a local craftsman, who specifically wanted

to make you a table that your whole family can sit around for dinner.

Christmas dinner in the kitchen at the table. That's all I wanted.

Oh, that is gorgeous.

I never have pictures up

because we didn't have anywhere nice to put anything.

If you come over this way, because it's all about...

SHE GASPS

..access, isn't it?

And making the house accessible to everybody.

Wow.

He's going to be so independent.

Hiya.

See the giraffe.

Oh, they're amazing!

Noah is going to love them.

Oh, my.

It's a full wet room.

-It is.

-Oh, no way.

You obviously have a hoist.

It's really easy, and there's different types of slings.

You can get walk slings, carry slings, bathing slings.

It's just perfect.

Yeah, it's a standard bath, but if you want to give Noah a bath...

..then that goes up all the way to the height

-so you don't have to bend over.

-That's unbelievable.

It's incredible, isn't it?

When you have a bath, if you can't be bothered to get out yourself,

you just hoist yourself out of the bath.

I can't get out of baths.

You can't get out of baths? You can now.

You can now, darling. You can have a proper bath now.

It's not about me, it's about Noah.

No, it is about you. You're the main carer for Noah

so it is about you.

I've never been in the bath with Noah. I'd love to sit in the bath.

It seems simple, but it means a lot

to just do things like other people do.

Yeah.

Oh, this is so beautiful.

It's stunning.

It's absolutely stunning.

What you could do is you could come in here

and we have a day bed alongside as well,

so that one of you can stay in here or both stay in here and...

-Yeah, it's beautiful.

-Kind of important, really.

I'll nip out and get Noah. There's one more important room

I want to show you and it's back downstairs.

What's that, Noah?

Oh, my goodness. Oh, Noah, look.

It's a sensory room and a playroom for Noah.

Try and put him face down in the pond.

Let's switch the lights out.

There you go. Every movement he makes has a reaction.

Oh, wow.

What's that, Noah?

Light.

Light, good boy.

And if he works hard enough...

We have a little pod he can sit in.

This track will also take you through that door there,

would you like to have a look?

It's one of the big things Michelle wanted was a toilet

-downstairs for him so he could be...

-Independent.

Independent, so we don't have to rush up and downstairs with him.

Do you like it, Noah? What do you think?

-Good?

-Yay!

In the loft, daughters Steph and Ali

have well deserved space of their own.

In you go.

It's gorgeous.

Check it out. Handmade oak bed specifically made for you

to fit into that space.

New York skyline. You're a bit fond of New York, aren't you?

I'm a bit of a fan.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

I can't believe it. This is amazing.

Look at your view.

I love it.

It's a weight lifted off my shoulders,

off everyone's shoulders, cos it's done,

and there's no worrying.

I'm crying.

And do you know what? Downstairs the house is already

making a huge difference to Noah.

This is the first time he's ever moved himself independently.

Where are you going?

Keep going.

That's it. Clever boy, what a clever boy.

Wow.

That is absolutely stunning.

That's a whole new garden. You can see out into the horses

and the fields, and you've suddenly got this beautiful view.

And cos I know you like to do the gardening,

that's why we've done it as raised beds so it's easy to get to.

I can perch on there, it's a fab height.

Wheelchair access as well for Noah.

Oh, yeah, it's all accessible.

That's the most important thing, you know, to be independent.

It doesn't matter where.

So nice to just come out in the garden and relax.

Wow.

So we made a couple of deals.

What is it that you're going to do or stop doing?

Beating myself up about it.

Yeah. Promise?

I promise.

Or at least to start.

Today. Start today.

And you need to stop burning wood that's got paint on it.

Yeah, that was the deal I made.

Really?

You won't need as much oil and you won't need as much wood

to heat the place because the place is so insulated now.

This should now be the place to go forward.

So would you like to meet the amazing people who did this?

-Oh, God...

-Yes, please.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Wow.

You've got huge, huge, huge hearts,

and I can't believe you've done all this for...

for us as a family.

Noah will be independent right the way through the house,

and you have done this for us.

We were just in a place where we couldn't see

the light at the end of the tunnel,

so I really can't express how much it means to us.

I really can't.

APPLAUSE

-Do you like it?

-Yeah, I love it.

-Do you like the colours?

-I love it, yeah.

It's amazing.

-Thanks very much.

-No, thank you, mate.

For us, this is just...

I can't really express it.

-We're going to be warm.

-You are.

They say we're only limited by our own imaginations,

and if you think about it, if Michelle had given up on Noah

at any stage, we wouldn't now have this amazing,

flourishing little boy, who is confounding expectations

at every level, and that's what these guys have done, too.

Confounded expectations in what's possible in nine days.

And the other thing they've done is not only made a beautiful home,

they've taken away the limitations the house was setting on the family,

and with that freedom,

who knows what this amazing little boy can achieve?