Grand Designs - 14 Mar 07

[Chris J W]

Chris Miller and his wife Sze Liu Laine are taking on a unique build never before seen on Grand Designs. Taking a rusting Thames barge as their starting point, they are trying build an environmentally friendly three-bedroom houseboat entirely from recycled scrap.

[bargiepat]

Hi, From what I have read it all goes horribly wrong..........

Regards patrick.

[Hobart]

Just had a quick look on the GD website, couldn't see it mentioned. Where did you hear about it Chris?

 

Not that we have a tv anymore, but GD was the only thing other than Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsey that we used to watch. Do miss it a bit.

 

neil.

[carlt]

Hi, From what I have read it all goes horribly wrong..........

Regards patrick.

Isn't that the whole point of the series? Misguided, inexperienced dreamers attempt an impossible project, on an unrealistic budget and call in whatsisname (forgot) to spend a year patronising them and picking holes in everything they do, only for him to eat his words at the end of the program when everything suddenly falls into place.

 

One of my favorite programs. I wish they'd bring back that restoration series where misguided, inexperienced dreamers attempt an impossible project, on an unrealistic budget and call in a team of professionals who go round the building, patronising and tut-tutting (oh my god they might as well have used safestyle uk) but they don't eat their words at the end. I remember one comment went like: 'at least before there was something to save'

[Chris J W]

Just had a quick look on the GD website, couldn't see it mentioned. Where did you hear about it Chris?

 

Not that we have a tv anymore, but GD was the only thing other than Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsey that we used to watch. Do miss it a bit.

 

neil.

 

TV listing in the paper this morning. The text in the OP was taken from the TV listings on the Channel 4 site.

[PeterV]

Isn't that the whole point of the series? Misguided, inexperienced dreamers attempt an impossible project, on an unrealistic budget and call in whatsisname (forgot) to spend a year patronising them and picking holes in everything they do, only for him to eat his words at the end of the program when everything suddenly falls into place.

 

You missed out the bit about spending 29 minutes out of a 30 minute program agonising about whether they could pay the builder because the funding was not actually approved and they hadn't got planning permission anyway so it may have to come down.

 

Pity really it used to be quite good when they concentrated on the building not the human drama

 

From the program trailer last week the boat does look rather ugly as they seem to have cut the bows off another boat and welded them onto the deck pointing at the sky, but each to his own taste (particularly if the proud owner happens to read this)

[tomsk]

TV listing in the paper this morning. The text in the OP was taken from the TV listings on the Channel 4 site.

 

Also a small piece in 'Metro', a publication for miserable Tube bound rats is 'That there London'

[bargiepat]

Hi, Anyway it is on tonight at 21.00. Cannel 4

People do watch to see if the project fails, not often does it fail but this time I think It does according to the article I read in the Daily Mirror whilst I was having a "Greasy Spoon" breakfast.

Regards Patrick

[Tomska]

Christ on a bike, what a muppet that bloke was. Apparently his wife left him soon after that was filmed. Imagine using the family's savings to build the chapel of love and loathing from Lost Vagueness. On the back of a dredger barge.

 

What a pillock.

 

Mind you, I had to turn & ask the wife "I'm not like that about my boat, am I?". Well, you never know....

[carlt]

Christ on a bike, what a muppet that bloke was. Apparently his wife left him soon after that was filmed. Imagine using the family's savings to build the chapel of love and loathing from Lost Vagueness. On the back of a dredger barge.

 

What a pillock.

 

Mind you, I had to turn & ask the wife "I'm not like that about my boat, am I?". Well, you never know....

 

To be fair, did you think his wife was the full shilling?

 

Probably time for a thread merger mods?

[KenK]

That was I suspect an extreme example but it does give you some idea of the problems some boatbuilders have to put up with. I think if I was in the boatbuilding game I'd have a video of that running nonstop and sit every potential customer down in front of it before discussing their build.

 

Ken

[slowcoach]

she seemed relatively up beat over the whole situation but her voice was annoying and i turned to my wife a few times with looks of , is she for real, not my wife the one on telly, they ran ouut of money, hadnt found a mooring before it was completed so when they were looking for a mooring they got turned down at one marina beause it was too different, then when they did find a mooring they had to be in ata certain time when the water was high enough over the grass, it had no engine so it was pulled bya tug, when it got there, it got grounded so tug had to go round to other side of jetty then the rope snapped, then in feb this yearthey faced eviction and have a court case etc so all is not looking good, the windows the firstbuilder didnt like and i didnt then the owner of the boat had a argument with the builder and wasnt working for him and said if he wants someone else working on his boat he is goingto have to move it, and the new builder did but also another persons boat and this isnt allowed as the yard owner said as he doesnt know how to tie the other boat up properly!!

 

 

oh well

 

nay mind

[Purple Fairie]

I thought the original idea (ie. recycling/reusing materials) was a fantastic one and one that, in my opinion, more people should do. BUT, that bloke was infuriating, he was unwilling to compromise on anything, which in the end was his downfall. He was obviously one of those that thinks he knows everything and actually knows **** all! I can see why everyone involved ended up having a disagreement with him, I'm not a violent person but I would have floored him! And as for his missus.....

[Tomska]

To be fair, did you think his wife was the full shilling?

 

Well no. But at the beginning of the programme they said that they were living in her 2 bedroom flat, so it was her money he was pizzling up the wall, and expecting your kids to have to put up with your obsession too... He came across as completely selfish to me - obsessed with his grand plan, at someone else's expense, and regardless of its effects on his family.

 

What's more, patronising bloke had it spot on - nothing wrong with building a boat out of materials that you find, but find the materials first, then design and cost the boat, then build it. You could see it was going to be a complete car crash (boat crash?) from the opening five minutes...

 

[sharma]

I thought the original idea (ie. recycling/reusing materials) was a fantastic one and one that, in my opinion, more people should do. BUT, that bloke was infuriating, he was unwilling to compromise on anything, which in the end was his downfall. He was obviously one of those that thinks he knows everything and actually knows **** all! I can see why everyone involved ended up having a disagreement with him, I'm not a violent person but I would have floored him! And as for his missus.....

 

I agree, it sounded like a fantastic idea but went downhill rather quickly. My partner and i were swapping incredulous looks every 5 minutes. What a strange couple! Those windows were appalling. I know they were using recycled/reusing materials but the bloke was on eBay?? Surely he could have bought better than that!?

The boat was awful to look at when, with a bit of proper design like the presenter said, it could have been ok.

Couldnt stand the pair of them so it was hard to feel any sympathy when it all went wrong.

Im not a violent person either, but boy that bloke had a face you could punch!!

[charles123]

I could not bring myself to watch it all the way through, the first 5 mins was all I needed to know. What a pair of losers. I then went back to the programme a couple of times and it did not get better. At the end it appeared they had no power, no means of cooking as the AGA was not connected etc and she still seemed quite upbeat. I would like to know what is happening now as the programme was made some months back

 

The barge idea seemed sound if they had just thought it out and fitted a conventional cabin, they still would have had a huge hold to live in and would have better spent their money, as it stands the whole thing is unsaleable and I doubt they would recover their cash should it be sold

 

Charles

[Jim Riley]

I missedc it, but caught the trade secrets follow on, hmmmmmm.

 

there was an amazing scrap boat on there with a coach, bits of old car etc, not to everyones, or my, taste.

apparently there's some pics on grand designs website for those who want to go there and firtle about, havent time just now myself.

[Chris J W]

I had a case of getting "rather drunk" last night and missed it in the end (thankfully I've set the PVR to do the repeat on More4 tonight) but can't wait now! Sounds like it's going to be very interresting ... for all the wrong reasons!

[stuart]

I thought the original idea (ie. recycling/reusing materials) was a fantastic one and one that, in my opinion, more people should do. BUT, that bloke was infuriating, he was unwilling to compromise on anything, which in the end was his downfall. He was obviously one of those that thinks he knows everything and actually knows **** all! I can see why everyone involved ended up having a disagreement with him, I'm not a violent person but I would have floored him! And as for his missus.....

 

I'm surprised he wasnt pulling old nails out of the wood and trying to use them again !

 

The final boat was such a mess I'm not surprised that his new mooring neighbours evitcted them.

[Typowriter]

Wow! What a pile of shit.

[WJM]

It was a good project up to the point he bought the crap windows and cut up the elegant arch structures to shoe-horn them in - that was the point where the first builder walked out - dont blame him - done properly it could have been a nice result - nice portholes placed evenly between the steels supports, a decent finish on everthing and he would have had a nice home. Sadly his stupidity turned it into junk!

[carlt]

elegant arch structures

 

Would that be the sheets of corrugated aluminium leaning up against each other?

[King Learie]

What can you expect from social workers!

 

Bunch of do-gooding chocolate teapots - especially those in Warwickshire!

 

Sorry to all you nice social workers out there but I sat there groaning as that guy made a lot of people unhappy with his 'theories'

 

I build stuff out of recycled materials and you must always start with your resources laid out ready for use. You learn quickly to not to begin with some materials that are less than what you need and just out of respect for a craftman you must give him the materials to work with if that is the deal!

 

That program did no-one any good and was a depressingly edifying experience to watch...

 

Bah!

 

King Learie

[Guest]

WHEN THAT TUG WAS TOWING IT, THEY SHOULD HAVE KEPT GOING OUT TO SEA AND SCUTTLED IT.

[Rick-n-Jo]

This won't have done the cause of liveaboard boaters any favours in the public eye, will it? Already widely regarded as scruffy freeloading hippy gypsies among many (including, unfortunately, some boaters).

I was alarmed when the presenter made such a point, at the beginning, that this was the only sort of building you can do nowadays without any sort of regulations. And that was why it was bound to go wrong! Let's hope there weren't any beauracratic busybodies watching, looking for new ways to smother our freedom in rules.

 

Rick