The BEST episodes of Grand Designs season 5
Every episode of Grand Designs season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Grand Designs season 5!
Presenter Kevin McCloud follows some of Britain's most ambitious self-building projects, as intrepid individuals attempt to design and construct the home of their dreams.
#1 - Carmarthen, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/16/2005
Andrew and Lowri Davies embark on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them? As the budget spirals out of control, they find it increasingly difficult to balance the budget with their desire for a sustainable home.
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#2 - Kent, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/27/2005
John Cadney and Marnie Moon have never had a permanent home. For 16 years they've camped on land owned by Marnie's parents because they could never afford to buy a house in the area where they live. So John, a carpenter, rolled his sleeves up and decided to build a house for his family with his bare hands. After much searching for the right kind of house they settled on an environmentally friendly four-bedroom log cabin. The whole thing was imported from Finland as hundreds of pre-cut bits of wood. All John had to do is figure out how it all fits together!
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#3 - Grand Designs Revisited: Sussex, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/26/2005
Kevin returns to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed. The house has bedded down into its landscaped kitchen garden and his life has changed in unexpected ways.
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#4 - Peckham, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/13/2005
When Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe began looking for a house to buy in London they soon realised that the only affordable option was to build one themselves. They snapped up a dirt cheap slither of land in Peckham at an auction only to be told it was too small to put a house on. Undeterred, three years ago, engineering whiz Monty began building an extraordinary experimental bungalow that filled the site to bursting point.
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#5 - Gloucester, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/20/2005
When lawyers Jeremy and Louise Brown walked into Upthorpe Farm in Gloucester, they couldn't believe their eyes. It was like stepping back in time. Apart from a few minor alterations, the Grade II listed 16th-century farmhouse had barely been touched for over 400 years and was completely unmodernised. There were original beams and doorways, original paint and plaster and a hay loft. Now that they've purchased the property their ambitious design plan is to bring the farmhouse into the 21st century, blending the original historic features with modern simplicity and luxury. Kevin watches on intrigued as they tackle the challenge of reconciling the very old and the very contemporary.
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#6 - Belfast, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/2/2005
This is Belfast, one of the great cities of the industrial revolution, and home to Thomas and Dervla O’Hare. They’ve lived here for 18 years, and although they still love their tiny cottage for its compactness, they’re about to build something much, much bigger. They’re building a 21st century answer to the Roman villa, with a copper roof, glass and concrete walls and vast amounts of living space all arranged around a central courtyard.
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#7 - Devon, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/19/2005
For the last 20 years, Pat Becker has been living in a large Georgian family house overlooking the sea in Devon. Now that her family have flown the nest and the house has grown too big for her, she's decided to build a new home at the bottom of the garden. Shaped like a curvy seashell, the new house has concrete and polystyrene walls, which spiral down from the central staircase. Her architect has promised it will take only six months to build but constructing a round house is never straightforward!
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#8 - Grand Designs Revisited: Waterloo 2005
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/11/2005
Kevin again comes to the former violin factory in the vestre, where Louise and Milko built the house of their entire dreams. He wants to look at the changes and find out if they managed to cope with the problems with neighbors that arose during construction.
#9 - Grand Designs Revisited: Hackney 2005
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/4/2005
Kevin McCloud takes a trip back to the home of John and Eleni Flood who completely gutted their Victorian terraced house to create an open, light and modern space.
#10 - Grand Designs Revisited: Edinburgh 2005
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/6/2005
Kevin returns to see whether the couple's solo attempts to transform a wreck of an old stone building in Leith, with no previous building experience, has been successful.
#11 - Exmouth, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/9/2005
Kevin McCloud meets Julie and Mark Veysey, whose Grand Design is a stunning Miami-style beach house on a beachfront plot overlooking the south Devon coast. Julie and Mark have had several holidays in Miami, and Julie wanted to recreate the outdoor beachfront lifestyle back in England, living in a house full of light and sun, within easy reach of the waves.
#12 - Revisit: Clapham, 2005
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/23/2005
Anjana and David Devoy started building a contemporary home that curved around a protected chestnut tree in their garden. Kevin McCloud returns to see if their plan worked.