Are you about to convert, renovate or Build your dream home?

[Channel Five]

ARE YOU MOVING TO YOUR DREAM LOCATION WHERE YOU WILL BE RENOVATING YOUR DREAM PROPERTY

The ‘Build a New Life’ team are looking for hands on people who are starting work on a property renovation.

The producers would like to hear from people who are moving to an idyllic part of the countryside to renovate buildings such as ruined barns, old farmhouses, redundant chapels, or even something more unusual, like a disused water tower into their dream home or dream business.

If you would like us to document your inspirational journey please call 0870 726 8871 or email build@shinelimited.com

 

[Nemesis]

Oh dear me - not again! Shine strikes again.

Please stop spamming the site with this.

No, we aren't, we are carefully and over a long period of time repairing and conserving our period homes. We aren't doing a quick fix for telly.

Have you asked the site owner permission to post this SPAM?

 

[plumbers mate]

Wasn't this the show where the 300 yr old barn was to be converted sympathetically but was filled with bags of cement, then got a floor of concrete, then had a 300 year old wall knocked down and where they removed a wooden post which was replaced by a harsh new brick pillar but they got away with it all?
MM, nice.

 

[Moo]

Forum Index page :

Total members 1495 • Our newest member Channel Five

 

[Nemesis]

Or, in fact, some lowly and desperate and lazy researcher for SHINE.

http://www.shinelimited.com/

Yawn.

 

[Flyfisher]

Well, to be fair, there are people here who have been featured on telly programmes so presumably it's quite a good place (among others) to seek similar people. Hardly the act of a lowly, desperate or lazy researcher. Perhaps it would be a good opportunity to show how such things should be done 'properly'?

(but no, I'm not interested in being on the telly!)

 

[Nemesis]

I reckon it's SPAM - a bit like the rubbish I get in my e-mail.

And overt commercialism. And do you really think this was posted by the head of Ch 5?

 

[Flyfisher]

No, there's a big difference. Unsolicited stuff in your email (or letterbox) is spam because you can reasonably expect only to recieve items of interest, but on an open public forum everything is, by definition, unsolicited but can't really be considered spam (unless wildly off-topic perhaps). If it's of no interest then simply ignore it.

And why would anyone think it was posted by the head of channel five? Your post wasn't from a rollercoaster (was it? ).

 

[Nemesis]

Oh where to begin... no. Just have some more wine.

 

[Penners]

Oooh - could I really be on the telly?

I'd be willing to have Trinny and Susannah do a makeover on my wardrobe. And have my breasts enlarged. And be fired by Alan Sugar.

:roll:

 

[skier-hughes]

But do you look good naked?

 

[alice]

From the number of home makeover shows from the UK that I see here in the US, I thought everyone in Britain was on the telly sooner or later. Isn't a spot on Changing Rooms a right of passage, like getting a driver's license? I'm sure that everyone over the age of 14 and living in Norwich has been on Anglian TV at least once.


alice

 

[Nemesis]

Changing Rooms. thankfully, is no longer on TV.

Too many of these shows are dreadful - Grand Designs (although it's a little predictable at times) and parts of the one series of 'Restored to Glory' (in which Gervase spent most of the time time cheerfully plodding on lime pointing and refusing to make his and his other half's lives the stuff of soap opera) are the only two which aren't/weren't totally cringemaking IMHO and recognise that period buildings do not require a quick fix 'renovation' but careful, considered repair.

Whatever you think of Grand Designs and 'oh the winter is drawing in and they are still living in a cardboard box in the field' commentary, KMc knows his stuff, and is a SPABBIE to boot.

The timescales for most of these telly 'let us chart your dream makeover' reality shows mean that you have to have all permissions in place at the outset and expect the job to be finished in a short space of time. They also want it all to go wrong and to film you in crisis of course. There's little interest in what you are doing to the buildings.

So many buildings which are encouraged to be quick makeovers, too - barns, mills - water towers... would be better left and used as they are, and not seen as some money making and bijou residence opportunity.

Of those who post here, I know Karen and Francis were on Grand Designs with an exemplary repair jobbie,

http://www.granddesignslive.com/gd/detail.php?page=194&s=27


Gervase ditto on Restored to Glory as was Middi, and Jon at Merchant's House Shepton Mallet, although that series, would, in so many cases, as we all fumed at the time, would possibly have been better called Destroyed to B*****y.

From Build New Life:

It's going to get emotional as the families surmount all the obstacles to move into their finished homes and begin living their dream lives...

Nuff said.

And don't ask Gareth about Norfolk water tower 'conversions'

10 Jan five's blog | Add new comment | Read more | 582 reads
build a new life in the country –was it worth it? (1/8)

Five’s property and lifestyle show returns for a new run of programmes that revisit some of the intrepid British adventurers whose dreams of relocating featured in earlier series. In this first programme, the team returns to David Forster’s Victorian water tower in the Norfolk woods. Eccentric inventor and engineer David has been obsessed with converting this magical building into a dream home for his wife and sons. Four years on, is David happy with his new life?

David Forster’s water tower project was one of the most ambitious builds that George Clarke had ever seen, not least because David planned to do most of the work himself while still working fulltime. The building had no plumbing, electricity, floors or staircase, but David’s vision was to turn it into a six-floor family home with breathtaking 360degree views from the old tank room at the top.

as, (and quite right too) he gets very upset indeed.

With three months to go before the optimistic move-in date, another problem arose: David was denied planning permission for the solar tubes he had already installed on the roof –a setback that caused him to have serious doubts about the project.

That tower was Grade II Listed and the panels installed without LBC.

It went to an inquiry - and the inspector said the local authority was absolutely correct to take enforcement action.

Maybe Gareth can update us...

Then there is this one:

http://www.tvthrong.co.uk/build-a-new-life-in-the-country/build-a-new-life-in-the-country-thursday-july-5

One of the best preserved bastles in the area, according to the CO, the works were objected to most strongly by Tynedale's CO Sandra at the time but she was overidden by the elected councillors, and their collective brain cell.

From the listing:

The bastle is one of the best preserved in Northumberland; the late C17
heightening is paralleled at Hole Bastle in Bellingham parish.

It's not conservation as we know it folks.

 

[Nemesis]

I add - I gather George Clarke has now left the above prog to travel the country for a series called' Restoration Man'.

In 2008, Channel 4 signed George Clarke, to present a variety of property formats including Restoration Man, where he travels Britain helping owners convert old properties.

Let's hope thay are better than some on previous progs then.

 

[Penners]

But do you look good naked?

Bring your camcorder and let's find out.

:x

 

[Nemesis]

These days, I reckon Relocation Relocation Relocation.... no maybe this is too much information...

 

[plumbers mate]

What's wrong with a web cam .....

 

[Penners]

You'd very quickly discover the answer to that question.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

And don't ask Gareth about Norfolk water tower 'conversions'

10 Jan five's blog | Add new comment | Read more | 582 reads
build a new life in the country –was it worth it? (1/8)

Five’s property and lifestyle show returns for a new run of programmes that revisit some of the intrepid British adventurers whose dreams of relocating featured in earlier series. In this first programme, the team returns to David Forster’s Victorian water tower in the Norfolk woods. Eccentric inventor and engineer David has been obsessed with converting this magical building into a dream home for his wife and sons. Four years on, is David happy with his new life?

David Forster’s water tower project was one of the most ambitious builds that George Clarke had ever seen, not least because David planned to do most of the work himself while still working fulltime. The building had no plumbing, electricity, floors or staircase, but David’s vision was to turn it into a six-floor family home with breathtaking 360degree views from the old tank room at the top.

as, (and quite right too) he gets very upset indeed.

With three months to go before the optimistic move-in date, another problem arose: David was denied planning permission for the solar tubes he had already installed on the roof –a setback that caused him to have serious doubts about the project.

That tower was Grade II Listed and the panels installed without LBC.

It went to an inquiry - and the inspector said the local authority was absolutely correct to take enforcement action.

Maybe Gareth can update us...

Oh, I have nothing but praise for Build a New Life in the Country. If they hadn't lovingly featured the illegal installation of the solar panels in such detail in the first visit to the water tower, I'd never have noticed. :twisted:

They're off now. And the illegally installed hacienda-style window boxes should be coming down any time soon, followed by the balcony that's twice the size of the one we (reluctantly) granted consent for...

 

[Nemesis]

Nothing you can do about the (quote from the wesbite) 'punched through' windows though.

So in reality, the essence of water tower has vanished... and delisting is a possibility.

Then he can re-install the... no let's not go there.