Builders 'run off' with $490k

[padding] [If you are unable to view this message correctly, click here]( [padding] [stuff header] [spacer] [padding] Hi {NAME}, Grand Designs UK is back for another season, and Stuff readers love not just watching it, but [reading about it.]( Senior writer Colleen Hawkes, who has been writing about architecture for 25 years, writes in such detail, sharing just enough of her own opinions, to make it entertaining and informative reading, even for those of us who missed the show. Besides, of course, what better drama than the first episode, which features a very ambitious couple, with plans for a four-bedroom, seven-bathroom home - a curved cedar-clad, three-storey house that cantilevers out over a fully glazed lower floor. And they’re trying to do it on a seemingly modest £700,000 budget. Things go wrong when they engage cheap overseas labour - Latvians who don’t manage to get the job done. The foreman vanishes, Covid hits, and before too long the wannabe homeowners are out of pocket by £250,000 (NZ$490k). Great spectacle, and somehow a stunning home at the end. Have a read below, and look out for Colleen’s next review after the show this Sunday night. Happy weekend! [padding] [user profile pic] [padding] Joanna Davis [padding] Homed Editor [padding] [spacer] [padding] Enjoying this email? [Check out Stuff's other daily and weekly newsletters.]( [spacer] # [padding] [spacer] [padding] [spacer][separator] [padding] [spacer] [padding] [spacer][Homed]( [spacer] Builders 'run off' with $490k [spacer] Grand Designs UK is back! This couple want maximum bang for their buck in the first of the new series, but they learn a cruel lesson when they opt for cheap overseas labour. [spacer] [read more]( [padding] [spacer] [padding] [spacer][Homed]( [spacer] Small but don't call me tiny [spacer] Small but mighty, this cottage in Kingsland could be yours for under $1m: It’s about the same price and size as an apartment, without the levy, and with a large garden. [spacer] [read more]( [padding] [spacer] [Privacy Info]( [spacer] [padding] [spacer][Homed]( [spacer] Here’s to lower power bills [spacer] The Taylors are leaving their large Arts & Crafts-style house to live in a new "sustainable" subdivision in Whanganui. Could this become the norm? [spacer] [read more]( [padding] [spacer] [padding] [spacer][hot take]( [spacer] Three kids under 4? No problem [spacer] Van life was nothing new to the dad of the family, who'd spent seven years as a child living in a house-bus. He and his family made van life work for 15 months. [spacer] [read more]( [padding] [spacer] [padding] [Privacy Info]( [spacer] [Privacy Info]( [padding] [spacer] [padding] [spacer][hot take]( [spacer] Oriental Parade beauty available [spacer] Here's a rare opportunity to own one of the capital's most-photographed homes, with many passers-by not realising one part of it is maybe 100 years younger than the rest. It comes with plans and consent to convert it back into a stately single dwelling. [spacer] [read more]( [padding] [spacer] [padding] [spacer][Homed]( [spacer] Where many babies had their start [spacer] This picturesque terraced villa is one in a row of six built in central Dunedin to house foremen on the railways in the early 1900s. In more recent years, the home has been used by a midwife providing antenatal visits. [spacer] [read more]( [padding] [spacer] [padding] [Privacy Info]( [padding] [spacer] [padding] [padding] [spacer][Support Stuff]( [Discover more at Homed]( [padding] [spacer] You are receiving this email because you are a opted in to receive the Stuff Homed newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( [Manage your profile]( [Privacy Policy]( Did a friend forward you this email? [Sign up to get the Stuff Homed newsletter in your inbox]( Stuff, 4 Williamson Ave, Ponsonby, Auckland, 1021, New Zealand [spacer] [padding]