Property Ladder & Grand Designs

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Anyone else been watching them?

Really quite inspiring programmes, I particularly like Grand Designs.

I thought that the couple last week were quite amazing in what they had managed to achieve with such a small budget too! Quite breath taking property, very simple yet elegant and sympathetic. Was quite amazing the energy and drive that they had (they weren't young).

If anyone didn't see the programme, the house (an old barn) was in the South of Italyand what was quite peculiar in that they were applying for planning retrospectively (much more expensive but quite normal apparently and avoids planning regs). But this can only be done once every ten years and the basic builiding has to be complete. The couple discovered that the deadline had been changed for this planning application and they had only 24 hours to loosely construct the basic outline of the building by stacking the bricks (no mortar) just to take photo's to prove the structure existed! Quite bizarre!

I can't believe the people they have on Property Ladder! So stubborn and unwilling to listen to advice. The advice given from the presenter - Sarah Beeny is just discarded (even though she obviously very good at it, self made etc.) I would be hanging on to her every word. Do you think the programme makers deliberately pick people that will ignore her advice or is it contrived in any way???

It makes me wonder how these people manage to achieve savings to fund these projects???

 

[big-all]

i am an avid watcher last week as you say lets build a bilding over night
take a picture demolish and start again

or week before lets paint it lots of unsympathetic colours
and lets not understand the the locals not liking our colours
as they only ever paint white with red roofs
i actualy like lots of bright colours but you must fit in

big all

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Oh god, yes the two girls!

How much did she spend on jewelled tiles...

Even though I'm not an art deco fan I thought the house looked stunning from the outside. But she absolutely trashed the interior with her very personal tastes. (except the stair rails which looked great).

But to not clearly clearly design and plan the general layout from the offset... just sheer madness!

 

[big-all]

i was so flabergasted [what ever that means]at best a 100 k profit
turned into a possible 36k loss pool harbour lovely place
but get it wrong your in trouble what was wrongwith them
leave it nice and neutral notspend £2000 on bathroom tiles
and another £5000 on colours i like but no one elese does
i think she was slightly out of control
but the end results where spectacular if not extravigant
and what was it £250 a wall no £250 aroll for walpaper

big all

 

[AdamW]

Ms. Beenie is great... and her property developing advice is usually pretty sound too. I love the way when she gives good advice and then the "developer" says "No, you don't know what you're talking about. A full-length window in front of a downstairs toilet, directly onto the street, will add £50K to the value of this house!", she just raises her eyebrows and you can tell she is thinking "Fine, I'll just keep my experience and advice to myself then!".

But then on the voice-over "Mrs Chitzforbrains isn't following my advice, and I fear she is making a mistake. I really hope she doesn't lose all her freakin' money, the silly bint.".

There was a brilliant one, back when those two Scottish men who were "good with colours", i.e. they "enjoyed clothes shopping", they were trying to make a million from £100K via some very strange maths (where did the extra £100s of K come from to buy each successive house? They weren't making profit!). Whilst those two were struggling to make a grand total of about 100K with a million pounds investment (near enough), Sarah B returned to a lady who had followed all of her advice and was now in possession of millions of pounds of properties, all either rented out or in the process of conveyance. She certainly did pretty well for herself!

The one a couple of nights ago on Discovery H&L was interesting. Really nice guy, bought a house and had some good ideas, but ended up spending too much. He was very keen to take Sarah's advice, was even asking for it, and I think he really benefitted from it. He didn't make much real profit in the end, but if he had steamed ahead like some of the people on that programme, he would have lost a LOT!

Anyone have any idea what Sarah is up to outside of TV land? From what she says it sounds like she is a high-flying developer, but I have never heard her name associated with particular properties or projects.

The guy who presents Grand Designs, Kevin I think, what else has he been in? I am sure I have seen him elsewhere.

 

[big-all]

im not shure but i think ive seen KEVIN on a program
about ancient arcatecture [or maybee it was perry]

big all

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Sarah Beenie... Yes you would wouldn't you! Something very sexy about her, but can't quite figure it out...

Kevin Mc Cloud
Clever chap, I seem to remember a programme which he visited important buildings and structures like the jodderal bank telescope. But wasn't listed on the web site.

Very watchable presenter, and happens to present exactly the kind of programmes I like.

So how many languages can he speak?

 

[Studders]

So how many languages can he speak?

By the looks of it I'd say 'all of them'

 

[securespark]

Liked the progs just gone.

Esp Grand Designs. Refurb of a Resistance HQ after 60 yrs dereliction. But I asked my missus the question that the owners asked at the end - "If the locals are so thrilled this place has been restored, why haven't they done it before now??????"

Found it funny when Kevin said "Ca Va?" to an elderly resident.

He grunted, and corrected him with "Comment allez vous?"

"Ca Va" is very modern - people of previous generations do not like the modern "slangy" French. Same with "Salut".....and any English words Le Weekend, Le Football, Le Carparking etc..

But other than that, he's got a good grasp - spoke Italian on the other prog too.

Don't ever complain there's too much French in our language again!

Perhaps there's some French people remarking in conversation "That's life" or "a little I don't know what"........

 

[AdamW]

There have been literal translations: "sans soucis", for example. It means, literally, "without concerns". But it means "no worries", "no problem" etc.

L'Academie are the bu**ers who try to stop the influx of mainly English words. Officially, an e-mail is now "un courriel", short for "courrier electronique", literally "electronic mail". But I have not met a frenchman yet who knew that. They say "e-mail".

These things happen between all languages though. We all know the term "Franglais", and what it means. We don't call it "Englench" or "Fringlish" out of contention. We don't insist on calling baguettes "long bread". But it even happens with Japanese. The word for "male corporate employee" is "sarariman" (salary man), and "female corporate employee" is "oeru" ("O.L.", meaning "Office Lady").

A Parisian taxi driver taught me a brilliant use of an English word used in France in a totally different context. We were waiting at some traffic lights, and a rather healthy-looking young lady crossed the road. We both nodded in approval, he turned to me and said...

"Ah, les airbags."