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S01:E03 - Ruth and Tony

The House That 100K Built

Season 1 Episode 3 - Ruth and Tony

2012 · 1 hr 1 min
TV-G
With house prices out of the reach of many people and banks refusing to lend, buying a home in the UK is becoming an impossible dream. So a few brave but ordinary souls are trailblazing what could be the solution for all of us – trying to build their own house from scratch. Architectural journalist and senior curator at the V&A Kieran Long and award-winning Piers Taylor are following self-builders as they take on the biggest gamble of their lives. Kieran and Piers will try to help them create the house they’ve longed for. But all have less than £100k to spend, little or no experience and life savings on the line – it won’t be easy. On the brink of retirement, Shropshire farmers Ruth and Tony are at the point in their lives when they could hope to start taking life easy. But faced with a crumbling farmhouse they’re having to knock it down and they have ambitious plans to replace it with a determinedly modern design. Their savings pot is just under £100k, and despite having no experience or expertise in house building, the couple believes they can save money by handling every stage of the build themselves from laying the foundations to putting up the timber frame. But very quickly the budget spirals out of control and an entire wing of the house is abandoned in order to keep their project afloat. To help the couple avoid further costly mistakes Kieran and Piers Taylor attempt to steer them in the right direction. Piers experienced eye spots a whole lot of problems, not least the challenge of building a house that will fit into its beautiful surrounding landscape but Ruth is determined to stick to a modern design over the exterior of the house – and risks creating a horrendous eyesore. Kieran gains unique access to award-winning properties that are relevant to Ruth and Tony’s budget self build, taking Ruth to the Dungeness coastline to see examples of how beautiful weathered traditional materials for the exterior can also be contemporary. Can he persuade her to think differently and adopt Piers’ more rustic and cheaper cladding solution? But as the winter weather brings the build to a standstill, the couple find the demands of subsisting in a small caravan increasingly difficult and, as the money drains away, they face making some tough financial decisions if they are to finish the house at all.
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