April 16: For several years now I have been a fan of a television program called Grand Designs. Currently on the CBC (and its affiliate GEM) it originated at the BBC. It’s hosted by Kevin McCloud, an amiable and knowledgeable Architect, who follows the trials and tribulations of people self-building their own home. The people involved range from Architects, Engineers and Contractors to one fellow who started his home without actually having any idea of how to build it.
He knew he needed to start with foundations so he went off to the library and searched the internet to learn how to do so. That completed, he needed to learn how to frame walls, and install a roof, and do plumbing. Given the hundreds of elements that combine to make a house, it should be no surprise that his episode ended after following him for more than 4 years with completion of the house nowhere in sight. It is, I believe, the only episode where we don’t actually see a finished house.
More typically, the homebuilders generally fall into 2 categories. On the one hand you have the younger, naïve keeners who often want to try untested or innovative design solutions such as hay bale construction or adaptive re-use. They’re often after something unique that might be an experiment to prove a theory or support a non-typical lifestyle. (Think community-built sod homes….) The second general grouping seems to be somewhat older. They too want something unique but their quest seems to emerge from the idea of capturing a dream they have held, or a plan postponed, often for many years.
What they share, and what emerges as the tension in most of the programs, is a very unrealistic perspective on the time and the cost of the building. Many times, the proponents are heard saying that they will complete the building in 4 months and “be in just before winter”. Cue shots of people (often friends conscripted to help out) grappling with large timbers high on a roof as the British autumn rain lashes horizontally across the screen. The build concludes the following Spring…
Everyone starts with a budget of some sort but they are often waylaid by what might seem to be relatively predictable costs that are not in the budget. A husband and wife were reconstructing a late-1800’s mill adjacent to a stream and seemed surprised to discover groundwater seeping into the foundation. Virtually every episode ends with McCloud asking “And what did it cost ?” followed by the builders outlining why and by how much they overran the budget. At one painful extreme was a man who lost the new home, his previous home, a home he built on spec to sell to help finance the house, and his business trying to build his dream, all while his Architect refused to compromise or suggest design changes that might have been less expensive to build.
For fans of architecture, the show is a wonderful mix of insight, criticism, hope, hubris and even some humour. With all of this in mind, I am now beginning to wonder how my coming rebuilding work on Regatta Island would look as a Grand Design episode.
I’ve worked on several homes with varying degrees of complexity and success over the years so I am not naïve to the problems that inevitably arise in renovation work – especially when the building is more than 100 years old. I already suspect that there are potential issues with the foundation, and the plumbing system needs complete replacement. I had a new roof installed last Summer, so I can at least keep the rain out, but there’s still no source of heat (the chimney for the airtight having been removed to replace the roof) so the first few months will be pretty cool.
By most metrics, I think people would say that the cost of the cottage and the work is a huge risk “for someone my age”. When I should be hunkering down and protecting my financial resources, I’ve transferred a significant part of my investments into real estate and, while I’m reasonably comfortable doing that, there will be inevitable financial issues going forward. Indeed, there have already been significant tax impacts and the budget has been revised downward out of necessity. Many of the resources I need to undertake some of the projects are either in short supply, or on back-order, or eye-wateringly expensive. Safe to say then that finances are a work in progress.
Finally, there’s the issue of a time-line. Here I can be a bit more relaxed. Unlike other self-builders, Regatta is a recreational property not a home, so there’s no family and no small herd of dogs and cats waiting to move in. That said, there’s a crying need to have the place brought up to a standard where it can be said to be reasonably comfortable for me and any visitors. Stage one is plumbing and upgrading both the kitchen and the bathroom. Some basic work furnishing the place and repairing decks and doors and windows will also be in the mix, time and weary bodies permitting. There’s so much yet to be done that I doubt there will ever be a day when I can say with authority that “I am finished”.
If there ever was a Grand Designs episode featuring Regatta Island I suspect that I would look pretty much like everyone else on the show: broke, exhausted, and completely in love with the place they have built. For now, I’ll wait for Kevin’s call and get to work. More scenes from the show in the following posts…..