Steam bending woood - Grand Designs

[Mr_P]

Straight lines are anathema to Tom and Daniellle Raffield, specialists in steam bending wood, so plans for their dream wooden house in Cornwall are full of twists and turns. You'll be amazed what you can achieve with a stripped back £100k

I enjoy Grand Designs but last weeks silly budget for a glorified barn left me wondering where all the money went. This weeks sounds a bit more down to earth and enjoyable.

Edit,
Someone below mentioned a website and here it is
http://www.tomraffield.com/

 

[MattRoberts]

Thanks, will check that out. Love grand designs, but there are some complete idiots on there sometimes!

 

[sawdust1]

Fantastic end result, really enjoyed this one, none of that "oh we have run out of money" rubbish
that spoils it for me.
Clever bloke and his steam bend stuff was amazing.
Checked out his website, lampshades £600 ! I expect after this show his order books will
go ballistic.
I would like to see the outside in 10 years when in those damp conditions the wood will have
green mould on it, turned patchy grey and split.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I watched it with interest too....one of the better ones for sure. I also couldn't help thinking what it might be like in a few years. Can you imagine trying to sand that lot!!!

 

[bugbear]

I watched it with interest too....one of the better ones for sure. I also couldn't help thinking what it might be like in a few years. Can you imagine trying to sand that lot!!!

Bit like those ultra-draped-in-muslin interiors that used to infest the design shows - impossible to maintain.

BugBear

 

[Aggrajag]

What website?

Personally I can no longer watch the show; the presenters endless doom and gloom and then poncy pontificating at the end made it too pretentious for me to cope with. A shame because I actually do enjoy the construction side of it - change the presenter and I'd be back.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I think Kevin McCloud is a pretty alright bloke personally...it is after all a "design" show.

 

[monkeybiter]

I only saw the very end, overall impressive looking, I liked the flowing curves, the draped look of the bench seat and the hanging seat too. I did think that after all the work that went into the curved 'fence' [what's the word I'm looking for?] around the first floor balcony the handrail, which appeared to be just flat timber with square poss. half lapped corners, seemed to be a bit of a cop-out. Building regs. perhaps?

Also the conventional in me disliked the unfinished arrisses, with loose splintery fibres plentiful.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Still...the obligatory pregnancy half way through the build showed up on time

 

[petermillard]

Still...the obligatory pregnancy half way through the build showed up on time

I'm amazed they found the time, lol! I quite liked it overall - though I agree about the square-ended handrails - but I don't think they really thought it through; a 2-bed house for a couple with two young children and a third on the way?? Going to be very bus in there in a year or two!

 

[No skills]

Still...the obligatory pregnancy half way through the build showed up on time

I'm amazed they found the time, lol! I quite liked it overall - though I agree about the square-ended handrails - but I don't think they really thought it through; a 2-bed house for a couple with two young children and a third on the way?? Going to be very bus in there in a year or two!

You can't really odds that, we brought a two bed house as there was only three of us and we had no intention to have any children. 9 years later and we now also have two kids (6 yrs and 3 months). I think the phrase is **** happens.

 

[rafezetter]

What website?

Personally I can no longer watch the show; the presenters endless doom and gloom and then poncy pontificating at the end made it too pretentious for me to cope with. A shame because I actually do enjoy the construction side of it - change the presenter and I'd be back.

There is some grain of truth to this, but he does have a seriously "poncy" (to some) art background. However because he's been the guy from Day 1 he does often show great insight; his "doom and gloom" comes from an obvious internal dialogue "..... you want to do WHAT? OK I know where this is going..." but without the interference both Sarah Beeny and George Clarke bring regardless of whether they have been right. He lets them stand or fall on their own choices, which when you are spending hundreds of thousands or even a couple of million is how it should be. He also clearly makes a lot of effort to be a GOOD presenter and apply more than just a charismatic smile or huge norks - he speaks fluent french and italian, like a native, to converse with workers when in those countries, which has happend quite a few times.

Something a less "poncy" but also less well versed presenter could never bring. Besides I don't think you can point to any show revolving around home improvement that doesn't have a form of "poncy" presenter apart from the few that have been presented by a time served member for the trade - ala Tommy Walsh.

 

[No skills]

+1

One of the few presenters that actually has seen and done it for years, employed for relevance rather than some chirpy dipstick that knows nothing or eye candy that.. err.. knows nothing

Maybe the exception to that rule is Rachel Riley from countdown who knows hers numbers is chirpy and not too sad on the eyes...

 

[Glynne]

I like the content of a lot of George Clark's programmes, especially shed of the year but get really fed up with the stream of superlatives. Yes a presenter can't really say something is rubbish but every build (shed or otherwise) is amazing, fantastic, incredible, awesome........
He is a qualified architect and has come up with some good ideas which have changed people's plans but please allow the audience to come up with their own views.
Not too sure about the current rotating building that has always been his dream - I thought his dream was the opening caravan, no sorry it was the woodland cabin, or was it the floating beach hut......