Designer Homes
Sunday 8th May
20:00 - Discovery Real Time (21:00 DRT+1)

DH Episode 7
Bob and Sue want to extend their three bedroom semi and include environmentally friendly features such as rainwater harvesting and solar panels.

DH Episode 8
Architect Torcail Forsyth continues work on Bob and Sue’s home, incorporating a massive glazed window to exploit their view across the Brecon Beacons

Discovery Real Time
Sky Channel 250
Telewest Broadband 271
ntl:home 304/133
Top Up TV 28

For more information see www.realtimetv.co.uk and www.cheeseandcrackers.co.uk

As always, the film crew spent most of the day taking the piss out of each other and generally having a good time.  Jon and Andy seem to bounce off each other, winding each other up.  Andy is hyperactive anyway, but when paired with Jon, he is like a little kid.  It always makes for a very fun and entertaining day.

Building Update

Well despite the film crew being here causing havoc, quite alot of work was done yesterday.  The new utility room and downstairs toilet has been plastered from top to bottom, and the rain water tank has been successfully installed in the garden (after the 8ft hole was dug yesterday).  The electrician has also been in installing some extra lights and sockets in the extension.  On top of that, we’ve also had visits from the architect  - Jan Milsom (Milsom Architects) and the manager of the building company Bill Owen (Owen Construction).

Today the hallway linking the new bedrooms to the existing house was plasterboarded, the ensuite was partially plastered, the pipework connecting the rainwater tank to the house was put in place and the wall between the house and the new hall way was partially demolished.

The media section of the website has some new photos showing the progress of the extension.

Thats all for now.

• i am currently living on a building site
• the film crew is here today
• the first episode of the series was shown on national tv last night
• me - well, no explanation is needed here

Building Site

For those that don’t know already, we are having an extension built at home.  The new extension will contain 2 bedrooms, an ensuite bathroom, a new lounge, double garage and a balcony.  The existing house is also being altered to provide a new utility room, downstairs bathroom, refitted kitchen and study.  All of this makes for one fun time here in Govilon.  After over a year of organising, planning disputes and meetings with architects, the work began in late September with the demolition of our existing double Garage.  This was followed in October by several months of chaos while the contractors - Owen Construction - cleared the ground, laid the foundations, built the shell of the extension, fitted the underfloor heating, fitted the electrics and all other things that needed to be done to bring us to the current stage of development.

So what is the current stage of development?  Well, as we speak, Owen Construction is plasterboarding the final stud wall, they are plastering the utility room and digging the humongous hole for the rainwater tank (more about this later).  The upstairs of the house is nearly completed - all that is left to do is plaster the new hall way, have the electricians put the finishes in place, fit the ensuite, paint the bedrooms and put down the carpet.  The new utility room / bathroom is nearly finished as well with the cabinets still to fit, the toilet / sink to be installed and the wall / floor coverings to be done.  I won’t go near the downstairs yet which is nowhere near completion.  While all this may seem alot, it won’t actually take that long, and is about a weeks work at most.

Film Crew

My parents - never being ones to make things simple - have a film crew involved in the build.  Just before work began, our architects were contacted by a production company called “Cheese and Crackers”.  They were looking for projects that were about to commence and where big changes were being made that could be filmed for a new tv series called “Designer Homes”.  Our architects (Milsom Architects) approached my parents and asked if they would like to be film, to which they agreed.  After a number of sessions with the producer Andy and the Assistant Producer Jules, it was agreed that we would be filmed.  Several filming sessions have taken place since then, and the film crew are arriving later to get some new footage.

National TV

The first episode of the TV series aired last night on Discovery Real Time (DRT).  Each project comprises of 2 TV episodes, each half an hour long.  DRT showing both episodes back to back, which means in 4 weeks time, our episodes will be on (scary).  For anyone that wants to watch, tune into Discovery Real Time at 10pm (or DRT+1 at 11) - details on how to get Real Time at http://www.realtimetv.co.uk/getting/index.shtml

Other

I’ll post an update later on once the film crew have finished their manic day of work!