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REVIEW: At least once in every Grand Designs UK series, we get a build that tugs at the heartstrings, and this week’s project is that story. It’s one of those tales that make you realise how life can change in an instant, and why the hell don’t we just get on with our dreams while we can.
It’s unusual for a Grand Designs show to start with a wedding video, but the reason soon becomes clear, for we see John and Helen dancing outdoors, full of laughter and happiness at their wedding in 2007. Helen throws her bouquet into the crowd. The next time we see her she is in a wheelchair.
The couple live in a beautiful 17th-century farmhouse near Dunstable, Bedfordshire, but their lives changed suddenly in 2018 when Helen, a vet, had a stroke as they walked out one morning to feed the horses in the stable. As John, a retired businessman, tells it: “She was in a coma for three weeks and when she started to come out, was really very seriously disabled.”
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After a mere two months, John and Helen’s magnificent pavilion house in Bedfordshire is already transforming their lives in the best way possible.
Helen now has aphasia, a condition affecting her ability to speak and understand what others say. She needs a wheelchair and full-time care. And the old farmhouse, with its narrow steep stairs, narrow doors and changing levels, is no longer suitable.
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“It’s forced us to live separate lives,” John says. “I remain living in the house, whilst Helen lives in the [renovated] barn. And while it is very comfy in the barn, it is not something we want to do for life.”
Presenter Kevin McCloud talks to John’s son Ollie. “Their life just completely changed – in fact shattered around them. Dad’s now a full-time carer and there’s certainly been times when I’ve felt like Dad just wouldn’t cope.”
And this is where a new house comes into the story – a house designed to meet their current needs, that lets them be together. It’s going up on a 0.8ha country plot, replacing a “clapped-out” bungalow on the site.
They’re planning what is essentially a light-filled glass pavilion with a wildlife-friendly garden that will encourage animals to wander through – because of Helen’s love of animals.
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Kevin McCloud is in awe of the way the glass pavilion house has come together.
“Instead of fighting against change, we will embrace it’
John and Helen will get a “different perspective” on life. And John says something we should all take onboard: “Instead of fighting against change, we will embrace it.”
The house plan, designed by ArkleBoyce Architects, looks amazing. The graphics show a minimalist steel-framed building with a solid green roof that will appear to float above the glass walls on one side, and flint walls on the other. There will be a timber-clad office for John on the first floor, and an annex for a carer.
It will be a smart home, with technology controlled remotely, and a lift will provide access to a basement physio room, snug and wine cellar. So far, so perfect.
Ollie, a developer, is going to project manage the build, and McCloud predicts difficulty with the glass pavilion (speaking from experience). All of which makes this a show where you don’t even want to hit the pause button to make a cuppa.
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John is pictured with son Ollie, who project managed the build, and McCloud.
They paid £850,000 (NZ$1.71m) for the land, and the build will cost around £1.3 million (NZ$2.62m), to be partly funded by the sale of their existing house. The build is expected to take 16 months, but McCloud says it’ll be two years. But he loves their optimism.
There’s a lot of emphasis on the concrete spine that will run up through all levels – we call it board-formed concrete, but it’s termed shuttered concrete in the UK. The concrete retains the grain of the wood used in the formwork. It’s textural and looks “cracking”.
The farmhouse gets sold, and John and Helen now have a deadline to be out of there and into the new one. Ollie gets told to finish two months early, and McCloud thinks John is taking advantage: “If it were a main contractor that he’d employed, a third party, they’d have told him where to get off.”
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There is ample space for Helen to manoeuvre her wheelchair.
Heart-wrenching first visit for Helen
The steel goes up and John brings Helen to the site and onto the building platform, and it’s overwhelming. She is able to stand holding a post, and she cries. As will everyone watching this; it is heart-wrenching.
John has to trust his instincts: “I actually feel, in an odd way, that this house, this building, can be the key to unlocking that different future.”
But, as McCloud says you can’t rush great architecture – he shows us a stunning example of a glass pavilion on the Isle of Wight; it’s almost an invisible building.
Sure enough, the couple’s build does take longer than John hopes. There are problems with the concrete fascia and welds snapping, which is a massive delay. But the fabricators take responsibility, and eventually they can get on with things.
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This is Helen and John’s beautiful bedroom, with the terrazzo ensuite behind, which John calls his folly.
The floor gets poured, and the kitchen goes in before the walls are up. Not a great idea, but at least John finds them some temporary accommodation. And in the meantime, they are having to downsize and sell lots of their possessions, which is really tough.
It’s not just the house that needs to be perfect – the garden is everything; the thing that will lift Helen’s spirits and transform their lives.
Grand reveal has a surprise in store
McCloud arrives back, and the house is not the only thing that has changed. Helen has clearly improved, also.
They have only been in the house for two months, and the landscaping is still underway, but the place is a revelation. It sits low in the landscape – it’s no English folly. It’s a superb piece of architecture.
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There’s plenty of space for alfresco living.
The flint walls you see on arrival give the house a sense of permanence and solidity, while the glass walls on the other side give the complete opposite impression. Here, it is all about transparency and connection with the landscape.
We get a tour through the house. It’s very large, with wide openings and plenty of space for Helen to negotiate her way around in the wheelchair. McCloud seems unsure of the Modernist bathroom design, but it is seriously cool – all credit to John.
They check out the basement, and wow, a lot of their old stuff is in the basement snug, which is so cosy, with the wine cellar right there behind glass doors. The gym next door is equally impressive.
“This is perfect,” McCloud says, and he is just as much in awe of the architecture. “Gravity-defying is one thing, but this building laughs in the face of gravity.”
Already, Helen and John’s lives both appear to have been transformed, as anticipated by John. He was so right. This house is transformative. It’s all about the natural world beyond, which is undoubtedly healing for both of them.
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The couple have created a pond, which they hope will encourage small animals, so Helen, a vet, can sit and enjoy the wildlife.
And here’s the biggie: “Slowly, but surely, it’s coming together again for Helen. She is now starting to walk,” John says. And we see this, as John walks her down the wide hallway, a move that echoes their walk down the “aisle” on their wedding say.
Ollie and wife Steph, who helped with the interior design, are on hand, and it’s a fitting way to end this show. The whole family celebrating together.
And the money? They’ve run over, to £1.8 million (a total of NZ$5.34m, including the land), but it was worth it.
In summary, there are three heroes in this build – Helen, for her incredible acceptance, patience and perseverance; John for his amazing love, tenderness and foresight; and Ollie, for making it all happen.
This is quite possibly the best Grand Designs ever.
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