West Kirby couple Stuart and Rosie Treasurer originally contacted Channel 4’s Grand Designs programme as a bit of a joke.
Whenever they told friends and family about their dramatic plans for remodelling their 1960s dormer bungalow, they were always greeted with the same response, “you should go on Grand Designs.”
And so they did.
The couple, who run local business Cleancut Wood, sent an email to the production company behind the series and within a matter of weeks filming on their project began.
Earlier this month, their episode was finally aired after being initially delayed due to Donald Trump’s surprise win in the US elections.
Stuart said: “We were pretty nervous about watching the episode, because we had no idea of what would have made the cut and what wouldn’t – they don’t let us see any footage before transmission, and while they did chat with us about the way they are telling the story, its only in very broad detail.
“So we didn’t know how the project would come across, or how we would come across either.”
Rosie added: “We were a bit surprised to see some preview articles online, on the Mail website and also the Evening Standard, the day the episode aired – all of a sudden we were seeing photos and the story written up in quite a lot of detail, before we had seen anything!
“I guess it was the Channel 4 marketing machine in action, but it was a bit of a concern because they seemed to be concentrating on the ‘neighbours hate it’ angle. So we watched the show in trepidation that the story was all about how we had upset everyone!”
The house was designed by West Kirby-based Bromilow Architects and the building contractor was Graeme Mealor, from Hoylake.
Rosie said: “The weekend just after the show aired, we had a gift stall at the ‘Christmas with the Artisans’ fair at Hoylake Chapel, and we had dozens of local people telling us how much they enjoyed the show, liked the house and congratulating us for our hard work – it was really lovely, and we were quite touched that people would bother coming up to tell us.”
Stuart added: “It’s fair to say we loved the show. We needn’t have worried about how they would treat us, we felt it was a very fair portrayal of what we went through.
“During the project they gathered over 100 hours of footage over a couple of dozen visits, so there was an awful lot that didn’t make the cut.
“We were please they included some great local footage, of the views from the memorial and the coastline, which made us feel proud to live here.”
Now the show is over, what is next for the owners of the Grand Design’s house?
Stuart said: “Our business is always busy in the run up to Christmas, as we make personalised wooden gifts, so it was a natural deadline for us to try and finish as much as possible before winter set in.
“We were slightly concerned that because we haven’t completed the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, the house would look half finished on TV, but they weren’t worried: in the end you see they know exactly what they are doing and what they filmed looked good. It’s a shame it doesn’t stay that way, with family life making a mess!”
