The Great House Revival

He did some amount of work for less than 150k (I think he said only 75% of that original budget spent?)

Priorities all over the shop though. Should have spent on the steels for bay window and done roof first thing, make structure good before you go sanding doors and doing some gardening!

The parts of the house that were done looked well though, not a white wall or floor to ceiling window pane in sight.

He took a year off work. Unless he has an extremely generous employer that's a year salary gone.

He's an engineer, I remember the starting rate for engineers straight from college (yes I'm aware there's different disciplines in engineering) and it was eye watering 20 yrs ago, so I imagine him with decades of experience is on a fairly decent wage.

I know you get the buzz from doing it yourself but when I look at a task I think "this is going to take me X amount of time, I earn X amount per hour, if I get someone in to do it the bill will be X amount" unless I'm saving a massive amount of money I'd probably leave it to the professionals and let them have the headache.

So when you take his loss of earnings into account I wonder how much he actually saved.

Is he though? I don’t think he really had a clue but unfortunately convinced his wife he knew what he was doing. Then couldn’t tell her he had no idea. He’s an agricultural engineer whatever that is.

Couldn't believe the gardening bit…Fair play to him but he looked at the end of the program as if he'd been off on holiday for a few weeks, well rested….I wonder though did he address half the problems, the place was rotten to the core……Mad Ted…!!

I think he mentioned at the start he fixes machines - a mechanical engineer so really knows very little about buildings. His approach was very DIY, no programme of works, no plan. His approach was all over the place - a guy that likes DIY but took on too much. Not putting under floor heating in was a huge mistake. I laughed at the end when he said the house didnt need underfloor heating or double glazed windows. He could very well end up living there all by himself because wife and kids wont move into the ice box that they cant afford to heat. I get the emotional attachment but they cant afford that house sadly.

I believe he said that quotes for restoring(?) windows for the house were close to 70k

That alone would have certainly been more than his years income after tax

Hiring people to fit the steel, or replace rotten timber floors would have easily eclipsed his post-tax earnings for the year.

The fact that hes married means the wife can use his tax credits during his year out of work also. Definitely works out better financially to do it yourself on a project like this, the loss of earnings are completely mitigated by the savings.

The big issue is that the budget simply wasn't big enough regardless of the amount of DIY to get the house fixed up in a timely fashion.

Well it's more when it's mentioned that he only spent X amount of the budget.....well no he's also down his salary.

Also paying ( one would assume) 2 mortgages.

I'm not even sure what he finished and what was staged.

I do think he was trying to be Dick Strawbridge, but even Dick has his "builder mate Steve" .

I do think fair play to him but I feel for the wife as she looked thoroughly fed up. You could see their breath when talking so the house must be Baltic.

Kinda subjective though and case specific if you don't mind me saying.
Some people will do it and others won't.
You don't know what this man has done for others in his time either.

There are people I'd move heaven and earth for and others not so much.

I agree with you! The first house seemed very much project manged by the dad (who seemed to know a man for every job)

Generally speaking alot of trades guys know other trades guys and they kinda operate on a barter system, he was a chippy so I'd say he'll probably owe the plumber or sparks a favour when they are doing their houses etc.

But like that my dad was a trades man and some people have a brass neck on the amount of free favours they look for, then run to the hills if you ask them for anything.

I would often call in favours as I am absolutely brutal at DIY but I will always return the favour with something I can do .. not sure if it’s just a country thing.. I often remember my dad doing gardening for people with no payment but he would always receive a loaf of turf or manure in return. I even remember getting grinds from a local teacher in return for odd jobs my dad did..

How did the school go for sale with all that red tape not already sorted?

I have seen some great renovations of these old school houses. But I have seen some really terrible ones too......

AsA a building, they're not amazing, apart from the high ceilings. Usually a nice bit of land around them though

Where is the fridge? The cupboards? Where is their stuff???

another half finished effort, again that house looks freezing. That house isn’t liveable and just dressed for final program.
This season is turning into a disaster apart from first program. One finished house out of 4