Jason & Riikka The House That £100k Built

The cheapest way to a dream home is to build it yourself.

This is the exciting bit. Seeing the first bit of dirt come out.

But can it really be done for less than £100,000?

If you think outside the box, you can build something extraordinary.

Architect Piers Taylor will push what's possible with their homes.

How about reconsidering the structure?

No, I like the structure.

'While I, Kieran Long, will challenge them with fresh ideas on design.'

-How you feel right now.

-Yes. Yes.

And show them ingenious solutions possible in any home.

This is the kind of thing we want to do for our grandchildren.

And they needn't be expensive.

-What do you reckon?

-I'm really impressed.

-Great.

That's two good ideas you've come out with today, Piers.

We'll all be pushed.

I have to put my cards on the table now and say I hate the roof.

-I just hate it.

-As the homes take shape.

We are risking all the money, then once it's gone, it's gone.

But some will turn low-cost self builds...

..into extraordinary homes.

It looks great.

Wow!

This time, Jason and Riikka attempted to build a low-cost home with high ambition.

I thought the house we are building had a lot of glass but wow!

This is all glass, isn't it?

But is theirs even possible for 100K?

I saw these drawings, I would say that this would be about 450 grand.

It's the longest build we've ever followed.

But will Jason's obsession with detail...

Two, three.

Has to be millimetre perfect.

..be his downfall?

I just can't believe this.

Jason and Riikka have lived in Torquay for 15 years...

-Washing up as ever.

-..in four different old houses.

We've never really lived anywhere that I've felt completely at home.

-It's never YOUR house, is it?

-Yeah.

-It's always someone else's house.

They run their own small travel business and now that their two children

have flown the nest, they've been searching for a place to build their

dream home.

We don't need a big house, we don't need a fancy house,

we just need a house that suits our needs.

As I was driving along, this was sort of midsummer,

I just saw a tiny little sign sticking out of a bush

and screeched to a halt, jumped out of the car,

and there it was, plot for sale.

Jason made a remarkable discovery.

This was sort of covered in ivy, wasn't it?

It was like you walk in here like...

"Oh, my God! It's so gorgeous."

You know? It was just going into a storybook.

Up a forgotten set of winding stairs was a plot of a quarter of an acre.

With sea views across the town.

They bought it for £92,000.

After three years of planning applications and amendments,

six tonnes of concrete is finally being pumped up to the site

to form the foundations of their long-awaited dream home.

Right, get your shovel, Sam.

Get plenty of shovels.

Even if it takes us 20 years, we will build a house on this plot.

Yay!

Whatever it takes, we'll do it because this is where we want to be.

It's going to be my little bit of Finland.

So I'm very excited. Can't wait.

The beginning.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

First part of a very long journey.

The rest of it's just going to be easy.

Absolutely easy.

Building a house for less than £100,000 is extremely tough.

Can these first timers prove it can be done?

As a journalist of architecture and design,

I've spent most of my career searching out

the very best buildings in the world.

'While architect Piers Taylor has a reputation for pushing the boundaries

'of what's possible to achieve on budgets large and small.

'This is our opportunity to see what

'Jason and Riikka are attempting to build.

'They are planning a three-bedroom single storey modern house.

'They want a Scandinavian feel, with clean lines and no clutter.'

At first, the entrance appears hidden.

The front door only becomes clear once you enter a glass cube.

On the other side is an enclosed galley style kitchen

with a dining area beyond.

These both look onto an enclosed courtyard at the back of the plot.

The main living area is a separate room at the front

which has a wall of fixed glass to make the most of the sea views.

From here, a corridor leads to two guest bedrooms, a wet room,

then onto a master bedroom, complete with a walk in wardrobe.

'So, will this home be as successful as Jason and Riikka hope?'

Riikka's dream is about trying to create Scandinavian modern architecture.

Seems to me that that's a quite unforgiving mode to take when you are

trying to build extremely low cost.

It looks way ambitious for £100,000.

This is a building that's been designed in isolation from the site.

You open a gate on the street that effectively is their front door,

but then you go up this long winding path and then instead of the view

being revealed to you, there's another layer of stuff to get into the house.

Every bit of glass is sealed,

except for these narrow little conventional patio doors that don't belong.

When I think of the classic Modernist idiom of building on a hillside,

taking in a view, it's all about that surface just folding away and you're

continuously living inside and outside,

enjoying the landscape and having your house as part of that.

This is totally denying them that opportunity.

They want something extraordinary.

This isn't going to be it, but actually, we can help them get it.

Jason and Riikka expects to finish their house in less than 12 months

and Jason is building the entire thing himself.

How are you doing? Nice to meet you. Riikka?

-Yes.

-And Jason.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Piers, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too. So, look at this.

Piers wants to start by saving them a lot of time and money

on how people arrive at their home.

For me, this is an amazing house, an amazing site,

and it is nothing like the house next door,

where they have a very recognisable front door.

This is the way into the building and the house,

so this is the front door...

-Yep.

-And you will buzz people in here.

Sure, yeah. Yeah.

This is such an unusual and special way

to arrive at a building, and then...

..you do it all over again when you get here.

-Yeah.

-That doesn't seem to me to make sense.

No. Yeah, it's definitely food for thought.

Not taking advantage of the natural landscape of this site is completely

at odds with the reason Jason and Riikka fell in love with the plot in the first place.

Now, inside the building,

Piers wants to interrogate the pair on more design decisions.

This entire area is all open-plan

and the whole front of that bay is glass from floor to ceiling.

This will get potentially quite hot here in the summer.

The whole front of the house where all this glass potentially sits

is going to have a canopy over anyway.

So the immediate direct sunlight is not going to penetrate through.

What I'm planning on doing is on this wall that separates the main lounge

and the kitchen, I'm going to put a discrete air-conditioning unit,

because there's so much glass in that area,

we have an area of the house where, you know,

we can cool that down as we need to.

Why wouldn't you design it so you didn't need an air-conditioning unit?

If I could do one thing, it would be try to persuade you

not to use an air-conditioning unit.

The words go through me.

LAUGHTER

Yeah.

A first principle in designing a home

is considering the movement of the sun.

Building a new home in Britain that needs air-conditioning is crazy.

Especially on a low cost home.

The complexity here is enormous.

I can tell you right now, if I saw these drawings and they were priced by a contractor,

I would say that this would be about two grand a square metre.

450 grand.

That's the lower end of domestic bespoke.

They have made a classic mistake of adding complexity to their design

instead of taking it away.

Piers must try and get them to simplify this building.

My first question,

why do you need such a lot of devices to get you into the house?

There's one wall that stops you seeing past there, there's another lobby,

and then there's another lobby again.

And then you're into the house.

That seems to me to be quite complicated.

I think that's going to be a nice feature.

I think it's going to be an unusual feature and I think especially at

night, we are going to do hopefully some quite...

-Funky lighting.

-Funky light system in there,

perhaps from the floor up into the glass.

That's not really so much part of an entrance to the house,

more of a feature of the house.

Piers' first key suggestion would make the arrival of the building

far more simple.

Removing the glazed block from the outside makes it more

understated and less gimmicky.

Adding features like these costs thousands and takes time.

The only thing they should be adding is flexibility.

You talk a lot about open-plan, but here's a wall, here's a wall,

why wouldn't you actually just take that wall out?

-Um...

-I guess I was trying to make that more open-plan than it is.

You are stuck at the back and actually, you know,

the view and aspect is that way.

The fixed west-facing glass worries me.

I want you to be able to use all of the site as easily as possible.

Would you not want to be able to open up those ones?

It would be a nice feature.

That's where the sun, you know, comes in there, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-And that'll be an amazing kind of sun trap.

To be able to really genuinely extend your living area out that way...

-It's something to be looked at.

-I'm probing at every bit of this...

-Yeah, sure.

-It's a little bit uncomfortable in some ways,

it's essential really to interrogate every bit of the building.

Piers wants Jason and Riikka to reconsider the layout

of the main living spaces and how they're connected.

Making the building more open-plan

means it'll be far more flexible to live in.

It also means the view can be enjoyed whilst cooking.

Their plans don't allow the big glass panels to open

and access is limited to two patio-style doors in the middle.

Piers suggests they should change these for ones that slide back,

that will allow the living area to spill out of the doors

and make it more adaptable.

But already, three years into the planning of their home,

getting this pair to make changes now will not be easy.

Unpicking is really hard.

But they've got to do it to make this a really good building.

It's vital we shall Jason and Riikka how simplicity

is the secret to a successful home.

I've managed to get access to one of the country's best homes to do it,

Capel Manor House.

It's one of the best examples in Britain of modernist architecture.

These houses were all about trying to live with the surroundings,

live with the garden.

The foliage, the trees, the flowers and so on, surrounding the site.

Take away as many barriers as possible.

In a way, this is one of the clearest examples

you'll find in Britain and it's Grade 2-star listed,

a real part of our heritage now.

Modernism became the most important architectural style

of the 20th century.

It was brought to Britain by European migrants in the 1930s and '40s.

The thing that strikes me is just how simple this building is.

It's incredibly straightforward.

Just a rectangle of glass on a steel frame.

I thought the house we're building had a lot of glass, but wow!

This is all glass, isn't it?

Modernist architects in the first half of the 20th century

used new materials to reinvent what architecture could be.

Steel, concrete and glass were often used to create

strong geometric shapes.

Michael Manser was a British pioneer who designed

many great modernist houses during his long and distinguished career,

including this one in 1971.

'Jason and Riikka could learn huge amounts

'from the simple flexibility on show here.'

This glass facade is just a single skin

and you go directly from the landscape inside the house.

Why is your building so complicated to get into?

Because I love this directness.

Our building, it can't be seen from anywhere.

All there is is this little gate by the road.

And as you go up that gate, you twist and wind up a path,

when you get to the top, all you can see really is a massive wall.

And a little doorway leading into the house.

So it kind of keeps you guessing.

It's a very different concept to this house.

-So, you want that sense of mystery.

-Yeah, that sense of mystery.

It's a nice idea, but in a house this simple,

everything becomes really clear.

Whether your windows are big or small,

take time to consider how you can make the most of them.

If you get that right, your enjoyment of a space can be transformed.

This is a house where views out onto the beautiful garden are constantly

played with through changes of level

and the inventive placement of furniture.

The timber ceiling continues through to the overhang outside

and on the floor, one precisely laid tile floor

runs across all boundaries.

Investing time and money on these key elements

has made this building feel larger, more simple,

and brings the garden in as part of the experience of the interior.

The current owners of this home love it so much that they commissioned a

21st-century take on Manser's classic.

They have had another single storey glass-fronted pavilion

built within the grounds.

-It's fantastic.

-It's so simple, isn't it, and clear,

-the way it's designed?

-I think it's stunning.

I think it's absolutely stunning.

With a zinc roof and poured concrete walls,

architect Euan Cameron has designed a sleek, modern relation.

Views across the garden are interrupted.

The bathrooms use opaque glass to maintain privacy...

But it's the sliding doors

opening straight onto the terrace from the bedroom

that I want them to experience.

It's a sunny day, and you sort of get up,

walk straight out of this beautiful facade and you are into the terrace.

I love how here the floor material is the same.

There's no threshold at all.

The threshold's level.

Imagine being in a room like this during the winter.

You can really experience all of that.

You can be indoors,

nice and snug and dry

but you can kind of still almost feel like you're

exposed to the elements.

Riikka appears sold on the benefits of sliding glass

but Jason is still to be convinced.

Very clever, isn't it, because if you look over there,

you see directly out into the garden with no frame at all.

The glass for them is the critical component of the build.

If they can get the glass right,

it's going to be a fantastic place to live.

If they get it wrong, there's a real risk that they'll just be in a kind

of semi-goldfish bowl arrangement,

they'll never be able to enjoy the outside and never be able to enjoy

the potential of that fantastic location.

So it really is important for them.

It's been a long ten months since Jason put the foundations in

and only now are the first signs of the structure starting to appear.

Perfect.

It's taken a while, but the blocks and steels that will form this

modern home, are now all on site.

This is a dream that I've harboured for a long time.

When I was a little boy, I actually found out my dad,

he'd actually done a very rare thing in those days,

he'd bought the land and he'd bought the plans of a house he'd like to put on there.

And then he hired the contractors in to do the work.

It planted a seed all those years ago and that stayed with me.

As a child, I thought, this is our home, this truly is our home.

No-one else has ever lived here. This is our family home.

With his childhood dream becoming a reality,

Jason is focusing on the build.

You got four two?

Good, good. It's looking good.

While Riikka looks after the family business,

a travel company that promotes the UK

as a holiday destination to Scandinavians.

I can't afford to take the train.

The train is too expensive.

3:40, I have to be in my car from Torquay

to be in the office for about 8:15 in the morning.

You know, I won't be home until midnight, gone midnight, perhaps.

It's not ideal but it's what needs to be done.

I wouldn't want to be in Jason's shoes.

I can only imagine how stressful it is for him

because he knows that it's kind of up to him to get the house built.

Now, at least six months behind schedule,

winter is coming, and for Jason,

his first self build is just getting harder and harder.

Here we go again.

I spend so long, so many sleepless nights, planning all this stuff,

but you just never know what's round the corner.

With those steps, I sometimes wonder how many times in my life I'm going

to be going up and down them.

How many times I will have gone up and down them.

It's got to be a few thousand already.

And just when he needs to be on site the most,

he can't even leave his rental flat.

I just went down on Monday morning, first concrete block I picked up,

I picked up...

with my back slightly twisted as I picked it, and that was it.

Felt like I got shot in the back.

I knew I'd put my back out and that was that.

So I'm just recuperating now and very annoyed about it.

It's the worst-case scenario for any self builder.

With Jason injured, all works draw to a halt.

In an ideal world, we should have done this when we were in our late 20s

but who's got the money to do that?

Riikka has had enough of the daily commute and sleeping on friends' sofas,

so has made the permanent move to London, staying on a houseboat.

I didn't get married not to spend time with my husband.

It's kind of getting to me now and I do miss him.

I miss him so much. You know, so...

Yeah, it's not ideal.

It's January 2015 and Jason back on site.

Here comes the rain.

But this time he's not alone.

This year, I probably am going to pay for more labour because I've

achieved so much on my own and now it's about speed.

I need to get the house built, I need to get it finished.

It's going to be all hands to the pump really

to get it up and get it done.

Now, the build can move forward,

it'll soon be time to order the bespoke windows

that will dominate the building.

It's our last opportunity to convince Jason to choose panes

that open rather than fixed ones.

But also to find out if he's simplified the building.

Jason is about to spend £20,000, a fifth of his budget, on the glass.

If he gets it wrong, it'll be a nightmare for him.

If they seal up this building, it'll be an environmental disaster.

-Hi, Jason.

-Hello, Piers. How are you doing?

-How are you doing? Very well.

-Good, long time no see.

Absolutely, yeah. Look at this.

-How is it all going?

-Slowly.

More slowly than I'd like.

This is the wall, isn't it?

-It's going to be orange?

-Yeah.

That was going to be orange and we were going to have

the glass block on the entrance there.

Are you still doing that glass...?

It's on hold at the moment.

Removing the glass cube from the outside

is a massive win for this house.

But on the inside,

Jason is still intending to divide the kitchen from the main living space.

The main wall that we are planning is a wall here.

It's not going to be the full length,

it's only going to be about half the length of this area.

-What does that wall do?

-Erm...

Just partmentalises the kitchen...

-Yeah.

-And it also gives us in terms of using the other side of that wall,

a lot more storage space in the kitchen as well.

Having found a plot blessed with an incredible view,

Jason seems happy to lose it in favour of storage.

He still seems to be prioritising the wrong things.

And where are you with the doors and windows?

We are either having solid glass throughout,

or we are going to go for bifold.

How do you deal with solar gain?

Has there been an environmental model?

Because the direct solar gain in here will be immense.

Mm. Probably will be actually.

In an ideal world, wouldn't you open all of it?

Wouldn't you just be able to meander outside, you know, all the time?

-If this is sealed, I wonder whether you will ever go out there.

-Mm.

Riikka was already sold on the sliding glass but has today's site

visit from Piers helped finally convince Jason?

Do you reckon you are going to do this?

Makes perfect sense.

A huge part of the house is glass, having come this far,

I couldn't bear the looking at a certain piece of glass or a door and

going, "Not right."

It's really good to see Jason understand that his living area

isn't just a small living room, it's actually part of the outside.

It's a decision that will be an enormous benefit to this building.

Now Jason must press on with the order.

But every calculation, measurement and detail must be right.

The stress he is under is enormous.

He's done the measuring.

They are custom made.

They are very expensive.

When they turn up, if they don't fit,

there's only one person to blame.

From the earliest designs for this building,

it was all about the glass.

The momentous day of fitting has finally arrived.

Jason has left nothing to chance.

We've actually take in four sets of measurements,

so if they are wrong now, I give up.

The delivery is right on time, along with some challenging weather.

The wind is blowing at about 35 knots.

Not exactly an ideal day for handling huge panes of glass.

It's an awful lot of money, balancing very high on a lorry.

Right up against that one.

A little bit, little bit.

Right on the kerb, yeah?

Marvellous.

Jason and Riikka have spent £18,000 to buy the very best glass

for the windows and doors they can afford.

A bit more this way.

19 enormous individual components of high-performance glass encased in

sleek precision aluminium frames are craned through the sky.

Jason can barely watch.

As the bad weather closes in, Jason swiftly directs operations.

That is the back door over here.

With each window costing almost £1,000,

it's critical everything is handled with the utmost care.

SLIGHT BANG

-The frame facing on the floor as well, isn't it?

-All right.

With all the windows on the site,

stage one is complete and the team can breathe a huge sigh of relief.

SIGNIFICANT BANG

-Oh...

-BLEEP!

The window's gone.

A sudden gust of wind has sent a window crashing to the ground.

-And it's on the

-BLEEP

-frame.

With the corner of the casing damaged,

the entire window must now be replaced.

Don't believe it.

That is a grand's worth of window...

and a three-month wait for a new one.

A critical £1,000 lost.

But Jason must remain focused on the task in hand.

First one going in. At least I measured this one right.

But there appears to be a problem.

Jason's measurements are perfect but for a different type of frame.

They are 20 mil difference, obviously ten mil each side.

And I've measured that door over there from aluminium to aluminium

and you've got five mil each side.

Despite Jason's impeccable attention to detail, they don't fit.

It's like they've designed the windows to go really flush into something.

-Yes. Like we said, maybe cladded or something.

-Mm.

The windows sent from the supplier didn't have

the edging strips Jason was expecting.

I just can't believe this.

I absolutely can't believe it.

The wooden part of the frame is actually going to be past

the outer leaf of the building.

There's nothing to actually render up to.

The preparation, the checking, the double-checking, the triple checking,

it's madness.

Just feel sick, absolutely sick.

I couldn't have done any more,

I couldn't have worked harder to get where we are, and for this...

This just major cock up is...

OBJECT RATTLES

It's just a disaster.

It's ripping on corners, that's the issue.

This problem won't get resolved today.

Jason has no option but to quickly protect the windows from the elements...

Grab that, you got it there?

..and close the site.

You work so hard, you absolutely check, double-check,

triple check everything is right.

Been one of the worst days of my life, if I'm honest.

It's the last thing the project needed.

Piers has built his own home and is only too familiar

with the pressure of self builds.

And crucially, how to solve problems.

What solutions will he have that might help Jason

to start seeing light at the end of the tunnel?

-Hi, Piers.

-Hey, Kieran. How are you doing?

-Great to see you.

Yeah, yeah, really well.

Poor Jason and Riikka.

I mean, it's really a disastrous turn of events for Jason

and I feel for him so much.

He's so careful,

he's spent so many years on his own on that site

and now this problem with the windows.

Jason, he expects to be able to control everything.

Somehow, it hasn't worked.

It doesn't fit. Jason has his own battle to fight with the windows

but I still think there are things that we can do to help them

and the key thing is simplifying the construction.

There's stuff that he can do himself,

self finish materials and techniques that make the building

simple to put together, and I'm really interested in that

because that's the language of contemporary buildings as well.

It's May 2016, well into the third year of this build.

After closing the site for two months and waiting three months for new window casings,

Jason and Riikka's home is finally watertight.

They are all in, they are all sealed, and they are looking fantastic, so,

yeah, very, very pleased with those.

A solution has been found between the architect and the suppliers.

Each window frame has been fitted with an edging strip.

This has cost Jason more valuable time to fit

but luckily only a small material cost.

It hasn't done a lot for my back or my knees, or my hips,

but we are getting there.

With the windows all in,

Jason can finally turn his attention to the interior.

We had the debate earlier in the year with Piers

about this particular internal wall that we were having here.

Squaring off the kitchen and I'm very pleased to say Piers was 100%

correct because I think if we would have put the wall in,

it would have been an absolute disaster.

We would have lost so much of the open-plan

and so much of the view from everywhere.

That was absolutely great.

Really, really chuffed we did that.

This is a great win for simplicity in this modern house.

It is now vital Piers and I help Jason and Riikka

to make the most of the open-plan space they will now have.

Piers is back in Devon,

looking for materials that could provide a stunning low-cost backdrop

to the couple's Scandinavian interior.

I'm in a fish market in Brixham, on the south coast, near Torquay.

I love places like this because they are really working places and they

need to use materials that are really robust.

White, glossy plastic cladding is the material of choice

in places like this.

Wipe clean and hygienic,

it's used in fish markets and commercial kitchens

up and down the land.

Jason and Riikka talk about making a modern building

but a modern building isn't just a question of what colour you paint the wall.

I think you could use this material to make a really super slick,

super contemporary interior.

Piers has tracked down the firm who fitted out the fish market.

Will Jason and Riikka be convinced to use it too?

So, this might not look much but this material is really versatile.

Beautiful, white, gloss.

You can see that you can do your kitchen, you could do the walls,

you could do the reveals.

It's very, very versatile.

Yeah, that would make a phenomenal backing for the main island as well.

This would be great as an island.

You can weld the seams.

So you don't even see the seams.

-Oh, really?

-All right.

The attraction for me is that this banishes wet trade,

don't like plaster, don't like paint, you know.

Self finish materials that go straight on and

don't need any finishing for me are the future.

-Looks great.

-The million-dollar question is is it expensive?

It's about 24 quid a sheet.

-OK.

-Right.

-But doesn't need any finishing.

Really hygienic, very durable.

And effectively lasts forever.

But will a material used in a fish market

really be what Jason and Riikka had in mind

for their Scandinavian-inspired home?

Back at the house, Piers is keen to see if the cladding could be used

creatively in other areas.

If we are talking about using a material to bind the house together,

I wonder where else you could use it

-and I think this feels like a wet room.

-Yes, it is.

-It is.

And what's going on the walls in here?

The actual finish is undecided.

Could be white gloss.

-Could be.

-White gloss wet room.

-Everything white gloss.

-Save a lot on tiles.

-Exactly.

-Yeah, absolutely.

Save a lot on tiles.

What is best about this material is that it isn't just a finish,

it's a really modern material that is able to be fixed

with minimal mess, minimal fuss in a really time efficient way.

It's a very clever use of materials

because it's something that Jason can do himself.

After a series of delays and injuries,

the priority now for Jason has to be getting the house finished,

with minimal effort and cost.

Every day, I see big difference in the house.

I've got to that stage where I'm kind of jumping out of bed

instead of trying to drag myself out of bed.

Piers has given Jason a much-needed boost.

Back in London, Riikka is starting to believe the end could be in sight.

Now that there's actual walls in there and there's actually a roof

and you can get a sense of the height of the rooms

and kind of the actual space you've got to play with,

we both agree we want everything to be kind of minimalistic, you know,

and not an awful lot of clutter.

But on the outside of the house,

there are still design problems to be solved.

The soffit cladding for the section all around the house that's going to

house the downlighters, is a huge visual feature on the house

and something that I've given so much thought about,

the canopy catches your eye when you're inside but before you see the

underside of the canopy, the soffit,

you see these beautiful Danish window frames we've got

that are a Scandinavian pine.

Hopefully, it's going to have the desired effect.

For Riikka, the seemingly effortless, simple,

Scandinavian home she dreams of is a far cry from her current digs.

We've done nothing here.

The only thing that ours is the rug.

This is not how I fathom my house to look.

Jason and Riikka have been really in the trenches with their build.

They've been struggling hard and having some real setbacks along the way.

But I want to talk about how we can reanimate this process,

inspire them again about architecture.

I believe that Scandinavian design is not something

you can buy or copy from a show home.

It's about a culture and a way of living.

So I've brought Jason and Riikka to Denmark to try to find some real

examples of what I think they mean by Scandinavian design.

One hour from Copenhagen, amongst lakes and forests,

I've uncovered some stunning examples of low-cost summerhouses.

We are most used, perhaps, to seeing Scandinavian design in style magazines

and in fancy glossy photos,

but I think it's in a birch forest where you're going to understand best

where the roots of Scandinavian design really are.

-Wow!

-That is stunning.

It's a lovely little clearing, isn't it?

-Yes.

-A wonderful setting for a house.

The whole Scandinavian design ethos

is based on a relationship with nature.

You've got that wall of glass and you just see how they live

-continuously with this beautiful landscape.

-Yeah.

-It's like living in the forest.

-Absolutely.

There's something very powerful about that.

It's a rainy day to see a summer house,

-so I want to take you closer to the building and show you something else.

-OK.

'This is a summer house designed by Danish architect, Michael Christensen.

'At 64 square metres, it's a small building.

'But by extending a canopy above the terrace,

'it increases the footprint and provide shelter from rain or shade from the sun.'

This overhang is rather beautifully done and shading a fully glazed

facade is a good thing to do for solar gain, for views, transparency,

and you are doing that. It achieves a lot with very little.

These timber battens, and a plastic roof, it's very beautiful actually.

And it couldn't be simpler.

It's the sort of thing you would never think of doing in a million years

but to actually see it up there, it's an amazing effect.

And it completely fits this landscape.

You are just surrounded by wood.

By one material. It's very, very powerful.

'Scandinavian style tends to use natural materials and colours,

'which makes modern spaces feel homely.'

Here there are low-cost pine floors,

walls and ceilings painted white

and simple white furnishings make it look bright and modern.

It also importantly doesn't detract from the landscape beyond,

which remains the focal point.

Deeper into the birch forest is another summerhouse.

Mikael and his wife Sara Martinson built and designed barn house cabin as a retreat.

The total cost was £67,000.

The red cedar cladding and industrial metal roof makes an unfussy,

carefully composed building.

A theme that's continued inside.

So, this is a super simple open airy calm space.

For me, this is what I mean by Scandinavian interior.

Is it what you mean by Scandinavian interior?

Yeah. Uncluttered, very simple.

Nowhere really for dust to gather.

But the thing that for me is most important about this interior

is the way the outside is part of the interior.

-Absolutely.

-The forest here, it is a fantastic view, isn't it?

Yes, absolutely beautiful.

It's not a very big building but you get a huge feeling of space inside.

It's absolutely fantastic.

And that feeling of space is no coincidence.

It's down to the right choice of materials.

It's timber, it's glass, it's the steel, and that's about it.

Jason and Riikka have made their home more open-plan.

This house defines areas subtly.

I love this little sort of snug area.

Just shows what you can do with furniture.

Even though it's open-plan, you've definitely got a defined living room.

You're thinking about opening up your interior more, aren't you?

And I think you could do a lot with what you choose to put in it.

To create spaces, not just with walls.

Yeah, absolutely. Now that we've made the decision

of getting rid of the wall between the kitchen and living space,

it all flows nicely from one space to the other.

The natural landscape outside is reflected inside

by using natural materials for furnishings.

Here, oak floors are matched with pale wooden furniture.

Scandinavian designers then accessorise with earthy tones -

greys, blues and browns.

The result is beautifully tuned,

feels lived in, and is not expensive.

One of the things people think about Scandinavian design

is that it is all about modern pieces.

But I love this old radio and the upcycled furniture

and the sense that sort of old wine crates might be used as bookshelves.

And even the art, which is a kind of collage of old pieces of timber from

the designer's own work.

Everything here has a story to do with the family who lives here

and that is what gives it a sense of homeliness.

There are other great low-cost ideas on show.

This flatpack sideboard has been upholstered in second-hand fabrics.

And in the bathroom,

the cabinet has been made from offcuts left from the kitchen cupboards.

If you took one thing away from seeing an interior like this,

it's that sense that it's about things you can see

and identify what they are, it's colours that are calm and muted, very few materials,

usually natural materials,

which is what Scandinavian design achieves so often.

Every Scandinavian country has a great design heritage,

but it was the Danes who have perhaps become best known across the world

as pioneers of mid-century modern furniture.

On the outskirts of Copenhagen is an enormous warehouse

filled with world renowned Danish classics.

I think it's quite amazing to see all this stuff in just one place.

It's like Indiana Jones or something.

-Yes.

-A big cave of stuff.

I want to take Riikka on a trip down memory lane.

Look. There's a Lokki.

-I remember that from your mum's flat, yeah.

-Yeah.

And show them how they could use furniture to really bring

their open-plan space to life.

I really wanted to bring you to a shop and not a museum

because for me, design is not about something that should be on a plinth and never used.

It's about the democracy of this kind of design,

modernism was for the people.

I love this chair.

This chair is just so cool.

This is just such a wonderful piece, isn't it?

-This famous Arne Jacobsen chair must be one of the most imitated chairs in the history of design.

-Yes.

But there's nothing like the classic.

It's very cool.

When I was a kid in the '70s,

some of the designs of some of the chairs I've seen here

were all the rage and they were called G Plan.

G Plan, of course, was a direct copy of Danish design.

-Was it?

-Oh, really?

There were a series of companies in Britain in the '50s and '60s which

copied the Danish design coming out in the '40s and '50s.

We are really here are the kind of wellspring

of that post-war design ethos.

Modern pieces like these have characteristic lightweight sweeping shapes.

Quality materials such as walnut,

rosewood and teak were then finished in fabrics

inspired by colours found in nature.

Some of my favourite pieces are these beautiful dining chairs.

Designed by Hans Wegner.

I think one of the things we learned from modernist furniture is how deployable and flexible it can be.

I mean, this kind of furniture

obviously is beautifully designed to fold and configure itself differently,

but you could do the same thing with a couple of trestles and a beautiful piece of timber on the top.

Consider investing in a design classic that could define a room,

rather than filling spaces with a generic suite of furniture.

There's one piece I really wanted to show you.

This beautiful sofa, which is an absolute Danish classic.

I've never seen this before.

-Have you not?

-It's gorgeous.

So, this is by a designer called Boyer Mogensen.

And he designed this in 1945.

So, can you imagine the war has just finished,

the occupation of Denmark has just ended,

this piece is in a way for me like somebody imagining a new kind of

lifestyle, a new way of living.

It's about relaxing, it's about lounging.

Feels kind of quite private and intimate,

-if there is two of you.

-It's very cosy.

-Isn't it?

-I've just noticed how that works.

Yeah. Isn't this great? More comfy seat, Riikka?

Ah!

Oh, that's so cool. I've got to test this.

-This is so cool.

-How good is that?

It's playful.

I love this sofa.

I really hope this trip to Denmark

has crystallised some broader ideas for Jason and Riikka

that can influence their new home.

Up until now, it's all been about building

and it's all been about construction

but now we're the point where we have to think about

what we are going to put in house.

Hopefully these houses and furnishings have given them a big push in the right direction

but this build is in a critical stage.

We need to help them bring together some of these big ideas and ensure

they make it into the final design.

Kieran has really raised the bar with this one

and shown Jason and Riikka some extraordinary Scandinavian furniture.

And really got them to think about how they're going to use the house,

how they're going to live in it.

The critical thing for me now is to translate that into a reality

that is affordable and achievable.

Piers must come up with one final idea that makes the most of this space.

And this feels ready for furniture.

-Yes.

-Indeed.

In an ideal world, what else would you do in here?

What I don't want is this conventional lounge set-up

where you've got a sofa and a coffee table and then the television

is focal point of the room. I don't want that.

So any suggestions that gets us away from that are very welcome.

Adding a set of sofas and chairs into this space

that are focused on a television

would quickly shift the focal point away from the view.

I wonder about building something very low that came along here,

possibly turned the corner there,

but allowed you to sit over here and look at the view that way

and allowed the TV not to dominate the wall.

-Yeah.

-I like that idea a lot.

Yeah, absolutely.

Piers wants to use the sweeping shapes Jason and Riikka loved in Denmark,

a simple platform made out of light-coloured timber

could be done for as little as £200 of materials.

I don't think it can be just a regular corner thing,

it's got to be a bit more...

It's much more interesting if it's a little...

-Yeah.

-And it's more ambiguous.

Two people can sit there.

One person can sit there and look at the view that way.

And then I think you use colour for the cushions,

which can be really fun.

In Copenhagen, what I really liked in there

was that lots of the colours that they had used

were very, sort of, earthy colours.

And I thought in that particular environment, it was very nice.

I think this will look better than a three-and-a-half grand sofa.

This house has a fantastic site

and it's really taken its toll on Jason and Riikka.

There have been a number of setbacks.

To come here today and finally see something

close to a finished building, is brilliant.

This project has pushed Jason to the absolute limit.

Now, with his eye on the finish line,

he must stay calm for one final push.

Right. This is deadly serious.

It's a big floor.

Jason has spent £6,000 on his floor.

136 square metres of tiles need to be laid through the entire building.

It has to be millimetre perfect.

The problem is we've got a ten-metre line

running right the way down the whole length of the building.

If it bends slightly, you'll see it a mile away.

The effect of these tiles is critical to the final finish.

We are about a millimetre or so out on that tile.

About four mil to the right.

Some gentle persuasion is needed to get the lines just so.

Two, three.

-And again.

-Two, three.

-One more, I'd say.

-Two, three.

That's better.

The actual building is coming together really quickly now.

It's got to be right, so if we need to go the extra mile then we will.

Jason has strived for perfection

but will the result meet his exacting standards?

The whole thing went an awful lot then.

From the very beginning, this build has taken a huge toll on the couple.

And after three years of planning, then three long years of building,

it's taken a very long time, too.

This has to have been one of the longest-running and most ambitious builds we've ever featured.

It's almost broken Jason and Riikka.

At times it looked like it might never be finished.

Today, we are back to see what the final house looks like

and to find out how much it cost.

After so much debate over how the house sits on the site...

Hi, Jason. Hi, Riikka.

..and what tricks are used to get you in the door,

I'm keen to see how it feels to arrive at their home today.

We are so excited to be here after all this time.

And we are also very excited to be here.

Have you solved this issue of how to arrive at your house

in a beautiful, elegant, lovely way?

I just used to see this as the back gate to the house, really.

But now, this is the main entrance to the house.

This is where the journey begins.

-I think we need to cross over your threshold and have a look.

-Great, let's go.

The existing landscaping creates a sense of anticipation

for what's to come.

For Jason, it's a well trodden path.

Jason, how many times do you think you've been up and down these?

Do you know, conservative estimate,

-I'd say about 1,000 at least.

-More!

As you reach the top, the building reveals itself.

They've ended up with a simple, understated, modern pavilion.

It's quite subtle, isn't it?

Really subtle. We can see that it doesn't have

-the big orange wall and glass box.

-Yeah.

Which felt like they were things that you needed to add to make it

interesting but actually, the house is something that didn't need to be

made interesting, because of course, it's all about this, isn't it?

All those years ago when we first made that journey up those steps,

we just fell in love with this plot.

It just had a magic feeling to us.

Old stone unearthed through the build

has been carefully reworked and links the site's past with the present.

I love the way that this stone feels like it's part of the retaining wall,

a heavy thing on the hillside, anchoring the building.

And then over here, we've got the render,

this sharp modern material which is so crisp, frames the view, of course,

and makes it feel a bit more like that kind of Scandinavian modern feeling

that I know you are interested in.

I can imagine when the landscaping is grown-up,

this is a building that will almost disappear,

it really will feel part of its site.

Today, this is almost the colour of the sky.

It's hard to tell where the building stops and the sky begins.

The simplified outside with its mix of white render and stonework

helps the building feel perfectly at home in this landscape.

I can't wait to go in.

But it's the inside and its relationship with that view that we are desperate to see.

-This is amazing!

-It's just fantastic.

This whole space just feels so open and generous and big.

Walls intended to divide off the kitchen have gone,

allowing the view to be the focal point of the whole building.

We felt that we needed to partition off the kitchen

because somehow in our minds, that wasn't part of the living space.

Then Piers didn't agree at all.

To have had a wall there would have been terrible.

-It would have been.

-You were absolutely right.

I think it's partly that cooking is a sociable activity

and standing here, cooking, talking to people and looking at the view, it's like,

why wouldn't you do that?

All areas feel connected, thanks to their material choices

and Jason's incredible attention to detail.

The kitchen units match the colour of the walls and the wood grain

in the worktops runs the same way as the tiles.

But you had had this kitchen wall here,

you wouldn't have been able to see this brilliant view.

This was a big chunk of your budget.

-Huge chunk, yeah.

-And at one stage it looked like they weren't going to

-fit at all.

-I'll never forget that moment.

It was horrific. When we fitted the first frame,

the finish on the edge of the frame

was different to what I was expecting

and to be fair, what my architect was expecting as well.

The only stage of the build that I burst into tears.

Jason and Riikka managed to work through the devastating problems

with the windows, and the payoff today is extraordinary.

A lot of people will build a house for £100,000 and spent £5,000 on the

windows and £25,000 on the kitchen but you've probably spent about

£5,000 on your kitchen and £20,000 on your windows,

which is the right way round.

-Can you show us how they open?

-Yeah, sure.

So, it's a handle either side.

Designing a modern home with windows that don't open is something

Piers and I have challenged since day one.

It may sound simple but it radically improves the experience of living in

this home and extends the living spaces outside.

I really enjoy this overhang and how it's all coming together.

We saw in Denmark at the summerhouse the way an overhang can create a

kind of inhabitable edge to the building.

I was so keen to ensure that as you look out of the window through these

beautiful frames, the soffit continued that same theme.

It's really interesting, Jason, to hear you talk like a designer.

They are tiny details but most people wouldn't be considering the

relationship of this soffit to the window frames.

I think it's kind of job done,

you're trading stories about details with Piers.

You're a designer as well as somebody who makes things

-and you should be really proud of that.

-Thanks very much.

A simple low bench made out of a couple of big sheets of plywood fills the space.

It's adaptable and simple.

It's interesting that people think about architecture and furniture as

separate things but actually, they are all part of the same thing.

Custom-made furniture is a really good way of making the most

out of every inch of your home.

Lots of people will design a house, design a building,

and then go and buy furniture.

But actually getting a piece of furniture made needn't be expensive.

It's a great place to relax in the view and in the centre of the room,

Riikka has allowed herself one statement Scandi design piece.

Some things were non-negotiable.

Go and sit in it.

You forget completely that this is an unbelievably low-cost house

that was made for very little money, all by you, Jason.

And to this very high level.

It's really exciting for us to find a low-cost house

that lives up to the highest expectations of design and could be in a design magazine tomorrow

with no problem at all.

The open-plan space is a triumph.

Somehow, Jason has found the time and energy

to apply a high-end finish to every part.

The tiled floor sweeps through, making the whole space feel bigger.

It leads the eye through the two guest bedrooms,

the master bedroom with walk-in wardrobe...

..and the generously proportioned wet room.

Jason chose tiles, not the cladding from the fish market,

but he did use it in the kitchen.

It works really well, doesn't it?

Yeah, it was an absolutely perfect fit for the back of the unit.

Something like that in another material would have cost a fortune

-because it's such a long expanse.

-Yeah.

The real design trick though, having removed that dividing wall,

is in disguising this kitchen so it doesn't dominate the room.

Although your units are off the peg,

what works so well here is the way you've considered

how they are going to work in this space.

The fronts have no handles,

which is great because of course they would be clutter.

These wall units feel like a beautiful bit of furniture just put on the wall.

I love the way it's so intentional

that the top becomes the window sill.

And there's a beautiful solid bit of slate that you've let in that's the

same height as the worktop and the window frame.

I mean, it's so considered, so deliberate, and so well judged.

We as professional designers and architects struggle to make things this consistent sometimes

but here you are, building the house,

and designing it on the hoof, and yet everything looks so deliberate.

Great. Thanks very much.

This house is testament to Jason's countless hours of work and even when apart,

the emotional support they've given each other.

You both made quite a lot of sacrifices to make this project happen.

Neither of us understood the enormity of the task ahead.

We've lived in rented accommodation for the last 18-24 months,

we've spent most of the time apart, but I am very,

very much looking forward to living like other married people live.

Wake up in the morning in the same bed and have breakfast together and go to work and things that.

So I really look forward to that.

This is so inspiring for self builders in so many ways.

It isn't just a little bit of Scandinavian design applied to an English house.

This really is full of light, full of space, full of quality,

full of joy, and full of life.

And the result is extraordinary.

So, after such an incredible investment, physically and emotionally,

financially, what has this dream home by the sea actually cost?

Tell me how much you have budgeted to make this building

and how much you've spent in the end.

We got a staged mortgage for £100,000.

We are 96% complete on the building

and the mortgage currently sits at £92,000.

That's amazing. That is amazing.

So it really is a £100,000 house.

-It is, yeah.

-That's astonishing.

We would not be able to live in this kind of a house,

we would not be able to go and buy a house of this calibre ever

with the financial resources that we have.

The only investment is your time really.

You will never get this level of finish if you don't do it yourself.

He has been eating and drinking and sleeping this project

for so many years.

His mind is all the way time going, "I can't afford to do that,

"but I want that. How can I get round that?

"How can I get round that in a cheaper manner?"

Yeah, that is very true.

I think what this pair have managed to build for their £100,000 really

pushes the boundaries of what is possible to achieve

with low-cost housing.

I love this opening door and I love this space.

For Jason and Riikka,

this is kind of the realisation of an extraordinary dream.

For Jason, it was about building a house with his own hands,

which is remarkably achieved, and for Riikka,

it was about creating a space and an atmosphere that spoke of where she

came from, and about Scandinavian design values and lifestyles.

I think what they've pulled off is an extraordinary achievement

and one that's a lesson to all self builders.

Yes, they've made extraordinary sacrifices and worked extraordinarily hard,

but it's in the design, in the choices they've made,

where the real genius of this project lies.

Next time, we help Neal and Amanda...

This would be my perfect home.

..attempt a very different house...

Taller, taller, taller.

..on a tiny budget.

Ours is likely poor man's version of this.

But will endless delays...

They've not even started, not even dug a hole.

..and the stress of the build...

The other day I screamed at Neal and said I wish we'd never started this.

..derail their plans?

I think we've just got to start again.

I think they can't build this.

We can't let them.