-Grand Designs UK S22E05

You know, for centuries, architects have known how to exploit a rather magical relationship between buildings on the one hand and water on the other, because when those two are introduced, they dance. The water takes sunlight and shimmeringly offers it to the building with scintillating, sparkling atoms. It's a thing to behold. But that relationship can also be toxic, corrosive even, because architecture's worst enemy, in a way, is water. Water, like a narcissistic lover, given its chance, will destroy a building. Dan and his wife, Nina, are two design peas in a pod. He's an architectural designer, she's an interior designer. When I get into projects, I get slightly obsessive, and as soon as I met Nina and realised that she was actually genuinely interested, then I knew I was kind of on a winner. They own separate businesses, but run them side by side in London. Dan and I live together, work together, play together. He's just a bit of a soulmate of mine, really. I love him to bits. Nina's company manufactures and installs restaurant and shop interiors. Poops are much stronger now, aren't they? Yeah, I think so. Dan's architectural practice is in its infancy, and he's keen to push his abilities to the limit. I love what I do. I'm always sort of hands-on and getting involved. You know, I think that's really rewarding. Now they're going to work together to build a home with techniques Dan learnt from his dad, a multi-skilled farmer. My dad's been sort of teaching me how to lay bricks since I was 10, and drive dumpers, diggers, and how to weld. So it's kind of been sort of bred into me. So I think it's almost a natural progression. In order to build, they've bought an old place near the south coast. How do we get on the boat? Maybe we just climb on. And up sticks with their two little girls, Isla and Lexie. We loved living in London, the buzz of the culture there. But actually, we knew ultimately we'd want to move to the country at some point. I've always wanted to live by the sea. Our house is sort of probably about 600 metres away from here. The way that things are now, you can quite easily still be heavily involved in your business remotely, and that's what we do. And it works really well. But living a stone's throw from a seaside hotspot comes with a hefty price tag. £800,000 bought them a tired 1930s house and a garden dominated by this. Most people approaching the site saw this huge crater of a pond as a real, real negative. It had been on the market for two years. No one wanted to buy it. The pond has to be here for local drainage overflow. But Dan and Nina saw this swamp and saw potential. In fact, the pond will become the star feature in a hugely ambitious project that will test Dan's mettle to the full. There's lots and lots of things that could potentially go wrong, but that's where the poetry of the whole project comes together, you know. And that's probably why lots of people haven't done it before, because I think it is actually quite challenging. When it's done, they'll knock the old house down. So you're building a new house, then, on the site? Yeah, on a different footprint over there. Do you not feel tempted, though, to keep this, remodel this, somehow re-insulate it? It would have worked out cheaper, wouldn't it? Possibly, but I think the end game was actually to create a house that we're going to live in for decades, and we wanted to push it further into the site. What, that muddy pond over there? Yeah. It won't be that one day. Really? So there's two parts to this building. There's a big two-storey aspect to it, and then there's a sister building that's suspended over the water, which has got the kitchen in it. And essentially, what we're trying to create is this environment. You can literally open the kitchen window, and you can jump into the natural swimming pond or pool. So a natural swimming pool. It's not full of chlorine. No chemicals. It's got green water in it and frogs. It hopefully doesn't have green water in it. Crystal clear water. And frogs. So you can snorkel with the newts. Yeah, like it. In just two years, they want to build an environmentally integrated house that connects to a biodiverse crystal pond. Dan will start by draining the pond, extending it at the back and dividing it in two. The rear pond will now deal with the local drainage, while the front excavation becomes the natural swimming pond. To do this, they'll build a concrete box, waterproof it to keep the foul water out, and incorporate a complex filtration system embedded in gravel and clay. Add water, hundreds of aquatic plants, and it should stay crystal clear. The house is also a tale of two halves, and made from a nimble system of SIPP's structural insulated timber panels. It's big. The main building is warehouse-like and three stories high. The second lighter volume extends out over the pond. Dan will wrap these simple forms in local flint and battens of silver Siberian larch, fixed both horizontally and vertically for texture. The front door will open into a triple-height hall, with a wall of paneled glass framing the watery landscape view. Nina's interiors will be muted with edgier, handcrafted details. Overhead, there'll be two hanging balcony corridors. The first links the master and guest bedrooms with the kids' bedrooms at the other end. Above this, a two-bedroom comes studies. A glass link suspended over water will connect the two buildings, adding to the illusion that the kitchen is a floating island. From here, you'll be able to plunge straight into the crystal pool. The risk? The magic between architecture and water depends on a complex aquatic ecosystem that can go hideously wrong. Ordinarily, building a house is a challenge enough. And then you've got all of this to do. It's tricky. I've made small ponds before, but nothing on this scale. And we've got to get the balance right, because we're playing basically with a natural process. And if we get it right, then we should have crystal clear water. Worst case scenario, you have blue algae, which is toxic. We didn't know about that option. Yeah, there's the toxic algae. I don't think it is an option. Really? They may be out of their depth when it comes to the pond, but they should be in their element with the house. You're both doers and makers, aren't you? You both come from a sort of design, manufacturing background. Yeah, so we want to be making our own furniture and lighting as much as we possibly can. And hope you save some money. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we're not hoping to save some money. We've got to save some money. So I'm going to spend at least 90% of my time physically getting involved. How much have you allocated? Well, around 650 we've allocated. Cheap. Yeah. That's at the cheap end. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yikes. Given their ambitions, that's tight. Dan and Nina sell their home to buy this cruddy site. The construction budget will come from savings, a loan against a rental flat they own, and income. So let me get this straight then. Nina, you're going to carry on working in your business, but part time. That's it. I can still take that step back. Dan, you're running a practice, which you set up when? Four years ago. Yeah, it's very much a sort of fledgling company. It's going to be definitely hard to juggle the balance of all of that. Wow. A fledgling business, a young family, a highly complex project, all clamouring for attention. Undeterred, two weeks later, Dan has already drained the pond and he's digging out the rear section with his groundworker, Nick. Very exciting first day. He's loving it. Boys and their toys. Dan's dumping the excess soil at the opposite end of the new pond to build a platform where the kitchen will sit. With him every step of the way... How are you doing? ...is his dad. Shall I show you how we're getting on? Yeah, I'd love to see it. Yeah. Because it's dried right out. What I'd recommend, where you're running all these dingers are about, a certain area is where you want the grass to actually grow. You need to have some nice topsoil, don't you? All right. Font of knowledge, as always. Are you going to be well enough to come and see me? I should do. I need your help. All right, darling. OK, that's wonderful. All the best. Bye. He always loves giving me instruction. I'm always going to be his little boy, you see, so... Heartbreakingly, one of the reasons Dan is desperate to get on with this project is his dad's health. There's definitely an anxiety to get the project done as soon as possible because my dad's so poorly at the moment. He was diagnosed with leukaemia a year ago. It's terribly sad because we just... I just desperately want to finish this so we can sort of share it together. Time is of the essence, although Dan is already getting pulled in every direction and distracted by work. So Nick now has to be both digger and dumper driver. Where is Daddy, Dan? We're spending money on a dumper that's just sat there without anybody using it, which is quite a painful thing to do. I think we should get another person that can operate the dumper so that you've just got a bit of headspace and Nick will feel a bit happier then because he needs a right-hand man right now. Dan has bags of enthusiasm, but he's new to this game. I haven't done as much sort of landscaping work before, so, you know, it's a bit sort of nerve-wracking, but such is the nature of the beast, I think. And it is some beast. It's so technical that this swimming pond and its landscape in West Sussex took a bunch of experts seven months to do. Isn't this just beautiful? Crystal clear, full of wildlife and no chemicals at all. Exactly the kind of thing that Dan and Nina want to build at their place. With water that is so clean, it is purer than tap water. Well, under perfect conditions, that is, because this sensitive ecosystem is affected by everything. It's shape, depth, sun exposure, all the things that Dan needs to consider. There may be a zen-like serenity to this place, but underneath this deck, there's all kinds of stuff going on. So, ooh, look at that. Lots of pipes and tubes and swirling water. Skimmers, filters, pumps. Over there, there's a clay bed with reeds growing in it, also filtering the water. Every drop here is purified once every 48 hours. That I find quite mind-boggling. If I were a landscaping novice like Dan, doing something as complex, plus building a house, I'd be terrified. Still, six weeks in, both are underway. OK, super. So you're all good to go then, really, yeah? They're hammering in the pile foundations and sculpting the pond. Sometimes it feels quite overwhelming. Every single direction I look, there's something happening. And truth be told, I've not done a huge amount of new builds before. So it's a pretty massive undertaking and I just really hope that I can deliver. He has at least taken Nina's steer and hired some extra help to push on. The next big thing is a big concrete slab. We should do it within two to three weeks. That's good, we're getting there, aren't we? Yeah, it's great. But sadly, just three months into the project, Dan loses a cornerstone of his life. His dad's time runs out. The first time he acknowledged to me that he thought he was on his way out was when he said, I'm not going to be able to see the finished project, which was about a month before he died, which was a sort of quite sad moment. But it just sort of installed in me the fact that he was so proud of me about what I was doing and I think that's what I've got to take from it. And I've got to really push forward and just make sure I do the project really, really well. Dan and Nina have been struggling to keep momentum on their project. The sad loss of Dan's father meant that work stopped for four weeks and only now, four months in, are the wheels back in motion. And Dan and Nina seem genuinely motivated by progress with the foundations. So we've got about 164 tonnes of concrete being poured. Really exciting because it means it will be out of the ground. It's super exciting today. I've sort of got the mental headspace to sort of get my head back into the project. It just feels so positive that we're sort of making ground again rather than it being sort of stagnated which just didn't feel right because actually I know at the heart of it that's exactly what my dad wouldn't have liked. It's looking great, isn't it? It's looking good, yeah. Marvellous. But Dan knows that everything is going to change. The water table's going to start rising soon and this will effectively turn into a pond and we need to do a lot of building work in there. Yeah, the time's definitely ticking. We need to nail that in the next month. And yet, when I visit Dan and Nina several weeks later... Hello. No building. Zero work has been done to the pond. They've only built the house's foundations and that's because they've had some bad financial news. Most of their budget was coming from remortgaging this rental they own in London but the loan's fallen through leaving them with just £100,000 in savings for a £650,000 project. Because, I think, of the whole Brexit scenario it's plummeted so basically the mortgage provider came and undervalued it. Right. So now what we've done is we've had to put it on the market. Yeah, so, okay. So you might have to sell that. That's the worst situation. Yes, it is. Yeah, yeah. Well, we would have loved that mortgage to have gone through but we will sell the property. We'll make it work. We always do. Yeah, we will find a means to the end. Yeah. So now they're selling their only asset. Dan and Nina are putting everything on the line. But four months later the flat remains unsold so the project is paused. Dan's left watching his newly carved pond disappear under the rising water table. It has been a bit tough actually because something pretty sad happened with my dad and then the project's totally losing its momentum. That's been a little bit sort of bleak really. It has been sad that the project's had to come to an end. Winter turns to spring and then summer. Eight months have passed without any work on site. But by the August bank holiday the mood in Chichester is at last sunny. Everything's good at the moment. I'm so happy because we finally sold our flat in London which means it's going to pay for the whole build, fingers crossed. It just about covers their budget if they don't blow it all on this lot. Dan's hired in some help for the last month and feeling flush. The first thing he's had them build is a real indulgence. Tennis court, something I really enjoy. Treat to myself so I can't wait to play on with the kids and a new puppy. I can see why Dan wants to cheer himself up but distraction is the enemy of good work. Today he's needed on site but he's also promised to take his family camping this afternoon. He's booked the landscapers to level the lawn area today and he's ordered an all-important concrete pour for the walls of the pond. And the really stressful bit? The forework is still frantically being built. So the reason we were desperate to do it today because of bank holiday so the guys have totally been up to the wire because I've been pushing them basically to finish the day early. This shuttered forework has to hold two lorry loads of wet concrete shoddy workmanship at this point risks it all breaking like a dam. Aaron is in charge and feeling the heat. There's nothing worse than concrete beating up your arse. We've got a whole load of concrete arriving any second and we still haven't quite finished. Another hour's work I reckon. So yeah, I'll push for time. The concrete's arrived. It's too much, it's too much. Well, the thing about concrete is if you're not ready for it it starts going off so they have to put it somewhere. You know, worst case scenario they just dump 10 tons of concrete on your site, you know which would obviously be a disaster. Aaron has no choice other than to start pouring concrete into the finished wall sections while getting his teammates to quickly finish building the rest. Now there's a risk of the concrete setting hard in the pump. Two of us to do this whole job. But after some furious and frantic effort the last batch starts flowing. It's now 2.30 and Nina's all packed and ready to hit the road. Just trying to leave before she has a meltdown because she needs a nap now. The Devon campsite is a five-hour drive away but Dan is nowhere near ready. It's got to go. Okay. Thank you. Right now, is that okay? Yeah. We were supposed to leave about two hours ago so we're already having a discussion whether I get a train down and then meet them down there which would then mean she's got to set up a tent by herself with two kids which is far from ideal. Aaron's day has also been far from perfect but thanks to his concrete repelling underpants he can see an end to the day's horrors. Yeah, we've been here since half seven and it hasn't stopped yet but we're nearly at the end. Dan has been torn in all directions and he's frazzled. More than ready for a few days in a tent. As summer ends, the pace of work picks up even more. The concrete pond structure turns out to be pretty perfectly poured and at last, after 15 months, Dan and Nina have taken delivery of their very big wooden house. Oh, it's going up. Yeah, clever, huh? It should take just three weeks because these sustainable timber panels just slot together. For a true fit, they depend entirely on Dan's prep work. You've got to get all the measurements before it arrives absolutely spot on otherwise there's a pretty major problem so it's been pretty sort of nerve-wracking. It's the largest project Dan has designed and built himself and blessedly it's going up without a hitch. Spot on. Music to my ears. The old spot on. The family can finally dare to dream of leaving their cold leaky house behind. You can really start imagining all the rooms, you can start seeing through some of the openings. Love it. It suddenly feels like all the kind of the effort we've put into it until this point is sort of starting to pay off. And at last, six weeks later, there is something meaningful to see on site. A joy to behold. Hello there. Hi. Alright. Good to see the building up, I mean in frame form. Should we go in? It's quite epic, this building. So this would be a dining room, gonna be a big sculptural light suspended down in here. It's gonna be beautiful and a lovely souping staircase going here. So it'd be quite a special arty room. It's like a sort of desire line through here, isn't it? Yeah. Over the water, yeah. Into, you see this is large enough to be a kind of kitchen garden restaurant, I think. Now listen, every time we talked about the landscape of this place that's out there, we talked about wildflower meadows, trees, wildlife, I mean beauty and this kind of glorious natural world. Yeah. And what it seems to me you've currently got, concrete bunker buried in the ground and golf putting green. Is that a giant lorry park? It's a club-sized tennis court, so it is a little bit bigger. This looks like a sports club. Dan and Nina wanted to make a home nestled into a watery oasis. But 18 months into a two-year plan, it's looking like a war zone with a bunker in it. However, we all hope this will be magically hidden with an aquatic ecosystem. Complicated bit is to come and that is about getting biology of the water right. Mineral content and pH and nutrient and all that stuff. And now I've got a consultant on board to help me with this. And the one difficulty here, I'm guessing because he's not a contractor, is you're responsible. No pressure. That's the underlying stress of the whole project is because essentially we're saving money by not getting main contractors to do anything here. How much? How much are you saving? We're going to save £50,000. £50,000 you're going to save by doing yourself. How much for the total for the pond? £100,000, yeah. Staggering amounts of money because you could build a swimming pool for £70,000. That is value for money then. If you can build a swimming pool for £70,000 and you could build something you could swim in with an ecosystem, we can watch the dragonflies. We can watch the newts crawl out. We can swim with the frogs. Yeah, it had just better be clearer than this, mate. That's all. I really hope it is. I hope so. No, don't eat. Don't eat your own food. Eight weeks later, to soften his landscape and hide his ugly tennis court, Dan sees £10,000 worth of trees arrive. About a metre clear at the moment. If only he and Ruben could get them off the lorry. So we're starting to unload these monster trees, probably eight metres tall and sort of weighing half a tonne, three quarters of a tonne. Wow, this is an operation, isn't it? Yeah. All of these really fragile branches, you know, this tree here is worth hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Dan's skills on the digger could maybe do with a little fine tuning. Oh dear, look at that. Dan's digger driving. Keeps you on your toes. It takes them an hour to unload just two trees. There are 12 still to go. The Arctic lorry is playing havoc with the traffic. So the boys have no option but to resort to more brutal measures just to get them in. That's one way of doing it. It's like a big side brush. Even at full pelt, it takes four exhausting hours. Well done. And although Dan's working at speed, it can never be too fast for the girls. It's been really grim this winter. The fourth winter in this house, there's no insulation, there's holes in the windows, there's gaffer tape on the shower and a lot of the time the boiler just breaks down so we don't have any hot water or heating. So when I'm doing the kids' baths, it's just frustrating because we have to keep boiling kettles. I know, we're going to get in the bath now. She's taking a bit of time tonight, girls, because we've run out of hot water again. Lexi's having a meltdown. Can you come in to help put her to bed? She really wants you. Oh, OK. On the site next door, Dan cuts a solitary figure. He's finishing a plinth for the glazed doors that are about to arrive. He is desperate to get watertight and he is working all hours. It always strangely always reminds me of my dad because he's pretty much the only other person I know that would have ever sort of done this sort of thing. Funny enough, actually, I sort of dreamt about him last night and was talking to him about the project so it's quite appropriate I'm doing this tonight. I'm definitely struggling to cope with everything that's on my plate. You know, I want to be the best dad I possibly can be to my beautiful little girls and then I've got work as well to pay the bills. So, you know, every way I turn, it's pretty full on at the moment for sure. And things do not let up for Dan. The site endures a torrential winter and yet despite this, he started on the external plating and inside, the first fix, the plastering and decorating, even though he hasn't got the building weathertight yet. We're so desperate to finish the project. We've literally hung doors already and painting doors when we haven't got a window in. It's leaving everything really vulnerable to the elements and if this room got wet, all of this work that we've done would be ruined. It would have thousands of pounds worth of implications for sure. The problem here is that there's been a misunderstanding between Dan and his window supplier. He expected the glazing weeks ago. Thankfully, the all-important kitchen windows are about to arrive. I think that would just make such a difference to our emotional states because it's felt really cold and windy and grim, to be honest, on site. You know, it has a massive impact on Dan, you know, his sleep, his eating. It affects our relationship but we're just trying our best to support one another but, you know, it's not been easy. It's been really, really tough. And then, mid-morning, with the fitters standing by to install the kitchen windows, news arrives. Unbelievable. They've just told me that they haven't even made glazing for the kitchen. So, we're all lined up to fit it today. They haven't even made it. Oh, my God. You pay £70,000 and they ask for all of the money up front and, you know, we're totally at their disposal, you know. It's really quite upsetting. So, it's just like the implications are just massive, you know. So frustrating. Is there any way that we can make it watertight so we can still get the floor going in? Well, it's also the scaffolding. It's the cladding can't be finished until the glazing goes in properly. It's like unreal. It's just absolutely mental. OK, let's get a plan. The cost implications are shattering. Holding up the work because of the delay could cost thousands. For Dan, it's the last straw. It's awful. But your life savings and everything you've got emotionally, physically into it, and, you know, you're kind of at the disposal of, you know, waiting for these windows that just never seem to arrive. But then Dan's window issues pale into irrelevance with the worst news of all as Covid reaches our shores. Nina, now petrified, moves her vulnerable parents into the old house and stops all visitors to sight, including me, of course. We can sit here, socially distanced, with a strong breeze hitting us from the sea, knowing that we're not going to infect each other. But I mean, you know, you've had a difficult time. Yeah, mum's got cancer and so she's been shielding. She's OK, she's doing all right. But I'm always worrying about her and my dad. He has cancer. OK, wow. Yeah. So as a family, you've faced everything and are facing everything that so many families are facing right now. Family illness, bereavement, loss. It's like an emotional roller coaster in our house. You know, one minute we're really positive, the next kind of rocking in the corner, sobbing our heart out. Well, at least I am. It's been a tough old time. I feel like I'm praying it will one day end so we can just get this house bloody built. We've just got now Dan and one guy on site, so it's just crawling along at the moment. It's a bit painful. It's, you know, it's a nightmare. Understandably, the two-year deadline passes with no fanfare. Work trickles along. Inside, there's now a polished concrete floor and second-fix electrics. Remarkably, all the windows are in, bar one. Some ongoing issues between Dan and his supplier has led them to part company and another firm is making it instead. And as Covid rules loosen, so attention focuses on the labour-intensive pod, its huge liner and those filtration systems. Just pull it away from the wall. It's complex. Any mistake and the house will end up sitting over a swamp, not a crystal pool. And when I say it has to be perfect, it has to be perfect. Dan's hired a consultant, Paul, for advice. The clay will come up and over that base. It just needs all the stone out. Yeah, OK. It's a huge amount of work. To do it right, you can go a bit Pete Robinson-y and make a right mess if you're not careful. It's essential to get the groundworks absolutely spot on. There's a lot of weight in the water and if they're not right, you're going to rip the liner and water can go out and in and you're going to affect the balance and the nutrient levels within the system. So it will start to go green. So it's very important to find any problems now. The project enters its third spring. It's a year behind and far from finished, thanks to two more lockdowns. On site, there's just a skeleton crew, but it's not because of Covid. Everything that we're doing at the moment, we're doing in a slightly unconventional way because we can't afford to do it in the conventional way. So we've got 65k left. That's from the sale of the London flat. You know, we're really trying now to pull out the stops, to think creatively with how we can use that money so it lasts because there is still a lot to get done. So that's why I'm making things out of sushi mats, to save money. The thing is, Nina's £5 lights and Dan's homemade concrete pavers are but drops in the ocean. They've overspent on plants by 10 grand and I'll say nothing more about the tennis court. Nearly three years after my first visit, everything is a work in progress. Well, I do like those balustrades. Thing of beauty. It's not quite finished yet. But it does look tantalisingly promising. It's very rough around the edges. It's the skeleton of beauty. I can't wait to see it finished and the finishing of the rest of the house. There's lots to do yet. Huge amount. As there is with the natural pond. It is a very needy thing. Is that? It's a saurix. It grows to about 80 centimetres. Can we plant these then? Yeah. So you do have to be careful about the selection of what you're putting in here to keep the sort of biology of the water. So this isn't decorative. Each plant has got a job here. Definitely. So what you're trying to do is the balance of the nutrients is right in the pools, which then stops algal blooms, which then means you can swim in crystal clear water. Right. I'm quite amused by the fact that you know exactly how to build a house. You know what is required. But what you cannot predict is the performance of this reed I've just planted. How comfortable are you about doing this? How far outside your comfort zone? Oh, I'm massively out of my comfort zone here. Yeah, it's certainly going to be fingers crossed. It's all going to work. I've built a house floating over it, so it better work. I'm pretty committed now. Everything now rests on the pond. It does. Yeah. I'm going to get you and your bathers. I don't you worry. You're going to love it. I'll bring my Victorian bathing suit. That vision, I fear, is as equally unappealing as the mud bath before me. Dan might be on the home run, but out here, it's difficult to see it. So usually at this point, I talk about the jeopardy of whether or not Dan and Nina will finish in time, whether the bathroom toilet flush will match the door handles, whatever. None of that here, because whatever happens in this house, it's going to be beautiful. That's not an area of risk. What is, is what's out here. This extraordinary pond, the biodiversity, and no matter how good Dan is, there's another force at work, which is going to really, truly determine how successful this project is. And that is Mother Nature. And she is less than reliable. It's late summer. Over three years have passed since I first visited Dan and Nina's site near this beautiful coast. Today, with the tide far out and great swathes of weed and algae shimmering in the sunlight, it reminds me of their old pond and the rather epic project they took on to turn it around. Dan and Nina's house is on the same bit of flat coastline as this village, where all houses have been built behind walls to repel the rising waters. They fight the water. Whereas, of course, what they've done is build a house which is designed to embrace it. And I kind of think the test of their project is whether or not the water and the building are friends, you know, whether they're in a symbiotic relationship. Because if not, it's going to look like Shrek's house and swamp. Yeah, a bit like this. It's gross. Just three months have passed since I was last in Dan and Nina's back garden. But my first glimpse of water isn't a pretty one. Well, that water looks very, very green and nasty. Down in the slime pit. Don't want to fall in there. I'm teasing. That's the small outer drainage pond. What I'm really here to see is up ahead. Holy reed beds. One of the last crystal springs of the South Downs. This is all gorgeousness. The natural pond is limpid and clear and thriving. There are myriad aquatic plants and it's humming with wildlife. But what makes it so special is the architecture. The house floats over the water and is as clean and fresh. I do like the meticulous detailing of the large cladding. All elegant lines and sharp edges. So beautifully done. This, thankfully, is a symbiosis, not a tug of war between humans and nature. Even the Lorry Park tennis court is gone, hidden by foliage. That's a mercy. Oh, hello, you two. Hi, how's it going? I'm much better for being here. Oh, good. I'm in some kind of aquatic Eden, you know. It's joyful. This is completely magical. It is transformed. How are you both? Exhausted. Yeah, we've got to have a little break. We've been non-stop. Are you living here? We're living here, just in. We're so happy to be at that house. Oh my God, that last house. I didn't even realise. Of course, I've come that way. The house is gone. I didn't see it, it was just a front garden. Yeah, at last. That was a week of hell. It was. Absolute hell. But now we're in, it's transformative. It really does. I mean, I go in the pool every day, every morning, I'm in. And you just sit there, the nature just comes to you. We have swallows darting down, skimming off the water, cleaning their wings. We've got damselflies, we've got dragonflies. A family of newts. You've got newts? Loads of little newts. Baby ones, they're so cute. Frogs, toads. Frogs, toads, yeah. A complete transformation. Yeah. I mean, utter change, utter. It really has changed. Yeah, yeah. Thank God, yeah. It's quite something, it's very beautiful. To match the house, it's just all so tight. Oh, that's good to hear, Kevin. I mean, look at that roof. That's music to my ears. That clouding. Yeah. The line over that hidden gutter is like a beautiful dotted line on a page. All exquisitely detailed and considered. I could stay out here in Eden forever, but I'm quite keen to find out if this house does the garden justice. Let's have a look inside. Come on. Come in. Goodness me. And the height. And there is so much glass here. I mean, light coming from over there. And there, and there. And there. This room is so connected to the outdoors. The boundary between inside and outside is smudged and blurred here. Not just because the doors slide back to nothing, but also thanks to the use of materials repeated from outside. The kitchen furniture, for example, is built with the house cladding. It speaks one language. But what's glorious here is that sheer extension of this polished concrete floor into the slab outside. And that sense that you could just walk through, stripping layers off and just dive in. I mean, does that happen? It's a big part of it for us, being able to kind of run through there and be able to dive in. And the kids go crazy in this pool. They love it. What happens when your young children have friends around? One of them can't swim or, you know, how do you stop a child falling in the water? We firstly make sure we've always got eyes on the kids when we're around this area of the pool. We keep the doors shut. We just keep them fully protected. This, this is magnificent, by the way, this corridor. Do you know, I was expecting this sort of to work, this bridge with the water and stuff, but I wasn't expecting this sort of architectural experience. It's like, it's my favourite bit of the building, I think. That's just, it's half one, half the other. It's the connection, isn't it? It's liminal. Hello, dog. Oh, this is like something from Tracy Island. It's brilliant. It's a homage to the 1960s, this. Two delightful rooms adjoin. The snug, inky blue and intimate, and a welcoming light living room. But, oh, this hall, it's what's glorious. Staircase floats like a sculpture because you've lined the staircase with wood and then it disappears up into what looks like blue sky. Oh, that's too clever. So pleased with how it's turned out, really. Tell me about this. You made these? Yes, yeah. It's a sushi mat. A sushi mat. A sushi mat rolls round what? A bit of plumbing pipe. No. Yes. Great, isn't it? Okay, I've gone first. Up the triple height staircase and onto the first landing. At the end of the corridor are the girls' bedrooms. Whose bedroom is this? Lexi's. It's brilliant. She gets a window seat. Exactly. It's beautiful here. Sunset is amazing. After passing Isla's room, we head down the corridor towards the main bedroom. Nice bathroom. Very nice bathroom. Very nice bedroom. It's a romantic and pretty amazing view of the tennis court. And a balcony. Balcony, which has brought in the light to this corner, which we love. This gives you such a great 180, doesn't it? Yeah, it really does. Well done, you two. It's been so hard in this case because it's the integration of so many different ideas. It's not just building with pretty views. This is about trying to promote biodiversity and landscape. And that's an amazing success, I think. But this life-changing, environment-enhancing building must surely come with a hefty price tag. So where are you with the money? How much have you spent? So we've gone over by about eight grand-ish on 650. We had to slog, slog for that. We've really had to make our money work incredibly hard. Yeah. I'd say. It's definitely had its toll on me. But what we've put into it, this is certainly going to give us more back. You know, this is here now. We've done it. We made it. What would your father have made of it? It's funny you say that. I was just thinking of him. Like, it makes me feel quite emotional. Bizarrely, I've seen so much more of my father in me through this process, more so than ever before. The underlining principle of what we were trying to create, I think he would have become proud of me seeing that I've made a connection with the landscape. It makes the house so, so much more special by having invested in the pond. And I think that's the essence of really what he would be most proud of me about this project. It's an amazing, amazing thing. You're sort of addicted to it now. I'm heavily addicted, I have to admit. You are. You kind of get that yoga face after you've been in the water of like this. Yeah. If you think you're going to have a row, just get in the pool. That's what she says now. Yeah. If we're going to have crosswords, she says she throws a towel at me, get in the pool. I literally do. I've experienced so much heartache over the miracle healing pond, there's one more thing I have to do. That is the best view of the house, isn't it? This is amazing. The water feels, tastes even clean. It's another world. What this does is simply join together nature, and architecture, and in every sense, therefore, it's beautiful. I'm going to find a frog. This place was a swampy blot on the landscape, but by taking on every risk and fired by the desire to make an old man proud, Dan and Nina have made a slice of heaven on earth. It may have seemed stupendously ambitious, but it set an example of how we all might make our own haven, however small. The American architect, Charles Moore, said that buildings should be the instruments of connection, not of isolation. The question is, what do you want to be connected to? I mean, is it 5G, and the internet, and mains gas? Or is it the planet? Is it biodiversity and wildlife? Is it your own memories and childhood, your children, your lost ones? Well, I know which I prefer, and it's the same thing as Dan and Nina. This. How do you describe it? A derelict wreck. We're plonking a lovely new contemporary-style building inside. This is an incredibly beautiful site. Be very careful. Come on, you old bastard. It's so easy to, like, come down. I will be expecting them to replicate the original building. It was completely magical when we found it. I hope we've done a good job. This is utterly astonishing. Wow.