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Does Kev really hang out with blokes like that? It looked like he was building his shed with The Levellers.
He did seem to be enjoying himself though drinking single malt from the bottle by the light of a sh1t fuelled Tilley Lamp after hard day dynamiting trees.
Liking it so far - a bit of "put your money where your mouth is" type thing for Mr Mc.
I'm not too sure about the message they seem to be putting across with the 'temporary building' dodge - building the shed in a trailer that is sunk into the ground - and then saying that it's 'got to last hundreds of years'! There again they'd probably never got planning for a perm structure.
The tilley lamp looked awefull and I bet he has an LED system in there in the end. Blowing up the trunks was cool.
Quite good, wtf was going on with that mini?
😯
I was 50/50 by the end of it.
Really liked the ethos of it (despite him building a shed and not a home/house) the 'materials from the site' as much as possible. Blowing up timber was good as well.
REALLY didn't like the whole biodiesel-from-the-sewers bit. Whilst interesting, it was a whole world away from the ethos pitched at the start - in the sewers of London, then off to Bath to bang it through oodles of chemicals and processes to then produce a few cups of the stuff.
Overall, some good bits but a bit of a River Cottage/Dick Strawbridge love-in for architects. The animations bugged the crap out of me as well.
Those "mates" were hired from the same agency that Hugh FW and Jamie Oliver get their TV chums from.
I loved it but the sh!t fuel was odd. Why not use solar? or wind? I would like to buy a little wood somewhere and do something similar; one day 🙂
double post
Those "mates" were hired from the same agency that Hugh FW and Jamie Oliver get their TV chums from.
+1 Cringeworthy
just a bit of fun
Utter tosh!
Flagrant breech of planning regulations. I hope the local planning officer sees that and asks him to move it to prove it is a portable building.
And don't get me started on all that 'local recycled materials' crap.
. . . And . . .And Stop friking repeating yourself after each advert break.
Marko
pretty sure one of the hippy mates was Louie Theroux? In the bowler hat hiding at the back? Nice Idea for a show, but yeah bio diesel is hardly a local product!
I want to blow trees up too 🙁
I loved it. Brought the bloke into life after all his pointy finger waving in his other programmes.
His Mates were Ace in my book, proper salt of the earth dependable types, you could go far with mates like that.
I like the fact he's flouting planning, nowt wrong with that, good on him. Thought chopping the trees down was a bit too far but he did say thats his plan, to make a shed out of the trees..
Proper hobbyist and ingenius.
9/10 and shall be watching them all.
My favourite was at the start when he said he wanted to use materials all from his woods, and not go to B&Q and buy bits.
20mins later his shed was covered in Tyvek and Rockwool. I doubt Du Pont have their factory based in his small woods!
I'm also always interested in how the presenter benefits on this kind of programme as I don't believe for a second all his 'mates' work or offer their services for free, and yet he gets his shed built on C4's money! Come and sort my house out and i'll ramble on about the view and organic materials while a load of my 'mates' work 🙂
Was anyone else playing the "spot the people who have been on Scrapheap Challenge years ago" game???
Once a bodger, always a bodger................ 😉
I'm also always interested in how the presenter benefits on this kind of programme as I don't believe for a second all his 'mates' work or offer their services for free, and yet he gets his shed built on C4's money!
C4 doesn't actually make any tv directly - their remit is to work 100% with independent production companies. So long and they get the programme they want they won't be too interested in how the money is spent. And C4 staff themselves aren't averse to the odd perk, I could tell you a story............ 😉
It made me want to build a cabin in the garden. Therefore, it did its job.
Lot of oddness going on there, as if Kev was tripping big style whilst on his plot. Bet he goes to Glasto every year and goes native.
Found about 20 min.s of it OK, rest just a bit pointless; like we're all going into the sewers to make bio are we? And we all have mates that can make a Mini / Land Rover hybrid. Was that a cool car or just a heap?
Love his other stuff, but this was all a bit Clarkson/River Cottage/Rich ex-army bloke with bizarre moustache buying acres of land and "wondering why we don't all jack it all in" for me.
So, who wants a thermic lance now?
I honestly didn't see the point/direction the programme was supposed to be making. Little elements were good however why is it soo ****ing small and the programme so LONG about a tiny lame building.
He came from grand designs and it seems he has none himself. just a gardening shed for urine-loving Hermits in a boggy field, non-descript field.
I honestly didn't see the point/direction the programme was supposed to be making.
As I saw it: "Go into your garden and make/burn/do stuff."
"Go into your garden and make/burn/do stuff."
Which would have been fine. But to paint it with 'recycle, local etc' was pish. Dicking about with metal and stuff - yes. Putting more energy than it took to make the safe in order to make it a stove? Silly to try and badge it as upcycling with any ethos other than his is the only one. Last night's show annoyed me a bit more than the first one.
The glass window was a bit good though 🙂
I think it'd work REALLY well as a sauna in your garden.
I found it odd that all the chat about recycling, making the stove out of an old safe, the fuel for the tilley lamps etc, then go an burn off how much propane to make glass for the windows? Was worth it though IMO.
But I guess it is a mixture of recycling and bodging but he should acknowledge this a bit more and stop banging on about being "off grid" as if this adds all the trendy green/vegan/hippy/tree huggin points he needs.
Too much filler for my liking but that was probably down to the commissioning editor and not wur Kev.
that thermic lance was a waste of time. a portable magnetic clamping milling machine would have got through that quite easily and left a much better finish. Yes if it was a bank heist and in a hurry.
cheese floor eh ? how about cheese trails ?
Got bored half way through and turned off. Don't really see the point of it to be honest, other than to milk Channel 4 of their commissioning fees, so good luck to our Kev there. He got some wood off his plot in the first prog, but since then there's been nothing off-grid about it has there. Expected more to be honest.
I thought it was all a bit dubious.
"I'm going to make it ALL with stuff from this wood and stuff I've recycled."
Right, so where did that BRAND NEW steel used to extend the trailer chassis come from and why did you roll it onto about 5 tonne of limestone scalps/type 1? Because that came from a quarry and you [u]paid[/u] for it to be delivered sunshine!
I thought it was a bit of a con really. Not seen the second one yet though. We'll se
now I really like programmes like this but didn't know it was on. Is this in the same vein as "The Boat Guy Built"? I see it's available on 4OD
It has a Ginger Guy in it - I guess the original one was unavilable so they got Ginger Guy from the Guy Martin / Hugh F-W / Dick Strawbridge sidekick box they keep over at Channel 4 somewhere.
So, who's planning on running a rubber hose from their toilet to a tank in the garden?
I like it, but i think his inspiration came from Ben Law.
Not me, I couldn't stand it after 5 minutes so watched Gremlins 2 instead. G2 was a far better thought out programme.
like we're all going into the sewers to make bio are we? And we all have mates that can make a Mini / Land Rover hybrid.
You'd rather have watched a programme about a guy choosing between N Power and EDF?
Stop friking repeating yourself after each advert break
+1
Otherwise, its sunday night TV fun. Top Gear without Clarkson if you will. Top Gear has metaphorical shit, Kev has the real stuff. 🙂
Love the fact he shot, skinned and tanned a deer with its own brain on TV. Not for the squeamish, but if you don't like that, you ought to be a veggie.
double-post
triple-post!!!
I've only seen the first one, but they should stop with the 'eco/sustainable' angle.
The chainsaws, the portable saw mill, the explosives, the tractor, the use of what looked like new steel in the foundation, etc.
It might end up being a nicely crafted cabin, but there are plenty of better eco examples around.
I'm enjoying the show, but as mentioned it's not quite as successful as it sets out. In the previous episode they were making a 'cheese' floor for it but in last nights show it was a timber floor, did I miss something on that or did the cheese fail miserably? Internally the walls look like it is clad in Plywood sheets too!
Maybe he shot and skinned a bloke in B&Q before helping himself to a Transit full of ply.
He does seem to get a lot of pleasure from making things out of turds. There was a kid at my school who was like that.
Thought it was a bit upper middle class fool engages in impractical tasks to appear like an eco warrior.
That chair - hardly practical or that good- easier ways to make a chair
I cant see whicker as good bed material over time- anyone rember whicker chirs and getting the pattern in your back from them and corn flour cushions oh dear
I can see why it had appeal to the folk who comissioned it but I found it a little self indulgent and pointless tbh.
Maybe he shot and skinned a bloke in B&Q before helping himself to a Transit full of ply
Having been to B & Q on far too many occasions i don't think there would be a court in the land that would convict such a thing. It's virtually a public service.
After the first episode I thought it was naff. Just this morning after seeing it mentioned again on here I thought I'd give it a second go and watched episode2. I actually started to enjoy it.. the rabbit glue in particular.
Just about to start episode3. Fruitful day at work then 😉
Ok.. episode three.. Did anyone else notice the guy assuring them that the lions were safe had an arm missing 😕
elzorillo - MemberOk.. episode three.. Did anyone else notice the guy assuring them that the lions were safe had an arm missing
No i didn't! 😯
The show is more about bodgin and fun than anything serious, the eco references etc seem to be diminishing each week, did like the idea of the gas production system.
Has anyone got to the bottom of the "missing wall"? Interior shots have far too much natural light than you would get from the wee window he's supposedly got and why no 360d shots of the interior. The wall is missing from the LHS in case you're wondering...
I thought Kev's shed was awesome and Kev seems like a good bloke too. Won't miss him saying "off grid" though.
Now that Kev has finished what will a bloke watch at 8pm on a Sunday evening?...
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It really spiralled into a self-frotting orgy of indulgent pish didn't it?
How was he going to maintain that big metal bucket of breeding ground for nasties? I bet he paid the 200 hrs at minimum wage for his bloody house coat as well.
How come in July it was a sopping mud fest, but in Aug it was a grassy meadow of moon daisies?
It's all got rather farcical and top gear'ish in the stuff they're doing now. Even down to Kevin and his mutton chopped assistant playing the roles of Clarkson and hammond.
I turned it off
It did seem to be about 3 different series worth of programme ideas all heaped into one pot. The main premise - 'building an interesting shed' could have sustained one programme (given that 'building an house' fills a one-programme slot). So to stretch it to a series they seemed to have to shovel in quantities of Scrapheap Challenge, Kirsty Alsop's home-made thingies and quite a liberal smear of Non-Doctor Gillian MacKeith's skat pondering.
Thought it was a bit upper middle class fool engages in impractical tasks to appear like an eco warrior.
PMSL could not have put it better myself, i didnt realise he was that mental
Does anyone else find him really arrogant?
I've not watched the final episode yet, but I agree with some of the above comments.
The series was a mish-mash of ideas that didn't really hang together very well.
In the same way that Top Gear presenters like to do, Kevin McCloud seemed too keen to display a high level of ignorance. There was too much "cocking about".
In my view, Kevin McCloud's reputation and credibility from Grand Designs have been damaged by it. (Strictly Come Dancing/eating bugs in a jungle next year?)
Fred Dibnah did this sort of thing far better, as do James May (away from Top Gear) and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, in their different areas.
Kevin McCloud's reputation and credibility from Grand Designs have been damaged by it
Agree wholeheartedly with that.
How's he going to empty his hot tub?
How's he going to empty his hot tub?
thats what 'Production Runners' are for.
They couldn't hide the fact that the ornate winding mechanism for his veranda didn't work. On the test run there was someone using a ratchet strap to aid it going up. When it was lowered for the party he pantomimed turning all the wheels but all the weight was being supported by a chain on the other corner. The one he was winding was slack.
I used to love Kev in Grand Designs...
...Now I just feel like taking my fist of grid for a while and re-purposing it in his face.
They couldn't hide the fact that the ornate winding mechanism for his veranda didn't work. On the test run there was someone using a ratchet strap to aid it going up. When it was lowered for the party he pantomimed turning all the wheels but all the weight was being supported by a chain on the other corner. The one he was winding was slack.
I noticed that too - I find it funny that he couldn't fake it correctly, surely just offering a little resistance would've tightened it...
Do you reckon it was a condition of a new series of Grand Designs than KM got to make a self-indulgent smugfest with no coherent theme?
re. the rachet - i assume it was there in case the mechanism broke as he wound it up.
I used to love Kev in Grand Designs......Now I just feel like taking my fist of grid for a while and re-purposing it in his face.
Presumably with a 2 minute 're-cap' every 10 minutes or so.
I'm not feeling violent towards Mr McCloud, just think that he's watered-down his [i]"knowledgeable, insightful presenter"[/i] image a little too much. Although he isn't an architect, his background, according to Wikipedia, is in lighting installations. At least that's more credible than the [i]Masterchef [/i] judge who isn't a chef and was actually a fruit n' veg salesman.
They couldn't hide the fact that the ornate winding mechanism for his veranda didn't work.
Your observation powers are weak, the slack chain was the ratchet "safety" chain NOT the winding chain go watch it again!
Well, I liked it. It made me want to dick about and burn/build stuff in the garden.
I enjoyed it. Loved the jet engine intake hot tub. Kev failed to annoy me at all...seemed a perfectly affable bloke
Your observation powers are weak, the slack chain was the ratchet "safety" chain NOT the winding chain go watch it again!
watched it again
someone else in the shed - the say to each other "ready?"..."ready"
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kevin winds like billyo. his chain is completely slack
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while the chain in his pal's side takes all the weight