Hacker News Reader

Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

> I just pictured a typical computer developer in a wet lot, with an unhappy wife.

Have you heard of the TV programme Grand Designs? It's just this over and over again. Sometimes the wife is pregnant, sometimes they're living in a caravan on site. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs

They're not trying to build anything as simple as a house, either, the "grand" part implies some mad architectural vision that will become unliveable within months while also looking completely horrendous in its rural setting.

View on HN

There’s some successful projects though! There’s a good range, I like the variety, from spectacular ego-driven marriage-ending failures (…the lighthouse[1]) to some beautiful labours of love (the tree house[2]).

Grand Designs is as much a monument to human achievement as it is failure!

[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=3AlsMEiAMvM [2] https://youtube.com/watch?v=CBpRLzbrCa8

It's amazing how many of the projects featured on GD end up being sold not long after completion.

The most dramatic one that I noted was a very contemporary museum looking home. The owner stressed how long they had spent planning it, and how you only get once chance, and it would be his dream home. He completes the house in the Surrey woods (it was beautiful, to be sure). Sells within a year and buys property on the Costa del Sol in Spain.

A lot of the issue is; they underestimate the build cost. So they end up with a decent chunk of equity (can be as high as 40% in some cases) but also a tonne of unservicable debt.

So you have two choices; struggle and be miserable for as long as you can before it all falls apart (but in your dream home) or sell up for financial safety and compromise on the location.

> Sometimes the wife is pregnant

The mid project reveal is always "surprise we are pregnant". It brings me great added joy when they are building a 'dream' 3 bedroom house and it is the 3rd kid that they are pregnant with.

One bedroom for the parents, two bedrooms for the kids. As long as all kids conform to the gender binary, two bedrooms should be enough.

And when they’re young, a boy and girl in the same room is absolutely fine.

This. 3 kids here in a 3 bedroom house (~1100sqft). One in high school, middle, and elementary. It works, although another 500sqft would give us some more breathing room.

Since my boys are teenagers now, I spent the pandemic building a rather nice lofted bed setup out of baltic birch ply for their shared room. It gives them their own personal space (had them help design use cases) and more privacy than most kids in the world have. One is autistic and hypersensitive to the others habits, but I was able to mitigate 95% of that with visual blocking, acoustic materials, and a HomePod mini for pink noise.

You make do with what you have. Some of son’s friends live in 5-10M houses, some live in trailers, some in apartments. I think they all understand that, while they probably want more, they’re lucky to have this.

I am more than comfortable for that to be your 'dream home' but it is not my dream home.

I remember watching an episode where they planned to build a partially subterranean home all within some sort of triangle shaped junkyard that sat on the interior of a block of townhomes. Completely ridiculous idea but when you've got lots of money, why not? There were two basement levels and then two planned above ground levels except they ran out of money for the top floor and stopped there. Who wants to live in that terrible location in a house where most of the living space is in a basement? They could have built a lovely country mansion or even a very nice normal house in the suburbs. Instead, they waste money on unique but stupid ideas.

I’m living this dream, just sans the TV crew. And without any crew. It’s been a learning curve, but a year after shovels hit the dirt, we’re just about ready to move out of our freezing vermin-ridden shack into our heated luxury shack with indoor plumbing.

Fortunately, my wife isn’t pregnant… I don’t think.

The only "Grand Design" I've ever seen and liked was Clarkson's "Grand Design Citroen" during their "Self-built Campervan Challenge":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7g08nwEmyY

> while also looking completely horrendous in its rural setting

Reminds me of my grandpa’s house kinda. Well, he’s from Southern Europe, so he built a brick box amongst a bunch of mid century/post WWII vinyl siding houses. Nothing wrong with it, but sticks out. Sure is solid though. And a cube is a good use of materials to maximize inside space to perimeter ratio.

Love it. Every village needs an eccentric.

It's excellent pain-viewing

Excellent drinking-game tv!

Take a shot every time Kevin says "bespoke"

There was an unofficial drinking game on the internet, Kevin found out about it and deliberately made one episode to ensure all the rules got hit as frequently as possible.