Grand Designs have met some dedicated homeowners over the years, but none more so than Ed and Rowena Waghorn, who build their five bedroom home on a very tight budget.
The couple have taken over ten years to build their dream home, and it is in fact still not finished.
They turned an eight-acre smallholding in Herefordshire into an impressive thatched family home, complete with a “cathedral” style central window.
Kevin McCloud has followed the Waghorns in their quest, in what has become the longest-running Grand Designs ever.
The Waghorns continued the build through redundancy and while raising four children and dozens of animals.
McCloud described progress of the build as “glacially slow”. and a friend of the family compared the project to “like building a cathedral”, as it has become a project spanning generations.
The property was so slow because each wooden beam is individually carved, with walls of straw and clay.
There are also 2000 cedar shingles on the roof, all of which Ed handcrafted himself.
A staircase, described as “spectacular” by Kevin, is made from oiled, drawn wood, carved by Ed.
Seven years of building passed before the family moved in, although they admit there is still a “mountain” of work to be done.
The children also help to complete the home, mixing their own paint and painting it onto their bedroom walls.
As money starts to dry up, the couple get inventive, renting out the part of the house that is finished to fund completion. They also live from the proceeds raised from their smallholding.
Looking back on their decade of building, Ed said his “legacy” has been “living within our means” – allowing the family to have no worries they wouldn’t complete their plans.
Ed did accept, however, the property may never be entirely finished, although this is the joy of it.
Even Kevin McCloud was slowly turned over to the Waghorn’s way of thinking, and he said: “I enjoyed myself so much on this project, I found myself not saying ‘hurry up and get on with it’.”
Last week, Kevin met a couple who built a tiny home on a plot of land in London.