Episode 4 The £100k House: Tricks of the Trade

Last year, Piers Taylor and me, Kieran Long, brought architectural

expertise and innovative design thinking to self-builders who

were attempting to build a home from scratch for less than £100,000.

-Come on, baby.

-How much money have you got left?

-Er...let me see.

This year, we're bringing our £100,000 House experience to

-people that own a home already...

-It's dilapidated, it's a dump.

..but are desperate to turn it into an extraordinary one.

Whoo!

-They too are on the tightest of budgets.

-We've got £540 left.

We'll challenge them to embrace big ideas.

What you want really is exactly what this place provides.

-And to be more ambitious.

-I don't know.

He's come in and he's torn up the rule book, really.

-But with their life savings at risk...

-The hiccups are coming now.

If the money runs out, I'm left with half a house...

..can the homeowners create the house they've always wanted,

but believed they could never have?

This better fit!

'Tonight, a family trapped in a badly planned bungalow.'

It's not much of an arrival, is it?

'They can't afford to move.'

-This building is stopping you live the way you want to live.

-Yeah.

'And can't afford their plans to change it.'

You've got to change this, cos you don't have enough money to finish.

And a home for a new family is a DIY danger zone.

We just have this one space that we live in.

'But will they be able to decide where to start?'

My first question is why you don't finish this space first?

I so want a lounge.

And will the problems ever end?

If we had a really good storm,

I think the chimney would've come down.

There's increasing pressure to get on the property ladder

as young as you can.

But for many people, that's just not possible.

I'm on my way to High Wycombe to meet Ronnie and Nicky,

who have bought their first house in their 40s

because they've been serving in the Armed Forces.

That means they've been living in staff quarters all of that time.

For 20 years, Ronnie worked for the RAF.

Nicky is also in the forces,

working behind the mic for British Forces Radio.

OK, let's check out some weather, then.

13 degrees in Bastian, 12 in Kandahar and 4 degrees in Kabul.

# Because I'm happy... #

Living all over the world in barracks, tents and MoD houses,

good architecture and design was never part of their lives.

That's where I lived in Kabul, in a shed with no windows.

We've had eight different addresses, or nine different addresses.

The properties we've lived in have all been almost the same design.

You pretty much get the same curtains, the same carpets...

You end up looking at magnolia walls and just thinking...

I want anything but magnolia!

Cheeky head! What's up? A bee?

Two years ago, Ronnie returned to civvy street, so he, Nicky

and their two kids moved into their very first family home...

..a four-bed bungalow in High Wycombe.

There we go, in we go.

Buying late, we're quite behind on the property ladder, if you like.

I've got friends and they're £100,000 or more ahead of us

in paying off their mortgages.

Costing £390,000,

the house was a huge investment.

But it's far from ideal.

I was waiting for that moment, you know, when you see other

people on the telly, where they have that, "Oh, I love it!"

And they start crying.

-But that definitely didn't happen coming in here!

-No!

Almost immediately, they realised the house didn't work for them.

But they were stuck with it.

I think there is an element of feeling trapped.

We couldn't afford to move and solve the problem,

because actually, the amount we saved would be entirely eaten

up by the cost of stamp duty and moving house,

so moving actually would put us in a worse position.

Their only option is to transform the bungalow,

so while saving hard, they had plans drawn up.

The budget is £49,000.

The building work we've got planned is £49,000.

We haven't bought a kitchen, we haven't got a bathroom,

we haven't got any tiling or floor coverings or

anything for decorating or anything like that.

With little building experience and not even enough cash to

complete the interior, Ronnie and Nicky are taking a massive risk.

But they have no choice.

If we don't do it now, then we're never going to do it,

so we've got to go for it.

Make it our for ever home, really.

Ronnie and Nicky will be on an extraordinary learning curve

over the coming months.

I want to understand exactly where they're starting from.

-Hello, Kieran. I'm Ronnie.

-Ronnie - nice to meet you.

-Come on in.

-Great to be here. So this is your grand entrance.

Yes, as you can see, it's pretty tight.

It's not much of an arrival, is it?

I guess when this was built, they would have had the two main

living spaces at the front of the house and maybe

a kitchen at the back and it would have been a two-bedroom bungalow.

Now, I can't even see the back of your house,

it obviously goes back a long way.

This '70s bungalow has been extended at the back, creating a new bedroom,

dining room, lounge and enlarged kitchen, but it had the unfortunate

side effect of placing a dark bathroom at the heart of this home.

-This is the bathroom, here.

-Right, so in pride of place...

We've got this throne room and it's so tight, as well.

Having the toilet facing the front door is a little bit

-unfortunate, isn't it?

-It's embarrassing, really.

Especially with kids. Our postman knows us reasonably well!

Ronnie believes the key to redesigning their home is

moving this bathroom.

It's got to be fixed and that drives all of the drains

-and everything else.

-Yeah. I guess that gets expensive, too.

-Yes.

The biggest chunk of the cost is in the drains and the heating.

But the bathroom move is not the only major drain on their cash.

The current kitchen is a disaster.

-This is Sam.

-Hi, Sam.

-Hello.

-This is Isla.

-Hello.

-And this is my wife, Nicky.

-Hello, hi.

Very nice to meet you.

'So they need a generous space where they can be together as a family.'

It's not a bad size kitchen, but when we have a table,

we like to eat in here together...

-It... We dance around the table the whole time.

-I can see that.

I think for us, we're a quite sociable couple, the kids are always

having their friends here, so we'd love to have that kitchen/dining

room space where they come running in and out of the back doors.

In a way, this building is stopping you living the way you want to live.

Ronnie and Nicky's new plans address both these issues.

Radically, the intention is to move the front door to the

side of the house, converting the existing space into an en-suite.

Another en suite will fill part of the existing kitchen

and the new entrance hallway will face a new,

slightly larger bathroom.

To the rear, the new kitchen-diner will replace the lounge.

It's a huge first project.

The key will be a clear vision of what they want it to look,

but also feel, like.

Tell me a bit more about your taste, the things you love.

I can see the jukebox in the corner there, it's quite an amazing object.

What's most amazing is that it's next to a pretty ordinary sofa...!

It stands out like a sore thumb, but is this your vision?

Is that the stuff you really love?

The materials we haven't really thought of.

Maybe we feature the jukebox into this room...

But it's all pretty open right now in your minds?

-You haven't made any hard and fast decisions, even about the layout?

-No.

'Beginning with so few ideas and little experience could create

'a disaster that costs them every penny of their hard-earned savings.'

I worry that once we start, like most projects,

there's always something that turns up. We just don't know,

so that worries me that we have no contingency.

Nicky is right to be worried.

Moving ahead without enough money to cover a new kitchen or

bathroom fittings is a risky strategy.

I think the biggest challenge for them is paying for,

with their budget, their whole ambition.

They've got to reconfigure this entire house.

All of that sounds like more than 50 grand by anyone's recognition.

I think getting that plan right is going to be a challenge.

With the builders days from starting,

I need to meet with Piers to find a fresh way of reconfiguring

this bungalow into a unique home for the money they have.

You just get the impression it's not a building that's really

addressed any pleasure of any spaces, it's not giving them

any qualities and in fact, it just feels like a rabbit warren -

a whole series of little corridors.

They had a plan done by a designer and that's been a really positive

step for them, but I'm not sure it's really solving their problems.

The building is a rabbit warren at the moment,

but what's interesting about the proposal is that it turns

the house around 90 degrees, which I think is a really good thing.

The problem with this plan is there's still this rabbit

warren to get into this room, which I think is a little bit crazy.

It also seems like three bathrooms in three separate places...

What this needs is to perhaps rationalise the bathrooms.

I'm starting to get to know Ronnie and Nicky

and I think there will be some challenges getting them

to move further away from quite conservative tastes and I think

that's partly because they've always lived in rental accommodation.

It sounds like they need to be taken to the edges of their comfort zone.

Piers needs to explain to Ronnie and Nicky why their current plan is

so expensive and how he feels it can work better and cost less to build.

Hi, Nicky - how're you doing?

What's strange is that you're moving this wet area from here to here

and you're making another corridor and moving walls around,

but you've ended up with something that is very similar.

Their initial design is based on the desire to move the bathroom.

But keeping it in the same place and instead transforming

the house around it could save them enough to finish this project.

Moving bathrooms can cost thousands, so I suspect moving this

bathroom will cost 3,000 or 4,000 quid at the least.

This is the cost of their kitchen, right here, and let's leave it here.

Using Ronnie and Nicky's plan to move the front door

to the side of the house, Piers proposes to keep the bathroom

in place and enlarge it.

He then proposes a radical rethink of the corridors,

removing all the right angles.

This solution will transform their rabbit warren corridors

into interesting spaces and dramatically improve

the flow around the dark centre of this house.

I've tried to make the building more interesting

in that these spaces are more dynamic in my mind than the building

you have at the moment that is these funny, long, dogleg corridors.

I quite like the idea of using the angle you've put there to

-continue it on.

-Is this going to cost more money?

It's no more expensive to have angles.

They make corridors places rather than just routes to get from A to B.

You guys are here to make a really interesting family

home that is different from your neighbours, personalised for you.

I think the sense of fun and informality

that bungalows are about needs to be embraced with spades.

But has Piers pushed them too far too quickly?

See, I'm a little bit nervous to, at this stage, change the plan.

You've got to change this,

-because you don't have enough money to finish.

-We've got to.

I know, but I'm thinking, "My God, what will the builders say?"

They've got a long road ahead. The hard work now begins.

Sitting down and working out how to change a fag packet sketch

into something that is structurally feasible,

constructionally feasible and affordable.

Finalising the plans isn't the only thing that Ronnie

and Nicky have to worry about.

For the duration of the build,

they'll have to move out of the bungalow and into a caravan.

Ronnie has the tricky task of manoeuvring it into place.

Slowly, slowly.

Whoa. Are we jammed?

We've got the caravan in,

but it's stuck between the wall and the shed here.

While the boys wrestle with the caravan, Piers is trying to

work out why Nicky finds it so hard to challenge her builders.

-You're worried about upsetting a builder.

-I am!

I think I'm worried because we've already done the quote

and we're ready to move out and I'm thinking, "Can we fit this

"all in in the time frame that he was hoping to start?"

Here's a woman who's been to Afghanistan and put her life on the line and earned all this money

and you're coming back, "I don't want to upset the builder".

-You're just asking him to do his job.

-Yeah.

But with the builders already on site,

Nicky will soon have to make some pretty big decisions

if they want to create the best home they possibly can.

-There we go.

-Quality building! Oh, my goodness. Look at that.

What else could go wrong?

If the rest of the house is like this, we've got some serious problems.

Ronnie and Nicky are not alone in struggling to modernise a bungalow.

Between the world wars, there was a bungalow building boom.

The origins of the modern-day bungalow are more glamorous

than you might think.

Popular in California and the Hollywood Hills,

where they were homes for movie stars,

single-storey houses were a stylish vision of the future.

By the 1960s and '70s, they were where aspirational Brits could

park their car and relax in the generous rooms.

The defining feature of the bungalow is that it's all on one level.

That's of tremendous benefit. In a building this size,

you've probably got 80 or 90 square metres all on one ground floor.

Compare that to a typical Victorian terrace, two-up,

two-down worker's cottage style, that might be 70 or 80 square metres

on two floors, with a huge staircase taking up a load of space.

And it's not just about internal space - often detached,

but with large front gardens, bungalows afford privacy.

Which allows them large windows that flood rooms with light.

But all that comes at a cost.

Each bungalow uses a lot of land - a precious

and increasingly expensive resource.

Which is why so few are built today.

Ronnie and Nicky have the ambition to transform

a labyrinth of rooms into a home where their family can settle,

but when two families come together under one roof, the challenge is to

create a space that can be the heart of the home

for everyone living there.

Our second project is in Gloucestershire, where a couple's

dream of a beautiful family bungalow is much closer to a DIY nightmare.

Nigel, Kim and her two children have lived together for just over a year.

They first met at a jive dance class two years earlier.

Nige probably made the first move

and I really wasn't interested in another relationship at all.

I definitely didn't impress Kim with my footwork!

We were friends and dance partners for quite a while and then

we finally got together.

At the time, Kim was renting a house with her two young children.

While self-employed engineer Nigel was four years into a DIY

renovation of his three-bed 1970s bungalow.

It is quite slow work, doing it yourself.

You often come home to do some work and don't feel like it.

Just a long, laborious job.

It was a shock, seeing the house for the first time.

It was a building site and it smelt of cement.

There was no home!

But a change in Kim's circumstances brought them together.

My landlord wanted to sell his house, so we needed to be out.

And suddenly I found myself homeless!

The couple turned adversity on its head.

Kim and her children moved in to Nigel's half-built home.

Since then, they've been camping out in one room with

cardboard for carpet and breeze blocks for walls.

We just have this one space that we live in.

Everybody is on top of one another, aren't they?

It's also an accident waiting to happen.

I suppose it isn't very safe, is it?

Now determined to make more of the house usable, they've scrimped

and saved £7,000.

Nigel is planning to take time off work to tackle the project,

but almost every part of the house needs money spending on it.

-£7,000 has got to stretch...

-Quite a long way.

-A long way.

If the money runs out, that's that! We're stuck.

We're in limbo and we need to progress it on.

Finding a clear answer to such an overwhelming

number of problems is an enormous challenge.

It will be up to Piers to guide Nigel and Kim how

and where to spend their precious budget.

But living amongst the chaos

and doing the work themselves can make solutions hard to see.

My major worry here is that this project is drifting.

I think Nigel and Kim are too close to it.

They need to stand back

and think, what's the best way to go about finishing this building?

Nigel and Kim are refusing to see this project as a whole.

Instead, they're choosing to chop it up

into a series of individual rooms.

This room actually works better

if the fireplace and the TV stay over there.

It's more work you're making for yourself to bring it over here,

put it in the corner, it probably doesn't work as well, etc.

Rather than create work in rooms they don't use,

they should look for cost-effective ways to finish the vital

areas of the house they live in all the time.

I get that you're going to be here a long time, I'm not suggesting

you do anything in a half-baked way, but so many things need to happen.

I mean, everything needs to happen. I'd be wanting to finish

other things with those hard-earned pennies.

Piers thinks their £7,000 would be more wisely invested

in the kitchen-diner.

This is the area the family uses most

and where Nigel has done more work.

My first question is why you don't finish this space first?

I think that space we've been in

is a luxury that you almost can't afford to have yet,

because you're here.

This is the bit that, for me,

needs sorting and is actually where the heart of the house is.

Rather than starting on the lounge, Piers wants to present them

with a way to finish the work they've started.

This space for your dining is potentially fantastic.

But living amongst all the chaos, Nigel

and Kim crave more usable space.

So Piers is struggling to convince them.

Seven grand is a big chunk of money and you want to get the most

bang for your buck and that, you can do almost any time.

Even if it took another year, two years to do,

it wouldn't be a disaster.

I so want a lounge!

For so long now, Piers, we've been living in this one space.

Which is why fixed in our head is to do the lounge,

so that we can go in there and go... SHE SIGHS

But I...

I mean, I... You know, it's your house and your decision,

but it has to be an either/or, doesn't it?

I don't know, maybe... I feel that

maybe you need to go and have a little think.

At the moment, I'm not really sure how that went.

I've gone in there and I've really set the cat among the pigeons

because I've debunked this whole notion of doing that front

room first and really, I think it may be too much for them.

Piers's suggestions have thrown all our plans out of the water!

For the minute.

Whichever option we go for in the end, we need to crack on.

HAMMERING

Back in High Wycombe, Ronnie

and Nicky are making great headway with stripping out their bungalow.

Everything at the moment is to do with the build, it's 24/7.

Before we go to bed at night, me

and Ronnie are talking about tiles and doors

and internal doors!

It's all-consuming!

Big projects like this are subject to building control approval

and appropriate structural calculations.

With the bones of the building beginning to be revealed,

builder Billy can start to see what he's actually working with.

With having a look around and seeing it's been a DIY job previously,

we're not sure what we're going to find.

Undeterred, Ronnie has spotted an opportunity to gain extra

space by removing an old chimney breast.

Because we've saved money on the drains, we can take this out,

take the chimney down, which means we can lose this wall

and this wall and this wall

and all of this extra bit becomes part of our en-suite, here.

And it's not just Ronnie who has bathrooms on the brain.

Obviously we don't have a shower in here,

so me and Ronnie are having showers at work

and the kids are sort of going around people's houses.

Ronnie and Nicky are making big sacrifices to

transform their problem bungalow into an amazing family home.

But I'm worried their desire to just get it finished will make them

lose sight of how good it could be.

As a curator at the V&A, my job is to seek out exceptional

and inspirational design and I've come across a bungalow

conversion that I think could really raise their aspirations.

From the front, it's an ordinary bungalow...

But at the rear, it's something else.

This house was designed by the architects Blee Halligan.

The extraordinary addition at the rear has avoided all

the problems that plague Ronnie and Nicky's extension.

A previously dark and oppressive bungalow has been

transformed into an exciting, contemporary family home.

It's a million miles away from the bog-standard design

that the couple are used to.

'This is a real risk, especially for Nicky,

'so she might see this and completely reject it all, thinking

'this is for kind of sophisticates and the 1% and not for me -

'I want to change that opinion on her part.'

So, follow me.

The architects have opened up the original building,

eliminating all corridors.

Wow, look at that!

Instead, they've created a journey from the front door...

..through to the main living area at the back.

This has then been zoned into three simple areas -

kitchen,

dining area

and living space.

My hope is that Ronnie and Nicky will take inspiration from the

big, architectural ideas here and use them in their own renovation.

They've got the lights that we want!

That's exactly the ones we're looking at!

And they've got the blackboard idea, look, which we were thinking of!

I'm interested in little details like that.

Yeah, that's really cute, those little pots.

I think Ronnie and Nicky are kind of enthusiastic,

but they went immediately for fixtures and fittings,

lights, for bits of the kitchen.

I'm not interested in those things, that's just shopping.

I'm interested in how you make a space that creates a life for you,

that's a background to the life you want to live.

Ronnie and Nicky, I can see you're enthusiastic about this,

you found lots of details to enjoy.

Yes, the problem is, you can't just lift this and put it on our house,

so we have to take little ideas and I'm particularly interested...

I don't think you DO have to take the little ideas.

I think we can take the BIG ideas. Look at this place!

Nicky, tell me how you feel, standing in this place.

I love all the little quirky things. I found a nice bread bin!

It's the bread bin that's the problem!

Let's zoom out for a second.

Let's take a look at this beautiful space over here.

Ronnie, sit on that beanbag.

-Tell me how you feel right now.

-This is...

I want to feel relaxed with the family in the kitchen and

dining area - connected, even though we might be doing different things.

I'd like this sort of arrangement where you've got the kitchen

and you've got the dining room where they can be sitting

doing their homework, colouring, whatever.

So what you want really, is exactly what this place provides.

Light, the connection with the outside,

-connection with your family.

-Definitely.

And it all flowing into one sort of...

you know, heart of the home, really.

I think it's been so interesting here with Ronnie and Nicky,

that sense of them coming into a place that clearly

intimidated them, it felt a bit too expensive, a bit much,

perhaps a bit too architectural,

but over time, they came to love it.

They came to understand just what it did for the people who live here.

How it presents a wonderful background to family life.

It's just the same as what they want,

just in a slightly grander form.

At our other bungalow project in Gloucestershire, Nigel

and Kim have made their decision

and are forging ahead with their plans for the lounge.

Although Piers's ideas were great, we've decided that we will

stick to our original plan, which was to do the lounge.

We don't have a bottomless pit of money to spend

and do everything how we want it, so we're sticking to our original

route, which we think is best for us.

For Nigel and Kim, their priority is a family room to retreat to

before they think about tackling the rest of the house.

But taking on the lounge is a mammoth task,

with structural work, electrics, heating, new windows,

doors and all the finishes to complete.

It's not going to be easy on their seven grand budget.

And to add to the pressure, with each job they tackle, a new

and potentially costly problem is revealed.

The king post is actually slightly bowed.

It's lower in the middle than it is at either end.

Over time, the main ceiling joist has twisted,

so Nigel is reinforcing it with a piece of steel.

If you're OK with that...

With so much work stretching ahead of them,

-they've enlisted the help of Kim's stepdad.

-Down she comes.

So many builds collapse because of lack of project management.

Time and money easily get eaten up waiting for trades and materials.

With this in mind, Kim has decided to draw up

a schedule of works to keep their build on course.

I put this together because to start with, it was all in Nige's head.

We only have a finite amount of time

and with any project, there needs to be a critical path.

Despite Kim's hard work, Nigel has got other plans.

He's decided instead of getting on with the flooring,

ceiling and electrics,

he'll focus all his energies on rebuilding the fireplace.

After Piers came, we realised the best thing to do was to keep

the fire in the centre of the building.

But I wanted to have a new fireplace built...

And for Kim, the pressure of living on a permanent building site

is finally taking its toll.

It's very wearing to live in mess.

And also, the brick dust - just incredible.

I've given up doing the dusting at the moment

because there's just no point.

Oh, my God - there is such a mess everywhere.

Back in High Wycombe, Ronnie

and Nicky's chimney is causing them problems, too.

Ronnie's hasty decision to remove an old fireplace from the kitchen

-looks like it might be unravelling.

-Nick, you all right, pal?

How quickly could you turn around some calcs?

Billy needs to call in the help of a structural engineer because

he has discovered the chimney breast was built in a non-standard way.

The lower part of the wall was actually laid on two

bits of floorboards, so as we took the chimney down,

it lost all of its support and became really unstable.

The structural engineer will be able to advise Billy on how to

support the wobbling chimney stack.

They've just spanned from chimney breast to chimney breast,

it's not brilliant.

Ideally, we want to get away from using steels if possible.

If possible!

Extra steel supports would mean yet more expense and a greater

drain on budget, potentially putting the whole build in jeopardy.

Let's take some measurements.

But it looks like both the engineer's visit

and any work he suggests is going to take a large

and unexpected bite out of Ronnie and Nicky's funds.

It can make you a bit nervous because you don't know the full extent of what it's going to cost.

It's going to delay the time a bit if it means ordering steels -

they won't be in for two or three days,

so it could put a little hole in the job.

Which is the last thing this family wants to hear,

-currently camping out on their own back lawn.

-Is that enough? Yeah?

However, they won't be moving out any time soon,

because work has been further delayed by a week.

A wooden support costing £675 is needed to support the chimney.

Slide it along.

This is an expensive build.

The majority of the budget is going on moving the front door to the side

of the house, knocking down internal walls and putting in the bi-folds.

So any additional expenses, like the wooden beam,

have had to come out of savings they've already made,

which they were hoping to spend on the kitchen.

-I think we've got about £5,000 now.

-We can't get a kitchen for £5,000.

To make matters worse, Nicky has fallen in love with a design from

a high street kitchen company and the quote has come in at 12 grand.

It's vital that Piers can come up with ideas to create

a kitchen that the couple can actually afford

or the whole build will be pointless.

So this is the space, which is great. Where is the kitchen going?

At the moment, we're looking at a kitchen that goes around here.

-Yes.

-We've kind of looked at having a mobile island.

I didn't realise. I said, "Oh, I like this one",

and so we got a quote for the most expensive out of the catalogue.

When I first came here, I remember you telling me that there was no budget for a kitchen.

-There was none left for the kitchen.

-But you've magically found 12 grand now!

No, we haven't got 12 grand -

we've got somewhere between five and £9,000.

Piers needs a bold plan to sway Nicky from her glossy

-magazine kitchens.

-This is such a long run of wall.

I suppose I'm wondering why you don't just run one simple

run of cupboards or worktop all along there...

and stick your fridge there,

and that's then free to have your table.

Your splashback can be, you know, a piece of glass spray-painted behind.

I would keep it very simple.

Big expanses of colour, big expanses of material,

floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall. It's such a kind of poppy house,

with your jukebox, big open spaces, big windows.

Sort of '50s colour somewhere in this would be great.

Simplicity is key if Ronnie and Nicky are to get the kitchen

they want.

It's just how you get ordinary things to meet other things

that transforms a building from being something very

standard into something really exceptional.

Don't just get something off-the-peg and leave it as it is,

you must tweak it somehow, or it will look like an off-the-peg...

Like everyone else's.

And this isn't like anyone else's house on the street now.

I think his ideas for a totally bespoke kitchen,

-some of them are really interesting.

-That's different to our plan, isn't it?

-You're more open...

-You're my quality control, aren't you?

The woman always wins in the end!

Yeah, that's true!

It's been nearly two months since Piers last visited Nigel and Kim.

Most of the ceiling is up, but the lounge still isn't looking

that different, apart from a brand-new fireplace.

With £500 on labour and bricks, 1,400 on a new wood burner

and a grand on a chimney flue, they've spent

nearly £3,000 on this one thing,

leaving little to finish the room.

So Piers is heading over to get things back on track.

-So that's the fireplace.

-It is.

-Yes.

I'm worried by Nigel and Kim spending pretty much

half their budget on rebuilding that fireplace and a new wood burner.

I'm worried that, in a way,

it's distracting them from finishing this room.

I need now to help Nigel

and Kim finish it in a way that is great and full of light.

I want to find one thing that really could transform that room.

Accepting Nigel and Kim's passion for this room,

Piers wants to help them create a beautiful space

and he thinks the answer may lie in the doorway to their garden.

-How much are these to replace?

-They'll be quite an expensive thing.

We've had some quotes up in the 2,000-3,000.

Replacing these old doors with something new could make

a real difference. But the off-the-shelf units

they've been looking at will blow their budget.

You don't need to go the whole hog and buy brand-new French windows.

A standard glazed door with a chunky timber frame

and then a fixed piece of glass with no frame at all,

something like that, which would be very nice.

There's certainly potential in this room for something special,

but with only £4,000 left to do flooring, windows, doors,

heating and decoration,

it's incredibly tight.

Piers wants to show them

that bespoke joinery could cost less than an off-the-shelf equivalent.

For me, every project needs things that are bespoke and I don't think

that bespoke is high-end, luxury, unaffordable - it's just making

things in places like this that are everywhere, up and down the country.

Making things better than those that you can buy out of a catalogue.

Piers introduces them to expert joiners Pete and Steve.

So what's the advantage then,

of getting something bespokely made

rather than getting it off the shelf?

The skills going into this particular window are much

higher than a mass-manufactured window.

You can get it exactly the right size.

If you get something off-the-shelf, obviously it's a set,

-standard size and then you have to alter the opening.

-OK.

And what about speed, because if I walked into the builders'

merchants, I could take it home.

If we have the glass ready,

we can have this window made in 2½ hours.

Wow! That's really quick!

Workshops like these offer a personalised service

and will fabricate any design.

Piers's idea for these made-to-measure external

doors should be pretty straightforward.

What would something like that cost, do you think?

This glass obviously has to be toughened and double glazed

and then an FLB,

framed, ledged and braced door,

I'd say you'd probably be looking at about £700.

Far cheaper actually, than a set of sliding patio doors that

you might get from your local builders' merchants.

I thought bespoke was going to be really expensive, and actually

the cost is surprisingly much lower than off-the-shelf.

And it opened up some more ideas to us,

which we hadn't thought about, either.

There's more stuff that we need to just mull over and chat over!

But three weeks later, reality bites

as urgent household bills

have dramatically eaten into Nigel and Kim's contingency fund.

The car needed major work to it.

The other car needed work to it!

The washing machine broke.

There's been quite a few others like that which are all big bills

that come along and just eat into the buffer fund.

It's always a case of we don't want to spend the money for the room

if we're going to struggle for paying the bills.

With their savings now drastically depleted,

it's looking like they won't be able to complete their dream project.

It means just slowing down the pace slightly

and perhaps holding back off some of the things.

If we just spent everything that we had,

there would be nothing left to live on.

Back at Ronnie and Nicky's build in High Wycombe, the majority

of the structural work is complete, but it's been a costly process.

They've decided that to get the kitchen Nicky really wants,

they will need to spend their contingency money.

Things are going to be tight, and they still have to buy fixtures

and fittings for their kitchen and bathroom, which can be costly.

All the way through this, the money is a concern, to be honest.

At the beginning, I was concerned that we'd end up with

the house how we wanted it, but no kitchen or bathroom.

We've reached a point now where I know we can fit them all...

How close to finished they'll be,

what standard the kitchen will be,

that's all still a bit of a question.

With so much work to do to finish and with their money running out,

Nicky and Ronnie are in danger of being unable to complete the build.

Nicky desperately wants to realise her dream kitchen.

Piers has a bold solution which could give them

quality without the cost.

I just hope they are ready to open their minds.

Today might be quite challenging because in a way,

when you go into a bathroom showroom or a kitchen showroom,

you're actually lulled into a sense of calm and serene safety.

What I want to do now is find a way to encourage them

to really think out of the box.

So, we're in a bathroom showroom and I can feel my skin crawling

because these places fill me with horror.

What I want to do is take you out of here past all these - look,

80 quid a pair, 60 quid a pair...

So here are, I think, my favourite all-time bathroom fittings,

and this is about the most perfectly formed tap you can buy.

That should be in the Design Museum. That's three quid to you.

Look at the quality of the milling on the inside of that tap

and how nice that is.

-Yeah.

-That is a man thing!

I also really like the fact that it's just not pretending to

be glitzy or showy, it is what it is.

When you shut that valve it has a nice positive feel.

It's a bit like shutting a door on a really well-made car or something.

-You do need to get out more, though.

-I do!

-LAUGHTER

I do!

Undeterred, Piers wants to convince them

of the beauty of fittings usually hidden from view.

I mean, this looks fantastic exposed.

-So if you imagine that with that tap...

-I'm not sure.

-What works ready well...

-Do you like it?

-I love copper.

I think copper is really...

Copper and bronze, they are just warm-coloured metals.

-It looks unfinished.

-I don't think copper does.

I don't know, it might look like the plumbers haven't

kind of finished the job, know what I mean?

There's two things there - one,

I wouldn't worry what anyone else thinks, and two...

But I do worry about what everybody else thinks!

Well, we do all sorts of strange things with buildings now.

If you go into any Victorian house almost anywhere in the country,

the boards will be stripped and that's a strange phenomenon.

Stripping boards,

things that were typically covered up or concealed or painted

and there's nothing to say how a house must look, or should look.

Maybe I've lived too long in an MoD house and everything has been

the same and now I don't know how to break out of that.

It's been a little bit tricky at times.

I've really felt her assistance.

But I think it is a really important point,

how do you go beyond what you know? How do you go beyond the obvious?

How do you go beyond all the things you see in every normal showroom

up and down the country?

And that is what I've been trying to get them to embrace.

I also want them to get excited by the unconventional,

the extraordinary. And in a way, I really see that in Ronnie.

And I have worked on Nicky.

And I think that she's suspicious still,

but I think she's part of the way there.

-Doesn't that look fantastic?

-Yeah, it looks quite...

-Yeah, you're convincing me more, seeing it in the flesh.

-Here you go.

-Thank you. There's your tap!

-Thanks, love!

You know, it's opened my mind up to trying new materials

and trying different things. Not just off-the-shelf, I suppose.

Maybe using a bit of imagination to create stuff.

Nigel had been working on the renovation of his bungalow

alone for some time.

But when he met Kim

and they formed a new family unit it was clear that something had

to be done about a house that didn't provide for their needs.

Nigel and Kim had been stuck in their bungalow building site,

desperate for a family space to escape the dust

and chaos permeating every crevice of their home.

Just two months ago they focused their energies on the task

of remodelling their lounge.

But with their savings dramatically drying up,

their family sanctuary was in danger of never been finished.

It's time for Piers and I to see how they got on.

-Hi, Nigel. Hi, Kim.

-Hiya.

-How's it all been going?

-How have you been getting on?

-It's been going!

-You've made some progress.

-We've made some progress.

-Nigel, how has it been for you?

-Busy. I've been getting SOME sleep.

It's moved on quite considerably. Want to come and have a look?

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done.

-Come on, then.

-Great.

Previously, this junk-packed room was in complete chaos,

with no ceiling, flooring,

installation, wiring or central heating.

It was a mammoth task,

especially as Nigel was bravely tackling the whole job alone.

Ah, look at this!

-This is some transformation, I must say.

-It's fantastic.

It feels fresh, it feels bright, it feels completely different.

-Well, it's a usable room!

-Yes, it is.

-No boxes.

You're not quite finished, but you're in a state

where you can start to see this as a usable family space.

It's slow but sure, but it's coming together.

It is a living room for the house.

The once cut-off, abandoned room has been cleverly connected to

the heart of the home by opening up the wall,

creating a through flow of space.

Being able to see from one corner of the house to the other is great.

But it's also really nice getting the light from there into here.

You can sit here with a view of the garden that way,

you've got one that way.

It feels right, yeah.

Nigel and Kim went with Piers's advice to keep the fireplace

in the centre of the building as an important focal point.

And now finished, its curved backdrop is a dramatic

and eye-catching feature with its bold steel mantelpiece.

I think your fireplace is very nice

and I like the way you actually circulate around it.

It just helps make this series of rooms not just a series of boxes,

but actually a series of lovely spaces.

-I also really like this mantelpiece.

-It's a beautiful fireplace.

Kim and Nigel had a budget of £7,000, but with their fireplace

eating up nearly three grand of this, how have their funds survived?

What was your budget for this work and how much have you spent?

It was 7,000.

We've spent five.

We haven't spent money on the patio doors.

The joiners that you took us to, we loved what they did

and we are going to get them to make those doors.

-Yeah.

-It'll be great.

-We definitely want to do that.

By doing all of the work himself,

Nigel has been able to make incredible savings.

And with £2,000 left to decorate and finish this room,

they have money to commission those chunky timber external doors.

Finally having space to relax in has cleared Nigel

and Kim's minds and they are ready to think about what to do next.

Even though the materials here are unfinished, you don't need to

-do much more. You can just paint it and move in, really.

-We could.

-I'd like a finished room.

-Yes, I can see that.

I can see at all costs you will get a finished room.

We will have a finished room, yes!

Piers has made a lot of suggestions which have been great,

but also we know what we were trying to achieve.

And it's made us make the decision about what we don't want,

which is just as valid and just as important as what we do want.

The simple move which Nigel and Kim did

was to open up the heart of the house with a big opening,

and what that means is there feels a natural inevitability to

the way those spaces flow together, and I think that's really good.

Nigel and Kim may have yet to complete their build,

but it's a fantastic result.

And this was always going to be about more than just architecture.

This was about creating a space where their new family unit

could come together.

And I think in the lounge room now you begin to see that space

taking shape.

It has beautiful light, a fancy fireplace

and a connection to the rest of the house.

This is going to be a really good sanctuary for that family

into the future.

Back at Ronnie and Nicky's, it's four months since the build began.

The plastering is in progress and the insulation's going in,

and the money has all but run out.

Ronnie is trying to save on costs, so he's decided to single-handedly

fit underfloor heating throughout the whole of their home.

But he's never tackled a job like this before.

So that's four metres...

I've got about 1,000 metres to lay.

What am I doing?!

He soon realises, though, it's a far bigger job than he thought.

It's become apparent this isn't a one-weekend job,

this is an every-night-for-at-least two-weeks job.

After weeks living in cramped conditions in a caravan,

NIcky is looking forward to finally moving out.

It's a lot of packet food at the moment.

You know, I don't feel that we are living very healthily.

The other day I was just thinking I was looking forward to

being in my own bed.

A proper toilet, that would be nice.

I'm too old for living in a caravan at my age.

Ronnie will need to pay a trained plumber to connect

the underfloor heating to the main system,

but he's making a £2,000 saving by labouring himself.

It's not a simple task, though, and he's having to work

long into the night after a hard day's work to get the job done.

I really wish I could pay someone else to do it, to be quite honest.

And this novice's job has been made trickier by Piers's angled corridor.

Thanks, Piers, that was a great idea,

having these lovely angled walls(!)

It's created a nightmare for the underfloor heating.

The pressure of sort of keeping it going,

it's coming to the end of the line, really, now.

And now we are both working in the house every night.

We can't afford a decorator,

so I'm doing that and Ronnie is doing the underfloor heating.

So that's our life for the next few weeks.

Having lived in basic military accommodation for nearly

20 years, Ronnie and Nicky were late buying their first house.

But having moved into their bungalow,

they realised it wasn't the dream family home they had hoped for.

Just 22 weeks ago,

their bungalow was a rabbit warren of narrow corridors

and poorly proportioned rooms, with a dark and windowless central core.

A small and cramped kitchen meant the family had nowhere to gather

and the pokey family bathroom was in the middle of the house

directly facing the front door.

Their idea was to remodel the entire house, but never having done

anything like this before, their life savings were on the line.

It's not been straightforward.

A complete overhaul was needed and it's been a steep learning curve.

We are back today to see the end result.

-Hi, guys.

-Hey, guys.

-How are you doing?

-Hi.

-How are you?

-Nice to see you.

-How's it been going?

-It's been so busy, hasn't it?

-Yeah. We are absolutely worn out.

-Have the results been worth it, though?

-Yes, absolutely.

It's been more than worth it. I can't actually believe it's our house.

I can already see fundamental changes,

because we are meeting outside your new front door.

But I'm interested in how it's affected the layout of the house.

-Absolutely.

-Well, come on in.

-Fantastic.

-Look at this! Wow!

-This is amazing.

It's an incredible transformation.

The thing I'm most excited about is that you're not faced with

a toilet, as you were in your original layout.

The fundamental problem with this bungalow was its dark centre.

This has been completely eradicated

and is now a wonderful connection of spaces, funnelling light throughout.

A result of Piers's plan to remove hallways

and dramatically angle walls.

This angle is a subtle thing, but for me it works really well,

because what it does is make this a generous hallway instead of just

a corridor, and it leads you down into the bedroom area.

The new entrance is now at the side of the house

and the old front one is bricked up.

By changing the whole layout,

the enlarged bathroom is no longer an eyesore.

-Wow! That's quite a difference.

-This is much more generous.

And in the process they saved thousands of pounds.

We solved the light problem with a sun pipe.

So it does get some natural light, which seemed

so unlikely in the plans. But it is nice, yeah.

And I can see, through your own resourcefulness,

using unconventional supports for your sink.

You inspired me to look at normal, everyday things and use them

differently. They are becoming a feature of the house now.

-I can tell you're proud of it, too.

-He loves it!

Before, their kitchen was awkward and confined,

with rooms beyond which were never used.

But they dreamt of that big family kitchen diner.

Well, they finally got it.

-This is fantastic in here!

-It's a really beautiful space.

It's so generous and so light

because of this connection with the garden.

It's just delightful, I think.

Piers's open-plan design carries on to a contemporary, light

and airy living room.

This is a very coherent house.

I can see to the end of the garden.

I can see through your living room and I can see back down here.

And that's why it feels so big and spacious.

Everybody who visits thinks that we've built an extension

because they think there is more space.

Ronnie and Nicky have embraced Peirs's design inspiration

with clever touches,

such as adding wheels to create a flexible central island, making use

of copper piping to fashion taps for the utility room.

And creating a glass splashback echoing the colour of their jukebox.

I think it fits really beautifully in there.

It is still a conversation piece,

but it somehow doesn't feel like it's theming the whole place.

And nor does it dominate the whole room, which it did before.

I really like the way you seem to have taken on board

so much from this process.

We've been able to choose what we want and what colours

and how we want the kitchen.

We wanted to make different things that suit us,

so even if it's something we bought that we can adapt slightly -

put wheels on, make it our own and make it do what we want from it.

Ronnie has embraced your love of different kind of design!

-But that's really impressive.

-It's been quite a revelation for me.

The kitchen eventually cost £4,500, which came out of a separate

pot of money, but was nowhere near their original 12 grand quote.

It's a brilliant result, but tell me

if you've done it for the original budget you set for yourself.

If you remember, our original budget was just over

49,000 for the building work, but we've overspent by £180.

That's not a bad overspend! Pretty impressive.

That's pretty amazing,

because this type of refurbishment costs around £800 or £900

per square metre and you've done this for about half that.

But it's not just about the numbers, is it?

You've got the house you really wanted.

Yeah, I'm completely thrilled with how you've tackled this job

and completely transformed your attitude

to design in the process and with a brilliant result.

After years without a house to call their own, Ronnie and Nicky

finally have their perfect home to enjoy with family and friends.

Come on in!

Oh, it looks amazing!

ALL EXCLAIM

Ronnie and Nicky have done something amazing here, because

they took the bull by the horns and transformed this building.

They really ripped the heart out of it

and put it back together again in a much better way.

And they've done it through being really clever

-and really resourceful.

-It's been such a lot of work, hasn't it?

But we've got the sort of family home we wanted. I'm so pleased.

-I couldn't be happier with it.

-Yeah, I'm all emotional.

We've finally got our dream, haven't we?

Yeah, we got the home we wanted and a lovely area and great friends.

You're getting emotional, aren't you?

I think it's fantastic that they just...

Don't you start cos you'll set me off!

What sets this project apart, though, is how Ronnie and Nicky

have embraced a whole new way of thinking about interior design.

It no longer feels like they are camping here

as if it were a rental property.

It feels like they've thought about how they want to live

and oriented the spaces around that.

The result is a beautiful place where their family can share

meals, relax together, cook and enjoy the outside.

I think it's a great result and I'm proud of them.

Next week, Mikyla is facing an enormous challenge,

needing to make more space for her children...

-We're all under each other's feet.

-..and her new partner.

It's becoming more and more apparent it's a problem.

And Rita is stuck in a design dead-end,

desperate to escape her kitchen disaster.

The kitchen is dilapidated, it's ugly...

But with only £3,000, she's going to have to take some big risks.

People in a New York loft will pay good money

-to have a floor like that.

-Yes!