September 9, 2025 • 56 mins
In this episode of Building the Dream, Ashley sits down with George and Maria from Fresh Architects — the design duo known for turning bold ideas into beautiful, buildable homes.
We talk about:
- How to find the right architect for your project
- What planning permission is really like
- Why most budgets are way off (and how to fix that)
- How to balance Pinterest dreams with practical design
- The power of phasing, smart glazing, and future-proofing
- Real stories of beachfront builds, sunken lounges, and car lifts
Whether you’re building a house, renovating your forever home, or just dream-scrolling Pinterest — this episode will change how you think about architecture, planning, and design.
🏡 Learn how to build smarter, not just bigger.
🔧 Get real tips from architects who actually do the work.
🎧 Listen now, and make your dream home a reality.
🔗 Explore Fresh Architects: www.fresharchitects.co.uk
📲 Follow @aurasurfaces for more episodes like this
#architecture #fresharchitects #dreamhome #selfbuild #homeinspo #planningpermission #budgetbuild #modernhomes #buildingpodcast #interiordesign #constructionuk
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on Buildin' the Dream, I'm joined by the
fantastic George and Maria fromFresh Architects.
Now, I've followed this companyfor about three or four years
on their socials and absolutelylove what they do, so it only
felt right to get them into apodcast and learn more about
them and what they do.
So welcome George, WelcomeMaria to Buildin' the Dream.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
How are we both doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good, good, good, very good, thank you, How's
things Busy?
Very busy.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Very busy.
To be fair, it's been hard toget you both down, to drag you
both down and do this.
So how did you guys meet?
Tell us a little bit of anintroduction into Fresh
Architects and how you guys met.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So we used to work for other companies, much larger
practices, working in Londonand everywhere else in the
country.
That's how we met.
We're both fully qualifiedarchitects.
That's literally how we metworking for somebody else, but
we always knew that we wanted tocreate our own company.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, and then about five and a half years ago now,
wasn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We started up fresh.
We started during quite a busytime, obviously it was, it was
covid, um.
So yeah, it was crazy, probablylike the wrong time to start.
You'd think so anyway, but thenthe phone literally just did
not stop ringing.
I think everyone was kind ofstuck in their houses, um,
looking around, thinking theyneeded more space.
You know, everyone was all inthe house all at once and they
(01:24):
needed extra places to work,extra space for the kids, things
like that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So yeah, and people had too much money.
Yeah, exactly, people had toomuch money.
I would say you're sort ofknown for clean-lined,
future-focused designs.
Very contemporary, you do a lotof sort of beachfront
properties that look absolutelyamazing.
What sort of led you guys tothat?
(01:50):
Is it your clients?
Is that something you reallyenjoy doing?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I think naturally we both love the contemporary look
like the clean crisps lines andmaking things quite contemporary
um, it also have an impact.
What the clients want.
Sometimes they want to bereally contemporary and then
it's when we get the mostexcitement out of the project.
Other times they want to be abit more traditional, more in
(02:16):
keeping with the roads, which wecan also work with.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But what we really enjoy doing is um the
contemporary personally at leastyeah me, yeah, it's important
for us to be able to do both,obviously because there's a
massive market for like thetraditional as well.
Like you come into kind ofwhere we are now, you know like
the more kind of rural settingum, and sometimes those those
modern things just don't flywith the council or kind of like
(02:40):
the local community and thingslike that.
But yeah, I think the ones weenjoy are the kind of high-tech,
modern beachfront styleproperties.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So have you ever come across a?
Imagine a nice traditional rowof houses and then someone wants
to put a modern beachfrontvilla right, smack bang in the
middle of that.
How does that work?
How does that look?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Well, someone has to start, so someone has to be the
first one.
If's going to happen, thenmaybe you know I'm thinking of
kind of a road that we work onquite regularly in east preston.
Um, there's quite a few kind ofprivate estates down there and
they were kind of built, um,several decades ago, you know
when, when the constructionwasn't so, wasn't so great, and,
(03:27):
yeah, they've been kind offlattened now and these
beachfront properties are comingup and they're three stories
and what was there before waslike a single story bungalow.
But yeah, someone's got tostart.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, that's, very true.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, you need to look at the wider context as
well and then see whether youcan get precedence from even if
they seem impossible.
There is always something thatyou can say this house was built
with this kind of flat roofover here and that and put some
things together to get you toyour end goal.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So there is a way to do everything.
There is, yes, Almost.
Have you ever had a projectwhere it didn't, for whatever
reason?
You couldn't quite do what youwanted to do.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I think we just have to adapt.
Yeah, it might be that they saycertain elements you know like
you need to reduce the height ofthe ridge, and then we don't
always kind of just give into it.
We'll say, all right, yeah,we'll reduce the size of the
ridge if you let us go a littlebit more out the side.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So, yeah, it's a bit of kind of negotiation.
Yeah, I think the clientsalways know that we're pushing
the boundaries.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So they know that there might be a little bit of
do that going back to do youthink your reputation of
building these amazing lookinghouses really helps when it
comes to, when it comes togetting the planning for the
kites?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I think so.
I mean we've got toucheverything We've got a hundred
percent planning approvals.
Record of planning approvals.
We've never got a refusal inany of our obligations but I
think you can tell because youcan see that we push the
boundaries.
Some people, some of thearchitects, might just do really
contemporary.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Sorry, really traditional builds.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Always kind of the same, whilst we try to keep it
like really a wide variety ofbuilding.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, it's an interesting question.
Do you mean from the council?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, I mean like if I'm just wondering obviously I'm
not in this world I'm wonderingif, say, I was a client and I
was choosing an architect, if anarchitect's success rate in
that local area is quite high,it might then say, okay, they're
the right people for me, or Imight have tried an architect
and they're not quite alignedwith that local council.
(05:41):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, it's interesting because, like the
council, they're reallysubjective, even though they
shouldn't be.
It should be like an objectiveprocess, but we find that it
depends who's dealing with thecase.
From the council, obviously, aswe've done more and more
applications, we kind of get toknow who's working there.
So, yeah, we sometimes someonefrom the council might pop up
(06:02):
and we'll be like, oh no, wemight get someone else,
sometimes someone from thecouncil might pop up and we'll
be like, oh no, it's going to bea nightmare.
We might get someone else who'sa little bit more
pro-development and yeah,they'll say it's subjective all
day long, but it's definitelysome subjectivity to it.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, I mean, and obviously the government are
saying we're relaxing planning,we're relaxing planning.
Have you noticed that?
Are they actually relaxingplanning, do you feel?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I would say no, I haven't really noticed anything
like that, other than they'regetting slower and slower at
giving us responses andcollaborating with us on the
projects and being responsive.
If anything, things are gettingbusier and they have less
(06:46):
resource.
But I don't think there is.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I know it's always in the news, but I don't think
that it really affects whatwe're submitting day to day yeah
, that's our sort of level thatI'd say when you start getting a
getting towards like 300 newhomes and stuff that they've
been kind of plonked on yeahthey just signed that one off
straight away, just straightaway.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
See you later.
Yeah, I'm seeing that more andmore, actually in the news.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
They're saying like oh, 200 objections, local
objections, approved straightaway.
But then we can't get likesometimes, you know, you
struggle to get a smallextension.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, it's been really well considered and stuff
, yeah, extension on the side,well considered and stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, it's got to be tough, isn't it?
It's got to be tough and thereis some stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It doesn't make sense really.
Yeah, again, though it'sprobably I don't want to get
political or podcast, but it'sprobably if someone's building
300 houses, the local councillike, well, that's going to
increase the numbers for us.
300 houses, happy days, butyeah.
But we're not talking about bigdevelopments.
We're talking about beautifulhomes that you guys help clients
(07:49):
create.
Um, so this might be a toughone.
It might be a really easy one.
What is the first thing thatyou would ask a new client,
someone that's approached youguys that want help with, let's
say, a whole build?
What's sort of the first sortof steps, the first thing you
would like to know from theclient?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think I think I really would like to know what's
driving the project for theclient to really understand well
what they want to achieve.
So there are some people mightsay my house is really dark and
I want to really transform it tohave a really bright house
flooded with natural light.
Or someone might say I shadethe views in my house and I
(08:31):
really want to improve the viewout.
So I think that kind ofquestion like what is driving
you to pick up the phone andring us?
There must be one main reasonthat I think it's good to get it
.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Quite interesting.
That's quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I thought it would have been about budgets and
things so what are the steps?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
how do you guys turn someone's like dream pinterest
board mood board?
I'd imagine a lot of yourclients have been planning this
for years.
I'd imagine they've got allthese wacky and wild ideas.
How do you then turn that fromlike a pinterest mood board to a
real thing?
How does that process look, andis it difficult?
(09:14):
Is it easy?
I guess it depends on theclient.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, so we go kind of like brief, which is kind of
what maria was saying um, that'slike the pinterest board side
of things.
They're like yeah, I want ainfinity pool at the back or on,
you know, a gym in the basement, all of these sorts of things,
um, and then, yeah, we just kindof take it forwards.
The budget kind of aligns withthose expectations and, and if
(09:44):
it doesn't, that's when we'vegot the first kind of challenge
really, and we need to tell them, you know, either to take it
down a little bit or yeah.
It's where we can kind of pushit with the budget.
It usually goes the other wayyeah.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think we always start with ideas first.
You don't just start with howmuch money have you got for this
project, but then it's closelyfollowed by the budget, because
it really makes a hugedifference.
If the budget is there, thenthe project can be beautiful.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, I guess it's probably quite an awkward
conversation to have sometimes,isn't it?
Because you guys know what you?
You know how much an infinitypool costs, with everything, all
the bells and whistles and apool house and stuff.
You know what that costs,whereas someone might.
I'm in googling swimming pool,swimming pool, and it's come up
and it's again.
This is why I like doing thispodcast, because there is you
(10:36):
don't know where to go.
There's so much noise, so much.
We call it in what I do,surface blindness.
Customers come to us they'velooked at a thousand different
things on Pinterest and theinternet and they're like, yeah,
surface blind, they don't knowwhat they're doing.
I'd imagine it's very similarin your industry.
They're sort of design blind.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, they Google too much, I think, and it would be
better if they approach peopleto find out cost, realistic cost
, in the local area where youare, because it changes
massively.
Some people might be googlingsomething and finding out how
much something costs, but maybeit's up north and it's very
different to first line by thesea yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And I suppose and are there, you do a lot of projects
on the beach, seafront, fromwhat I've seen um, does that
come with its own challenges,building on the seafront with
terms of water.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, the seesaw you get, you get hit with the
prevailing winds.
I mean, the products are soimportant for, for the exterior,
um, we use a lot of like whiterender, which is not kind of,
yeah, cohesive with the beachenvironment.
But, yeah, you have to, youhave to get the right products.
So important, similar with,like the doors um, like, we've
(11:49):
had a situation.
We've turned up to a housebefore um that we were going to
be working on luckily, not onethat we'd worked on, um, but
they'd had sliding doorsinstalled and the wind is so bad
down there that it's actuallymoving the glass really.
So the glass moves in and thedoor's leaking.
So the door's in fine, but theactual glass is being pushed in
so hard that the doors areleaking.
(12:11):
So, yeah, everything needs tobe considered like
hurricane-proof doors.
You need your silicon renderswith all the warranties and
guarantees behind them.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, because salt water can make a beautiful house
look not very beautiful in avery short space, very short
space.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It's the same with the heat, though um like those
properties have, like the sunyeah overheating them.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So yeah, it's a lot to consider so do you guys get
get involved a lot in likerenewable energy, um passive
houses and stuff like that.
Is that something that you guysget involved with?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, we do, we like it and we like to educate, like
you say, our clients into whatthey are going to need in the
future, not just what looks nice, but what is going to make your
house work well.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, I think it's really important in this day and
age.
Correct me if I'm wrong,because you know this better
than me, but to future-proofthings.
It's all good and well.
People spend in what peoplespend a million pound, two
million pound building thesebeautiful houses, but they
shouldn't really be.
They should be looking into howthey can future-proof it.
Do they need to be passive?
Do they need to be sealed,heating, cooling?
(13:19):
A friend of mine built a housebeautiful, 150 mil insulation,
triple glazing, air source,under full heat throughout, and
in the summer it's just too hot.
It just gets too hot because itholds everything, and I suppose
(13:40):
it's important to have someoneon your side that understands
this when it comes to designingyour home.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
It's something we're being requested, yeah, more and
more by clients and they want,like your, air source heat pumps
, and not just to, not just forthe heating, but also for the
cooling, like you say it's soimportant.
Um, for those four or five daysa year that we get boiling.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, yeah, we've been quite lucky this summer.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I don't think we've had about eight days where I
wish I had air gone yeah, um,but no, yeah, we're always
looking to put in, like, wherewe can, where budget allows,
where the client wants it.
You know, we're looking to putin things like your green roofs,
um, your your inset solarpanels, um, all combined
together.
When they all link up, that'swhen, yeah, that's when it
(14:19):
starts to work really well.
And we've got some clients whoactually, oh, they've got these
big houses and their bills arezero or less than zero, actually
selling, selling energy back tothe grid, which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, so what's the thing behind green roofs?
What is a green roof?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
well, you've got different levels, um.
So you've got like the kind ofseed and finish which is like
your thinnest build up, probablythe cheapest of the green roofs
, right up to something like ablue roof, um, which is where
you kind of it's almost like aholding load of water as well.
So that's, that's part of thepurpose of it.
So, um, yeah, it slows down thedrainage, um.
(15:00):
So if you've got a site that'skind of heavily concreted or
heavily paved, um, the greenroofs can kind of slow that
drainage down, um, just becauseit kind of permeates through the
green.
Then you've usually got like anegg crate kind of system, yeah,
and then attenuates the waterand slowly releases it into the,
into the drainage system, um.
But yeah, visually you've gotall these different varieties.
(15:22):
You've got like a kind of shortseed and type right up to like
an intensive kind of wildflowerright up to can get up to like
half a metre kind of thick stuffso what about?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
does that help with sort of insulation?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, massively, massively.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Sorry.
The only reason I'm asking isbecause I've seen it a lot and I
have no idea whether it wasliterally just aesthetic or
whether there were severebenefits of having green roofs.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
That's why I know there are huge benefits.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, yeah the aesthetic is also quite
important, like it's not thesame to look out the window and
see like a massive expanse of aflat roof and just seeing like a
green roof, which is much nicer.
Everything kind of workstogether.
I mean, where possible we dothings like that that look nice
and pleased to the eye, wherenot possible, then we try to
(16:14):
hide it.
So when the equipment gets likethose hip palms and things like
that are not like so pretty,then we try to hide them as much
as we can.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, and also does that help?
Would that, then?
We try to hide them as much aswe can?
Yeah, and also does that help?
Would that help with like aplan and if you was having a big
aspect of the?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
roof was going to be a green roof.
Would that be something toconsider?
Yeah, it can do, it can't, butit won't be just only that.
They will still have todifferent bits, little little.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh what if we put, if we move that, get rid of that?
Horrible, yeah, yeah yeah, whatare some of the most exciting
or unusual requests you thinkyou've worked with?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
we've had a car lift, okay, car lift, we yeah, that's
, that was a nice one to like abasement garage, um, which is,
yeah, really cool.
So this car lift that you yeah,you can basically comes up out
the ground like that so it'sinvisible when you kind of first
turn up.
Apart from just a little, squareyeah a little kind of rectangle
in the driveway, um, and then,yeah, it comes up and you drive
(17:11):
your car in, um, and then it,yeah, you kind of press a button
and it just drops you down.
But the other good thing aboutit is that you could have a car
on top, so you could have like arange rover on top of this
thing.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
It will literally pick up the Range Rover.
You can drive in underneath itand then it will take you down
and you can drive straight intoyour garage.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Oh, really.
Oh, that's cool.
So not just like a box with atwo car thing on it, but that
literally goes into the basement.
That's quite cool.
What about you?
Anything that jumps out?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, I was thinking about one that is now built.
They ask for a massive sunkenarea with a really high ceiling
and then floating a stair bunglein the middle which we felt
like like right above the sunkenarea.
Perhaps I'd never thought aboutjust because of the cost and
everything else that's involvedwith it, like you're raising the
distance you know for the stairto be supported and everything.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So yeah, it is amazing what can be done with a
bit of ingenuity and a bit ofand I guess it's probably quite
exciting for you guys If aclient comes to you with a bit
of a challenge.
If you're anything like me, Ienjoy a challenge because it's
what we get out for, and everyday is a school day.
Oh, can we do that like thelift?
I bet the lift was like a okay,how are we going to do this?
(18:30):
And then you, you make it workthat's exactly what we like,
really like.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
We'll get more excited about all of that than
someone who just wants like asimple, real extension, which we
do as well.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
But yeah, let's talk about where do you find that
people mostly sort of misjudgethe budget?
Where does it tend to go offkilter the most?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I'd say it's right, right at the start, like when
they come up we say, okay, sothis is, go through the brief,
this is what you want.
Um, these are all the factorsyou want us to consider.
What's your budget?
That figure that comes back isusually way off.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
So how do you overcome that then?
Is that a case of using yourexpertise to sort of bring them
back down to earth a little bitand say well, we can do this and
this.
What are the most?
I would imagine you findyourself right.
You've got 15 things on yourlist here.
What are the top seven?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yes, that's the thing .
We have to do it, even if thatmeans we lose the project.
We have to do it.
We have to bring them back downto how much things cost.
Some people are going to justbe surprised.
They don't even know how much abig sliding door costs, and if
you don't know that, it'simpossible for you to know what
(19:49):
a huge project is going to cost.
If they really need to thinkabout it, and we always ask them
to prioritize, so when thathappens, we say, okay, so we've
discussed all of this, what isyou must have, and then the
others will achieve in adifferent way rather than in the
top quality one might be theactual size of it as well.
(20:10):
You know like so if we're doingan extension and they want like
a full wraparound.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
We've had it before where they want like a two-story
wraparound, um, and we've hadto go and kind of say, you know,
you need to maybe lose theentire side if you want to
achieve this, yeah, um, so it'sa difficult conversation, but
it's one that they're obviouslyall grateful for in the end.
It's a bit of a shock at thestart and, and I think, half the
time they don't.
They don't even believe usstill.
(20:35):
Yeah, we're still.
We're in that position of trustwhere they've asked us to come
and visit their home and give uslike our experience and our
expertise, and then we say wethink it's probably going to
cost you, rather than 500 000,closer to a million pound if you
want to achieve this.
It's like it's almost like noway.
(20:55):
But, even I feel like that fromlike an outside perspective.
If I was them, I put myself intheir shoes.
I think if someone was comingto me and telling me it was
going to be a million ratherthan 500,000, I'd be like, yeah,
no chance.
But then once you startbreaking it all down and working
through it, yeah, yeah, I guessthere's a lot of things like
insulation.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
There are so many things that people don't really
even digouts.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, they want to think about it Even just digging
out.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
A friend of mine was they were doing a wraparound
extension.
They thought they hadeverything sorted.
Paul, if you're listening, I'msorry, mate.
He had a big wraparoundextension and then they decided
they're putting an Airbnb in thegarden, so they wanted a
swimming pool that could beshared by the house and Airbnb.
He started digging and then theneighbour's garden collapsed,
(21:48):
had to then pile between hishire a 12-tonne excavator to
pile between his garden and that, obviously, all the dirt that's
fallen in had to be dug out.
So the dig out costs and thenthe concrete costs to do this
pole just wiped up half thebudget to build the actual
extension.
So there's all sorts of thingsthat can happen that you don't.
(22:08):
We find it where people are.
Yeah, we need tiles, we needsurface coverings, but our
budget's gone becauseeverything's gone behind the
walls, everything's gone in theelectrics, the insulation and
the scree.
Getting rid of dirt.
It's um, it is.
It's the thing that it'simportant for people, I think,
to understand, because I guessit's difficult, because they
(22:31):
have their dreams set and theycome to you and then you're
almost like telling them thatfather christmas isn't real.
I'd imagine it can be verydifficult at times.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
They just need to know how to split their budget,
Like if they had a betterunderstanding of how much things
cost, then they could split it.
If someone loves the gardendesign, they need to know that
from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Otherwise, chances are with the budget it's going
to be eating into the build andthen by the time you went to
your garden you've run out ofmoney that's another way we
approach it sometimes, I meanwith phasing and stuff so we
might say, um, yeah, maybe thatthat would be good enough for
like shell, get it to a shellstage, get it watertight um, and
(23:14):
then kind of, yeah, take stockand reconsider, like how much
money you've got left at thattime.
Maybe over the period of like ayear's build, you've saved up a
bit more and you can startthinking about the cost of
finishes and things like that,where they actually want to
spend the money, because that'swhat they end up seeing every
day.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So, yeah, so how do you guys work then?
If I, for example, I've come toyou, I have got a, I want a
champagne house, but I've got aLambrini budget, how do we
ascertain that?
I phoned you up for example Higuys, yeah, this is what I want.
(23:52):
Do you then have like a meetingwith the client and work out
whether they're one is the rightbuild for you and whether you
can help them and whether theirbudget's right?
Do you do that before it sortof goes a bit too deep?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
yeah, absolutely.
We need to meet the client.
It's not just about selectingan architect.
We need to get on really well.
It's all about the relationshipas well.
It's not just theresponsibility and
qualifications.
It's very important for us.
We want to enjoy working withyou as much as you enjoy working
with us.
So at that point, once you seethat you can click and connect
(24:27):
and you can work well, becausethe praise might be up to a
couple of years.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
It's a long-term relationship, for sure.
Yeah, yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And we take it really seriously.
For us is someone who we canend up being friends with and go
out for a drink, rather thansomeone that would just do the
prayer for you and then that'sit like.
We really want to understandwhat you want, understand the
feelings, understand everythingand then be tactical and careful
how things can be achieved.
I mean, obviously it'sunrealistic that someone's going
(24:56):
to come with a huge expectationand a tiny budget.
It does happen sometimes, butit is unrealistic More often
than not.
We would just need to tweakthings around.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Like you said before, there's a work, like there is
with planning.
There's a workaround.
You might not be able to havethat glass face, but we can do
this and do that.
I guess it's the same withbudget, yeah, so every project
is so personal for us as well.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
We take it all really personally, don't we?
Everything?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
We do.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Usually it's for like a nice family or a nice couple
who are trying to build theirfuture home, dream home.
Like I said, it's like aonce-in-a-lifetime thing for
most people, so it's reallyimportant.
So, yeah, that that initialconversation.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We would, yeah, if you had a I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, I don't know what drink you reference, but I
would tell you, I would say youhad yeah like a beer budget yeah
yeah, straight up.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, but I think that's really important and
that's why I asked the question.
I think it's really importantbecause I'd imagine that I'd
imagine there's people thatdon't have the same don't have.
I bet it's really importantbecause I'd imagine that I'd
imagine there's people thatdon't have the same don't have.
I bet it's quite emotional.
I bet it's.
You guys are emotionallyinvolved in this project and you
want to see it through as muchas the client.
Like you say, you're going outfor dinner with them.
(26:10):
I love stories like that.
I spoke to a builder's day.
They did a real, they did abeautiful project for a client
and I said, oh, did he ever?
He was South Africa, so thatwas a barbecue.
I said did he ever?
Yeah, all the lads went aroundfor a barbecue, just around big
barbecue.
I love stories like that at theend of the projects and that's
sort of why I moved into what Ido.
Before, when I was in retail,we were loading stuff in the
(26:32):
boot of someone's car and it wasdisappearing and we'd never see
it again, whereas I likeclients coming to me and it's
probably very similar to you.
What's the vision?
How do you want to feel whenyou enter that room, and that's
sort of where I'm going down,and I guess it does align very
much with what you're doing.
However, you're in charge ofthe whole thing, not just the
bathroom or a kitchen.
(26:52):
So how do you keep a sense ofluxury and impact, even when
you've sort of value engineeringstuff, when you, when the
clients come to you, you'vepicked, they've got 15 items
you've managed to do 10 with,though with the last five items,
sort of?
How do you, how do you stillgive that luxurious feel, but
(27:17):
obviously you're stuck with thebudget?
How does that sort of turn?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
out.
I think it's important to pushlike the right elements.
Maybe there's like one keyfeature like you could, maybe
they pick like a window seat, orit's like the external cladding
or something that gives youthat wow.
But there doesn't necessarilyneed to be like five things that
give you that wow.
If they can get two or three,then that's usually good enough
to to have a big impact.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
So yeah, and then we, as george said before, we try
to face it if we need to, so foryou to get to the best result
that you could.
If we need to tell you it'sbetter for you to face it, then
we would.
And then you know we wouldn'tmake the clients compromising
things like a structure and theshell and things that cannot be
taken down easily.
But maybe those amazingfinishes can come like a few
(28:04):
months later, once they've gottime to maybe recover a little
bit from everything that'shappening and just do it
properly.
So we'd rather have theconversation and say to them pay
attention to time scales, fromrushing too much into a few
things at the very beginning,eating all the bad dirt and then
what happens.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So I guess things like a kitchen.
Instead of buying that bespoke,handmade beautiful kitchen for
x amount, they could putsomething in temporary that
still looks good and in the aimsof a year, two years time time
to change it and then searchingloads for local companies that
they do.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
There is a lot of options Like.
The market is huge these daysand you can find really nice
things that are maybe not thatcostly.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So everyone's got different ranges.
They've got like the top oneand the one.
That isn't such as the top one,but it's quite good.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And I think by shopping independently at
independent local companies,they will be able to offer you
more value based on a project.
There might be that your doorsfrom a local company they're not
an independent, they're notgoverned by the big boss sitting
somewhere and they can offeryou a slightly better rate based
(29:19):
on the project.
But yeah, it's probably a veryimportant thing, isn't it?
Budget I'd imagine you come upagainst it it's key really for
every single project andeverything we can get carried
away as well.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
We can say to someone but you've got this budget, and
then they are during the.
They might be like, but can youadd this and that?
And it's like we need to keepreminding them yes, but this was
your budget.
We can add it if you want to.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
If the budget's changed since we last spoke.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I mean.
But the thing is though, youwatch.
I mean you watch Grand Designs,you watch all these programs.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I don't think I've ever seen one where they didn't
go over budget?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
yeah, by double, triple, etc.
Um, so what would you say wouldbe what?
So you said it sort of before.
We've loosely um touched onthis.
What would you say is worthinvesting in and where is a good
place to make smart savings?
I guess the structure thingsthat can't be removed easily.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, exactly that, things that cannot be removed
easily.
Then it depends on the brief aswell.
If someone comes and says, likeI said, my house is really dark
and I want natural light, thenglazing is going to play a huge
part of the process and thebudget.
So it depends on the brief.
It's really bespoke, but oncewe understand exactly the end
(30:40):
goal, we can.
We can give them a list ofpriorities almost and say this
is where you want to spend themoney and this is where you
don't want to spend the moneyglazing is a key one, I'd say,
because you can make it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You can make something go from looking quite
normal to looking quite special,so you get like a door that's
standard doors 2.1.
If you make that 2.5 all of asudden, all the way around, all
of a sudden, you're letting thatmuch more light in.
It looks different from theoutside and, yeah, everything
kind of changes straight away,doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Glazing is huge Glazing, especially for the
exterior and I guess theinterior and the interior.
The amount of light naturallight that you let in Glazing's
come a long way now, hasn't it?
Everybody worries?
We worked on a project and theyhad big glazing and they were
worried about it being too hotbecause there's so much glazing.
But I guess there's ways aroundthat now, isn't there?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
yeah, I mean you can get the triple glazing do we do
like overhangs and stuff as well, so you get the architectural
feature, but it's also serving afunction so it stays sort of
shady yeah, at the, at the worstpoint of the day, so when the
sun's highest, yeah, you blockout that worst light yeah, I get
car there's.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
When you talk about things like that, that's you
then got.
When you're designing theproperty, you've got to think
about where the sun rises, ohabsolutely, the orientation is
key there's so much just havingthis brief conversation.
There's so much that just evengoes over my head, so I can't
imagine what it's like forclients.
I bet it's a like a wow, wethought this was going to be so
(32:16):
simple and it'd be done in threemonths and we'd have the
beautiful house.
I mean, we touched on this, butwhat should listeners know
about planning permission,especially in sort of?
I know you've done a little bitof conservation stuff.
You do work on conservationstuff, but what do you think the
(32:37):
listeners should be aware ofwhen it comes to applying for
planning permission?
If there was three top things,you would say, right, we're
going for planning, but we'vegot to consider what's the three
things that normally I thinkone of the things is be patient.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Some people really are in the rush to get their
projects done.
There is an element there withthe time that we can't control,
completely outside our control.
One of them is definitely time.
Be patient and then allow it aslong as it needs to, because we
can liaise with the council andthings can be approved.
(33:14):
But we need to be in a position.
You know, if you're reallystubborn and you just want one
thing, then you just it's justnot gonna go down.
Well, you need to be open tosome alterations.
That would be number two.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
I'll say location as well yeah, allocation like just
being realistic about where,where you are.
If you are in a conservationarea, then you're going to be a
little bit more restricted.
Generally, it doesn't meananything's kind of impossible,
but you're going to be a littlebit more restricted than you
would be if you weren't in thatarea.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
But yeah, that's not to say that you can't have
something modern which contrastsagainst something quite
traditional, something we getasked for quite often yeah, I'd
imagine it's quite exciting whenyou get someone come to you
with something a bit moretraditional and they want to put
a big extension on the side,but they want to have it a bit
(34:06):
more contemporary, and thenmixing the two in, I'd imagine
that's quite, that's quite anexciting project to work on that
.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Yeah, one that springs to mind is one that
we've got down word in seafrontat the moment.
You might have seen it online.
It's like you mentioned a roofterrace when we were talking
before, so you might have seenthat one, but that's in a
conservation area.
You know the kind of white,typical white seafront buildings
really old, traditional styleand they want like a modern,
(34:36):
contemporary roof terrace on topof that.
So that's in for planning atthe moment.
It's been in quite a while.
We're constantly going back andforth with the council, but
yeah, I think it's almost overthe line, so hopefully, We'll
get it there, so that, by thesounds of it, that one's been a
little bit tricky.
(35:00):
Have you had to make a lot ofadjustments to get the council
to approve that one?
I think we yeah, that's a bit ofan anomaly.
It was kind of like the firstone of its kind in the five
years that we've been going,because we did the typical
process.
We did like the pre-application, which is basically when you
submit the application beforeplanning, to try and get kind of
a feel for what the council isgoing to say about it.
So we did that and got theideas from the case officer who
(35:22):
was going to be looking after it, which we decided what they
said to us wasn't quite right.
So we wanted to push it alittle bit further.
We went into the fullapplication, kind of without
listening to that advice thatthey gave us, but justifying the
reasons that we hadn't kind ofagreed with their approach
(35:43):
looking at other local examplesand things like that basically
justifying, with good reason, Ithink, why we hadn't done it.
But then I think it was a bitof a dent to the ego of them and
I think, yeah, that's caused usa few difficulties, massive
delays.
Like I said, it's reallysubjective and I think they do.
(36:04):
They probably take it a bitpersonally where they shouldn't
as well.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, we always-.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
We're still liaising.
I think we'll get there.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Ed, I'm sure we will.
We always prioritize theclients as well.
So if they want something andthe case officer comes and says
it can't happen because of x, yand z, and our clients really
want it to happen that way, thenwe need to come up with all
sorts of backup.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
yeah, yeah and I said that I don't want problems, I
want solutions, and I guess it'svery sort of you do that a lot
within what you do.
It's solution finding there'salways a way to do something.
And yeah, I think the planningthing that we said about waiting
I've heard so many horrorstories of people waiting for
planning for a very long time.
(36:51):
I suppose it can be quitedisheartening.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, I think the worst we've had is about maybe
six months.
We haven't had more than that,but we've heard from clients
that had gone with somebody elsebefore that they had been
waiting for maybe a couple ofyears, and that is, to us,
unacceptable that roof terraceis probably up there as one of
the longer ones.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Um, we had one as well for a new build house, um,
where the liaison with thecouncil was really good.
We had like really positivefeedback um, and then, yeah, the
it all suddenly turned on itshead.
Um, I don't know if sometimesyou wonder if maybe, like a
neighbor, knows someone in thecouncil with higher up, because
basically the person we wereliaising with was completely
(37:34):
happy.
Yeah, um, and then their managerbasically overrode what they
were saying and said like we'renot going to accept this kind of
thing.
So that happened.
But then you go through theappeal process, which takes even
longer, and through the appealprocess it's like an independent
planning inspector who thenkind of assesses what you've put
(37:58):
in versus what the council aresaying and kind of their
opinions, and then it wentthrough anyway.
So they're basically sayingwhat the council said was wrong
and what you put in should havebeen approved.
And it was approved.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
It's a shame, isn't it?
Because of all this red tapeand you end up you get there
eventually, whereas that guyfrom the council might have been
having a bad day, like you saymight have been having a bad day
.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I know like you say might have had a neighbor.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Someone didn't really want it because that house
isn't it's going to be nicerthan my house.
Now, um, what can we do?
I guess there are a lot ofkarens in the world.
On there, there are a lot ofpeople that just they don't want
these things, even though it'sit's not going to affect them
really yeah, I think it's veryimportant.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
We think you said three key points for the
listeners to know.
I think one is also maybe afourth one or fifth one is the
neighbors yeah it is reallyimportant that people generally
don't like changes.
They object.
It doesn't mean it's not gonnago through, because we've got
objections in many applicationsand, as I said before, we've got
(39:01):
like a hundred percent recordsof approvals.
But that's not to say thatpeople do object and it makes
the application a bit longer ifthe objection is like yeah, if
it stands up.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah, some people will object.
I'd imagine some people willobject the most stupidest things
.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
For me it's like the wider effect as well, like it
affects when it, when it getsdelayed.
Obviously it affects howquickly our, our process moves
on.
So it affects how quickly weget paid.
Basically, yeah, yeah, and notonly us, but so where we're kind
of the start of the process,generally we're the first ones
to meet the clients.
It also affects, like yourcontractors, your local
(39:39):
tradesmen, structural engineers,like everyone gets affected by
the delays absolutely huge.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Everyone then asks us like what's happening with this
project?
And it's like it's been delayedbecause of planning and it's
like everyone else down thechain is like having an impact
for this project.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
This is not and I'd imagine, to build a to the
client, the customer, thehomeowner, the person that this
is their dream.
They've saved up whateverthey've done to then have this.
They've got the contractor theywant to use all booked in
because that guy's busy, thatguy, if he's good, he's busy,
(40:15):
his team they can't.
They've booked this plot thistime to do your build, which I
guess then leads perfectly intohow early should people bring in
people like yourselves to avoidcommon pitfalls.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
I think we should be the first ones.
Like it doesn't necessarilyhappen that way, some people
approach contractors first, butthe reality is that without
drawing, no one can really doanything in the process.
So we should be the first oneto also understand your budget
and see how far you can getcarried away with the project or
how constrained you are.
(40:51):
But that's that's our opinion,isn't it?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:55):
so what would you say now if I was looking to start
building in a year's time wouldprobably be quite good from our
conversation.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
probably quite a good time to get in touch with
someone like yourselves thatneeds to be measured for anybody
to start working on it Onceyou've got existing plans so you
are already a month down theline then someone can start
(41:26):
talking to you about proposalsand proposals take their time
too and then obviously planningand all of it.
So a year in advance isadvisable.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah, yeah, you can't really start too soon either,
because all you need is thatfinal package of information
that you're going to pass on tothe contractor.
Yeah, so yeah, as long asyou've got that, you need to
work towards getting to thatpoint first, and then you can
kind of move on at your leisureI suppose yeah, because you have
to plan everything down to thefinal detail.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
So what do they do then?
Sort of 3d map with a drone,the the site, the plot is that
sort of how it works yeah, it'smore like a spinning laser so
you know the guys you see withthe kind of tripods out there
and you wonder, like whatthey're doing?
Speaker 3 (42:04):
are they trying to catch me speeding?
But they're actually measuringlike the road and kind of taking
the heights of the topographyand yeah, there's lots to
consider, isn't there?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
it's not just a case of hi, george maria, can I build
a house?
Please, can I build a house?
Um, how do you build homes thatare beautiful today and still
relevant in 20 years?
Speaker 3 (42:31):
oh, that's a challenge, I think.
Yeah, it's just about lookingat, um, like, what materials are
not just current, but what aregoing to withstand the, the
weather, the test of time.
I mean, there's some materialsI'd say maybe they're like in
the moment.
But yeah, I think it's justimportant to kind of look at,
(42:52):
look at the overall, see what'son trend and don't necessarily
follow the trend, but followwhat, where you think the trend
is going.
If that makes sense, yeah, Ithink the maintenance is really
important.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Some people build a new and this is a simple, very
simple example, but some peopledo like a roof.
It could be someone just intheir house doing replacing the
tiles, or someone building areally nice new home.
They put the roofs on and thenthey forget about birds
protection.
And if, if you don't do that,the next thing you see if you
(43:22):
lovely gray tiled roof iscovering seagull poop and that
is as soon as if you want, andthen it looks dreadful.
So it's really important topick materials that are easy to
maintain, but also decide withwith solutions to potential
problems in the future.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I guess we get a lot of people
and sometimes less is more,Would you agree?
Yeah, Sometimes less is morePeople want to do, they want too
much.
Put a spaceship at one end andsomething at the other end.
I guess it's quite the.
So what's exciting you mostabout the future residential
(44:07):
architecture?
What sort of what's going on atthe moment that really gets you
, really gets you excited?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I think smart homes and getting everything fully
controlled from your phone soyou can approach your house, you
know the garage door opens, youcan put the oven on, equally
with, like, the sustainabilityside of things, like if the
glass gets too hot, the blindscome down.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
Anywhere in the world as well.
You can be like in Australia,controlling your home in England
, and it's some amazing features.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, we did a project for a guy.
Everything was controlled.
I can't remember.
Remember it was saying like 32miles of cable around this house
, every single light bulb wasindividual.
He could change every singlelight bulb.
He, the house was beautiful.
He rented it out to a film crewand they went to Thailand while
they were doing the.
They went to Thailand fishingwith his family while they were
doing the.
Well, he went to Thailandfishing with his family while
(44:58):
they were doing the film shootand he said yeah, if I want to,
he's one of the certain cameras.
They made him disconnect insidethe house and stuff.
He said but I could see whatthey're doing in the garden and
he said it's just amazing, onthe other side of the world I
can open my curtains.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
And spray paint.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, it's big data centers, though A lot of them.
I mean, this guy had a wholeroom.
Yeah, you do need the space forthat so your favorite project
and why?
I'll ask each of you thisindividually because I'm sure
you have I think we've.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Yeah, the car lift that I mentioned.
That project is quite special.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Have you got video and images of that?
Yeah, it's probably on thewebsite.
Yeah, yeah, if we can get that,because obviously a lot of
people listen to this, but somepeople will watch it.
So what we'll do is we'll getsome B-roll from you and we'll
put the car lift on the YouTubeso people can see what you're
talking about, because I thinkit's quite important.
Yeah, so sorry, carry on.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Yeah, so for me, that's like all singing, all
dancing, kind of like luxuryglazing, luxury finishes.
You've got like an internalpassenger lift running four
stories his and hers en-suites,his and hers dressing rooms,
views of the sea, panoramicviews from each level, where
you've got terraces out the back, yeah, large open plan space,
(46:26):
kind of everything that everyonewould want.
A chef's kitchen yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yeah, but there's a beautiful kitchen that was very
expensive.
It doesn't get used becausetucked around the corner is a
secret.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, yeah.
And what about you?
Speaker 2 (46:41):
the same project I'll say the same, but that's a new
build that is starting now, soeverything we've got is, like
our information that we'veproduced, that's starting now on
site.
So I'll say, like a really goodrenovation that we've done in a
similar area, like five minutesaway from this one, but it was
like a really traditional homewith like the typical England
(47:04):
style peach roof really oldfashioned, if you like and we
just fully transformed it intoreally contemporary front and
back, like it was only withextensions.
It wasn't a knockdown andrebuild, it was just
transforming the house and Ithink the result is truly.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Yeah, we've done that a few times, where we keep the
frontage towards the road likequite traditional when I assume.
And then you go around the backand it can be like, yeah, hyper
modern.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Big glazed hills.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've had a mock Tudor style
property on like a reallytraditional road and then at the
back we've used like a blackzinc where it kind of
complements the black um mocktudor timber and things like
that.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
So yeah, we also have like a few new buildings that
are really good.
So yeah, like like um, becausewe're more talking about
individual houses, but we've gota few projects and like on the
go that are like for new housesand things like that.
We don't do them like thetypical new builds copy and
paste.
(48:08):
We do every single one.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
You have your own yeah, and I think that, like I
work with a lot of architects,interior designers, designers
and stuff, and everybody hastheir own stamp.
Everybody will have their ownstamp, their own sort of vision,
their own style, and I thinkthat's what is important for the
(48:30):
clients, for you to have thatmeeting, to make sure that they
believe in your vision as well,because I think it's probably
finding the right, finding theright architect, the right
designers is, I would imagine,as key as finding a contractor
that's competent to actuallybuild it yeah, definitely yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
That relationship is so important yeah um, yeah,
we've got an example, actually,where we completed the project
for someone.
Then they invited us to theirwedding and we've been friends
ever since.
So we're constantly going backto the house that we designed
for them.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
We're looking at different things in the house
when we're there it's, I betit's quite nice, I bet it's, I
bet it's um.
Yeah, do you ever clash withclients?
Do you ever I say that do youever clash where they want
something?
They think it's possible?
You know from your knowledge oryour experience, it's just not
going to happen yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
So I don't think we clash, I think we advise them.
We, we definitely let out whatwe're thinking and what we know
from our, like, professionalbackground, but then we adapt.
So if someone wants somethingdifferent to what we're
recommending them, that that'sfine, we adapt, adapt we have to
so many different charactersout there as well.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Right, we're dealing, we are dealing with the general
public still.
So it's yeah, you never knowkind of you know some people are
relaxed and calm and laid back.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Some of them, I'd imagine they've been saving for
this.
It's gotta be perfect andthey're inspecting every last
thing.
And some people just trust you.
Some people, yeah, I trust you,I trust your judgment.
You've done this before.
It won't be the first.
It's not the first and it won'tbe the last time.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
That's when the bridge runs as it's best.
I'd say when people trust ouradvice.
Some people jump ahead, but ifyou trust the architect that
you're hiring, I think theprocess is a lot.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Yeah, they almost don't need to do too much.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah, yeah, don't overthink, we just do it for
them, yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Yeah.
So do you just do thearchitecture or do you guys get
involved with the interiordesign?
Speaker 2 (50:32):
It's a mix.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
It's a mix.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Because there is stuff that needs to be designed
with the architecture we don'tgo into, like colors of cushions
and things like that.
We leave that for the clients.
Unless they ask us, then we cansay what we think.
But we're not really interiordesigners.
It's more about the viewsthrough the house, like the
spaces, the feeling that we'recreating, and not so much the
(50:56):
colours.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose there's so much I don't think
you could.
I'm terrible with choosingpaint colours.
I'm terrible with choosingpaint colours.
We'll wrap this up soon, buttop three things that someone
should do before a major buildor renovation.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
So, yeah, I'll start with choose the right architect.
I think it's like essential um,just that relationship that
we've been talking about justneed to make sure that you get
on with them on a personal level, as well as making sure that
they're kind of capable of whatyou, you need them to do.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
I think that's really important yeah, I think the
other one is perhaps the senseof scale for what they're asking
for.
So some people might say I wanta six meter extension, and it's
like you actually know what sixmeter is giving you.
Map that into garden, have alook, because when you remove
your existing rear wall, you'vegot six meter plus all the road.
(51:55):
Like, understand what you'reasking for, the sense of scale
and at any level, even if it's anew build, like some people
come up with numbers that theythink is going to work and and
then they might be surprised howbig things are.
We won't propose something thatis small because we'll make
sure everything fits in it, butsometimes people, without
(52:17):
knowing they, can ask for morethan what they need.
Yeah, so a sense of scale isvery important and then budget
as well.
I would keep saying maybe justtake that initial figure and
just double it and then you'refine well, just make sure you
understand it, I think.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Just make sure you understand it and don't go
searching on the internet,because it's not.
If your, if your bifolds forthe back of your beautiful beach
house, like you said, areaveraging at 70,000 pounds and
someone can do it for 12,chances are it's not going to
work.
This is a big one.
(52:56):
What's one thing people shouldabsolutely avoid?
Speaker 2 (53:03):
I think for me it's jumping ahead yeah trying to
jump in the process.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
There is a process kind of run before you can walk
it's tested, we've done it athousand times.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Just trust it and follow it trust the process.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah, I would say the same
there yeah, last couple, anyquick guidance for people stuck
between big ideas and tightbudgets.
Obviously we spoke about this.
Anything that sort of jumps toyour head, cut back, I think,
(53:38):
maybe be realistic with thespace that you have.
So if it's a renovation ofjumps to your head, cut back.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
I think, maybe be realistic with the space that
you have.
So if it's a renovation,obviously it's different if it's
a new build, but if it is arenovation, be realistic with
the space that you have, theceiling height, so that you
understand your house.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
Yeah, give yourself phasing as well, maybe.
Yeah, like if there's anobvious part where you can say,
oh, maybe it's like I want to dothe loft and the extension,
maybe they start with the loftand and save the extension for
for when they've got thatexperience, because once they've
been through one part of theproject as well, they'll have a
much better understanding ofcosts and the whole process yeah
, maybe build the pool house andnot the pool, or build the pool
(54:15):
and not the pool house.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Future proof and then finish it if you need to.
But yeah, it's true what youwere saying, like if a client
has gone through a process,they'll have a much better
understanding than if they don't.
And if they don't it'ssometimes when they are too
ambitious.
So cut your ambitions, becausethis is an expensive game, I'd
say.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, do you find a lot of people?
Speaker 3 (54:38):
they'll boycott the landscaping, especially out the
front of the house yeah, I don'tknow if it's a boycott or if
it's just like at that part ofthe project where yeah where
they've maybe run out of ofmoney for a while.
Yeah, um, and they need to, uh,pull it back in a bit.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
We find that with a lot of projects the internals
get that Obviously.
Of course, I know you're goingto do your garden.
Well, I did my garden firstbecause I like spending time
outside and the house is livable.
But yeah, I think we find itwith a lot of clients that
they'll leave, you'll do thehouse and you'll open the front
door and it looks beautiful, butthe drive's still MOT.
It's growing everywhere, yeah.
(55:18):
So where can people find moreabout you guys at Fresh
Architects?
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Shameless plug.
So, yeah, google is probablyour best tool really.
We've got all the reviews onthere as well.
Loads of our projects on ourwebsite yeah, we keep the
website pretty well up to date.
There's lots of projects onthere, different stages um
different sizes as well.
We do the full range, like Isaid.
(55:46):
So anything from like a smallextension right up to to new
build houses, like five or sixon a site, say, um, but yeah,
anything in between as well.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Yeah, I think there is some updates in social media.
I don't know if that's how youfound us.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, I've followed you on social media for quite a
while.
Yeah, from the social mediajust to look at the stuff, and
then we sort of walk down thatseafront and see some of the
stuff that you have worked onand it inspires me and it all me
, um, and it all looks amazing.
It all looks amazing.
So thank you so much, guys forcoming on building the dream
(56:26):
well, thank you and uh, great,we'll talk again soon lovely,
thank you, thank you.
Today on Buildin' the Dream, I'm joined by the
fantastic George and Maria fromFresh Architects.
Now, I've followed this companyfor about three or four years
on their socials and absolutelylove what they do, so it only
felt right to get them into apodcast and learn more about
them and what they do.
So welcome George, WelcomeMaria to Buildin' the Dream.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
How are we both doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good, good, good, very good, thank you, How's
things Busy?
Very busy.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Very busy.
To be fair, it's been hard toget you both down, to drag you
both down and do this.
So how did you guys meet?
Tell us a little bit of anintroduction into Fresh
Architects and how you guys met.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So we used to work for other companies, much larger
practices, working in Londonand everywhere else in the
country.
That's how we met.
We're both fully qualifiedarchitects.
That's literally how we metworking for somebody else, but
we always knew that we wanted tocreate our own company.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, and then about five and a half years ago now,
wasn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We started up fresh.
We started during quite a busytime, obviously it was, it was
covid, um.
So yeah, it was crazy, probablylike the wrong time to start.
You'd think so anyway, but thenthe phone literally just did
not stop ringing.
I think everyone was kind ofstuck in their houses, um,
looking around, thinking theyneeded more space.
You know, everyone was all inthe house all at once and they
(01:24):
needed extra places to work,extra space for the kids, things
like that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So yeah, and people had too much money.
Yeah, exactly, people had toomuch money.
I would say you're sort ofknown for clean-lined,
future-focused designs.
Very contemporary, you do a lotof sort of beachfront
properties that look absolutelyamazing.
What sort of led you guys tothat?
(01:50):
Is it your clients?
Is that something you reallyenjoy doing?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I think naturally we both love the contemporary look
like the clean crisps lines andmaking things quite contemporary
um, it also have an impact.
What the clients want.
Sometimes they want to bereally contemporary and then
it's when we get the mostexcitement out of the project.
Other times they want to be abit more traditional, more in
(02:16):
keeping with the roads, which wecan also work with.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But what we really enjoy doing is um the
contemporary personally at leastyeah me, yeah, it's important
for us to be able to do both,obviously because there's a
massive market for like thetraditional as well.
Like you come into kind ofwhere we are now, you know like
the more kind of rural settingum, and sometimes those those
modern things just don't flywith the council or kind of like
(02:40):
the local community and thingslike that.
But yeah, I think the ones weenjoy are the kind of high-tech,
modern beachfront styleproperties.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So have you ever come across a?
Imagine a nice traditional rowof houses and then someone wants
to put a modern beachfrontvilla right, smack bang in the
middle of that.
How does that work?
How does that look?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Well, someone has to start, so someone has to be the
first one.
If's going to happen, thenmaybe you know I'm thinking of
kind of a road that we work onquite regularly in east preston.
Um, there's quite a few kind ofprivate estates down there and
they were kind of built, um,several decades ago, you know
when, when the constructionwasn't so, wasn't so great, and,
(03:27):
yeah, they've been kind offlattened now and these
beachfront properties are comingup and they're three stories
and what was there before waslike a single story bungalow.
But yeah, someone's got tostart.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, that's, very true.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, you need to look at the wider context as
well and then see whether youcan get precedence from even if
they seem impossible.
There is always something thatyou can say this house was built
with this kind of flat roofover here and that and put some
things together to get you toyour end goal.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So there is a way to do everything.
There is, yes, Almost.
Have you ever had a projectwhere it didn't, for whatever
reason?
You couldn't quite do what youwanted to do.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I think we just have to adapt.
Yeah, it might be that they saycertain elements you know like
you need to reduce the height ofthe ridge, and then we don't
always kind of just give into it.
We'll say, all right, yeah,we'll reduce the size of the
ridge if you let us go a littlebit more out the side.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So, yeah, it's a bit of kind of negotiation.
Yeah, I think the clientsalways know that we're pushing
the boundaries.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So they know that there might be a little bit of
do that going back to do youthink your reputation of
building these amazing lookinghouses really helps when it
comes to, when it comes togetting the planning for the
kites?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I think so.
I mean we've got toucheverything We've got a hundred
percent planning approvals.
Record of planning approvals.
We've never got a refusal inany of our obligations but I
think you can tell because youcan see that we push the
boundaries.
Some people, some of thearchitects, might just do really
contemporary.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Sorry, really traditional builds.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Always kind of the same, whilst we try to keep it
like really a wide variety ofbuilding.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, it's an interesting question.
Do you mean from the council?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, I mean like if I'm just wondering obviously I'm
not in this world I'm wonderingif, say, I was a client and I
was choosing an architect, if anarchitect's success rate in
that local area is quite high,it might then say, okay, they're
the right people for me, or Imight have tried an architect
and they're not quite alignedwith that local council.
(05:41):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, it's interesting because, like the
council, they're reallysubjective, even though they
shouldn't be.
It should be like an objectiveprocess, but we find that it
depends who's dealing with thecase.
From the council, obviously, aswe've done more and more
applications, we kind of get toknow who's working there.
So, yeah, we sometimes someonefrom the council might pop up
(06:02):
and we'll be like, oh no, wemight get someone else,
sometimes someone from thecouncil might pop up and we'll
be like, oh no, it's going to bea nightmare.
We might get someone else who'sa little bit more
pro-development and yeah,they'll say it's subjective all
day long, but it's definitelysome subjectivity to it.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, I mean, and obviously the government are
saying we're relaxing planning,we're relaxing planning.
Have you noticed that?
Are they actually relaxingplanning, do you feel?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I would say no, I haven't really noticed anything
like that, other than they'regetting slower and slower at
giving us responses andcollaborating with us on the
projects and being responsive.
If anything, things are gettingbusier and they have less
(06:46):
resource.
But I don't think there is.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I know it's always in the news, but I don't think
that it really affects whatwe're submitting day to day yeah
, that's our sort of level thatI'd say when you start getting a
getting towards like 300 newhomes and stuff that they've
been kind of plonked on yeahthey just signed that one off
straight away, just straightaway.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
See you later.
Yeah, I'm seeing that more andmore, actually in the news.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
They're saying like oh, 200 objections, local
objections, approved straightaway.
But then we can't get likesometimes, you know, you
struggle to get a smallextension.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, it's been really well considered and stuff
, yeah, extension on the side,well considered and stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, it's got to be tough, isn't it?
It's got to be tough and thereis some stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It doesn't make sense really.
Yeah, again, though it'sprobably I don't want to get
political or podcast, but it'sprobably if someone's building
300 houses, the local councillike, well, that's going to
increase the numbers for us.
300 houses, happy days, butyeah.
But we're not talking about bigdevelopments.
We're talking about beautifulhomes that you guys help clients
(07:49):
create.
Um, so this might be a toughone.
It might be a really easy one.
What is the first thing thatyou would ask a new client,
someone that's approached youguys that want help with, let's
say, a whole build?
What's sort of the first sortof steps, the first thing you
would like to know from theclient?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think I think I really would like to know what's
driving the project for theclient to really understand well
what they want to achieve.
So there are some people mightsay my house is really dark and
I want to really transform it tohave a really bright house
flooded with natural light.
Or someone might say I shadethe views in my house and I
(08:31):
really want to improve the viewout.
So I think that kind ofquestion like what is driving
you to pick up the phone andring us?
There must be one main reasonthat I think it's good to get it
.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Quite interesting.
That's quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I thought it would have been about budgets and
things so what are the steps?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
how do you guys turn someone's like dream pinterest
board mood board?
I'd imagine a lot of yourclients have been planning this
for years.
I'd imagine they've got allthese wacky and wild ideas.
How do you then turn that fromlike a pinterest mood board to a
real thing?
How does that process look, andis it difficult?
(09:14):
Is it easy?
I guess it depends on theclient.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, so we go kind of like brief, which is kind of
what maria was saying um, that'slike the pinterest board side
of things.
They're like yeah, I want ainfinity pool at the back or on,
you know, a gym in the basement, all of these sorts of things,
um, and then, yeah, we just kindof take it forwards.
The budget kind of aligns withthose expectations and, and if
(09:44):
it doesn't, that's when we'vegot the first kind of challenge
really, and we need to tell them, you know, either to take it
down a little bit or yeah.
It's where we can kind of pushit with the budget.
It usually goes the other wayyeah.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think we always start with ideas first.
You don't just start with howmuch money have you got for this
project, but then it's closelyfollowed by the budget, because
it really makes a hugedifference.
If the budget is there, thenthe project can be beautiful.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, I guess it's probably quite an awkward
conversation to have sometimes,isn't it?
Because you guys know what you?
You know how much an infinitypool costs, with everything, all
the bells and whistles and apool house and stuff.
You know what that costs,whereas someone might.
I'm in googling swimming pool,swimming pool, and it's come up
and it's again.
This is why I like doing thispodcast, because there is you
(10:36):
don't know where to go.
There's so much noise, so much.
We call it in what I do,surface blindness.
Customers come to us they'velooked at a thousand different
things on Pinterest and theinternet and they're like, yeah,
surface blind, they don't knowwhat they're doing.
I'd imagine it's very similarin your industry.
They're sort of design blind.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, they Google too much, I think, and it would be
better if they approach peopleto find out cost, realistic cost
, in the local area where youare, because it changes
massively.
Some people might be googlingsomething and finding out how
much something costs, but maybeit's up north and it's very
different to first line by thesea yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And I suppose and are there, you do a lot of projects
on the beach, seafront, fromwhat I've seen um, does that
come with its own challenges,building on the seafront with
terms of water.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, the seesaw you get, you get hit with the
prevailing winds.
I mean, the products are soimportant for, for the exterior,
um, we use a lot of like whiterender, which is not kind of,
yeah, cohesive with the beachenvironment.
But, yeah, you have to, youhave to get the right products.
So important, similar with,like the doors um, like, we've
(11:49):
had a situation.
We've turned up to a housebefore um that we were going to
be working on luckily, not onethat we'd worked on, um, but
they'd had sliding doorsinstalled and the wind is so bad
down there that it's actuallymoving the glass really.
So the glass moves in and thedoor's leaking.
So the door's in fine, but theactual glass is being pushed in
so hard that the doors areleaking.
(12:11):
So, yeah, everything needs tobe considered like
hurricane-proof doors.
You need your silicon renderswith all the warranties and
guarantees behind them.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, because salt water can make a beautiful house
look not very beautiful in avery short space, very short
space.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It's the same with the heat, though um like those
properties have, like the sunyeah overheating them.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So yeah, it's a lot to consider so do you guys get
get involved a lot in likerenewable energy, um passive
houses and stuff like that.
Is that something that you guysget involved with?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, we do, we like it and we like to educate, like
you say, our clients into whatthey are going to need in the
future, not just what looks nice, but what is going to make your
house work well.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, I think it's really important in this day and
age.
Correct me if I'm wrong,because you know this better
than me, but to future-proofthings.
It's all good and well.
People spend in what peoplespend a million pound, two
million pound building thesebeautiful houses, but they
shouldn't really be.
They should be looking into howthey can future-proof it.
Do they need to be passive?
Do they need to be sealed,heating, cooling?
(13:19):
A friend of mine built a housebeautiful, 150 mil insulation,
triple glazing, air source,under full heat throughout, and
in the summer it's just too hot.
It just gets too hot because itholds everything, and I suppose
(13:40):
it's important to have someoneon your side that understands
this when it comes to designingyour home.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
It's something we're being requested, yeah, more and
more by clients and they want,like your, air source heat pumps
, and not just to, not just forthe heating, but also for the
cooling, like you say it's soimportant.
Um, for those four or five daysa year that we get boiling.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, yeah, we've been quite lucky this summer.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I don't think we've had about eight days where I
wish I had air gone yeah, um,but no, yeah, we're always
looking to put in, like, wherewe can, where budget allows,
where the client wants it.
You know, we're looking to putin things like your green roofs,
um, your your inset solarpanels, um, all combined
together.
When they all link up, that'swhen, yeah, that's when it
(14:19):
starts to work really well.
And we've got some clients whoactually, oh, they've got these
big houses and their bills arezero or less than zero, actually
selling, selling energy back tothe grid, which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, so what's the thing behind green roofs?
What is a green roof?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
well, you've got different levels, um.
So you've got like the kind ofseed and finish which is like
your thinnest build up, probablythe cheapest of the green roofs
, right up to something like ablue roof, um, which is where
you kind of it's almost like aholding load of water as well.
So that's, that's part of thepurpose of it.
So, um, yeah, it slows down thedrainage, um.
(15:00):
So if you've got a site that'skind of heavily concreted or
heavily paved, um, the greenroofs can kind of slow that
drainage down, um, just becauseit kind of permeates through the
green.
Then you've usually got like anegg crate kind of system, yeah,
and then attenuates the waterand slowly releases it into the,
into the drainage system, um.
But yeah, visually you've gotall these different varieties.
(15:22):
You've got like a kind of shortseed and type right up to like
an intensive kind of wildflowerright up to can get up to like
half a metre kind of thick stuffso what about?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
does that help with sort of insulation?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, massively, massively.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Sorry.
The only reason I'm asking isbecause I've seen it a lot and I
have no idea whether it wasliterally just aesthetic or
whether there were severebenefits of having green roofs.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
That's why I know there are huge benefits.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, yeah the aesthetic is also quite
important, like it's not thesame to look out the window and
see like a massive expanse of aflat roof and just seeing like a
green roof, which is much nicer.
Everything kind of workstogether.
I mean, where possible we dothings like that that look nice
and pleased to the eye, wherenot possible, then we try to
(16:14):
hide it.
So when the equipment gets likethose hip palms and things like
that are not like so pretty,then we try to hide them as much
as we can.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, and also does that help?
Would that, then?
We try to hide them as much aswe can?
Yeah, and also does that help?
Would that help with like aplan and if you was having a big
aspect of the?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
roof was going to be a green roof.
Would that be something toconsider?
Yeah, it can do, it can't, butit won't be just only that.
They will still have todifferent bits, little little.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh what if we put, if we move that, get rid of that?
Horrible, yeah, yeah yeah, whatare some of the most exciting
or unusual requests you thinkyou've worked with?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
we've had a car lift, okay, car lift, we yeah, that's
, that was a nice one to like abasement garage, um, which is,
yeah, really cool.
So this car lift that you yeah,you can basically comes up out
the ground like that so it'sinvisible when you kind of first
turn up.
Apart from just a little, squareyeah a little kind of rectangle
in the driveway, um, and then,yeah, it comes up and you drive
(17:11):
your car in, um, and then it,yeah, you kind of press a button
and it just drops you down.
But the other good thing aboutit is that you could have a car
on top, so you could have like arange rover on top of this
thing.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
It will literally pick up the Range Rover.
You can drive in underneath itand then it will take you down
and you can drive straight intoyour garage.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Oh, really.
Oh, that's cool.
So not just like a box with atwo car thing on it, but that
literally goes into the basement.
That's quite cool.
What about you?
Anything that jumps out?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, I was thinking about one that is now built.
They ask for a massive sunkenarea with a really high ceiling
and then floating a stair bunglein the middle which we felt
like like right above the sunkenarea.
Perhaps I'd never thought aboutjust because of the cost and
everything else that's involvedwith it, like you're raising the
distance you know for the stairto be supported and everything.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So yeah, it is amazing what can be done with a
bit of ingenuity and a bit ofand I guess it's probably quite
exciting for you guys If aclient comes to you with a bit
of a challenge.
If you're anything like me, Ienjoy a challenge because it's
what we get out for, and everyday is a school day.
Oh, can we do that like thelift?
I bet the lift was like a okay,how are we going to do this?
(18:30):
And then you, you make it workthat's exactly what we like,
really like.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
We'll get more excited about all of that than
someone who just wants like asimple, real extension, which we
do as well.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
But yeah, let's talk about where do you find that
people mostly sort of misjudgethe budget?
Where does it tend to go offkilter the most?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I'd say it's right, right at the start, like when
they come up we say, okay, sothis is, go through the brief,
this is what you want.
Um, these are all the factorsyou want us to consider.
What's your budget?
That figure that comes back isusually way off.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
So how do you overcome that then?
Is that a case of using yourexpertise to sort of bring them
back down to earth a little bitand say well, we can do this and
this.
What are the most?
I would imagine you findyourself right.
You've got 15 things on yourlist here.
What are the top seven?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yes, that's the thing .
We have to do it, even if thatmeans we lose the project.
We have to do it.
We have to bring them back downto how much things cost.
Some people are going to justbe surprised.
They don't even know how much abig sliding door costs, and if
you don't know that, it'simpossible for you to know what
(19:49):
a huge project is going to cost.
If they really need to thinkabout it, and we always ask them
to prioritize, so when thathappens, we say, okay, so we've
discussed all of this, what isyou must have, and then the
others will achieve in adifferent way rather than in the
top quality one might be theactual size of it as well.
(20:10):
You know like so if we're doingan extension and they want like
a full wraparound.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
We've had it before where they want like a two-story
wraparound, um, and we've hadto go and kind of say, you know,
you need to maybe lose theentire side if you want to
achieve this, yeah, um, so it'sa difficult conversation, but
it's one that they're obviouslyall grateful for in the end.
It's a bit of a shock at thestart and, and I think, half the
time they don't.
They don't even believe usstill.
(20:35):
Yeah, we're still.
We're in that position of trustwhere they've asked us to come
and visit their home and give uslike our experience and our
expertise, and then we say wethink it's probably going to
cost you, rather than 500 000,closer to a million pound if you
want to achieve this.
It's like it's almost like noway.
(20:55):
But, even I feel like that fromlike an outside perspective.
If I was them, I put myself intheir shoes.
I think if someone was comingto me and telling me it was
going to be a million ratherthan 500,000, I'd be like, yeah,
no chance.
But then once you startbreaking it all down and working
through it, yeah, yeah, I guessthere's a lot of things like
insulation.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
There are so many things that people don't really
even digouts.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, they want to think about it Even just digging
out.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
A friend of mine was they were doing a wraparound
extension.
They thought they hadeverything sorted.
Paul, if you're listening, I'msorry, mate.
He had a big wraparoundextension and then they decided
they're putting an Airbnb in thegarden, so they wanted a
swimming pool that could beshared by the house and Airbnb.
He started digging and then theneighbour's garden collapsed,
(21:48):
had to then pile between hishire a 12-tonne excavator to
pile between his garden and that, obviously, all the dirt that's
fallen in had to be dug out.
So the dig out costs and thenthe concrete costs to do this
pole just wiped up half thebudget to build the actual
extension.
So there's all sorts of thingsthat can happen that you don't.
(22:08):
We find it where people are.
Yeah, we need tiles, we needsurface coverings, but our
budget's gone becauseeverything's gone behind the
walls, everything's gone in theelectrics, the insulation and
the scree.
Getting rid of dirt.
It's um, it is.
It's the thing that it'simportant for people, I think,
to understand, because I guessit's difficult, because they
(22:31):
have their dreams set and theycome to you and then you're
almost like telling them thatfather christmas isn't real.
I'd imagine it can be verydifficult at times.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
They just need to know how to split their budget,
Like if they had a betterunderstanding of how much things
cost, then they could split it.
If someone loves the gardendesign, they need to know that
from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Otherwise, chances are with the budget it's going
to be eating into the build andthen by the time you went to
your garden you've run out ofmoney that's another way we
approach it sometimes, I meanwith phasing and stuff so we
might say, um, yeah, maybe thatthat would be good enough for
like shell, get it to a shellstage, get it watertight um, and
(23:14):
then kind of, yeah, take stockand reconsider, like how much
money you've got left at thattime.
Maybe over the period of like ayear's build, you've saved up a
bit more and you can startthinking about the cost of
finishes and things like that,where they actually want to
spend the money, because that'swhat they end up seeing every
day.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So, yeah, so how do you guys work then?
If I, for example, I've come toyou, I have got a, I want a
champagne house, but I've got aLambrini budget, how do we
ascertain that?
I phoned you up for example Higuys, yeah, this is what I want.
(23:52):
Do you then have like a meetingwith the client and work out
whether they're one is the rightbuild for you and whether you
can help them and whether theirbudget's right?
Do you do that before it sortof goes a bit too deep?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
yeah, absolutely.
We need to meet the client.
It's not just about selectingan architect.
We need to get on really well.
It's all about the relationshipas well.
It's not just theresponsibility and
qualifications.
It's very important for us.
We want to enjoy working withyou as much as you enjoy working
with us.
So at that point, once you seethat you can click and connect
(24:27):
and you can work well, becausethe praise might be up to a
couple of years.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
It's a long-term relationship, for sure.
Yeah, yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And we take it really seriously.
For us is someone who we canend up being friends with and go
out for a drink, rather thansomeone that would just do the
prayer for you and then that'sit like.
We really want to understandwhat you want, understand the
feelings, understand everythingand then be tactical and careful
how things can be achieved.
I mean, obviously it'sunrealistic that someone's going
(24:56):
to come with a huge expectationand a tiny budget.
It does happen sometimes, butit is unrealistic More often
than not.
We would just need to tweakthings around.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Like you said before, there's a work, like there is
with planning.
There's a workaround.
You might not be able to havethat glass face, but we can do
this and do that.
I guess it's the same withbudget, yeah, so every project
is so personal for us as well.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
We take it all really personally, don't we?
Everything?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
We do.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Usually it's for like a nice family or a nice couple
who are trying to build theirfuture home, dream home.
Like I said, it's like aonce-in-a-lifetime thing for
most people, so it's reallyimportant.
So, yeah, that that initialconversation.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We would, yeah, if you had a I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, I don't know what drink you reference, but I
would tell you, I would say youhad yeah like a beer budget yeah
yeah, straight up.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, but I think that's really important and
that's why I asked the question.
I think it's really importantbecause I'd imagine that I'd
imagine there's people thatdon't have the same don't have.
I bet it's really importantbecause I'd imagine that I'd
imagine there's people thatdon't have the same don't have.
I bet it's quite emotional.
I bet it's.
You guys are emotionallyinvolved in this project and you
want to see it through as muchas the client.
Like you say, you're going outfor dinner with them.
(26:10):
I love stories like that.
I spoke to a builder's day.
They did a real, they did abeautiful project for a client
and I said, oh, did he ever?
He was South Africa, so thatwas a barbecue.
I said did he ever?
Yeah, all the lads went aroundfor a barbecue, just around big
barbecue.
I love stories like that at theend of the projects and that's
sort of why I moved into what Ido.
Before, when I was in retail,we were loading stuff in the
(26:32):
boot of someone's car and it wasdisappearing and we'd never see
it again, whereas I likeclients coming to me and it's
probably very similar to you.
What's the vision?
How do you want to feel whenyou enter that room, and that's
sort of where I'm going down,and I guess it does align very
much with what you're doing.
However, you're in charge ofthe whole thing, not just the
bathroom or a kitchen.
(26:52):
So how do you keep a sense ofluxury and impact, even when
you've sort of value engineeringstuff, when you, when the
clients come to you, you'vepicked, they've got 15 items
you've managed to do 10 with,though with the last five items,
sort of?
How do you, how do you stillgive that luxurious feel, but
(27:17):
obviously you're stuck with thebudget?
How does that sort of turn?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
out.
I think it's important to pushlike the right elements.
Maybe there's like one keyfeature like you could, maybe
they pick like a window seat, orit's like the external cladding
or something that gives youthat wow.
But there doesn't necessarilyneed to be like five things that
give you that wow.
If they can get two or three,then that's usually good enough
to to have a big impact.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
So yeah, and then we, as george said before, we try
to face it if we need to, so foryou to get to the best result
that you could.
If we need to tell you it'sbetter for you to face it, then
we would.
And then you know we wouldn'tmake the clients compromising
things like a structure and theshell and things that cannot be
taken down easily.
But maybe those amazingfinishes can come like a few
(28:04):
months later, once they've gottime to maybe recover a little
bit from everything that'shappening and just do it
properly.
So we'd rather have theconversation and say to them pay
attention to time scales, fromrushing too much into a few
things at the very beginning,eating all the bad dirt and then
what happens.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So I guess things like a kitchen.
Instead of buying that bespoke,handmade beautiful kitchen for
x amount, they could putsomething in temporary that
still looks good and in the aimsof a year, two years time time
to change it and then searchingloads for local companies that
they do.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
There is a lot of options Like.
The market is huge these daysand you can find really nice
things that are maybe not thatcostly.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So everyone's got different ranges.
They've got like the top oneand the one.
That isn't such as the top one,but it's quite good.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And I think by shopping independently at
independent local companies,they will be able to offer you
more value based on a project.
There might be that your doorsfrom a local company they're not
an independent, they're notgoverned by the big boss sitting
somewhere and they can offeryou a slightly better rate based
(29:19):
on the project.
But yeah, it's probably a veryimportant thing, isn't it?
Budget I'd imagine you come upagainst it it's key really for
every single project andeverything we can get carried
away as well.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
We can say to someone but you've got this budget, and
then they are during the.
They might be like, but can youadd this and that?
And it's like we need to keepreminding them yes, but this was
your budget.
We can add it if you want to.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
If the budget's changed since we last spoke.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I mean.
But the thing is though, youwatch.
I mean you watch Grand Designs,you watch all these programs.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I don't think I've ever seen one where they didn't
go over budget?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
yeah, by double, triple, etc.
Um, so what would you say wouldbe what?
So you said it sort of before.
We've loosely um touched onthis.
What would you say is worthinvesting in and where is a good
place to make smart savings?
I guess the structure thingsthat can't be removed easily.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, exactly that, things that cannot be removed
easily.
Then it depends on the brief aswell.
If someone comes and says, likeI said, my house is really dark
and I want natural light, thenglazing is going to play a huge
part of the process and thebudget.
So it depends on the brief.
It's really bespoke, but oncewe understand exactly the end
(30:40):
goal, we can.
We can give them a list ofpriorities almost and say this
is where you want to spend themoney and this is where you
don't want to spend the moneyglazing is a key one, I'd say,
because you can make it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You can make something go from looking quite
normal to looking quite special,so you get like a door that's
standard doors 2.1.
If you make that 2.5 all of asudden, all the way around, all
of a sudden, you're letting thatmuch more light in.
It looks different from theoutside and, yeah, everything
kind of changes straight away,doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Glazing is huge Glazing, especially for the
exterior and I guess theinterior and the interior.
The amount of light naturallight that you let in Glazing's
come a long way now, hasn't it?
Everybody worries?
We worked on a project and theyhad big glazing and they were
worried about it being too hotbecause there's so much glazing.
But I guess there's ways aroundthat now, isn't there?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
yeah, I mean you can get the triple glazing do we do
like overhangs and stuff as well, so you get the architectural
feature, but it's also serving afunction so it stays sort of
shady yeah, at the, at the worstpoint of the day, so when the
sun's highest, yeah, you blockout that worst light yeah, I get
car there's.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
When you talk about things like that, that's you
then got.
When you're designing theproperty, you've got to think
about where the sun rises, ohabsolutely, the orientation is
key there's so much just havingthis brief conversation.
There's so much that just evengoes over my head, so I can't
imagine what it's like forclients.
I bet it's a like a wow, wethought this was going to be so
(32:16):
simple and it'd be done in threemonths and we'd have the
beautiful house.
I mean, we touched on this, butwhat should listeners know
about planning permission,especially in sort of?
I know you've done a little bitof conservation stuff.
You do work on conservationstuff, but what do you think the
(32:37):
listeners should be aware ofwhen it comes to applying for
planning permission?
If there was three top things,you would say, right, we're
going for planning, but we'vegot to consider what's the three
things that normally I thinkone of the things is be patient.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Some people really are in the rush to get their
projects done.
There is an element there withthe time that we can't control,
completely outside our control.
One of them is definitely time.
Be patient and then allow it aslong as it needs to, because we
can liaise with the council andthings can be approved.
(33:14):
But we need to be in a position.
You know, if you're reallystubborn and you just want one
thing, then you just it's justnot gonna go down.
Well, you need to be open tosome alterations.
That would be number two.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
I'll say location as well yeah, allocation like just
being realistic about where,where you are.
If you are in a conservationarea, then you're going to be a
little bit more restricted.
Generally, it doesn't meananything's kind of impossible,
but you're going to be a littlebit more restricted than you
would be if you weren't in thatarea.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
But yeah, that's not to say that you can't have
something modern which contrastsagainst something quite
traditional, something we getasked for quite often yeah, I'd
imagine it's quite exciting whenyou get someone come to you
with something a bit moretraditional and they want to put
a big extension on the side,but they want to have it a bit
(34:06):
more contemporary, and thenmixing the two in, I'd imagine
that's quite, that's quite anexciting project to work on that
.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Yeah, one that springs to mind is one that
we've got down word in seafrontat the moment.
You might have seen it online.
It's like you mentioned a roofterrace when we were talking
before, so you might have seenthat one, but that's in a
conservation area.
You know the kind of white,typical white seafront buildings
really old, traditional styleand they want like a modern,
(34:36):
contemporary roof terrace on topof that.
So that's in for planning atthe moment.
It's been in quite a while.
We're constantly going back andforth with the council, but
yeah, I think it's almost overthe line, so hopefully, We'll
get it there, so that, by thesounds of it, that one's been a
little bit tricky.
(35:00):
Have you had to make a lot ofadjustments to get the council
to approve that one?
I think we yeah, that's a bit ofan anomaly.
It was kind of like the firstone of its kind in the five
years that we've been going,because we did the typical
process.
We did like the pre-application, which is basically when you
submit the application beforeplanning, to try and get kind of
a feel for what the council isgoing to say about it.
So we did that and got theideas from the case officer who
(35:22):
was going to be looking after it, which we decided what they
said to us wasn't quite right.
So we wanted to push it alittle bit further.
We went into the fullapplication, kind of without
listening to that advice thatthey gave us, but justifying the
reasons that we hadn't kind ofagreed with their approach
(35:43):
looking at other local examplesand things like that basically
justifying, with good reason, Ithink, why we hadn't done it.
But then I think it was a bitof a dent to the ego of them and
I think, yeah, that's caused usa few difficulties, massive
delays.
Like I said, it's reallysubjective and I think they do.
(36:04):
They probably take it a bitpersonally where they shouldn't
as well.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, we always-.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
We're still liaising.
I think we'll get there.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Ed, I'm sure we will.
We always prioritize theclients as well.
So if they want something andthe case officer comes and says
it can't happen because of x, yand z, and our clients really
want it to happen that way, thenwe need to come up with all
sorts of backup.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
yeah, yeah and I said that I don't want problems, I
want solutions, and I guess it'svery sort of you do that a lot
within what you do.
It's solution finding there'salways a way to do something.
And yeah, I think the planningthing that we said about waiting
I've heard so many horrorstories of people waiting for
planning for a very long time.
(36:51):
I suppose it can be quitedisheartening.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, I think the worst we've had is about maybe
six months.
We haven't had more than that,but we've heard from clients
that had gone with somebody elsebefore that they had been
waiting for maybe a couple ofyears, and that is, to us,
unacceptable that roof terraceis probably up there as one of
the longer ones.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Um, we had one as well for a new build house, um,
where the liaison with thecouncil was really good.
We had like really positivefeedback um, and then, yeah, the
it all suddenly turned on itshead.
Um, I don't know if sometimesyou wonder if maybe, like a
neighbor, knows someone in thecouncil with higher up, because
basically the person we wereliaising with was completely
(37:34):
happy.
Yeah, um, and then their managerbasically overrode what they
were saying and said like we'renot going to accept this kind of
thing.
So that happened.
But then you go through theappeal process, which takes even
longer, and through the appealprocess it's like an independent
planning inspector who thenkind of assesses what you've put
(37:58):
in versus what the council aresaying and kind of their
opinions, and then it wentthrough anyway.
So they're basically sayingwhat the council said was wrong
and what you put in should havebeen approved.
And it was approved.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
It's a shame, isn't it?
Because of all this red tapeand you end up you get there
eventually, whereas that guyfrom the council might have been
having a bad day, like you saymight have been having a bad day
.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I know like you say might have had a neighbor.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Someone didn't really want it because that house
isn't it's going to be nicerthan my house.
Now, um, what can we do?
I guess there are a lot ofkarens in the world.
On there, there are a lot ofpeople that just they don't want
these things, even though it'sit's not going to affect them
really yeah, I think it's veryimportant.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
We think you said three key points for the
listeners to know.
I think one is also maybe afourth one or fifth one is the
neighbors yeah it is reallyimportant that people generally
don't like changes.
They object.
It doesn't mean it's not gonnago through, because we've got
objections in many applicationsand, as I said before, we've got
(39:01):
like a hundred percent recordsof approvals.
But that's not to say thatpeople do object and it makes
the application a bit longer ifthe objection is like yeah, if
it stands up.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah, some people will object.
I'd imagine some people willobject the most stupidest things
.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
For me it's like the wider effect as well, like it
affects when it, when it getsdelayed.
Obviously it affects howquickly our, our process moves
on.
So it affects how quickly weget paid.
Basically, yeah, yeah, and notonly us, but so where we're kind
of the start of the process,generally we're the first ones
to meet the clients.
It also affects, like yourcontractors, your local
(39:39):
tradesmen, structural engineers,like everyone gets affected by
the delays absolutely huge.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Everyone then asks us like what's happening with this
project?
And it's like it's been delayedbecause of planning and it's
like everyone else down thechain is like having an impact
for this project.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
This is not and I'd imagine, to build a to the
client, the customer, thehomeowner, the person that this
is their dream.
They've saved up whateverthey've done to then have this.
They've got the contractor theywant to use all booked in
because that guy's busy, thatguy, if he's good, he's busy,
(40:15):
his team they can't.
They've booked this plot thistime to do your build, which I
guess then leads perfectly intohow early should people bring in
people like yourselves to avoidcommon pitfalls.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
I think we should be the first ones.
Like it doesn't necessarilyhappen that way, some people
approach contractors first, butthe reality is that without
drawing, no one can really doanything in the process.
So we should be the first oneto also understand your budget
and see how far you can getcarried away with the project or
how constrained you are.
(40:51):
But that's that's our opinion,isn't it?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:55):
so what would you say now if I was looking to start
building in a year's time wouldprobably be quite good from our
conversation.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
probably quite a good time to get in touch with
someone like yourselves thatneeds to be measured for anybody
to start working on it Onceyou've got existing plans so you
are already a month down theline then someone can start
(41:26):
talking to you about proposalsand proposals take their time
too and then obviously planningand all of it.
So a year in advance isadvisable.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah, yeah, you can't really start too soon either,
because all you need is thatfinal package of information
that you're going to pass on tothe contractor.
Yeah, so yeah, as long asyou've got that, you need to
work towards getting to thatpoint first, and then you can
kind of move on at your leisureI suppose yeah, because you have
to plan everything down to thefinal detail.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
So what do they do then?
Sort of 3d map with a drone,the the site, the plot is that
sort of how it works yeah, it'smore like a spinning laser so
you know the guys you see withthe kind of tripods out there
and you wonder, like whatthey're doing?
Speaker 3 (42:04):
are they trying to catch me speeding?
But they're actually measuringlike the road and kind of taking
the heights of the topographyand yeah, there's lots to
consider, isn't there?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
it's not just a case of hi, george maria, can I build
a house?
Please, can I build a house?
Um, how do you build homes thatare beautiful today and still
relevant in 20 years?
Speaker 3 (42:31):
oh, that's a challenge, I think.
Yeah, it's just about lookingat, um, like, what materials are
not just current, but what aregoing to withstand the, the
weather, the test of time.
I mean, there's some materialsI'd say maybe they're like in
the moment.
But yeah, I think it's justimportant to kind of look at,
(42:52):
look at the overall, see what'son trend and don't necessarily
follow the trend, but followwhat, where you think the trend
is going.
If that makes sense, yeah, Ithink the maintenance is really
important.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Some people build a new and this is a simple, very
simple example, but some peopledo like a roof.
It could be someone just intheir house doing replacing the
tiles, or someone building areally nice new home.
They put the roofs on and thenthey forget about birds
protection.
And if, if you don't do that,the next thing you see if you
(43:22):
lovely gray tiled roof iscovering seagull poop and that
is as soon as if you want, andthen it looks dreadful.
So it's really important topick materials that are easy to
maintain, but also decide withwith solutions to potential
problems in the future.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I guess we get a lot of people
and sometimes less is more,Would you agree?
Yeah, Sometimes less is morePeople want to do, they want too
much.
Put a spaceship at one end andsomething at the other end.
I guess it's quite the.
So what's exciting you mostabout the future residential
(44:07):
architecture?
What sort of what's going on atthe moment that really gets you
, really gets you excited?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I think smart homes and getting everything fully
controlled from your phone soyou can approach your house, you
know the garage door opens, youcan put the oven on, equally
with, like, the sustainabilityside of things, like if the
glass gets too hot, the blindscome down.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
Anywhere in the world as well.
You can be like in Australia,controlling your home in England
, and it's some amazing features.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, we did a project for a guy.
Everything was controlled.
I can't remember.
Remember it was saying like 32miles of cable around this house
, every single light bulb wasindividual.
He could change every singlelight bulb.
He, the house was beautiful.
He rented it out to a film crewand they went to Thailand while
they were doing the.
They went to Thailand fishingwith his family while they were
doing the.
Well, he went to Thailandfishing with his family while
(44:58):
they were doing the film shootand he said yeah, if I want to,
he's one of the certain cameras.
They made him disconnect insidethe house and stuff.
He said but I could see whatthey're doing in the garden and
he said it's just amazing, onthe other side of the world I
can open my curtains.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
And spray paint.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, it's big data centers, though A lot of them.
I mean, this guy had a wholeroom.
Yeah, you do need the space forthat so your favorite project
and why?
I'll ask each of you thisindividually because I'm sure
you have I think we've.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Yeah, the car lift that I mentioned.
That project is quite special.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Have you got video and images of that?
Yeah, it's probably on thewebsite.
Yeah, yeah, if we can get that,because obviously a lot of
people listen to this, but somepeople will watch it.
So what we'll do is we'll getsome B-roll from you and we'll
put the car lift on the YouTubeso people can see what you're
talking about, because I thinkit's quite important.
Yeah, so sorry, carry on.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Yeah, so for me, that's like all singing, all
dancing, kind of like luxuryglazing, luxury finishes.
You've got like an internalpassenger lift running four
stories his and hers en-suites,his and hers dressing rooms,
views of the sea, panoramicviews from each level, where
you've got terraces out the back, yeah, large open plan space,
(46:26):
kind of everything that everyonewould want.
A chef's kitchen yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yeah, but there's a beautiful kitchen that was very
expensive.
It doesn't get used becausetucked around the corner is a
secret.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, yeah.
And what about you?
Speaker 2 (46:41):
the same project I'll say the same, but that's a new
build that is starting now, soeverything we've got is, like
our information that we'veproduced, that's starting now on
site.
So I'll say, like a really goodrenovation that we've done in a
similar area, like five minutesaway from this one, but it was
like a really traditional homewith like the typical England
(47:04):
style peach roof really oldfashioned, if you like and we
just fully transformed it intoreally contemporary front and
back, like it was only withextensions.
It wasn't a knockdown andrebuild, it was just
transforming the house and Ithink the result is truly.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Yeah, we've done that a few times, where we keep the
frontage towards the road likequite traditional when I assume.
And then you go around the backand it can be like, yeah, hyper
modern.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Big glazed hills.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've had a mock Tudor style
property on like a reallytraditional road and then at the
back we've used like a blackzinc where it kind of
complements the black um mocktudor timber and things like
that.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
So yeah, we also have like a few new buildings that
are really good.
So yeah, like like um, becausewe're more talking about
individual houses, but we've gota few projects and like on the
go that are like for new housesand things like that.
We don't do them like thetypical new builds copy and
paste.
(48:08):
We do every single one.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
You have your own yeah, and I think that, like I
work with a lot of architects,interior designers, designers
and stuff, and everybody hastheir own stamp.
Everybody will have their ownstamp, their own sort of vision,
their own style, and I thinkthat's what is important for the
(48:30):
clients, for you to have thatmeeting, to make sure that they
believe in your vision as well,because I think it's probably
finding the right, finding theright architect, the right
designers is, I would imagine,as key as finding a contractor
that's competent to actuallybuild it yeah, definitely yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
That relationship is so important yeah um, yeah,
we've got an example, actually,where we completed the project
for someone.
Then they invited us to theirwedding and we've been friends
ever since.
So we're constantly going backto the house that we designed
for them.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
We're looking at different things in the house
when we're there it's, I betit's quite nice, I bet it's, I
bet it's um.
Yeah, do you ever clash withclients?
Do you ever I say that do youever clash where they want
something?
They think it's possible?
You know from your knowledge oryour experience, it's just not
going to happen yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
So I don't think we clash, I think we advise them.
We, we definitely let out whatwe're thinking and what we know
from our, like, professionalbackground, but then we adapt.
So if someone wants somethingdifferent to what we're
recommending them, that that'sfine, we adapt, adapt we have to
so many different charactersout there as well.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Right, we're dealing, we are dealing with the general
public still.
So it's yeah, you never knowkind of you know some people are
relaxed and calm and laid back.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Some of them, I'd imagine they've been saving for
this.
It's gotta be perfect andthey're inspecting every last
thing.
And some people just trust you.
Some people, yeah, I trust you,I trust your judgment.
You've done this before.
It won't be the first.
It's not the first and it won'tbe the last time.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
That's when the bridge runs as it's best.
I'd say when people trust ouradvice.
Some people jump ahead, but ifyou trust the architect that
you're hiring, I think theprocess is a lot.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Yeah, they almost don't need to do too much.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah, yeah, don't overthink, we just do it for
them, yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Yeah.
So do you just do thearchitecture or do you guys get
involved with the interiordesign?
Speaker 2 (50:32):
It's a mix.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
It's a mix.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Because there is stuff that needs to be designed
with the architecture we don'tgo into, like colors of cushions
and things like that.
We leave that for the clients.
Unless they ask us, then we cansay what we think.
But we're not really interiordesigners.
It's more about the viewsthrough the house, like the
spaces, the feeling that we'recreating, and not so much the
(50:56):
colours.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose there's so much I don't think
you could.
I'm terrible with choosingpaint colours.
I'm terrible with choosingpaint colours.
We'll wrap this up soon, buttop three things that someone
should do before a major buildor renovation.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
So, yeah, I'll start with choose the right architect.
I think it's like essential um,just that relationship that
we've been talking about justneed to make sure that you get
on with them on a personal level, as well as making sure that
they're kind of capable of whatyou, you need them to do.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
I think that's really important yeah, I think the
other one is perhaps the senseof scale for what they're asking
for.
So some people might say I wanta six meter extension, and it's
like you actually know what sixmeter is giving you.
Map that into garden, have alook, because when you remove
your existing rear wall, you'vegot six meter plus all the road.
(51:55):
Like, understand what you'reasking for, the sense of scale
and at any level, even if it's anew build, like some people
come up with numbers that theythink is going to work and and
then they might be surprised howbig things are.
We won't propose something thatis small because we'll make
sure everything fits in it, butsometimes people, without
(52:17):
knowing they, can ask for morethan what they need.
Yeah, so a sense of scale isvery important and then budget
as well.
I would keep saying maybe justtake that initial figure and
just double it and then you'refine well, just make sure you
understand it, I think.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Just make sure you understand it and don't go
searching on the internet,because it's not.
If your, if your bifolds forthe back of your beautiful beach
house, like you said, areaveraging at 70,000 pounds and
someone can do it for 12,chances are it's not going to
work.
This is a big one.
(52:56):
What's one thing people shouldabsolutely avoid?
Speaker 2 (53:03):
I think for me it's jumping ahead yeah trying to
jump in the process.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
There is a process kind of run before you can walk
it's tested, we've done it athousand times.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Just trust it and follow it trust the process.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah, I would say the same
there yeah, last couple, anyquick guidance for people stuck
between big ideas and tightbudgets.
Obviously we spoke about this.
Anything that sort of jumps toyour head, cut back, I think,
(53:38):
maybe be realistic with thespace that you have.
So if it's a renovation ofjumps to your head, cut back.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
I think, maybe be realistic with the space that
you have.
So if it's a renovation,obviously it's different if it's
a new build, but if it is arenovation, be realistic with
the space that you have, theceiling height, so that you
understand your house.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
Yeah, give yourself phasing as well, maybe.
Yeah, like if there's anobvious part where you can say,
oh, maybe it's like I want to dothe loft and the extension,
maybe they start with the loftand and save the extension for
for when they've got thatexperience, because once they've
been through one part of theproject as well, they'll have a
much better understanding ofcosts and the whole process yeah
, maybe build the pool house andnot the pool, or build the pool
(54:15):
and not the pool house.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Future proof and then finish it if you need to.
But yeah, it's true what youwere saying, like if a client
has gone through a process,they'll have a much better
understanding than if they don't.
And if they don't it'ssometimes when they are too
ambitious.
So cut your ambitions, becausethis is an expensive game, I'd
say.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, do you find a lot of people?
Speaker 3 (54:38):
they'll boycott the landscaping, especially out the
front of the house yeah, I don'tknow if it's a boycott or if
it's just like at that part ofthe project where yeah where
they've maybe run out of ofmoney for a while.
Yeah, um, and they need to, uh,pull it back in a bit.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
We find that with a lot of projects the internals
get that Obviously.
Of course, I know you're goingto do your garden.
Well, I did my garden firstbecause I like spending time
outside and the house is livable.
But yeah, I think we find itwith a lot of clients that
they'll leave, you'll do thehouse and you'll open the front
door and it looks beautiful, butthe drive's still MOT.
It's growing everywhere, yeah.
(55:18):
So where can people find moreabout you guys at Fresh
Architects?
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Shameless plug.
So, yeah, google is probablyour best tool really.
We've got all the reviews onthere as well.
Loads of our projects on ourwebsite yeah, we keep the
website pretty well up to date.
There's lots of projects onthere, different stages um
different sizes as well.
We do the full range, like Isaid.
(55:46):
So anything from like a smallextension right up to to new
build houses, like five or sixon a site, say, um, but yeah,
anything in between as well.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Yeah, I think there is some updates in social media.
I don't know if that's how youfound us.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, I've followed you on social media for quite a
while.
Yeah, from the social mediajust to look at the stuff, and
then we sort of walk down thatseafront and see some of the
stuff that you have worked onand it inspires me and it all me
, um, and it all looks amazing.
It all looks amazing.
So thank you so much, guys forcoming on building the dream
(56:26):
well, thank you and uh, great,we'll talk again soon lovely,
thank you, thank you.
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