Kevin McCloud conoce a una mujer decidida a construir la casa de sus sueños, una enorme mansión de estilo georgiano, contra todo pronóstico. Hace cinco años, Helen y su marido Mark finalmente encontraron el terreno perfecto en Farnham.
Kevin McCloud meets a woman determined to build the house of her dreams, an enormous Georgian-style mansion, against all the odds. Five years ago, Helen and her husband Mark finally found the perfect plot of land in Farnham.
#architecture #art #desing
Kevin McCloud meets a woman determined to build the house of her dreams, an enormous Georgian-style mansion, against all the odds. Five years ago, Helen and her husband Mark finally found the perfect plot of land in Farnham.
#architecture #art #desing
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TVTranscripción
00:00Well, I'm never ever going to do this again, I've decided. It's just not worth it. It really isn't. It's not worth the anxiety. It's not worth the time. It's taking me away from my children. It's just, I can't say it's worth it. It can never be worth it. It's only a thing at the end of the day. It's just a house. It's just bricks.
00:30This week's story is of one woman's determination to build a house of her dreams, which happens to be an enormous Georgian mansion. But more than that, she's a woman who won't accept anything less than perfection.
00:54When did you find this plot of land? We found it five years ago. So, through a mutual friend.
00:59Really? Yes. Really? That's how you found it?
01:01Yep, exactly. That's rather an unusual route, by word of mouth.
01:05Well, we haven't had this idea, let's build our own house, we couldn't find what we wanted.
01:09And I had to read it to a friend, and it came back to me as a plot of land in Farnham.
01:14But now, Mark, I mean, that's five years ago. What's happened in the intervening period?
01:18Good question. Well, we've had three sets of architects, and a lot of work's gone into getting exactly what we want.
01:27And this is the house? Yes, it's the house.
01:30So we are... We're there, look, outside the front door.
01:34That's right.
01:35I've always dreamt of having a Georgian house. Since I was quite young, I've had a dream house, and this basically, hopefully, will be it.
01:43So how much is all this going to cost?
01:45Good question. A lot more than we anticipated, probably three times what we anticipated.
01:51What did you anticipate?
01:52Well, the initial budget we gave to the first architect was $275,000.
01:56Right, so is that costing nearly $900,000?
01:59Well, it's about $830,000 at the moment.
02:01We have tried very hard to keep the costs down, but to be quite honest, to us, it's just too important to get the historical detail right.
02:09And to start cutting too many costs, it's just...
02:11It's the price you pay for perfection, isn't it?
02:13So you're paying for it?
02:15Yep.
02:16You're busy running your business?
02:17Correct.
02:18And I'm, yes, exactly, running up the bills.
02:20So much has gone into this that, unless barring some unknown disaster, things should go according to plan.
02:29Oh, well, yeah, famous last words. Ha, ha, ha.
02:32The house is vast, with no less than five reception rooms downstairs.
02:38It's designed to look like a Regency villa from the 1820s, complete with a garage with guest rooms above, in the style of a coach house to one side.
02:46Inside, a light and airy hallway leads straight through to a formal dining room, with ceiling-to-floor bow windows.
02:55They're going for a more relaxed family feel in the kitchen, but beyond that, we're plunged back to a classical late Georgian style, with an orangery.
03:04To you and me, that's a posh conservatory.
03:07This design is all about splendid elegance.
03:10At its centre is a sweeping staircase leading up to the four bedrooms on the first floor.
03:16The elevations that face the garden are even grander.
03:22Here, a terrace with stone balustrades leads to a classically landscaped garden.
03:27The plot cost $275,000, the build budget is $830,000, and most of the money is coming in the form of a mortgage.
03:37There's so many details in this house that the costs could just escalate.
03:39I wanted to try and pin the costs down.
03:43I felt all along, my gut instinct all along, was to have a bit of quantities.
03:48And this is a list?
03:50It's a list.
03:51It's a list?
03:52It's a big, huge shopping list of every single nut, bolt, screw, slate.
03:55Three-class concrete padstones go to face your boards.
03:59It goes on.
04:00It goes on and on.
04:02Does it include the interiors?
04:02Yes, wool finishes, everything.
04:03Yes, everything.
04:04Tiles, number of, you know, everything.
04:05There's water treatment plant, boilers.
04:08Yeah.
04:08Gardeners' WC.
04:11And it's got the maker's specification for the three-tap hole wash hand basin.
04:16That's from Mr. Lush, the gardeners' WC.
04:18Oh, your garden will be so happy.
04:20How are you going to finance that?
04:22Have you got a little bit of...
04:23Oh, don't.
04:24We're borrowing, in order to meet some of the cash flow problem, $750,000, though we should pay some of that.
04:31I know.
04:31That's a lot of money.
04:32We should be able to pay some of that back.
04:34But it is a cash flow problem because the mortgage company won't release any money until we're at first floor level.
04:40You've only got a contingency of, what, $15,000.
04:44I mean, if your contingency has to go up to $50,000 for whatever reason, you may not have that cash at the end.
04:49Well, like I say, once we're out of foundations, once we're out of the footings, then I will feel very confident we won't be using that.
04:57I'm confident. I'm confident we won't be. We may use a contingency.
05:00Very easy to say that now, before you've even started digging.
05:03Helen and Mark first started dreaming of living in a period house as newlyweds in Richmond.
05:09They were both drawn to big Georgian piles that would cost millions to buy.
05:14But when Mark's work meant they had to move out to Surrey, and they found a plot on which they could build a brand new house,
05:21they saw a chance to realise their dream.
05:24I think Helen's very courageous.
05:27She's moving in as an outsider into this very posh residential area.
05:32She's building on a plot of land which hasn't been developed in all of its 70 years.
05:36And she's building in quite a different style.
05:39Round here, the standard architectural look is a kind of oh-so-comfortable, English, fake, rustic style.
05:47Whereas what she's building is a bit more of a kind of mini stately home, much grander.
05:52This is very stockbroker built right here.
05:54I think the locals are going to be very surprised.
05:57The first big shock for the neighbours comes with the first big job on the build, laying the foundations.
06:08These are five foot deep, and it'll take 42 lorry loads to fill all these trenches.
06:15There's enough going in to build a motorway flyover.
06:18What's more, they all have to come on the same day, so the concrete dries at the same time.
06:23It goes well, and after all those years of meticulous planning, Helen's grand project gets off to an encouraging start.
06:36Wow.
06:38Well, this is really exciting, I must say.
06:40It's been a very long time.
06:43I can't believe it.
06:44I keep waking up in the mornings and thinking, my God, the house, what's happening?
06:47And then I remember, and it's like Christmas Day.
06:50It's like, wow, wow, the building is happening.
06:53So my only concern at this moment is the size of it.
06:57It is looking a bit on the small side, but the builders and David, they're showing me that it's going to be a big house.
07:05Work may only just be starting on site, but Helen's been planning her finishing touches for the last five years in the cottage they're renting nearby.
07:15This is a chandelier.
07:17It's about 1820, so it's right for the period.
07:19Yeah.
07:19It's Swedish.
07:21Yeah.
07:21We've got it in auction.
07:22It's rather beautiful and elegant, isn't it?
07:24It's stunning.
07:25It needs a bit of a...
07:26It's the right period for the house.
07:27Yeah, yeah.
07:27And where did you buy it?
07:28We bought it at auction.
07:30At Sotheby's.
07:32Yes.
07:32There's a label.
07:33It's lovely.
07:33And you've got no house to put it in, of course.
07:36It's sitting in your garage.
07:37No, but, you know, our whole mantra, the whole time we've been together is like, wow, isn't that wonderful?
07:41Isn't that gorgeous?
07:42Isn't that fantastic?
07:42And then it's a case of, oh, well, you know, we haven't got the house.
07:45Let's wait till we've got the house.
07:46And every now and then we just get tired of seeing beautiful things pass us by and not having a house.
07:51So we thought, let's go for it, you know.
07:53Buy the beautiful things and then worry about the house to put them in.
07:56It's just something you just don't come across very often.
07:59Helen's also spent five years selecting her perfect team to build her dream house.
08:04Jim Garland, the architect, is from a local firm who specialise in conservation architecture.
08:10And her building contractor is David Hayhoe.
08:13These men have the challenge of living up to Helen's exacting standards.
08:17The vision may be of classical grandeur, but the structure of this building is bog standard.
08:25This Regency villa is being constructed out of concrete breeze blocks and cement.
08:30Now, look, do you think this is exciting?
08:31Now, Helen may have planned this project to perfection on paper, but once on site, she has to deal with forces she can't control.
08:41Right, well, it's May now and it's still raining.
08:44It seems to be continuously raining throughout the whole of April.
08:46I think April was the wettest April in history.
08:50I don't know how much the rain set David back at all.
08:53I think the main problem has been the drainage.
08:55We originally had a system designed which was going to run down the side of the house, which was using these leech fields.
09:01But they produced a sort of effluent that was very nitrogen rich, and the planners were concerned that it was going to kill these trees off.
09:09Our only argument to them is, like, you've had the plan since last September.
09:12Why has it taken you this long to sort it out and come back to us and say, this isn't appropriate?
09:18So, eventually, Jim had to come up with a new system, which is over here, the biodigester.
09:25And that actually produces something that's very, sort of, very clean.
09:28Apparently, it's clean enough to drink, just about.
09:29I mean, all in all, I think we're running about two weeks behind schedule at the moment, and I'm sure David will make it up.
09:35But once the weather clears and the walls start going up, they hit another setback.
09:48In order to build the walls up beyond the ground floor, they need to put concrete lintels above each window to take the weight of the next floor.
09:57But there's not a lintel to be seen here.
09:59I cannot believe that this whole project is being held up over something as simple as lintels.
10:07Yeah.
10:08We should have lintel details over all the openings, and they're all still awaited.
10:14And at this precise moment in time, I couldn't tell anybody what any one lintel is on the project.
10:22The block work has got as high as it can go without the lintels.
10:26The build is at a standstill, and David has sent everyone home for a week at a cost of £5,000.
10:35And at this stage of the project, if I went back to our original programme, we should have been putting the roof structure on.
10:40So if you sort of look at it in those terms, you'll get the overall impression that we are somewhat falling short of client expectations.
10:48So you can't be happy.
10:49I've never been so far behind in such a short time due to so few reasons.
11:02Helen was telling me that the lintels have been a problem, haven't they?
11:05They sort of prevented work from proceeding.
11:07Well, what's happened is we've got quite tight cost controls, and we had to look at the options on the lintels slightly later than we'd have preferred.
11:17But for a client, slightly delayed is a question of writing checks, isn't it?
11:21Because they have to keep a building company in the background.
11:24We've now got a good three, four weeks where it's just straightforward building, putting the roof on.
11:30And you don't see any problems, you don't foresee any problems like, as you've had with the lintels, with the rest of that construction?
11:36No.
11:36That's all straightforward.
11:38That should be, come back in four weeks.
11:40But it should be, it should be straightforward.
11:42Yeah, yeah.
11:45With all the delays and spiralling costs, I want to know how Mark, the breadwinner, is feeling.
11:51By most people's stance, of course, this is a very expensive house and an expensive area.
11:55It's a kind of huge dream.
11:56The thought that, you know, enters my head is, oh, you know, plenty of money to splash around.
12:01But actually, you're saying you've got finite resources and you've got a big mortgage.
12:06Well, initially, the whole plan was based upon costs that were given to us, which were a lot less than what they finally ended up as.
12:14And even then, they're going above those.
12:16So, you know, we've been stretched to the extreme limits, which means that affects the detailing,
12:23and I'll be designing cardboard boxes to sit on.
12:26Everybody's intentions are to create this most fantastic house for me.
12:30But it has to be within budget, which they're failing, and it has to be on time.
12:36That is a professional responsibility to me as a client.
12:39That's all I ask.
12:40All I ask is that people do their job, full stop.
12:42I don't ask for blood.
12:43Not yet, anyway.
12:47It's at the end of the day.
12:48I'm going to hate it if I look back in a few years' time.
12:50OK, if we look back, it'd be a fantastic house I'm sat in.
12:52My children have grown up, you know, and where have I been in the past two years?
12:56On the telephone, chasing people around and fretting and worrying.
13:00The classic example is on Friday.
13:01Tom comes back from school.
13:02It's his last day at school.
13:03I didn't get back to 8 o'clock.
13:04So I was talking to the surveyor and then to the builder.
13:07And, obviously, there's a lot on my mind.
13:09And I wanted to talk to Mark about it.
13:11And Tom is trying to sit there and say, look at my books, look at my books.
13:14I'm going, in a minute, darling, in a minute, darling.
13:16And, of course, when I had a minute, the moment had gone.
13:19You know, and I hate that.
13:20I hate not being there for them.
13:21It's July, four months into the build, and at last the lintels are arriving.
13:29They're nearly two months behind schedule.
13:32And, finally, this site is becoming a hive of activity.
13:35Everyone is pushing to make out for lost time.
13:39The precast concrete beams for the floors go in quickly.
13:43They take just one day.
13:44Though I must admit it's strange seeing car park technology being used to build a Regency villa.
13:51It then takes less than two weeks for the walls to go up to roof level.
14:00Everything seems to be moving forward on the build.
14:03But Helen's invited me down to see a Regency house that's for sale miles away in Somerset.
14:09Why?
14:16At last.
14:17At last, a real house.
14:19A real Regency house as well.
14:21It's beautiful.
14:22It really is.
14:24Why?
14:25Why have you come up 100 miles to look at a Regency house?
14:28Well, I think when we go through our really bleak moments, we start looking at other houses.
14:33Just, I don't know, it just sort of helps us.
14:35It just kind of keeps that end goal in sight.
14:38You know, this is what it's going to be like hopefully one day.
14:40And I saw this house, and it reminded me in some ways what we're trying to do with a double bay.
14:44Is this what you're going to go for?
14:45This kind of...
14:46Well, I think originally this is what I set out in mine.
14:48And then somehow we had this sort of neoclassicism sort of developed within it, and it's become a little bit more grander.
14:53Yeah, you've got a bit more era back, didn't you?
14:55A bit more upmarket, you know.
14:56Nice room, isn't it?
14:59Oh, it's absolutely lovely.
15:00Beautiful colour.
15:01Very light.
15:03Yeah, absolutely.
15:04Oh, look, is this the bow window, isn't it?
15:06Yes.
15:06This is the bow window as in the photograph.
15:09Yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous.
15:10Yeah.
15:10And how's it going?
15:11How is the bow window?
15:12I mean, how is it...
15:13Is it...
15:13Are they in?
15:13Is the glazing in?
15:15No, we've had lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of problems.
15:19When you were last down, you saw the problem we had with the lintels.
15:23The fact was we had delays.
15:25It was delays in the project because information wasn't getting through to the builder.
15:28Yeah.
15:28And basically that was continuing.
15:31Information wasn't being passed to me.
15:33And then I think what really just was the last straw was the window arrived.
15:38And this window arrived and it was the...
15:40Which is a sample window?
15:41Sample window.
15:42And it was...
15:43I just looked at it.
15:44I'm not a joiner and I'm not, you know, an architectural historian, but I just looked at it and I just...
15:49My gut instinct was it was wrong.
15:50It was just wrong.
15:51The glazing bar detail was wrong.
15:53The sill detail was wrong.
15:55It was wrong.
15:55I was like, what's this?
15:56This isn't lamb's tongue.
15:57This is this.
15:58That kind of thing.
15:58That's what I wanted.
15:59That deep, long protrusion, very elegant, thin...
16:02Yes, exactly.
16:03It wasn't right.
16:04It's only...
16:04It's there now as a model of what we don't want.
16:06Okay.
16:07Right.
16:07So where is Jim?
16:08Where are the architects in all of this?
16:10Well, the architects have resigned.
16:12And they've walked off.
16:12They've resigned or you've asked them to resign?
16:14No, they...
16:14They've resigned.
16:16They've resigned.
16:16Giving the reason that...
16:18The reason being was because I, as I mentioned earlier, I was asking increasingly more detailed
16:24questions and I was not getting satisfactory answers.
16:26Yeah.
16:26So I asked them to put their personal indemnity insurer on notice because I intend to pursue
16:31a claim against them.
16:33Er, right.
16:34Okay.
16:34So you're giving them warning.
16:36Yes.
16:36So you warned them.
16:37I warned them.
16:38That's why I intended to...
16:39And then they resigned.
16:39Then they resigned.
16:40Which, you know, they're perfectly within their right to do that.
16:43How on earth are you going to get this building finished?
16:46I took it myself, Kevin.
16:50So six months into her dream project, Helen's taking up the supreme challenge.
16:56She's going it alone without an architect.
16:58And today, she faces her first major test.
17:02The roof trusses are arriving.
17:04I think at the moment, everything is tempted by the distress of what's going on.
17:28So I'm just walking around a complete notch of my stomach all the time.
17:32Oh, right.
17:33Temporary.
17:33Right.
17:34If I do, it's sort of like I alternate between despair and, like, excitement and despair again
17:38and excitement.
17:38No.
17:40The roof trusses actually go on without a hitch, but the project's finances are in serious trouble.
17:47Yesterday, we had a meeting, and at long last, we've got the figures together.
17:52So at the moment, I mean, these figures have to be analysed, but David is trying to get a handle on what things are going to cost
17:58and, you know, take all the extras into account, and that figures come in at £140,000 above and over our contract sum, which is nearly 20%, which is absolutely crazy.
18:10I can't really describe to anybody what myself and Mark feel like.
18:14It's desperate.
18:15Desperate.
18:15Very, very desperate.
18:16To the extent that we were talking last night that if the cost, if we can't put a lid on the costs here and now, we're going to have to sell the house at the end of the project.
18:26I'm having to cut, cut, cut, cut, cut the whole time.
18:29Compromise is forced on me the whole time.
18:31And I cannot tell you, I cannot even begin to tell you how I feel.
18:35And, yes, it's not a dream house anymore.
18:37It is a nightmare house because it's like, it's a hemorrhaging house, basically.
18:41It's October, and according to the original schedule, Helen's house should be nearly finished.
18:48So I've come down to see how far they've actually got.
18:55So what brings you down this end of the world, then?
18:57I'm off to visit a house which is being built on that estate.
19:00Someone must have some money, then.
19:01Well, I think they're borrowing a lot of money, is the answer to that.
19:04Is that that new place up on the end, is it?
19:06That's the one, yeah, yeah.
19:08I heard Robbie Williams is moving up there, isn't he?
19:10Robbie Williams?
19:10I heard a little rumour down the pub.
19:13Yeah.
19:14Well, not unless the owners have sold it.
19:24Thank you very much.
19:32Wow, good Lord.
19:33It actually, it actually looks like a little Georgian rectory.
19:40I say Georgian rectory.
19:43Of course, this thing's made out of breeze blocks, so it's a bit early to say, really.
19:48But look at it.
19:49The walls are up, the roof's on, they're building chimneys, and there are people here, which is marked contrast to when I was last here.
19:55Are you in a better frame of mind than you were when I saw you last?
19:59No.
20:00No.
20:01I'm up and down the whole time.
20:03Are you?
20:04Yeah.
20:04But isn't that you?
20:05That probably, yeah.
20:07But are you more excited about the build?
20:10I mean, I turned up this morning, and it's, you know, it's a house.
20:13Yeah, I know, but what you see is quite superficial.
20:16You know, I know what goes on behind.
20:18This is a facade, the house, and I know what's going on behind the scenes to get there.
20:22And I must admit, when I'm here, it's actually quite soothing.
20:24I just get involved in what's going on, I can see what's happening, and I go home, and then I crack up and sob.
20:31About?
20:32Well, basically, the finances, I guess.
20:35Really?
20:35But is that the one thing that kind of...
20:38Well, yeah, it's that they are well and truly over budget, well, very delayed.
20:43How much over budget are you going to be?
20:45Projected.
20:45At the end of the project, David has tried to take in account all sorts of other things that have come up subsequently.
20:52We're probably looking at about 140,000.
20:56I wasn't laughing.
20:57You could build a house for 140,000.
21:00A really nice house for 140 grand.
21:03I know, you could do a lot with it, couldn't you?
21:04But it's not that, it's not so much that, it's like, where are we going to find it?
21:07And that is the big question.
21:08Because you've already got a whacking great mortgage, haven't you?
21:10Oh, yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know.
21:12How much are you borrowing those?
21:13About three quarters of a mil or something?
21:16Yeah, it will be boring, yeah.
21:17I mean, what's the repayment on a mortgage of three quarters of a million pounds?
21:20Too much.
21:23They need to get the house watertight before winter.
21:26That means battening and felting the huge expanse of roof.
21:31It also means getting in Helen's precious windows.
21:34So this is the new window.
21:37One of the new windows that's going to go in, yeah?
21:39Yes.
21:39Yeah?
21:40Entirely different from the one that I saw propped up against the shed over there.
21:43Exactly.
21:43Which is what you want.
21:45This is what I wanted.
21:46And this is hardwood as well.
21:48Okay.
21:48And a really nice thin glazing bar section.
21:51These are 16 millimetres.
21:53And this is exactly what you wanted?
21:54Oh, yeah, look at that.
21:55That is a wafer.
21:57So what's the cost of your windows then?
22:00Well, originally they were going to be about £50,000.
22:03And...
22:03How many windows?
22:05Oh, I don't know, about 40-odd windows if you can't have worn up.
22:08There's a lot of windows in the house.
22:10And then there's French windows, as you can see here.
22:12They're big.
22:12Big ones.
22:13Big French windows.
22:14So I think these are going to work out slightly more, but not that much more.
22:19Not that much more.
22:20And this is down to you?
22:21To me, well, yeah, I obviously got together with the joiner who the company made them.
22:26But they knew what I wanted.
22:27Getting this right must be kind of quite a...
22:30Philip for you.
22:30It must have been a real spur.
22:32Yeah.
22:33Yeah, well, the thing is, I just...
22:35There's certain things I can let go of quality-wise, but certain things are really important.
22:38To me, the windows were probably one of the most important features of the house.
22:42I had to get them right.
22:43Well, standing on the roof, of course, it leads me to believe that the house is sort of nearing completion.
22:49Is that right?
22:50I wouldn't say that we're nearing completion yet, but we're certainly progressing at a much better rate than we were.
22:55And I think it's fair to say that we probably all feel a bit more optimistic that we're going to get there.
23:01You've got some...
23:01You've got chimneys built and stuff, and the roof is felted.
23:05Yeah, yeah.
23:05We're pretty well waterproof now.
23:08Yeah.
23:08Which you need to be, really, because it's nearly winter.
23:11It will be very nice to get indoors.
23:12We've had to plug a lot of gaps in a very short time to sort of bring it round from a job which was going nowhere to a job which is, I like to think, is now going somewhere.
23:25Exterior work on the main house may be coming to an end, but the build is now ten weeks behind schedule.
23:32So, now, you guys, are you looking forward to moving in?
23:37Yeah.
23:38Kind of.
23:39Kind of?
23:39It's about three quarters of my life to do, actually.
23:43About half of my life to actually design.
23:45And a quarter of my life to start to be built.
23:48So, it would be rather nice to spend some of your life living in it, wouldn't it?
23:53Last time we stood roughly in this position, it was on the floor below, in the cellar, yeah?
23:59That's right, in the cellar, yeah.
23:59Before this was built.
24:00And you said to me, it's only a house.
24:03It is only a house.
24:03It's become a bit more, hasn't it?
24:05It's become an all-consuming passion, a nightmare, a kind of...
24:13Not so much for me, I mean, I just let Helen get on with it.
24:16You have work to go to, of course, don't you?
24:18Yes, yes.
24:18I bury myself in that, so I don't feel like that's the house much.
24:22And how are you, I mean, in relation to the build, because what's your position there?
24:26Are you standing back from it?
24:28Yeah, I'd be like, Jeeves, really.
24:30Just make sure her life is bearable, because it is, you know, on the last two nights she's
24:36been up till 4.30 in the morning, working on plans and so on, and then having to get
24:42up for site meetings, so it's more than a full-time job for her at present, but she's
24:48coping very well, and I'm just, in the background, really, trying to give support, but...
24:54Plugging it away?
24:55But I don't really know the detail like she does, so it's difficult.
24:59The financial side, though, is a bit hairy, isn't it, because it costs more, it's gone
25:04on more, ten weeks or so over.
25:05Yes, it's, yeah, we'll end up with a bigger mortgage than we anticipated.
25:09And it's a big mortgage anyway, isn't it?
25:11Yes, it is, yeah, it is, it's large.
25:14Yeah.
25:15Well, that's all right.
25:16As long as you're happy, I'm happy, you know?
25:18Well, at the end of the day, it's going to be a magnificent place.
25:22They talk of location, location, location, this has got that, and it's spectacular.
25:28So, if the worst came to the worst, you know, as I said before, we could always sell it.
25:32Yeah, but could you sell it to recover your costs?
25:35I don't know, but at the end of the day, if we didn't, life still goes on.
25:39We could still buy a nice place to live in, we're very lucky.
25:41I've never lived in a house this large, so...
25:44I've been in hotels, but, you know, I'm not bothered.
25:51All the walls are now built.
25:53But, of course, Helen isn't planning on leaving all those crude and ugly cement blocks exposed.
25:58The whole building is going to get a cement overcoat of render.
26:03Indeed, just as many Georgian and Regency houses were rendered, often to hide dodgy brickwork.
26:11Grander buildings got grander render, often scraped with lines to resemble dressed stone,
26:17or even shaped into chunky, rusticated blocks to look like Renaissance palaces.
26:24The Christmas cake icing of the Brighton Pavilion is an extraordinary example of the Regency renderer's art.
26:32It is render gone mad.
26:36Helen had hoped to use an authentic period lime render, but not for the first time.
26:42Her dream is being compromised.
26:45I always thought I was having this very, very traditional lime render,
26:47and David turned around to me and said, well, actually, it isn't.
26:49It hasn't been specified like that.
26:50There's been a lot of confusion between myself and David.
26:52It's exactly what kind of render I'm having.
26:54And as it is, because of...
26:56It's just best to leave it as the architect's specification,
26:58in case there are problems in the future.
27:01How many coats, Helen?
27:02Three.
27:03Altogether, three?
27:04Yeah.
27:05We're hoping to get it all done by next Friday, and that's the hope.
27:08It depends on the weather.
27:09As ever.
27:10And the chimneys?
27:11The chimneys are done.
27:12Done.
27:13We can go and look at this.
27:14This is the main bit.
27:15I'd like to see...
27:16You would love that, wouldn't you?
27:17Are they...
27:18Are they the only thing that's finished?
27:20The only thing that's finished.
27:21What, that's finished?
27:22Yeah.
27:23Yeah, where?
27:24Well, no, no, it's going to be painted.
27:25OK.
27:26Oh, you've got a problem.
27:27You can't paint them now till the spring,
27:28because it's too wet to paint.
27:29OK.
27:30Well, no, now let's go and see them,
27:31because it's just one thing that is done.
27:33You know what I mean?
27:34Concluded.
27:35And, of course, Helen is so passionate about every detail
27:38that she's even created a special design for the tops of her chimneys
27:42that stand 40 feet above the ground.
27:45They've finished these chimneys completely, though, haven't they?
27:47Yes.
27:48It's a joy to see this.
27:49This is the moulding.
27:50Yeah, this is my chimney capping.
27:51Great to see.
27:52And this is in stone?
27:53Reconstituted stone.
27:54Reconstituted, cast.
27:55Reconstituted stone, yeah?
27:56Yes.
27:57Are you pleased with it?
27:58I'm very pleased.
27:59I'm very pleased with the colour.
28:00I spent a long time running around with bits of stone around Surrey
28:02holding up against people's houses.
28:04What are you going to paint it with?
28:05I'm going to paint it in a stone colour.
28:07A stone, very sort of, I suppose, dirty, well, like this.
28:10Right.
28:11Similar to...
28:12Lime wash?
28:13Well, once I get my head around exactly what my render is,
28:15then I will make a selection based on that.
28:18In the meantime, this has got to go off, hasn't it?
28:20Yes, that's right.
28:21And, presumably, this is why they've put all this plastic up at the moment
28:23to kind of...
28:24To protect it.
28:25Just protect it from the weather.
28:26So it can cure...
28:27And how long is it then before you can paint it?
28:29Well, it's...
28:30Well, David tells me now we're going to have to leave it till spring.
28:32Really?
28:33Because the paint won't...
28:34Because it just won't dry.
28:35It just won't dry and stay on.
28:36Yeah.
28:42Is this Welsh slate?
28:43No, it's not Welsh slate, no.
28:44No? What is it?
28:45I have a...
28:46I think it's Chinese slate.
28:48It comes all the way from China?
28:50Yes.
28:51How much is it?
28:52I think these are about 87 pence of slate.
28:55That's cheap.
28:56Yeah.
28:57It is.
28:58Compared to the price of Welsh slate, which is...
29:00To be honest, I don't know.
29:01I've got this figure of about £4 a slate in my head.
29:03But I think it's probably more like...
29:04My goodness.
29:05I think it's probably about two.
29:06I don't know.
29:07I just know it's a lot more.
29:08It's a lot more.
29:09But you're happy with the quality of it?
29:10I'm very happy with the quality of it.
29:11When I originally sourced this, they didn't have a British standard to it.
29:14But they have done that now.
29:15Oh, really?
29:16Well, a lot of slate has a bad reputation for a foreign slate.
29:18Like Spanish slate.
29:19People say it crumbles.
29:20It doesn't last so long.
29:21Blah, blah, blah.
29:22But this is good.
29:23But this apparently has now had the British standard applied to it.
29:25So, in my opinion, it's just as good as well.
29:26Right.
29:27Yes.
29:28But it seems to me that the build is progressing now.
29:29It's kind of really moving forward.
29:30That's right.
29:31Things are starting to really happen.
29:32Where are you going to be, say, in a month's time at Christmas?
29:35What stage will the build be at?
29:37Well, I guess the roof will be finished by then.
29:39The renderers will have been finished.
29:41We'll be on more internals.
29:43Windows in?
29:44Yeah.
29:45They should be glazing in the next couple of weeks.
29:48Really?
29:49So, they should be coming in.
29:50So, by Christmas, it should be watertight?
29:52Fairly watertight, yeah.
29:54Mark, also tell me that you're working till 4 or 4.30 every morning.
29:58Not quite every morning, but most.
30:00Sometimes I work through nights about 6, and then sometimes I might go to bed about 2.
30:06What are you doing?
30:07What am I doing?
30:08Well, some weeks, for example, between September and probably about two weeks ago, I was on
30:12here three days a week, full time.
30:14The other two days, I was out looking for things.
30:16I had to go up to London to look for some eye mongering.
30:18I had to go here.
30:19I had to check out all the details out.
30:20That leaves me no time at all then.
30:22I then have to come home and try and consolidate that.
30:24Also, just keep on top of our general finances, all our, you know, just running a home
30:29and children and sorting things through, and it just takes me through the night.
30:33I also find it easier to work through the night because there's no phone calls, no
30:36school runs to worry about, no having to tidy away all my papers and things.
30:40I can just sit there.
30:41I can start at about 10 o'clock, and I can work through to 4, 6 pure hours.
30:44How are you doing on the drawings?
30:46Things like profiles and shapes and templates.
30:48How does that happen?
30:49Do you sit there and do it yourself?
30:51I copy everything.
30:52I'm not original at all.
30:53I know what I want.
30:54I go through my books.
30:55You're not the first person to do that.
30:56No, no.
30:57I go through books.
30:58I copy things.
30:59I sort of sketch things out for David.
31:01I show him things.
31:02Between my books, me, and these people who know their jobs, then I know I'm getting what
31:07I want.
31:08It's November, and after seven months, at last, some of the Regency features are appearing
31:16on Helen and Mark's home, but there's still a long way to go.
31:21So you're not happy, then?
31:24Well, it needs to be finished off and sorted out and dusted down and...
31:29It is poured concrete.
31:31Let's not forget.
31:32I thought it was reconstituted stone.
31:34I think that's a posh word for poured concrete, isn't it?
31:37In a mould.
31:39I don't know.
31:40I mean, to me, it looks like it could be, you know, 250 years old, and after all,
31:43that's what you want.
31:44Yeah.
31:45Yeah.
31:46Well, we'll see, won't we?
31:47We'll see.
31:48And inside...
31:49Yes, the inside looks remarkably similar to when I was last here.
31:54Well, that's because they've been doing first-fix electrics.
31:57So, in fact, it is remarkably similar.
31:59Yes, it is.
32:00Nothing's changed much.
32:01No, but we've been doing electrics.
32:02They've been putting in window frames.
32:04Ah, yes.
32:05Glass in the windows?
32:06Yeah.
32:07Glass is coming on.
32:08OK.
32:09Wow, you've got your very own glazing factory here.
32:12Look.
32:13Look at him go.
32:14Watch that putty go in.
32:16It's like watching somebody ice a cake.
32:19It's fantastic.
32:20This is for where, this window?
32:22This is going to be a dining room.
32:24Yeah?
32:25Downstairs, yeah.
32:26Curved window.
32:27Yeah.
32:28Not curved glass as well, is it?
32:29Yes, it is.
32:30And the glass just pops into the putty, just like that?
32:32Beautiful.
32:33This is the sort of glass that people like English Heritage use in their windows.
32:36Yeah, yeah.
32:37Because it has imperfections in it, so it's not bland, it's not flat.
32:40It doesn't look blank in the window.
32:42So when the light reflects on it, all the clouds will scud across and you'll see everything
32:47will move.
32:48What's your passion about this?
32:49I mean, why are you so enthusiastic about this glass?
32:51Because when you hold it up like this and you look along it, you can see all the little
32:55movements.
32:56Oh!
32:57All the ripples.
32:58And that, that.
32:59Yeah.
33:00And the reflection.
33:01Yeah.
33:02If you walk past a modern window, it's bland, it's black, it's just got nothing there.
33:06You walk past one of these, it's divided into twelve panes, all of them reflect back
33:10at different.
33:11Some will have bits of sky coming back, some will have something else.
33:13Yeah.
33:14And as you move, the whole thing, it's living, it's live, and it just looks absolutely beautiful.
33:18And our whole house, they kind of wink at you, they're alive, they're like eyes,
33:22all the different colours in them.
33:23And the way modern float glass just doesn't do that.
33:25And, no, no, and in itself, despite everything else, it's just a beautiful, it's just beautiful.
33:31I just, I just love it anyway, full stop.
33:33And how much does this cost?
33:35The actual, the three mil glass costs about 55 pounds a square metre.
33:39What, a square metre?
33:40Yeah.
33:41And if you tuffen or laminated, it's about 150.
33:44Hey!
33:45So a square metre of this is 150 pounds, so this must be 25 pounds worth or something.
33:50Something like that, this piece of laminated glass.
33:53And then, of course, it costs more to get it cut and things.
33:55Very expensive, to get it cut as well.
33:56We've got over 50 windows in this house.
33:58And, like, God knows how many French windows at the back, seven French windows at the back.
34:05This is a proper way to hang your windows, isn't it?
34:08You know, brass pulleys?
34:09Yeah.
34:10Sash boxes?
34:11Yes.
34:12Sash weights?
34:13Yeah.
34:14It's a sort of friction-held nonsense that modern sash windows have.
34:16They ought to be very easy to imagine.
34:17They are.
34:18And I was just saying, I was saying to Martin earlier, I've never ever opened a window.
34:22My experience with sash windows are things, yeah, kind of wriggle up.
34:25Is that one done?
34:26Can we open it?
34:27Yes, it is.
34:28Is it?
34:29It's probably distressingly too easy.
34:30Is it?
34:31Yeah.
34:32Oh!
34:33It goes by itself.
34:34I know.
34:35Isn't that fantastic?
34:36And everything else is kind of all going to plan.
34:41Can you see the end?
34:42I mean, can you yet see where it's all going?
34:45No.
34:46Can you?
34:47Look at it.
35:02It's now the middle of February.
35:07And on the original schedule, this is the point at which the whole house, everything,
35:12would have been finished.
35:13Of course, it's nowhere near finished.
35:15But Helen and Mark do have a building.
35:19A very big building.
35:24It may be big, but it is broken up with detail and a clever mix of materials.
35:31I think the central bow and the orangery at the back really work well.
35:35And Helen's obsession with period accuracy has produced delicate detailing you can't find
35:41in your usual Georgian repro home.
35:44My one doubt is that the roof seems just a little too wide and too low.
35:52Inside, it's still hard to tell, although the building has now got rooms.
35:57Helen's been dreaming of her interiors for six years.
36:01She may not have any money left to complete them according to her plans.
36:05But if there's one thing I've learned about Helen, she's not a woman to let go of her dreams.
36:10Of course, the thing is that you, and only you, Helen, knows every single detail in this building, don't you?
36:15That's right. Yes, it's all in my head. It's all here.
36:18Now, this room is... This is the study. This is your study, isn't it?
36:22This is my study. This is my study.
36:23And this, to me, probably, this is going to be my High Regency room, and it's going to epitomise very much my personality.
36:29And these are your colours here, these great big red panels?
36:32What will happen is I'll probably get about 50 different colour shades, and a bit like lipstick, I'll mix it up myself to get the colour I want.
36:38So... Yeah.
36:39But that, I'm not sure about this colour. I feel maybe it's probably a little bit too pink.
36:44I want something a bit more blood red, a bit more drama to it.
36:47This is just, to me, you know, we saw this at auction.
36:51This is beautiful. This is original, is it? Very Regency?
36:54Very, very, very Regency. To me, epitomises everything about Regency, the sort of black and the sort of feet and the gold and the eagles.
37:03When did you buy it?
37:04About 15 months ago.
37:06Really?
37:07But, well, we thought the project was starting, and we just sort of let rip.
37:11It was like, wow, the house is going to be starting in March. This is fantastic. It's beautiful. Let's buy it.
37:15And we got it at a very good price.
37:20The floor is going to be American. It's going to be oak.
37:23American oak.
37:24Uh-huh. American oak.
37:25Because American oak can look very bland, can't it?
37:27Yeah, but...
37:28But this has got a lot of figure in it.
37:29Well, I went along myself, personally, and looked at all the woods.
37:32I spent days, I spent days, I went around all the sawmills in the south, west of England, looking at various bits of wooden things.
37:38And I chose this one because it did have a nice grain to it.
37:40Uh-huh.
37:41And I'm going to be naughty then. I'm going to stain it down to make it look like it's old.
37:44I'm not going to just leave it like that and just wax it up.
37:46This is your sitting room?
37:48This is our sitting room.
37:49Yeah, so what colour is it going to be?
37:51It's going to be a sort of turquoise, yeah, turquoise and powder pink theme to this one, into this room.
37:56Or we're going to have a big antique, no, it's not a big antique, it's a Regency antique fireplace that's been restored.
38:01Right.
38:02And that's still up in London. That's going to go there.
38:03We're going to have, like, three settees, you know, very, very traditionally sort of sat round it.
38:06No television in this room, absolutely not.
38:07No TV?
38:08Nope. No, no, no.
38:09I want a room where we can come and sit and listen to music and play Scrabble and things like that.
38:15And I'm going to have a sofa table at the back there.
38:16Like a proper old-fashioned family.
38:18Yeah, that's right.
38:19You haven't got a massive budget.
38:20I haven't got any budget. It's gone.
38:22No, no, this room will rest empty. This room will rest empty and gradually we'll, you know, sort it out.
38:31So through here, these double doors, into the dining room.
38:35Yes.
38:36And you have another set of double doors into the garden.
38:38That's right.
38:39And you can hang the chandelier here.
38:41Yes. And that's got a cobalt blue bottom to it, if you remember.
38:45And that will be right over the centre. It'll come down quite low.
38:48Fantastic.
38:49This is what I call my secret door, because it's going to be flush, flush on this side.
38:53So in the dining room, you don't see it. It will just all come round.
38:56Oh, really? Yeah.
38:57Nice big kitchen, Helen.
38:58Well...
38:59It's massive.
39:00This is the same size as the sitting room.
39:02Along the back here, I've got a big alpha, which looks like an aga kind of cooker.
39:07Yeah. In black.
39:08Big range.
39:09In front of that, I've got a huge big island, which is like the main, probably the main work surface.
39:13Yeah. You keep using the word huge.
39:14Huge. Well, I like big kitchens.
39:16I've spent my whole life in small kitchens, and I wanted a big, big kitchen with lots and lots of space, because I'm a very messy worker.
39:21Right.
39:22You have thought about every detail of this kitchen, haven't you?
39:24Of course I have.
39:25I've lived with this kitchen for six years.
39:27Yeah.
39:28Now, this orangery is the least finished room, isn't it?
39:31Yes, we've had a lot of problems with this.
39:33It's the one that I have the most difficulty imagining.
39:36Well, I don't.
39:37No.
39:38This is going to be my absolute piece de resistance room.
39:40It's going to be oval.
39:41Yeah.
39:42It's got these amazing arches that go all the way around it.
39:44Yeah.
39:45It creates a colonnaded effect.
39:46Yeah.
39:47And on the back here, we're going to have antique mirror glass.
39:51It's going to be this stuff here, which you can see is just absolutely gorgeous.
39:54Oh, this is, yeah, antique, speckled.
39:56That's right.
39:57It's not bright.
39:58It's not bright, bright, bright, modern silver.
39:59Mm, grey.
40:00It's got a lovely silvery smoky, smoky grey shirt.
40:01And above?
40:02What's going on?
40:03Above, we've got a big, big glass lantern that probably takes up quite a large area here,
40:07so it's going to be completely suffusive light.
40:11Helen's built a house on the scale of her imagination.
40:15It has six rooms downstairs and four double bedrooms upstairs, not counting the four guest rooms
40:21over the garage.
40:23And her dreams for the inside are as extravagant and ambitious.
40:28This, this is my bedroom, our bedroom.
40:32That was the slip, wasn't it?
40:35But it's, already it's become my favourite room.
40:38It's just something about the windows, the glass, the shape, the light.
40:42And are you hanging this on your walls?
40:45One day, when we can afford it, we'll have this.
40:48This is not printed wallpaper, is it?
40:51No, it's, it's silk, it's hand-painted silk, backed onto paper.
40:54I first saw this in a book six years ago.
40:56Beautiful.
40:57And I fell passionately in love with it.
40:58And to this day, I just, I will hold out to the bitter end to get this wallpaper.
41:03But not cheap at all.
41:04I mean, how much to do your entire room in this?
41:06Well, I had a quote for about £5,000.
41:09So, in the short term, we're just going to have to paint it green.
41:13And in the middle here, we're going to have my bed.
41:15Yeah?
41:16Our bed.
41:17What's that going to be like?
41:18That's going to be, it's going to be a sort of Venetian, sort of chinoiserie style.
41:22Venetian chinoiserie.
41:24With curly posts, but not four poster.
41:27How big is this?
41:28Well, you can get it made of any size you want.
41:30But I want a seven foot wide bed.
41:32Whoa!
41:33So we can all pile in on a Saturday morning and just sit and chat and read the papers.
41:37And there's room for everybody.
41:39What does Mark feel about that?
41:40Is he happy to go along with that?
41:41Mark doesn't like that bed.
41:43But again, that is something, it is horrendously expensive.
41:45And in the short term, we won't be able to afford that anymore.
41:47No.
41:48Well, no doubt he'll exercise his taste in due course and persuade you away from that.
41:51I will persuade him.
41:52I will persuade him.
41:53You will persuade him.
41:54I will persuade him.
41:55Are you having all this white linen on it?
41:56Yes.
41:57I want this plain white linen.
41:58Yeah.
41:59Fantastic.
42:00All antiques and white and crisp and regency.
42:03So really, no expense spared in this room really?
42:07Well, this is what I said we will have one day.
42:09And is this the cornice that's going on the ceiling?
42:11Yes.
42:12This is my...
42:13Little sort of gothic, Chinese gothic pattern.
42:16Which way round does it go?
42:17I think it's that way round.
42:19That way, yes.
42:20And I want, I just adore this, this OG arch.
42:23And I'm going to try and emulate that in the corners there.
42:25But I think we're going to have problems building it on elevation.
42:27Right.
42:28But if I'm here looking through that doorway, is that your bar, that's your bathroom and
42:32dressing room?
42:33That's right.
42:34Through there.
42:35And I designed this as such that we can actually look down and see the fireplace.
42:38Because there's no room in this oval room for fireplace.
42:40But I wanted, I wanted a fireplace.
42:42I love fireplaces.
42:43And I really think they're synonymous with a period.
42:45So it draws you into the, into the room as well.
42:47Right.
42:48So where's the bath and all the shower and the rest of it?
42:51Well, this is where Mark had a complete creative spurt.
42:55And he said to me, what you should do in this room is put the bath right in the middle.
42:59In the middle.
43:00So you look over the bath.
43:01That's right.
43:02It's a great, extravagant use of space.
43:03It really is.
43:04We decided we didn't need five bedrooms.
43:05So let's make this into one big, huge bathroom for ourselves.
43:08Yeah.
43:09So this is a big, white, traditional roll-top bath.
43:11This is a big, yeah.
43:12Massive, great, big, chrome, nickel, gold-plated tap.
43:17Yes, it's big French taps and big, big, big gold feet.
43:20Massive, great, big, huge gold feet on the corners.
43:22So not at all ostentatious or show off in any way?
43:25No, it's big enough for both of us.
43:27Yeah.
43:28And then these are what here?
43:30These rooms are off?
43:31This is, this is the walk-in wardrobe.
43:33So everyone should have.
43:34Can I walk in?
43:35You may.
43:36The problem is I've got to share it with Mark.
43:37I tell you, you've got a lot of clothes in here.
43:40It's enormous for a walk-in wardrobe.
43:42Yeah.
43:43But again, I didn't want to waste space.
43:44No, that's for both of us.
43:45Okay.
43:46This is a shower.
43:47So you walk in here through the first arch.
43:49That's enormous.
43:50And then when you walk through, there's a second arch,
43:51which is slightly smaller, so it creates a frame around the first.
43:54This is a shower?
43:55Yeah.
43:56And I've got some Persian-type tiles.
43:58Uh-huh.
43:59Very, very oriental to go down the back there.
44:00Whoa.
44:01And has Mark had much input into the interior design schemes?
44:04Mmm.
44:05No.
44:06Um, Mark, no, what happens is I go and choose things,
44:10I look things, I hunt things down, and I say to Mark,
44:12what do you think?
44:13If he says no, that's fine, I'll go and find some more stuff.
44:15Everything goes by him.
44:16And generally speaking, we're very, we're lucky.
44:18I don't appreciate how lucky we are.
44:19We do have such similar tastes.
44:20What are you looking forward to, particularly, about the place,
44:23now that you can see a real building with rooms and so on?
44:26Um, it's, it's being in a place that's large, with fantastic large,
44:31I, I don't think we'll believe it.
44:33It'll be, be like, um, being born again.
44:36It'll be absolutely fantastic.
44:37Yeah.
44:38And, and the thought of the children being able to run around the garden.
44:41Mm.
44:42As a businessman, what would your advice be to someone who's going to try and build something
44:48like this?
44:49Is it a psychiatrist?
44:51Uh, I think it's, uh, don't.
44:54It really has been, um, a very difficult, uh, time for us both.
45:00Certainly it is not something, uh, we'd, we'd want to do again.
45:03Are you going to be able to forget those experiences and enjoy the house?
45:08Um, I will, I'll put them to the back of my mind as soon as possible.
45:14Forget it's a different issue, but certainly, um, back of the mind.
45:20So to get where you've got to now, how much have you had to sacrifice financially?
45:27Everything.
45:29You've got a huge mortgage, haven't you?
45:32Yeah, I've got a huge mortgage.
45:33Yeah.
45:34And in terms of the budget and the, and the elements that you've had to give up, what's
45:37you've had to go?
45:38Well, the landscape had to go.
45:39That was just straight off.
45:40How much was that worth?
45:41That was about 80,000 pounds.
45:43And...
45:44Nothing you can't sort out with the JCB?
45:46No.
45:47Mark's going to do it himself, he's told me.
45:49Fantastic.
45:50What a great project.
45:51Yeah.
45:52What else have you had to give up?
45:53Well, well, we just had to give up financial, uh, financial security, basically.
45:56We've got to raise, we've got to raise at least anywhere between 120 and 150, if
46:01not more thousand pounds.
46:03And...
46:04What, that you still haven't got?
46:05Yeah.
46:06We're having to go back to the building society and ask for more money.
46:12And, and it's, you know, it's, it's, it's disturbing.
46:15Yeah.
46:16The one, the one positive side of this is at least I had to gamble the money away on a
46:20roulette table.
46:21This is an asset and it can be sold.
46:23So how much do you think you'll be able to sell it for?
46:25I would hope for about...
46:26If you had to.
46:27If I had to sell this, you know, tidy up the garden, blah, blah, blah, blah, about 1.8 million,
46:30I'd hope.
46:31When I first started, it was a dream house, house of my dreams.
46:34And I was just so excited and I was running around, you know, picking paints and things.
46:37And then when all the problems started, it's like you had to get your business head on around this.
46:41This is a problem.
46:42This is something that's got to be sorted out and, and reign it in.
46:44I came home one day, Kevin, and I was absolutely gutted.
46:47I'd been like up all night.
46:48I'd been crying.
46:49I'd been worrying myself silly about the money.
46:50And I came home and I looked through the window and I saw the children playing.
46:53And from that moment on, it was like a big weight lifted off my shoulders.
46:56And I realised it just doesn't matter.
46:57And that's the one thing I've learnt this past year.
46:59It's a perspective on what is really important in life.
47:02And at the end of the day, the home is where myself and Mark and the children are.
47:05Not this.
47:06This is a house.
47:07And it will always be a house.
47:09So you really have changed, haven't you?
47:12Yeah.
47:13But it's very liberating as well.
47:15And that's why it's a wonderful feeling to be able to say to you,
47:18I could sell this tomorrow and not buy that an eyelid.
47:20That is just a wonderful feeling, not to be weighed down by your possessions.
47:25And it's, you know, and it's, it's, you know, I think it's a lucky lesson to have learnt really.
47:32For someone who's never built anything before and who ended up running this vast project single-handedly,
47:38Helen's pulled it off far more successfully than I ever thought she would.
47:42But what her commitment and her enthusiasm have proved is that you can build a really ambitious dream,
47:50but only if you're prepared to sacrifice almost every other part of your life.
47:55And that's something she's learnt the hard way.
47:59Another scene of myself, you would suggest that who rolled a night away.
48:00How to improve interior life?
48:02That's notkur...
48:03How to?
48:04How to make it and pursue a whole?