The Grand Designs build that stalled for three years

When you can’t rebuild your own home post-earthquake, you take on someone else’s problem.

That’s what Johannes van Kan and Jo Grams did – with a build that was supposed to screen on Grand Designs Series

1 in 2015.

But their home was only finished this June, two hours before the TV crew turned up to film the grand reveal, and three years later than originally planned. The show will finally screen on Three today from 7.30pm, in Series 4.

So what was the problem that made this build that is the longest of any we have seen on Grand Designs NZ? It turned out to be all about the design. Van Kan and Grams have talked to a lot of architects since they learned their stunning rebuild of the Lyttelton Library was too damaged to live in following the Christchurch earthquake of 2011. For starters, they investigated the possibly of restoring the Lyttelton building, and even commissioned renowned Auckland architect Andrew Patterson to come with a ‘‘brilliant’’ design. But they found there were too many obstacles and the building was subsequently demolished.

After a short break away, the couple and daughter Ida, 4, returned to the city and bought the old red Cranmer Bridge Club building, which had also been damaged in the earthquake.

‘‘It’s an odd building with its own history,’’ van Kan told Stuff this week. ‘‘But we don’t really do normal.’’

And this is where Grand Designs stepped in. Van Kan and Grams had plans for a very contemporary addition alongside the historical red building. They commissioned an architect and went right through the tedious consent process, which was complicated by the heritage building considerations.

They jumped through all the hoops and finally got approval. Then just before work started, they dropped a bombshell for the Grand Designs team, the architect and the builder. ‘‘We’ve changed our minds.’’

‘‘In our hearts, it wasn’t really what we wanted. Our builder gave us permission to say ‘no’ ’’, said Grams.

‘‘We kind of fell out of love with it really, The design was quite a statement. It was quite flamboyant, when in actual fact we just wanted something simple.’’

Their new house is more conservative than the first finished plan, at least on the outside, but they’ve gone all-out bold on the inside.

MEDIAWORKS Grand Designs host Chris Moller, right, spent more than four years filming this post-quake build by Johannes van Kan and Jo Grams in Lyttelton.